Metamorphosis Alpha to Omega: Part 8: Deck 7: Farm Deck

A swath of gently rolling farmland stretches out before those who venture onto this deck. Vivid red barns sturdily stand out from the vibrant green. Warm, simulated sunlight bathes the bucolic scene, punctuated at times by gentle showers. In the distant fields can be seen children playing on haywagons and bearded old farmers driving animal-drawn harvesters. Dusty roads link quaint farmhouses, with wagons, buggies, and barefoot farmfolk moving about.

Squat brick processing and distribution buildings sit unobtrusively at regular intervals on the roads. Laden wagons come to them to unload the produce that seems so readily grown on this deck. The only jarring sight are the ominous guard-bots that patrol the areas around these buildings. The farmers ignore them, treating them as just another part of the land. Intruders, though, will find themselves the focus of attention of these mechanical sentinels, their targeting beams and stern demands for unauthorized personnel to stand by and await questioning obvious warnings. The buildings are inviolable without the highest security clearance.

Deck 7 is Warden's breadbasket. As slow-moving as things seem here, there is an undercurrent of unceasing activity. Fertilizer and other nutrients are piped in, constantly enriching the soil via flexi-conduits beneath the soil. A rich microscopic ecosystem is maintained in that soil by GMOles and loamworms specifically engineered to keep the croplands fertile and the crops growing. And grow the crops do; the cutting edge of plant gene-splicing and DNA manipulation has brought about crops that go from germination to harvestable maturity in hours.

Mutant, intelligent plants who find themselves on this deck feel an immediate, unfocused sense of doom. The ecomaintenance system on this deck quickly and automatically assesses each plant it detects, and sets about bringing it into a state of harvestability. The longer a mutant plant remains here, the more likely it becomes that it finds itself genetically manipulated by nanites into a crop plant, non-sentient and irretrievably lost. Some few plants have been able to resist, most notably the mortomatoes, hiding amongst the crops and multiplying, becoming insane predators with a hatred for anything alive on this deck.

The farmfolk here, as inoffensive as they seem at first blush, have also been as affected by the chaos on Warden as any other group. The initial radiation disaster and the subsequent wars killed many, and the survivors became deeply distrustful of mutants of any kind. Even those mutations that manifest within their own ranks are subject to exile or, in some rare cases, death. The people here may seem laconic and slow to act, but they are constantly observing. Any evidence of mutations will be met with anitpathy at best, and open hostility at worst. But there is hope. There is rumored to be a mutant underground here, with the outcasts and exiles of the farmfolk setting up their own communities that look much the same as any others. Those with mutations that are not immediately obvious go to deal with the communities of the non-mutated, sometimes even living with them. There, they subtly attempt to change the hearts and minds away from xenophobia. Any such infiltrators face horrific punishment if found out.

Next: Part 9: Deck 6: Jungle Deck