@the28thkarenbear We have 50 chocolate powder packs, to be used for special occasions only.
5:24 pm October 6th, 2052 from distweet in reply to the28thkarenbear
Just passed the orbit of Mars. A has to tell me which dot is Earth, now. Celebrating by opening one of the chocolate powder packs.
2:03 pm October 3rd, 2052 from distweet
@frogheart29 Nope, not even space pizza. Once I get home, I’m so going on a food splurge.
9:13 am September 21st, 2052 from distweet
Ended up taking to M for hours and hours last night. We both admitted to a deep craving for pizza.
8:13 am September 18th, 2052 from distweet
Odd, how this place can feel so crowded and so alone, all at once.
7:04 am August 11th, 2052 from distweet
@the28thkarenbear Well, being the sweetest out of 6 doesn’t mean much.
6:54 pm March 13th, 2052 from distweet in reply to the28thkarenbear
@the28thkarenbear AWW. You are the sweetest person on the planet.
5:23 pm March 11th, 2052 from distweet in reply to the28thkarenbear
I probably could concoct some alcoholic thing from my plants, but probably not the best idea.
1:19 pm March 10th, 2052 from distweet
Still, if you’re reading this, please respond. Just so that I don’t feel so alone.
10:42 am March 8th, 2052 from distweet
Right. Keep forgetting that it now takes hours for my tweets to reach you and hours for you to respond.
10:42 am March 8th, 2052 from distweet
Is anybody reading this? Anybody?
7:18 pm March 7th, 2052 from distweet
I wish all of you could see this with me.
3:01 am February 26th, 2052 from distweet
Slightly upsetting to realize that a supernova is much brighter than Earth, but it’s so beautiful.
5:18 pm February 23rd, 2052 from distweet
We’re watching the Betelgeuse supernova too. It’s—I can’t tell you how spectacular it is from here. Only the sun is brighter.
5:16 pm February 23rd, 2052 from distweet
To make up for it, A had pictures of little red envelopes on our hand screens, that exploded into fireworks when we thumbed over them.
8:03 pm January 23rd, 2052 from distweet
A celebrated Chinese New Year today by opening every door on the ship. I think she just wanted to catch T naked.
8:02 pm January 23rd, 2052 from distweet
Sorry for the long silence. Just finding that I don’t have much to say. I’m caught in the silence of stars.
4:02 pm October 12th, 2051 from distweet
@frogheart29 My first niece! Congratulations! I wish I could hold her. Show her pictures of me for me, will ya?
7:43 pm May 17th, 2051 from distweet in reply to frogheart29
And when the plants are growing, they’re growing in weird directions.
12:49 pm May 5th, 2051
@loucheroo Oh, we’re fine for food even without the garden. I just miss biting into a real tomato, you know?
12:42 pm May 5th, 2051 from distweet
I think the plants know we’re leaving the sun.
10:31 am May 4th, 2051 from distweet
The garden isn’t producing as much as expected. We should have everything—real soil, water, fertilizer, robot pollinators—
10:31 am May 4th, 2051 from distweet
I keep finding myself looking out the portholes in the gardens and labs and in our living area, and wanting to sing to the stars.
6:02 pm April 23rd, 2051 from distweet
Trying to figure out how K passed the psych tests to get on here. I know, double PhD, quan comp/eng, 8 years Chinese Air Force. Still.
3:22 am March 27th, 2051 from distweet
Ok, our worst mistake? Letting R bring along his horror film collection. In space no one can hear you scream. Yeah, right.
4:06 am March 7th, 2051 from distweet
I say I keep everyone breathing.
10:13 pm February 26th, 2051 from distweet
T says he keeps everyone alive. Not that anyone’s needed a doctor yet, and we haven’t seen him do anything else except watch the stars.
10:12 pm February 26th, 2051 from distweet
A says she’s the only one with mission for the entire trip. The rest of us stop after we mine the iridium/lithium.
10:12 pm February 26th, 2051 from distweet
K and R say they are piloting the ship. Without them, no iridium/lithium.
10:11 pm February 26th, 2051 from distweet
Major fight broke out over who has the most important job on the ship. M says lithium entire point of trip.
10:11 pm February 26th, 2051 from distweet
Sigh. SOME people have no idea how to share living quarters. You’d think a doctor of all people would be less of a slob.
8:11 pm January 24th, 2051 from distweet
@frogheart29 Oh, it’s definitely NOT full gravity. Our legs will be so rubbery when we return. But it’s enough to keep the tanks going.
7:46 pm January 2nd, 2051 from distweet
@frogheart29 Heh, I haven’t worked out how the low grav works either—something about the way this ship spins.
2:41 am January 2nd, 2051 from distweet
Throwing tomatoes through low grav is awesome. Saying no more for now.
1:32 am January 1st, 2051 from distweet
Oh, and we have a picture of a Christmas tree up on the screen in the rec room. Vaguely depressing honestly.
11:09 am December 25th, 2050 from distweet
Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! Not much happening here although R put on some carols.
11:08 am December 25th, 2050 from distweet
The food garden’s a bit experimental, but the company’s worried about the long term effects of no fresh food for four years.
8:07 pm October 8th, 2050 from distweet
We have two spacegardens: the cyanobacteria tanks for recycling waste and producing oxygen, and a food garden.
8:06 pm October 8th, 2050 from distweet in reply to frogheart29
@frogheart29 It’s less a spaceship than a biome, really.
11:43 am October 7th, 2050 from distweet in reply to frogheart29
@loucheroo Oh, I’m sure they’re monitoring this. I’m not going to tell you EVERYTHING on this. Or in email.
10:15 am October 7th, 2050 from distweet in reply to loucheroo
@anaisis It’s supposed to increase social stability, but what I’m trying to tell them is, my plants won’t work that way.
10:13 am October 7th, 2050 from distweet in reply to anaisis
And leisuring—is that a word? with the person you work with, and then it switches and you’re with a new person.
7:06 pm October 6th, 2050 from distweet
So far so good, but, they’re also switching our schedules every two months. That way, every two months we’re working with someone else.
7:06 pm October 6th, 2050 from distweet
@the28thkarenbear Basically, they’re setting up three eight hour shifts, two people per shift. You work eight hours, have eight hours for leisure.
7:06 pm October 6th, 2050 from distweet in reply to the28thkarenbear
So every third shift, I’m going to be gardening in the dark. Why don’t they just switch the other shifts and not mine?
11:06 am October 5th, 2050 from distweet
The food gardens mimic seasons. But if I switch the lights around them to match my shifts, it will confuse the plants. They could die.
11:06 am October 5th, 2050 from distweet
The cyanobacteria tanks are set to maximum output: tropical conditions, with warm water, frequent ‘rain’ and twelve hours of light.
11:05 am October 5th, 2050 from distweet
They’re telling me I’m going to have to switch shifts too, which doesn’t work with the garden.
11:05 am October 5th, 2050 from distweet
Jus
t got the info about the shift schedules and ongoing changes. Not happy.
11:04 am October 5th, 2050 from distweet
It’s so hard to remember that I’m supposed to be working, not watching the stars. No one on the space stations ever mentioned this.
12:43 pm September 12th, 2050 from distweet
@piehole72 Well, if you’re lucky, you’ll find out. *waggle eyebrows*
11:58 pm July 16th, 2050 from distweet in reply to piehole72
@piehole72 Well, you know what they say about missing ex boyfriends out in outer space—actually, what do they say?
11:04 pm July 16th, 2050 from distweet in reply to piehole72
@piehole72 Heh. Let’s leave the orgy chat for later, k?
10:41 pm July 16th, 2050 from distweet in reply to piehole72
@loucheroo Hey, that’s why they’re paying us the big bucks.
9:41 pm July 16th, 2050 from distweet in reply to loucheroo
@piehole72 But you know, sleeping with coworkers and all that. So.
7:05 pm July 16th, 2050 from distweet in reply to piehole72
@piehole72 I should have guessed that the next thing you’d ask about is my sex life. Well. A couple of the others are hot…
7:04 pm July 16th, 2050 from distweet in reply to piehole72
@piehole72 Oh, just five others—the two pilots, the doctor, the two engineers. And me the plant goddess.
11:47 am July 16th, 2050 from distweet in reply to piehole72
@the28thkarenbear Heh, if we have a top secret mission, no one’s told me. No, I think it’s all on the level: lithium and iridium mining.
8:47 PM July 15th, 2050 from distweet in reply to the28thkarenbear
Won’t be able to tweet much, though—we’re limited to an average of one per day for financial reasons—costs too much from space.
8:30 PM July 15, 2050 from distweet
Just boarded. This is going to be an awesome trip. I feel it in my bones. I feel like singing to the stars.
3:43 PM July 15th, 2050 from distweet
So brave, so nervous. Both of them. Hand in hand, no gloves and no special suits. An unlocked hatch, a step outside. Truth: Earth survided.
—Jacques Barcia—
Seeds
Silvia Moreno-Garcia
AFTER THE OPEN reading period closed, and I had a good overview of all stories sent my way—both solicited and unsolicited—I saw both certain themes developing and the variety of settings, characters and ideas arising that I was hoping for.
One particular theme is the importance of sustainable farming, be it through soil (“The Earth of Yunhe”), developing better farming methods through online ideas exchange (“Russian Roulette 2020”), adapting consumer patterns to local circumstances (“Summer Ice”), improving local cuisine (“The Solnet Ascendancy,” even if that certainly, as with several of the other examples, wasn’t the main thrust of the story) and indeed the use of different ‘Seeds.’
Since the anthology has a tight focus, I aimed for maximum variety and diversity in locales, characters and writers, while at the same time trying to select (what I thought) were the best stories. The tightrope, I suppose, any well-intended editor tries to walk.
So while I (obviously) leave the question of quality up to the readers, critics and reviewers, I do think Shine scores well in terms of character and setting variety: both are literally from all over the globe. As to the writers, while the male/female spread is close to parity (9 man, 8 women), I wish I could have included more writers from different nationalities and races. Yes, Shine debuts a Brazilian native and features a Russian emigrant living in the UK, an Israeli (where he lives at any time is hard to keep up with), a Frenchwoman and Silvia here who is a Mexican emigrant living in Canada (and a Canadian expat living in South Korea who has an Indonesian girlfriend: not sure if that counts, though). Yet I would have liked even more diversity in authors, and will try to do better in a next project.
In the meantime, do enjoy this wry story where corporate goals clash with local needs leading to some unexpected developments...
TWO TEENAGERS BOLTED past him, running so fast James almost lost his balance and dropped his multi-text device, which would have been a major problem because he had no idea how to get back to the main road. The paths had twisted and turned a dozen times before he had finally parked his car close to the town square with its double arcades.
James glared at the teenagers but they kept running. He was sure they had bumped into him on purpose. They probably recognize the logo on his suitcase.
He didn’t get it. Just on Sunday he watched a group of UNAM students parading around the Angel of Independence, wearing black and white Zapata t-shirts and yelling “maiz y libertad.” Like a perfect seed and a perfect crop was somehow wrong and Germingen was the devil. It all sounded suspiciously anarchistic to him.
Fine, it was copyrighted technology and the seeds were sterile unless they were treated with Germingen’s very own Germingrow. If the user agreement was not followed exactly as intended, Germingen would trigger the Trojan Horse built into the genetic map of the seed, but so what? You got large, perfect crops in return. In the end, they were doing these people a favor.
James shook his head, straightened his clothes and kept on walking until he reached the fountain in the middle of the plaza. Without people wearing a geo-location unit, all he could do was squint and wait under the harsh sun for his contact to arrive, guessing, rather than knowing, if any of the townsfolk headed his way were Mr. Totol.
The wind blew a cloud of dust in James face and he sputtered and swore. His suit was nano-treated, but the dirt was probably pullulating with dog faeces and some nasty germs.
When the cloud dissipated a man wearing white linen pants, a matching shirt and hat approached him and extended his hand.
“I’m Alejandro Totol,” he said. “You’ve got to be from Germingen.”
James had all of his data on the multi-text but it was going to do no good if Mr. Totol did not carry his own multi-text. By the looks of it, all the farmer had with him was a crude knapsack. He would have to introduce himself the old-fashioned way.
“James Clark, Customer Satisfaction and Services Representative, Germingen, Mexico and Caribbean division. At Germingen we develop the most resistant, innovative crops to supply the farms of tomorrow—”
“That’s nice,” said Mr. Totol, interrupting James before he could finish his speech.
“Bigger, better, stronger crops make a bigger, better, stronger world,” James ran his thumb across his multi-text device. “It says here, Mr. Totol, that you are one of our silver maize seed users. Ten-year contract, eight percent copyright and user fee and insured GM seeds, right?”
“It’s not my contract.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s not my contract. The governor got the contract for the whole state and we have to use the seeds. Everyone in Oaxaca has to do it. They have this state levy on us for the stuff.”
“Yes, well, I’m talking about your individual sub-agreement, not the state interposed multi-lateral limited-license use agreement,” he said cheerfully.
And what an agreement it was. Oaxaca had been one of the states that had resisted the GMO seeds most vigorously—there had been some bullshit about local customs, as if a piece of dough was some sacred artefact—but in the end the governor had signed the contract quickly enough.
Mr. Totol shifted his feet and shrugged.
“Did you know domesticated corn originated in Mexico?”
James tapped his device twice and raised an eyebrow. “Mr. Totol, you placed a call two days ago.”
“We’re supposed to call you if something goes wrong. That’s what they said and we dialled the number.”
“Very well, and please explain what went wrong,” James said and he grabbed the stylo and flipped it between his fingers. The seeds were damn easy to grow, resistant to pesticides and insects. It wasn’t the seeds’ fault that some people were stupid. Germingen provid
ed training for the illiterate, low-tech customers teeming throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, but there were some glitches here and there and in Oaxaca, with its Nahuatl population clinging to their dialects, it was sometimes a damned nightmare.
Nevertheless, James had managed to go from step two to step five in less than three years and he was confident that he would reach step six at the end of December. He was aiming for a month-long session of gambling in Macau with the bonus that would net him.
“Well?” James asked.
Shine Page 19