by Elin Wyn
With each word, I felt my body relax. This wasn’t so bad. I caught Karzin’s eye. He smiled at me, pride shining in his eyes.
“From the collected samples, I’ve been able to determine that the creature attacking the towns and the creature in the crater are the same species. Based on the genetic material salvaged from traces in the soil, it’s highly possible that it’s a single creature rather than a hive or colony.”
Everyone’s expression shifted to various degrees of disbelief.
“That would mean this creature, whatever it is, is gigantic!” Axtin exclaimed. I nodded.
“That’s correct. With Leena and Jeneva’s guidance, I’ve run tests to determine an approximate age of this creature as well. It could be anywhere from a century old to several thousand years old.” Gasps and murmurs broke out amongst the crowd.
“How is that possible?” someone asked.
“This creature belongs to the same family as all of the sentient plants on this planet,” I continued. “There have been sorvuc found that are over one hundred years old. I expect the creature we’re dealing with possesses the same longevity genes.”
“Why is this only being discovered now?” a serious looking K’ver asked.
“I don’t know,” I sighed. “It’s den, if you will, appears to be in that crater out in the desert. When humans originally settled here, they only performed in-depth analysis on the areas that were most habitable. The desert environment wouldn’t have been one of those areas.”
“Tell me about it,” a Valorni from Strike Team One mumbled. It wasn’t the one with Leena, so it must be… Daxion. I wondered what he’d found out in the desert.
“Why is the creature stirring now?” Vrehx asked.
“I believe that when the remains of the Xathi ship crashed back down onto the surface of the planet, it weakened the earth beneath it. Several of those fragments contained a toxic substance that sunk into the soil. Dr. Dewitt discovered that the substance essentially dissolved the organic material belonging to the creature in the crater. I suspect that when it came into contact with the toxin, it became irritated. It might’ve been hibernating at the time, I don’t know for certain, but that would explain why we haven’t had a problem with it before now.”
“Why attack the human settlements, though?” Councilwoman Vidia asked.
“Going on the theory that this creature was in a state of hibernation, it’s possible the toxins woke it up and it realized that the only thing in the environment that had changed was the human settlements,” I explained. “I can’t say why the creature attacked the specific cities that it did. It’s possible that it had something to do with soil density. Distance doesn’t seem to be a factor.”
“And the memory loss?” Sylor asked.
“That’s also a product of the creature. It’s likely that it can secrete a gas that alters a person’s memory,” I explained.
“I’m working on something to negate the effects of the gas,” Leena spoke up. “However, it’s impossible to test without exposing someone to the gas and it will only work if taken before an attack.”
“My team and I have been working towards preventive measures,” Karzin jumped in. “Our best bet at the moment is mounted cameras under twenty-four-hour surveillance, but until we get a good look at the thing, we don’t have much to go on.”
“Basically, all we can do is wait until whatever that thing is strikes again?” Axtin asked. “That won’t do anyone any good.”
“I’ve reached out to some of my colleagues from university,” Leena interjected. “I’m looking for anyone with expertise that might be able to help us. A friend of mine is a well-known botanist. They might be able to tell us more about the creature.”
“That’s nice, and all,” one of the Skotan brothers on Karzin’s team spoke up, “but that doesn’t solve anything. All we have is a handful of possible facts that won’t do much to help anyone if the creature decides to attack again.”
“Rokul,” Karzin muttered in a warning tone.
“It’s all right,” I smiled trying to assure him. “Rokul is correct. We hardly have any helpful information.”
“I suggest doubling our efforts for emergency response,” Rouhr jumped in. “The amount of cameras should be doubled in every city and settlement. We have to perfect our response times. With Fen and the Gateway at our disposal, there’s no reason why we can’t be on the scene within minutes of an alert going out.”
“I think we should allocate efforts to removing the Xathi debris,” I added. “If the toxic substance from their ship is what irritated the creature in the first place, we have to clean that up as much as we can.”
“If it’s anything like a sorvuc, it won’t give a damn about our clean-up efforts. We’ve already pissed it off,” Jeneva interjected.
“It’s better than doing nothing,” I replied heavily. “Who knows? It could be more intelligent than a sorvuc.”
“Not likely.” Jeneva offered a kind smile.
“I think Annie’s right,” Rouhr decided. “Cleaning up the mess we made might not help anything, but it certainly won’t make it worse. Is there anything else you’d like to add, Annie?”
“You all know as much as I do now,” I said.
Rouhr gave me a nod and I returned to my seat.
“Well done, love,” Karzin whispered as I settled down beside him.
“I walked into this meeting feeling like I’d done so much to solve this mystery,” I whispered back, my voice heavy and weary. “Now I know that I’ve barely scratched the surface. I didn’t learn anything truly useful.”
“You’re being too hard on yourself.” Karzin put his arm around me and rubbed my shoulder. “Without you, we’d never know that we’re fighting a giant, ancient plant monster. That’s a starting point.”
“I hope that botanist Leena requested will be able to find out more than I can,” I sighed, letting my head rest on Karzin’s shoulder.
Rouhr spent the next hour delegating tasks and outlining several tentative plans of attack. None of them were perfect. There was quite a bit of debate regarding whether a ground team or an aerial team would be more effective in case of another attack.
“An aerial team would be safe from the memory loss gas,” Karzin argued.
“A ground team would have more precision,” Vrehx replied. “It would be too easy for an aerial strike team to accidentally hit a civilian or cause a building to collapse.”
“That’s a fair point,” Karzin allowed. “But how effective can a ground team hope to be if they forget what they’re fighting the moment they get too close?”
“What about a ground team with gas masks?” Vrehx asked.
“Gas masks would impede us if we were involved in hand-to-hand combat,” Karzin posited.
In the end, nothing was decided. We simply didn’t have enough information. I couldn’t help but feel dejected as Karzin and I walked out of the meeting.
“I’m going back to the Aurora to lie down for a little while,” I said faintly.
“Of course, love. I’ll be there shortly.” Karzin pressed a kiss onto my forehead and smiled at me so sweetly that I couldn’t help but feel a little brighter inside.
Karzin
We were moving into our new home. I couldn’t believe how much of a process it was. We needed furniture, utensils, dishes, towels, cleaning supplies, tools, paint, drywall, lumber, flooring, carpeting. I got lost on the number of things needed.
Luckily, Councilwoman Vidia knew which businesses still had pre-war inventory, or had been able to salvage items. None of it was a necessity, Rhour reminded me, but another way the civilians could feel like life was getting back to normal.
And not just civilians. All of us.
What I found funny after closer inspection was that the house was in good shape. It only needed a little bit of cosmetic work, according to my view point, but Annie was excited about making some changes and making the house a home.
Not just any home, but our
home.
“What do you think of taking down that wall there to make the kitchen bigger?” she asked as we were bringing in a couch.
With a grunt, I set my end of the couch down and looked where she was pointing. “Which wall? That one?”
“No, you weirdo. That one.”
“Oh.” I shrugged. “I think we could, but why. Isn’t the kitchen big enough?”
“Well, yeah, but wouldn’t it be nicer if it was bigger? We could have the whole team over here, the family, whoever, and there would be lots of room for them to sit around the table, at the island, wherever they wanted to be.” She was pointing out where the table would be, the island, the…wait.
“What’s an island? I thought that was a body of land surrounded by water? How do we do that inside a house?”
She looked at me, eyes wide and lips curled inward.
I wasn’t sure what the problem was. Especially when she broke out into uncontrollable laughter.
Any time she started to calm down, she would look at me and break out into laughter again.
I finally shook my head and walked out of the house. There were more things that needed to come inside, and I could wait until she made more sense.
I grabbed a side table and a small stool from the trailer outside and took them inside. Annie was standing at the door, looking slightly ashamed.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you,” she said as she took the stool from me.
“It’s just, I don’t understand what was so humorous about my question.”
She set the stool down, turned to look at me, and came over to give me a kiss. “I’m sorry. You speak my language so fluently now, I forget that not everything is going to translate. An island, specifically a kitchen island, is sort of like a table with cabinets underneath it.”
“Ah,” I said. I understood her now. “I know what those are. We just never called them islands, because on Valorn, any island was land. We called it a socan.”
“Oh, cool. Hey, could you teach me your language one day? I’d like to be able to speak to you in your native language so you can feel a little more at home.”
I was already in love with her, but that was probably the sweetest thing she could have said to me.
I grabbed her, pulled her in, and kissed her deeply. “I love you,” I said when we separated.
She looked up at me, her hand on my chest while her other was on my back. “I love you, too. We still need to get the rest of the stuff in the house.”
“And if you two didn’t waste all of your time kissing, you would get it done.”
We both turned to see Sylor standing in the door, holding a chair. “Where do you want this?” As Annie showed him where to put it, the rest of my team came in carrying some of our things.
“What brought this on?” I asked as I rushed over to help Iq’her with a box that was more bulky than heavy.
He shrugged and pointed with his chin to Sylor. “His idea.”
I looked at Sylor, who nodded.
“We sort of figured that the faster you’re in your new home,” he said, “the faster you’re back at work doing what you’re supposed to do. So, here we are.”
“Besides,” Takar cut in, “we were curious as to what sort of home you would choose and wanted to see it before you cut us off again.”
The barb hurt a bit, but I deserved it. “I won’t cut any of you off again. We’re a team, a family, and I won’t abandon my family.”
“Good. Then you can help this family member carry in that ugly table,” Takar said with a smile.
“Hey!” Annie said in mock pain. “I picked that table.”
“Well, that explains it then,” Sylor cut in.
“Explains what?” Annie asked.
Before Sylor could answer, Iq’her finished his joke. “That you choosing Karzin wasn’t a mistake, it’s a pattern of bad taste.”
He had timed it perfectly.
Annie had started drinking from a bottle of water and spit it out with force at Iq’her’s words.
I looked at Iq’her in wonder. He stared at me, as serious as could be for a moment, then broke into a smile as the rest of the team ran from the house to hide their laughter.
I turned around to see Annie in shock.
Annie finally joined in and gave Iq’her a light kiss on the cheek as she passed him by.
“That was incredible,” I said, still laughing.
Iq’her and the entire team had finally forgiven me
The team spent the rest of the day helping us move things in, and even helped us start tearing the wall down that Annie wanted gone.
Rokul was curious as to why someone would want to tear down a perfectly good wall, but since it wasn’t his house, he didn’t care.
Annie wanted it, and that was enough for me.
It was late in the evening when they left.
She snuggled against me on the couch, both of us tired and happy. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For choosing me. For getting my family a new home…” she hesitated a bit. “For wanting me to live with you.”
I chuckled lightly. “Of course, I wanted you to live with me. Who else is going to clean my mess?”
“AH!” Her jaw dropped and she shot away from me and smacked me on the arm. “What?”
“Well, you want me to clean up my own messes?” I asked playfully.
“You’re damn right, mister. And you’re going to do dishes, and even the laundry, too,” she shot back at me.
I pretended to think about it for a quick moment, and as her eyes squinted more and more, I held up my hands in mock surrender. “Okay, I think I can handle that,” I said with a smile.
“You better,” she mumbled as she snuggled back up against me. We sat there holding one another for so long I lost track of what time of night it was. We just sat, enjoying being together and listening to music.
After a while, as I felt as though I was falling asleep, Annie spoke up again. “What are we going to do in the backyard?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well,” she pulled away from me and turned so we could look directly at one another. “It’s big enough for us to do a lot of things with. I wouldn’t mind having a few pets back there and maybe…” she stopped and looked at me.
I saw that she was a bit nervous.
“Maybe what?” I asked.
“Maybe some kids?” she said hesitantly. “I mean, the house and the yard are big enough for a bunch of animals and kids. I could see something crazy like a dozen animals or kids playing back there and running around the house. You know…if we were crazy.”
Kids.
Children.
With Annie.
That sounded...wonderful.
I could see children playing in the yard, maybe not as many as twenty, but certainly several.
I pulled her back into my lap. “That could be fun. A little miniature Andromeda, with your beautiful hair.”
She frowned a bit, nestling into my chest. “As long as it doesn’t clash with their green skin.”
A flash of worry ran through me.
Vrehx and Jeneva were going to be the first couple with a hybrid child, and everyone was hoping things were going to be fine.
Skotans aren’t as big as Valorni.
I looked at Annie and realized that, if she was willing to try to become a mother, I wanted to be the father.
If she was brave enough to rappel into a bottomless crater, together we could figure it out. And my fears for her safety couldn’t run our lives.
“Maybe one of those little hairy things you humans are so fond of. What are they called? Dogs?”
She bounced and nodded “Not a little dog, though. I want a full-size dog when it grows up. A big one,” she added.
“Sounds perfect.”
It really did.
Epilogue: Annie
“I’m excited to try the food this time,” I murmured to Karzin.
We
were back at the restaurant Karzin had brought me to the other night. As much as I didn’t regret dragging him out of the restaurant to make love in our new home, I did regret not getting a chance to eat here.
“Try to behave,” he winked.
“Can you two please not flirt? I’m trying to enjoy free bread,” Cassie groaned from across the table.
“Don’t eat too much,” my mother chided. “Our new food storage unit won’t be installed until tomorrow. If you don’t finish your dinner, we can’t take leftovers.”
“I’m not worried about finishing my dinner,” Cassie replied with a laugh. I couldn’t remember the last time I heard her genuinely laugh.
“Have you got your appetite back now that you’re not working at Orlin’s anymore?” Helix asked.
“What happened? He’s been singing your praises to me since you started,” I said.
“The deep fryer freaked me out,” Cassie shrugged. “Besides, I decided to volunteer at a refugee shelter. A lot of people need help.”
My mouth fell open in surprise.
“That’s amazing, Cass. I’m very proud of you.” I reached over to give her a shoulder squeeze. She shrugged me off and rolled her eyes, but I could see her hidden smile.
“Annie tells me you’re working at a shipping office, is that right, Helix?” Karzin asked.
“Yes,” my brother nodded. “Lots of resources need to be spread around. I look at what’s needed where and direct accordingly.”
“Impressive,” Karzin nodded.
Now that I was on General Rouhr’s payroll, I was able to give more to my family.
It was amazing, but maybe not a surprise, what a difference it had made as soon as they moved into the new house. When you didn’t have to worry about day-to-day issues like finding enough to eat, or have to live almost piled on top of each other, tempers eased.