QSFer Lauren C. Teffeau has a new FF CliFi book out: Accelerated Growth Environment.
Dr. Jorna Benton is proud to be the Principal Scientist for the Climasphere, a massive, sea-going ecological nursery capable of supporting nearly every biome on Earth. On its inaugural mission to restore and re-wild collapsing ecosystems along the Atlantic coast, Jorna manages the Climasphere’s habitat and harvest, while her colleague—and inconveniently attractive commander—Ava Kaysar directs the rest of the vessel’s critical operations.
When an explosion rocks the Climasphere, Jorna’s carefully-managed world is thrown into chaos, threatening both her personal and her professional future. And worse: she’s the prime suspect.
To clear her name, save the mission, and preserve her chance at a future with Kaysar, Jorna must finally confront the secret she’s been running from all these years: a family and a faith that could destroy her.
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Excerpt
The pollinator drone needed to be put out of its misery.
Horrid squeals from the rotors accompanied the erratic contortions of the tendril-like injectors as it flopped about on the ground like a beached squid. It had already kicked up enough dirt to cover the fronds of the nearby century plants in a fine powder.
Dr. Jorna Benton fiddled with the helmet of her biosuit to block out the drone’s mechanical howls. “Better get Meigs over here,” she told the genderless, child-sized automaton at her side.
Dust dulled the Savvy-3000’s matte silver casing. Its illuminated eyes flashed when it finished its task. “Chief Engineer Samantha Meigs is on her way, Dr. Benton.”
“Thanks, Savvy.”
Jorna settled in to wait on a boulder overlooking long rows of yucca, lavender, and flowering cacti, still unused to having the habitat all to herself for a change. If she closed her eyes and pulled the scent of piñon pine and sage her suit couldn’t filter out deep into her lungs, she could imagine she was back in southern Colorado.
But the similarities ended as soon as she looked out across the desert tier. The Climasphere was a remarkable, human-made ecosystem, capturing nearly every natural region on Earth within its walls as it traversed the Atlantic. Dozens of different biomes crawled up the sides of the circular habitat like super-sized stadium bleachers oriented around a pitch. Except in this case, the pitch was actually a small stretch of ocean.
With the spangled sunlight filtering through the solar mesh of the dome that encased the habitat, Jorna could almost forget about the sheer artificiality of it all, it was so beautiful.
A metallic glint caught her eye near the hangar, carved right into the sides of Tiers 2 and 3. That would be Meigs on one of the air skiffs.
Jorna sighed. This was taking a lot longer than she expected, and Meigs was still about ten minutes out. Jorna’s assistant had already gone into standby[RO2.1] mode, but the automaton flashed to life when she addressed it. “Savvy, visual of Tier 7, Quadrant 3, please.” Might as well stay busy while they waited.
“Incoming, Dr. Benton.”
On Jorna’s touchscreen, an overhead view of this portion of the high desert tier appeared thanks to one of the monitoring drones buzzing around. Species names overlaid the different plots as Jorna scrolled across the camera feed, but she didn’t need the prompts at this point. “Looks like two rows of desert willows are struggling after being transplanted from the Tree Farm. Send out a diagnostic request for specimens starting with number HD-144 through HD-172 to see why they’re showing signs of stress.”
“Acknowledged, Dr. Benton.” Savvy was a lifesaver, maintaining a log of all Jorna’s decisions needed[RO3.1] to keep such an incredible cross-section of plants thriving.
“We’ll need to plant replacement specimens from the Tree Farm for the ones that can’t be salvaged, pulling more seeds from the vault as necessary.”
“Acknowledged.”
Some die-off was to be expected after the Climasphere’s first harvest, but rewilding a significant portion of Earth was a huge, multi-year commitment. She didn’t want to burn through their reserves too early. At the moment, they were still well within tolerances, but it was something to monitor going forward. Nothing could go wrong on her watch.
And nothing would—the same pledge she’d made to the selection committee well over a year ago now. She’d make sure of it.
The hum of the skiff’s repulsor lifts heralded the arrival of the chief engineer. Just in time too. Jorna’s shoulders were already locked with tension from cycling through different contingencies, all of them ranging from less than ideal to catastrophically bad.
Jorna waved as Meigs maneuvered the air skiff over to where Jorna waited. “Came across it on my rounds this morning,” she called out as the engineer hopped off the skiff. “It’s not responding to network commands.”
Meigs frowned down at the malfunctioning drone. Underneath her helmet, her gray-blond hair was shoved back from her pale face in a fraying braid, and grease streaked the front of her suit. “Good thing we aren’t any higher,” she said with a critical look around the tier.
She was right. Any farther up the inner wall of the Climasphere, they’d need to deploy extra scrubbers to clean the particulates the drone sent flying before they fouled the habitat’s delicate ecosystem. They’d already found out the hard way how pollen from the taiga evergreens growing on Tier 8 could form a concrete-like film on the inner dome thanks to the air circulators, gumming up the place for days.
“We lucked out for once,” Jorna said.
Meigs snorted. “Always something, isn’t there.” She shrugged off her pack and rifled[RO4.1] through her collection of magnadrivers, pliers, spanners, and random electrical components until her gloved hands closed over a remote restrainer. With the click of a button, she signaled the drone to power down, finally putting an end to its death squeals. “We could’ve brought actual pollinators along, but no. We’re stuck with these robot monstrosities.”
“I’ve always thought they’re kinda cool, the way they dart through the air like some kind of jellyfish, casting down their tentacles to pollinate the plants,” Jorna offered.
Meigs grunted as she popped off the panel protecting the drone’s CPU and attached a diagnostic lead. “Just some freaking bees, Jorna. That’s all I’m asking for.” She pulled up the troubleshooting menu on her touchscreen.
“What you’re asking for is even more chaos in our closed little system. You can jerry-rig just about anything, but even you couldn’t ensure a swarm wouldn’t find its way into the air ducts, or worse. Drones are far more predictable—and accurate—compared to the real thing.”
“Sure. If they’re working properly.”
“Then it’s a good thing I have you.”
Author Bio
Lauren C. Teffeau’s work examines environmental issues and the role of technology in our lives through fantastical adventures and immersive worlds. Her books include the eco-thriller Accelerated Growth Environment (Shiraki Press, 2026), the environmental fantasy A Hunger with No Name (University of Tampa Press, 2024), which is a semi-finalist in the Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship for 2026, and the cyberpunk/solarpunk adventure Implanted (Angry Robot, 2018), which was a finalist for the 2019 Compton Crook Award for best first SF/F/H novel and named a definitive work of climate fiction by Grist. Over twenty of her short stories have appeared in venues like Sunday Morning Transport, DreamForge Magazine, After Dinner Conversation, and the Stoker Award-nominated Chromophobia: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women in Horror.
| Author Website | https://www.laurencteffeau.com |
|---|---|
| Author Bluesky | https://bsky.app/profile/teffeau.bsky.social |
| Author Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/lteffeau/ |