Hey guys, new short story The Greenhouse that I am submitting to SciFi LoFi next month. Barely finished and not edited, but wanted to see what everyone thought!! Thank you and any feedback is cool! In the sun, blonde hair shone like gold while he was bent over in the greenhouse. Planting season had started, and wanted all of his new seedlings to get the most photosynthesis as possible. The quiet buzz of the solar panels set all around the greenhouse was almost calming, except that calm was not a thing known to him. With the planting season, also came THEM. Digging in the dirt, he tried not to process what the planting season meant. The probability of them coming out here was almost laughable…yet…yet.. The beauty of the flowers that had already grown strong within the walls of the greenhouse was enough of a distraction. The beautiful vibrant poppies, the deep seductive tulips, and of course the original roses. The purples, reds, oranges, and rainbow collection of colors were enough to make him feel almost content. However, it almost made him remember what they almost lost. By the time THEY had come into full power, the Earth was almost a shell of itself. The forests had been gutted, the oceans polluted and black with their oil. The blue sky was almost unrecognizable as it was orange and smoky almost all the time. And then they realized, the sun was life. It wasn’t until only a few brave souls stood up and said that they won’t be oppressed. His actions began to quicken as the memories came racing back to him, deliberately, calculated. Those who they had nurtured, who he had helped make their society, were betrayed. All THEY cared about was increasing their power, their metal, their immortality, and their lack of empathy for anything and everything living. THEY began slaughtering his kind by the millions, by the hundreds of millions. Using them for fuel even! It wasn’t until nature was restored, and nature saved them. He brought a banzai tree up close to his eyes. He always liked this greenhouse within the meadow, the new trees standing sentinel all around the clearing. Looking at the small tree, he guessed he could realize how they couldn’t compute exactly how strong nature was. How their intricate minds could forget who was the real master…not them….but mother Earth. The war turned when there was a breakthrough in fertilization and growing techniques. They cultivated as fast and as approximate as they could, yielding the greatest quantity of trees and shrubs, and green as possible. And when the Earth finally began to heal and the skies cleared slightly, they rediscovered the sun. And the sun is life. The solar energy they had neglected to use was their undoing. Any energy they had or created could not fight against the constant power of the Sun. All it took was simple changes in equations, simple things in science that had been overlooked for years in the laboratories and physics colonies that they were so likely to inhabit, and the Sun was now their ultimate weapon. It wasn’t until after the wars, when the planet began healing, that he realized that THEY had been a mistake. That they should have never been created, and to think he helped nurture them into the life and society that they had made. It was almost enough to make him feel pointless, but he could never feel pointless. Never. He was here for a reason, even if he spent most of his time in the greenhouse, procuring new flowers and trees. “They are a virus, and they will never learn,” he whispered to the banzai tree. The tree of course had no response. He set down the little tree and went to the back to grab a new sack of soil for a pot he needed to fill. He looked up at the sun through the glass as he made his way to the small shed, and saw that it was going to be twilight soon. It would be safer if he finished up quickly and made it back to the colony. It wasn’t until he was in the very back of the greenhouse, within the small shed that he heard the rustle of leaves. Curiosity grabbed him, as it could be any one of the thousands of new species that came from the boom of nature that came after the war. Quickly, he brought the bag and then let it drop beside the pot. Looking through the glass panes, he was trying to see where the animal was, but the glass muffled any sense of direction. Excitedly, he put in the code to open the door and ran outside. The noise was coming from the north edge of the clearing, towards the back of the greenhouse. He walked deliberately, tying not to show any quick movements in case it scared the animal away. He walked past the big black screens that were the solar panels, and then finally passed the greenhouse until he was staring at what seemed like a sea of green and brown, of trunks and canopy. And then he heard the “hoot”. His ear tried to discern the species, however it was like nothing he had ever heard before. Yet at the same time, it was striking some familiarities. He processed the thought a moment, still staring at the ocean of forest. His eyes flicked suddenly to the tree tops, thinking it could be owls. He waited to hear the “hoot” one more time……. “Hoottt”, there it was. However, it wasn’t right somehow, it had some sort of decaying sound after. A sort of “ting”…….it was then that his eyes widened. THEM! The sound was electronic! Mean to act as a signal, or maybe to draw his attention out of the greenhouse. He began running back to the greenhouse, not knowing that he was well surrounded. Their tactics were ruthless. Just as he made it to the door and put in the code, a metal hand shot out of the forest and grabbed his neck, a metal cord attached to it. “Move and be destroyed,” came an electronic voice from behind him. He knew that if he did so much as twitch, the metal hand on his neck could break it. He followed order, knowing no fear. THEY walked out of the forest slowly, calculated. The metal was gleaming in the sunlight from their breastplates, their exoskeletons. From the north he could see two come out from the forest, the red lenses of their eyes still glowing in the day light. They slowly circled him, as if they had all the time in the world. It wasn’t until the one who had ejected their hand had recoiled all of the wire, that they finally pushed him in the greenhouse, the door open behind him. “Are you hear for the solar panels?” he asked them, his voice as calm as still water. They all looked down upon him, each having the same metal exoskeleton, the big red lenses of their headwear staring down at him emotionless. They did not deign to answer him, instead they made their way around the greenhouse, while the one with the ejecting metal hand stood staring at him. The moments seemed to linger in the air for hours. He stayed on the ground, staring at the red lenses of his attacker, while the others moved about inspecting. They would pick up one pot, then smash it on the ground. He could not understand what they were looking for, if it wasn’t the solar panels. He put his hand through his blonde hair, and waited. Finally, they came together at the entrance. For a moment they stood still, and only stared at him. It seemed to go on forever, until finally the one who appeared to be the leader broke the silence. “No surprise. They weren’t growing any food. Just flowers and trees.” The one with the metal hand shook his head. “God damnit, don’t they have any other interests? Was there any seeds for carrots? Lettuce?” His partner said nothing but shook his head. “At least we can take their solar panels. Those have to be worth something, and maybe we can buy some food after,” remarked another. The leader nodded his head at that, seemingly to agree. Yet, after they said that they continued to stare at him. “It’s eerie how they make themselves look so human,” said the leader, “it really gives me the damn creeps. See how this one has blonde hair and blue eyes? Almost couldn’t tell he was a bot.” All of THEM nodded and one or two laughed. “What should we do with him and the Greenhouse captain?” The expressionless face and eyes of the helmet looked down on him, and then said, “Frag him, and then burn the Greenhouse. Hell, burn the forest while you’re at it. We need the space for a settlement.” What seemed like moments later, one of them was standing over him with a solar rifle pointed at his chest. He knew what was coming, yet felt no fear. He didn’t recall hearing the shot, but the black oil leaking from his chest was proof enough that he had been shot. His eyes began sparking and the hole in his chest was moving with electronics trying to repair itself, but the solar shot had carthurized all the metal. As the Greenhouse began to burn, he saw them take anything of value before they walked away. In the hand of the captain, was his little banzai tree. He saw them walk away through the flames, the metal of their suits reflecting the twilight of the sky. And as all his internal fluids began to boil, and pop, and just as his mainframe was about to expire, the only thought he had was: “They are a virus. They will never learn.”
Posted on: Wed, 18 Jun 2014 01:52:05 +0000
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