Verita

by Tracy Rozzlynn

  “Tomorrow for dinner.” I take a long drink of water, attempting to cool my still flushed cheeks.

  “Well I’ll expect a full report tomorrow night then.” Andi laughs, shakes her head at me, and I know I’m forgiven. “It’s getting close to curfew. Where are you sleeping? I’m in Dorm E, room 502.” Andi suppresses a yawn. “How ‘bout you?”

  “Well, I guess we’re roommates again then. What are the odds?” I laugh. “You know those things are contagious,” I complain as I join her yawning.

  Chapter 5

  It feels strange waking up in the pods for the first time. I usually toss and turn in my sleep and wake up feeling tired. But today there is no noisy alarm clock blaring me awake, and no pile of blankets lying on my floor. Instead, I gently wake up on time. Slowly, I become more aware of my environment, until my eyes open, and I sit up, feeling completely awake and rested. As far as I can tell, I didn’t even dream – good: that means no nightmares either. These pods might not be so terrible after all.

  Out of habit, I start squinting and looking for where I’d left my glasses. Then I remember that they gave me Lasik surgery before I left. Laughing at my habit, I grab a towel and head for the showers. Then I let out a loud groan. Everyone woke up at the same time, and now there’s a mad dash to get to the showers. Most of the girls are probably anxious to have enough time to fix their hair and makeup. I’d already figured out yesterday that there are more pods than showers. So I sit back down on my pod, pull my legs up to cross them, and sit patiently until the first wave of showers finishes. Looking over, I see that Andi had decided to do the same.

  Andi is still amused by my bizarre behavior last night, and teases me while we wait. Seeing the look of embarrassment on my face only encourages her. But strangely, last night’s dance feels like a daydream. I can still remember his chiseled face and bodybuilder body, but my reaction to him no longer seems realistic. Not sure just what to say to Andi about it, I finally manage to change the topic to our new jobs. We are both anxious to get started.

  After a brief shower, we quickly get dressed. I don’t feel like fighting my way through the haze of hairspray to just find an available blow-dryer. Instead I go the simpler route and opt for a ponytail. After slapping on some lip-gloss, I’m good to go. Luckily, Andi had the foresight to attach a mirror to the inside door of her locker, so I don’t have to wait long for her. She runs some mousse through her spiky hair, quickly puts on her makeup, and she’s ready.

  In our anxiousness, we race through our breakfast and quickly head off to the lecture halls we were told to report to. Of course, all the hurrying simply means that we end up sitting and waiting in an empty lecture hall, while everybody else takes their time. But soon people start their slow trickle in, and before long the hall is full.

  Dr. Katelyn Brant enters the lecture hall and briskly explains that she is the field manager in charge of all the scientists. She is the first adult I’ve seen so far. She isn’t old, but is clearly in her thirties. It makes sense; cryogenic knowledge cannot replace actual experience. By the way she talks and carries herself, I get the impression she is a no-nonsense kind of woman. She gets straight to the point and expects others to do the same. I have an instant liking for her.

  Sure enough, she wastes no time with excess pleasantries and tells us that we will be working in teams of four. We will work together in the field and back in our assigned labs as a team. The rest of this week will be spent studying data on the planet compiled by the construction crew, and familiarizing ourselves with the handbook rules and procedures for our work. We’re each called forward and handed our lab assignments.

  I exit the hall and make my way towards the lab – my lab. I’m pleased to see that it is located close to the fence. I hope my workstation faces the fence as well – assuming, of course, that it’s near a window.

  I’m not disappointed. There are four computers, each facing the windows, each with its own set of blinds. I can enjoy my view without interference from my coworkers. I remember my dad complaining about coworkers fighting over stupid little things, like if the blinds should be open or closed. At least I wouldn’t have to deal with that argument. The random thought brings a stab of unexpected emotion. I drop the necklace I realize I’m grasping, shake my head, and try to refocus on the job at hand.

  The workstations are placed in the center of the room; four long black tables that reminded me of my old chemistry class. On the front wall there is a large whiteboard with erasable markers perched on its tiny shelf. Against the back wall and the wall behind me are several large cabinets containing equipment and supplies. The lab is obviously well stocked.

  I hear a throat clear and turn to see a round-faced girl with large brown eyes and long brown braids behind each ear. She flashes me a shy smile. Next to her stands a tall kid with a baby face and a cool smirk on his face. I smile, and we introduce ourselves. Molly will be our team’s geologist, and Jake will be the entomologist. That just leaves one more person. We already have rocks, bugs and animals, so most likely the remaining person will be a botanist. Molly and Jake claim the two computers on the left, so I start to get myself settled into the computer on the far right. We agree to use the worktables in the same order. I’ve just started to turn my computer on when I hear a voice, barely audible, behind me.

  “Of course,” he mutters, sounding slightly annoyed.

  I easily recognize the voice; I have met so few people here so far. I’m immediately annoyed by his tone, but choose not to respond. Instead, I continue busying myself, as if I’m unaware of his presence. I catch myself absentmindedly trying to push the nonexistent bridge of my glasses. They had a habit of sliding down my nose, and I’m still getting used to not wearing them. It’s kind of like that phantom limb effect – just minus actually suffering a physical loss.

  “I hope I won’t have to constantly remind you not to touch unknown plants.” He chuckles, amused by himself. I turn around and see that Ryan’s eyes are twinkling, as if he had just made the world’s funniest joke.

  “I certainly hope you won’t go around scaring my subjects away anymore,” I smirk back at him. It figures of all the possible botanists, I’d get him. I manage to keep my annoyance out of my tone. After all, we will have to work together, and truthfully I had overreacted – just a bit – the other day.

  “Truce?” he asks with one eyebrow raised and his head cocked to the side. He’s obviously attempting to be cute.

  “Fine, truce,” I reply, trying not to look too miffed. I bet he’s used to using his charming, good looks to endear him to anyone and bend them to his will, but I’m not so easily swayed. I learned my lesson with Brad.

  “Oh come on, don’t be that way.” He bumps his shoulder against mine and manages to make me smile.

  I roll my eyes. “Better get to work,” I say, then refocus my attention on my computer to make it obvious that play time is over.

  I’m disappointed by the lack of information gathered during the construction phase. It’s clear the construction workers were only concerned about what they were building. I look around the room. I guess I can’t fault them for that; it’s better to have less wildlife information but a roof that won’t fall in on my head. I was just so hoping to have more information to work with this first week.

  I stay behind while everyone goes to lunch. I want to take advantage of the time to look at the hairs I collected more closely.

  Under the microscope, they resemble human hair follicles. They’re mostly white, with small deposits of purple at the end. I’m tempted to start a DNA analysis on the hair, but before I can Ryan returns to the room.

  “Forgot my handbook. Are you planning to eat?” he asks curiously.

  “I’m just familiarizing myself with the lab.” I try to sound nonchalant, but the frustration I’m feeling because he came back bleeds through.

  “Don’t forget to pace yourself. You don’t want to get burned out in the first week.” He gives a feigned look of concern. I roll my
eyes. Is he seriously trying to lecture me again?

  “Are you intentionally irritating me, or is it just your personality?” I grumble back.

  “Are you always so touchy when people are concerned for your well-being, or is it just me?” He has a crooked smile on his face, being cute again.

  “Must be just you.” I smile back at him. At least he won’t be a boring teammate. I just wish he didn’t bug me so easily.

  “Well my personality aside, do you want to have lunch?”

  “Fine.” I sound overly exasperated as I give in. My test will have to wait. “I need to eat anyway,” I admit.

  “It’s a date then.” He jokingly holds out his arm for me. Feeling silly, I start to blush. I give a hip bump to move him out of the way, and continue towards the door, making sure he doesn’t get a good look at my red cheeks and misinterpret them.

  “Don’t push your luck,” I warn him, and remind myself that I really don’t need any distractions at work.

  Ryan isn’t bad company for lunch. We use the time to get to know each other. He, like Andi and I, had ended up here after foster care. He’d recently lost his family because of a car accident. I don’t feel like getting into my own details, and thankfully he doesn’t ask for them. Instead, we focus on other things, like what it was like where we grew up, what sports we play, hobbies and whatnot.

  “I hope we get to go into the field soon,” I state in an attempt to fill an uncomfortable pause in the conversation.

  “Yeah, me too. I can’t wait to see what’s out there. Maybe you’ll see your creature again,” he offers.

  “I hope so. All I’ve seen so far are its eyes, violet eyes.” I try to imagine what creature belongs to those intriguing eyes. Whatever it is, I know it’s a gentle creature. It had curious, gentle eyes. When it looked at me, I saw no malice.

  “Cool, nothing back at home had violet eyes. Looking around the perimeter, everything looks both strange and familiar.” I look back up. His comment had distracted my daydream.

  “Well, this planet may put Darwin’s theory of evolution into perspective. We may be looking at how our planet could have developed if the environment was slightly different.” I start to ponder what kind of Earth animal my purple-eyed creature may be like.

  “Possibly. There’s only one way to find out.”

  “Yeah, but first they need to let us into the field.” I sigh.

  “Speaking of, we should get back to the lab; if we don’t finish our first assignment we’ll never get outside.” He stands up and grabs his tray. I grab mine, and we head out.

  We spend the rest of the day reviewing the handbook and the policies and procedures. The rest of the week is going to drag by if we aren’t given something else to do. I’m relieved when it’s finally time to leave: the handbook truly is dry reading, and I’m getting tired of all the rules.

  Andi is gracious enough to meet me in front of dining hall B without me even having to ask. It’s funny: all the years I spent with Jenna as a friend, it always felt like I owed her. If she let me borrow a shirt, I was expected to let her wear my brand new boots, and not complain when they came back scuffed up. If she drove to the movies (I didn’t have a car yet), I was expected to wait in the food court line to get everyone drinks and popcorn. And I could always count on Jenna pointing out what restitution was expected if I didn’t figure it out on my own; “Brett, I saved you a seat at lunch. The least you could do is get my salad at the same time as yours.”

  I cringe at the memory of her overly sweet, buttery voice. It had taken me several hundred years and another planet before I had enough distance to see just what a terrible friend she really was.

  But now here’s Andi, giving her support with nothing expected in return except continued friendship. I wonder if she knows just how afraid I am that Brody won’t show; that it was all a big joke.

  “So, how was your day?” Andi asks with her usual bouncy voice.

  “Not bad, I got my research team and my lab today. Besides that, we mostly read up on the rules, because there wasn’t that much data collected during construction for us to study. You?” I leave out the part about getting the very same botanist who tried to scold me.

  “Mostly the same. We have work teams, but I think there will be a lot of working independently. We’ll have our main project and independent projects to work on. Oh, and Jeremy’s on my team. We mostly read up on rules today too, but I want to get started inventing. I have so many ideas already. Plus, who knows what the scientific teams will bring back for us? We just may get some brand new materials to work with.” She leans forward, grabs my hands: I had been knotting and unknotting them without realizing. I drop them to my side and smile apologetically.

  “Do you have a particular material in mind? I can keep an eye out for it.” My foot now starts tapping as an outlet for my nervous energy. Andi gives my foot an annoyed look, but then decides to ignore it.

  “No. You never know what might be of use. A plant may have a special energy quality, or a new metal could be easier to work with but stronger than others. It’s all so exciting.” At this point, Andi is physically bouncing along with her voice. I can’t help but think of a child on Christmas Eve. Her excitement over her work isn’t helping my nervousness any. She notices. “Jeez, Brett! You need to relax. He’ll be here, and you’ll both have a great time.” She grabs my hand, which had started twirling my ponytail, and gives it a reassuring squeeze.

  Jeremy and the rest of Andi’s group from last night walk over, saving me from further chiding.

  “Why are we all standing around outside? I’m hungry; let’s eat,” Troy demands as he rubs his stomach in an exaggerated motion.

  “Fine. I was just waiting for everyone to get here,” Andi smoothly covers for me. Troy’s stomach responds with an impatient growl. “Did you skip lunch or something?” Andi stares at him with what is supposed to be a disproving look, but she can’t maintain it and her grin breaks through.

  “Guilty as charged.” Troy holds up his hands in surrender. “There’s just so much to do in the bio-domes that I lost track of time again.”

  “Sure, rub it in for the rest of us that you have something to do already,” I tease.

  “Not my fault. Don’t blame me.” He honestly looks remorseful. Dropping his head down to his chest, he gives me a clear view of his freckled nose and blushing cheeks. He’s more sensitive than I realized.

  Feeling guilty that my lighthearted teasing hurt his feelings, I quickly say, “Hey, I’m just kidding. You’re putting the food on our tables; I would be upset if you weren’t working.” I give him my biggest grin to show him that I genuinely mean it. “Hey, maybe later this week you can give my team a tour of the bio-domes.” His eyes light up as soon as I mention a tour and I know I’ve said the right thing.

  “Yeah, that would be great. How about after lunch tomorrow? You can meet me at the east gate.”

  I give myself a mental pat on the back. “I’ll have to run it by my team first. How about after lunch the next day?”

  “Cool, I’ll see you then.” Then he gestures to the group: “Come on. Let’s eat.” He starts to walk towards the dining hall entrance, but turns back when he notices I’m not following.

  Answering his quizzical look, I explain, “I’m waiting for someone; I’ll catch you guys later.” I blush, convinced that everyone just knows the ‘someone’ is a guy.

  “Well, have fun. We’ll see you later.” Andi turns and leads the group inside, bouncing all the way. She’d be annoying as hell if her energy wasn’t so contagious and refreshing.

  I turn and start walking back and forth. Okay, so I’m actually pacing, but my watch says it’s 6:01. He’s officially late. Now that there’s no one to talk to, my mind is free to worry again. It had all been a joke; he’s now hiding with his buddies, having a good laugh at my expense. I feel like such a fool. He isn’t even my type. But there’s no denying it: something about him turned me into a love-struck fool last night. Or had it? May
be I was just feeling the after effects of cryogenic sleep and a botched re-awakening.

  “There you are.”

  I spin around at the resonant sound of his voice.

  “Hi,” I manage to say as he steps forward and gives me a one-armed hug. He lingers just long enough for me to breathe in his musky aroma. Nope, it wasn’t cryogenic sleep.

  “Ready for dinner?” He looks at me with an amused smile and offers his arm to lead me.

  I smile back. “Yeah, let’s eat.”

  They must be serving Italian tonight, because the entire dining hall has the fragrant aroma of roasted garlic. Usually this would have my mouth watering, but my stomach just gives a nervous flop. So I settle on getting myself a salad.

  “I hope that’s not what you consider a meal. That’s not even enough for an appetizer.” He looks at my tray with apprehension.

  I look over at his tray. He has enough to feed two people, easily. Apparently he has no issues with butterflies. “I had a big lunch, so I’m not that hungry,” I lie.

  “Humph. If you say so.” He shrugs.

  We sit down at a table for two in a secluded corner. It doesn’t take me long to find out about Brody. In fact, he rather likes talking about himself. I find out that he’s two years older than me and from Texas. He arrived here a year ago as protection for the construction crew. During school he was the center and co-captain of the football team – the Soaring Eagles. Once he graduated, he immediately signed up for the Army.

  “I wasn’t about to be one of those college geeks, so naturally the Army was the choice for me. The Army must have thought the same thing. I was barely in boot camp for two weeks when they pulled me aside and said they had a special assignment for me. Now, here I am, protecting all of you.” He smiles, pleased with himself – and presumably thinking that I should be pleased too. He shovels down some more food while I pick at my salad. I feel unsettled by the level of government involvement he inadvertently implied.

  “Wasn’t it hard to leave all of your friends and family behind?” I ask as he picks up my hand and begins stroking my wrist.