"The Alien Gardener" is a short story by Canadian author Troy Young. It is the second story in book 2 of his Nyarlathotep Cycle.
Synopsis[]
The bulk of the story is framed as field agent Mindy Nguyen relating the story of her most impactful encounter with "The Other" - a name given by Harjit Singh to the forces of the Cthulhu Mythos - to rookie Malcolm Mayweather whilst on a lengthy car trip.
Nguyen is tasked with investigating a cluster of incredibly dense vegetation in the centre of an expanding zone of barrenness. At the epicentre she discovers a greenhouse full of alien vegetation, and is overcome by a cloud of spores from one particular plant. Whilst in her fugue, she views from the periphery a series of scenes from the past and future.
As Nguyen emerges from her state, she hears the voice of an alien being in her head, which explains that it was intending to strip the Earth clean of the parasitic humans which are in the process of destroying it, but it will re-evaluate it’s course of action in light of the decision of the Star Flower of Uldalthmoon to bestow its gift upon her.
As she departs the scene, the landscape is quickly beginning to revert to its natural state, but Nguyen is left with a lingering ability to sense the proximity of The Other.
The story concludes with an unrelated section involving events in one of the Department of Extraordinary Phenomena's facilities: one of the cultists captured gives birth to a rat-like abomination which is accidentally killed, and doctors discover that Adele Kramer- last seen in "It Ends Where It Began" - is in a state of mental overdrive, despite being non-responsive to physical stimuli.
Characters[]
- Mindy Nguyen, an experienced field agent with the Department of Extraordinary Phenomena.
- Harjit Singh, the director of the Department.
- Malcolm Mayweather, a rookie agent.
Publication History[]
"The Alien Gardener" was published in The Other: Encounters with the Cthulhu Mythos Book 2 in 2020.
Connections[]
- The nature of the incident is highly reminiscent of H. P. Lovecraft's short story "The Colour Out of Space", and the name of the disused farm at the story's epicentre, Pierce Family Farms, is a clear nod to Ammi Pierce, a primary character from that tale.
- Several of the visions which Nguyen is privy to are scenes from Lovecraft stories: a thief discovering a page of sheet music on the Rue d'Auseil ("The Music of Erich Zann"), an aquatic humanoid witnessing the destruction of an underwater city ("The Shadow Over Innsmouth"), a steam yacht ramming a colossal monstrosity risen from beneath the ocean ("The Call of Cthulhu"), a man assisting his friend in the hunt for the final resting place of one Joseph Curwen ("The Case of Charles Dexter Ward"), and a security guard's experience of a break-in at Miskatonic University ("The Dunwich Horror").
- The description of the rat-thing birthed by the cultist sounds very similar to that of Brown Jenkin, Keziah Mason's familiar from "The Dreams in the Witch-House").
| "The Rat King" • "The Alien Gardener" • "The Pyramid of the Black Pharaoh" • "The Druid of Castle Rock" • "The Viking's Doom" • "The Tattered Lady" • "The Thing in the Customs House" |