7 Sam
Mr. Hemburg had a whole row of strange samples sitting on one of the tables and as we approached them, I felt my lips stretching into an excited grin. He was the lead researcher. He probably knew exactly what to collect and how and which would yield the most groundbreaking discovery. I started picking up jars to look at what he’d found.
“Redseed,” he said when I picked up a little vial filled with red seeds. “I have been waiting to find a physical sample of it since I found out what it was.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“Crushed into powder, those are medicinal, according to valerians. They stabilize blood pressure and regulate body temperature.”
Immediately, I thought of my fevers when I had a reaction to the devil plant. The seeds might not be anti-allergy, but they probably would have helped. I wondered if the valerian doctors ever gave any to me when I was sick. I was so out of my mind that I wouldn’t have remembered anyway.
“That’s incredible. So, can it be ingested like this?”
“Not sure. Valerian physiology is a bit different I suspect. We’d have to do a lot more tests.”
I shook the little vial of seeds in front of my face, staring at them like they were gold. I was consumed with the possibilities… until I caught Mr. Hemburg staring at me in the same fashion.
“Your face really lights up about these wonderful discoveries,” he said.
I smiled, my cheeks growing hot as I put the vial down. “I guess.” To my right, Candice and a couple of other girls were sliding their own sample jars on the table, watching us way too closely. “I mean, it’s just the first field I decided to try. I couldn’t go into medical. I’m not smart enough and definitely too squeamish,” I laughed. “And really I’m not good at anything, so I went into a field that was interesting.”
Mr. Hemburg reached out and took my gloved hand in his, making my back stiffen.
“Don’t ever say something like that. You’re bright and there is so much potential in you. Do you think I’d be showing you these samples if I didn’t think so?”
No one had ever called me bright and full of potential. I stopped breathing at the comment, letting it sink in. Of course, the mean little voice in my head told me I’d heard him wrong, but I tried to ignore that. Mr. Hemburg said I was bright. I was drunk on the compliment.
“Come,” he said. “I’ll show you where I found the seeds.”
He slung his bag onto his back and turned, heading deeper into the woods. Curious, I followed him, excited to know what other things he could teach me and what other things there were to discover. I was almost giddy thinking about it. Perhaps the seeds were the beginning of my finding a way to conquer the effects of alien plant life on humans.
“This planet really is a gold mine,” he said as we hiked through the trees. I glanced back at the base camp as it sunk further into the hazy distance.
“Isn’t it a moon?” I commented.
He acted like he didn’t hear me. “I’ve done a lot of digging when it comes to plant life on valerian planets. This being the first time we’ve been allowed to do any research on one, you can imagine how far I’m willing to go to discover everything I can.”
“Of course. This is a huge opportunity. You worked on the Nexus, right?”
“For a time. But sometimes you grow tired of feeling metal under your feet. So, I returned to Earth to be a speaker at different conferences and universities.”
We passed a pair of interns on our way into the silence of the forest, which made me feel a little better about slowly losing sight of the camp. We were going a bit far, but at least we weren’t the only ones. And Mr. Hemburg knew what he was doing. He’d been on hundreds of expeditions. They’d all been on Earth, but still. He was a big name in his field for a reason. Discovery required risks, I reasoned.
But then we lost sight of the two other interns and I started to fidget. I could still hear their voices… until I couldn’t. I glanced back to see that there was nothing behind us but the woods. The foreign, silent woods.
“Aren’t we going a bit far?”
He glanced back at me, tapping his mask. “Directions are tracked in our masks. I know exactly where we’re going.”
I nodded once, glancing at the readings inside my mask to see a bunch of numbers I didn’t understand. But if he did, then I shouldn’t have been worried. Hopefully.
“You see, the seeds come from a tiny flower,” he continued. “The valerians call it hima tu. I’ve named it the peacock bloom. You’ll see why.”
Indeed, I did see why when we entered a small field of tiny flowers growing low to the ground. Each one had three petals, each of which looked like the tip of a peacock feather. Inside, the filaments were each tipped with a cluster of tiny red seeds. I gawked at the little plants, kneeling immediately to take my own samples. When I touched the filaments, I noticed the seeds were attached with a slightly sticky substance. When I scraped them off, spiderweb-like strings stretched out nearly a foot before I stuck the cluster in a little vial.
“That must be how they spread their seeds,” I said. “This stuff would stick to anything that passes it.”
“Yes, and it disintegrates quickly. So it would stick to passing animals for a while and then fall off, putting the seeds in various places to grow.”
I smiled at my vial as I corked it, imagining the possibilities.
“Could we grow them on Earth?”
“Perhaps. It all depends on if it can survive in an artificial environment. Perhaps we could cross-breed it with Earth plants to get a hybrid that could survive on Earth. Maybe that could be our project.”
I looked up at him and found him crouched close to me, watching me in the near darkness of the deep forest. Subtly, I turned to put my sample in my pack and stole a glance toward the base just to make sure I remembered which direction it was in. I’d have been a lot more comfortable if I could have seen it, though.
Standing, I moved to another spot in the field of peacock blooms and tried to do my own studying, but Mr. Hemburg was always there, watching me and tailing my every step.
“You know, I could help you.”
“Really?” I said innocently. “Help me how?”
“Well, with all your theories. Your research.”
“Why would you want to help me? I’m a nobody.”
“Now, what did we talk about? You’re brilliant, Sam.”
Something about the way he said my first name made me shiver inside and not in a good way. I continued to circle around the flowers, pretending that I was looking for more samples, but I was far too distracted by the way Mr. Hemburg was acting to really observe anything.
“I’ve been looking for another plant out here,” he said. “I think it’s supposed to grow near stagnant water.”
“What’s that?”
“The valerians call it a gri plant.”
“Does it have medicinal properties?”
“In a way. It’s very important in valerian medical research for… reasons.” He feigned shyness. “I shouldn’t talk about it with an intern, but it is an aphrodisiac. A weak one, but if it's treated and concentrated, it can help with arousal.”
I scoffed, raising a brow. “So it’s alien Viagra?”
“Sam, please.”
“What?” I shrugged. “We’re science geeks. We can talk about stuff like that without it being inappropriate.”
Hopefully.
“You’re quite right.” He took a slow step toward me and suddenly my skin went cold. “We should be able to remain professional in any circumstance.” He took another step, crushing a cluster of flowers under his boot. “Which means you should know that going places in a competitive field like this is hard. So many discoveries and everyone wants to be the one who made them.” Another step. “The reality is, I’m going to bring those seeds to the Nexus. I’m going to process them. I’m going to make the discovery and put my name on it and your name will fade into the background.” He was barely an arm’s length from me. “Or, I could put both our names on it and you could go down in history.” His eyes glimpsed my suit pocket where my sketch of the arlakh plant was stuffed. “I saw your picture. I know what you’re looking for and why. Do you think I didn’t read every bit of your file? You want to make interplanetary travel safe for humans who might have adverse reactions to alien environments. That’s huge, Sam. That could change everything.”
“I know,” I muttered, my voice less decisive than I intended it to be.
“So. Let me help you.” He reached out, placing his hand on my shoulder and sliding it down my arm.
“Help me how?”
Every bone in my body was telling me to turn around and walk away. I was sure if I called out, someone would hear me and I could follow their voices back to camp. But then what would they think? I’d been gone with Mr. Hemburg for a while and two people definitely saw us going off alone.
“Well, you do something for me and I do something in return,” he laughed lightly like I should have already known what that was. “You know how this works.”
“I really don’t.”
The woods were getting darker. Or maybe that was my imagination. Maybe that was my nerves telling me things were taking a bad turn and I should leave.
“You are brilliant. I meant that. Brilliant enough to know what I can do for you and what I could do to you.”
“Are you seriously doing this right now?”
“My work is funded by NexCom, just like your education. But I have a lot more friends. So, use your brilliant little mind,” he said, tapping his finger to the side of my head condescendingly. “And tell me. Do you want your name on this big discovery of yours?”
I took a deep breath and quickly went through the way things would go. He was asking for something I didn’t want to give and in exchange, I could be someone I always wanted to be. In a sense, anyways. I could be important. But I’d have to sell out for the opportunity.
You’ve sold out for less, a wicked voice said.
But I wasn’t that pathetic woman anymore. I wanted to accomplish things with my mind. My discipline and my determination. If I left Mr. Hemburg there, high and dry, he could tear me apart. I knew people like him and I knew the power they had.
He stepped closer to me like he was trying to coax the slut out of me and I felt my disgust rolling in my stomach. A year ago, I was the girl to trade sex for anything, but I was also high or desperate most of the time. I was in my right mind now and I wanted so badly to be better.
I stepped away, a lump forming in my throat because I knew that if I walked away, I was saying goodbye to my future in the field (and maybe other fields, too). I was flushing a year of work down the drain. No matter what, he would win. And if I chose to fight him or try to expose him, I’d still lose something. People always did in those situations.
It came down to how important I was to myself and though I wanted to topple over and cry over it, I was too important to let this guy get his way.
“I don’t—” I shook my head.
“Come on. It’s only simulated.”
He was right. Sex was always simulated unless you wanted a baby out of it. But it was still intimate. It was still personal. It was still degrading in a lot of ways because I’d never done it with someone I liked or even cared about.
I took a deep breath and stepped away from him. “No.”
“No?”
His brows shot up like he hadn’t even considered the possibility that I’d refuse him.
“Do you realize what I can do to you?”
“Yes, and I said no.” My voice cracked. My words were much more certain than my tone conveyed.
I turned to walk away before I broke down and started crying like a little child. Moments later, I felt a hard tug on my backpack. I stumbled back and spun to look at him.
“You’re making a big mistake, Worthington.”
“No, you’re making a mistake. I’ll tell everyone what you did.”
Somehow, I knew that wasn’t a threat. Everyone thought I was a privileged slut anyways. My word meant nothing and he knew it.
“Your name was in the news because you spent time on Sylos. Your name will be on the news now because you went insane, Ms. Worthington. Not a bright future after all.”
I jerked myself out of his grip and grimaced at his cocky eyes. A glimpse of my old self flashed before me and I shoved him as hard as I could in the chest. He wasn’t expecting it because he stumbled backward. He laughed at my sad attempt to fend for myself and shook his head.
“Now, now. You’re just adding wood to the fire. You bruise me, and that goes in my report.”
“Are you serious? You’re disgusting! All this over plants? That’s pathetic.” I started walking again until I remembered a little detail about our masks that had slipped my mind until that moment. I pivoted once more to face him. “Besides, these masks record twelve hours at a time. Everything you just said is on both our feeds.”
Bad, bad, bad. He wasn’t going to like me reminding him of that.
I suddenly felt the need to get back to camp as quickly as possible, but that time his hand caught my arm, jerking me abruptly to face him. I slammed into his front where he held both my shoulders in a tight grip. Fear washed through me like ice water and I stared up at him, wide-eyed.
“Oh, stop. You think I’d touch you like that without a simulator? You’re probably full of filthy alien contaminants from your time on Sylos.”
I wasn’t. Four doctors made sure of it. Still, I didn’t like being called filthy and I didn’t like the way he was holding me.
“But as for those recordings, you and I need to fix that before you go anywhere.”
“Let go of me.” I writhed in his grip, but he wasn’t easing up. “Let go of me!”
When he finally did, my foot caught a root and I flew backward, hitting my head on the ground hard enough to make white spots appear in my vision. Looking up at the trees, I was sure of it now. The woods were getting darker. The day was getting later and I was alone with a man who was trying to ruin my life.
“Get up. We need to erase the last hour of feed and get back to camp, Ms. Worthington,” he sighed like the whole ordeal was a bore now.
I rolled to all fours, ignoring his outstretched hand. Slowly, I lurched to my feet, feeling a very prominent wetness on the back of my head. Reaching back, I felt a stinging bump on my skull. With my glove, I couldn’t actually feel more than that, but when I looked at my hand, red streaks covered my fingers and my mask’s readings suddenly went wild with physical reports.
Physical trauma reading. Seek medical.
“Shit,” Mr. Hemburg hissed. “Reset your mask’s records so we can head back and get you looked at.”
I pulled away from him before he could grab me again and started heading the way I thought would lead me to camp.
“Leave me alone.”
“Ms. Worthington. Don’t be foolish. The sooner I reset your mask, the sooner we can get you help.”
I started walking faster, every warning bell in my brain going off like a siren.
“Ms. Worthington.”
I kept walking. And then he stopped using his voice and I heard his footsteps walk briskly up behind me. I tensed just before his hands were on my arm. I tried to duck out of his grip only to see his fingers close over the front of my mask.
“What are you—”
Before I knew it, my mask was yanked off my face and when I spun, he was quickly trying to reset the data readings. He’d pass it off as a malfunction, most likely. But more importantly, I was without a mask and breathing Phesah’s air. I reached for the breather in a panic only for him to pull away from me.
“Give it to me!”
I grabbed for it again and when he didn’t relinquish it, I resorted to wrestling it out of his hands. He shoved me again, but when he did, I used the momentum to rip the mask away. I made a run for it, not bothering to put it back on when I heard his footsteps chasing close behind.
As I ran, I noticed the air around me. It was fresh, thick, and humid, but breathable. For the moment, at least. Until some alien pathogen found its way into my airways and I started hacking up my lungs. But I couldn’t worry about that yet. Mr. Hemburg was on my heels. I was small, but he wasn’t the fittest guy in the world judging by his speed. I could make it. Maybe.
But then his arms were around me and his weight dragged me to the ground. We both went rolling across the uneven soil, through unidentified plants and across jagged stones. I reared back and elbowed him in the ribs, trying to stand, but in the near darkness, I was directionless. I hesitated to get my bearings and he grabbed at me again, yanking the mask from my hands and pushing me with his other arm.
I tripped backward and felt my back foot sink down behind me. There was a hill and I was plummeting down it. I screamed as I rolled across the steep incline for what felt like forever and then the ground finally evened out… for about half a second before it was gone completely.
I’d just fallen off a cliff. I was rendered silent by the shock of it all as I fell down into the darkness, but by some miracle, I hit water instead of stone. I sank instantly beneath the surface. The cool liquid engulfed my face and flooded my nose, turning me in all directions. It was a river, deep and flowing rapidly. And I was stuck in it.
I managed to claw my way to the surface for only a moment before I was dragged down again. When I came back up, I searched frantically for something to grab hold of, but I could hardly see the shore let alone something to use as leverage. I tried to call for help, but the moment I opened my mouth, it filled with water. I was thrashing and searching but to no avail. Then my ankle hit a rough stone. Then my knee hit something and I did my best to lift myself onto my back.
When in white water, you were supposed to lay on your back. I remembered that from some survival documentary I watched as a teenager and I was glad it stuck with me because, in my panic, I managed to do it. I rolled onto my back and I shut my eyes tight, letting the river sweep me away. All the while, I wanted to cry. I wanted to fall apart over all the mistakes I’d made and all the shit it had brought me.