The Girl and the Unicorn

The Girl and the Plant

"To such an extent does nature delight and abound in variety that among her trees there is not one plant to be found which is exactly like another; and not only among the plants, but among the boughs, the leaves and the fruits, you will not find one which is exactly similar to another."

Leonardo da Vinci

She was anxious for the meeting. Her boss had obviously some information for her, perhaps even a mission. But after her blunder six months ago, she was not sure she was still fit for the job.

When she went to Europa, she had no hesitation about whatsoever. She knew she was the righteous one, her mission was sacred, Blessed Be Her Holly Hooves, the Great Invisible wouldn't let her down. She was so sure she would find the pirates over there. And she found them. But, somehow, she completely lost any chance to make her point.

After the incident and the fall under the ice crust of the Jovian Satellite, all went blurry in her recollection of the events. Did she really saw the pirates, their underground city? Was the man she met one of them? When the hazy memory came clearer, she found herself in a ward bed, stuck in the ship infirmary, on her way back to Earth. Mike Hollyster, the one she thought was a pirate, explained they had a mishap on her exploration to Europa's surface and ended up being rescued by one of the mining operation. It took her longer to recover her senses, and she had been asleep for few days.

The girl had some issues to cope with it, but she accepted the explanation while she addressed her pleas and questions to Her Holly Pinkness.

She approached the Reverend's office in the IPU Intelligence Services headquarters with hesitancy. She was still blessed by the Great Invisible Pink Unicorn, proof was one of her best sock was missing this morning. Nonetheless, her apprehension was building.

She entered the office unsure of the whole situation, though she had no say in it. She had been summoned, here she was.

Reverend Hollyster welcomed her with a gruff greeting. It wasn't unheard of him as he was a man of few words and deep insight, however he tended usually to be more open and cheerful when she came to meet him. The situation had to be, if not critical, quite serious for him to act this way.

"Sir?" She inquired directly, feeling there were no need for lengthy salutations. "Reporting as you requested..." The girl was now impatient to know about the mission, or whatever it was the Reverend had called her in for.

"Girl, meet Mike," the boss was pointing to a man standing on the side. It was this same man she wanted to forget about, the one linked to her failure on Europa.

"Oh, you know him already perhaps?" Reverend Hollyster was on a full mood this day, his irony was showing much.

"Sir?" She wanted to ask what all this was about, and overall, what this man was doing here.

"You got yourself a new mission, Girl. And this time, I will not ask you to be careful so you won't interfere with any agent we already have on site. You will just go with said agent. Perhaps you won't make any more mistake that way..." Her boss was decidedly cheery this morning.

The man, Mike, tried to hide his smile, hearing the older one's blunt line. He decided to ease the tension a bit. "Don't mind him. He had a visitation last night and can't cope with the blessing he received." There was laughter in his voice.

As she looked to her superior questioningly, she caught a glimpse of pink under his vest. It seemed his best shirt had turned pink. He, as she, were really blessed by the Great Invisible. There was some humour there...

"Can we go back to the mission, please?" Reverend Hollyster tried to take back the conversation. "I read through your last mission reports, Mike's and yours, Girl. You have nothing to be ashamed of. You found what you were looking for, but there were other interests in play over there. So, just take it as a good learning experience and focus on your next adventure." Her superior started to explain the objectives of their assignments. She and Mike would be sent to Venus where a pre-settlement team was missing.