Pyrospheroid

Philip worked at the Evron Labs. He liked his work. At present, 450,000 m above the Earth, he was studying fires. Fires that raged in many parts of the planet. Recently, a few newsless journalists had accused him of collecting military information with the surveillance systems at his disposal, on the space station. Nothing more exciting, than that, had happened to him in the last two weeks; at the beginning of which, he had taken the Hypershuttle to the station. In another few days, he would be back again on Earth and with his family.

Standing in the observation room he felt strange. Suddenly scared. A sensation of hanging upside down gripped him as the massive planetary volumes filled the window. He instructed the Computer to shut down induced-gee. Ah! that felt better! A beep told him the latest data was computed. The results - the final few for his project - were, if anything, simply startling. According to the simulated output on the screen the fires, quite suddenly, were burning 26% lower than the projected levels. Especially, the forest fires.

Fifty years behind him in time and in the space of the African jungles, the members of the salvage team, along with a few porters had been doing some serious walking, for quite a while. The GPS showed that they were only a few meters away from their goal. Musty smoke was thick in the air. And there in front of them lay the object they were after - a meteorite from deep space. Dr. Abadau of the salvage team, with much expertise, put the 0.67m long meteorite into an inert container. The heat was immense. The impact had left the ground pulverised all around and had created a glen in the dense forests of the Okavango. The meteorite was thus collected and, as is the case with most, found its way to a laboratory for further analysis. This revealed that it contained an extraordinary amount of carbon, with traces of sulphur and nitrogen too, in its core. This of course led to a great uproar in the scientific community, with many fantastic claims, studies, conclusions and counter-conclusions.

About forty nine years in the future, Philip Mason, in the Evron Labs breathed highly purified air, a large percentage of which was recycled. He was among the ‘lucky ones’ who were on the better side of the economic divide. Today the world was rapidly transforming into a hellish place. The work of decades of conservation had come to naught. What with weather condition going haywire, obliterating the habitats of many of organisms. And the fact that man had continued, in a mad manner, to clear jungles resulting in the extinction rates simply squashing the ability of nature to regenerate. In short; man was the name; and suicide his game.

But what Philip had discovered was something so drastically different, that the calculations and data were recalculated at least a dozen times before scientists announced to the world that suddenly, out of nowhere, there was great hope. If the present trend of regeneration continued, within a mere hundred years or so, the forest cover on Earth would reach pre-industrial revolution levels. But all this seemed too incredible to be true, as the primary factor of degeneration - human activity was almost nil. While physicists claimed that global warming was the cause, only the psychologists thought-felt that this was only because humanity was finally reaching a level of ultimate understanding where people were ready to view things beyond their present needs and mind sets. And that this was only a result of the evolutionary process. Many other people, of course, still had their?doubts.

Another link was complete. The only remaining landmasses which were not in a state of connectivity were those in the Far East, in the vast expanses of the Pacific. The trees and the various multi-cellular subjects of the plant kingdom were now together, more than ever before. They all knew her it as simply 'First'. She-it was the first in whom the change had occurred. And now the Web was I spreading wide over the whole of the earth. Human understanding and language could best describe it as a 'telepathic link-up of the multi-cellular components of the plant kingdom.’

From the earliest days of geological time, plants the producers supported all life on earth. Life which had evolved into man. And man, it seemed, was intent on killing all life.

Plants were always thought to have been on the lowest rung of the ladder of consciousness. Though later these perceptions were shown to be incorrect, when it was proved that plants 'felt' the same 'feelings' as humans. And so when humans came with their saws, axes, fires and greed to murder, the trees used to cry out, trying in vain to stop them in their steps.

But this would no longer continue. The Web was now fully complete. The link-up that the humans called the Net, was at best, pathetic in comparison. Now no hand or muscle could move against the forests, those who came to kill, simply turned back. The plants were now entities in the range of human thought and though they could not directly control human actions, they were almost involuntarily stopping all thought and action against them. 'First' was the hub around whom the web was spun. All flora was now one. One in the truest sense.

Organic evolution had done much work, but suddenly there had been a rapid boost when the heavens gave the forests in Africa: the Awakener. And First was born when she-it breathed in the thick smoke of the meteorite. It was the Awakener who-which broke the almost eternal peace which the trees had held for aeons. The Awakener, a force from beyond all known dimensions came and shattered their innocence and gave them The Anger. Gave them, the Trees, Revenge.

At present the Earth System was being kept alive by providing for necessary plant 'murders'. But as revenge grew in the web. It was felt that humanity must pay and learn where it stood. If at least for a short while. The possibilities were now infinite.

YES, thought, shouted and screamed the web, REVENGE. Yes, and revenge was going to be sweet; only, not merely as sweet as sugar, but as cellulose and beyond.

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