More background I'm afraid.
The buildup being i n t e n s e.
Or just, plain boring? :)

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This time the suits made a real job out of it. Using their lasers they cut up some of the old logs laying on the ground, building a simple half timbered cabin for Janelle and Jeff to share. They never touched any of the live trees, as the suits still weren’t sure of their exobiology.

“Strangely enough, we have found remains of the same shared genes in all the flora we examined so far.” Said Royal. “And I suspect we would find it being much the same if we got to examining the fauna. But as long as we don’t use live materials I don’t expect us to have to worry.”

But it still made for some problems, food for example, they needed it badly and the suits had with them the technology to refine, and also redefine the plants found, into plants fitting for human consumption. But there was a snag, however they tried there seemed to be no way getting those specialized genes out of it? The suits couldn’t make sense of it, whatever they did those genes kept coming back. But in the end they had little choice. The synthesized food was only good for some weeks more, furthermore it wasn’t adapted for constant consumption, and after that they either would have to eat what they could grow, or they would starve.

Another thing that bothered them a little was the unwillingness of any wildlife to come near them. They had the barriers up of course, but they could just as easy not have bothered with it at all. It seemed as if they somehow repelled all wildlife, including insects, not that they could understand why. They had a probe constantly hovering above them now, giving them a 'early warning' detection system of sorts, if now something would happen. And it showed them all kinds of life around them. But as it worked in the infra red spectrum it could only present them with vague blurry pictures. And somehow there seemed to a invincible twenty mile border around them, going out from their cabin, around which all life circulated.

“Here, but no closer.” Muttered Jeff.

“Yes.” Answered suit. “Makes you compute, doesn’t it?”

“Almost like if someone had put us into quarantine, isn’t it?” said Janelle.

“Maybe you hit the nail on the head there.” Jeff exclaimed.

“Royal, could that be it? We're in some sort of quarantine?”

“Don’t know Jeff, it may also be that you just don’t smell right.”

“We smell, twenty miles away? In all directions?”

“No, but we still don’t know how they communicate.” Answered Royal.

“And why are there no people? There seems to be people everywhere but here?”

That wasn’t strictly true though. Although the probes had seen ‘people’ they had only seen those in a few select places, leaving most of the planet uninhabited, and with those populations widely spread. And that was a third fact, making little sense. Where were the roads? Yes, there were trails, as well as something that, if feeling benevolent, might be called dirt roads. But only where there there were populations, no proper roads existing between them? All in all, the planet was becoming more of a mystery for each passing day.

And Jeff’s suit was in dire need of maintenance. Royal was built to last, but suit was older. Simpler of construction and of good durability, but some of its systems were developing glitches. It was just not meant to work for indefinite durations, and it had now been in constant action for more than two months. Their power source was simple enough to provide for, they had the sun. But spare parts were non existent and all calibrations, although possible, were difficult. Everything had to be jury-rigged, and without Royal, Jeff’s suit already would have gone into suspended mode.

And somehow that thought hurt Jeff more than he wanted to admit. He and suit were friends. Both, to their everlasting surprise, finding themselves sharing the same fondness for fishing. Not that they ever caught anything. The fish, that they knew existed somewhere under its calm surface, seemed as well informed as the rest of the wild life about them, and kept their distance. But somehow it was very soothing anyway.

“It’s like all thoughts disappear.” Jeff tried to explain his newfound passion to Janelle.

“You never needed any fishing for that before?” said Janelle, but she couldn’t help smiling as she said it.

She and Jeff had become lovers, neither of them able to say exactly when it happened, but one morning, waking up, they were and most happily so. Janelle still worried what would happen if they ever got back to their own society, but as the time passed her longing for home slowly had diminished. The planet was good for several lifetimes of exploration, and Janelle just knew, sooner or later they would have to. That though did much for keeping her happy, and then there was Jeff of course. To just sit and mourn, to do nothing, that wasn’t in her. She didn’t have to worry about contraception either, that one she controlled by her mind, another effect of the selective gene therapy introduced by her ancestors.

In the end it was Jeff that become the guinea pig, they had tested it on cell-cultures, finding no ill effects, and when the choice at last came to be between Janelle and himself Jeff found it easy. After all, if Janelle disappeared from his life it wouldn’t be worth living anyway. So he ate, and they waited. Nothing happened, more than Jeff developing a distinct distaste for corn, well, technically it wasn't corn, just a native plant closely resembling it. But according to Royal it was close enough. And when Royal after two weeks of constant testing and torture, the last according to Jeff, finally declared it safe to eat they at last could breathe out.

As with that, all their fears of starvation finally was proven unfounded.

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