“Maybe they can eat the vines.”
Brun shook his head. “Toxic sap. Wear thick gloves and disinfect when you’re through. Make certain every bit of leaf or stem stays outside. These things sprout from even the smallest fragment. I don’t want them inside the greenhouses.”
I nodded and went to work.
The bushes outside the vents on the top two greenhouses were as bad as Brun said. Vicious insects the size of my thumb boiled out of the growth as soon as I fired up the laser cutter. Between them and the thorns on the bushes, I was very glad the suit was reinforced carbonite fabric. It was hot and the bottled air tasted stale, but I wasn’t stung or scratched. I burned the bushes to the ground and spent a while zapping stray ants. Most of them scrambled into the surrounding forest, forming long snaking lines of bright red bodies and multiple legs flickering in the sunlight.
I smashed my way along a faint trail outside to get to the lower greenhouses. The forest ended abruptly just above the garden greenhouse. Bare earth showed in a ragged strip about five feet wide. The jungle began on the other side. It was like a neutral zone between two warring nations. I shrugged away my uneasiness over the strange situation, then checked the oxygen level of my tank. They were just plants.
The flickering force blade on the pruners made short work of the twisted growth of vines. I cut them back an extra twelve feet. I didn’t want to have to suit up and prune every day if I could avoid it. The plants didn’t attack me with insects like the bushes, but they left wide smears of sticky green sap across my suit. I swiped a glove over the mess. I’d have to scrub the suit before storing it. More tedious work I didn’t want to do.
I walked down the faint trail to the lowest greenhouse, crushing plants underfoot as I went. The vents of the building were surprisingly clear despite only one set of filters on the fans. The yellow dust clung to the blades, but not as thickly as at the other greenhouses. I swiped a gloved hand over the filter, knocking most of the pollen off. A swarm of fluttering white-winged creatures swooped over my head, circling in front of the vents before drifting up and over the roof of the greenhouse.
I used the airlock of the lowest greenhouse, glad I didn’t have to hack and burn any more plants. I stripped off the suit, careful to avoid the green smears from the vines. I hung the suit in the cleaner, sealing the door before starting the sterilization cycle.
The greenhouse was a riot of luxuriant growth. I paused near the closest flat. Squat plants with fleshy leaves sprouted curled vines like springs. I touched one. The coil flicked straight, snapping against my cheek. I wiped a smear of yellow sap from my skin.
“You want to wash that with soap.”
I looked to the side where the voice came from. A young girl about ten standard years old watched me with solemn gray eyes. She kept her hands behind her back as she talked. “It’s better not to touch anything in here until you know it’s safe. I can tell you’re new.”
“Thanks.” The yellow sap was starting to burn on my face and my fingers.
The girl tilted her head towards the door leading back to the main building. “There’s a sink over there. Everyone’s supposed to scrub before leaving this greenhouse.”
She followed me through the maze of native plants to the sink. I scrubbed the burning sap away while she watched. I was torn between shooing her away or pumping her for information. The weird array of plants had me curious. I’d never seen anything like most of them. She stood in silence, waiting for me to finish. I decided as long as she didn’t babble, I could stand her company, at least long enough to find out what she knew.
“How long have you been here?” I asked as I dried my hands.
She shrugged. “Since the building went up. My father is the colony governor.”
I shoved the paper wipes into the trash. They’d be recycled into compost for the greenhouse.
I leaned against the sink waiting for the girl to speak. She studied me in silence, her face serious. I gave in after a long moment of listening to the plants rustle in the artificial breeze.
“What can you tell me about these plants? Besides don’t touch.”
A small smile twitched across her mouth. “The peonies are my favorites. They don’t do anything dangerous. This way.” She trotted across the greenhouse, weaving between the trays of plants. “I’m Nione. What’s your name?”
“Talia.”
“I saw you cleaning the filters. Is that your job?”
I nodded. “Environmental tech in charge of the greenhouse filtering systems.”
“Watch out for Brun. The colony plants are dying. That makes him angry.”
“I noticed.”
Nione stopped at the edge of the greenhouse beside a bush covered in puffy pink flowers. “He yells a lot, but he’s still nice. He gives me his dessert most of the time. I call these peonies. Listen.” She stroked the petals of one flower. A low hum rose from the plant. “Try it.” She reached to stroke a second flower. A different note joined the first.
I touched a flower. The petals were soft and silky under my finger. A third note joined the others. Nione giggled. We stroked more of the pink petals. The entire bush sang, the sound growing louder as we touched the soft flowers.
“I’ve never got it so loud,” Nione said.
We both smiled as we fingered the flowers.
Something smashed into the greenhouse right above us where the roof curved down to the wall. The song died as if cut off. I ducked as more thuds sounded overhead. I glanced up. The white-winged creatures I’d noticed earlier were smeared across the glass roof, their insides leaking blue liquid. The bush rattled though the breeze barely touched it.
“That never happened before,” Nione said.
“I’d better clean those off.” The blue liquid etched trails over the glass panes despite the coatings meant to protect them.
Nione nodded.
“Meet me here tomorrow?” I asked. “I want to know what you know about these plants. And this world.” None of the things I’d seen were mentioned in the skimpy brochure I’d been given.
“Will you get in trouble?” Nione asked.
“Will you?”
She shook her head before scampering to the airlock leading to the main building. I decided I could like Nione. She didn’t talk much and wasn’t as obnoxious as most children I’d encountered. I touched a pink flower with one finger before leaving to suit up again. The bush rustled. A single note floated on the air.
*
I’d been on Eden only a week when I was first attacked.
I was trudging up the trail to the grain warehouses, laser torch in hand. I stepped onto the bare strip of dirt between jungle and forest. Ants boiled from the shrubs on the up-hill side. I froze, one foot poised above ground that heaved and twitched as the insects plowed through the loose soil. I’d never seen so many in one place. They swarmed around my legs, climbing up to my knees. I set my foot down. Bodies popped and crunched. The swarm changed direction, circling around me and the dead ants.
They stopped moving all at once, as if someone flipped a switch. Antennae flickered. I stood in the middle of a rippling sea of red bodies. Thousands of beady little bug eyes bored into me, as if sensing me for the first time.
I swallowed a knot of sudden apprehension. I sensed a vast intelligence studying me like I’d studied these ants. I backed a step, tiny bodies crunching under my boots. My thumb rested on the trigger of the laser torch. I wondered if it had enough power to burn a path back to the airlock.
The ants tumbled forward, like a wave washing towards my feet. I hit the trigger, scrambling backwards towards the dubious safety of the greenhouse. Their jaws clicked as they advanced. I burned the front ones, but the rest kept coming. The press of their bodies covered the blackened corpses with a tide of red.
Something stung my shin, right above my boot. I glanced down. A knot of red bodies clung to my suit, jaws working at a hole in the carbonite. Their jaws snipped through the toughest fabric we had. I stomped m
y leg, trying to shake them off. They clung tighter, never even pausing in their chewing. One wriggled inside. I screamed as its jaws clamped onto my leg. I swept the laser torch perilously close to my foot as I burned the ants off. I slapped at the one inside, feeling it crunch under my glove.
The swarm boiled out of the forest after me. I cranked the power on the laser torch. It did little good. The things just kept coming. The laser torch sputtered, its power drained. I threw it into the heaving mass. It disappeared under their squirming bodies and flashing jaws.
I ran for the airlock. Ants crunched under every bootstep. They climbed my back, chewing their way through the tubing. They severed the oxygen feed to my helmet. I couldn’t breathe. I reached for the release catch. A knot of red ants landed on my face mask. I swiped at them with one gloved hand, crushing them into pulp. I couldn’t take the helmet off, but I couldn’t breathe with it on. I staggered. The mass of ants under foot made the trail slippery, treacherous. If I fell, they’d devour me.
Several ants crawled inside my suit. Their bites burned like acid. My lungs ached for air. I was too far from the airlock. Ants swarmed over my head, their feet scratching at the thin layer of protection keeping me from their snicking jaws.
I stumbled, falling to my knees. I couldn’t reach the emergency com button. I was going to die under the swarm of ants on a planet supposed to be free of peril. I screamed in rage as I smashed ants with my heavy gloves.
They drew back. I stopped, hands poised over a suddenly empty patch of ground. The ants milled around the edge of the forest, a red tide shifting restlessly. I popped the latch on my helmet, drawing in deep breaths of air. Drifts of yellow powder poured from the jungle. A swarm of white flyers spiraled through it. I swear they directed the pollen onto the boiling mass of ants. I coughed on a lungful, feeling it burn in my chest.
The ants retreated into the shelter of the forest. The flyers circled. Yellow pollen fell like rain. Leaves rustled despite the lack of breeze. I crouched in the barren strip between the two forces. Sweat dripped from my nose.
The sun beat down. The flyers drifted into the jungle canopy, wings fluttering like scraps of paper. My nose itched. I lifted a glove to scratch, but stopped when I saw the smears of greenish body fluids from the smashed ants. I didn’t want that on my unprotected face.
I got to my feet. Every bite burned with the ants’ venom. I had to treat them soon. I limped towards the safety of the greenhouse.
I only made it two steps before the forest growth started quivering. Ants, more than before, boiled from the trees, launching themselves into the jungle. Yellow pollen erupted in clouds from the jungle plants. White flyers exploded from vines, swirling over the red mass of ants. I tucked my face into the crook of my elbow in a vain attempt to filter my breath.
I ran for the airlock. Ants smashed under my feet. Flyers tangled in my hair. Yellow pollen coated everything with a slick powder. I slid and staggered through the mess. My legs burned from bites. A flyer landed on my arm, extending a long stinger from its abdomen. I knocked it away. The ants boiled over it, burying it under a flood of red bodies and wicked pincers.
I tumbled to the ground, tripping over something. I rolled through the mass of ants, staggering to my feet as quickly as I could. Not fast enough to avoid several bites to my unprotected face.
Something pierced my neck. It felt like a lance of fire from the laser torch. I slapped a hand over the pain. Broken wings fluttered away. My hand was smeared with blue fluid.
I crunched through a tangled knot of ants and flyers. Pollen coated everything with yellow. I staggered, trying to keep to my feet despite a sudden attack of dizziness. More flyers swarmed around me. I swatted blindly, my gaze fixed on the promised safety of the airlock. Only a dozen more steps.
A wave of ants poured over my feet, surging up to my knees. I kicked and stomped. I was not going to die on Eden, killed by ants and moths. I staggered, falling to the side.
The airlock door cycled. Two figures in white suits stepped out. Fire blossomed from nozzles in their hands, sweeping the path clear of insects. The ants retreated into the undergrowth. The flyers spiraled into the air. I breathed in pollen and coughed.
The lead figure crouched beside me, flames pointed into the forest where the ants lurked. I caught sight of Brun’s frown through his face mask. “Should have left your mask on.”
“Couldn’t. They cut the oxygen.” I fumbled the words through swollen, numb lips.
“Never seen a swarm this bad.” Brun clicked off the fire before slinging the flamethrower over his shoulder. The second person kept sweeping flames around us, driving the insects back.
Brun reached for my arm. He pulled me to my feet. I had to lean on him. My legs were swollen and aching with the ants’ poison. The moth sting on my neck burned and throbbed. We limped to the airlock, guarded by the one thing the insects seemed to fear: Fire.
*
Brun paused only long enough to strip off the protective suit. I sagged against the wall. Poison slipped through my body. Strange burning triggered muscle twitches. The taste of overripe fruit filled my mouth. Halos of bluish light flickered around the wiring conduits.
“Are you listening?” Brun leaned over me. The brush of his hand on my arm sent surges of electricity sizzling over my skin. Numbness spread behind the electric shocks.
I mumbled. My tongue and lips were too swollen to form words.
“Infirmary, now.”
I swayed in his hold. His assistant grabbed my other side. The ants and flyers smashed themselves against the glass walls of the greenhouse. The docile plants we’d brought with us wilted, their leaves streaked with brown. The plants outside, lush and green, whipped branches and vines though the air was still.
Brun paused at the door. The tunnel stretched to the main building, walls intact, but the floor bulged as the ground beneath heaved.
“Ants?” the assistant asked. I’d never learned his name, never bothered to care.
Brun shrugged. “It’s not safe in the greenhouses. We have to chance it.”
A vine slapped the roof behind us. The unbreakable glass pane shattered. Shards rained over the dying off-world plants. The jungle vines slithered inside, vines twisting as they sprouted new leaves and coiled tendrils. A swarm of white winged flyers fluttered through the hole.
“Move it!” Brun shoved me through the door into the tunnel.
Ants boiled up between the floor plates, filling the tunnel. They crawled over us, as if we didn’t matter. They filled the doorway into the greenhouse. The bushes whipped their branches wildly outside, flinging thorns at the sides of the tunnel and the greenhouse. The metal frame of the building screeched as it gave way under the assault of plants and insects. I stared over my shoulder as my feet fumbled towards the main building. The greenhouse collapsed. Vines trailed every direction, burying it in moments. Ants climbed the vines, blurs of red that left dead black spots behind where they bit the fleshy stems.
“Fighting,” I managed.
“The ants and moths, I know,” Brun hurried us through the airlock into the main building.
I shook my head. “Plants. They know.”
He stopped, staring behind at the destruction. A cloud of yellow blocked the windows. “The plants are sentient?”
I closed my itching eyes and nodded. Their poison spread through my tissues, ant bite fighting moth sting. And in my head, thoughts not my own fought for dominance. No words, plants didn’t need them.
The ceiling panes of the atrium imploded with a thunderous crash. Screams filled the hallways, followed by clouds of yellow pollen.
Brun dropped my arm, running for the center. His assistant paused only a moment before abandoning me, too.
I tottered on shaky legs. The jungle fought the forest. We were caught in the middle. We were a minor nuisance. They lanced our building as if it were a boil full of pus. I heard them in my head. I choked on air full of dust and pollen. More walls collapsed. Vines twined through any
opening. Moths fluttered. Ants flooded through cracked floors. I stumbled forward, not sure where I headed, only that I had to keep moving.
“Talia? What happened?” Nione appeared from a shattered doorway. She clung to my hand. Her face swelled from a sting, angry welts stretched under her skin.
“Attack.” I swayed.
“Who?” She swung her head frantically searching.
“Them.” I pointed at a swarm of moths fighting ants. “And them.” I stomped on a plant sprouting up through the floor.
“Don’t!”
Her sharp tone stopped me, foot raised over the seedling. I shuffled back a step. The seedling was a jungle tree, already knee-high and growing fast. I rubbed my swollen eyes that didn’t see right. Nione’s skin was turning green where the poison streaked. Tiny swirls of vines twined through her hair. Half of me rejoiced at the sight, the other half snarled in anger. No, not me, the poisons inside me. The human piece of me whimpered in terror.
White wings fluttered overhead. Nione spread her arms wide, welcoming them. I shifted back, afraid of their stings. They ignored me, moving toward the sounds of screams coming from a room ahead.
I staggered up the hall, unsure where I headed, only that I had to keep moving. Nione skipped at my heels. Moths danced behind her. Pollen filled the air with yellow. Lights exploded as power surged and pulsed. Ceilings smashed open as vines pulled them apart. Floors cracked and bulged from the ants and roots surging beneath. Bodies sprawled in the rubble, swollen and disfigured by stings and bites. I stepped over them with care. My balance was off, my head swollen and spinning.
We reached the communications room. I stopped in the entrance, swaying as I fought to stay on my feet. Roots tangled through the power conduits. A frond from a tree branch dangled from a crack in the roof. Nione’s father, the governor, stood in the center surrounded by smashed and broken equipment. He looked up from the mess at his feet. His eyes were wild.
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