Dark Abyss by Kaitlyn O'Connor (top fiction books of all time txt) 📗

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Anna tried to tamp her rising excitement as she looked over the test results of her latest crop. She discovered she couldn’t. With one failure after another, to be looking at what might just be her first breakthrough was dizzying. The produce was perfect—nutrition-wise, anyway! She frowned faintly as she set the report down and studied the fruit itself.

Truthfully, it wasn’t very appealing visually. The meat looked a little stringy and the color wasn’t all that appetizing … or the smell.

“Well, if it doesn’t pass the taste test, it can’t really be considered a success,” she muttered to herself, trying to work up her enthusiasm and actually eat it.

Hearing footsteps in the hallway outside her lab, she relaxed fractionally as a sudden thought occurred to her and hopped off her stool, moving quickly to the door to catch her assistant before he left.

“Paul! Do you have a minute?”

Her assistant halted in the corridor and turned to look at her questioningly. “Sure!

What do you need?”

Anna felt her face heating. “I just wanted to show you something.”

Something flickered in his eyes. For a brief moment, she saw speculation in his expression that sent a flutter of nervousness through her, then it vanished and he smiled broadly. “Don’t tell me the tests were a success!”

Anna felt her excitement rise to the forefront again. “Yes! Come have a look at the readouts!”

His enthusiasm bolstered her flagging confidence and she rushed ahead of him to grab up the report and give it to him to read. “My god! This is fantastic!” he exclaimed when he’d skimmed through the report, grinning at her.

Anna chuckled with excitement. “Isn’t it? It’s almost the perfect food! And it thrives in seawater contaminated soil! I was just about to give it the first taste test.

Would you like to try some?” she ended hopefully.

His smile faded as he stared at the fruit lying on her table. “Ah … you should be first. It’s your success.”

Anna looked away. “We’ll both try it,” she said firmly. “You’re my assistant. I might not have gotten this far without your dedication to the project.” She saw his expression was reluctant when she handed him a piece of the vegetable she’d cut.

He stared at it and lifted it to sniff it. “This is fresh?” he asked a little doubtfully.

“Well, it has been sitting there for an hour or so … but I just harvested it.”

“Hmmm—it smells a little like … uh … fish … interesting texture.”

Anna frowned uncomfortably. “Really? I thought it sort of smelled a little like banana.”

He sniffed it again. “I think you’re right. I do detect just the faintest sort of whiff of banana there.”

“Well,” she said briskly, lifting the piece she held in imitation of a toast. “Here’s to success!”

Paul nodded. Swallowing a little sickly, he popped it into his mouth. Anna watched his face closely as he chewed a couple of times. A look of alarm flickered across his face. He looked around a little frantically, strode quickly to the waste basket, and spat it out.

Disappointed, Anna touched her tongue to the fruit and grimaced. “Salty.”

Paul cleared his throat. “Definitely fishy, too. But there was also the distinct taste of bananas,” he added hurriedly when he saw her expression.

“I should try cooking it,” Anna said decisively. “I think it might get rid of the stringiness.”

Paul tried to look enthusiastic. “The right seasoning is probably just what it needs,” he said bracingly.

Anna nodded, trying to ignore the depression slowly creeping through her and obliterating her excitement of before, trying to think of a recipe she might try the produce in. Something with a little lemon to neutralize the faint fishy taste?

“I don’t suppose you’ve given any more thought to my invitation?” Paul asked, breaking into her thoughts.

Anna stared at him blankly, trying to remember what invitation he was referring to.

“The group?”

That still didn’t ring any bells.

“Humans for Humanity?”

“Oh! That group. Oh! I don’t know. I’m really not much for socializing.”

He smiled at her coaxingly. “It would do you good to get out. You spend too much time in the lab with your plants. Maybe what you need is to step back from it for a little bit?”

Anna was of the opinion that she needed to put in more hours, not less. People were starving. With the rise of the sea levels, they’d lost the coasts, forcing everyone to evacuate to higher ground and shrinking the land available for producing food. Her research was aimed at reclaiming land that had been contaminated by seawater so that they would no longer grow traditional crops.

So far, she hadn’t had much luck with it, though, she thought morosely. She’d managed to develop a number of genetic hybrids that would thrive in soil devastated by tsunamis. She’d even managed to produce plants that would yield, but the fruit they bore was inedible as far as taste—nutritious, but horrible.

Her peers referred to her projects as franken-veggies. They thought she didn’t know, but she’d heard the whispers and snickers when she had to meet with company people for her reviews.

“There’ll be plenty of food,” Paul coaxed.

Anna blinked him into focus again as her stomach growled hopefully at the suggestion. “It’s a dinner party?” she asked with more interest. “Do I have to dress?”

He sent her a wicked look that brought a rush of blood to her cheeks. “I think that would be a good idea, yeah.”

It took her a moment to realize he was teasing. “I