Genie's Awakening Page 4

  She frowned at his comment. Not this again.

  “I’m exhausted. It’s time for bed,” Colin had said last night once there was nothing left to show her.

  “Bed? But it’s still day.”

  “The days last seventy-two hours here. We stick to our natural circadian rhythms while on missions,” he said. As if to prove his point, the strange round windows suddenly spiraled shut as artificial lights came on. “I’m going to turn in. You should, too.”

  For Genevieve, that brought a whole new category of worries. Normally, she slept in the nude. But she had no garments other than the rough ones she had on. And the other important question, in addition to that one, was where would she sleep? This tiny home, if it could be called that, contained exactly one bedroom and one bed.

  “Where am I to sleep?” She’d eyed the couch when she saw it earlier and could tell even without touching it that the thing was as hard as marble. not at all conducive for sleeping. She longed for her soft bed at home, and the way it soothed her to sleep with the comforting magic that had been woven into it.

  He’d looked startled at her question, and she’d realized that he hadn’t considered it yet. “The only real place for you to sleep is in my bed.”

  Indignation had infused her spine. Clearly the oaf thought he would take advantage of her this evening. “In bed with you?” The words rolled off her lips in a sneer.

  He frowned. “Look, I wasn’t planning on acquiring a bride today—”

  “You mean a slave?”

  “—but since there weren’t any other bidders,” he continued slowly. “I think you should just be grateful I took you on. Otherwise, you’d be back on that ship with that sleazy trader. Who, no doubt, would be taking you somewhere out of the network where you could easily be sold into slavery.”

  “It’s only right that I have my own bed,” she said, anger flowing through her. “Courtesy demands it. I’m a woman, and I’m also your guest. You’ll have to sleep somewhere else.”

  He clenched his jaw, making the muscle at the corner twitch. And somehow his eyes became even more piercing. “There’s nowhere else to sleep. Just the sofa and the floor.”

  “Take the floor then. There’s plenty of room for you there.”

  “No,” he said simply.

  Genevieve had felt her fury spike even more. “Yes!”

  Instead of answering, he’d vanished into the bedroom. She’d stormed after him, ready to physically shove him out if she had to. But she’d stopped in her tracks just on the other side of the doorway. He’d unzipped his coveralls and removed the shirt beneath revealing a firm chest and sleek abdominals that tapered downward. His shoulders were powerfully round and arms corded with muscle. His was a body used to physical labor, so much different from Jinn men. And she found that the sight of it stirred a new emotion inside her, one much less hostile. She ripped her eyes away and tried to look anywhere but directly at him.

  “Get out!” she said.

  He dropped his coveralls to the floor in answer. Him standing there with nothing but his underwear on made her blush like a maiden, but it helped her to concentrate more on her fury. She moved to push him out of the room. Placing her hands firmly on his chest, she shoved and then shoved again with all her might, trying to ignore how the smooth skin and ridges of muscle felt beneath her palms. He didn’t even sway from the pressure. She leaned in with all her weight, shoving her feet against the floor and even emitting a small grunt at one point, but she couldn’t move him. He simply would not budge. And then she’d heard a rumbling sound and notice the way his chest had quivered beneath her hands.

  She glanced up to see amusement in his green eyes. The man was laughing at her! Enraged even further, she began pummeling him with her fists. But she ceased after only a few seconds because doing so hurt her hands, and she’d backed away panting.

  He sighed as he looked down at her. “Genevieve, I just spent a good deal of my earnings on you, and I worked hard all day. I need my sleep. It’s only one night. We can put some pillows in between us if that will make you feel better. And tomorrow, we’ll figure something else out.”

  Her fury peaked and spent, she could feel weariness settle upon her as her panting slowed. She was exhausted as well. So, she’d glared at him, grabbed the silver blanket off his bed, and left the room without a word to curl up on the couch (which was indeed as hard as she’d surmised). There she’d shut her eyes and tried to wish it all away. Those damn Mahrid! They would pay for what they’d done. But, lacking powers of her own, she’d had no choice.

  The man was out of his mind if he thought he could lay in the same bed with someone of her standing. Sure, it was a standing she would soon be losing, but as of now, it was still hers.

  “That is utterly impossible, and I refuse to discuss it again,” she said in clipped tones.

  Her mother had warned her of human lust and how the men of Earth were highly attracted to Jinn women. If she was in the same bed with him, he would definitely try something. Other than kissing, she didn’t have first-hand knowledge what he might try because she’d been a bit of an outcast in her dimension so far, but she had some knowledge of relations between men and women.

  She moved to the table and sat in one of the simple white chairs across from the odious man. It was then as she saw his food that she realized what the uncomfortable and unfamiliar sensation in her stomach was, hunger. “Where’s my breakfast?”

  “If you want breakfast, you’re going to have to make it yourself. I need to get to work.” He fixed her with his calm green eyes, which reminded her of the many landscape paintings back home that she favored. They were the same soothing green as the moss that covered river rocks. The kind of green that could intensify with light or emotion, but then cool as if submerged beneath water. She’d seen those things in real life on occasion. But for the most part, Jinn favored environments embellished with ornate art and architecture rather than the crudeness of nature.

  Though this human was mild-mannered and patient, there was something about him that sent nervous tingles running through her body every time he looked at her. She shook off the feeling, huffed, and set her shoulders back. “Weren’t you listening? I wasn’t lying when I said that I don’t do menial labor.”

  The fact was, even if she wanted to, she didn’t know how. Food had always been taken care of by the servants, that was the most she knew about the matter. But she wasn’t about to tell him that. She wondered when Itembe and Chin-Sun would finally realize that they’d somehow gotten her vacation mixed with someone else’s. Though she couldn’t imagine whose it could possibly be. Who in their right mind would knowingly ask for such horrible circumstances? She wished they would hurry up and retrieve her. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could take this. But as time continued to tick by, worry gnawed at the lining of her stomach. They couldn’t have done this on purpose. Could they? But if they had, the questions was why?

  Colin continued to eat his breakfast, the corner of his jaw flexing with every bite, his forehead smooth and unconcerned. He looked at her and blinked but didn’t respond.

  Was the man slow? “I’m hungry. I need food.” She said again, enunciating each word clearly.

  “I heard you the first time. If you had said please, I might have gotten it for you. But like I said, you’re going to have to get it yourself. I have to get to work. Not like it’s hard, anyone can push a button.”

  Appalled, she glanced at the various smooth control panels in the kitchen. She didn’t even know which one to use much less how to make it work. Besides, she was his—ugh—property now, which meant it was his job to take care of her. How could he possibly shirk his duty? Then another shocking and awful thought crossed her mind. “You bought me just so you could starve me to death?”

  “Of course not. I wasn’t planning to bid at all.” He sighed and drank the last of what smelled like coffee. “Look, if we’re going to get along, you have to understand that you’re going to be pulling your ow
n weight around here. I don’t mind that you don’t have any skills yet. But I do expect you to work on acquiring some.”

  He rose and deposited his dirty cup and plate on the counter with the others there, then went to the door, which slid soundlessly back into the wall at his approach, allowing a warm breeze to sweep in. “I’ll be back this afternoon and we can go over what kind of partnership we’re going to have. You were tired last night, so I didn’t want to get into it then. But the sooner we work that out, the better.” And then, without a backward glance, he was gone.

  Genevieve’s mouth dropped open and she sat there staring for several moments. He’d just left her here without any regard whatsoever! What in Gehenna was she supposed to do alone on a strange planet all day? And on top of that, how was she supposed to feed herself?

  “Chin-Sun! Itembe!” she stood and shouted, rage making her feel uncomfortably hot. “You’d better fix this right now!” She folded her arms and waited for them to appear, but nothing happened. Not even one tiny ripple of air shimmered to indicate that they’d heard her. If they thought they could get away with this, they were sadly mistaken.

  “I mean it! This isn’t what I paid for, and you know it.” And then, though she knew it was useless, she squeezed her eyes shut, clenched her fists, and tried to will herself back to the island. But the stillness of space remained unaffected. She stomped her foot in frustration, sending tingles of pain up her shin. But she didn’t give up, she continued to call out to them, determined to put this nightmare to an end. They would hear her, or they would be sorry!

  THREE HOURS LATER, she found herself laying on the couch bored out of her mind. Her throat was raw from shouting, and her stomach now twisted painfully with hunger. She’d searched for something to eat, but that had led nowhere. Not one single compartment held anything resembling food, just dishes and such.

  She’d stepped outside at one point. But it had taken no more than a quick glance at her surroundings to see that there was nowhere to go. In the distance, off to the right, was the small shamble of a town they’d come from. Other than that, there was nothing. A wide-open expanse of earth stretched in all directions, its rich orange and red colors were suffused with an unreal clarity from the light of the double suns overhead, providing a striking contrast with the light-blue sky. Only a few ragged plants dotted the landscape here and there. They were bunched in scraggly clusters as if it was necessary to stay in groups in order to survive.

  She had no food, no transportation, and no way to contact anyone else she knew. Right now, she had no doubt that whoever had gotten her vacation was enjoying a level of pampering she herself had only dreamed of, while she was trapped in their damned nightmare until it ended.

  A thousand curses on Chin-Sun and Itembe! She pulled the strange thin silver blanket over her body and tried to sleep, but the sunlight radiating through the round windows kept her awake. They’d shut on their own last night somehow and then reopened this morning. If only she knew how to make them close.

  Anger flared within her once again, making the movement of blood past her ears audible as it rushed by in rhythmic whooshing throbs. Maybe if she focused on counting it, the thrumming would hypnotize her to sleep.

  She had no choice but to practice a virtue unfamiliar to Jinn: patience.

  Chapter Six

  It was late in the day when Colin came home for dinner. He felt bad about having to leave Genevieve alone all day. He’d planned to come back during lunch, but that had evaporated when an emergency Holo-Connect with the Demarcation Council and Director Banes had been called. Colin and the four heads of his team had gathered in the conference room and sat across the table from the holographic images of their director and the five commodores that made up the council.

  The news had been disturbing. The food crisis was becoming increasingly dire. There had been several more instances of food transports being hijacked, and the council was now immersed in the unsavory task of prioritizing where the remainder of the foreseeable food supplies would go. The strain of having to decide who should starve to death first lined everyone’s faces, and Colin couldn’t help feeling profoundly responsible for it. He and his team were humanity’s last hope.

  “We’ve spent more than the usual resources on Garrulus Four already. Don’t you think it’s time we deem it a failure and move on?” Commodore Lindin had asked him, pinning Colin with her small round eyes. That combined with her beaked nose had always reminded Colin of birds.

  “Commodore, I think that would be a mistake,” Colin said. “Though I don’t have any new data to show you, we have made progress here, and I strongly feel that a breakthrough is imminent. It’s not enough, I know—I know that—but moving to a new planet means starting over completely.”

  Colin’s team had shifted uncomfortably in their chairs beside him. All four of them had also voiced their opinions about moving on. But though Colin knew moral was low, foremost in his mind as the number of people who would die while they started from scratch. The current choices of terrestrial planets available to them were far less ideal than this one. Garrulus Four at least had liquid water and some plant life in addition to a breathable atmosphere. At the moment, space teams were desperately exploring the far reaches of the multiverse for other options. But Colin well knew that that was like trying to find a pebble in sack of grain.

  Commodore Lindin exchanged looks with the others on the council, and they gave her slight, grudging nods. “Five more days is all we can spare,” she said.

  “That’s not enough—”

  “Dr. Affeter, that’s all we can give you,” she said firmly. “The decision has been made. Five days and then your team moves on to the next potential planet on the list.”

  What the hell do they expect my team to accomplish in five days? Colin had shifted his gaze to Director Banes then, but he’d given Colin an almost imperceptible shake of his head. Banes was not going to step in and back him up on this one. So Colin had settled for clenching his fists in his lap and saying, “Acknowledged.” The sting of defeat had made the word taste bitter on his lips. The transmission had ended then and the holographic images of the council and director blinked out of sight.

  As an example to the others, Colin tried to put his pride and emotions aside during the brainstorming session that followed. Logically, he knew the council’s decision was not a reflection of their confidence in him. What their decision really meant was that the food crisis was far more extreme than anyone knew. All the more reason to give us additional time.

  But there was nothing he could do, they were employees of the government. And though the council, and Director Banes, usually deferred to Colin’s expertise, they ultimately held the power to nix a project.

  As logical and stoic as Colin tried to be, the session with the department heads had not gone much better. After an additional hour of reviewing and scrutinizing the latest research results, no one had any further solutions to volunteer. However, there’d been more than one suggestion that they contact Director Banes and ask for immediate relocation to the next planet. That had made Colin grit his teeth in anger. Rather than give in, he’d closed the meeting with a request that they take the rest of the day to come up with some kind of gambit for the remaining time and discuss it in the morning via comm.

  At the end of the day, before leaving his lab, he’d gone into the seedling room to review the progress of the latest crop he’d planted. They hadn’t even broken through the soil yet and he already knew they were worthless. Computer analysis had projected that the genetic mutations would become visible only a few short days after they sprouted.

  He sighed out his frustration and stood looking at the expanse of square receptacles of earth, hands on his hips. There wasn’t time to splice and grow a new batch in the next five days. He had no choice but to keep them and try to do something to correct their growth, even if they would be sucking up valuable resources. The disappointment stabbed deep, and the earlier sting of bitterness returned. But
this time, he recognized that the uncomfortable sensation of defeat was coming to him not from the council or from his colleagues, but from his frustration with the planet.

  This crop had been his latest and most hopeful splice of native plants with the Eardian crops they wished to grow. He had spent over a month working on it before moving forward with developing and planting the actual seeds. Yes, these were going to be yet another failure. That was how it was in research though. But Colin had learned long ago in his career that success lay not in the ability to conduct tedious, time-consuming trials, but in the ruthless optimism that drove him toward a solution. He’d always loved the rush of victory at the end. The feeling of distant hope transforming into concrete reality. That’s what had made him not only love his job, but also become one of the best at it.

  Worry about the crops plagued Colin as he returned to the housing unit and were joined by new ones as it came into sight. Would Genevieve still be angry? Would she still be there? Would his fantasy of her waiting for him with a hot meal come true? But when he walked in the front door, he was taken aback by the sight of her lying on the couch. Panic stirred uncomfortably in his chest, and old, painful memories flared in bright flashes from the recesses of his mind. He tried to squash them by reminding himself that Genevieve was not Maddy.

  “Hello. Genevieve?” he said, setting the portable terminal he carried on the kitchen table. “How did your day go?”

  No answer.

  Fear began to prickle on the back of his neck. Is she sleeping? He moved forward quietly across the room and looked down at her. Her eyes were closed, thick black lashes fanning out across her smooth golden cheeks. Her dark hair was scattered haphazardly around her. For a moment, what he saw was overlapped by a similar, darker memory. The one where Maddy never woke up. But no, this wasn’t the same. He tried to get a hold of himself and focus on what was really before him. Yes, it was Genevieve, not Maddy, and he now detected a tension around the corners of her eyes and mouth that betrayed the fact that she was indeed alive and awake.