Page 47 of Mutant Mine

24

Rory

THERE AREsome amazing plants in the galaxy. Desert plants with deep, deep roots, which swell into pods full of clean, drinkable water. Naturally antiseptic mosses, which you can pack into a wound if you don’t have a med kit. Flowers with petals as thick and savory as slices of meat. Bioluminescent trees with leaves that emit a pale blue glow; people on some planets grow those instead of street lamps.

I spend most of the day reading my astrobotany book, sometimes taking a break by dipping intoFrankenstein. I’m not hungry, so I don’t eat any lunch. I do force myself to drink more coffee.

If I ever make it off the Hades alive, maybe there’s some way I can train as a botanist. My pay from this Chronus trip might have covered the school fees — but seeing as our whole job was to keep the ship under control, I don’t think anyone’s going to pay me even if I do make it out alive.

Maybe somewhere would train me on the job, and let me work off the costs? There’s an institute in the Sallegue solar system that’s credited with loads of the major discoveries in this book. It has these enormous domes of different colored glass, each containing a man-made recreation of a natural biome — from tropical heat to icy tundra. Some contain entire lakes, and even salt-water pools with artificial tides. They’ve made oceans.

Oceans of water. Oceans of blood. Blood on the floor, on the knife, on my hands.

Images flash abruptly through my mind. I’m trying to distract myself, but I can’t stop thinking about it… The way it felt, forcing the knife past the resistance of his abdominal muscles. Thenoiseshe made.

I know I had to kill that man. It was me or him; he made that very clear. I don’t feel guilty, exactly. But I do feel regret. Regret that there was no other choice. Regret that he lived the life he lived and became the person he became. Regret that his path ever crossed mine. I just wish so hard that none of it had ever happened.

But when I fetched some fresh coffee from the kitchen earlier, I stole a new knife to replace the old one. Feeling bad about it doesn’t mean I won’t do the same thing again, if I have to.

I head into the bathroom to wash my face, hoping it will help to wash these thoughts away. I stand at the mirror for a moment, just looking at myself, thinking. Then I notice the bathtub.

Showering last night was more of a compulsion than a pleasure. But afterwards, it did feel good to be properly clean for the first time in a long time. I want to feel that way again.

I lock the bathroom door, thinking about how Roth isn’t here right now to smash bad guys’ skulls together. He always locks the main door after him when he leaves, but what good did that do me yesterday? At least he’ll be back before too long. For now, adding a second locked door makes me feel better.

One touch of a button, and water begins filling the tub. I choose a bottle from the selection on the shelf, and add a swirl of pink creme. Piles of froth begin to form, and perfumed steam rises from the water. It smells like the Cavaliers’ rosegarden in summer.

I slip out of my clothes and into the bath. It’s hot and silky and topped with rich foam, and I sink into it up to my chin.

Okay, wow. That’s good. That’s really good. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt sowarm.

I close my eyes, too tired to think anymore, and drift…

…

…

Knock knock.

“Rory?”

“Huh?!” The knock at the door wakes me up with a start. Roth’s voice is slightly muffled through the door.

“My apologies. You have been in there for a while. I wanted to… Are you well?”

“Oh! Sorry, I— I didn’t hear you come in.” Jeez, I must have been really out of it. “I’m fine, thank you. I’m in the bath.”

“Excuse me for disturbing you. Please enjoy your bath.”

“I’ve never had a bath before,” I find myself saying. “Only showers.”

There is a pause, then Roth asks:

“Do you like it?”

“Hell yeah. I put this pink bubbly stuff in the water; it smells like flowers.”

“I can smell it,” says Roth. “And I can feel… heat.”

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