Double Helix Ch. 23

Tilly

Ed greeted me with a smile as soon as I walked into the lab's living quarters. Tall and thin, but otherwise unremarkable in appearance, he was my microbiologist and the closest thing we had to a plant pathologist. "Thanks for stopping by," he said. "Would you like some coffee?"

"Already had some," I replied, gesturing at the short tunnel that led back to the house. I spotted the dour-faced brunette behind Ed, sitting at the little table next to the kitchenette and nursing a steaming cup. I waved. "Good morning, Dawn."

"Oxymoron," the botanist grumbled.

"We pulled a late night," Ed explained with a shrug. None of us got more than, what, five hours?"

"Four," Dawn said, holding up that many fingers. The woman had always been confusing to me. Most of the time, she was cynical and fatalistic nearly to the point of parody, but every once in a while, a burst of positive emotion would break through. This was not one of those times.

"Stanley is still sleeping," Ed said with an apologetic shrug.

"Lucky bastard," Dawn muttered.

"Okay, so what's going on?" I asked. Knowing of my enhanced hearing, he had used the simple expedient of calling up the tunnel to summon me down here from the kitchen.

Ed was clearly excited and gesticulated as he spoke. "Well, last night we were analyzing one of our samples from the hybrid infection trials and--"

"Just show her," Dawn said, never taking her eyes from the black liquid in her cup.

"Yeah. Yes! I should show you," Ed said. "Uh, this way."

It could be difficult to tell age with most genemods after we reached maturity, but I had researched each candidate thoroughly before approving them for my team. Ed had been a prodigy, not uncommon with Eidetics, whose enhanced hippocampus enabled him to absorb information and recall it with near-perfect accuracy. Conventional education had been useless to him, so his parents had enrolled him in classes at UC Davis. He had toyed with pushing for a degree in medicine, but ultimately opted for a science track. He should be a few years older than me, but he acted more like a teenager sometimes.

Ed took me into the lab proper and over to a biosafety workstation. It was a sealed plexiglass box with thick gloves built into the near side for manipulating samples. It had a microscope built in as well.

Ed gestured at the microscope. "You should be able to see the spores in the test sample. We sent some stills out on the darknet for analysis, but Dawn said you should have a look at it in real time."

I bent to peer through the microscope. It took me only a second to spot what he wanted me to see. There was a piece of plant matter in the sample that covered most of my view. The blocky, semi-transparent cells were visible under the microscope's high magnification. Attached to the plant were a number of spheroid globs that had to be Rot spores.

"What's the plant?" I asked.

"Rosa chinensis and rubus allegheniensis."

"China rose and common blackberry," I mused, using their common names. The hybrid infection trials were our attempt to defeat Rot through plant hybridization, combining one species that was resistant to Rot with another species that was vulnerable and hoping the resulting plant showed resistance. It wasn't a simple proposition, since you generally needed closely-related species to form a hybrid, and chances were high that Rot attacked just about everything that was close enough in taxonomy to breed with the plant you wanted to protect. To create the cross-genus hybrids we needed, we couldn't use conventional methods of simply harvesting pollen from one plant to fertilize a second one. Dawn and Ed were using difficult and less reliable methods to create such hybrids, but our lab had the facilities needed to do it.

The Rosacea family of plants contains a whole host of flowering trees and shrubs, including several of the very fruits that grew in our orchard. About 90% of species in the family were resistant to Rot, but every known species of rose plant, genus Rosa, were susceptible to the oomycete. In roses, it resembled an oomycete disease called downy mildew.

I looked up from the microscope. "It doesn't look like the infection is taking hold. How long since the spores adhered?"

Ed shrugged. "We're coming up on twenty-four hours. We stayed up late to watch it, see if the infection would progress."

Rot spores that had found a compatible host plant first adhered to it, then penetrated the epidermis within twelve hours. I felt a prickle down my spine. Excitement yes, but I also felt uneasy about what we were seeing without knowing why. Maybe it felt too easy.

"This...this could be significant," I said cautiously, taking another glance through the microscope to assure that I wasn't missing something. "What's your next move?"

"Live plant trials," Dawn said, wandering in with her coffee clutched to her chest. "We have two hybrid plants." She waggled her hand towards a glass terrarium across the room with grow lights above it. The plants within were just a few inches tall but had sprouted several leaves each.

I sighed. "Alright, let's proceed, but carefully. When you run the test, use a fresh sample of Rot. I don't want to find out that we're dealing with some mutant strain that is less virulent. Is the hybrid sterile?"

"Most likely," Ed said with a nod. "I'd like to keep one plant and try breeding it to find out for sure. Getting two viable plants took a lot of time and effort."

"I agree," I said. "But make certain nothing leaves this lab until we're sure it's safe." That last part probably could have gone without saying. There was some danger in what we were trying, but Ed and Dawn knew their jobs.

"Great job, both of you," I added.

I felt Ed's flash of pride and pleasure at the compliment. A warm glow spread up my chest to match his wide smile. Dawn just nodded, and I felt nothing from her but her continued annoyance at being awake.

I took the opportunity to update them both on the status of the aquaponics farm. We had finished the skeletal structure of metal beams and supports and begun the laborious task of placing the polycarbonate panels that would make up the ceiling of the structure. We were still months away from completion, and more months still for our first harvest. Surprisingly, the hardest part of my plan seemed to be getting hold of live fish. I had Andy working on the problem, but I was starting to worry that we would get the structure completed and be unable to farm anything.

"Andy will come through," Ed assured me. "Just give him time. Besides, if fish are this hard to come by, just think of how much money we can make farming them. This could bring in a lot more money than you originally planned."

That thought had occurred to me. I was also thinking that if the agency set up more farms like it, they might need us to help seed those operations with fish we produced. "You're right," I agreed, giving him a reassuring smile that I only half felt.

I left them to their new task and went back upstairs to the kitchen where I had left Nissi a few minutes before. She was busy cooking something in a pot on the stove. "Grits?" I guessed from the smell.

Nissi laughed. "At least one of my lovers is cultured. I mentioned it to Norm once and he didn't know what it was. He's in for a treat when he gets down."

I scoffed. "What, he's never even been to a Waffle House?"

Nissi stirred the pot vigorously a few more times before shutting off the stove. "Apparently they don't have them in Minneapolis where he grew up, and I can attest that there is not a one in LA. I was surprised no one thought of making cornmeal before now, but Alice was happy to grind it for me."

I came up behind Nissi as she pulled bowls from a cabinet. She sighed as my arms went around her waist. I stood on tiptoe so that I could nuzzle the side of her neck through a curtain of silken hair. "I missed you, lover," I said. I sensed her pulse quicken at my words, her amorous response echoing my own.

Then she laughed. "You missed me already after, what, fifteen minutes?"

"I just like our time in the morning together," I replied, stepping back to let her finish prepping the meal.

Nissi set two bowls next to the stove, but then caught me staring at the lean curve of her backside. My cheeks grew warm at the lustful thought I had been having.

"See something you like?" she teased.

"A few somethings," I admitted, and decided to up the ante. "But I'm mostly thinking about earlier when I was gazing into your eyes."

The catch in Nissi's breath would have been inaudible to anyone else but Nock. "You mean..." she started, then she turned and leaned across the table. Her lips brushed my ear as she whispered. "You're thinking of when my lips were on your pussy, my tongue was deep inside you, and you looked down and saw me staring up at you?"

My blush deepened as my body responded to the memory, her words and the touch of her lips. "You looked beautiful beyond words," I confessed in a whisper. My body felt like a plucked string, vibrating to her frequency. Had she touched me anywhere on my body, or even spoken one more whispered word into my ear, I think I might have exploded into orgasm to rival the four she had already given me.

Instead, Nissi turned back to the stove. I had to sit very still and resist the intense urge to squeeze my thighs together and trigger the climax that my body wanted. I knew that the anticipation would make it so much better when we went to bed together later.

Nissi got us both a large helping of the corn porridge along with a spoonful of our precious butter. I tried a bite and nodded my approval to her. It was basically like cornbread in a bowl. Not something I really went out of my way for in the past, but a welcome change from our usual wheat porridge or okayu.

We had barely gotten started when Norm came down the steps. I could see Nissi starting to get up to get his food, but I put a hand over hers. She understood and gave me a grateful smile as I stood up instead.

Norm intercepted me, sweeping me into his arms for a passionate kiss that left my knees weak. He went for Nissi next, tilting her chin back and bending to her lips. I felt their love as a flare of heat at my center that crept down to my loins. Nothing was more arousing to me than watching my lovers together.

"I'll get your food," I said with a little hitch in my voice, turning to the stove. What I really wanted was to take them both by the hand and go back to our room for an hour or two, but I had work to do. We all did.

I set a serving of grits in front of Norm. He sniffed at his bowl, but it didn't seem to help him much. "So. What is this?"

I chuckled. "I still can't believe you've never had grits before."

"Oh, that's what this is," he said, spooning up a small bite, but waiting for it to cool before sampling it. "Nissi mentioned it to me once."

"Nana would have fixed it with bacon and eggs," Nissi said. Her accent, usually only a light touch in her voice, was suddenly rich. "Or shrimp. Man, I would love me some shrimp and grits."

"We could farm shrimp, you know," I said.

Nissi's spoon stopped halfway to her mouth. "You're kidding."

"Nope. Shrimp are really good at cleaning up waste. We could also do crayfish--"

"Crawfish! You could farm crawfish! I swear I'll go down on you right now if you're serious."

"You already did that earlier," Norm pointed out. We had woken him up with our playing, of course. Not that he had minded.

"Ew, gross," a yawning Wendy said as she entered the dining room. "Do that shit in your room. Do I smell grits?"

"I'll get you some," Nissi said, standing up and heading for the stove.

"Speaking of gross," Wendy continued, "I was just thinking that I'm glad I don't menstruate. Nissi tells me I'm far enough into puberty to have started that by now, if I weren't modded. Really glad to see these starting to grow in, though." She arched her back, sticking her chest out proudly to show her budding breasts. I could sense Nissi's amusement and Norm's discomfort.

"That's awesome!" I said, and accepted a hug from her.

"We're estimating her physical age at around thirteen," Nissi said. "If your development continues at this rate, you'll physically be an adult in another year or so."

I noticed that Nissi got her about twice the amount of grits that she had given me, and the pubescent girl dove into it like she was starving. Wendy's accelerated growth caused her body to require an enormous amount of calories to sustain its growth. She was eating something like five or six thousand a day. We could never have done something like that without the greenhouse supporting us. As much as I would like to be more involved in Dawn and Ed's Rot research, getting more food production online was my top priority.

We bantered some more, making sure to throw in some innuendo that made Wendy pretend to vomit into the sink. We knew it was all an act. If anything, she was envious of what we had. I just hoped that when she was finally ready, the object of her affection would return it. She would never admit it, but as much as she had mused before about wanting to grow up, Daniel was ultimately the reason she was doing it.

We headed to our respective work sites before the rest of the house had awoken. Nissi disappeared down the cellar stairs while Norm and I went out the front door together. The sun hung low over the Cascades to the east. Norm pulled me close for one more kiss before parting ways with me to head to the apartment construction site, while I headed to the pit.

Kurt was already there, as was customary. Terry was not, which was also to be expected. I had wondered if I should do anything about that, but decided against it. Both the men were hard workers and both were volunteering their time to help me. I couldn't ask for more than they were willing to give.

I walked to the top edge of the cinder block retaining wall and stepped off, my knees easily absorbing the ten-foot drop to the new concrete floor. We had taken a rare break for the last two days to let it cure. Kurt shook his head. "That never gets old. You sleep well, beautiful?"

That had taken a bit of getting used to. All through our first day, he'd called me "sugar", "honey", and "darling" along with compliments on my appearance and abilities, and though I had sensed definite interest and attraction from him, it was never possessive or presumptuous in the way his words implied. I had quickly realized that he did the same thing to everyone, even his male colleagues, using casual flattery and familiarity to establish a rapport.

"We all slept great," I said, subtly reminding him that I had not one, but two people already in my life.

"Good to hear. I'm sure you already saw I pulled the trailer around. I thought we should start on this end and work our way back towards the ramp."

I nodded my agreement. The flatbed trailer was loaded with the polycarbonate panels that we would be using to build the ceiling of the enclosure. Kurt had backed it down the ramp at the far end, but the vertical supports at the farm entry were set too close together to allow the truck and trailer to get any closer. We would have to use carts to bring the panels inside to install them.

"Let's get started then," I said, and went to retrieve a cart. Terry showed up a half-hour later, observed us for a few seconds fastening a panel in place, then grabbed a stepladder to help. Like the greenhouse, the aquaponics farm had to be airtight. We would do our best to seal all gaps as we worked, but perfection wasn't the goal. Once the structure was complete, we would pressurize the inside and then search for leaks to patch.

The work went faster than I had hoped. The structure was exceedingly simple, essentially a box with its slightly canted roof at ground level. That meant a bit less usable daylight, but it was worth it for making the structure less detectable by both ground and air. It was also more expensive in both time and materials, which is why I hadn't designed the original greenhouse this way.

We broke for lunch and I saw a lone figure a quarter mile distant striding towards me from the direction of the west house. I focused, my vision subtly sharpening, and could make out her features just as she waved. Gena. I didn't bother shouting a reply, knowing she couldn't hear me at this distance.

I diverged from my path to meet her on the other side of the big house. It had become an everyday occurrence that we would meet up as she headed over for her daily sessions with Nissi. I enjoyed hearing about her progress on the mesh network, and she was likewise always interested in how the farm build was going.

The family resemblance to Norm was easy to see in her face and mannerisms, but they had very different personalities. A lot of that had to do with her reversion and the time she had spent as an addict. It had destroyed her confidence and self-esteem. She had steel in her character to come back from that, but there was a fragility to her as well, a deep self-doubt that held her back. I did my best to help her flourish. We'd grown closer just in the last few weeks, and I had to admit that I had developed a bit of a crush.

I jogged a few steps to close the rest of the distance and fell into step beside her. I usually let her go first with her inevitable questions, but she was uncharacteristically silent, and I sensed anxiety coming from her.

"What's wrong?" I asked. I wondered if she was having side effects from the treatments that were supposed to restore her genome.

Gena glanced at me with a smirk. "Sometimes I forget you're an empath."

I shrugged. "I'm not. Well, not exactly."

"Close enough." She sighed. "I have a problem. It's something I should really tell Nock about. I've been meaning to for weeks now, but I can't. I guess I need advice."

"Why can't you tell him?"

She sighed again, louder. "Well it's just...it's kind of weird and I'm afraid it might..." She groaned. "Ugh, I just don't know how he'll take it." Her anxiety ratcheted up, a twisting tightness in her gut.

"I know Nock pretty well," I said carefully, thinking that it must have something to do with the wedding. "If you tell me what's wrong, maybe I can help you decide how to approach him."

I felt her anxiety shift over to embarrassment. I looked at her face, but her eyes were focused straight ahead. "I don't know...well, okay, I'll just say it. I can't orgasm." Her embarrassment intensified, and I could feel her cheeks and ears burning.

"You can't?" I asked, keeping my tone neutral. "Like you can't get there? When you masturbate?"

"I get..." she huffed a breath, and then the words tumbled out. "I get close, I think, but then it gets painful and I have to stop. I've tried, Tilly, but it's never happened for me, not once. I'm afraid that if we get married I'm just going to be this big disappointment for him and--"

"Slow down," I said, putting a hand on her shoulder. I could feel her shaking, and on impulse, I drew her in for a hug. I felt her relax as she let out a breath.

"I don't want to disappoint him," she said, and I could sense she was nearly on the verge of tears.

"Maybe I can help with that," I said. I stepped back to regard her. "With your problem, I mean. I told you, I'm not an empath. That's science fiction. I don't read your emotions, not from your brain, anyway. What I read is your body's physical state, your sensations. And that's through my normal senses. Maybe I can help you figure out how to get past this."

She drew back and looked at me with wide eyes. "You would do that for me?"

I chuckled. "Of course. Helping someone in need is reason enough, but you're also my friend and I love you."

I meant it in a sisterly way, but I felt a moment of confusion from her. It faded immediately once she realized that my intent was platonic. "Okay, what do I have to do?"