For Darkness Shows the Stars

“You sound like we did when we were children.”

“When we were children,” Kai said, “we were right.”

What was the harm, the Lost used to say, in creating a wheat strain with a shorter growing time, one that would produce more grain per stalk? From there, things became slippery. What was the harm in devising a plant with such a complete array of nutrients that it would render growing anything else for food pointless? What about a plant that could subtly poison the ground so as to make it only capable of providing sustenance for that kind of plant?