Page 52 of Uprooted
“You go on ahead. I’ll come find you later,” I tell Elowen and usher her out of the bay.
“You scared me. I thought for a minute that we were caught,” I tell Maak after Elowen slips through the door.
“You were,” he says, his face deadly serious.
“I’m glad it’s you. It would have been hard to explain to Rialto or Petrok,” I say.
“You’re not doing a very good job of explaining it to me. Because what it looks like from here is that you snuck a human out, against orders and against all fucking rational thought. Putting everyone in danger.” I’m surprised by his reaction. He’s seething. I wouldn’t have expected him to care about this at all.
“Maak, it was a quick trip out. No one needs to know about this,” I say approaching him.
“What do you think you are doing, Aro? This ridiculous obsession you have with this human is going to blow up in your face.”
“It’s not an obsession,” I say.
“What is it then? It seems like you’ve picked this human over your own people when you do shit like this. First you blow off your responsibilities so you can fuck her, leaving Lugo out there alone to face the Atorum alone. Now you’re sneaking her out of the dome, putting us all in danger.”
“She’s important,” I tell him through clenched teeth. Maak has gone too far. I’m angry now.
“Well, go back to your human. That’s all you seem to care about anyway. Just don’t drag anyone else into your mess. Including me. I won’t say anything for now, but if shit goes sideways, I’m not covering for you.” Maak stomps out before I can try and reason with him.
37
Elowen
The answer is so obvious. It’s been staring us in the face this entire time. I should have paid attention the day I noticed the difference in potassium concentration. It never sat right with me. When Aro took me out of the dome, another piece of the puzzle fell into place. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this right away.
The look on Andi's holographic face as I explain my hypothesis tells me everything I need to know. I can see her mind working one step ahead of me as I talk her through it. "Go find Dr. Lee," she says. The blue-tinted image of her dissolves before I have a chance to reply.
I'm breathless from the run over and get to the genetics lab just as Dr. Lee double taps the link request from Andi. Her image flickers to life on the huge screen that takes up most of the wall. She looks down at us with a smile, like a beautiful deity who's about to change the course of history.
"What do you know about turgor pressure?" she asks. It takes everything inside me to let him answer.
“It’s the primary mechanism in the pulvinus cells that open and close a flower’s petals according to the sun… or suns,” he says, succinctly answering the question. My excitement bubbles over and I take the chance to interject.
“Right! On Earth, blossoms need to be open during daylight for photosynthesis and to attract pollinators. Here, flowers also open at night so they can move around without the suns burning their roots.” I say, leading Dr. Lee to the same conclusion I came to.
“If we modify the pulvinus’s DNA to keep their ion channels closed and retain the water, the blossom will stay open. We’ve been working on modifying the root-specific function DNA, and if we put that together with the turgor pressure, we have a viable solution. Elowen, you did it.” Dr. Lee staggers back with a stunned look on his face.
Tears stream down my face as the realization sets in, and time stands still. We did it.
In a rush, everyone jumps into action. Dr. Lee directs the staff and everything speeds up. I’m numb as people I hardly recognize come up and shake my hand, offering their congratulations. We did it.
At the edge of my elation I have a nagging uneasy feeling. This means I’ll be leaving sooner than I thought.
* * *
Dr. Lee climbs onto a table silencing everyone in the crowded rec room. He raises his glass. “Everybody, raise your glasses to Elowen. She followed her instincts and saw something everyone else overlooked. Her tenacious pursuit will alter the future of Earth. Her name will be etched in history books forever. To Elowen!” he says. Everyone’s here to celebrate our breakthrough.
“To Elowen!” they cheer back.
The moment feels surreal. My face is warm from the champagne that seemed to appear out of nowhere. It was likely confiscated from a smuggler. Everyone is so happy from the accomplishment, and part of me is too. The other part of me is not ready to say goodbye.
“Speech!” Bri hollers from the back of the room. Something comes over me and I’m up on the table next to Dr. Lee. No hint of the stage fright that’s plagued me in the past.
“This was a team effort. There’s no ‘I’ in team—”
“BOO!” Bri heckles me, and the room erupts in laughter.
