Page 18 of Crash Landing
“For a time. But sometimes you grow tired of feeling metal under your feet. So, I returned to Earth to be a speaker at different conferences and universities.”
We passed a pair of interns on our way into the silence of the forest, which made me feel a little better about slowly losing sight of the camp. We were going a bit far, but at least we weren’t the only ones. And Mr. Hemburg knew what he was doing. He’d been on hundreds of expeditions. They’d all been on Earth, but still. He was a big name in his field for a reason. Discovery required risks, I reasoned.
But then we lost sight of the two other interns and I started to fidget. I could still hear their voices… until I couldn’t. I glanced back to see that there was nothing behind us but the woods. The foreign, silent woods.
“Aren’t we going a bit far?”
He glanced back at me, tapping his mask. “Directions are tracked in our masks. I know exactly where we’re going.”
I nodded once, glancing at the readings inside my mask to see a bunch of numbers I didn’t understand. But if he did, then I shouldn’t have been worried. Hopefully.
“You see, the seeds come from a tiny flower,” he continued. “The valerians call it hima tu. I’ve named it the peacock bloom. You’ll see why.”
Indeed, I did see why when we entered a small field of tiny flowers growing low to the ground. Each one had three petals, each of which looked like the tip of a peacock feather. Inside, the filaments were each tipped with a cluster of tiny red seeds. I gawked at the little plants, kneeling immediately to take my own samples. When I touched the filaments, I noticed the seeds wereattached with a slightly sticky substance. When I scraped them off, spiderweb-like strings stretched out nearly a foot before I stuck the cluster in a little vial.
“That must be how they spread their seeds,” I said. “This stuff would stick to anything that passes it.”
“Yes, and it disintegrates quickly. So it would stick to passing animals for a while and then fall off, putting the seeds in various places to grow.”
I smiled at my vial as I corked it, imagining the possibilities.
“Could we grow them on Earth?”
“Perhaps. It all depends on if it can survive in an artificial environment. Perhaps we could cross-breed it with Earth plants to get a hybrid that could survive on Earth. Maybe that could be our project.”
I looked up at him and found him crouched close to me, watching me in the near darkness of the deep forest. Subtly, I turned to put my sample in my pack and stole a glance toward the base just to make sure I remembered which direction it was in. I’d have been a lot more comfortable if I could have seen it, though.
Standing, I moved to another spot in the field of peacock blooms and tried to do my own studying, but Mr. Hemburg was always there, watching me and tailing my every step.
“You know, I could help you.”
“Really?” I said innocently. “Help me how?”
“Well, with all your theories. Your research.”
“Why would you want to help me? I’m a nobody.”
“Now, what did we talk about? You’re brilliant, Sam.”
Something about the way he said my first name made me shiver inside and not in a good way. I continued to circle around the flowers, pretending that I was looking for more samples, but I was far too distracted by the way Mr. Hemburg was acting to really observe anything.
“I’ve been looking for another plant out here,” he said. “I think it’s supposed to grow near stagnant water.”
“What’s that?”
“The valerians call it a gri plant.”
“Does it have medicinal properties?”
“In a way. It’s very important in valerian medical research for… reasons.” He feigned shyness. “I shouldn’t talk about it with an intern, but it is an aphrodisiac. A weak one, but if it's treated and concentrated, it can help with arousal.”
I scoffed, raising a brow. “So it’s alien Viagra?”
“Sam, please.”
“What?” I shrugged. “We’re science geeks. We can talk about stuff like that without it being inappropriate.”
Hopefully.
