[Coyote 01] - Coyote by Steele Allen

Author:Steele, Allen [Steele, Allen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-06-10T19:24:47+00:00

“It doesn’t bother me at all,” Jim replied. “I’m just…”

“Curious. Right.” Sissy favored her husband with one of her rare smiles. “C’mon, I know you better than that.” Then she continued her way through the marsh, impatiently shoving aside the tall grass as if it was a curtain. “It’s right over… okay, here we are.”

Jim stopped, gazed at the ball plant standing alone in the middle of the grass. Like the others they’ve seen growing near Liberty, it was a large sphere, somewhat resembling a wild onion growing upside down, a little more than two feet in diameter, with a long stalk growing upward from its center. From the top of its stalk grew a violet flower petal that, in some people’s minds, looked a little like a vagina. Most of the ball plants they’d found grew in clusters, but this one had taken root all by itself, isolated from the others.

“That’s close enough.” Indeed, they were much too close already. The ball plants were usually surrounded by pseudowasps-the colonists’ name for the hornetlike insects that tended to swarm the plants, building mud nests in the ground nearby and pollenizing the flower tops. The pseudowasps attacked anyone who came too close to their nests or the plants; it was bad enough that their sting was very painful, but even worse, the venom they carried was mildly intoxicating.

David had been stung a couple of days ago after coming too close to one of the plants. A blueshirt found their younger son a short while later, listlessly wandering around camp, singing to himself and giggling at nothing in particular. At first Tony Lucchesi thought the boy had stolen a bottle of vodka left over from the First Landing party, but when he noticed the boil on the back of his neck, he took him straight to Dr.

Okada. Kuniko inspected him, administered a local antibiotic to the wound, and a half hour later David was sober once more. The pseudo- wasp sting was apparently meant to incapacitate its prey; in larger mammals, the effect was less pronounced, and fortunately not lethal. After that, everyone was warned to give the ball plants a wide berth.

“It’s all right,” Sissy said. “No, really… there’s nothing to worry about.” Before Jim could stop her, she walked over to the plant, gave it a gentle kick. It made a soft rustle, its stalk swaying slightly. “See? It’s dead. That’s why there are no wasps around it.”

Still cautious, Jim emerged from the tall grass, walked over to the ball plant. Now that he was closer, he saw that the plant had a shrunken appearance; its leaves were brown and dry, the iris of its stem wilted.

As Sissy said, the plant was dead. Now was the perfect opportunity to examine one close-up.

He pulled out his jackknife and knelt beside the plant. Its leaves were coarse and leathery; it took an effort to cut through the ball, and as he pulled aside the part he’d incised, a foul odor escaped the sphere.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.