Today is the grand opening. Hundreds of workers contributed to the
construction of the Attic Forest, whether it was planting a single seed, or
installing the walls on what was once the exterior of the ship. They
actually made Extremus bigger, adding an entire new layer on the top. Well,
it wasn’t entirely new. There was already and eleventh deck, but it hardly
extended more than a few meters. Now the rest of the kilometer has been
filled in for this project. Right now, it’s all dirt and paths, with a few
little ponds here and there, many of which are connected to each other via a
series of streams, waterfalls, and pumps. There are spots to picnic, and a
smallish venue for entertainment. The paths will be predominantly lined with
beautiful plants that were genetically engineered from the DNA data stored
in the database. Most of the plants were taken from Earth, but a few came
from Thālith al Naʽāmāt Bida’s records.
Right now, the only stuff that’s full grown is the bamboo, which is
exclusively used to signify entrances, exits, facilities, and emergency
terminals. At the moment, the rest of the trees and plants are ready to go.
Temporal engineer Greenley Atkinson and her team have created a time bubble
that will speed up the growth of all of this life. They just have to find
out who is going to push the button. It’s up to Tinaya to pick the name out
of the proverbial hat, but the ceremony is being delayed, because there is
an issue in the basement. “What is it? People are waiting.”
“It’s Operation Wellington, sir.” After Tinaya was promoted to Senior Forest
Guide, it only seemed right to hire a Junior Forest Guide. Cainan Suárez
switched his primary studies to botany soon after Project Attic Forest was
announced. He is still studying in college, but he helps out in his free
time. He missed a skills evaluation this morning to work on this, but his
advisor is allowing him to make it up next week. Cainan is distantly related
to Halan Yenant’s first Lieutenant, Rita Suárez.
“Obviously that’s why we’re down here. What’s the issue?”
“It’s this.” Cainan steps over to the wall screen, and brings up the genetic
information for the Journey Tree. “Okay, here is the DNA for a giant
sequoia. This is supposed to be the genetically modified DNA for the giant
sequoia we’re planting, because it needs to be tailored for an indoor
environment.”
This is how Tinaya knows that the mind sharing machine that messed up her
friends’ brains gave her knowledge that came from at least one person
besides the other three in the machine. None of them possessed this much of
an understanding of genetics. “It’s too big.”
“Yeah. They modified it too much. The root system is going to dig too deep,
and the canopy is going to spread too wide.”
In the center of the ship, there is an atrium. It’s this giant metal tube
that goes all the way from the engineering section, up to the tenth level.
Tinaya isn’t sure why the ship designers included it. It’s big, but it’s not
beautiful. There’s nowhere to sit, and no elevators or stairs. There’s no
plant life either. It just sits there. If you happen to be on the bottom
deck, you can walk through it, but if you’re on any other level, it just
forces you to go around. Because it’s thirty meters in diameter, and it
serves no real purpose...until now. Now it’s going to become the growing
tube for the ship’s largest tree. It will grow to be so big that they can’t
even plant it in the Attic Forest, or it will crash into the ceiling.
Actually, all of the trees would crash into the ceiling, if given a chance.
Once that big red button is pressed, the tallest of the trees are going to
grow up to thirty meters, which won’t work, because the ceiling only goes up
six meters, which is two meters higher than most decks. That’s why Atkinson
also designed a pocket dimension for them all to grow up into. But even that
won’t be enough for the ultimate height of the Journey Tree. Hopefully, by
the time it gets to be too big, though, they will be able to transplant it
to the Extremus planet. That’s one reason why it’s not going to be part of
the temporal bubble. It represents the journey that they’re all making
together, so it will grow at the same rate as everyone else. That’s the
idea, anyway.
“How did they make this mistake?” Tinaya questions. “They can see, it’s got
a radius of fifteen minutes.” She points to the atrium, and then down to the
floor “And they know that below this level is frickin’ outer space. It can’t
be that big.”
“I know, I wish I had caught it, but I’m still learning this stuff.”
“No,” Tinaya says with a shake of her head. “That’s not your job. I should
have caught it. I know how to decipher this stuff.”
“The way I see it,” Cainan goes on, “we have two options. Either we delay
the planting of the Journey Tree so this problem can be fixed, or we plant
it anyway, and hope that the walls of the atrium regulate the tree’s
growth.”
She shakes her head again. “We can’t let it do that. First, I would say that
the roots are the bigger problem. They’ll spring a leak, if allowed to go as
deep as this code commands it to. But also, the sequoia is a symbol. It’s a
symbol of unimaginable growth. It’s a metaphor for Extremus itself. We can’t
let the walls dictate how big it gets, because the who reason we’re on this
mission is to go against the rules, and find a new home in the outskirts of
the galaxy.”
“Yeah, I was kind of thinking the same thing too.”
She sighs. “I can fix it. I can rewrite the code, faster than even the real
geneticists can. I just...I don’t have time today. I don’t want to delay the
planting. The reason we’re doing these two things at the same time is to
lean into the symbolism I was just talking about. I mean, ideally, we would
have planted it on day one, but barring that, any day but the day that the
rest of the Attic Forest goes online will be arbitrary and meaningless. It
has to be today, and I have to be in two places at once.” A child is going
to be selected to engage the temporal bubble that will grow the forest
before their very eyes. Every kid who wants the honor has put their name
into the lottery, which Tinaya is scheduled to select right around...exactly
right now.
“What if...no...” Cainan doubts himself.
“No idea is a bad idea. Go ahead and say it.”
“If we’re most worried about the roots, then let’s not plant it on the
bottom level. Let’s toss in some more dirt, and plant it higher.”
“I dunno,” Tinaya says nervously. “Look at this here. They also programmed
it to be bigger than a normal giant sequoia. In the next 156 years, this
thing is going to grow, and at the moment, it will be a tight fit. The
canopy could reach the top of the pocket dimension. In order to get this
project passed, Tinaya and Lilian had to explain how they were going to fit
the really tall trees in the forest. Most decks are four meters high. Some
of them are double heighted which means the ceiling of one deck has been
excluded, and is just using the ceiling for the deck above it. And some
parts of some decks are only two and a half meters high, leaving the rest
for crawl space. But all added up, including the thick hull, Extremus is
only about fifty meters high. The government didn’t want to build a forty meter
high deck on top of that just for the forest, so to make it work, the pocket
dimension will make it bigger on the inside. There are risks to this. If
there is ever a power failure on the ship, they’re going to prioritize
things like life support and artificial gravity over superfluous pocket
dimensions. Perhaps one day, the ceiling will be raised, but that’s a
decision for a future administration. For now, if everything remains as is,
and that giant sequoia gets too big, it’s unclear what will happen.
“What do we do? Do we lie? We could plant this tomorrow, and just tell
everyone we did it today. That’s why it’s a secret. I mean, of course, this
isn’t why, but we may as well take advantage of that.”
“No, that won’t work either,” Tinaya contends. “I’m going to repair the DNA,
and the file will reflect the save date before we 3D print the seed. There
will be a record of the delay in planting, or at least it could be called
into question, and that would just be embarrassing.”
“I’m all out of ideas then.”
“You could do it.”
“Me?” he questions. “I can’t write code like that. Like I said, I’m just
learning.”
“But you can pull a name out of a hat,” Tinaya reasons.
“You want me to do the ceremony. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I’m just a Junior
Guide. I can’t do that either.”
“Cainan, that’s a made up job. These are all made up. We’re making up the
rules as we go along. There’s no reason you can’t do it. Just go up there
and pick a name. When the kid shows up, shake their hand, crack a few
jokes—”
“Crack a few jokes? What jokes? I only know dirty jokes, and I don’t think
you want me to say them on broadcast.”
“You’ll know what to do; I trust you. Lilian will be right there next to
you. Meanwhile, I’ll be down here, recoding this seed.”
“You don’t have that much time. If the lottery draw starts right now, the
kid will push the button pretty quickly.”
“No, I won’t be planting the seed at the same time, but it will be before
midnight.”
He hesitates. This isn’t his thing. People aren’t his thing; he’s always
said that. He’s much better with plants. He talks to them, and treats their
reactions to his care as responses. But she really does have faith in him,
and he trusts her just as much. “Okay. I’ll need to change first, though,
and my cabin is on the other side of the ship.”
“You don’t have that kind of time.” She takes off her ring, and hands it to
him. “We’re obviously not allowed to teleport, but I have my ways. Just rub
the gem, and concentrate on your destination. Make sure to make jumps to
unoccupied spaces, so no one sees you. And obviously don’t tell anyone about
it. I’m not supposed to have that.”
“You are in two places at once sometimes. I’ve always thought that.”
“Go, Cainan. Good luck.”
“Good luck to you too.” He puts the magic ring on, and disappears. Hopefully
he didn’t accidentally land on the bridge, or something.”
Tinaya takes a deep breath, and switches the broadcast on so she can keep
one eye on the show. Her other eye will be focused on her work. She’s had
this genetic engineering knowledge for years now, but she’s not used it,
because the right situation has not yet come up. Well, it’s here now, so
hopefully whoever’s mind she unwillingly copied them from is as smart as her
initial impression makes them seem. Two centuries from now, children may be
able to sit under this tree to read or have a chat, but that can’t happen
unless she figures out how to translate it from code to seed.
