King of All I Survey

"Drone: Follow sap slug approaching the tree trunk on this vein. Video feed and continual scans from one meter distance. Relay to my scanner and Celina's," Rafael ordered the drone verbally. It was some distance away but was listening for his voice with a directional microphone. It flew to the position one meter below the sap slug that Celina was observing.

The slug was inching its way closer to the tree trunk. It was about one meter away as the drone took up position and began sending the feed. Celina and Rafael watched their scanners, anticipating that the slug would make the turn and begin traveling down the trunk to the ground. Instead, the bloated sap slug stopped moving when it firmly butted up against the tree trunk, the length of its body still on the frond vein.

"If what I suspect is correct, this should be interesting," Rafael commented. Celina glanced at him briefly before looking back to her scanner's video screen. "Drone: move the observation angle to 45 degrees."

The drone moved to the side and the view shifted so that the scanners showed the area where the slug was in contact with the vein and with the tree trunk. Slowly, the surface of the frond began to extend, almost as if it were a sap slug itself. The skin stretched downward as if gripping the sap slug all around the perimeter of the area where the two touched. The sap slug's own skin stretched similarly toward the surface of the trunk until the seam between the slug and the tree was no longer visible. It was as it the slug was just a transparent lump, a part of the tree itself.

Rafael's addressed the drone again, "Drone: audio response to Celina and myself. Analysis of sap slug current activity. Describe the interaction with the tree."

"The tree and the slug appear to have merged into a single entity. The epidermal layer has parted and merged with the outer layer of cells of the sap slug, forming a continuous skin around both. Simultaneously, the epidermal layers where they were previously in contact, separating the two… subjects… has parted, removing any barrier between the internal structure of the sap slug and that of the tree frond and at the intersecting end, with the tree trunk as well. Internally, the interior of the slug is now in direct contact with a double layer of cells in the tree trunk that would be analogous to the phloem in a terrestrial tree. The slug's outer cells appear to be greatly stretched along its length and are now beginning to contract in response to minute electrical stimuli from the adjacent much shorter cells of the actual frond vein. The cells are similar to those of the slug's skin but contracted. There is a differing concentration of Calcium between the two, higher in the frond's contracted cells. It is slowly moving through osmosis into the elongated sap slug skin cells. Inside the sap slug cells it appears to be triggering the activation of proteins within the cell. Prior to the calcium activation, the proteins are linear in shape, but as they encounter the calcium ions, they form a bond similar to Calmodulin binding in terrestrial plants. In these cells, that bond causes the protein to change its shape from linear to a tight spiral. However, the excessive amount of sap inside the slug does not allow the spirals to contract to their desired position. This puts them under considerable physical tension as they continue to try to contract. The end result is that the sap inside the slug becomes pressurized and moves through the layer of phloem cells to the lower pressure area of sap inside the tree trunk."

"Oh my god," Celina exclaimed, "The sap slug recovered the spilled sap and is returning it to the tree."

"Yes, the sap slugs appear to be a part of the tree itself. The tree someone senses the damage or the exposed sap and it detaches some of its own cells to go retrieve it, then the detached portion reattaches and delivers its own cells and the sap payload back into the system," Rafael said. "All the clues fit. The sap slugs, it seems, are not animals at all, but are plants. Not even whole independent plants, just a temporary cell arrangement of the larger canopy tree that can separate itself and operate independently for a time before reattaching."

"What about the one we have in the trap? Will it die if it doesn't reattach soon?" Celina asked, looking away from her scanner toward the opening in the canopy wall where the traps had by now already been loaded and sent back to the lab for analysis.

"I don't know, but I've tagged this analysis for those looking at the captured sap slug. I've reassigned a botanist to your team as well. You'll stay in charge of the sap slug research, of course. I expect we'll be merging your team with the canopy tree research project as well. I haven't decided how to structure that yet. I suppose it'll need one person to assume ultimate control over all aspects of the research on this particular species. Can you handle that?" Rafael's gaze met Celina's directly without wavering, each second of eye contact seemed to increase the pressure on her to look away.

Finally, she looked down, "I don't want to take the Ceiba tree research away from Hector," she said quietly, "he was so happy to have that project. I know how hard he's been working on the proposal you requested…"

Rafael looked puzzled for a moment. He had seen this sort of behavior before and it always baffled him and made him doubt others' ability to make rational judgements. Clearly, Celina wanted to run the entire research project. She was passionate about learning all there was to know about the sap slugs and by extension the larger version of the sap slug, the Ceiba Tree. She would have complete control over that as joint project leader and the increased prestige and access to his own attention because of the import of the project to the colony's very survival. Yet, she refused to take what she clearly wanted from someone else… for no other reason than that person also wanted it. In the world of the cartels that sort of attitude made you expendable and a target for others. It just didn't track in his mind, he could not comprehend the personality defect that would cause someone to make that choice… He toyed with the idea of just taking it away and giving to Hector, unless he had the same defect. Rafael shook his head and took a deep breath. He was the colony leader now. It was up to him to teach his people, correct their mistakes and turn them into learning experiences.

"Celina, look at me." He commanded in a tone of command and power that could not be resisted.

Celina met his gaze, and though it was just as uncomfortable, she held it.

"I can tell you want the leadership position. I can feel how curious and passionate you are about the Ceiba sap slugs and the incredible adaptations of these trees. I know you don't want to have to pass your suggestions to someone else for approval as the research moves forward. Why would you just throw that away? Do you want it less than Hector does? Is it less important to you? In life, when you get an opportunity to have something you want, fucking take it before someone else takes it away. If I acted the way you did when I was child alone on the streets, I would have fucking starved to death."

Celina listened to his words. As he spoke, his expression was flat and unemotional, as if his face was disconnected from the part of his brain that produced the words he was saying. It unnerved her, but…

"I'm going to save you from making a mistake you'll regret for the rest of your life, Celina. I'm going to give you another chance to take this project, to own it." Now his eyebrows rose for emphasis.

It seemed like a natural movement, but she wondered if he had consciously decided that it would be an appropriate facial expression. Maybe he had seen the way she noticed his lack of expression and decided to correct it.

"I'm going to assign you AND Hector as coleaders of the greater Ceiba research project. If the two of you disagree on any particular decision, it will be left up to whichever one of you decides to take what they want and make it happen. I'll be disappointed in whichever of you fails to do that, Celina. Be strong- for yourself... for me." He nodded slightly as he spoke the last two sentences.

Celina was surprised to find she was nodding in agreement. Her gaze was still meeting his, as if she even could look away if she wanted to, she thought. "Yes, Rafael. Thank you."