Ajos took a step forward, his gaze finally leaving Keh-reh-nah for a moment.
Aker’s words interested him.
If they could take out the Tasqals using some form of biological warfare…it would change the game considerably.
Iceon stepped out of his way as he came to stand by Keh-reh-nah and she glanced up at him for a moment before her gaze returned to Aker.
Everyone seemed to hold their breaths as Aker placed a few drops of the fluid unto the tissue.
At first, nothing happened but Aker grabbed his pocket microscope and peered down at the thing.
Silence enveloped the room.
“Raxu…” The medic finally whispered.
“What?” Ajos asked.
Aker lifted his head slowly. “It worked.”
25
“What do you mean, it is healing it?” Kerena stepped forward, only to feel Ajos’ warm touch on her arm.
She turned to look at him.
He was sweating and his eyes still looked wild.
He was still sick, obviously.
His eyes dropped to his hold on her before he released her slowly. “Don’t go close,” he said. “Tasqal tissue is contagious.”
Yes, Aker had said that.
She nodded but heeded his words. Athena picked up her line of questioning.
“Healed it?” Athena asked.
Aker had his head over what looked like a crude magnifying glass.
For what felt like minutes, he said nothing more and Kerena glanced at Athena.
The woman shrugged.
“Raxu…” Aker finally muttered. “The concoction seems to be fighting the disease, though, the effect is slow.” He looked at Kerena. “That flower. Where did you find it? Was it something you had with you from your planet?”
“N-No. It was on Choria G622. I brought it back with me.”
Aker shook his head vehemently.
“Impossible,” he said. “We’ve tested samples from every plant known on that planet. None of them produced this result.”
Aker began pacing before he came towards her and grabbed her arms.
Beside her, a growl rumbled in the air and she looked up to see Ajos looking murderously at the doctor.
If what he did to Iceon was any indication, he was unstable, and she didn’t need him hurting the one being who seemed to have the answer they all needed.
Taking Aker’s hands, she gently removed them from her arms and frowned at Ajos.
They’d have to talk about this.
She wasn’t his property, but he sure as hell was acting as if she was.
“That flower,” Aker said, pulling her attention away from the still-glaring minty-teal alien, “does not exist on Choria G622. I am sure of it.”
Kerena blinked at the doctor, her mind buzzing.
He might be right.
Back on the planet, they’d been walking for some time and she hadn’t seen any flowers at all.
They had only bloomed after her blood had touched the roots.
Kerena’s eyes widened a little as it all came together in her head.
She’d taken the flower because she’d wanted a better chance of studying why the plant had reacted to her that way. It reminded her of a parasitic plant, like the Rafflesia or corpse flower. But now, with Aker’s words, there was even more to it than that.
“My blood…” she muttered.
“What?” Athena asked. “What about your blood?”
“The flower bloomed because of something in my blood,” she said. “Maybe something in my DNA caused the reaction.”
“Bloomed?” Aker stepped away to stare into the receptacle that had been bubbling. Only the pollen from the flower remained untouched at the top of the fluid.
Using a utensil, he reached in and scooped the pollen out.
“Yes, it bloomed right in front of me,” Kerena said. “I’d never seen a flower grow that quickly.” She paused. “Actually, I’d never seen a plant behave like that at all.”
“What do you mean?” Athena asked.
At that, Kerena gave them a rundown of what happened. How she’d been pulled away and how she’d gotten injured, her blood falling on the roots to create the flowers.
“Maybe the plants on Choria G622 are sentient.” Iceon chuckled a little, trying to lighten the situation, but his chuckle only got a growl from Ajos.
He sobered immediately but Kerena frowned at his words.
She’d never considered anything like that before.
Wind blew inside from the destroyed door, lifting the pollen from Aker’s receptacle into the air.
Almost immediately, Kerena rubbed her nose followed by Athena.
For a moment, Aker tilted his head their way.
“The pollen…” he said.
“What about it?” Athena asked.
“Do all humans react in such a way to pollen?”
When Kerena glanced at Athena, she found the woman looking back at her as well.
“No,” they answered together.
As they said this, Athena staggered a little and leaned against the table, a cold sweat breaking out over her forehead.
“Raxu,” Aker said, turning to Kerena. “How long were you exposed to this flower?”
“A while,” she murmured as she rushed over to Athena. “Are you all right?”
“I don’t know,” Athena said.
“Iceon, bring her to the med bay immediately. Tell the interns to administer the same medication I gave to Kerena.”
Iceon nodded.
“Hurry,” Aker said as he moved across the room, depositing the rest of the pollen into a dish that he closed tight. “I suspect I have found the cause of your illness, Kerena.”
“The pollen?” Kerena’s eyes darted to Aker as Iceon lifted Athena in his arms and rushed from the lab.
“Precisely.”
Aker drew some of Keh-reh-nah’s blood to run the tests he needed, all the while muttering to himself—most of which Ajos didn’t understand.
“If there’s something in my DNA, or human DNA for that matter, that the plants react to, then I want to help with studying it,” Kerena said, rubbing her arm as Aker pulled the last vial of her life blood that he needed.
A growl rumbled from him at her words.
“No,” he uttered, and she raised those beautiful brown eyes to his. For a moment, he was lost in them until he realized they were glaring at him.
“No, what?”
Even in his agitation with everything and everyone around him, he felt
