She sighed with relief when Kathleen finally slid her fingers into her wetness and began to stroke her clit in small circles. She placed her hands on Kathleen’s shoulders and hissed out, “That’s wonderful.” She spread her legs and begged, “Inside. Please…go inside.”
Tentative at first, Kathleen eased two fingers in. After a few moments, she became bolder as Marise surged her hips forward in time with her thrusts. She kept pumping until a deep groan left Marise’s mouth, then she instinctively pressed her clit hard with her thumb. It drove Marise over the edge and she came hard and long, crying out Kathleen’s name.
“I’ve got you,” Kathleen whispered, putting an arm around her.
Marise lay back and faced the truth: her desire for this woman was beyond anything she had ever experienced.
She caught her breath as Kathleen looked down at her smugly. The expression changed to surprise when Marise reached around and unclipped her bra, then pulled off her knickers. She flipped her over and proceeded to ravish her breasts. She whimpered with pleasure when Marise slipped down and took her with her mouth. Kathleen’s orgasm rose within a minute and she screamed out her pleasure in a long wail.
When their breathing slowed, legs tangled beneath the worn blankets, Kathleen lay curled against her like a puzzle piece that had always fit.
“I wasn’t supposed to feel this much,” Marise whispered.
Kathleen, still half-tucked into her side, gave a tiny nod. “Me neither.”
They didn’t say anything else for a while. Outside, the hush of trees returned.
And in the silence, Marise reached for Kathleen’s hand and held it. Not possessively or to claim, but to say,I’m here and I see you.
Marise’s breath was slow beside her, her body a warm line against Kathleen’s side beneath the covers. Neither of them spoke, but silence didn’t feel like a void.
Finally, Kathleen stirred and said in a low voice, “I want to tell you what I’ve been working on.”
Marise shifted slightly, her head angled enough to study her face. “You don’t have to.”
“I know. But I want to.”
Kathleen rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling beams. “It started with a question. Can a plant do more than photosynthesize? Can it do more than make food from sunlight? What if it could store energy, not only chemical, but actual, usable electrical energy?”
Marise blinked, then smiled faintly. “Like a living battery?”
“Exactly.” Kathleen felt herself warm at the phrase. “That was the idea. But I didn’t want to make something synthetic and plant-shaped. I wanted to start with nature and push it further. Organisms already do extraordinary things. Algae can survive in boiling acid. Moss grows in nuclear zones. I thought… maybe we’ve been underestimating them.”
Marise's brows lifted. “So how did you make them?”
“I started with aquatic plants—rootless ones that floated freely. I modified their cellular structure using genes from extremophiles. Then I integrated conductive materials—bio-compatible polymers, mostly—into their vacuole membranes. Think of it like replacing their cell walls with flexible wiring. The cells can charge and discharge small voltages.”
“That’s insane,” Marise said, but her voice held awe, not disbelief.
Kathleen went on, quieter now. “They absorb more than light. The surface is laced with microfilaments that react to kinetic energy like movement in the water, wind, even vibration. Lightning too. I had one tank set up with a charge plate beneath it. After a storm, the cells lit up so brightly they almost burned blue.”
Marise sat up slightly, leaning on one elbow, studying her. “You’re saying they don’t only store energy, they harvest it?”
“Yes. That’s the breakthrough. They’re alive, but they’re functioning like supercapacitors. You can drain them and they’ll recover. You can wire them into a converter and get measurable current. It’s small-scale now, enough to power a house, but if I can scale the biology... if I can find a way to cultivate whole beds of them…”
“You could build a plant-powered grid,” Marise murmured.
Kathleen nodded, then turned toward her on the pillow. “Clean, self-repairing, regenerative. No mining. No carbon. Just growth. It’s not ready for deployment, but it’s real. I’ve seen it work.”
Marise was quiet for a while. “Who else knows?”
Kathleen exhaled. “Only Ted. Now you.” She tensed. “Oh my God. We forgot about Ted. They may go after him?”Veronica gave her a reassuring pat on the arm. “The police would have picked up the two thugs, so they’re out of commission. He should be safe.”Kathleen bit her lip uncertainly. “They do have security in the building.”
Marise nodded once, but her voice was different when she spoke again—lower, harder-edged. “They’ll want to shut down your research.”
Kathleen turned toward her. “You think it’s the oil companies?”
“I’d bet my life on it,” Marise said. “They don’t want alternatives. Especially not ones that grow. You’ve created asystem they can’t meter or fence or privatize. That terrifies them.”
