• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“It’s not unprecedented,” the xenobotanist said. “Have you ever heard of the ironwithe plants of Bogden?”

“No.”

“Quite fascinating. Nearly as hard as durasteel, and very popular as an export for rooftop gardens on Coruscant and other Core worlds. Its shoots are the major part of the giant renda bear’s diet, and—”

“Fascinating. Is there a point?”

“Sorry. Well, every few decades there’s a planetwide die-off of ironwithe. No one’s sure why. It’s like there’s some sort of plant telepathy that triggers a near-extinction event. The really amazing thing is that it even affects the ironwithe growth parsecs away, on other worlds. The theory is that there’s some kind of quantum entanglement reaction in the DNA that—”

“Just tell me exactly what it means regarding the bota,” Kaird said, resisting the urge to strangle the man.

“The plant life here is constantly mutating, and that includes bota. There is a new mutation, and from all appearances, it’s planetwide. We don’t know why; it could have been triggered by anything. The change seems to be altering the bota’s adaptogenic properties.”

“Which means …?”

“If it continues in this direction—and there seems to be no reason why it won’t—within another generation, bota will be, for all intents and purposes, inert. Useless.”

Silently, inside his mask, Kaird cursed. How was he supposed to explain this to his vigo? It was not his fault, he could hardly control what had happened, but vigos had been known to blast messengers bearing bad news before.

“Who else knows of this?”

“Well, except for you and me, nobody yet. I haven’t made my report to the military. I thought you would want to know first.”

“Good. Can you delay this report?”

“Not for long. Botanical stations around the continent run periodic tests. These reports are funneled through my office, and I might be able to sit on them for a week or two, but no more. A few weak batches are not unusual, but something like this will get out.” The human shrugged. “People talk.”

For a moment, Kaird considered killing the botanist. It seemed the easiest way to keep this under wraps as long as possible. But—no. Killing him would only guarantee that he would be replaced, and the replacement might not be as venal. Better to have the man in charge working for him. Knowledge was, as always, power. Much could be accomplished in a short time with millions, maybe even billions, of credits at stake.

“All right,” Kaird said. “There will be a large bonus for you. Keep this information quiet as long as you can.”

The human fidgeted nervously. “They’ll fire me if they find out.”

“I’ll get you a better job, making three times as much.”

The botanist stared at him.

“Trust me. I have many useful contacts.” Kaird pulled a credit cube from his pouch and tossed it to the man. The botanist triggered it. The amount appeared as a red number in the air in front of him. It was equal to his salary for two years.

“Whoa!”

“That, and that much more if you keep the lid on this for two weeks.”

The man nodded. Greed shone from his face. “All right.”

The man left, and Kaird lost no time in vacating the close, ill-smelling building as well.

As he tromped through the mud back to his quarters— too bad the lovely weather of the past couple of weeks had vanished with the dome’s repair—Kaird thought about the situation. Bota had always been fragile, of course, and it wasn’t surprising that the past few weeks of severe local climate change had resulted in a loss of the nearby crop. They’d planned on compensating for this by increasing production from the other fields. Much of the harvest on the Tanlassa continent was shipped through Rimsoo Seven, and with Thula and Squa Tront doctoring the manifests, Black Sun’s take would not have been affected much. This could still be accomplished to a degree, and it might help keep the problem quiet for a few extra days.

But that was merely a stopgap solution. The only way to salvage this situation was to get as much of the bota encased in carbonite as quickly as possible, and on its way to Black Sun. If the plant