by Elin Wyn
“I told you I could carry you,” he grinned.
“I never doubted that,” I laughed, hoping the pink on my cheeks wouldn’t mean anything to him. “Show me the bodies.”
My biggest worry was that something might’ve happened to the dead sorvuc overnight that would prevent me from obtaining accurate data today, but when I saw the first sorvuc corpse, nothing looked amiss.
“How many were there in total?” I asked.
“Six. They should all be here,” he replied.
“That’s highly unusual. Sorvuc are solitary creatures. They don’t even come together to mate. They mate like ordinary plants,” I explained.
“That’s what I thought,” Rokul replied.
“Did your team do that to their legs?” I asked.
“Yes.” Roku looked proud. “I saw a kodanos with the same leg injury the day I went looking for you. It looked like a smart idea.”
“I did that,” I grinned.
“Not surprising,” Rokul replied. There it was again, that little happy flutter in my stomach that made me feel valued. And maybe something else.
“Sorvuc are fairly aggressive,” I said as I continued my examination. “I take it they were behaving aggressively here.”
“Yes, but they were moving quicker than I’ve ever seen one move and targeting the structures, not the humans,” Rokul explained.
I frowned and drummed my finger on my leg. Sorvuc usually avoided manmade structures. They knew there wasn’t anything for them there. When Rokul said they moved quicker than normal, the memory of the speeding kodanos came to mind.
“I want to check something,” I murmured more to myself than to Rokul. I unsheathed my hunting knife and drove it into the sorvuc’s back. I sliced through its armor-like bark until I could pry its body open. Inside, I found a tangle of vines similar to those I’d found inside the kodanos.
“See these here?” I pointed to the vines to show Rokul. He nodded. “Those aren’t part of the sorvuc.”
“Then what are they part of?” he asked.
“I’m not sure.” I took out my clippers and snipped off a few fragments from several of the vines. I sealed them in airtight bags and tucked them into my supply pack. “I think it’s some kind of invasive species that are using the bodies of sentient plants as a host. Perhaps to spread its own seed.”
I moved on to the other sorvuc bodies. Sure enough, every time I cracked one open, I found a nest of vines. I took clippings from each body. I was certain all the vines were from the same species, but I wanted to confirm it in a lab.
I returned to the first corpse to continue my observations. It was in better shape than the other sorvuc, by far.
As I leaned in to get a better look at the intrusive vines, I heard a rustling sound. I looked over my shoulder, expecting to see one of the forest’s sentient vines worming its way towards us, but there was nothing there. Yet the rustling continued. It didn’t occur to me to look at the sorvuc until something cold and strong wrapped around my forearm.
The vines inside the sorvuc were still alive. I yelped and tried to yank my arm back, but the vine tightened its grip. The vine was wrapped around the arm that held my knife. I rotated my wrist, hoping to slice the vine, but it didn’t work.
Rokul was at my side in a heartbeat. I dropped my knife for him to grab. He took it and slashed through the vine right as my arm started to feel numb.
Once I was free, Rokul lifted me up by my arms and pulled me back in the direction of the aerial unit. I didn’t take my eyes off the dead sorvuc. The vines inside were writhing and twisting around each other.
Another vine lashed out, this time at the nearest tree. When it found purchase, it started to drag the sorvuc body towards the deeper jungle.
“What the skrell,” Rokul exclaimed under his breath. The other sorvuc corpses began moving, too. Vines burst through their tough exteriors and latched on to nearby trees.
Rokul and I watched in stunned silence as the vines dragged the sorvuc bodies beyond the tree line and out of sight. We could still hear the rustling and crunching as they moved away.
“We have to follow them!” I insisted. I started walking, but Rokul still had a grip on my arm.
“Are you insane?” he asked.
“What? Are you scared?” I taunted.
“Of course not,” he huffed. “But even I don’t think it’s wise to charge in blind after those vines. We’d never see them coming in that thick part of the jungle.”
“Fine,” I grumbled, even though he was right.
“What kind of guard would I be if I let you charge into danger?” he said with a half-smile.
“A crappy one,” I nodded.
“Exactly. And until we have a better idea of what’s going on, I don’t like the idea of us out there.” He placed his hand on my lower back to guide me to the aerial unit. I found that I didn’t mind the weight.
Rokul
It was hard to keep my eyes looking straight ahead with Tella in the seat next to me. Seeing that vine wrap around her, hearing the little scream that had torn from her lips, had sent me into overdrive.
I wanted to chop the vines up into little pieces so they wouldn’t touch her again. I refrained only because I knew Tella would’ve been angry at me if I had.
At the moment, she had her knees tucked up against her chest and was using them to support her arms as she examined one of the vine fragments she’d collected. She furrowed her brow slightly and ran her fingers over every inch of the vine fragment.
I found it amazing that she could dedicate her whole focus to something that most people would’ve found mundane and unimportant. I wasn’t sure what she was seeing in that two-inch segment of vine, but it was fascinating to her. She tilted her head and her dark hair slipped off the curve of her shoulder, blocking most of her face from my view.
Without thinking, I took one hand off the pilot console and pushed her hair back over her shoulder. She lifted her head and gave me an odd look. I suddenly felt very foolish, but I wasn’t about to let her know that.
I plastered an easy smile on my face.
“What was that for?” she shouted over the rattling of the engine.
“It’s fun to watch your face when you’re studying chunks of vicious plant matter,” I shouted back. To my surprise and relief, her expression relaxed and she smiled.
“It’s fun examining vicious plant matter while being chauffeured around by a Skotan warrior,” she replied.
“Is that all you think I’m good for?” I made a show of looking offended, which made her laugh.
“Of course not!” she exclaimed. “You’re also good for hacking through various things.”
“I’m flattered.” I rolled my eyes. “Do you have any theories about the vines?”
“There are a few known species of invasive plants, but none that can freely manipulate the body of their host organism,” she said, though I only caught about half of her words. The rest were swallowed by the noise of the aerial unit. I understood the essence of what she said, though. “The thing is, these vines don’t look like any of those species. I’ll have to test them at the lab to know for sure, though.”
“What if they’re from a previously unknown species?” I asked.
“Then I’ll have to find more,” she replied. “Hopefully, General Rouhr is more willing to lend me funds for field missions than Dr. Hines is.”
“Who?”
“She’s my boss at the other lab,” I explained. “Despite my damn-near-perfect resume, she doesn’t want me to launch any field expeditions because it might hurt the feelings of other scientists in the lab.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” I frowned. “If you’re qualified, you should be allowed to do your job.”
“Exactly!” She threw her free hand up in frustration. She went back to examining the vine fragments. This time, she compared two of them side by side. I tried to focus on piloting the aerial unit, but I kept sneaking glances at her.
I s
uddenly felt aware of how little I truly knew about her. Tella was a brilliant botanist, impressive survivalist, and could hold her drink better than half the Vengeance crew, but other than that, I didn’t know anything else.
There had to be more to her.
I wasn’t one to overshare personal details of my life, but even I had sprinkled in personal details about myself in normal conversation. Tella didn’t do that, or if she did, she kept her personal details confined to a few specific topics.
I knew she hated being stuck inside and preferred fieldwork over lab work, but I didn’t know where she was from, if she had any family on this world, or even simple things like her favorite food.
Obviously, she was a guarded person, but I didn’t understand why.
I searched my brain for an excuse to ask her personal questions without violating our agreement to remain professional while we worked together.
What a skrelling stupid thing to have agreed to.
We were clearly attracted to each other. What was the worst that could happen if we decided to form a nonprofessional relationship?
“Do you ever think about the other night in Rigkon?” I blurted over the rattling engine.
“All the time,” Tella replied with more candor than I’d expected. When she saw my expression, she spoke again. “Why? Don’t you?”
“I think about it constantly. It keeps me up at night,” I grinned. From the corner of my eye, I saw her smile.
“It’s a shame we work together now,” she drawled.
“It really is. I wouldn’t mind having a repeat of that night.” I tore my eyes away from the windshield to wink at Tella. She rolled her eyes, but I could see the faintest tinge of blush appear on her cheeks.
“I wouldn’t either,” she said. “Maybe less of whatever the hell we drank at the Crooked Swiggen, though.”
“Agreed. I’d like to remember every second of a night with you.” Another peek at her revealed that her blush had deepened. I found it charming that she spoke with the bravado any one of the Vengeance crew would use if they were talking about females they’d bedded, yet she blushed like she’d never been touched by a male. The mystery that was Tella deepened.
“It’s a shame we agreed to keep things professional,” she hummed so softly I almost didn’t hear her.
“You’re the one who came up with the idea!” I replied. “I just agreed to it because I didn’t want you to use that hunting knife on me.”
“I wouldn’t have used the knife on you,” she said, though she didn’t sound completely sure about that.
“If you say so,” I joked.
“I don’t know what I was thinking when I proposed that idea,” she mused. “I must’ve still been drunk.”
I knew she wasn’t. She knew she wasn’t.
“Well, you know what they say about things said when drunk?” I asked.
“What?” She tilted her head to look at me.
“That they are best forgotten when sober,” I finished. Tella chucked and twirled a lock of hair between her fingers. I couldn’t tell if it was a flirtatious gesture or a nervous habit.
I could tell that Tella liked people to believe that she was an independent, invincible woman. And she was pretty impressive, even to a pretty hard-to-surprise Skotan.
But I wondered if she limited herself to situations where she actually was independent and invincible, with no risk of vulnerability.
My desire to take her out of those situations grew by the minute. I wanted to know the real Tella.
“I think you may be right.” She looked over and flashed a smile, though I saw the faintest hint of hesitation in her eyes.
“That’s not why I wanted to come with you to see the sorvuc bodies,” I added quickly. “I don’t want you to think that.”
“Don’t worry, I don’t,” she assured me. “Though, why did you want to come along? I know I trapped you by telling General Rouhr I wouldn’t go with anyone else. Would you have come along if I hadn’t done that?”
“Assuming I knew you were going to look at the sorvuc corpses at the time, I would’ve asked General Rouhr to let me go with you,” I admitted. “That night in Rigkon aside, you’re a fantastic partner to have in the field.”
Her brows shot up and an unconstrained smile bloomed across her mouth. I realized that, until that moment, I’d never seen a genuine smile from Tella. A genuine sober smile, at least. None of her smiles were forced, but she subdued them for some reason.
“Do you really think so?” she asked. It struck me as odd that Tella would need reassurance of any kind. I was learning more secret little things about her in this transport unit than I had in the last few days. I wondered if she knew she was giving me tiny bits of information about her.
“Absolutely!” I exclaimed. “I think you’re…hang on, you humans have a perfect word for this. Let me think. Badass! I think you’re a badass.” Tella tipped her head back and laughed.
“I think you’re a badass, too,” she said when she caught her breath.
“Then it’s only fair to us, as two attractive badasses, to not limit our relationship to anything,” I proposed. She gave me a playfully suspicious smile.
“How long have you planned that line?” she asked.
“I came up with it in the moment,” I answered. “Though I’ve been thinking about it since the morning we woke up in that guesthouse.”
“Me, too,” she admitted. “So, where do we go from here?”
“Wherever we want,” I grinned.
“Sounds nice,” she smiled. “But first, let’s figure out this plant problem.” She lifted up one of the bags containing a vine sample and gave it a little shake.
“I’m at your command.” I was only half joking.
At that point, I felt like I would do anything Tella asked me to.
We fell into contented silence as we neared Nyheim. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her place her hand on the low seat divider between us. I placed my hand on top of hers and traced patterns on her skin with the tips of my fingers.
She laced her fingers with mine. As we arrived back at the capital city, our hands lazily fought for dominance over the other. Her skin was soft and smooth, and I was burning with slow, steady desire to know what the rest of her felt like.
Tella
I jumped out of the aerial unit before it was fully docked.
“Hey!” Rokul shouted after me as he finally shut off the rattling engine.
“I want to get these to the lab right away!” I shouted back.
“I’ll handle the report to General Rouhr, then,” he offered.
“Thanks! I’ll see you in a bit!” I was already halfway out of the launch bay when I spoke. I truly was excited to test the vine samples in General Rouhr’s lab. His equipment was better than what Dr. Hines had in her lab.
However, I also wanted to spend some time away from Rokul to seriously think about what we’d talked about on the ride back.
As I made my way to the lab, I replayed our conversation over and over in my head. The more I thought about it, the less sure I was about what I was signing myself up for. Yes, we both wanted to stop pretending we only wanted a professional relationship, but were we on the same page?
I wasn’t sure what page I was on, let alone what page he was on.
I didn’t think he was talking about being friends outside of work. Our miniature finger war confirmed that for me.
But did Rokul want to be in a relationship, or was he just looking for some fun on the side? What was I looking for, for that matter?
Drinking with him at the Crooked Swiggen was the most fun I’d had in years that didn’t involve a sentient plant attempting to kill me.
The thing was, I really liked him. I hadn’t known him long, and I really didn’t know much about him, but I still had a feeling that we could be really good together. But if he was just looking for fun, I didn’t want to open myself up to him like that.
Even if he wasn’t just looking for fun, did I
still want to open myself up to a male? A Skotan male, no less.
Not that I had any problem with the fact that he wasn’t a human. I liked the way his vibrantly red skin looked. I thought it was fascinating to watch his scales expand and retract when he fought. And I didn’t think we’d ever run out of things to talk about when I knew so little about his species.
After losing my parents and my sister during the Xathi invasion, I hadn’t let myself get close to another person.
I’d already lost so much, I couldn’t bear the idea of losing anyone else. If I allowed myself to get close to Rokul, I had to be ready to accept the fact that there was a chance I’d lose him in the end.
Besides, even if I was ready to get close to someone like that, I didn’t know if I was still capable of doing so. I’d gotten used to doing everything alone. It was easy to protect myself when I was alone.
With thoughts of Rokul, family, and loneliness still spinning in my head, I entered the lab. Leena was there talking to a tall, dark-haired woman.
“Tella.” Leena sounded surprised. “I didn’t realize you were coming in. My sister, Mariella, stopped by to say hello.” I’d never met Mariella, but I’d heard Leena say some unkind things about her when we worked at the university. It looked like they’d mended the rift between them.
“Hi,” I nodded to Mariella before turning to Leena. “General Rouhr called me in yesterday. He wanted me to look into some sorvuc that were acting strangely. I have some samples to test.”
“We won’t bother you, will we?” Mariella asked with a genuine smile that made me want to smile, too.
“Not at all,” I assured her. As I prepped my vine samples for testing, Mariella and Leena picked up their conversation once more. I tried not to listen, but since they were the only noise in the room, it was impossible not to.