The Gardener of Slow Light
sci-fiEveryoneMira pressed her hand to the cold greenhouse glass and watched her breath fog it up. Outside, the station turned slowly around Veil, a dying red star whose weak light always arrived late and faint. But her bean vines weren't reaching for that tired star. Every leaf and curling tendril had turned the other way, toward the empty dark. Mira frowned. Plants follow light. So what light were they following?
Mira decided the plants must be sick or confused, nothing more. She turned to fix them, to twist the vines back toward Veil's red glow. But the moment her fingers touched a leaf, the whole vine pulled away from her hand, leaning harder into the dark. Mira jerked back. Plants don't move like that. Not on their own.
What happens next?
2 ways forwardMira backed away and watched, holding very still. Slowly, every vine in the greenhouse stretched the same direction, like a crowd turning to look at a door. At the far end of the room, a thin beam of pale light was leaking in through a vent that should have been sealed. The plants weren't sick. They were pointing at the way out.