1269_UgliesFreeBook

182 Scott Westerfeld
choke trees and grass, and nothing eats them except one
species of hummingbird, which feeds on their nectar. But
the hummingbirds nest in trees.”
“There aren’t any trees down there,” Tally said. “Just the
orchids.”
“Exactly. That’s what monoculture means: Everything
the same. After enough orchids build up in an area, there
aren’t enough hummingbirds to pollinate them. You know,
to spread the seeds.”
“Yeah,” Tally said. “I know about the birds and the bees.”
“Sure you do, kid. So the orchids eventually die out,
victims of their own success, leaving a wasteland behind.
Biological zero. We rangers try to keep them from spreading.
We’ve tried poison, engineered diseases, predators to
target the hummingbirds . . . but fire is the only thing that
really works.” He turned the orchid over in his hand and
held up a firestarter, letting the flame lick into its mouth.
“Have to be careful, you know?”
Tally noticed the other rangers were cleaning their
boots and uniforms, searching for any trace of the flowers
among the mud and foam. She looked down at the endless
white. “And you’ve been doing this for . . .”
“Almost three hundred years. The Rusties started the
job, after they figured out what they’d done. But we’ll never
win. All we can hope to do is contain the weed.”
Tally sat back, shaking her head, coughing once more.
The flowers were so beautiful, so delicate and unthreaten-