Chapter 15
ELENA
When I came out of Ardruc’s bathroom freshly sanitized and wearing a jumpsuit and boots, he and Forux were waiting for me with nearly identical expressions of anticipation tinged with impatience.
“We are ready to explore the station,” Ardruc announced, his hands folded behind his back and tail swishing. “Once you have had your coffee, of course.”
He’d always kept his tail wrapped around one of his legs. Only now did I realize how much his feelings affected its movement. Before his confession about being my true mate, he’d made sure it was studiously restrained every minute I was nearby to hide his emotions. That revelation made me sad.
“Let’s hope I can still make my coffee,” I said. “If I can’t, I may have to stand up on the roof until I get a shock from a kora to get myself fully awake.”
“The medical bay has a considerable stock of stimulants,” Ardruc offered helpfully as we headed for the door of his apartment. “Most are far less dangerous than strikes by korae or lightning, and more palatable than coffee.”
I ignored that last bit. “Let’s just see what the kitchen looks like before I move on to contingency plans.”
Ardruc waved his hand over the scanner by his apartment door. It slid aside soundlessly—unlike my own door, which, as he’d noted, creaked. He must have remembered that too. We exchanged quick, knowing smiles as Forux preceded us into the hallway.
The forest had indeed taken over Nova Cal.
Thick, fragrant grass covered the floor.
The walls and ceiling had all but disappeared behind leafy branches and vines.
Much like the windows in Ardruc’s apartment, the many skylights remained uncovered.
The station’s design reflected the Nyvorans’ love of natural light.
I’d always appreciated the skylights, which allowed us to only need artificial light in our labs and during the night, but now I marveled at the way the sunlight spilled over the foliage and grass—and how much the mushrooms and lichen seemed to flourish.
“This is incredible,” I said, my voice almost a whisper. “All this grew in just forty-two hours? I keep thinking it’s all impossible, but it isn’t because we’re looking at it.”
When Ardruc didn’t reply, I looked up. He appeared deeply unsettled and even bewildered, as if his world had upended itself and set him adrift.
For as long as I’d known him—and for a long time before, if rumors about him were true—he’d relied on methods and procedures based on known quantities.
He’d scoffed at gut feelings and daydreams to the point of being pedantic.
Why he was this way, I didn’t know, but he’d definitely relied on hard science to provide a firm foundation for not just his research but his entire being.
Now we were surrounded by impossible things, and the director of research had utterly lost his footing.
I found myself taking his much-larger hand and squeezing. “Let’s have coffee,” I suggested. “Everything seems more possible after coffee.”
Ardruc remained grim, but his lips turned up at the corners. “Let us hope that holds to be true.”
The kitchen was at the opposite end of the T-shaped station from Ardruc’s apartment. Our first stop on the way was the weapons locker, where we each picked up plasma guns and holsters for them.
“We do not know whether these will affect potential adversaries,” Ardruc noted as I buckled the straps around my waist and thigh and slipped the gun into the holster.
“True. That’s why I also have this.” I withdrew a slim dagger from its sheath in my right boot.
“A very nice weapon.” He studied it. “Is it J’noran? What is that on the blade?”
“Yes, I bought it on J’nora.” I turned the dagger so it glinted in the light and he could see the symbols etched in the metal.
“The writing is a blessing I received while living and researching on Palus. It doesn’t translate directly, but basically it says, May this blade protect its bearer, and may it never fall from her hand. ”
“That is a lovely sentiment.” He secured his own weapons. “And long may it be so.”
I returned the dagger to its sheath. “If we can’t shoot them and we can’t cut them, I suppose we’ll have to outsmart them.”
He chuckled. “Let us hope it does not come to that, as I feel much less knowledgeable and intelligent today than ever in my life.”
“Even more so than the last time you went up for an academic review?” I teased.
“Well.” His mouth turned down, but his golden eyes twinkled. “Perhaps it is a tie.”
The next door past the weapons locker was Ardruc’s lab. As badly as I wanted and needed coffee, our curiosity demanded we stop to see what its interior looked like.
Unsurprisingly, the walls, ceilings, and floors had filled with grass, branches, vines, and leaves, but his workspaces—computer terminals, screens, countertops, and so forth—were left clear.
Forux and I followed Ardruc inside Lab One. We found the computer compiling information from the massive korae that had taken place the night before last when I was burned. All his screens showed images and data, much as they’d done every hour I’d resided at Nova Cal.
“Normally I would hesitate to ascribe intent to flora or fungi,” Ardruc said, leaning on his desk with both hands to study the screens. “But it would almost appear as if the forest would like us to continue our work.”
Meanwhile, I wanted to know whether the station’s computer-run systems were operating normally. “Computer, open a comm channel to Minister Ganna on Nyvor.”
The computer beeped. “All interplanetary communication systems are offline.”
My heart sank. “Explain the nature of the status of the interplanetary comm systems.”
“The comm systems are functional,” the computer reported in the same emotionless tone. “The relay satellites are not responding and may have been damaged by weather. Current status unknown.”
In other words, Ardruc and I could communicate within range of the station, but the satellites that permitted us to contact anyone on Nyvor, Fyloria, or any other planet wouldn’t work.
The small transports on the landing pad were not capable of spaceflight—only flight within a certain radius inside the planet’s atmosphere. We were cut off completely.
My other biggest concern was my own research. “Computer, what is the status of the sample labeled Basiforuximycota Prime in Lab Three?” I asked.
Beep. “The sample is stable,” the computer reported.
From his desk, where his screens still showed images of korae and the data associated with them, Ardruc looked at me over his shoulder. “I am supremely grateful my equipment and my ability to continue my research appears intact.”
“I hope the same is true for mine.” I scrubbed my face. “I want to check on my lab and medbay. And then…”
“Yes, coffee.” He ushered me out of Lab One and down the hall toward Lab Three.
Long before we reached it, I knew something was vastly different about my lab versus Ardruc’s.
At this end of the hall, foliage covered the skylights, and without artificial light the corridor was dark.
The glass wall between my lab and the hallway was covered completely as well.
I couldn’t see inside my lab at all. My curiosity and awe gave way to trepidation.
Apparently, I was not alone in my reaction. When I reached for the scanner to unlock the door, Ardruc caught my hand.
“May I?” he asked, his tone cautious, as if he feared I might snap at him for acting protective.
I was perfectly capable of a lot of things—hiking up mountains carrying heavy packs, flying a small transport, identifying rare fungi, consuming possibly unhealthy quantities of coffee—but we had no idea what might be waiting for us in my lab.
Just because we hadn’t been physically attacked up to now didn’t mean we were safe.
That red kora had damn near killed me. Whether that had been deliberate or on accident, we had no idea, and I wasn’t about to take chances.
Plus, I had nothing to prove to Ardruc, and nothing to lose by allowing a giant dragon man with lightning-fast reflexes to be the first through the door.
“I’ve got your back,” I said, gun at the ready. “If anything rushes us, we shoot first and ask questions later.”
“Agreed.” He waved his hand over the scanner and braced himself.
As the door slid aside, two things happened nearly simultaneously: a blue-green glow washed over us, and Forux darted past my legs and into the lab.
“Shit!” I started to follow. Ardruc’s arm blocked my path. He moved aside, though, and from the doorway I got my first look inside Lab Three.
“Oh,” I breathed.
My lab was dark…and alive.
The room had no artificial light except the bank of computer screens. The skylights, like the floor, walls, and ceiling, were covered completely with foliage. But unlike every other room we’d seen, my lab was filled with glowing, bioluminescent fungi.
Nothing moved inside the lab except Forux, who was sniffing his way around. Strangely, the stillness wasn’t eerie—it felt warm and welcoming.
In a kind of daze, I holstered my weapon and walked past Ardruc into a shimmering heaven of mushrooms and lichen in every shape and color imaginable.
They grew on the branches and vines on the walls and ceiling and in the grass, though they seemed to have left pathways clear for me to move around the lab.
Some I recognized from either studying them myself or the research of earlier mycologists, but many I didn’t.
I had the strange feeling the subjects of my research had come to me on purpose and taken up residence in my lab as if they wanted to make my work easier.
Like Ardruc, I struggled to assign intention to fungi, but everything we've seen since I woke up made me think our new environment was the result of deliberate choices made by the planet’s native forest.
The wonder of it battled in my gut with uneasiness. We still had no idea why this had happened or what was expected of us.