The problem with being given fifteen acres of impossible farmland was that Lena now had to decide what to grow in it.
She’d been thinking about that since yesterday.
Not immediately.
Immediately she’d been distracted by the fact that the System had apparently handed her a private agricultural dimension with no theoretical maximum size.
Then she’d gotten distracted by screws.
But the question had come back.
Tuesday morning found Lena standing beside several tables of seed packets, boxes and sealed containers in one of the equipment buildings.
They already had seeds.
A lot of seeds.
Marcus had been acquiring them since Lena first started expanding Redtail’s agricultural plans.
Vegetables.
Grains.
Legumes.
Oil crops.
Herbs.
Forage.
Cover crops.
Varieties intended for different climates and growing conditions.
Some were already in Inventory.
Some were designated for the fields and greenhouses.
More were still arriving.
Until yesterday, Lena had thought of them mostly as supplies.
Now she had the Annex.
Fifteen acres.
Completely isolated from whatever happened outside.
Which raised a fairly important question.
What did she want growing there?
Lena picked up a packet of beans.
Appraise.
COMMON BEAN SEED
Seed Viability: 96%
Genetic Diversity: MODERATE
Transition Affinity: MODERATE
Agricultural Value: HIGH
She set it down.
Another.
Sweet corn.
Moderate.
Tomatoes.
Moderate.
Wheat.
Low.
Lettuce.
Moderate.
Another tomato.
High.
Lena slowed.
That was becoming a pattern.
Not High.
But enough Moderate results that whatever Transition Affinity meant for living plants, it wasn’t rare.
She picked up another packet.
Appraise.
HEIRLOOM COMMON BEAN SEED
Seed Viability: 97%
Genetic Diversity: HIGH
Transition Affinity: VERY HIGH
Projected Transition Response: UNKNOWN
Agricultural Value: HIGH
Lena stopped.
Very High.
That was new.
She turned the packet over.
Beans.
Completely ordinary-looking beans.
‘What happens to these during Transition?’
Outcome unknown.
Helpful.
‘Will they survive?’
Outcome unknown.
‘Will Transition change them?’
Transition response cannot be reliably projected prior to exposure.
Lena frowned.
That wasn’t a no.
She looked at the packet again.
Very High affinity meant something.
Vale’s polycarbonate glass had only been High, and apparently that had mattered enough for the System to count it toward the greenhouse reward.
But plants were alive.
Whatever Transition did to them could be completely different.
‘What happens if they’re in Inventory during Transition?’
Transition exposure prevented.
Lena relaxed.
Good.
Store them.
Easy.
She could preserve the seeds exactly as they were.
Then after Transition, she could plant them in the Annex.
Normal beans.
Pre-Transition beans.
Completely isolated from whatever had happened outside.
Perfect.
She reached toward the packet.
Then stopped.
What happened to the beans she didn’t store?
Lena stared at them.
Maybe they died.
Maybe they became poisonous.
Maybe they grew teeth.
She really hoped not.
But maybe they became drought resistant.
Heat resistant.
Cold resistant.
Maybe they grew twice as fast.
Maybe they developed some useful property she couldn’t even imagine yet.
She had no idea.
And that was the problem.
If she stored all of them, she preserved what they had been.
If she stored none of them, she gambled the entire variety on whatever Transition decided to do.
Neither made sense.
Lena looked across the tables.
Beans.
Corn.
Tomatoes.
Wheat.
Lettuce.
Most of them had shown at least Moderate Transition Affinity.
This wasn’t about one weird packet of beans.
Transition was about to affect every living thing on Earth, and Lena had absolutely no idea what that meant.
But she had something nobody else did.
A place where Transition couldn’t reach.
And after Transition…
A place where the things she’d protected could grow.
“Oh.”
She grabbed her phone.
Marcus answered.
“Good morning.”
“I need more seeds.”
“That narrows nothing.”
“Duplicates.”
A pause.
“Of?”
“As many important crops and varieties as we can reasonably manage.”
“Why?”
Lena looked at the packet in her hand.
How much did she want to explain?
“I have a way to keep one set completely unaffected by Transition.”
Marcus was silent.
“Completely?”
“As far as I can tell.”
“And the duplicates?”
“Stay out.”
Another pause.
“Control groups.”
“Exactly.”
Lena smiled.
“One preserved baseline.
“You expect biological changes.”
“I don’t know what to expect.
That’s the problem.”
She looked across the tables.
“Some plants seem more likely to be affected than others.
But enough of them are showing potential that I don’t want to gamble on which ones matter.”
“So one population remains unchanged.”
“Yes.”
“And one experiences whatever happens naturally.”
“Exactly.”
Marcus was quiet for a moment.
“How broad?”
There was the Marcus question.
Lena looked at the seed stock.
“As broad as we reasonably can.”
“Species diversity?”
“Yes.”
“Varietal diversity?”
“Yes.”
“Genetic diversity?”
“Especially that.”
She’d learned that lesson with the animals.
Having ten cows didn’t mean much if they were all too closely related to maintain a healthy population.
Plants weren’t cattle, but the underlying problem seemed familiar enough.
She needed options.
“Different climates,” Lena said.
“Different growing conditions.
Disease resistance.
Heat tolerance.
Cold tolerance.
Drought tolerance.
Anything that gives us choices afterward.”
“Heirlooms?”
“Yes.”
“Open-pollinated varieties?”
“Yes.”
“Landraces?”
Lena paused.
“What are those?”
“I’ll include them.”
“See?
This is why I call you.”
“I had wondered.”
“Don’t get fifty nearly identical varieties just because they’re available.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Good.”
“We should probably have someone with actual expertise determine priorities.”
“Definitely.”
“You realize that includes considerably more than food crops.”
Lena stopped.
“What?”
“Fiber crops.
Forage.
Medicinal plants.
Industrial crops.
Species used for soil improvement.
Pollinator support.”
“Oh.”
Right.
Agriculture wasn’t just things Lena personally recognized from the produce section.
“Yes.”
“I’ll find someone.”
“Thank you.”
She started to hang up.
Then looked toward the open doors.
Beyond them, one of Redtail’s existing fruit trees moved slightly in the breeze.
Lena stopped.
“Wait.”
Marcus sighed.
“What?”
“Trees.”
“What about them?”
“Seeds aren’t enough.”
“No.”
“Why did you say that like you already knew?”
“Because seeds are not enough.”
Lena frowned.
“Apples don’t grow the same from seed, do they?”
“Not reliably.”
“So if I want to preserve an actual variety-”
“Scionwood.
Rootstock.
Cuttings.
Depending on species.”
Lena stared toward the orchard.
“Can you get me an apple tree?”
Another pause.
“A tree.”
“Small one.”
“Why?”
“I need to test something.”
“Of course you do.”
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
“You usually do.”
The tree arrived after lunch.
Lena had expected small.
Apparently nursery-small and Lena-small were not quite the same thing.
The young apple tree stood a little over six feet tall, its root ball wrapped in burlap.
Marcus had apparently found someone local who could get one to Redtail immediately.
He stood a few feet away while Lena crouched beside it.
The leaves looked healthy.
The soil around the roots was still damp.
Appraise.
YOUNG APPLE TREE
Health: GOOD
Root Condition: GOOD
Growth Status: ACTIVE
Reproductive Maturity: NOT REACHED
Transition Affinity: MODERATE
Agricultural Value: MODERATE
Fine.
Lena put her hand against the trunk.
Store.
The tree vanished.
Marcus looked at the empty spot.
He’d seen her make things disappear before.
That didn’t make his expression entirely normal.
Lena waited ten seconds.
Retrieve.
The apple tree reappeared.
Exactly where she’d taken it from.
Leaves unchanged.
Burlap intact.
Not even loose soil had fallen from the root ball.
Lena touched the trunk again.
Appraise.
YOUNG APPLE TREE
Health: GOOD
Root Condition: GOOD
Growth Status: ACTIVE
Reproductive Maturity: NOT REACHED
Transition Affinity: MODERATE
Agricultural Value: MODERATE
Exactly the same.
Lena grinned.
“Oh, this is dangerous.”
Marcus looked from her to the tree.
“I’m going to regret asking, aren’t I?”
Lena was already reaching for her notebook.
SAPLINGS
CUTTINGS
TUBERS
BULBS
She stopped.
MUSHROOM CULTURES???
Marcus leaned over enough to read it.
“I’ll add horticulture.”
Lena looked up.
“See?
Favorite person.”
“I thought Adrian had that title.”
“He gave me magic greenhouse glass.
It was temporary.”
“Good to know.”
Lena looked at the tree.
Seeds were easy.
Tiny.
Dry.
She could preserve an absurd number of them.
But this…
this meant she wasn’t limited to seeds.
Plants that didn’t breed true from seed.
Cultivars maintained through grafting.
Perennials.
Living rootstock.
Tubers.
Bulbs.
Cultures.
Anything small enough to fit.
She looked at the apple tree again.
A living piece of a specific cultivar.
Preserved exactly as it was.
Marcus’s phone rang.
He checked it.
“I need to take this.”
“Go.”
He walked toward the doors.
Lena barely noticed.
She opened the Annex interface.
SPATIAL CULTIVATION ANNEX
A spatially isolated agricultural environment protected from external weather, climate, and biological conditions.
Environmental parameters and biological time may be independently managed following activation.
Initial Area: 15 acres
Climate Control: LOCKED
Soil Configuration: LOCKED
Water Management: LOCKED
Biological Time Rate: LOCKED
Environmental Zoning: LOCKED
Expansion: AVAILABLE
Activation: PENDING TRANSITION
Her attention settled on one line.
Biological Time Rate.
She’d noticed it yesterday.
But yesterday she’d been thinking about crops.
Now she was looking at a six-foot apple tree.
‘What range will Biological Time Rate allow?’
Functionality unavailable prior to Annex activation.
“Of course.”
Lena looked at the tree again.
Fruit trees took years to mature.
Normally.
She looked back at the locked control.
Biological Time Rate.
“Oh, that’s going to be dangerous.”
Because after Transition, she wouldn’t just have a protected place to grow the things she’d preserved.
Potentially, she’d have control over how quickly they grew.
And environmental zoning.
Climate control.
Soil.
Water.
Lena’s gaze drifted toward the fields outside.
The possibilities multiplied rapidly.
Tropical plants.
Temperate plants.
Crops adapted to dry environments.
Cold-weather crops.
Different growing zones isolated from one another.
Preserved varieties grown without ever being exposed to whatever Transition had done outside.
And outside those protected acres…
Their duplicates.
Changed or unchanged.
Useful or useless.
Safe or dangerous.
They would have both.
That was the part Lena liked.
She didn’t have to guess which future was better.
She could keep the old one and find out what the new one became.
The System chimed.
Lena looked up.
PRESERVATION-CLASS DEVELOPMENT
Integrated preservation behavior recognized.
Current preservation activity demonstrates coordinated development across multiple continuity domains.
Biological diversity.
Cultural continuity.
Technical capability.
Productive resilience.
Development pathway progress recorded.
Lena went still.
There it was again.
Development pathway.
She focused on the words.
‘Progress toward what?’
Information unavailable at current Access Tier.
“Of course.”
She opened her Preservation Profile.
Food Security: EXCELLENT
Agricultural Continuity: GOOD
Medical Reserves: GOOD
Biological Preservation: DEVELOPING
Technical Preservation: DEVELOPING
Cultural Preservation: MINIMAL
Biological was still Developing.
Fair.
She hadn’t preserved Earth’s biodiversity because she’d put one apple tree somewhere impossible and told Marcus to buy seeds.
But something had changed.
She wasn’t simply accumulating supplies anymore.
The cultural archive would preserve knowledge, history, art and memory.
The manufacturing program would preserve the ability to repair and eventually produce.
The biological program would preserve a baseline of the living world while letting them learn what Transition created.
Not just resources.
Knowledge.
Capability.
Diversity.
Things that could be used to build something afterward.
The System apparently thought that mattered.
Lena closed the profile.
The apple tree remained beside her.
She touched its trunk.
Store.
Gone.
Somewhere inside Inventory, it now existed exactly as it had a moment ago.
Alive.
Unchanged.
Waiting.
After Transition, Lena could retrieve it.
Plant it in the Annex.
Give it sunlight.
Water.
Soil.
Time.
However much time she eventually decided that meant.
A tiny piece of the old world, waiting for somewhere safe to grow.
Lena smiled.
She had fifteen acres.
That should do for a start.