I have a few projects coming to fruition in the next couple of weeks, but until those are available to share, here is a short diversion.
This piece was originally written for a writing contest. The topic of the contest was climate-focused science fiction stories with a hopeful or optimistic tone. The stories could be set at any point in the near or far future, but they had to reflect hope with regard to our climate situation. I decided to set my story a couple generations into the future, where inhabitants of the Earth live in an even more dire climate than we do now. The planet’s atmosphere has been irrevocably altered, and the cascading effects have caused plants to cease growing. The story is written entirely in dialogue.
Party at the Seedtower
—You wanna ease off the thrust a little bit hon—gazz ain’t cheap.
—I know Dad, sorry. I’m just excited to get to the party.
—Me too Bean, me too. That’s still… three hours from now. We gotta run by the shop before we pick up your sister from her wave modulation class. Oh, and swing in right here for me will you.
—Sure Dad. What’s at Monk’s?
—It’ll be quick, I just need to find out what’s up with the hydrogen modifier for the re-gen circuit on this truck. I dropped it off two months ago. Won’t be a few minutes. Don’t forget your canister. Hey, Monk!
—Oh hi there Doc. Saw you flyin’ down the road there and didn’t think you’d be one to pull a turn like that.
—Yeah, well, my daughter’s trying out for the Hypercircuit this postsummer, at least it feels that way sometimes. You remember Bean?
—Of course I do! My God Beansprout, you’re really livin’ up to that name. Last I saw you ’round here we thought you’d run off somewhere, and we nearly ran out the O2 canister lookin’ for ya. Found you sleepin’ inside a tire right there in the garage. Even if I still had tires lying around I doubt you’d fit in one. Must be old enough to be driving, then.
—I’m working on my license. Shoulda had it last year but Dad…
—Yeah yeah, forgive your old dad for a little caution. I didn’t sit behind the wheel of one of these things until I was in my late 30s.
—Because they hadn’t been invented yet, Dad. Everyone in my class started when they were younger than me.
—Well, you listen to your old man here. He’s the reason why a lot of us are still here at all—yourself included, young miss. You’re here about the phase corrector, yeah?
—Hydrogen modifier.
—Oh right, right, the H-mod… Should be just about finished, maybe waiting on a part or two…
—Hm! Sounds like a familiar tune.
—Ah, you know how it is Doc. Back in the day when those big blue trucks were runnin’ around everywhere you could get anything you wanted in about an hour. I once had a gallon of milk delivered to the courthouse just to make a point to my wife, God rest her. But since the Pulse… I mean, you know. Of course you know. How long’s it been, ten years almost?
—Mm.
—Hey Monk, me and Dad and Lily are going to the seedtower tonight. Are you gonna come? There’s a party and they said they have something to show us.
—Oh, and what’s that?
—I don’t know—I mean, nobody knows… yet. Dad thinks it’s just gonna be more microseed clones, but I think it’s gonna be a plant!
—Well young miss, if they had a whole plant over in that tower I think we’d all know about it by now. They don’t just shoot up overnight ’round here. Never used to, neither.
—Monk, you remember the last time they called us over there? They made a big fuss about something, and it turned out to be some kind of synthetic casing that was supposed to protect the seeds, seal in moisture, something like that. You remember what happened?
—I’ll be damned if they didn’t lose a quarter of the seeds in that whole place tryin’ to get a single one to take off.
—Mm.
—I reckon it’s fundraising time again. They’ll get everybody’s attention and find somethin’ to clap all their hands about, and the gazz companies’ll give ’em enough money to keep the air conditioner on for another year. In my pappy’s day they’d call it “greenwashing,” as if anyone around here knows what that color even looks like. No, I think I’ll stay home and watch the plumes.
—Mm, well, we’ll let you know what we find out. And you let me know about that hydrogen modifier. Running this thing on gazz alone is killing my wallet.
—When the parts get in, you’ll be the first to hear it.
—Dad, tell me about the Pulse again.
—Keep your eyes on the road, Bean. And watch your lifter height.
—Please, Dad.
—Look at how beautiful those hills are at this time of day. You know I used to do field work right out there when I was working as a chemist. See that notch where that hill kind of crosses the other?
—…
—Used to go out there with my partner and take soil samples. You can’t see it from here, but there was a tree—at least, a fossil of one—growing right out of a big crack in the rock, nothing else around it for miles but scrub. That tree was how we found the mineral network under the hills.
Your sister had just been born, and your mom was staying home at the time to take care of you both. She never stopped working, though. Keep in mind, this was before the Northern and Southern Texas States of America were around—I mean we still lived here, but the capital was over on the east coast, and your mom had a government grant for her work. So I would come home with my samples and trade her a bucket of dirt for a baby in each arm, and she’d sit up in front of the microscope for practically the rest of the night. I never knew what time she came to bed or how on earth she could still get up before me.
—What was she looking for in the microscope?
—Well, at the time we were interested in an idea called mineral propagation. The soil out here is really tough, you know—hard to grow anything. And it was getting even harder with the heat. Farms were drying up all the time. But we found that mineral network out there, and I had got an idea from that old tree that maybe we could stimulate certain minerals to kind of propagate—that means grow—in the soil without having to wait millions of years for the hills to break down.
The idea was to set up a network of electrical rods in these big flat areas—see those towers over on the other side of the basin? Energy used to be real cheap in this part of the country, and we thought we’d bury these rods down past the topsoil, energize the network, and then use the difference in the electrical potential between our network and the vein under the mountain as a kind of sink, to pull minerals through the ground across the fields. That’s an oversimplification. I guess it was really about pH management more than anything; everything had gotten so acidic because of the rain, when it did rain at all.
—Did it work?
—Mm. Look around and you tell me. The energy network turned out to be useful, but not for the reason we designed it.
All this time it was getting hotter every year. I mean, it’s still hot, but back then it was like a new record every month of every year. We’re used to it now. But it started with these kind of freak heat waves from year to year, and then they started calling them “heat domes” because it was like the wave never passed, it just hung around for the whole season. The year your sister was born we didn’t have much of a winter season—
—Winter?
—Sorry, postsummer. That’s an old word your grandparents used to use for that time of the year. I think the lowest it got that year was 96F or something. And when spring—I mean presummer—came around it was like overnight the heat shot up the highest it’s ever been. It was only a couple of days of that when really everything started to go. The plants were already dying, but then there were the fires. The farmland from here to Upper Dallas was all lost. The soil just got obliterated. The power grid started to fail pretty regularly, and the refrigerated farms got wiped out too. It was a scramble to move underground. Our house—the one we live in now—was dug out that year. If you had money, which we did from Mom’s government work, you could get it done quick enough, but a lot of people died waiting. A lot of folks died digging.
They called it “the Pulse” because of how quickly it happened, and because after only a couple of weeks it kind of let up. But it never really went away, and by that point it was too late. The electrical network we had set up ended up saving lives. When the power went out for good, we had our own kind of micro-grid out here, government funded, and we had reworked the system to use the hills like a big earth battery. We could pull just enough juice to at least keep the cricket farms going. We never did run out of food, just vegetables.
—If you had money why didn’t you just leave?
—Hm! You make it sound so easy. For a long time, it was dangerous to travel. You didn’t know where you could stop and be safe from the heat. Where you could get gazz for the car. And I felt… I was responsible for the… you know, it was my electrical system. I knew how to run it, how to keep it going. At the time I just, I couldn’t leave. It never even crossed my mind.
—What about Mom?
—I’ve told you about Mom before. Take a left here.
—Party at the seedtower!
—Are you going?
—I think it’s a stupid idea.
—I’m scared of it!
—What else is there to do?
—There’s nothing to be afraid of at the seedtower, dear.
—My dad says it’s important to, um, support the people at the, um, at the seedtower even though it’s, um, it takes a long a time to get there and it always, um, I mean they never have anything for kids to do there.
—That’s true Michael, it is important to be supportive.
—It’s not even a tower at all.
—It’s an old missile base—it’s shaped like a tower but underground.
—So not a tower, you mean.
—Who all is going?
—I’m going with my mom and my brother.
—Seeds are so boring!
—It takes a long time to get to, um, to get to the seedtower, and they never have any, um, any games for kids or things that kids can do—
—Lily dear, your father is here to pick you up.
—Hi Dad!
—Hi hon. Hi Miss Keynes.
—Please: Kim.
—OK, Kim.
—The kids are just talking about the party at the seedtower tonight. Have you heard about it?
—I got the invitation. No clue what it’s about yet.
—Dad are we going?
—Mm. We’ll be there. How about you, Kim?
—Yes, I—well I don’t want to sound foolish, but…
—How’s that?
—I heard it might be something to do with a plant they have…
—Mm.
—Do you really think, Dr. Hartford—
—Please: Landon.
—Fair enough. Do you… I mean, can you imagine if…
—We’ll just have to see in a little bit, won’t we? Come on, Lilypad. We’ll see you there, Miss Keynes.
—Hey Dad how come you don’t ask Kim I mean Miss Keynes to come over sometime? We really like her.
—What are you talking about, why should Miss Keynes come over to our house?
—Oh my God, Dad! It’s so obvious.
—I love Miss Keynes!
—I know you do, Lily. I like her too. Hey, I was thinking we could pick up something to eat on the way out to the seedtower. What are you two in the mood for?
—Cricket!
—Can we not do cricket tonight?
—Bean, what would you rather have?
—I dunno, just not cricket.
—OK, tell you what. It’s a special night, let’s go for a pizza.
—I want cricket on mine!
—We’ll do cricket on half, for Lily, and Bean you can get whatever you want on your half, alright?
—…
—Hey come on, it’s pizza!
—Welcome in Dr. Hartford, thank you so much for coming.
—Thanks for the invitation. I hope it’s alright I brought my girls.
—Of course, of course. Dr. Hartford, we’re so glad you could be here, we’re just so grateful…
—Yeah, yeah.
—…the electricity…
—Hm. Girls, don’t touch anything. So, what’s the big news?
—We’ll take you down to Sublevel B. Most of the guests are already here, we’re just waiting on the scientists from upstate to arrive.
—Miss Keynes!
—Hi girls! Hi doctor—Hi, Landon.
—Hi again, Kim. Look Lily, I think I see Michael and Terry over there. Beansprout, why don’t you take your sister and go see what they’re up to. These kids… You want to have a seat while we wait for the others?
—Sure.
—We just came from the pizza place. I hope they’re not too wound up.
—Beansprout and Lilypad. Where on earth did those names come from?
—Hm! From a different earth entirely, maybe.
—No, really!
—My wife—I mean their mom, when she was alive… we were young when we had those two. Neohippies. You know, you have all these big ideas at that age, and you kinda just can’t help yourself. They were… those were some of the only plants that I remembered having seen in person—I mean growing in the wild, not in a hyperhumidity chamber. I must have been really young, like three or four. It would have been somewhere way north… I had to’ve been with my parents on some trip… Hm. And sometimes I wonder if I ever did see those plants or if it’s a memory I made up, like it’s been too many years and looking up pictures and old videos online, reading about plants, getting a degree in plant chemistry. Maybe I made it all up. They were… I mean… I think we picked those names because we wanted to see—we hoped we could see those things growing again. In our lifetime.
—What happened to your wife? Oh god, that was…
—No, it’s fine…
—…so inconsiderate of me…
—It’s OK, really. It was cancer. Probably brought on by plastic poisoning. This was before we had the pills we take for the PFAS chemicals.
—Right, the pills.
—She had a buildup in her brain—I mean, we all do, but… Hm. Her body just couldn’t take it anymore.
—Hey Dad, can Terry and Michael come over and see your microscopes?
—Sure Lily, but probably not tonight. We’ll talk to their dad about it later.
—Ladies and gentlemen! If I can have your attention please. Thank you so much for coming to tonight’s presentation. I want to extend our gratitude to the Permian Gazz & Petrochemical Corp. for providing a generous grant for tonight’s air conditioning. Also here tonight is our resident plant chemist Dr. Landon Hartford and two representatives from the Agricultural Department of the university.
As you know, for nearly ten years since the Planet-Wide Weather Incident we have been unable to germinate a single seed. There are a number of reasons why this appears to be the case, some of which we understand, and some that are, I’m sure, yet to be discovered. Last year they claimed to have done it over in Denmark, but it turned out to have been a hoax…
—That was a hoax?
—Yeah, they were using machine-printed protein chains—not a real seed, in other words.
—…not our style of science here at the seed bank. Our seeds are from genuine, natural, pre-Incident plants. Most of you are familiar with the ongoing experiments here, and we’ve tried to be forthright about the… shall we say “challenges” that we’ve faced over the years. Tonight, everything has changed.
—Dad, can we leave soon?
—Shh, listen.
—I want to direct your attention now to the monitoring panel next to me. Here are the familiar numbers that you’re used to seeing in your own homes: carbon dioxide and monoxide levels, aerosolized sulfur balance, nitrogen, and of course synthetic O2 levels in parts per million. And here, just below all of that: oxygen.
—What?!
—Is that…?
—Where is it coming from?
—Dad, what’s oxygen?
—It’s…
—Yes, it’s oxygen. The first measurable amount of naturally occurring O2 since our experiments began almost a decade ago. Right now we are producing natural oxygen in measurable quantities, and—perhaps even more importantly—we’re able to keep it safely in a hyperbaric storage system. The oxygen quantity you’re seeing here has been stable and growing for two weeks now.
—What’s the source?
—Aha, the source. That’s why we’ve asked you all here tonight. If you’ll just step this way to the viewing theater…
—Oh my god.
—Those are…
—You’ll see through the window our specially sealed growing chamber that has been under construction for the last year. It is 3500 square feet of sterilized, pressurized working space. Dr. Hartford, if you’ll come to the front please.
—Oh my god. Oh my god.
—Each row contains on the order of eight hundred germination cubes, and there are sixty rows across. You can see Dr. Campbell working in the back there, wearing one of our sterilized grow suits.
—Dad, what are those things?
—They’re… plants.
—I thought you said plants were green, Dad.
—They are, hon. Look at them.
—That doesn’t look like green to me!
—They are, they’re… oh my god. Oh my god. What are they?
—Well, as you know we’ve tried over the years to find an appropriate specimen for the process we’ve been developing, and we finally did. Of course, selecting for oxygen generation properties was an important consideration…
—And?
—…but our real hope was to land on something scalable. Right now it’s a monoculture in there, which is why it’s so important that we keep it sealed from outside contamination. The process turned out to be much simpler than we thought—really, Dr. Hartford you won’t believe what the trick was when I share the data with you. Anyway, we think it should be easy enough to adapt the process to the different seed types we have on location. We’ve started construction on additional growing chambers on Sublevels C and D, and we think… I mean, we hope to be able to kickstart a new food supply chain from right here…
—So what then? What is growing in this chamber?
—Why, I’d think you more than anyone should know. They’re beansprouts.