Lovely Udrioku
Two business men get into trouble when their latest project results in the deaths of teenage thieves who steal a bunch of newly developed fruit. (Response to the Medium Magic Microfiction Prompt.)
“No! Those over there!” Cooper pointed at a pyramid of bright pink fruit.
“Udrioku”, the woman said, handing him one. There was no tanginess of cambiosis, the disease that would make you cough your lungs up, no hint of canker blight that would cause the fruit to decompose into slimy acidic goo in a matter of hours.
“It’s safe?” he asked. New fruits and vegetables were genetically produced and had to go through testing to gain the government seal saying they were safe.
“Safe,” the woman agreed. She pointed to the seals on the table. Cooper knew she could have simply bribed the officials for the seals but if this fruit was on the money he’d be on easy street.
“I’d like to taste,” he said and the woman took it back and substituted another one for it.
“Naluto,” she said.
Naluto indicated that the fruit was poisonous if not cooked.
The woman deftly sliced the fruit’s skin with her nail, peeled it back then hold it open like a bowl. The flesh of the fruit was pale peach and smelled of candied lilacs. Biting into it, the sweet taste burst onto his tongue.
“I’ll take 5 pounds, no make it 10”, he said. He had to move if this was the miracle he thought it was. A new fruit on the market from the oriental laboratories could mean a fortune.
It had been 5 years since the six dominant alternate earths had formed an alliance to help each other when each of their main food sources were yielding less. Their arrogance had led to each one transfering the various diseases that had wrecked their food supply to the other planets. Almost nothing could be grown on any of those planets now. The irony was this Earth, Earth 23, which had been shunned for their blemished produce was now the only game in the solar system for fresh produce.
But there was a new problem. In an effort to make the situation lucrative amateur scientists had come up with genetic hacks to produce new produce to offer. They’d altered the landscape such that new crops would only grow for short periods.
The oriental growers were different though. Their produce was affordable and they didn’t seem to have the same problems with limited growing time. Which was what made this find so incredible. Those who had to rely on the old genetic hacked produce starved. Those who could gain a regular diet of the Oriental produce prospered.
They could be scarce in their offerings and only come to market once in a while, since they had what everyone wanted. They’d usually sell a single product for one day then disappear for weeks or longer. This was intended to prevent anyone from being able to buy enough to try growing the plant as there wouldn’t be enough to eat if they did so.
Cooper took the fruit from the woman who reminded him it had to be cooked,
“Naluto, I know.”
Back at the office, Cooper found his partner. “Hey, Wellington, think fast.” He tossed one of the fruits at him. “An udrioku. Don’t eat it unless you cook it.”
Wellington groaned. “Another lark?”
“How could I know that the Noradanes were going to blow up the Suiss lab?”
“Regardless, we spent a year negotiating for those damn mango trees and we’d already paid half which disappeared with the Noradanes. And of course, we had to disappear in case the World Council learned we were going to illegally use a ton of perfectly good food to generate power, not save people from starving.”
“But now, we’re back in the game!” Cooper said excitedly. “All we have to do is reverse engineer these babies and we’ll generate all the energy this hemisphere can handle. If we’re successful at that, it’s just a hop skip and a jump to supplying the rest of the planet!”
“I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“Don’t think you can do it, huh?” Cooper baited his partner.
“Of course I can do it! It’s just a matter of not getting caught until we succeed and have enough high power backers who won’t let anyone touch us.”
“I suggest you get on it then. Caloric energy won’t create itself.”
“So, there isn’t a problem with touching these things, just eating them?”
“Yeah, but I’d recommend double gloving anyway.”
“Great.” Wellington was less than enthusiastic.
“With the new technology you should be able to clone a have a fairly large batch by morning,” said Cooper.
“Sure, Coop. I don’t have plans tonight or anything.”
— — — — — — -
“Wellington, get up!”
“Go away, Coop. I was in the lab til o’ dark thirty.”
“For God’s sake, Wells, get your ass up!” Cooper doused his partner in ice water.
“What the hell’s the matter with you? Are you out of your mind?”
“How much fruit did you manage to clone last night?”
“I don’t know, 50 pounds maybe. Why?”
“Did you lock it all up in the warehouse?”
“Where else would I have put it?”
“That’s what I was afraid of. We’re SOL. Get your emergency pack. We have to go now!”
“Oh God, not again! What happened this time?”
“They’re announcing the deaths of at least 12 teenage marauders they think were poisoned by new produce they stole. Two others are missing. For now they’ll think it hadn’t been properly inspected or labeled and haul in the merchants. But with 50 pounds there will be a lot of new deaths and at some point they’ll find the fruit.”
“The Orientals will be long gone and they’re the only ones who could tie you to it. How do you even know it had anything to do with our fruit.”
“First, the warehouse is empty
“If there’s a first, there’s a second.”
“Our second problem we’ll have to bury on the way to the space docks. Grab a shovel and make sure you’ve got your passport.”
Natalie Frank (Taye Carrol) has had work featured in Haunted Waters Press, Weirdbook Magazine, Siren’s Call Publications, Lycan Valley Press and Zero Fiction among others. Her poetry has been featured a several anthologies. She is the Managing Editor for Novellas and Serials at LVP Publications.
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