A Half-Built Garden

by Ruthanna Emrys

Cytosine squealed a hesitation. “Trade their francium for aluminum while it’s decaying? It doesn’t sound as good in English, does it?” “I can follow, I promise,” I said. “As for the corporations, eventually we didn’t allow it. People like my parents organized to stop them, and created the first watershed networks.” I didn’t look at St. Julien. “Everything from refusing to buy their ‘decaying francium,’ to setting limits on their carbon production to get warming under control, to blocking their shipping if they went over their carbon budgets. But they couldn’t bear the transformation, and eventually they barricaded themselves behind their own fencelines on a few artificial islands, scamming each other after no one else would fall for it.”