Seeds for the Swarm by Sim Kern

Author:Sim Kern
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science fiction; dystopia; climate fiction; young adult; ya; series
ISBN: 9781777682316
Publisher: Stelliform Press
Published: 2022-09-28T00:00:00+00:00

At lunch that day, Rylla picked at her food. She couldn’t eat, couldn’t concentrate on the engineers’ conversation. Azam asked if something was wrong, and Rylla told them what had happened in Climate Modeling.

“You really didn’t know about X-Day?” Dae-Dae cried. “I’ve known about it since — since I can remember!”

“Not everyone has scientists for parents,” Azam pointed out.

“I knew on some level,” Rylla said. “Growing up in the Dust, you figure out that the world is not —” She pushed peas around with her fork, swallowing the lump in her throat. “— not doing okay. But something about calculating it — 417 years until the end of all life on Earth? It’s so final.”

“400 years is generous,” Theo mused. “I built a very aggressive model. Put X-Day around 150 years.”

“I don’t think you’re helping,” Azam said, narrowing her eyes at him.

Rylla’s food tasted like dust in her mouth. “How do you deal?” she asked them. “How do you get up each morning knowing we’re headed for extinction?”

“That’s why we get up each morning,” Azam said. “We’re all trying to invent some nanoborg, or chemical, or bacteria that will help push back X-Day.”

“Speaking of which, here’s something to cheer you up.” Dae-Dae’s eyes glazed over and her MANIs flew across the tabletop. “I integrated Azam’s chemical recycling tech with the Phireflys and taught them to do this …” She pulled a wadded-up plastic bag of Choklit Crisps from her back pocket and placed it on the table.

Dae-Dae tapped something out with her MANIs, then flourished her hands at the bag like a wizard casting a spell. A greyish-green haze of Phireflys flew from her front pocket onto the bag. The edges of the bag began to curl, then vanish into nothingness. In moments, only a small pile of black soot remained in its place.

“Whoa,” Rylla breathed. “It’s just like Azam’s chemical recycler!”

“Yeah, but way more efficient,” Azam said, beaming at Dae-Dae.

“Once I figure out how to scale these puppies, we can dis­solve the world’s plastic waste like that.” Dae-Dae snapped her fingers.

“That’s amazing!” Rylla’s mind spun with the possibilities. Would Dae-Dae’s Phireflys be able to transform landfills? Clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Continent?

“It’s very impressi —” Theo broke off, staring the table, which appeared to be melting. “Hey Dae, you want to turn them off now?”

The Phireflys were eating a rapidly-spreading hole in the middle of the table. “Uh-oh,” Dae-Dae said. “They shouldn’t be doing that.”

The hole spread towards Rylla, and her cafeteria tray fell through the middle of the table into the grass, where it too started to dissolve into black powder. She scooted back her chair, not wanting to find out what would happen if the Phireflys touched her.

“Turn them off!” Theo shouted.

“I’m trying!” Dae-Dae cried, MANIs whirring.

A memory flashed through Rylla’s mind — Dae-Dae shading the Phireflys with her hand, and them falling dead. “Light!” she yelled. “We have to cut off their light!”

Dae-Dae smacked her head. “Duh! We’ve got to shade them with —” she looked around desperately.

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