Genie's Awakening Page 8

  He leaned back against the counter behind him and folded his arms across his chest. “Because of the skyrocketing birthrate on Eardia and colonies on other planets, scientists began engineering bug-resistant, rapid-growth plants. The problem was that anything bug-resistant was also inedible. Even though they were extremely careful and worked with the plants in biosecure labs, it didn’t matter. Spores got out into the wind and took over the planet. The massive shift in flora affected not only the environment but the fauna, too. The atmosphere changed as the native plants died out, making formerly good land unusable. Entire species of animals became extinct, others adapted somehow. There was no stopping it. The last stores of the original, edible strains were taken off-planet. How can you not know any of this? It’s a history that has affected every human no matter where they are in the multiverse.”

  GENEVIEVE HAD TROUBLE imagining a crisis that could affect an entire planet and its people. It was so huge that her mind balked at the enormity of it.

  Colin continued, “We’ve been able to establish green houses and even limited crops on other worlds, but it’s not enough. There’s always an obstacle that keeps the plants from really taking root and propagating on their own.”

  Suddenly, Genevieve grasped what Colin and her team had been trying to do. “You’ve been trying to create a whole new Ear— Uh, Eardia?” It shocked her that humans would even attempt such a feat, that they would even imagine such a thing was possible.

  He nodded. “Eventually.”

  Tampering with living things on the scale they were had to go against all that the creator had intended. Or did they have the right to do so? Was that power also given to them along with dominion of Earth? She couldn’t remember. She just knew that Jinn were forbidden from interfering in certain ways with life of any kind, for fear of incurring the creator’s wrath.

  Jinn had the power to harness and shape the inanimate, which they took great pride in. But they still jealously coveted the home that had originally been theirs. There was nothing they could do, however. They could not harm the creator’s precious humans, though many delighted in playing pranks on them.

  A million more questions ran through her mind that she badly wanted to ask Colin, starting with why he had no knowledge of Earth. He was clearly human. But if he wasn’t from there, and didn’t know anything about it, then where in existence had Chin-Sun and Itembe sent her?

  He was still standing there against the counter next to the basin, watching her. But from the calculating look on his face, she thought better of continuing down that train of thought. He was a very intelligent man. Had he figured out that she wasn’t human? But it was better not to provoke him into forcing to her to confess what she really was. He’d already extended a generous amount of unquestioning acceptance to her and she had no idea how he’d react to the truth. Not that it mattered. She had no way to prove to him that she was Jinn. He already thought she was lying about her lack of knowledge about their world. Why give him more to ponder? For all intents and purposes, she would soon be declared one of them anyway. Why not practice assuming the role now? Better to change the subject.

  “You said you were married before,” Genevieve said as she finished administering nutrients to the last row of seedlings. “What happened to your wife?”

  He paused before answering, and looked away from her, his eyes going out of focus. “She passed away about two years ago.”

  “Here? On this planet? In your home?”

  “Our home,” he corrected her, his eye flicking back to her face. “Her name was Maddy,” he said. “She passed on my previous assignment. We were on a planet much like this one. Well, most of the planets I’m assigned to are like this one because of the nature of my work. What about you? Did you have someone back home?”

  Genevieve shook her head and suddenly felt shy. “No. Nobody.” She returned the conversation back to him. “Was there an accident?” she asked, drawing closer with the tubes in her hands.

  “No.” He swallowed hard as though the word had caught in the dry air of his throat. “She just ... gave up. She suffered from depression. And being so far away from home and family all the time ... she just couldn’t handle the solitude, I guess. I came home and found her dead. She swallowed an entire bottle of medicine and just slipped away.” His eyes glistened with grief.

  Genevieve set the tubes down on the counter and placed a hand on his forearm. Though he wasn’t a very expressive man, the pain radiating from his soul was almost palpable. “I’m so sorry,” she said. Death among Jinn happened far less often than it did among humans due to the difference in their life spans, but she knew that didn’t mean it was any less painful.

  Genevieve squeezed his forearm, and looked up at him. “I shouldn’t have asked.”

  “It’s okay. I should be able to talk about it by now.”

  But the anguish behind his eyes said otherwise, and she felt bad about prying. Then, she was reminded of him yelling at her this morning about the changes she’d made to his home and she gasped. “Her things,” she said. “I ruined her things.” And this time she felt tears gathering in her own eyes.

  How could I have been so stupid? At the time, when she’d found the boxes of women’s clothing and possessions, it hadn’t occurred to her that they might be irreplaceable. She’d just been focused on making the house look better. In the Jinn world, material things were easily replaced or remade. It was so easy to conjure what they needed in endless supply that she hadn’t immediately put together that Colin wouldn’t be able to do the same.

  She raised her hands to her cheeks. “Colin, I can’t even begin to tell you how sorry I am!”

  He let out a long sighing breath. “It’s all right ... actually, you probably did me a favor. I should have gotten rid of that stuff a long time ago. I don’t know why I held on to it so long. Maybe it’s better this way. They’re transformed and serving a new purpose, just like she is.”

  Genevieve couldn’t help it, she threw her arms around him in a tight hug, wishing there was more she could do to apologize and take away his pain.

  “It’s all right,” he said, wrapping his arms around her in return.

  “No, it isn’t,” she said. “Why can’t I do anything right? You’ve been so kind to me, and I’ve been nothing but a burden.” Sadly, it was the story of her life. He’d called her selfish this morning, and the words had lingered in the back of her mind all day. But how could she contribute to others when she had no talent to contribute with? Even when she tried to find ways to contribute, it always ended up a disaster just like this morning. Why even bother to try?

  But now wasn’t the time to be thinking of herself. She wiped the gathering moisture from her eyes and noticed a strange warmth forming in her chest at being held by Colin in this way. Though it felt good to indulge in burying her face in his strong chest for a few moments and breathe in his earthy scent, it wasn’t right that he was the one to be comforting her after what she’d done.

  She pulled back and looked up at him. “I’ll make it up to you,” she said. “You have my word.”

  “There’s nothing to make up,” he said, giving her a kind smile. “These things happen. It’s fine.”

  Genevieve was struck again by his generosity and inner strength. He was like no one she’d ever met and she couldn’t help admiring him. “I will. I want to,” she said firmly. “I’m going to find a way.”

  Then he gave her a cheeky grin. “Okay. Well, if you really mean it—”

  “I do. I’ll do anything,” she said earnestly.

  “Then the store room could really use a good cleaning and reorganizing.”

  She groaned in response. But then they both laughed, and she followed him as he led the way.

  Chapter Ten

  Colin kept Genevieve busy all day in the lab. He worked in his office most of the time but check on her often. By the time she finished giving the evening round of nutrients to the plants, she was feeling pleasantly tired and satisfied with
what she’d accomplished.

  Colin came into the growing room, just as she was finishing up. “I have to go into town to sort out the supply shipment. The others are planning to meet at the platform to relax and talk.” He shifted his feet and stuck a hand into his pocket. “Do you want to come with me? You must be missing your friends from the ship.”

  That made her perk up though she felt a little conflicted about it. It had been a while since she’d had any social engagements, but would the other humans like her? Would they ask questions she couldn’t answer? “Sure, but can I get cleaned up and change before we go?”

  “Of course.”

  So, after a quick trip back to the housing unit, they flew to town in the transport instead of walking. Colin said he normally walked to town get some exercise but that Genevieve looked far too pretty to be trudging through the dirt. Because she hadn’t arrived with any clothes of her own, she’d put the gold dress back on.

  Colin said that she might be a bit too dressed up for the occasion, but she didn’t care. It felt good to wash her hair, let it loose, and put on something similar to what she’d worn back home. Clothing was a flection of one’s inner state of being, she explained to him, not about the opinions others might form of it. Though she would do her best to get along with the other humans, she decided here and now to continue being herself. She might be losing everything she knew in her home dimension, but she would retain all she was on the inside. Everyone was just going to have to accept that, the same way she was going to would have to accept them.

  As they flew in, Genevieve had more time to focus on the landscape now that she was getting used to riding in the transport. Now she could appreciate the beauty of the planet itself. Its shades of orange and red had an artistic quality to them, as if someone had painted it all there. The clean lines of it all, and the relief of gazing across its surface as far as the eye could see had a soothing effect to it. It was like a clean slate imbued with exciting and hidden possibilities.

  Never in a millennium had she thought she would like such a thing. But then, she rarely left Tarmange’s hustle and bustle. Most Jinn felt no need to travel. What could possibly outshine Tarmange with its flamboyant architecture and artistry? They had the best of everything there. Compared to human standards—or what Jinn called sub-par standards—it could only be described as a barrage of luxury and elegance. Jinn loved to display their power through the manipulation and creation of their environment, so precious metals and jewels often encrusted large swaths of surfaces.

  But still, here from her birds-eye view, she had a new appreciation for Garrulus Four. It was as if all of the gaudiness she was used to had been stripped away to expose what was real, to the soul that lay beneath.

  In contrast, the town was distasteful. Though the shapes were interesting in an alien sort of way, there was very little beauty to it all. Colin explained what the various buildings were that she’d glimpsed before. It turned out that each dome and square structure in the small cluster of had a dedicated function. Apparently, they were temporary buildings that held dormitories, offices, farming supplies, and common areas for recreation or times when they needed to work on terminals together as a team.

  The farming labs were spaced far enough apart on the most promising soil for each crop so that they would have room to expand later, and also so that the infrastructure for the planned city could be laid out in stages. From what Colin said, that part usually went fairly quickly once sustainable crops took root. He spoke in strict mathematical terms though about their growth, which Genevieve had a hard time keeping up with. It seemed that the cities only expanded according to the population size it took to work the crops. Water supply was a factor as well. A percentage of the food and water source was allocated to the colonists, but the rest was shipped off planet support Eardia, space missions, and some connecting space stations along the way. It didn’t sound like a lot of people when Colin was able to recite the list so quickly and succinctly, but Genevieve knew better.

  At the far end of the square as Colin called it, he steered the transport to a smooth landing behind the platform, which now had stacks of packages and containers covering three-quarters of its surface. In the remaining space, an assemblage of chairs, stool, and boxes made up a sitting area where people had already started to collect. Genevieve followed Colin from the transport to join the others. Off to the side, she saw that they’d also created a sort of bar where various clear jars and vials were scattered across its surface which contained fluids with bright colors. In contrast to the dull landscape, town, and people, the collection of fluids was like un unexpected rainbow in their midst.

  Next to that two men sat playing music. One blew into something that looked like a white ball with holes and buttons randomly positioned on its sides, and the other picked at something that looked like a collection of spiraling silver wires. Together, it was as if a melodic wind blew across a meadow that had been constructed of fairy chimes.

  As she and Colin drew closer, the chatter suddenly silenced and all heads turned in their direction. She could see that he had been right about her dress. Most of the men wore the same coveralls Colin had on, and the majority of the women were clad in pants and boots similar to what Genevieve herself had arrived in. A couple of them had changed into other garb, but none were as elegant as Genevieve. She held her head high and remained poised, used to being stared at for one reason or another, and she almost laughed when she saw more than one woman jab their new men in the ribs with an elbow.

  Colin led her to a small circle of men and women sitting and drinking from low cups. She was a little jealous at first of the warm greeting Colin received from his peers. He seemed to be well-liked and respected by the others, and there was a camaraderie among them that she herself had never enjoyed. When she was young, some warmth had been extended her way back home. But as she’d grown older without a single trace of expressed power, she’d become more and more of an outcast, a novelty that everyone fully expected would soon be dispatched to Earth. So, for most of her life, she’d been received with cool cordiality, skepticism, and reluctant tolerance.

  She braced herself for more of the same when Colin introduced her. But then, she was completely taken off-guard, as one-by-one the men gave her warm smiles of greeting and the women did as well.

  One of them, a blonde named Jileen, commented, “I thought I knew all of the women on the ship, but I don’t remember seeing you.” She scanned Genevieve’s features thoroughly with her wide blue eyes as though trying to place her. “Strange, isn’t it? How you can spend so many months in space and think you know everybody, but somehow you missed one, especially someone as beautiful as you. If we had met, I would definitely remember.”

  “I have a habit of keeping to myself,” Genevieve said, hoping the lie would suffice.

  Jileen laughed in a light, tinkling way. “Well, easy enough to do on a ship that size. You’ll have no trouble doing that here. This planet was built for solitude. Plenty of space. An open canvas for us to create the life we always wanted. I like it already.”

  Genevieve found herself returning Jileen’s easygoing smile. “I do, too.” Never in her life could she remember anyone treating her with such open and easy friendliness.

  “Genevieve, this is Brace,” Colin said, gently interrupting to introduce a man who’d just come to stand by his side with three smoking neon-pink drinks in his hands. “He works on the orchards just east of here.”

  Brace was a broad man with unkempt brown hair, whose neck and cheeks turned red as Genevieve gave him her full attention. “Oh? What sorts of trees are you growing?” she asked.

  “We’re focusing on Usilian Jerines right now,” he said, passing two of the drinks to Colin. “But I wouldn’t call them trees as of yet, or an orchard.” He chuckled and Colin laughed along with him.

  But beneath it Genevieve could detect a bitter edge in their laughter. The tinge of disappointment. “What’s wrong with your trees?” she asked.


  “Having the same trouble Colin’s crop is.”

  “It is?”

  Colin sighed heavily. “It’s driving us all crazy,” he said and handed her one of the smoking pink glasses. “But let’s not get into that right now. It’s time to relax and forget about the challenges of the day. Actually, Jileen, would you mind keeping Genevieve company for a little bit? I have to sort out the shipment.”

  “Sure, I would love to,” she said.

  “Do you mind?” he said to Genevieve. “It won’t take long.”

  Though she would much rather have gone with him than be left with a group of strangers, she nodded, remembering that she wasn’t the only one new to the group. Jileen’s helpmate, Aardin stood and offered Genevieve his seat.

  “By the way, I absolutely love your dress!” Jileen said.

  “I do, too,” a woman named Mihna said, moving closer to them. She was short and voluptuous with warm eyes that reminded Genevieve of a puppy. “Did you bring it with you?”

  “No. I didn’t have anything with me. Um, Colin gave it to me,” she said, not wanting to have to give a full explanation to these women she’d just met.

  “Wow!” Jileen said and fingered the fabric of the skirt. “It must have cost a fortune.”

  Genevieve made a non-committal noise and took a sip of the strange drink in her hand, which turned out to be deliciously sweet and tangy. “Mm. What’s in this?”

  “Be careful with those,” Mihna cautioned. “They’ll sneak up on you. They’re made with Ibinean isochol. It lingers in the body longer than the regular stuff.”

  “It’s called a Supernova. Definitely not for beginners,” Jileen said. “So how are you settling in?”

  “Good,” Genevieve said with another cautious sip of the pink liquid. It reminded her of a liquor they had back home, and it made her suddenly worry if she ever would see home again, and for how long. “I helped Colin in his lab today.”