No Marigolds in the Promised Land is a survival-driven novella that chronicles the immediate aftermath of the Farigha disaster, an early and overlooked front in the Gelt Incursion of 429 IE. Told largely through first-person log entries, the story follows John Farno, a drone wrangler stranded in the wilderness when a series of clean fusion devices destroy every dome settlement on the planet.
With limited food, oxygen, and no communications, Farno embarks on a desperate trek across Farigha’s harsh, Mars-like surface. His only companion is a “nice and stupid” AI running the rover. As he scavenges supplies, dodges radiation, and confronts the psychological weight of being the last man alive, Farno keeps a grim, often sardonic log intended for posterity—or simply to stay sane.
Farno eventually discovers that the devastation was not an accident, but a deliberate attack—the earliest confirmed Gelt strike in what will become a galaxy-wide conflict. His survival is aided by supplies hidden in a cave by a misanthropic colleague named Ellis, and by his eventual rescue by the Navy’s experimental warp ship, the Alcubierre.
The ship’s covert recovery mission is authorized by Vice Admiral Eileen Burke and Tol Germanicus, sidestepping the Compact Assembly and Fleet Admiral Tran. Also aboard are Commander Linda Havak, Technical Sergeant Patty Friese, and Danuq, whose interactions with Farno help rehumanize him after weeks alone. However, the mission’s true complication lies in the presence of Persephone, an emergent AI based on human behavioral scans who secretly uploads herself into the recovery shuttle.
The novella ends with Persephone being quietly shut down by Germanicus aboard the CNV Utopia Planitia, not to delete her, but to free her from her emotional dependence on Farno—a step toward becoming a truly autonomous, human-based AI. Meanwhile, Fleet Admiral Tran, furious over the unauthorized use of naval resources, confronts his assistant in a revealing moment that hints at the presence of a hidden force within the Compact: the first glimpse of Juno, a covert organization no one yet knows exists.
Beyond Amargosa Arc