Deja Vu [Vehemence Sequel]

Chapter 24

We've been in Etativel for almost a week now. I still stayed in the laboratory most of the time while the others were out to observe everything else outside, exploring the whole civilization.

The maze-like facility had almost grown on me, I've learnt to panic less and just focus on where I want to go because stairs and doors seem to appear faster when you're sure where you want to be.

Four days ago when I went here for the first time with Commander Spock, we had trouble with the vines from the lake. I managed to get a few pieces of the vines and I was able to extract some samples. Its cells were slower, I assumed it was because it was dying from being out the water too long, which I, again, assume was where it could only survive. I'd die to get another sample that's freshly out the lake but I wouldn't risk it.

I injected some of the cells into the glowing plant, hoping it could adapt to it but the whole plant died the next day.

Jim invited Spock out to observe and do some intergalactic agreements or business with the Etativel Minister, probably because he was his left hand, and another just to keep him far from me, maybe. I think part of the reason Spock agreed to observing the civilization instead of experimenting with me and being science partners was because I killed the glowing plant he so obviously liked. I mean, he would literally scan it to keep up with its progress every day.

Since I’ve had the laboratory to myself, I’ve felt extremely at home in it, I started being less and less organized as long as I could carry out my observations. Although I decided to clean up today because Bones was keeping me company, he said he’s tired of walking around, shaking hands, and whatnot. It was just too formal for me, I liked our space trip in Kepler. Not that you remember... unfortunately... but we did all sorts of games there. He told me a while ago at breakfast, boringly playing with his mushy food, so I invited him to go experimenting with me instead.

I sighed, throwing the last pile of all my crumpled papers of written hypotheses and a bunch of failed trial-and-errors. I have no idea what I was really trying to look for but I just feel like I had to keeping trying to find a compatible gene donor for the vines’ extracted genes.

The door slid open, revealing Bones’ grumpy-face-that-doesn’t-really-indicate-he’s-in-a-foul-mood-because-he-always-looks-like-that-even-when-he’s-having-fun. “Hey!” I chirped, waving at him. He smiled cheerily and walked over to me, pulling a stool from under the long, white tiled-counter. “What have you got to show me today?” He asked, resting his elbows on the counter.

“Nothing actually, but we can go out there,” I said, pointing at the exit door with my lips. “What’s out there?” He asked, intrigued. “You can see for yourself, it’s a bit messy, I may or may not have killed a few plants and weeds by injecting them with some random gene,” I sheepishly said, walking towards the door while he followed. He stared me down with an unsettled look but I waved him off. “It’s okay, just a few...” I said, pushing the door open.

The view that freaked me out the first time now just looked like a garden to me... with sinister-looking forest of trees. “See, isn’t this pretty?”

“Not with all these burnt-looking weeds,” he said, nudging a dead weed with his foot. “How is this ‘a few’?” I shushed him. “I’ll dig them out, I just got busy. I was trying to see if I could duplicate them.” I walked over to the very first plant that I killed, which was the glowing plant, and knelt beside it. “Commander Spock liked this one, he kept scanning it as if making sure it was alright, and then I injected it with the vine genes and it died the next day.”

“Jeez, that’s too bad,” Bones said, although he sounded amused. “Yeah, I thought I’d look for more of these in the forest but the trees don’t look friendly to me,” I fretted as I stared at the trees. “Good thing those trees look scary then, don’t ever go there. We’re in an alien planet for god’s sake, who knows what’s lurking in there? You can’t risk going there for —“ he looked at me, apparently livid, “for Spock? Jesus.”