The Power Seeds

By David. B. Reynolds-Moreton

The newly discovered seed pods seemed innocuous enough, but then some bright spark decided to open one and make a tincture from the seeds therein. He was not to know it would bring down most of their civilisation as they knew it to a state of slavery, fear, and misery.
Fortunately, there was one among them who really didn’t like it, and decided to do something to restore things as they were.
The main difficulty was overcoming the fear most were held in, and convincing them that change could be brought about. Persuading a subjugated populace that their beliefs were all smoke and mirrors, designed to keep them under control was no easy task - but it had to be done.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David. B. Reynolds-Moreton
• Release date: Oct 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301526529

David. B. Reynolds-Moreton

Retired Research & Development Engineer. Interests:- Physics, Electronics, Chemistry, Renewable Energy Systems. Also:- writing Sci-Fi and building an adult realtime 3D adventure computor game.

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The Power Seeds

By

David B. Reynolds-Moreton

SMASHWORDS EDITION

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PUBLISHED BY:

D.B.Reynolds-Moreton on Smashwords

The Power Seeds

Copyright © 2012 by D.B.Reynolds-Moreton

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

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Table of contents

Chapter 1 The Deadly Seeds

Chapter 2 Setting the Trap

Chapter 3 The Attack

Chapter 4 The New Quest

Chapter 5 Taking a Chance

Chapter 6 Civilisation!

Chapter 7 An Explanation

Other Books by the same Author

About the Author

SYNOPSIS

The newly discovered seed pods seemed innocuous enough, but then some bright spark decided to open one and make a tincture from the seeds therein. He was not to know it would bring down most of their civilisation as they knew it to a state of slavery, fear, and misery.

Fortunately, there was one among them who really didn’t like it, and decided to do something to restore things as they were.

The main difficulty was overcoming the fear most were held in, and convincing them that change could be brought about. Persuading a subjugated populace that their beliefs were all smoke and mirrors, designed to keep them under control was no easy task - but it had to be done.

THE POWER SEEDS

Chapter 1

The Deadly Seeds

Alto didn’t think of himself as a slave, but he was in all but name, as were all the other members of his clan.

Let’s put in a few facts about this strange planet. The equatorial belt was narrow, lush and green, providing ample food and materials for those who lived there. Either side of the belt, stretching north and south towards the poles, were the barren lands, mainly sand and rock, with the odd oasis cropping up wherever the subterranean water table reached the surface, which wasn’t often. The barren lands supported life of a sort, mainly a collection of bizarre creatures which had mutated and adapted to survive in the harsh surroundings.

In the equatorial belt were several cities, where life was good, or had been before the discovery of the seed pods, and then things went down hill as the drug took hold of people’s minds and distorted their view points. What had once been a well managed society with freedom and justice for all had deteriorated into a hierarchy of those who held power, and those who obeyed them. Mysticism had taken the place of common sense, and scientific progress had ground to a halt. A sort of priesthood had developed among those in power, which made little sense to the man in the street and not a lot more to the priests themselves.

Way up in the northern barren lands, Alto’s people lived in an oasis at the base of a huge mountain range, or so it appeared to them. In fact it wasn’t a mountain range, but the outer edge of a huge caldera, the remains of a once massive volcano long since extinct. The centre had collapsed forming a deep circular valley hidden from view, except for flying creatures.

Crime in the cities had been at a very low rate for as long as anyone could remember, but there are always a few who will try their luck, and they, upon conviction, were bundled off to an oasis settlement deep in the barren lands - supplied with the bare essentials for survival, and very little hope of finding their way back to civilisation.

Occasionally, a small group of adventurous souls would venture out into the barren lands out of curiosity - and the hope of finding something valuable; and one group found the circular mountain chain, with an old lava tube leading to the interior of the caldera. It wasn’t quite that easy - they lost three of their comrades on the way in, and another on the way out - but not knowing at the time, they had found something of great interest.

In the middle of the valley grew a small forest of unusual trees, and hanging down from their oddly twisted branches were long brown pods containing thousands of fine seeds. One of the group filled his carry bag full of the unusual pods, thinking he could probably trade the curiosities for a little extra cash.

On the way back to the city they lost another of their group. He had been striding out in front of the others, when the sand just opened up, and he disappeared from view. They probed the area with poles for some time, trying to find out what had happened to their comrade, but there was no trace of him. One of the team had his pole snatched from his grasp, almost pulling him in with it; at this point they gave up, muttered a few suitable words for their lost companion, and continued on their way home.

No one seemed interested in the strange pods, but the collector of the pods tried to grow some of the seeds, once he had managed to open the pod. He tried in normal soil, acid soil, alkaline medium and just plain sand - none of the seeds sprouted. The rest of the seeds were thrown out of the window - but he noticed the flying creatures seemed to like them. Within minutes of ingesting a few seeds he noticed they were behaving in a most unusual manner - almost as if they had imbibed the fermented juice of the Phalanix tree.

Realising the seeds must contain some sort of drug he tried boiling a few seeds in pure water and obtained a pale amber liquid, but with no noticeable odour or taste. Not daring to try a sip of the extract himself, he left the bottle of juice on a shelf, and forgot all about it.

A few days later an Elder, whom he didn’t like very much, paid him a visit over some trivial misdemeanour; and as was the custom, he prepared a glass of fruit juice for his unwelcome guest - and unable to resist the impulse, added a couple of drops of the amber fluid from the bottle on the shelf.

Within minutes the Elder’s face took on a dazed look, his eyes going out of focus and he began to mumble strange words. In a fit of panic, the young man forced a glass of water down the Elder’s throat, nearly causing him to choke.

When the Elder had recovered sufficiently he realised something had been added to the fruit juice, grabbed the glass, and left with a face like thunder. The following day, four Elders paid him a visit, and