by Elin Wyn
“Tella,” I muttered.
She only groaned in response. “Tella.” I lifted my upper body up so I could tap her on the arm.
General Rouhr had probably expected me in his office at sunrise. At this rate, I’d be doing punishment missions until I retired.
“Go away,” she moaned.
“I can’t go away,” I chuckled. “It’s time to get up.”
“No, it isn’t,” she insisted.
I struggled to my feet, trying to ignore how heavy my tongue felt and the pounding behind my temples.
I don’t know what we drank last night, but I definitely underestimated the power of the Crooked Swiggen. I needed to find out what I’d drunk so I could keep a few bottles on hand at home.
Tella still hadn’t moved.
With a sigh, I reached out to push her shoulder or pull her hand, I wasn’t sure which. The more I thought about it, I wasn’t sure how to touch her at all. My hand froze just an inch away from her skin.
Fragmented images of the night before flitted through my mind’s eye. I perfectly remembered the taste of her lips and the softness of her body, how she’d felt pressed against me. The memory of it alone caused a stir in me.
I looked away from her for a few moments to quiet my mind. When I looked back at Tella, her eyes were open and she was staring at me.
“You okay?” She looked concerned.
“Yeah. Just the effects of the drink,” I said quickly.
Tella laughed.
“I should’ve stuck to the watered-down bottles,” she groaned. She extended her hand. “Help me up.”
I took her hand and pulled her out of bed. I must’ve pulled her too quickly, for when she stood on her own two feet, she swayed and looked disoriented. I held her shoulders until she stabilized herself.
Tella blinked and shook her head as if she could shake away the negative side effects of last night. When she opened her eyes to look at me, she paused. She bit her bottom lip like she was contemplating something.
“About last night,” she began.
“We should talk about that,” I added.
“We’re going to be colleagues now, aren’t we?” she asked. I nodded. “Maybe we should chalk it up to a night of bad judgment and loose morals and leave it at that.”
“I think that’s the wisest course of action.”
Her suggestion was a reasonable one. There was a serious job to do and any kind of relationship outside of professional parameters could prove to be a distraction.
I almost laughed at myself. I sounded just like my brother.
Not really a surprise. Half of my thoughts were essentially his, since he’d spent so much of our lives lecturing me about my impulsiveness.
Hard to believe I was the older brother.
It was a shame that my mind called upon Takar’s reasoning at this moment.
Tella was lovely and there was no doubt that I was attracted to her.
Not just physically, either. She was bright, clever, and one of the toughest human females I’d ever encountered. I wasn’t worried about how she’d fare with General Rouhr, Karzin, and the rest of the strike team.
A professional relationship was not at all what I wanted.
“Great,” she smiled tightly. “Now that that’s settled, shall we go?”
“Are you sure you don’t want to spend another night in luxury?” I gestured to the rickety beds and threadbare blankets.
Tella made a sound halfway between a laugh and a scoff before turning on her heel and sauntering out of the guesthouse.
“I’ll take that as a no?” I called after her. I checked our beds once more to ensure nothing was left behind before following her out. She stood near the market, waiting for me.
“Fancy one for the road?” She jerked her thumb in the direction of the Crooked Swiggen.
“No, thank you,” I laughed.
“Me, either. But I still have to get my payment. I’m willing to bet Gille is already at his stool.” She waited for me and together we walked back into the dark establishment.
“There’s my favorite customers!” The barkeeper greeted us enthusiastically. “Fancy another bottle?”
“No offense, Swiggy. But I’d rather die,” Tella replied. Swiggen, or whatever his name really was, chuckled and went back to minding his bar.
Tella approached the single male sitting on a barstool.
“I’m here for the rest of my payment, Gille,” Tella told him.
“Have you cleared the forest of pests?” the male replied.
“You didn’t ask me to clear the forest of pests.” She placed her hands on her hips. “You asked me to take care of one rogue kodanos.”
“I’ve seen at least five of them,” Gille replied. “If you’ve only killed one, then the job’s not done.”
“I didn’t see signs of any others,” Tella argued. “I did my job. You said there was only one kodanos that needed to be investigated. Pay up!”
“I don’t think so,” Gille smirked.
“Excuse me?” Tella demanded.
Gille turned his back to her, refusing to acknowledge her. His blatant dismissal of her made my blood boil but I contained myself. As much as I wanted to ram his forehead into the bar, I wanted to see how Tella would handle it more.
I wasn’t disappointed. She grabbed him by the back of his shirt and yanked. She wasn’t quite strong enough to pull him off his seat, but she got his attention.
“I want my payment,” she hissed. She placed one hand on the pommel of her hunting knife in Gille’s sight. He narrowed his eyes and, before Tella could react, he grabbed her wrist and shoved her back.
Before she could square up again, I stepped in. Now I was the one to grab Gille by the back of his shirt and I was certainly strong enough to pull him from his seat. He took one look at me and all the color drained from his face.
“Haven’t spent much time around Skotans, have you?” I smiled. It was almost my polite one. “We’re actually sticklers for rules, agreements, contracts. Pay the nice lady or else you’re going to get to know me a lot better than you want to.” Without looking away from me, Gille reached into his pocket and slid a datapad across the floor to Tella.
“Transfer the payment,” he instructed her, then to me he said, “See? I can be reasonable.”
“We’ll see,” I replied coldly.
“I transferred the payment and a little tip for my troubles,” Tella stared dead-eyed as she gave the datapad back to Gille. “Call it a PITA tax, pain in the ass.”
Good. I did get that expression right.
I released my grip on the human male’s shirt. He was smart enough to stay quiet as he got back onto his seat at the bar.
“Ready?” I asked Tella. She nodded.
“Bye, Swiggen!” Tella called to our bar-keeper friend. Swiggen nodded his goodbyes.
Once Tella and I were out of earshot, I turned to her.
“I still haven’t adjusted to the inferiority of human males,” I said.
Tella laughed.
“Some of them aren’t so bad. Swiggen was all right. Though I can understand how every human male looks inferior compared to you.” She clamped her lips shut.
I didn’t know how to respond. I could’ve easily interpreted her remark as flirtatious and I wanted to flirt back, however, we’d both agreed to remain professional while we worked together.
This was confusing. I didn’t like confusing. But I did like her.
Skrell.
“Tell me more about what’s been happening,” Tella said quickly. We arrived at my aerial unit. I helped her step up into the passenger seat, then walked around to the pilot’s seat.
“We found a giant sentient plant living underground out in the desert,” I explained as I powered up the unit.
“Oh, is that all?” I knew Tella meant it as a joke, but she had no idea what she was in for.
“No,” I replied. “It’s been attacking settlements and cities. No one’s sure how. The plant secrete
s a memory-erasing gas or something like that.”
“I now realize why you’ve gone to the trouble of hunting me down,” Tella said quietly.
“Dr. Leena Dewitt recommended you,” I replied. “She said you are the best of the best.”
“She’s not wrong,” Tella agreed. “Gosh, I haven’t seen Leena in years.”
“I’m sure you’ll get a chance to catch up,” I said. “General Rouhr will fill you in on the situation in more detail, but the short of it is that we’re dealing with something no one can figure out. We need you to help us.”
“No pressure,” Tella laughed nervously.
“I think you can handle it,” I grinned.
Tella
When Rokul and I arrived in Nyheim, he took me straight to General Rouhr. General Rouhr was polite, but didn’t give me the briefing Rokul had led me to believe I’d receive.
Instead, he immediately passed me on to Leena, and Rokul and I parted ways. He had to speak to General Rouhr about something, probably about getting off probation.
He told me he’d see me later. I couldn’t decide if the prospect made me excited or nervous.
Someone else, a Valorni who didn’t introduce himself, escorted me to the building’s lab, where I assumed Leena would be waiting for me. She was in the lab, but she clearly wasn’t expecting me. She was in the middle of recording data.
When I entered, she motioned for me to wait. While she took notes and squinted at the lines of data on her console, I took a moment to familiarize myself with the lab. It wasn’t as nice as the one Leena and I used to work in at the university, but after the Xathi invasion, I knew we were lucky to have as much as we did.
“I wasn’t told you’d be arriving today,” Leena said as a way of letting me know she was ready to talk. “Then again, you were supposed to be here days ago.”
“I apologize,” I said. “I took a job in the field that took much longer to complete than I anticipated, especially since the guy refused to pay me, and-”
“I don’t care,” Leena grinned. “You’re here now. So, can we get to work please?”
I remembered that about Leena. Many words could be used to describe her, but friendly was never the first one that came to mind.
We weren’t exactly friends when we used to share a lab. Our stations were positioned next to each other and we often talked to each other because we both felt that everyone else in our lab was a complete moron.
We made small talk and took our breaks together, but we never socialized with each other outside of the lab. Both of us preferred it that way. We were each other’s best option at the time.
“Yes. But I found something odd with one of the kodanos,” I tried to explain, but Leena cut me off again.
“We have bigger plant problems than that,” she said briskly. “Have you been briefed yet?”
“Not really,” I replied. “General Rouhr said you’d fill me in.” Apparently, that wasn’t the answer Leena wanted to hear. She sucked in her cheeks. I could tell she was trying to control her temper, something I’d never seen Leena attempt to do. It looked like she’d softened up a bit in the last few years.
“When the remains of the Xathi ship crashed back down into the surface of our planet, it made a considerable impact,” Leena began. “From what we understand, it appears that our actions have disturbed an ancient species of sentient plant that no one has ever seen before.”
“What does it look like?” I asked.
“That’s the thing,” Leena continued. “No one has seen it. One of our colleagues, Annie Parker, is a geologist. She and Karzin, one of Rouhr’s men, discovered the damn thing while they were rappelling into a crater. That crater turned out to be its home. It attacked them. It almost killed them twice, but they never got a good look at it. We think it’s been attacking other places, too.”
“Rokul mentioned something about that,” I nodded. “He said it can alter memories?”
“It released an unusual airborne chemical that can suppress memory,” Leena replied. “I made an antidote of sorts to stop the continuing effects of the chemical, but I haven’t been able to retrieve lost memories. All we know is that this plant can reach the cities. I think it sends out vines, but instead of like the ones in the forest, they travel underground until they erupt.
“The only trace it leaves behind, besides damage and dead bodies, is perfectly circular craters in the earth. They’re exact miniatures of the crater we think the thing lives in. That crater is huge. Half a mile across.”
“This plant is gigantic then,” I replied. “If people have been dying, why isn’t this more well-known?”
“General Rouhr thought it best to keep everything under wraps until we know more,” Leena explained. “After the Xathi, the last thing we need is for everyone to panic again. The people in the places that have been attacked know that something happened, but they don’t know what. And until we know for sure, we don’t want to tell them anything that could be just more misinformation.”
“That’s sad,” I frowned. “Those poor people must be jumping at shadows.”
“Maybe if you’d gotten here sooner, we would’ve found a solution by now.” Leena’s smile looked sweet at first glance, but I could see the venom in her expression.
If memory served, Leena had a sister who was the nicest person on the planet. What I wouldn’t give to work with her instead.
“Do any of your alien friends have a time machine?” I snapped. “If so, I’ll happily go back and decline that job. In the likely event that they don’t possess that technology, I don’t know what you expect me to do other than apologize and move on.”
Leena arched one brow. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she looked impressed.
“Any more quips? Barbed comments?” I continued.
Leena shook her head with a twisted smile on her mouth.
“Good. Now, show me all of the data you have on this mystery plant.”
Leena retrieved three datapads from her desk. “This one has the notes on the soil samples from all of the craters,” she explained and handed the first one to me. “The other two have my notes. One is just about the memory-altering chemical, the other has everything else.”
It took me a little less than an hour to read through everything. I couldn’t help but feel disappointed. I’d expected more.
With a sigh, I set the datapads down.
“Well?” Leena asked expectantly.
“Well, what?” I asked.
“What are we dealing with?”
“How could you expect me to know that?” I replied. “From the information given, I can only tell you what you already know. This is an entirely new species of sentient plant. The genetic analysis was helpful, but it can only tell me what this plant isn’t, not what it is.”
“Looks like you’re going to have to deliver some disappointing news to General Rouhr.” Leena folded her arms across her chest.
“Take me to him,” I shrugged. “He seemed like a reasonable male when I met him briefly.”
Leena led me back through the uniform hallways of the building until we reached General Rouhr’s office. Rokul was nowhere to be found. I wondered if General Rouhr had let him off probation.
The flicker of disappointment in my chest when I realized Rokul wasn’t around surprised me.
Yes, we agreed to keep things professional, but that didn’t change the fact that we’d almost drunkenly screwed in the middle of a dirt road the night before.
I kinda wished we hadn’t agreed.
I kinda wished we hadn’t stopped.
I wondered how long it would take for my heart to not react when I thought about it.
Leena knocked on the general’s door.
The first time I met him, I was too busy taking everything else in and being shuffled from person to person to get a good look at him.
General Rouhr was a Skotan, like Rokul, though the general’s skin wasn’t as vibrant. He had a long scar running down the length of his fac
e, but I wouldn’t call him disfigured. He had a commanding presence, but there was also kindness in his eyes that I found reassuring.
“What can I do for you, Dr. Dewitt?” he asked Leena.
“Our botanist has news,” she said. I wanted to shoot her a glare but not in front of the general. For once in my life, I should at least try to maintain a professional air.
“Of course,” the general smiled, and offered us a seat in his office.
“I prefer to stand.” I smiled so he knew I wasn’t being intentionally rude. “And this won’t take long.”
“I didn’t expect to hear back from you so soon,” General Rouhr replied. “What can you tell us about the plant creature?”
“That’s the thing,” I said, suddenly feeling nervous. I didn’t know what it was about General Rouhr, but I really didn’t want to disappoint him. “Based on the current information, there isn’t anything I can tell you about the sentient plant that you don’t already know.”
“Oh.” General Rouhr’s brows drew together. “That’s a shame. Leena was so certain you could find something.”
“I’m willing to collect new information,” I said quickly. “Perhaps, if I could go to this crater and see this creature for myself, I could find something useful.”
“At the moment, I’m not authorizing any trips out to the site. I can’t afford to lose any team members,” General Rouhr replied.
I gave him an apologetic look. “I’m sorry. I want to help,” I assured him. “However, there isn’t anything I can do with this current information.”
“I understand.” General Rouhr offered me a kind smile that alleviated a small fraction of my guilt.
“If you decide to allow trips to the crater, please contact me,” I said. “Until then, I’ll start work at my new position.”
“What position?” General Rouhr asked.
“Just before Leena contacted me, I was hired on as a botanist at another lab in Nyheim. The last botanist moved away. I’m taking her place,” I explained. “I can leave my information so you can reach me.”
“That would be great.” General Rouhr passed me a datapad and I entered my information at the new lab.