Genie's Awakening Page 7

  But rather than looking disappointed with her as he had earlier, he smiled and then laughed, startling Genevieve because it wasn’t the condescending or mocking kind of laughter she was used to getting back home. His first reaction of disappointment at her cleaning and decorating efforts had stabbed deep. Failure was something she should have been accustomed to by now, but wasn’t. The pile of them was just too high not to be a sore spot. It looked like even here, in the human world, she would be just as useless as she was back home. And she’d been so proud of herself for what she’d done so far, felt so empowered by figuring out the problems all on her own, and had even felt the rare emotion of satisfaction in accomplishing something. Then his anger and rejection had made her feel horrible.

  His voice was gentle and his green eyes were warm and filled with patience as he showed her how to use the coffee tumblers. She stood watching as the water inside them changed to a rich brown and began to steam as the coffee brewed. And when she smiled in delight, he smiled along with her and answered her questions about how those worked, too. The awful pit in her stomach faded because he wasn’t looking at her like a lost cause the way everyone else she knew did. Somewhere in that moment, something inside Genevieve shifted toward the man.

  He answered more question for her, this time about the bathroom facilities, as he showed her again how to use the synthesizer. She could have continued asking him questions all day. Her fascination with all that humans had accomplished in their world with their madness and every explanation he gave her only sparked new questions. There were logical explanations for everything and the man before her seemed to know almost everything. He was quite intelligent, which she found she admired. But, as he finished the last sip of his coffee with an amused smile on his lips, he lifted a hand to stop her.

  “I HAVE TO GET TO WORK,” Colin said. “But I’ll be happy to answer those questions later.”

  He really didn’t want to leave. He was having a good time answering Genevieve’s questions. The rapt look on her beautiful face as he answered made him think of the way a child’s mind soaked up information. In addition to that, it gave him an excuse to study her features at leisure, like the way her dark slender brows arched aristocratically over her exotic brown eyes, and the almost imperceptible upward slope of her slender nose. He’d been so engrossed in conversation with her that he’d almost lost track of the time.

  “Again? But you went yesterday,” she said, protesting as though he were taking away a game she wasn’t done with.

  He couldn’t help but smile at her innocence. He could see now that that’s what it was. She just wasn’t ... from around here. Yes, she was a tad entitled and condescending. But if he listened to his gut, which was right a high percentage of the time, she just didn’t know any better.

  “Yes. I go every day,” he said.

  “Really?” Her eyes widened, dark eyelashes framing them charmingly. “Don’t you make time for fun at all?”

  She looked concerned, as though this answer was the most important of all. “Of course,” he said simply. Though it had been a while since he’d done anything that was commonly known as fun. Fact was, he enjoyed his work and could spend hours lost in it long after the typical workday ended and everyone else had gone home. “It’s just that, right now, the mission is under a tight deadline. But, yes, normally there’s time for relaxation and fun.”

  “Oh. Good,” she sighed out a long breath and leaned back in her chair. “But then, what am I supposed to do while you’re gone? I did everything I could find to do last night.”

  She looked panicked, as though his leaving her there would be the worst thing he could do to her. And, on second thought, it probably was. Her words reminded him of all the mischief she could get up to within just a few hours. If he left her alone today, what else would she do to his home? Suddenly, he was concerned, too.

  He didn’t have time to take her in to town, so he offered her the only other alternative he had left: to bring her to his lab where he could keep an eye on her. Would she go for it? “Uh, well, you can come with me. There’s work you can do at the lab,” he said. “It’s not glamorous or anything. I’m waiting on repair parts for one of the droids, so you’d basically be taking over its tasks.”

  She sat up and her expression brightened. “Really?”

  Relief shot through him and he was charmed all over again by the rapt look on her face. “Sure. But I need to leave in the next minute. You should wear the clothes you had on yesterday so your dress doesn’t get dirty.”

  She hopped out of the chair, gave a small, “Squee!” of excitement and ran to the bedroom. “I’ll be right back!” she called as she disappeared.

  Colin couldn’t help grinning and thinking that, right when he thought he’d gotten life figured out, he’d been handed a woman who was full of surprises. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d looked so forward to seeing what the day would bring.

  Chapter Nine

  “Well, this is where I work,” Colin said, sweeping an arm in front of him with a wry tone in his voice as they entered the growing room. “I doubt you’ll find it much more interesting than being at home. But you can spend the day here with me and see what you think. If you don’t like it, we can find you something to do in town.”

  Her lips parted, no doubt to start in with questions, but Colin stayed her with his hands again. “Sorry, but I need you to save your questions for a bit,” he said. “I have to get on a comm with the others this morning, but I can show you what to do before I go into the office.”

  He led her closer to the large table with the batch of seedlings. Several had just broken through the surface this morning. But most were just still hints of pushed up earth. “This is our latest and most promising crop, Condrafurs. They’re hybrids.” He lifted a small clear bottle from the edge of the table that was filled with a handful of tiny black dots and shook it. “These are the seeds. We’ve tinkered a little with their genetic code, hoping that they’ll fair better than the other things we’ve tried to grow. There’s no telling until they get a little bigger,” he said.

  He put his hands on his hips as he surveyed them, knowing what was to come already based on the bio scans, projected mutations, and the fact that the terminals had less than a one percent error rate. “They’re supposed to look something like that when they’re grown,” he said motioning to the picture he mounted on the wall as good luck.

  “They need to be given nutrients and water. As I mentioned, normally there’s a droid that does that twice per day. But I’m waiting for its replacement parts, so it has to be done by hand. You’ll be doing me a favor,” he said with a smile. “I’ve been doing it since the droid went down. They each get exactly the same amount. It’s a boring task, but I hope you won’t mind.”

  “Not at all,” she said looking eager.

  He provided her with the equipment, quickly showed her what to do, then watched as she fed and watered one in the first row.

  “Can I touch them?” she asked, surprising him.

  He shrugged. “I don’t see why not. As long as you don’t damage them, they’ll be fine.” He glanced at the terminal along the wall, which blinked a reminder. “Well, I’ll leave you to it.” He strode into the office for his meeting, new worries crowding his mind.

  GENEVIEVE STOOD FOR a moment, gazing around the odd room which was filled with more strange containers and devices that made her wonder. Then she placed a hand on her midriff as a mild nausea came upon her. Had breakfast not agreed with her? But, no, the nausea wasn’t actually centered in her midriff, or anywhere in her physical being. That much she could tell. It was more of a twinge at the edges of her energy, her life force.

  Jinn were rarely ill. And, so far from home with no way to contact anyone she knew, it made her worry. But perhaps it was simply an effect of eating strange food and being in a completely new environment. Or maybe it was a result of the ride over. Colin had a strange form of transportation that had been hidden behind the ho
using unit. It was a small silver pod-like structure that lifted and glided over the ground smoothly and quietly, as though they were in a bubble effortlessly moving through the air along its surface. It had been a huge thrill, so much better than apporting, and ten times better than the plane to the island. But maybe the ill feeling she had now was a result of that. It didn’t seem to be getting worse, so she began her task and hoped it would go away on its own.

  She stopped for a moment to have a look at the picture Colin had pointed out. It showed a whole field of plants with broad, purple-veined leaves and what looked like oblong berries growing from their tops. Fascinating how seeds could become so much more. She returned to the table and lifted the strange white row of tubes that Colin had loaded for her. There were six in all and they fed and watered three plants in a row simultaneously. She watched the marker on its side carefully as she emptied a fraction of its contents by pushing the button on its side, then moved to the next ones. In her mind, she kept track of the grid of containers wanting to be sure she didn’t miss any. She had a great interest in seeing what happened with them. In her mind, she’d already labeled them baby plants. The thought made her smile and feel a special fondness for them and their journey as she made her way down the middle of the table with the tubes.

  In Tarmange, the city where she’d grown up, everything had been engineered and embellished by a millennia of Jinn magic. Every detail had been attended to from the largest architectural details such as homes, streets, and plazas down to the smallest like signs and buttons. Everything could be attributed to a Jinn that had come before or those who had augmented it afterward, even the jewels, paintings, sculptures, and rich fabrics of her home. As a result, most of the plants she’d seen were the ones that came at mealtimes.

  She reached out a finger to touch the tiny and fragile stem of one of the seedlings, just poking up through a small clump of dirt. It was a pale-green that almost glowed in the light. And, as her fingertips came into contact with the delicate appendage, she was struck with the strange realization that the nauseas feeling wasn’t coming from her. It was coming from the plants. How she knew, she wasn’t certain. But now, she could more clearly make it out.

  She touched the slender stalk of another seedling to gain its impression and then a third. No, they didn’t feel well to her at all, and she couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. They, like her, were in a completely foreign environment struggling to do their best to survive. And, as she continued with her task of providing the nutrients and water to each, she couldn’t help whispering words of encouragement to them and picturing in her mind how they would look once they’d passed this stage and were stronger.

  DURING THE COMM, COLIN found his gaze often wandering to the monitor to see what Genevieve was doing in the other room. In the monitor, he could see her lips moving and wondered what she was saying, which was distracting. Thankfully, the meeting was short. No one had much to offer, including him. He’d dug through a great deal of the research, both past and present, before returning home last night. All that remained to try were more variations of the combinations they’d already tried.

  “So, let’s give it a shot then,” Colin said as they wrapped up. “Aardin, how soon can you have the new nutrient mix available?”

  “This evening,” the nutrient scientist said. “I’ll send it around to everyone via drone, as usual, when it’s ready.”

  Colin nodded and pulled up the notice he’d received that morning. “Also, the shipment of supplies, along with some additional ones Director Banes approved for the helpmates, are arriving today. I’ll have to go to the platform later to sort it all out. Since it looks like we’ll be leaving soon, it’s probably better not to unpack all of it, just enough to cover the remaining mission days and two weeks following while we’re packing up for evac. Can each of you send me a list of which of your men acquired helpmates so I can allocate it?”

  The five XX of them perked up at his mention of the platform. It had turned into a makeshift after-work meeting spot since they’d arrived.

  “Why don’t we meet you there for a little down time?” Brace said. “Might be good to shift our mindset for an hour or so and for everyone to get to know the new arrivals.”

  Colin hesitated. Personally, he’d been intending to spend the evening in the lab trying to work out a solution. But Brace was right. They were humans, not machines. And sometimes a little down time actually helped spur thought. He glanced at Genevieve in the monitor again. She, too, could use some interaction with the others, it would help her adjustment to her new life.

  “Sounds good,” he said. “See you there.” He smiled at the little cheer they let out and ended the comm then wandered into the growing room to check on Genevieve.

  “How’s it going?” he asked.

  She was leaning forward to reach the seedlings on the far side of the table. “Good. It’s easy.”

  He couldn’t help noticing the way her backside curved as she stood like that and how her dark ponytail swung forward over her shoulder. It was long, and the tips of hair nearly brushed the containers below. He’d had to help her brush it and put it up this morning because that had been another task she was unfamiliar with. He couldn’t help noticing how soft and silky it was as he’d undone a few tangles and then gathered it in his fist to tie it. The unbidden fantasy of wrapping it around his fist as he pulled her head back to kiss her neck had sent blood rushing down to his pants. And, before they left, he’d had to take a few moments in the bathroom, splashing cold water on his face, to relax his erection.

  “Were you talking to the plants before?”

  She gave a small laugh, her pink lips curling upward at the corners. “I was. Yes. You heard me? I didn’t think I was speaking very loudly.”

  “I can see you on the monitor in the other room, but I couldn’t hear anything. What were you saying to them?”

  She ducked her head, shifted the feeder to the next row, and pushed the button. “I know it’s silly, but I was just giving them encouragement. It’s amazing, don’t you think, how they fight their way through the darkness and dirt and later become something bigger and stronger?”

  “It’s been a while since I’ve thought about it, but yes.” He glanced at the seedlings, then back at her. “Have they said anything back?”

  Her eyes widened and she straightened to look back and forth from him to the table. “They speak?”

  He laughed. “No. I was just teasing you.”

  “Oh.” This time she did smile. A big bright beautiful smile. The first real one he’d seen from her, and it changed her entirely, making her look younger ... fresh. Like a maiden who had the world sitting at her feet but didn’t know it. He felt as if he was getting a glimpse of the real Genevieve. One who was light, flirtatious and—if it was possible—even more stunningly beautiful than when she was brooding.

  “Do the plants where you come from speak?”

  “I have no idea. Like I said, I know it’s silly.” She tossed her head, flipping the ponytail back behind her shoulder, and held the feeder unit up. “This is empty.”

  Colin approached to take it from her. “It’s not silly at all. In fact, there’s plenty of studies showing that plants do respond to sound vibrations. We’ve even tried a couple of batches where we played music here in the lab for them.”

  “Really? But if it works, why did you stop playing it?”

  He pulled more of the nutritional concentrate from the storage cabinet and moved to the sink to refill the corresponding tubes with first water, then concentrate. She moved closer to watch him as he worked. “The music helps to make them grow, but that’s not really the issue we’re trying to solve. We need to get them to stop mutating after they emerge from the dirt.”

  She glanced back at the rows of delicate green sprouts. “I have a good feeling about these ones. I think they’re going to do well.”

  Colin’s doubts and the data strongly contradicted her, but maybe there was something in her optim
ism that would bring good luck. If not for the sprouts, at least for the team. It had been a while since anyone had been as hopeful as she was right now. He smiled. “I hope you’re right.”

  “Why do they keep mutating?” she asked.

  He snapped the unit in is hands back together and handed it to her. “If we knew the answer to that, we could all go home,” he said.

  One of her slender brows furrowed. “You have to stay here and make plants grow where they don’t want to grow? I don’t understand. Why don’t you just eat the ones that grow on Earth?”

  “You mean Eardia.”

  She blinked. “Yes, that’s what I meant,” she said and moved back to the table to resume her task.

  He shook his head and frowned. How could she not know what happened on Eardia? Everyone knew. “You know, sometimes I don’t know if you’re doing this to make fun of me, or if you really don’t know all the things you claim you don’t know.”

  She remained silent, but he could see that she’d stiffened slightly and purposely kept her eyes down on her work.

  He signed, ran a hand through his hair, and gave her the short explanation. “We can’t eat the plants because we ruined the planet, basically.”

  “How?” she asked, glancing up at him.

  There it was again, that rabid curiosity of hers. He could see it in her eyes, and it was the purity of it that convinced him of the truth of her lack of knowledge more than anything. She was a puzzle. But if there was one thing he’d learned about puzzles, it was that he always eventually figured them out. With enough patience, all the pieces would come together and he would finally see the whole picture.

  “It happened a long time ago. In an effort to develop more efficient farming we started messing with plant genetics even more than in the past. After the total ban on pesticides was passed, farmers got sick of losing a sizable percentage of their crops year after year.”