The "What if" moment

Your characters need an environment and my big "what if" led to the discovery of Astronaut Stuart Roosa.

In 1971, Roosa went into orbit on Apollo 14. Since he had been a Forest Service smoke jumper, he decided that his personal kit would include hundreds of tree seeds.

Four to five hundred seeds from the Douglas Fir, Sweetgum, Loblolly Pine, Sycamore, and Sweetgum trees were included. He and his seeds stayed in the Kitty Hawk command module as it orbited the moon as other astraonauts stepped on the moon.

During decontamination the containers burst and the seeds were mixed together. Fortunately, nearly all the seeds germinated and the Forest Service had over four hundred trees to plant.

1975 and 1976 saw the trees sent to their future homes. The White House lawn, Brazil, Switzerland and even the Emperor of Japan received trees. Valley Forge, NASA, Koch Girl Scout Camp in Indiana, Goaddard Space Flight Center in Maryland were among states to receive trees.

You can read more about it here: The Moon Trees

Twenty years later, you can not tell a non-orbit tree from one that has orbited the moon, but WHAT IF???

What if those trees were imbued with special powers from their time in orbit and became the home of a world of creatures bent on saving the world?

What's your WHAT IF?