Seeds of War
And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. Matthew 24:6
Copyright
Text and image Copyright © 2012 by Rachel E. Fisher. All rights reserved.
Cover art by Design for Writers
Editing by A. Hovey
Visit my website at: www.rachelefisher.com
First eBook Edition: July 9, 2012
Summary: The mission of Eden must be fulfilled and Eden’s best Seekers are needed. Forming a new group they dub the Seeders, Fi, Asher, and Sean are joined by a new addition as they set out to bring hope and support to the Topsiders in the form of radios and heirloom seeds. As radio broadcasts begin to reconnect the survivors, the Seeders stumble upon mysterious broadcasts from unknown stations. When two of their own new radio stations go silent within days of each other, Fi and her companions realize that something is terribly wrong. Eden finds itself pitted against a growing and unknown force as their very mission lights the flames of war.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my readers, from the loving friends and family who cheered me, to those who were brave enough to be critical. I will endeavor to deserve you.
They say that Hope is happiness;
But genuine Love must prize the past,
And Memory wakes the thoughts that bless:
They rose the first--they set the last;
And all that Memory loves the most
Was once our only Hope to be,
And all that Hope adored and lost
Hath melted into Memory.
Alas it is delusion all:
The future cheats us from afar,
Nor can we be what we recall,
Nor dare we think on what we are.
- George Gordon Lord Byron
Table of Contents
Copyright 2
Dedication 3
Reconnection 7
Babylon Found 7
Sara’s Surprise 15
The Human Repository 19
Daggers 22
It Ain’t Like It Used to Be 26
The Wolves Above 35
Resolution 39
The Seeders 41
The Mission Changes 41
First Seed 46
Hope Springs 53
Vengeance Is Mine 58
A Rising Threat 67
Voices 67
There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays 72
Radio Silence 77
What Is the Truth? 82
Confessions 89
We Want Answers 89
Jacob’s Ladder 92
As the World Turns 99
Judge Not 106
Happy Holidays 111
War of Words 113
Who Are You Really? 117
New Territory 122
Family Ties 122
Sweet Nothings 128
Summer Seed 139
In the Wild 143
Uh, Oh, Daddio 149
It’s Them! 155
Meeting of the Minds 164
Welcome to Lakeland 169
Bloodhands 169
Kindred Spirits 174
Celebration 178
A Promise Made 185
Going Home 190
Answers 190
A New Development 199
Over the Edge 205
A Declaration 209
Acknowledgements 214
About the Author 215
Reconnection
Babylon Found
----------Fi -----------
Fi couldn’t breathe.
“I repeat,” the announcement droned, the sound echoing in the tiny radio room. “We are located within the United States. We are seeking other surviving colonists of I-A, Diaspora I - Codename: Atlas. Our designation is II-B, we are Diaspora – II – Codename: Babylon.”
Though she was certain that time could not actually stand still, it certainly felt like it. Well, then again, she wasn’t certain of that at all. Her mind babbled to itself, too excited to find purchase. Wait, she thought. Focus! She forced her attention back to Tom. His fingers were white as he gripped the microphone. Shaking, he clicked the button to “broadcast.”
“Hello?” he replied, his voice shaking. “We hear you Diaspora. Please respond if you hear us.”
When the man’s voice responded there was no mistaking his excitement. “Yes, we hear you. Who are we speaking with? Are you colonists from Diaspora I?”
Tom turned to Fi and Asher, his eyes wide. Their shocked faces mirrored his own. “We’re not from Diaspora I, but we are colonists,” he said. “And we’ve been searching for your colony for over two years.”
There was a pause and for a second Fi panicked, wondering if they’d lost the speaker, or if he’d thought better of divulging more. After all, they took care not to reveal too much information to Topsiders themselves, and the Diaspora residents had no knowledge of Eden. How would they take the news that another secret colony had been created?
“You said you were colonists?” Confusion and suspicion seeped from the speaker. “If you aren’t with Diaspora I, then what do you mean? And how do you know about us?”
Tom stuck to the pre-planned script. “We’re a colony named Eden, located in northeastern North America. I know that our existence is probably a surprise to you, but we’re connected with Diaspora. Our colony was built using the same specs.” He stopped and they waited while there was another pause.
“What do you think they’ll do?” Fi asked, and Tom shook his head.
“I don’t know, Fi. But I assume they’re conferring right now, like us.”
“Ok, Eden,” the voice responded. “It seems like it’s time for us to have a long talk. Shall we schedule a discussion? Will you continue broadcasting on this frequency?”
“Sensible,” Tom mused. “We have each other’s number now. It’s time for us to get our people together.” Leaning forward, he clicked to broadcast. “Agreed. Please contact us again at this time tomorrow. We’ll have the most appropriate people available for our discussion.”
“Done. Speak with you tomorrow, Eden.”
The speaker crackled and then was silent. For a moment the three were also silent, and then they erupted. Fi jumped up and down, her auburn curls bouncing as excitement ran through her like electricity.
“Holy shit!” Tom cried. “I can’t believe it. Two years! Dan and I have been at this every day for two years, hoping that this would happen, and I still can’t believe it!”
Fi threw her arms around him and squeezed. “I know!” She grabbed Asher’s hand. “We have to go tell Sean. Wait, first we have to go tell Louis....”
Asher put his finger to her lips, an amused smile crinkling his deep blue eyes. “First, we have to go tell Larry and Gary.”
Fi rearranged her face into a more serious expression and nodded. “Of course, first things first. We’ll go tell the guys, Tom, so I guess we’ll see you tomorrow when we talk to Diaspora again.” She almost couldn’t believe it herself as she said it.
“Yes, I guess you will, Fi.” Tom’s voice grew distant, his mind already running ahead.
Fi and Asher left the grey closet of the radio room behind as they made their way toward the main security pod. Their voices bounced off the cool, moist walls of the tunnel as they chatted with excitement. Fi couldn’t wait to see the expression on Larry’s face when they told him that after all this time, one of the Diaspora colonies had been found. He was going to absolutely flip. Of course, Larry wasn’t really a “flipper,” per se. But she knew that he was going to flip in his own way. A permanent grin took up residence on her face as the security pod loomed ahead of them. This was going to be fun.
The following afternoon, the selected attendees crammed into the minuscule space. It was the first time since her Family’s Consideration that Fi had been in the presence of the entire Consideration panel. Their technical name within the colony was “The Council.” She was shocked to see that even Dr. Darryl Heil, resident loony-toon, skulked into the room and melted into a dark corner.
“Didn’t realize that he still lived here,” Asher leaned down and murmured in her ear. His long blonde hair fell forward, tickling her neck.
Fi stifled a giggle and shushed him. It wasn’t nice, she knew. Louis always said that Darryl was a good guy and a brilliant scientist, but the rest of the colony only knew him as a ghost. He never socialized, never laughed, never smiled. Heck, she almost never saw him at all despite the fact that she worked in the same lab pod complex. It was really a shame, she thought, chastising herself. The guy was obviously tortured. Knowing that your discovery, your greatest achievement, ended up causing the greatest loss of human life in history…that was a pretty heavy burden.
A sharp pain shot up from her toes as someone stepped on her foot. She let out an involuntary squeak, and bit her lip.
“Sorry,” Gary, the head of security, apologized with a grimace.
The room was stuffed to the gills with important colonists. Larry had determined that the heads of research and security should join the Council to hear what Diaspora II had to say. They knew that they’d been searching for survivors of Diaspora I, but they had no idea what had happened to that colony, or Diaspora III for that matter. Between the crowding, the prominence of the gathering, and the anticipation, the energy in the room was electric. Human sardines packed the radio room as the temperature rose from steamy to sticky. Tom’s eyes twitched with the minutes on the clock.
“Hello, Eden. Are you there?”
The room flexed with a singular gasp. This voice from outside was a ghost, a dream. Most colonists hadn’t heard anything from Topside in years. Eden’s people were incredibly isolated in their subterranean world that was equal parts cave dwelling and space ship. Even so, Fi thought, Eden was paradise compared with Topside. Topside, which had turned to dust and desert. Topside, where billions starved when the genetic modification spread, and all the grasses and grains died at once.
“It seems like we should start with some introductions.”
The voice of Diaspora beckoned and Fi blinked, the memories scattering back into her dark corners.
“We’ll try to keep things simple, Eden. We’re Diaspora II, codenamed Babylon. We have approximately two hundred and fifty residents in our colony. All of our leaders are gathered for this meeting, including the highest ranking official in the United States government known to have survived the Famine, Vice President Taylor.”
Many in the room gasped again, though Fi wasn’t sure whether they were more surprised that the Vice President was still alive, or that President Winter was not. For her part, Fi was just interested to get any information at all.
“In addition, we have our two heads of research, Dr. Naseem Kalil, and Dr. Stanford Bristol.”
“Ho-ly Mother of God,” Louis muttered. “Of course he made it.” He exchanged a glance with his wife, Lizzie, who was wedged in beside him.
Diaspora finished the introductions. “Finally, we have our head of security, General Zelinski, and I’m Jonathon. I run our radio room. There are others here that we feel need to listen, but we don’t need to introduce them at this point.” He paused and concluded, “That’s all.”
“All right, here we go.” Tom switched to broadcast and began Eden’s introductions: their highest ranking “official,” Larry, their heads of biological research, Drs. Louis and Lizzie Bachman, Dr. Darryl Heil, and Dr. Miles Coburn, Gary, the head of security, and Tom and Daniel in the radio room. It was an important point-for-point, Fi realized, to show Diaspora that Eden was the real deal as well. We might not have the Vice President or fancy Army officers, she thought, but we’re a serious colony. If we invited all of Eden’s experts, we’d have to use the cafeteria pod to make enough room.
She chuckled to herself at the thought, and then felt a surprising surge of pride in her chest. Often she was too focused on how much she hated being stuck underground, or how scattered her Family had become since they’d found Eden, to realize how deeply it had lodged in her heart. Sure, it wasn’t perfect. But this place, these people, and their mission, were all home to her now. Lost in her thoughts, Fi stirred when she heard Tom finish the introductions. He paused for a moment and Fi’s heart sped up. Now for the real stuff.
“So,” Tom said, “do you want us to tell you what we know about Diaspora, or do you want to tell us what happened to Diaspora I?” He turned to Larry, a question in his eyes. Larry’s nod of permission was silent. “And Diaspora III.”
Silence.
Oooh, what Fi wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall in the Diaspora radio room! So far, they hadn’t mentioned Diaspora III to Eden at all. Several minutes passed while the group held its collective breath. A trickle of sweat licked between her shoulder blades. Despite the oppressive heat, the entire group was transfixed, all eyes glued to the radio panel as if there were something to see. C’mon, Fi thought as she eyed the speaker. Speak!
“Tell us what you know about Diaspora.”
Larry smiled. “Would you like to do the honors, Louis?”
Louis grimaced and wriggled through the group to the microphone. He leaned in and cleared his throat. “Hello. This is Dr. Louis Bachman speaking.”
Fi noticed an odd tone of triumph in his voice and frowned. Though she knew that Louis was the one who’d found and stolen the Diaspora plans, she was surprised by the anger in his voice. It almost sounded like the voice of someone who had been scorned or betrayed. Why was he so upset? Who the heck was Dr. Stanford Bristol?
Louis’s voice broke through her musings. “…Suffice it to say that when the plans were discovered, we realized that Diaspora was not a think-tank, nor was it a space colony.”
Louis’ voice grew scornful as he described the secret plans for underground colonies that he’d found. Fi had seen the plans herself. She closed her eyes as the memory burned in her chest. The government had known. They had told Louis and her father, and all the other scientists, that they were working on a project for NASA. But instead they’d been planning their escape…planning to save a few hundred essential scientists and technologies before the world succumbed to global Famine. Of course, they were lucky. If it hadn’t been for Louis’s brilliance and stubbornness, they would not have saved the most important thing: the heirloom seeds.
“I’m not the only person in Eden who is aware of, or who participated in, the Diaspora project,” Louis continued, his face reddening. “In Eden, we have some whom you had not slated for one of the colonies.”
Louis stopped and Fi felt her own cheeks flush with anger. The lists were the most disturbing things that Louis had discovered in the end. It had taken him studying them for some time to realize that the symbols beside each scientist’s name indicated the Diaspora colony to which they were assigned. I-As were assigned to Diaspora I. II-Bs would have gone to Diaspora II. A III-C had been scrawled beside Fi’s father’s name, indicating that her family was supposed to go to Diaspora III. Of course, she was sure they would’ve been turned away due to her father’s Sickness. The Sick were never accepted. With nine billion starving around the world, why would anyone put precious food into the dying?
The worst thing about the lists, though, was the fourth symbol - ≠ - the not equal sign. The ones with that symbol were simply “cut” from a spot in the colonies, whether they were Sick or not. That little symbol said, “Sorry, no room for you on the Ark…go drown!" Ugh, it made her sick, all the secrets and lies…all the disgusting choices about who lived and who died. It brought up too many painful memories.
“And so Eden was built in Diaspora’s image,” Louis said, “with a few modifications, of course. We’re as equipped as you to help with th
e resurrection of human society and agriculture. I take it that since you seem to be down to one colony somehow, our existence will come as a relief, rather than a threat to you. That’s all.” As Tom clicked back to listen, Louis exhaled and shook his head. “I’ve imagined this day a hundred times, but it still doesn’t seem real.”
Larry put his hand on his shoulder. “You did great Louis…you set the right tone.” The room remained silent while the Diaspora listeners processed Louis’s story.
“I’m sorry for the delay, Eden,” Jonathan apologized. “This is obviously quite a lot for us. It seems like you’ve known about us for a long time, whereas we’ve just learned that you exist. We’re definitely thankful that there’s another colony that has preserved heirloom stocks and knowledgeable people. You’re also correct that we are down to one Diaspora colony. I’m going to turn the microphone over to Dr. Stanford Bristol to answer your question in this regard.” Fi snuck a look at Louis in time to see him make a face.
Suddenly another voice filled the room, a flat, nasal drone. “Yes, ahem.” Dr. Bristol began. “Diaspora III was never completed. The Famine accelerated so quickly that we had to abandon our plans for it.”
Fi sucked in her breath. Her fate had always been sealed! Even if her father had not become Sick, her family still would’ve been abandoned. There would never have been a Diaspora III to keep them safe. Wow, she thought, stunned. Would that have been worse than what she endured getting to Eden? Seeing the lifeboat on the horizon only to have it turn around?
“Diaspora I was a different story.” Dr. Bristol’s voice grew tight. “The reason that my superiors here have asked me to tell you the story is not because I am one of the heads of research here. It’s because I was the head of research at Diaspora I.”
Startled murmurs moved through the room like a wave.
Fi gave Asher a quick kiss on the cheek. “I have to talk to Louis,” she said. “I’ll be right back.” Though it would normally have been only three steps to cross the distance, swimming her way through the human sea made it difficult. At least she got Gary back with a good accidental stomp on his toes. When she drew near, Lizzie opened her arms so that Fi could fold in beside them. “Louis, who is this guy?”
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