Blown Away by Cara Bristol

Author:Cara Bristol [Bristol, Cara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cara Bristol
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Breeze

Jesus, it felt good to say it, to release the secret. Like a headache that ceases pounding, the relief was instantaneous. Pressure from my secret had been ballooning inside until some days, I felt I would explode. The nature of the “sand” changed everything. I’d watch people going about their normal business ignorant of the fact I would soon upend their lives. My career would catapult to a new height—assuming John didn’t hunt me down—but the people and companies on Sajave would lose what they had worked so hard for. My success meant their loss.

Tack’s gaze jerked to the door. “There must be quadrillions, septillions of individual grains. Those are all alien beings?”

“More like individual cells of a larger organism. Think of a grove of aspens. They look like individual trees, but the entire grove is one organism.”

“So the sand is one organism?” His jaw dropped.

“Probably more than one, but collectively, the grains function like a hive mind. The grains or cells communicate with one another and can act independently, but mostly function as a unit. I called it an alien, but it’s indigenous to Sajave. We’re the aliens here. I believe it is attempting to communicate with us, which suggests intelligence.”

“How sure are you?”

“That it’s a life-form indigenous to this planet—100 percent. I can prove it. That it’s intelligent and trying to communicate? Seventy-five to 85 percent.”

“Holy shit!” He raked a hand through his hair.

“Yeah, holy shit.”

He let out a low whistle. “This is the discovery of a lifetime, right?”

“What every scientist yearns for.”

“You’ll be famous.”

“I’ll get at least fifteen minutes.”

“And…what about your ex?” He’d caught on to the problem right away.

“That is a concern,” I admitted, rubbing my jaw. “I’m hoping with the name change and the work I had done, I can continue to fly under his radar.”

He scrutinized my face. “What kind of work?”

“Well, I used to be a brown-eyed brunette until I chemically altered my coloring.” I touched my face. “And I had plastic surgery. Nose. Chin. Eyelids.”

“So you could fool facial recognition software?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sure you were as pretty then as you are now.” He looked as surprised by his comment as I was.

“Thank you,” I said. “My other concern is the reaction I’m going to get from the government. I expect some initial resistance to my discovery because it will throw a wrench into colonization.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I can see that.”

If Sajave had been covered by lichen or amoebas, my discovery would be a nonissue. But the law forbade the colonization of planets with intelligent life. Laying claim to someone else’s homeland was not acceptable.

“You’re the only person I’ve told,” I said. “My boss doesn’t even know yet. I have to be 100 percent sure before I shake everybody up and scuttle settlement plans.”

“I guess there’s no point adding an extra bedroom to my cabin now,” he joked.

“I’d hold off,” I said. “Although nobody will be leaving in the immediate future. The government will delay for as long as possible. They’ll form a

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