Elemorts

Chapter V - Florinok

Planet Trezon

Florinok Lephyte nervously twirled her hair as they prepared to feed the drug to the rabbit in the lab at the headquarters of Curavez Pharmaceuticals.

She had dressed brightly — perhaps too brightly — in a somewhat subconscious attempt to hide her overwhelming anxiety. She wore a lime, satin top, which brought out the green of her eyes, underneath a dark-turquoise bolero jacket. Her ruffled skirt was canary yellow over translucent, red-brown leggings. She had accessorized with a dark-turquoise choker and lime pumps.

Her thigh-length, raven-black hair, tied into a high ponytail, flowed down like a fountain and swished around as she stood fidgeting and swinging her head around every which way. It was cut into bangs across her forehead, framing her small, green eyes.

Florinok and her team had worked tirelessly to prepare the drug for months — from the initial molecular designing and raw material extraction to the final refining process and mass spectrography.

A lot depended on whether they had been successful. The raw material came from a rare species of plants that only thrived in the Malorawa Forest on Karomoz. The Karomozian government had given them six months to prepare their drug — a drug for a yet incurable epidemic that had broken out on Karomoz and several other planets, including planet Trezon. They only had a week left by now.

If they succeeded in manufacturing a viable drug, a large swath of the Malorawa Forest would be awarded to Curavez Pharmaceuticals. If not, it would instead be awarded to Quinns Furnishings based on Karomoz. Cutting down trees so that the rich can sit and lie comfortably instead of saving the poor's lives, Florinok always thought bitterly.

"You know, you should be the one administering the drug," said Phyl most amiably. He was a middle-aged, spectacled man with graying temples, a thick mustache, and a gentle, wrinkling face.

Florinok knew better than to mistake that as an honor. All the five shareholders were present — Phyl, Rosa, Daffleria, Xemesh, and herself. She was the only one who had in-depth knowledge of the manufacturing process and the drug's mechanism of action. Unlike the others, she never bought her shares but was raised to this position by her dead mentor and former CEO of Curavez Pharmaceuticals, Lavandora Myrtle. Before that, Florinok had worked in various capacities as an employee of Curavez Pharmaceuticals, though always under Lavandora's care.

What Phyl really meant by his remark was that Florinok's place was not with the shareholders but with the lab technicians.

"Thank you, Phyl." Florinok beamed. "But I think I have trained them enough to be able to do their job without me."

"Indeed, she has," Rosa added calmly but with a subtle acid. She had big, olive eyes, and her strawberry blonde hair was in a bun. "They did their job well enough today. That team from Karomoz couldn't find a single flaw in our work environment. Everything was spotless. Do you suppose the spots removed themselves, Phyl?"

Rosa, as sweet as her name, was the only one who stuck up for her. Before she inherited her father's shares, she had been an event planner and had been very inexperienced when Florinok had joined. However, she was eager to know more about the pharmaceutical industry and took to learning about it from Florinok.

Phyl gave an apologetic smile. "I didn't mean any offense, ladies, I just wanted—"

"You mean she scoured everything clean herself?" This was Daffleria, blunt as ever, never bothering to employ diplomacy, unlike Phyl. She had gaunt features, thin auburn hair in curls, and sharp, brown eyes.

"No, I only made the workers get off their butts and do it," Florinok replied, tittering.

The team who had visited them earlier today was from the Drug Regulatory Authority of Karomoz, which worked under their Ministry of Health. They wanted to inspect the working conditions in which the drug was being manufactured. Florinok had supervised the preparations for their visit. The nature of the drug was such that it did not require rigorous hygiene standards as some other medicines did, but Florinok couldn't afford to neglect anything only for the team to raise objections.