Chapter 7
ELENA
Ardruc had stepped foot in Lab Three only a handful of times in the four months I had lived at Nova Cal.
And given how immersed he was in his own work and the frostiness of our conversation after my return with a broken ankle, I fully expected not to see him for at least a couple of days.
Judging by the relaxed way Forux had sprawled on the floor at my feet, he and I were both relieved at the prospect of quiet, uninterrupted work time.
So when the door to Lab Three whooshed open mid-morning the day after I got back from my ill-fated research trip, Forux raised his head, growled, and flattened his ears. If I had ears and vocal cords like his, I would have done the same.
Familiar heavy footsteps crossed the floor and stopped halfway to my desk.
“Why did you access images and data from yesterday’s korae events?” Ardruc’s curt voice shattered the lovely quiet of my lab.
I glanced up from my bank of seven screens. Six showed scans of samples I’d brought back from my trip. The largest one in the center showed the data he was referring to.
“Curiosity,” I said.
Through the gaps between my screens, I watched his wings flutter and his tail swish.
Despite the sub-optimal temperature in my lab, with his high body temperature, he wouldn’t be shivering. His species came from a tropical zone on his home planet. His natural body temperature was much higher than a human’s.
Lab Three was the smallest and least-well climate controlled.
As the director, Ardruc had laid claim to the facility’s largest lab and given his research assistant the second-largest though they had rarely used it.
Until recently, Ardruc almost always had Rg in his lab working at his side or watching over his shoulder.
But then about a month ago Rg had packed up and left after one too many arguments over lab procedures.
And yet Ardruc had kept both of the largest and best-equipped labs, because, as he reminded me every chance he got, my studies didn’t require a larger workspace or the most advanced equipment.
He’d put me in a closet or even outside sitting under a tree with a half-powered datapad if he could, but he’d have a hard time explaining that to my supervisor back at my home lab on Fyloria.
“‘Curiosity’ is not an adequate answer,” Ardruc said, his voice colder than the air in here. “My raw data and images are not for public consumption.”
Forux curled his lip.
“I am not the public.” I kept my tone neutral as if I didn’t know he’d meant that as an insult, and as if I didn’t want to throw something at him.
“I’m a fellow researcher. And there’s nothing in the Nova Cal procedures that forbids either of us from examining the other’s research if it provides insight into our own studies. ”
His wings fluttered again. “I see no possible way my work could overlap with yours.”
There was the tone I knew so well: the one that implied my studies were so much less in every conceivable way.
Unfortunately for Ardruc, my mother was Dr. Hilda Disen. I’d heard nothing from her but cutting remarks about my interests and research almost every day of my life until I’d basically cut ties two years ago. If he wanted to hurt me with condescending comments, he’d have to try a lot harder.
“You got some great clear images of mesospheric phenomena last night,” I said instead of telling him to go feed himself to a Hardanian bogworm. I had a three-dimensional image of a lovely red kora with long tendrils on one of my screens. “Really spectacular.”
“I am aware of what my equipment recorded.” The answer was clipped. “But I still want to know why you felt entitled to access data that could not possibly mean anything to you.”
Maybe it was because I hadn’t slept well, even as exhausted as I was last night.
Maybe my rations of Bacorian coffee were running low and I was drinking less so I didn’t run out before our next delivery of supplies, so I was having trouble focusing on my work.
Maybe I’d just attempted to be civil and he’d thrown it back in my face once again and I was fed up.
Or maybe I really wanted to know his opinion on what I’d seen and I couldn’t keep the whole strange incident to myself anymore. Whatever the reason, I decided to explain why I’d accessed his precious data.
“I saw a bolt of kora in the forest yesterday near where I landed the transport,” I said.
“In fact, I saw it twice. About a meter long, bright red, hovering vertically about a meter off the ground. The first time, it startled me so much I lost my footing and slipped on a loose rock. The second time I saw it, I was sitting in the transport door and I got a much better look at it. I watched it hold still for a moment, and then it disappeared back into the trees like it was trying to hide.”
Ardruc stepped around the bank of monitors, his expression dark, feathers ruffling, and eyes nearly sparking with anger.
Today under his lab coat, he wore a dark blue shirt and fitted black pants designed to accommodate his wings and long tail, and boots better suited to walking through the woods than working in a lab. Maybe he planned to venture out later. He liked to go hiking and flying several times a week.
“That is not possible,” Ardruc said, and even my mother had never looked down her nose at me as much as he did in that moment. “Obviously you did not see any form of korae.”
Oh, obviously. My eyes narrowed. Forux stood up and growled, all his fluffy tails fanned out in irritation.
“Did you record an image of what you saw?” Ardruc pressed. “So it could be analyzed?”
I sighed. “No. I didn’t get a chance.”
“I see.” He raised an eyebrow. “So you have no proof of this impossible thing you said you saw?”
Gods, I wanted to punch him.
“It must be nice to have such a clear and complete understanding of every last thing in the universe,” I said, my voice as icy as the winds on Aloris. “One wonders how someone as wise and knowledgeable as yourself ended up working alone at Nova Cal. Is it maybe because no one can stand you?”
He stretched his leathery red, orange, and black wings, ruffling and settling his feathers before folding his wings neatly behind his back once again. His tail swished and then coiled lightly around his right leg.
“I have never said I know everything there is to know,” he grated. “If you feel the need to insult me, at least choose one of my many actual faults. You do not need to resort to made-up ones.”
“Apparently you feel the need to insult my intelligence and my eyesight,” I shot back.
“And you mock my field of study every chance you get. I’ve had enough, Ardruc.
I tried to be friendly colleagues, and when that didn’t work, I just tried to share the station and be courteous, but you won’t even do that.
I’ve never once disparaged your research.
Why belittle mine constantly? If you’re just bored or need to work through some aggression, you can find a different way to do it besides making fun of me and my life’s work, you pompous asshole. ”
Well, I hadn’t intended to blurt out that last part, but I couldn’t take it back—and I didn’t want to.
He studied me for a long time, his expression unreadable.
He was probably used to people backing down from him or mumbling a polite “Yes, sir,” like his assistants usually did right up until the day they left the station for less hostile work environments.
Not many probably stared right back when he locked his sharp, unblinking, dragon-like gaze on them.
But I’d come too far and worked too hard for him to run me off. Hyderia was heavenly for mycology research. And now I had my teeth into a new mystery: these red tendrils.
They might be alive. Or possibly some state of being even astrobiologists didn’t understand yet. I wanted to find out what it was I’d seen. And I planned to stick it out until I either proved it or convinced myself I was wrong.
And for whatever reason, my hypothesis bothered, offended, or downright pissed Ardruc off, for reasons that seemed personal as well as scholarly. I’d ask him bluntly why he’d reacted so strongly if I didn’t think I had a better chance of growing wings than getting an honest answer.
“Has it occurred to you,” Ardruc said, still in that rough voice, “that by arguing that the phenomena I have dedicated my life to studying are in fact some kind of living thing that you are disparaging my work? As if I cannot recognize the difference between naturally occurring upper atmospheric electrical discharges and an organism with consciousness?”
I blinked at him. Had we just accidentally had our most substantive conversation since I’d arrived at the Nova Cal facility?
“No, I don’t think my theory disparages your work,” I said.
“Upper atmospheric electrical discharges are a scientific certainty. I’m suggesting I saw something else that might not have been observed before.
I’ve discovered dozens of previously unknown fungi in the last four months.
This planet has been so well protected that it may offer more discoveries and mysteries than any other in this sector.
I believe this is one of them. That doesn’t diminish anything about your work. ”
“You believe.” Now his voice turned harsh. “Therein lies our key difference, Dr. Regis. Your beliefs are based on what, precisely?”
“Observations,” I said. “Data.”
He crossed his arms, his biceps straining the fabric of his shirt in a way that was not at all distracting. “And?” he prompted.
I knew what he was driving at, and I knew by answering that I’d be playing into his hands, but I didn’t care. “Gut feeling.” I raised my chin. “You know the history of scientific advancement. How many discoveries came after a researcher had a gut feeling?”
“And how many gut feelings are completely unfounded?” He scoffed. “I do not need any gut feelings to know you are wasting your time with this.”
All the gods above and below, it was like talking to a Hardanian lava squid, and half their bodies and a third of their brains were made of rock.
“Well, it’s my time to waste, I suppose,” I said, turning back to my monitors.
“In between studying Hyderia’s wondrous fungi, I’ll do the research you should be doing into what might be sentient plasma.
” I couldn’t resist one more dig. “In the meantime, my lab on Fyloria will keep helping to fund this facility, and you can go back to your big, comfy lab and bask in the warmth of your own smug self-righteousness.”
I wasn’t looking at him anymore, but I sensed his glare drilling twin holes into my forehead.
“I mean it,” I said, my attention on the center monitor and its display of a gorgeous red sprite with long, dangling tendrils that looked so enticingly like humongous versions of what I’d seen in the forest. “Go. I have work to do.”
Finally, he turned on his heel and left. His wings and tail barely cleared the doorway before the door shut behind him. In his wake, an unfamiliar scent swirled in the air around me, peppery and sweet. Strange. Had it come from Ardruc? I’d never noticed it before.
I rubbed my face. I needed more coffee. Maybe I could have another cup today.
We expected a delivery of supplies in a few weeks.
I should be fine until then. I’d ordered extra this time, so I wouldn’t need to ration it as much.
It would help if I could get some decent sleep, though.
I’d be far less tired, and much less likely to let Ardruc’s bullshit get to me.
He really was the most insufferable asshole.
I sighed, drained the last drops of coffee remaining in my mug, and stretched with a groan.
I’d been sitting too long again, captivated by the images and data of the korae and the specimens I’d brought back from my trip.
I’d confirmed the Basiforuximycota was in fact a new order of fungi and excitedly written up my preliminary findings…
and then gotten utterly absorbed in learning about Hyderia’s upper atmospheric electrical discharges and cold plasma.
Ardruc’s data showed last night’s mesospheric activity was the biggest and most involved display of korae in weeks.
I’d found images and data on this red sprite first and lost almost three hours learning about it.
I looked forward to examining it in holographic form and learning more when I got back to the lab from making coffee.
“Who the hells does he think he is, anyway?” I asked Forux.
He made a guttural sound.
I’m going to kill that dragon man one of these days, I fumed, storming out of my lab and down the hall. And pin him to the wall by his pretty little wings and that sexy tail.
I scowled at myself. His tail was not sexy. Nothing about him was pretty or sexy.
When I passed Lab One, I caught a glimpse through the hall window of Ardruc standing at his desk, hands on his hips and gaze fixed on one of his monitors that showed the same red sprite I had on my screen in Lab Three.
He didn’t look up when I went by, but with his sharp ears there was no way he didn’t hear my footsteps. And I didn’t exactly tread lightly going past his door. Not that I wanted another confrontation today, but I didn’t want to be ignored as if I didn’t even exist. Asshole.
I took my rage and my empty mug to the kitchen, found my stash of Bacorian coffee, and turned on the machine.