Splice 9

Dear Science, you are a fad which has persisted much longer than I imagined… and now I discover the possibility that I too may have been a dabbler in your dark arts.  Earlier this evening I opened the mysterious satchel of notes I have had in my possession since that afternoon last autumn when I first awoke dishevelled and confused in the streets of New Babbage.  I continue to search it daily for clues that may help unlock my memory, or at the very least provide some hints with which I may infer some hope. Unfortunately most of the unorganized handwritten slips of paper remain meaningless to me covered, as they are, with strange symbols and sketches of an apparently botanical nature.  And perhaps most intriguing, among the hundreds of slips of paper, I have discovered a small felt pouch. The pouch contains seeds of some sort, resembling small dark kernels of corn.  I find as well a piece of paper folded around the seeds… and though brief and less cryptic than many of my other notes, it is no less perplexing.  It simply reads:                     

Splice 9 – Zea mays somniferum.  NOT FOR AGRICULTURAL RELEASE

Splice 9… how very curious.  The note hints of something ominous and yet, pausing to regard them in the flickering light of my lamp as I pen this journal… they look harmless enough.  Perhaps my imagination is too active tonight.  Splice 9 indeed.