Colonization (9 page)

“Oh.” Somewhat placated, I smoothed down the front of my bio-suit, but it popped right back into place. Embarrassed and angry, I wiggled my way past the cockpit. “I need to belt myself in.”

“Annie.” He grabbed my arm and tugged me toward him. My heart tugged as well. “Be careful today. I heard this mission is particularly dangerous. There’s already one man down.”

“I know. I saw him.” My voice came out more edgy than I would have liked, and I tried to soften it. “I’ll be fine.”

“Passengers, take your seats.” The lieutenant’s voice boomed behind us as he leapt up two stairs at a time. “Miss?” He gestured for me to move, and I looked down at Sirius but he’d already let go of my arm.

“Of course.” I felt like a fool standing in the way and scurried to the farthest seat in the rear of the Corsair. Mom joined me, and we belted ourselves in. Two of Mom’s coworkers and a third woman wearing a medic’s coat settled in the seats in front of us. I recognized two of them from my trips to the biodome and tried to manage a friendly smile as the engines revved up. Nerves bubbled up in my stomach, and I resisted the urge to bite my nails. My hands and arms tingled as the ship pushed off the ground and hovered.

The deck swayed and my stomach heaved. The engines grew louder, rumbling my bones and buzzing in my ears. Mom said something, maybe trying to comfort me, but I couldn’t hear her over the clamor. I closed my eyes and willed myself not to throw up as we sped forward, vaulting into the open sky.

The vines below me were an intricate tapestry sprinkled with pieces of purple and ebony shards. The aerial view of the terrain inspired awe, and I couldn’t imagine flattening it for greenhouses and housing units, but that’s what we did each day, balding a patch of jungle with our relentless machines.

We flew farther than I expected, coming up just beneath the crystal mountain ridge.

Mom leaned in. “We’re headed down.”

She took my hand, and I squeezed her hand as the ship dropped, my heart and stomach plunging with it. Gripping the arm rest of the chair with my other hand, I swallowed, trying to keep my breakfast down.
We’re descending too fast.
The jungle canopy rushed up, and I thought for sure we’d crash. Reverse thrusters engaged, and the ship slowed. We hovered just above the reach of the vines.

The aviator’s voice came on the intercom. “We’ve arrived at the specimen site. You are now free to move about the bay.”

Sirius rounded the corner and opened the hatch, dropping out a coil of rope ladder.

I turned to Mom. “We’re going down using that?”

She gave me an apologetic smile. “I forgot to tell you. The Corsair can’t land here. We have to climb down.”

“Great,” I muttered under my breath.
This mission just gets better and better.

“Put on your filter mask.” Mom’s voice sounded muffled as she tightened her own. “We don’t know what the plant looks like, and it could be anywhere in this vicinity.”

I adjusted the elastic straps until the plastic sucked my face off, and inhaled my first breath of filtered air. “Okay.”

“Good.”

I followed the rest of the bio team as they collected their gear and filed in a line by the portal. One by one, they started down the ladder. I was the last one to leave the ship. As I turned back to the cockpit to position myself over the rope ladder, Sirius put his hand on my shoulder and spoke over the roar of wind bolstering the ship’s belly. “Good luck, Annie.”

I stifled a rising thread of hope that he still cared for me and tried to keep my face even. “Thank you.” I wasn’t sure he heard my muffled voice through the filter.

“Be careful.” His eyes sparkled with intensity, and I wondered what else lurked in the depths. Did he look at everyone that way? Or was his fiery gaze meant only for me?

Lieutenant Crophaven muttered a question behind him and Sirius disappeared into the cockpit. I stepped down to the fourth rung of the ladder. The violent wind of the hovering Corsair ripped through me, almost blowing me off-kilter. I tightened my grip on the top rung, trying not to look at the rush of green beneath me. One hand over another, I climbed down in my pouffy bio-suit.

When I got to the bottom, I jumped the remaining distance and landed on my hands and feet in a crouching stance in the turf. The foamy latticework of roots and vines had cushioned my fall. I recovered quickly, rising to meet the group.

Mom tapped a pair of tweezers against her palm. “Let’s start taking samples.”

I followed them into the jungle, stopping along the way to pluck offshoots of plants I didn’t recognize and drop them into plastic vials. The samples rattled around in my backpack with each step. I wondered if any of them would lead us to an answer, or if we were all on a wild comet chase.

The group fanned out over the landscape, combing the jungle. I stayed within earshot of Mom, making sure to use the ridge as a reference point. Determination hardened inside me. I wanted to be the one to find the culprit releasing the toxin. I’d disappointed her so far, and today I longed to make her proud.

Compared to the buzzing engines of the Corsair, the jungle lay silent with only the occasional drip of rain trickling off the vines. I climbed my way through a tangle of creeping plants and found a conglomeration of hand-sized white flowers under an outcropping of purple crystals. Spiral stigmas dusted with corn-colored pollen jutted out of the center of the petals.

Securing my mask, I reached down and swiped a cotton swab against the blossom until enough of the yellow pollen stained the tip. Popping open a vial, I dropped the swab in just as a flash of movement beside me caught my attention.

I froze, turning my head slowly so as not to draw attention to myself, and spotted a glow of white light just beyond a thicket of ferns.

The same glow I’d seen on the first day.

My whole body tensed up. My fingers darted to my locator, but for some reason the screen wasn’t working.
Should I go back and alert the team, or go after it?
The light diminished as I crouched in indecision, and I jolted upright, cursing. Instinct kicked in, and I pushed forward through the vines. The light lured me forward, always teasing me behind clusters of ferns and large blossoms. I tripped and fell, and my face jammed into the vines. Pin-sized insects fluttered around my face. I glanced up feverishly, thinking I’d lost it. The glow hovered just beyond a column of vines.

Pulling myself up, I followed it until the vines ran together in a blur. The crystal mountains towered over me like giants condemning my trespassing. The jungle darkened in their shadow, making it easier for me to spot the light. I broke free of the vines and crested a ridge, climbing on slabs of sheer crystal. My breath heaved in my ears and plumed against the inside of my mask. Behind me lay the jungle and in front of me jutted the foothills of the mountains. I’d traveled far from our assigned range.

The white glow solidified into a humanoid shape and I held my breath, waiting for it to make a move. It was too far away to be threatening, so I stood my ground, wishing my locator still worked.

I could make out the shape of the wings and the piercing stare of its round eyes. Its arm rose, the wing attached to it fanning out in a blur of iridescence. It extended a long branch-like finger toward the mountainside. I crept forward on the rise of crystal, trying to see what it was pointing at.

The slant was steep, and my feet slipped forward. I scrambled for a handhold, my arms flailing as I tried to keep my balance. A stray piece of crystal rolled under my boot and I skidded, tumbling head over heels until I hit the turf. Pain shot up my leg and I looked down to see my foot bent at an odd angle. I hit my fist into the turf, breaking stems. “Damn it.”

The panic rose in a tidal wave. I breathed hard, trying to talk myself out of hysteria.
Calm down. Try to get up.

I counted to three and rose. A streak of pain overwhelmed me and I cried out, settling back on the ground. Now I’d done it. I’d broken my leg. Mom would never let me come on another mission again.

Panic rose up, constricting my throat, as I realized I couldn’t make my locator work and I was stranded. Would I die of thirst and hunger out in the jungle?

Calm down. You couldn’t have wandered too far from the team. They certainly won’t leave without you.

The muscles in my arms bunched and burned as I dragged myself into the foliage and away from the ridge. Sharp pains stabbed my ankle every time my leg bumped against a vine. Tears blurred my eyes, and I thought of all the people who I’d let down.

I have to get back.
I needed another chance to find this toxin, and to prove to Mom I was the best species integration assistant she could ever have. I refused be labeled a slacker for the rest of my life.

Gritting my teeth, I fought through the pain and climbed over the weave-work of vines. My bad foot kept getting tangled and I had to tear my boot free, eliciting more sharp pains and more tears. The sunlight began to fade, and a new rush of adrenaline surged through me as I realized I’d be alone in the dark of night. No one had built energy panels into the crystals. I couldn’t just reach up and bring light with the touch of a finger. Man, was I spoiled on the
New Dawn.
I’d never look at my sleep pod the same way.

Just as another wave of frustration came over me, my locator beeped and the screen flashed back on. I hailed Mom’s locator immediately, typing the distress code followed by a burst of my assigned signal so she could find me. She responded immediately with a beep and a single line.
Coming to get you
.

Relief intoxicated me and I collapsed with my face in the vines. What would I tell her? I followed a wandering white light and climbed up a sharp and dangerous crystal for a better look?
Was I going crazy?

Mom broke through the jungle along with the medic from the bio team.

“Andromeda! Thank goodness we found you.”

A new wave of embarrassment hit as Mom rushed over. The medic, an older woman with white hair and wrinkles spreading from her eyes, knelt beside me, feeling around my foot and leg. At least her fingers were gentle.

“It’s sprained. Nothing more.” After wrapping my ankle in a tight brace, the medic packed up her supplies.

Mom gave me a warning stare. “You’re lucky. You could have snapped your leg in half. What were you doing out here?”

“Research.” I shrugged. “At least I thought I was.”

Thank goodness the medic interrupted. “Help me hoist her up.” Mom sighed and propped me up against her while the medic took the other side. Being dragged was humiliating, but the pain was too much to bear just for my pride.

After an arduous trek back in silence, we reached the hovering Corsair. Lieutenant Crophaven scowled as he attached me to the ladder. Did the man ever smile? Looking at the frown lines in his tight-lipped face, I didn’t think so.

Sirius pulled me up so I didn’t have to climb.

As I reached the landing, Sirius grabbed my arm and hauled me up onto the floor of the Corsair. I thought I’d die of embarrassment, but I wasn’t so lucky. I had to stay there with him alone until the rest of the bio team finished their scan.

“Annie, what happened? Are you all right?”

I didn’t want to tell him I saw another crazy alien no one else saw,
again
. So I shrugged, trying not to make it such a big deal, although it was. “I slipped on a crystal and fell.”

“Does it hurt?” He helped me onto my seat and propped up my foot.

“Not very much.” Actually, my whole leg throbbed as though it had been ripped off, but I wasn’t going to act like a baby. Not after being such a foolish klutz.

“Let me hold a cold bar on it.”

“That’s okay. You don’t have to.” Sirius had already opened a container and retrieved a plastic stick, which he bent in half to activate the chemicals. He sat beside me and applied a bit of pressure to my ankle with the cold bar. It felt worlds better as it numbed. I wished I could numb myself, because my heart beat fifty times too fast.

Sirius had a distant look in his eyes. “Annie, remember when we broke into the biodome at night and let all the goats free?”

Despite the situation, I laughed. “Yeah. One of the nanny goats bit that old desert cow from Sahara 354 and it snorted water out from its third trunk.”

“Or was it the fourth?” Sirius punched me gently in the arm.

“You never did tell your mom how your uniform got so dirty, did you?”

He smiled slyly. “Nope.”

He was trying to get my mind off the pain. It worked like a miracle. Why did he have to be so charming?

Something must have changed in my eyes because Sirius stopped smiling and his voice grew soft. “What’s wrong?”

I sighed, debating whether or not to tell him anything. My impulsiveness won. “We can’t have adventures anymore.”

Sirius spread his arms. “Look at us, Annie! We
do
have adventures. Now they’re far better. Now they’re real.”

“Ha.” A bitter chuckle rose in the back of my throat. “Real.” What we had before was more real to me than what we had now. How could I tell him that? Did I want to?

He shrank into himself like a cornered animal. “Annie, I’m just trying to do my job. You have to have faith in the path the Guide chose for us. If you can’t believe that, then how can you believe in anything we do here?”

“I believed in us,” I blurted out.

I’d never openly mentioned our “couple” status out loud. Sirius started as if I’d electrocuted him back to life. His gaze intensified, and he bent his head next to mine. His breath teased my lips. The temperature in the ship seemed to rise to a hundred degrees.

We teetered on the verge of another kiss. This time he pulled away. “I hear them coming.”

At first I thought he’d made up an excuse, but then the rope ladder twitched with movement. Sirius cast me one last longing look and went to help the bio team board the ship. I settled back in my seat with my numb foot resting on the back of the chair in front of me and wondered why the world had to be so many shades of purple and not just black and white.