The Rain | Part 1 | The Beginning

by Standlee, Marietta

  We reach our destination, and right away, the second I open the car door, the heat comes at me. As if the devil decided to exhale into my face. I take a longing look at the ocean, hoping for a cooler breeze, but the sea appears almost flat. I sigh and wipe at the sweat already building on my forehead.

  This time when we knock on the professor’s door, we are ushered right inside. Martin introduces his son to him, but the older man waves him off.

  “I already met him a year ago. Monica brought him over and introduced us. She was so proud of her stepson.”

  Blake and I stare at other uncomfortably. Even though I’m starting to like Martin a lot better again, I still have reserved feelings about him and my mom. And calling Blake her stepson kind of implies that Martin’s sons are my brothers, something I really do not even want to consider. My feelings for them are far from sisterly, most of the time anyway. I don’t even know anymore. This is definitely not the time or the place to try to explore my feelings for the Thornton men, though. One thing is for sure; I wonder what it is about the Thornton men that attracts the Allister women.

  I stop my thoughts before they can go any further because the professor beckons us into another room, which is quite beautiful but even hotter than outside. After the air conditioning in the professor’s laboratory, this one makes sweat break out all over my body the minute we step our feet inside the large greenhouse.

  There are rows upon rows of flowers and greenery; one side holds fish tanks and terrariums with all kinds of creepy creatures, from small insects to frogs, lizards, and even snakes. The rows go up three tiers, and I shrink back at the sight of a large, black tarantula.

  But almost instantly, my eyes are drawn into the center of the room, demanding all my attention and making me forget about being uncomfortable and all the other odd things.

  There in the middle, in what looks like another small greenhouse, sits our plant, bigger than the last time I saw it. It looks beautiful; the orange leaves are thick and full. The flower, with the coloring of a sunset over the ocean, blooms. It’s like nothing I have ever seen before. A mix between an orchid and a lily would best describe it, but the petals are shimmering in reds and oranges and purples. I take an involuntary step forward to get a closer glimpse at the beautiful flower, which seems to beckon me. And I notice the smell again, not so faint anymore, a sweet scent summoning me forward, closer, ever closer.

  A hand lands heavily on my shoulder, holding me back. “Not too close, sweetheart.”

  If anybody else had called me that, I would have been irritated. But, coming from the professor, it seems natural. Scrutinizing the plant more closely, I realize how the flower gently sways in a nonexistent breeze, like the head of a cobra, hypnotizing.

  “What is that?” I ask.

  Blake and Martin stare at it, equally fascinated. I have never seen anything so bizarrely beautiful in my entire life.

  “We call her The Lure.” Professor Dunn tells us.

  He pulls something out of a small box on another table. “Watch this.”

  It’s a large moth; it flies around the room; the second the lid lifts off the container. For a moment, it appears disoriented, its wings taking it this way and that. But suddenly, it zooms in on the flower, making a straight beeline for it.

  As soon as it reaches The Lure’s petals, the tongue-like thing I saw before snaps out and catches the insect. It pulls its tongue, plus moth, into its stalk as if they were never there. It happens so fast that I didn’t even notice any kind of opening for the tongue.

  Astrid steps forward; she’s wearing some heavy-duty looking, black gloves, carefully plucks one of the leaves off the plant, and walks over to us.

  “Smell this.” The professor orders.

  Astrid doesn’t hold the leaf under our noses; she just puts it close to us and waves her other hand in front of it like a fan. The aroma hits me instantly. It’s intoxicating. It’s like nothing I have ever smelled before. Exotic and sweet. So sweet, I want to taste it, involuntarily my hand reaches forward, just like Blake’s and Martin’s. Astrid pulls the leaf back, and for a second, I get angry at her for not letting me touch it.

  The professor’s laugh breaks the spell. “Intoxicating, isn’t she?”

  I watch Astrid put the petal into a small baggie before sealing it and throwing it into a toxic wastebasket.

  “We studied the plant intensively. Nothing seems to be able to resist it once the scent is detected. It lures everything in, and it’s extremely toxic. We tried it on mice and rats, the plant didn’t eat them, but they died after taking a few bites of the leaves. It looked painful too.”

  I shudder at the thought of the useless deaths, even if it were rodents. This is the part about science that creeps me out, the total disregard for life, human or not. The professor doesn’t seem to notice my reticence because he continues.

  “We tried all kinds of insects; they all met the same fate as the moth.”

  “So, what is it?” Blake asks, his voice deep and husky as if he is still under the Lure’s spell. A thought that creeps me out to no end.

  The professor leans against a desk and massages his chin thoughtfully. “Like nothing I have ever seen. We did DNA testing, and honestly…it does not seem to be related to any plant on Earth.”

  It takes me a minute before his words sink in. Martin and Blake appear to grapple with the same implications.

  “It’s extraterrestrial?” Martin finally ventures.

  “Either that or an entirely new species.” the professor says. He closes the little window in front of the small greenhouse sheltering the plant.

  “That is not the disturbing part, however.” My mom’s old mentor scratches his beard.

  And I wonder what is more disturbing than what he said before and what we just witnessed; after all, we do have carnivorous plants on Earth. I voice my thoughts out loud.

  The professor nods at Sven, who pulls out an iPad. “The plant seems to thrive in inhumane temperatures. After placing her in this separate greenhouse, the temperatures inside increased by twenty-five degrees, and she flourishes. You can see how much bigger she has grown in just a few days.”

  I check again, yes, the plant has doubled in size since I last saw it, plus when we brought it, it didn’t have a blooming flower, only a bud.

  “We also noticed, since once the window inside the greenhouse is closed, it becomes a self-sustained environment. The plant produces oxygen like all the other vegetation on Earth, but it also adds to the temperature inside.”

  “Wait, it’s warming its surroundings?” Blake clarifies.

  Sven nods gravely. “Yes, we did some experiments, added heat sources, put it in direct sunlight, and so on. It seems like this plant flourishes best at one hundred- and forty-five-degrees Fahrenheit.”

  I swallow a hard lump down my throat. My mind is reeling, and I try my hardest not to conclude the facts Sven is laying out for us. It’s unthinkable. I need something else to focus on, and by the looks on Blake’s and Martin’s faces, I think they need it too.

  “What about the turkey thingy?”

  Astrid snickers again like she and her brother did last time. And just like last time, it earns her a reproachful, almost imperceptible, headshake from the professor.

  “Well, about that.” The professor’s fingers play with an expensive-looking pen. He appears more hesitant to talk about the dead animal than he was about the alien flower.

  “This is not conclusive yet.” He wags his finger in warning. “I sent DNA samples to a friend of mine with much better lab equipment than we have here….” He trails off.

  Martin gets impatient. “Just spit it out.”

  “All indications point to the animal being a hesperonychus elizabethae.”

  Even though I have no idea what the name means, I let out a breath of relief at his words. “That’s good news, right? At least it means it’s from Earth.”

  Astrid, Sven, and the professor exchange an inscrutable glance.

&
nbsp; “What?” I ask in an icy voice. I don’t think this is a day for good news.

  “Yes, it’s from Earth.” the professor hedges and finally finishes after another inpatient huff from Martin. “It’s presumed to be part of the Dromaeosauridae family which died out during the Cretaceous period, about sixty-five million years ago. Give or take.”

  The professor’s and his assistant’s expressions are in stark contrast to ours. Theirs are animated and full of excitement, while ours are full of apprehension and denial.

  “It’s a dinosaur,” Blake states flatly.

  “Is it a baby?” I ask.

  When the word dinosaur comes to mind, all I can think of are giant lizards. The only ‘smaller’ ones I can think of are the ones from the movie ‘Jurassic Park,’ which were still taller than a man.

  The professor shakes his head. “No, it was...is a small dinosaur species. Assumed to be the size of a chicken.”

  I lean against Blake for a moment, who puts his arm around me. This is a lot to take in. My head spins, and for a second, I see black dots in front of my vision. Worried I’ll pass out, I take a deep breath to get myself back under control.

  “What does all this mean?” I finally ask to dispel the silence settling over us.

  Professor Dunn clears his throat. “I’m not sure one thing has anything to do with the other. Although given all the circumstances, I think they are connected.”

  “Professor,” Martin says warningly, his patience running thinner by the minute.

  The older man moves his head around and up at the ceiling as if searching for words. “You want my opinion as a scientist as to what is going on here?” He finally asks.

  “That would be nice,” Martin says sarcastically, and he reminds me so much of Colin it makes me smile.

  “Wait.” I interrupt, anticipating a long lecture. “Can we take this in the other room? I’m melting here.”

  “Absolutely.” The professor agrees, and I notice he has little beads of sweats on his forehead too.

  My clothes are almost soaked by sweat and cling uncomfortably to me; as we return to the lab, where the cold air kisses my skin, it’s like a touch of heaven. I suppress a moan; yeah, it feels that good.

  Astrid makes her way to a large fridge in the corner and produces several bottles of ice-cold water. I restrain myself not to attack her and wait patiently for my turn. The icy liquid goes down my throat smoothly, and my body temperature slowly returns to normal.

  Scrutinizing the others, I notice I’m not the only one who was uncomfortably hot. But the professor and his assistants seem less affected by the heat than the rest of us. They are probably used to the greenhouse. I imagine they spent quite a bit of time there, with their new toy.

  Sven pulls out chairs, and we huddle into a small circle. Finally, Professor Dunn begins to explain. “Please bear in mind this is only my personal opinion.”

  Sven and Astrid clear their throats loudly, and he smiles. “Well, mine and my esteemed colleagues’.” He amends to his assistants’ appreciative smiles. I bite the inside of my cheek; it’s all I can do to stop myself from drumming my fingernails impatiently against the chair’s armrest -which would be incredibly rude.

  “I –we think it started with the rain. It changed people, we know that for a fact, but it also changed the local fauna. No wait, let me start over.”

  Martin huffs, and I have to suppress a giggle. “Okay, I have it. Let’s say we set out to colonize Mars.”

  Martin rolls his eyes, but the professor puts up his hands. “Please bear with me. It’s easier this way. Trust me… Okay, let’s say we were to colonize Mars; what’s the first thing we would have to do?”

  “Build housing,” Martin says. The professor shakes his head, and for a second, I’m worried Martin will jump up and choke him.

  “Terraform it,” Blake says before violence can erupt, and the professor points at him with a smile.

  “Smart boy!”

  Blake beams but loses his smile when he sees his father’s expression, and the professor elaborates: “Although, aliens wouldn’t necessarily terraform Earth, so to speak.”

  “Alienform?” Sven suggests, making my head swim.

  “Advenaform,” Astrid says smugly, using the Latin word advena for alien. (Don’t ask me how I know this.)

  “Can we get back to….” Martin starts to ask exasperated before Dunn interrupts with a loud sigh, meant for his overeager helpers.

  “Alright, forget about the details for a second. Assuming we had the technology, we would begin to terraform Mars, just like Blake suggested. We would probably need to invent machines to change….”

  Martin jumps out of his chair, his face red with anger and impatience. This time I can’t control the giggle, which earns me a deadly glare from him. I sober instantly. Although Martin is in his late forties, he is still a very imposing man. Broad in his shoulders like Colin and Blake, and I know that those muscles are not just for show. I have seen him train. The professor’s face pales.

  “Alright, already. Jesus Martin, calm down.”

  I can’t speak for other people, but those are the last words I want to hear when I’m enraged, and by the narrowing of Martin’s eyes, he seems to share my sentiments. He takes a deep breath, gaining control over his emotions once again before he sits down.

  “Please, professor, no more detours.” Martin pleads.

  “If you would just quit interrupting me….” Dunn begins.

  Astrid speaks up with a heavily accented voice, but the way she chooses her words makes me realize that she is extremely smart. “What the professor is trying to explain is that in order to live on a different planet, you have to make it livable for your species. If we expand on the professor’s example on how to colonize Mars, I’d say, we would send machines to transform Mars’ environment to be similar to ours, using what’s available in abundance there and chemically terraform it.”

  She seems to expect a reaction from us, but our expressions must still be blank because she blows out air towards her bangs before snapping her fingers. “Okay, you want it straight.”

  Martin visibly exhales and slumps into his chair; I think he has given up on a brief explanation and is ready to just sit back and let it happen.

  “We have grounds to speculate that somebody is transforming Earth. The rain did not only change the people who were unlucky enough to get caught in it; it was also a vessel to deliver seeds. Seeds for plants like the one in there.” She points at the greenhouse.

  “Considering the information we have gained from the unknown plant, we can safely assume that whoever is changing our environment wants it warmer. A job the plants seem to be doing. You have probably noticed that it is already a lot warmer than normal.”

  Her words are an understatement if I ever heard one; I let it go though, since she is finally getting somewhere.

  “As Sven mentioned earlier, the plant seems to thrive in one hundred forty-five degrees. We don’t know if that means this is the targeted temperature of the unknown species, or if they put the plants in to speed up the warming process.”

  “Hold on a second.” Martin holds up a hand. “Are you saying… there are more of those plants out there, and this is why it is getting so hot?”

  Cold sweat breaks out all over my body, and where I was hot before, I’m now shivering. This is really happening. This is not some cool —what if, conversation by the fire with friends. Something not from Earth is not only attacking us but is also changing our entire climate.

  “Can humans survive in those kinds of temperatures?” I ask in a small voice.

  All three academics shake their heads.

  “No,” Sven states flatly.

  “So why change some people and make them attack and kill us if we are all doomed to die from the rising heat anyway?” Martin spits out.

  The professor shrugs his shoulders. “We have no idea what’s going on for sure. We don’t know if this is happening everywhere or if this is localized.
We can only guess if the aliens intended for our people to turn maniac or if that was just a byproduct.”

  “Wait, what do you mean localized?” I ask.

  Sven answers, “The particular plant we have thrives at one hundred forty-five degrees. But that doesn’t mean all their plants do. We only have one specimen. Since we are dealing with a species from another planet, I think it’s safe to assume they have more than one kind of plant, which means they would send more than one kind to Earth. I would.”

  My head is swimming for a moment, and I have to recall his words to make sure I understand at least the gist of what is trying to tell us.

  “Plus, every part of Earth is different; some heat up faster than others. I talked to my mom yesterday; the temperature here is more than twenty degrees higher than usual, but in Orsa -that’s where we are from, the temperatures only rose by eight degrees.” Astrid adds.

  I lean back in my chair; my ears are literally pulsating with all the information thrown at me. All I want is to go home and pull the covers over my head in my bed after a long swim in the cold ocean water. I fantasize further.

  “So how do dinosaurs fit into all this?” Blake asks, and I groan inwardly.

  I really want to find out more about it, but I’m also at my limit of information intake, especially the life-altering kind.

  “That one is easy.” The professor lights up. “Whoever they are, they are much further technologically advanced than us.” He nods to himself. “Even at this point, we, as in us humans, would be able to breed and duplicate dinosaurs. Think of the movie ‘Jurassic Park.’ It’s not that farfetched.”

  “Okay, I get that. But why?” Martin specifies patiently.

  Professor Dunn shrugs his shoulders: “My guess is as good as yours. To keep the survivors busy? Sidetracked? Decimate our numbers further?”

  “Will the dinosaurs survive this temperature spike?” Martin inquires, forehead scrunched up.

  Again, there is a shoulder shrug, followed by a helpless expression on Dunn’s face: “I don’t know, Earth was hotter back then, when the dinosaurs thrived, but we really can’t say for sure what kind of temperatures they could survive in.”