The Druid Gene

by Jennifer Foehner Wells

  “Hold still, foolish girl,” Nembrotha spluttered. “She’s awake!”

  Darcy just stared at him, her mouth gaping.

  Clattering steps and soft, padding feet sounded on the decking. Then Selpis and Tesserae71 were staring down at her. Selpis blinked frequently, her brow ridges coming together in that worried way of hers. Tesserae71’s antennae waved and his mandibles worked.

  Darcy looked down at herself. Her jumpsuit was stretched all out of proportion but was at least modestly draped over her body. Under that, her skin glistened with the same bright-blue regen gel she’d used on Tesserae71 in the tern many days ago, and her hands were swathed in the same kind of bandages she’d used on his leg and thorax.

  “Water?” she rasped.

  “Rehydration-and-nourishment fluid would be better,” Tesserae71 clacked. He lifted a pouch from a nearby compartment between his pincers and held it close to her mouth. Selpis kneeled behind her to brace her head and shoulders. The liquid tasted funky and metallic, with an earthy B-vitamin flavor, but she lifted her head and drank until her stomach was full, leaving a million questions forming on her tongue.

  She stayed in that position for a while, Selpis’s hands gently draped over her shoulders. She felt unbelievably weak. She needed contact with the planet as much as she’d needed that liquid. In here, she couldn’t recover at the same rate, if she could at all.

  She was already depleted. The apochondria would help her, if she gave them what they needed. It was strange how she could sense that, when she’d never known what that feeling had been before. She recognized it now—the emptiness, the yearning—it was for the energy the Earth could provide. Was this emptiness what her mother had been trying to fill all her life? Was she the one who had given Darcy the druid gene? Would she ever be in a position to find out?

  It didn’t feel like the tern was in motion. She looked toward the windscreen and saw green canopy overhead. “Are we still on Ulream?” she croaked, her voice sounding strange to her own ears.

  “Yes, mistress,” Tesserae71 clacked.

  “I need to go outside. I need to sit on the ground.”

  No one questioned her. Tesserae71 stooped and slid his forelegs under her while Selpis triggered the door and scooped up Nembrotha. Tesserae71 deposited her gently on a soft mound of dirt against a tree with plenty of spongy orange moss to cushion her back. It was shady and comfortable. She instantly felt the flow of energy return. They were some distance from the strongest source near the compound, but this was enough.

  “That’s better. Thank you. I…this helps me a lot.” Darcy fumbled with the stretched-out jumpsuit in an attempt to cover herself, but gave up. Her fingers still didn’t work and her arms felt like lead.

  Her three companions seated themselves around her in a semicircle with solemn looks on their faces. No one spoke for a long time.

  “Were you working for him?” Darcy wasn’t sure if she’d be able to discern whether they were telling the truth or not, but she had to ask.

  “For the Lovek?” Nembrotha said incredulously. “That brute? It’s not like someone can recognize that dreadful species on sight.”

  Selpis was nodding earnestly as Nembrotha spoke, her dewy eyes blinking rapidly. “We were as much in the dark as you were. I thought the rumors that there was a lovek aboard were meant to keep us docile. One expects such tactics. That species is the stuff of myth and legend. I honestly thought it was fiction. I never expected to meet one in person. How could we know that it was the truth?”

  Darcy couldn’t help but look at Tesserae71, though she knew Raub had left him for dead. That wasn’t typically how one treated an ally, but Raub was just ruthless enough to do that.

  “Not even I knew his true identity. Hain runs the ship for him. I had never seen his face before that day in the corridor when we left the Vermachten.”

  Darcy sighed. She believed them. They were here now, caring for her, which acquitted them at any rate. She felt a little guilty for ever doubting them.

  “Is he dead, Darcy?” Selpis asked quietly.

  “Yes.” She still had a hard time believing that was true. But it was. The electricity had probably stopped his heart, and the sheer amount of energy she had discharged had done a lot of damage to his torso. He had looked very dead. The fire had probably consumed his body after she left.

  Another one of her victims.

  “It was necessary,” Nembrotha said solemnly. “I would have butchered him five times over if I’d gotten the chance. And tortured him too. And then played a tune on his bones.”

  “That doesn’t change the fact that I’m a killer.”

  Selpis tilted her head. “It was you or him. He killed for sport. You killed to save your life. There is a difference. And who knows how many others you’ve saved from a terrible fate by ending his enterprise. You can go on to do good.”

  Darcy looked down at her hands, now raw and pink. “Thank you for taking care of me. How did you find me? What happened after he kicked me out of the tern?”

  Tesserae71’s antennae quivered. “It was much the same as before you left. We stayed in the corner. He exercised, ate, and slept.”

  “We tried once to overpower him,” Selpis said, her eyes cast down. “But we failed and he bound us. He said he would have killed us if he didn’t need an incentive to force your cooperation.”

  “Put me in a blasted box!” Nembrotha cried sloppily, flecks of spittle flying from their tiny O-shaped mouth.

  “I believe he underestimated our resourcefulness, though he bound us well. It took us days to free ourselves.” She rubbed her wrists self-consciously, and Darcy noted that her scaly skin was discolored and raw in places. “We began immediately to search for you, but you were well hidden in the woods,” Selpis said.

  Darcy drew her brows together in confusion. “The tern can still fly?”

  “Apparently,” Nembrotha spluttered.

  She turned to Selpis. “You can fly the tern?”

  But Tesserae71 spoke up. “All hymenoptera are trained at least cursorily in every department. But my skills at flying the craft are rudimentary.”

  “Very rudimentary,” Nembrotha said derisively. They stretched out, their brilliant orange sensor stalks waving, bright spots of color in the deep shade. “Then there were the fires. We assumed you were both dead.”

  “But we kept looking,” Tesserae71 clacked forcefully.

  “And we tried in vain to gain entry to the belastoise compound,” Selpis said. “The wall is continuous and impervious. No gates. The only way in is from above, and there’s some sort of field that keeps ships and flying insects out.”

  Darcy heaved a deep sigh. The long day of walking had been futile then. Nembrotha had been right about the belastoise all along.

  Tesserae71 gestured with a pincer in the direction Darcy assumed led to the compound. “All attempts at communication were met with silence.”

  “There is just enough fuel left to achieve escape velocity, but no more. Not enough to get anywhere. We wouldn’t even be able to maintain orbit for long. We were on the verge of trying out the tern’s weapons on the wall—we hoped to steal some fuel if we could manage it—when we spotted you lying out in the open.”

  Stealing fuel. Could they manage that? How fortified could the mining colony be if this was such a remote world? Surely the defenses were mainly to keep out the giant insects…

  “A good thing we did, too,” Nembrotha said wetly. “You were nearly dead.”

  Darcy nodded. She was feeling sleepy again. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the energy flowing into her. Something vibrated on her leg, rousing her. She blinked, opened her eyes, and was surprised to see the others were resting as well. She must have slept for some time. She fumbled with the pocket on her leg, realizing the buzzing had to be the device she’d taken off Raub’s body.

  Tesserae71 lifted his head and leaned toward her. “If I may, mistress?”

  “Yes, please.”

  He slipped
the tech out of her pocket. Once he had it in his pincer, his mandibles began to work and his antennae to tremble. The red light was still flashing, but now with more frequency and the device kept buzzing. Symbols flashed over a small square screen, but Darcy couldn’t read them because of the angle at which Tesserae71 was holding the device.

  “What is it?” Darcy asked.

  “It is a communication device,” the hymenoptera said. “Someone is calling.”

  45

  Darcy urged Tesserae71 closer so they could look at the device together. A message appeared, and Tesserae71 recognized the code it used. It was from Hain. He said that the Vermachten had to be in orbit around Ulream because this sort of device wasn’t capable of long-range communication.

  Suddenly their future didn’t look so dire. Darcy’s mind immediately began to race with possibilities.

  The message said little more than “Awaiting further instruction.”

  In the days that followed, Darcy recovered from her injuries quickly by sleeping a lot and never moving far from that spot under the tree. Once she got better, she did do some target shooting with one of the laser blasters Raub had left in the tern.

  There was also a lot of time for conversation. The others were curious. They’d heard the things Raub had said. Darcy explained about the druid gene and how she’d actually killed Raub. None of them seemed surprised or disturbed by this news. “So I’m not fully human. I don’t know what I am. I guess I’m a bispecies hybrid.”

  “We have a word for that on Limnuac, though I doubt you can pronounce it,” Nembrotha lisped. They said the word several times, and Darcy tried to repeat it, but Nembrotha insisted every time that she hadn’t gotten it right. It sounded a bit like the word sojourner. She liked that. She hoped that she was just on a temporary journey away from home and that she’d eventually get back, with Adam.

  The four of them spent a lot of time discussing what their options were, how much Hain might know or would be able to detect about what had happened between Raub and Darcy on the surface of the planet, and what Raub might have done next, had he succeeded in his deadly game to catch and kill Darcy.

  Soon they had a plan.

  The only one who was unhappy with this plan was the one they needed to rely on the most to carry it out. As Darcy built up her strength, she coached Tesserae71 and practiced his script with him over and over again, until he became somewhat comfortable with his role.

  “She will know I am fabricating this scenario,” he lamented in the minutes before they were due to begin. “My people do not tell falsehoods. It is not in our nature.”

  “That is precisely why she will believe it,” muttered Nembrotha.

  Tesserae71’s antennae quivered.

  Darcy leaned forward and captured one of his restless forelegs in her hand. “You can do it. Just keep your statements brief and matter-of-fact, like we practiced.” She eased back against the tree. “Let’s have silence, everyone. Go ahead, Tesserae71.”

  He hesitated, then tapped the button to send a transmission. “Ulream to the Vermachten, this is Tesserae71 on the surface.”

  Within seconds Hain’s face appeared on the screen. Darcy stayed out of view of the camera but kept her eyes on Tesserae71, urging him on silently.

  “Report,” Hain said.

  Tesserae71 responded instantly, just as they had rehearsed. “The Lovek is unconscious. I have administered first aid, but he is in need of advanced medical care. I will lift off in moments to return him to the ship and will require your assistance upon arrival.”

  Was it Darcy’s imagination or had Hain’s eyes narrowed?

  “What of the girl, Darcy Eberhardt?” Hain asked.

  “Dead,” Tesserae71 replied instantly.

  Darcy smiled.

  Hain didn’t skip a beat. “And the other prisoners?”

  “Also dead.”

  “And how are you still alive when the rest of your cadre has passed on?” Hain’s even, breathy voice asked.

  Tesserae71’s mandibles worked, but he answered a split second later. “Unknown. Darcy Eberhardt applied regen gel to a wound I sustained. It may have extended my life-span.”

  “Noted. Do not delay.”

  “Yes, my queen.” Tesserae71 clicked the button to end the transmission.

  Darcy barely dared to breathe.

  They sat quietly, staring at each other, for a long moment.

  “It worked!” Nembrotha shouted, sending spittle flying.

  Selpis’s mouth turned up on one side. She picked up Nembrotha and boarded the tern.

  Tesserae71 extended a foreleg to Darcy. She took it gratefully, grunting with effort as she got to her feet. She was mostly healed now, though the muscles and joints in her hands were still stiff. It would take some time to get fine motor control back, she assumed. She was fully charged and ready to move on to the next phase.

  “You did it. I’m proud of you,” she said.

  “Hold on to that pride,” Tesserae71 answered. “You haven’t seen me fly the tern yet.”

  She smiled. Tesserae71 seemed to be developing a wry sense of humor. She liked that. She hoped that she had played a role in his personal evolution. Together, they walked toward the small ship. “What was Hain saying about your cadre? What did that mean?”

  “Our life-spans are short, mistress. I am the last survivor of my cadre. There will have been a great deal of turnover since we left the Vermachten.”

  She stopped to stare at him searchingly. “You chose to help me in your final days—”

  His mandibles worked. “Yes. I would do it again. And perhaps I will serve you for many more. The healing gel is not normally used on my people. We are seen as…disposable, not worth the cost of medical supplies, because there is always another worker hatched to take one’s place and we train quite quickly. But the gel seems to have given me a new vitality. Though I was slow to heal, I am now restored to a more youthful vigor. You have saved my life several times over. I hope to return the favor.” He lifted his now-healed midleg and waved it around a bit. “I thought this was impossible. I’m glad it was not.”

  “You are the last Tesserae then?” she asked softly.

  “I am, yes.”

  “You have value to me, Tesserae71. If our plan works, I will do whatever I can to extend your life even further.”

  “Thank you, mistress.”

  “Darcy. Call me Darcy,” she said, her smile returning.

  “As you wish, my queen.”

  Darcy sighed.

  They ascended the ramp and Tesserae71 climbed into the pilot’s seat.

  They secured themselves and took off.

  46

  Darcy quickly found that Tesserae71 had not been joking about his skill in flying the tern. The issue with steering that Raub had had during the landing was only a small part of the problem. Tesserae71 also had a bit of a lead foot.

  Liftoff was dizzying but the ride soon smoothed out, though the craft tended to list to one side throughout the flight. Once they cleared the atmosphere it wasn’t noticeable anymore. The real problem was putting the tern in its berth. Vermachten opened the door for them, but Tesserae71 made two passes, aborting each at the last moment because some angle was wrong, before the third pass was successful. Even so, they crashed around a little before coming to rest. He repressurized the berth immediately.

  There wasn’t time to congratulate him or let her stomach settle after the nauseating ride. As soon as the tern touched down, Darcy leapt from the copilot’s seat and retrieved the laser blaster Raub had held on her companions only a week or so before. She was a decent shot despite the stiffness in her fingers. She hoped she wouldn’t have to use it, but she would if she had to. This was who she was now.

  She sent Selpis and Nembrotha into the lavatory and crouched down next to the copilot seat. She couldn’t be seen through the windshield, and she wouldn’t be immediately visible to anyone boarding unless they were looking for her. Then they waited.

  A thu
d sounded against the hull, and an exasperated message arrived from Hain a few minutes later. “What is the delay? I’m waiting.”

  Darcy nodded to Tesserae71.

  He nodded in return, his antennae waving in tandem, having adopted the human gesture and made it his own. Behind his back he held the very same shock stick he had used during their escape from the Vermachten. He opened the door, extended the ramp, and burst from the tern, declaring with some desperation, “The Lovek is critical and needs immediate attention!”

  Hain quickly passed into the ship. Darcy trained the gun on her then rose slowly to close the door again.

  Hain swung around. “You,” she said in a monotone. She lifted her woody hands from her sides, displaying their emptiness. Darcy supposed it must be a universal sign of submission in response to a show of force, even this far from Earth.

  Outside there was a scuffle as Tesserae71 brandished the shock stick to keep the medically trained hymenoptera at bay. She hoped he was okay.

  “Yes, me,” Darcy said tightly.

  “Where is the Lovek?” Hain asked.

  “He’s dead.”

  “You made the killing blow?”

  “I did.”

  “I see. Well, that changes things drastically,” Hain said, her reedy voice never changing tone.

  “Your circumstances have certainly changed,” Darcy replied. She called out, “You can come out of the washroom! It’s safe!” The others slid out of the lavatory and stood waiting.

  “I don’t see why my circumstances should change. I can be of use to you. What is it that you want?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “I was just an employee, Darcy. I was paid. I had no loyalty to the Lovek. If you pay me well, I will serve you just as I did him.”

  Darcy frowned. She hadn’t expected this kind of response. “I don’t trust you.”

  “You have no reason to. You would find me useful, however. I know where Adam Benally is, after all. And I command the hymenoptera.”

  “I’ll take that under consideration. Let’s go.” Darcy motioned with the laser blaster toward the door.