Grow Box

The Jordbani was a catastrophe. Alone it killed millions and devastated a major megalopolis - Jorathar City, and created the Miorskrípi. It spewed Magichem across the land, and those humans who consumed it, even in small quantities got Magichem Poisoning, and the only cure - a symbiotic worm the Stela Ond would eventually kill you anyway. Humanity began to die, and society began to collapse as people began to live shorter and shorter lives. Tiny children were left to die untended on the streets when their parent died. Social consciousness rose, and with the blessing of the church, and the social pattern proposed by the Structural Proposal for the Care and Civilization of Children society remade itself to adapt. For some lucky few, Solparents replaced parents, Villages arose to replace families, and tribes provided a general safety net. When Phillion’s Proclamation was finally made, the government of the House of Eryia dissolved, and if you were lucky, the Church of Sol replaced it. If not, there were always local gangs in the form of tribes ruled by ruthless warloards and dictators to take over with their endless turf wars. There seemed no end to the hopelessness, and some sought escape in the city of Egriss.

People just were dying to quickly, and contamination of the food supply was at the heart of it. Even the cleanest food - the most available Fjorgyn mushrooms weren't great, and they were completely useless if you had Fjorgyn Intolerance. If you were fyrir bjod and had money you could get that hopelessly expensive food provided by the farmers in Eldenbridge that had been winnowed according to the old ways, but even that had some contamination that would eventually kill you. There was no actual clean food. Not any more. It was only a matter of time before humanity was extinct, and the clock was ticking.

Brent

I couldn't believe it. My mind was numb as I remembered the last few days.

Priscilla was the one who got us all together. The small, mousey girl with the obtrusively oversized safety goggles had pulled me aside about a week ago and begged me to come along once she'd gotten more security and 'a smart friend' of hers to help her with a potentially huge haul. I'd accepted, of course- scroungers leap at any tips we get, and some of them even pan out. I do have to admit though, I'd have gone with her even if she didn't have a tip. Something about her smile and always-tussled hair kept me from saying no. At any rate, just a few hours ago we'd all gathered together. Her, the Tigress Danielle, her 'smart friend' the "Tinkerer" Flynn, and I. Priscilla guided us down eight stories into the basement, through two different structures, and I'm pretty sure past a boiler room, and into..... wherever the hell we were now.

I looked up and down the internal structure of the place. I'd heard stories about rooms like this, but I'd never seen one that wasn't already stripped. It had about a dozen of those individual desks and work-tables, each with a collection of metallic tools and a series of wires from below and a singular massive tube that opened into a vent above each work station. They all tied together at the center of the room and then above and out to push the bad air somewhere else. Those tools were good. The wire was too. The vents were worth a fortune. If I was careful, I'd be able to take the entire place apart piece by piece, and settle down early. Three years to dismantle it, Seven to retire - that puts me right at 30. Anyone who plans past 30 is living in a fantasy, especially this close to the Eye of the Monster.

That machine ..... that glowing round bastard had told us he'd made a box that we could grow food in. Clean food. That's what all the fyrir bjod were looking for more than anything, what they paid out the nose for.

Flynn

"What do you mean strange measuring system? It's metric. Standard mathematical units. What are you, some kind of barbarian?"

"There. I converted the measurements to english for you... ignoramus."

Well? Do you understand what you're looking at or do you need me to break it down for you or..."

Well, that isn't THAT much your fault, I guess. Some of them are rare and you're are pretty young so the fact that your vocabulary is inadequate is understandable. Which materials do you have questions about?

Pricilla

"If we get our hands on that grow box that obnoxious ball is talking about, we'll be rich," said Brent half lost in thought. "We can retire right now, and enjoy the whole next decade."

I like Brent. I mean he's cute and muscular and he'd do anything I asked him, but he's not really the brightest bulb in the box. That's Flynn.

"What? What's with that look?" he asked.

"You..... You don't understand," I said.

"Don't understand what?" he asked, still genuinely confused.

"The AI doesn't have the box, it has the plans to make the box."

"Ok. I mean that's why you brought Tinker over there along right? He can make us the box. We still get rich."

"Well, yes but..."

"but what?"

"If Flynn makes one box, he can probably make more boxes."

Brent whistled. "Great. We'll all retire then, the whole village, maybe even the whole tribe? We can live out our last decade in absolute style. Sounds like a sweet deal to me!"

Really? Couldn't he see the nose on the front of his face?

"Brent, if we can make enough boxes, everyone could have clean food," I told him.

"What?" he said blankly.

He watched my lips as I repeated it to him like the idiot he is. Maybe that's unfair. He might just be deaf. That does happen sometimes with Magichem Poisoning.

"I said, if we can make enough boxes everyone could have clean food. There would be no Magichem Poisoning. People could actually live to be 40 years old, possibly 50. You would know Letty as an adult, and maybe even see her children."

He stared at me stunned.

Brent

"Oh, stop acting like a child. It's not that difficult to get your hands on it. Just run the problem by the House. Show them the plans and they'll do all the legwork for you. They might even have some samples of the Sheathe on hand already, enough to get a prototype up and runni-"

The 'mind-in-a-jar' immediately shut up.

"There's no government anymore?" it asked.

"But this build requires an Earthen Sheathe," it slowly said, sounding as shocked as Flynn looked.