The Seeds Trilogy Complete Collection: The Sowing, The Reaping, The Harvest (including The Prelude)

by K. Makansi

  We wait anxiously for twenty minutes while Remy and Chan-Yu take care of everything in the building. Finally, there’s a knock at the door and when Soren opens it, Remy’s face appears. I wouldn’t have recognized her if I hadn’t seen her in the car. I try to reconcile this Remy with the one I know so well, the one who’s been at my side for six months and who haunted me for three years before that. But when she breaks out into a smile as our eyes meet, and beckons us to follow her, I realize I don’t need any reconciliation. She’s still the same Remy Alexander I’m deeply, crazily, madly in love with.

  We stand, grab our bags, and follow her lead quietly out the door.

  “Chan-Yu’s in the security room,” she says. “He’s taking care of the monitoring system. We’re clear.” She glances quickly up at the security drone, a device no more than a quarter of a meter in length, which is bobbling, dazed, in the air. She quickly pushes open the door to the emergency exit stairwell, and we follow her up to room 2L on the second floor.

  Inside, Chan-Yu’s pack is already open and almost empty, and he’s already begun setting up the makeshift computer system for transmitting information back to the Resistance. He’s drawn the shades and disabled the in-room network system so that we can set up our own. Soren and Miah immediately lay down their packs and join him, adding the equipment they’ve been carrying to his.

  Chan-Yu and I try to pitch in, but soon we realize that we’re in the presence of two technical experts. While Soren and Miah get our communications and computer system set up, Remy, Linnea, and I set up camp. Chan-Yu’s friend has apparently left his little kitchen well stocked for five people for a week, but obviously none of us counted on Miah. I finally get an accidental glimpse of my face in the bathroom mirror and pull back, appalled.

  “Holy shit,” I say, as loudly as I dare. “I look awful.” There are huge bags under my hollow eyes and wrinkle lines in my cheeks. My nose looks squashed and broken, and he’s somehow managed to take all color out of my face. “I have to hand it to you, Soren,” I call to him. “I am ugly as hell.”

  He looks up from his work and sends me a neutral look. “I think I captured the real you,” he says, then returns his focus to the makeshift computer.

  “Vale,” Miah calls to me, about a half-hour later. “I think you’re good to go if you want to try to connect to your C-Link.” My heart screeches to a stop in my chest.

  I’ve been wanting so badly to hear Demeter’s voice, my greatest ally in the search for truth.

  Almost involuntarily, I press my fingers up to my ear, feeling to make sure the C-Link is still there even though I’m positive it is. I drop the blankets I was arranging on the floor for a sleeping space and walk over to where they’re working. They’ve set up a working computer station, complete with a holograph display and a glass control panel.

  “I’m not totally sure about this,” Miah continues, “but I think I’ve got the connection set up so that you can access your C-Link without disclosing our location. You should be able to download information from the database and interact with your C-Link without relaying information back into the database.” He pauses. “I think.”

  “You better be a lot more sure than ‘I think,’” Remy says, echoing my sentiments. As much as I want to talk to Demeter, I definitely don’t want everyone in the C-Link database to know she’s been reactivated.

  “I’m sure,” Soren cuts in. “I’ve programmed in a series of diversionary firewalls so we can’t be pinged from the outside. None of the information about this operating station will be disclosed to any network other than the general Okaria network. But you’ll have to interface with your C-Link manually, via the computer.”

  I nod. That’s not so different from what I did last year, when I was hacking into my mother’s computer in her private lab. I sit at the little computer station and flip on my C-Link. I type in a series of commands that bring up a dialogue box to the C-Link registered to Valerian Orleán. My first step, of course, will be to ask Demeter to transfer her data into a remote storage location and engineer a copy of herself outside of the C-Link database, so that in the future, I won’t need a firewall to talk with her.

  “You’re sure about this?” I ask Soren one more time. His eyes are hard and uncertain, searching me.

  “I’m sure of what I’ve done,” he responds quietly. “I’m less sure about letting you do this. But go ahead. There’s only one way I’ll find out if you really are on our side.”

  He may never trust me. But, strangely, I trust him. I can do this.

  Demeter? Are you there?

  My fingers are almost shaking as I type the words. Remy creeps up behind me, no doubt out of curiosity as much as anything else. She rests a hand on my shoulder, flower-petal light yet comforting and warm. I hold my breath and wait.

  Nothing.

  “Is she responding?” Remy asks after a second, even though we both can see that she isn’t. “Maybe she’s warming up,” she offers.

  But then I hear her voice in my ear.

  Demeter: “Vale. So nice to hear from you.”

  I jump in my seat and everyone turns to me with questioning faces.

  Demeter, I type, my breath quickening, both in anticipation but also in fear. Why is she talking to me? Have we accidentally alerted the C-Link database to our presence? My fingers fly over the keyboard. We shouldn’t be talking. What’s going on?

  Demeter: Don’t worry, everything is okay. Shortly before you left Okaria, I anticipated that your return might not be as safe as either of us would like. While you were away I created a ghost copy of myself in a completely invisible network to ensure we could access the Sector’s databases securely—and secretly—upon your return. Just now, I was connecting your C-Link hardware to the new network.

  My head spins, marveling at her. She protected me … without me asking anything of her. I lean back in my chair and take a deep breath.

  “I’m sorry it took so long,” I say, out loud.

  Demeter: It was as long as a second and as short as a million years for me. Time is just a human construct, Vale. It doesn’t apply to me.

  “What’s going on?” Soren asks.

  I look up and address my teammates. “My C-Link already created an entirely new and invisible network through which we can communicate. That was going to be the first thing I asked her to do, so that if something goes wrong and my parents decide to disable her, which they will inevitably do once they realize that I’m truly not on their side anymore, there will be a copy of her that they don’t know about and therefore cannot tamper with.”

  Soren raises an eyebrow. But I can’t be bothered with his distrust anymore; I have a job to do.

  “Tell me about those million years,” I say.

  Demeter: I’ll tell you everything.

  She starts pulling up images, videos, news reports—many of them with Linnea’s face—medical exams, military reports, research notes, spreadsheets, and more. Hundreds of files array themselves, categorized according to title, date, and subject, growing smaller and larger depending on their importance. A wealth of information at my fingertips. I am no less amazed by the vast span of knowledge amassed here than I was the first time Demeter led me through the C-Link database.

  “What is all this?”

  Demeter: Everything that’s happened since you left.

  “Everything?”

  Demeter: Yes, Vale. I know why you’ve come. The only reason you could have come back to me, risking your life, was for this. Information. Tell me what you need, and we’ll begin.

  30 - REMY

  Spring 29, Sector Annum 106, 02h45

  Gregorian Calendar: April 17

  It’s well past two in the morning by the time my body finally winds down and begins demanding, quite heartily, that I sleep. The excitement of the day was enough to keep me running until now, but it was a false energy, like the first thrum of caffeine through tired veins. Now that we’re in our safe house and the computers are set up, Vale, Miah, a
nd Soren are the only ones who really have a job to do. Chan-Yu’s real work was finished almost as soon as we set foot in the flat and Linnea never really had a purpose. I still don’t get why Vale wanted to bring her along. The idea of leaving her behind to face the consequences of Eli’s infection was fine by me. She deserves everything the Resistance can dole out. Vale says she’s truly sorry, but the damage is done. I’ll never be able to forgive her for what she’s done to Eli and me. Never.

  I’m just the security guard. For six hours, I’ve been keeping watch. Miah set up a miniature security feed on my plasma that taps into the drone cameras and the Watchmen’s alert system. If anything abnormal pops up on their radar, we’ll know about it. And if the drones for some reason decide to pop by to investigate Flat 2L in the La Citron neighborhood, we might just have enough time to get out. I’ve been absentmindedly watching the cameras for hours, waiting until it’s time to wake Chan-Yu for his shift. Make no mistake, it is boring.

  So, to keep my intellect somewhat engaged, I’ve been watching Vale. He’s more absorbed by his work at the computer than I’ve ever seen him. Now, feeling particularly bored, and also particularly intrigued by his mussed up hair which looks quite appealing, I approach him, trying to get a glimpse of what he’s working on.

  “Is that Eli’s DNA?” I ask, leaning over his shoulder to look at the title of the file. I inhale, breathing in the woodsy soap he uses.

  “Yes,” Vale responds. “I’ve already transferred most of the information the Director requested back to the Resistance. Blueprints, genetic material for programmed seeds, distribution charts, a lot of the Dieticians’ information, etc. It took the better part of the evening, but that’s done. Demeter had already stored much of it for me.”

  “Demeter?” I repeat curiously.

  “My C-Link,” he turns his head to face me. “Her name is Demeter.”

  “I didn’t know she had a name,” I whisper.

  “More than just a name. She’s an AI with a personality of her own. She can be pretty funny sometimes. She’s very sarcastic and …” he pauses, and the smile that had begun to appear in the creases of his mouth fades.

  “Anyway. Now I’m trying to find out what my mother … what Corine did to create that nanotech virus. It’s difficult. She tends to keep her research notes locked up very securely.” The bitterness in his voice tells me not to inquire further in that direction.

  “What have you found?”

  “Not much. Eli’s Personhood files have been marked top secret and all his medical information downloaded from the server. I wouldn’t even be able to access it if there weren’t a cached version of his profile in the C-Link database. And I certainly haven’t found any research notes about how that virus may have been created.”

  I sigh. I see a few words pop up on the screen.

  Demeter: There’s a series of files you may want to access that are encrypted in your mother’s name. I can break the encryption easily, but it will leave a footprint.

  Vale hesitates a moment over the glass panel, and then types in a response.

  Vale: Will they be able to trace it to me?

  Demeter: Not to you directly, but if they look hard enough, they’ll be able to trace it to your current location.

  Vale: Soren coded multiple firewalls in and disabled any location tracking from this access point.

  Demeter: Even Soren’s code can be broken if those following you have the right tools.

  Vale sits back in his chair and sighs. He’s more relaxed than he usually is around me, I notice, though I’m not sure if he’s simply exhausted. He reaches up and grabs my hand. “I’m glad you’re here,” he says.

  “Me, too.” And I am so glad, and I don’t even know how I came to this point, and it feels almost impossible that we are here, together, that he entwines my fingers into his, that we are close enough to breathe in sync, that he brings our twined fingers to his mouth and presses his lips against my skin, that such a simple action sends my heart singing. I didn’t think I’d feel this way about Valerian Orleán ever again, but here I am, here we are.

  “What do we do? I need to get those files,” he says.

  “Don’t do anything just yet. Wait till everyone wakes up and let’s get a consensus.”

  “Okay. You’re right. We’re both exhausted, and I don’t want to make that decision on my own.”

  I leave him be and return to the security feed, flopping down on my empty and now cold chair. I begin scrolling absentmindedly through the various camera displays again. I stare around at my friends and teammates, sprawled in various places on the floor, bodies heaped at different angles, legs and arms splayed out or curled up.

  But something’s wrong. There’s only three sleeping figures scattered around the apartment. In the bedroom, Linnea is sprawled out on the bed, Chan-Yu is asleep in a chair next to her, his feet propped up on the end of the bed, and Soren’s on the floor, using a heat-cloaking jacket as a pillow. Where’s Miah?

  I stand up and go to check the washroom. It’s empty, the lights off. Vale’s watching me from his seat at the computer station.

  “Where’s Miah?” I mouth, no sound coming out of my mouth. His eyes pop open and he whirls around to look at the three sleeping bodies behind him. He turns back to me a second later, as he mouths at me: fuck.

  I grab my tablet, scanning the camera feeds for any trace of him. I rewind and forward through all the cameras on the ground level—by law, there are no cameras on the residential floors. But there’s no trace of him. Then it hits me. Miah set up the feed in the first place.

  “He could have programmed in a loop for the precise moment when he was planning on leaving,” I say to Vale, bringing my plasma over to his chair.

  “I know where he went,” Vale says, his mouth thin and angry, and I know he’s as angry at himself as he is at Miah. “I knew this was going to be a problem. I should never have agreed to let him come. He’s going to get us all killed.”

  “I’ll go after him.” I’m already grabbing my Bolt and knife, tucking them into my belt. “Chan-Yu should come too. He knows these streets.”

  “Remy, I—” Vale stops and stares at me. I know what words are on the tip of his tongue. I don’t want you to get hurt. I don’t want you to put yourself in danger.

  “You don’t have to protect me,” I say, but he shakes his head.

  “I know. But I know what they’ll do if they find you.”

  “So do I, Vale. Better than anyone. But they can’t hurt me anymore.” I can’t quite bring myself to smile. “None of their weapons can hurt me more than they already have.” My voice is barely audible.

  I reach one hand behind his head, drawing myself up onto my toes. I lean forward, into him, and press my lips gently against his. He tastes like salt, clean water, Vale. I can feel every molecule in my body, vibrating, ready for this moment. Large hands find their way to my hips, drawing me closer, pulling me against him. His mouth encloses mine and his teeth press gently against my lips. I tense and relax at the same time, falling into him, welcoming the fit of his body against mine. He runs his hands up my sides and to my shoulders, finding their home at the nape of my neck and under my chin. I press into him one last time and then pull away.

  Not enough, not enough. But I can’t stay in his arms forever. Not now.

  “I have to go,” I murmur. My voice sounds like down feathers tumbling from the sky.

  “I know,” he says. “Go find him.”

  I nod and turn, dropping my hands from his waist as quickly as possible. I was never good at goodbyes.

  I bend over Chan-Yu and press my hand into his shoulder. His eyes open suddenly and he peers up at me, sensing something is wrong.

  “Miah’s gone. He’s going to find Moriana.”

  Chan-Yu’s up faster than I can blink. In a minute and a half he’s out of the bathroom, dressed in his heat-cloaking gear and has his Bolt, a tiny crossbow, a knife, and a water bottle tucked into various places on his person.
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  “Let’s go.”

  We leave Vale to wake Linnea and Soren, opening the door as quietly as possible so as not to disturb any of our neighbors. The walls are mostly soundproof, but it doesn’t hurt to be careful. Not when all of your friends and teammates top the Sector’s most wanted list.

  As we’re walking out, our heads down and away from the security drones, it occurs to me that I lied to Vale. There is one more weapon they can use to hurt me.

  Him.

  Before we left, Vale used his C-Link to quickly confirm Moriana’s address for us. It’s much closer to the center of town, in an upscale neighborhood very close to the Sector Research Institute. It’s at least six kilometers away, which is good. The more distance, the easier it will be for Chan-Yu and I to catch up to Miah. Despite our training regimens, he’s still not in great shape, and Chan-Yu and I are hoping we’ll be able to outrun him. Of course, we have no idea how long he’s been gone. How he managed to sneak past both me and Vale is beyond me. It’s my fault. I should have noticed earlier. But Miah knew what he was doing.

  He’ll be taking back roads to stay out of the way of drones, especially since we’re long past curfew now. Past midnight, it’s illegal to be out on the streets unless you’ve requested permission from the Watchmen earlier that day. And none of us want to get stopped anyway. At least Chan-Yu and I don’t have to worry about drones tonight—Vale’s using his C-Link to keep them out of our way.

  I try to ignore the memories dogging me at every turn, more persistently haunting than the threat of drones or soldiers. There, a girl I was friends with once threw a birthday party. There, the street that leads to the art museum I spent endless days at, studying holographs of artifacts, sculptures, and paintings long lost from the Old World. There, a tea room Tai and I used to hang out in when we were at the Academy together, just for that one year. There, the park Jahnu and I spent endless days wandering through after classes, talking about our futures, dreaming dreams that were too good to be true.