Tweet
At Sea
"…this is the stupidest idea I have ever heard in my entire life," Kirsten stated, her arms crossed across her chest in defiance. "I've seen a lot of stupid things in my life. Unity was a good idea run amuck, run by a bunch of well meaning but incompetent bureaucrats. Dee's trusting Yang was another. Bless her, she didn't have much choice. And I won't even start in on that old fool Zak against Santiago. We all pay for our idiocies, and this is idiotic; sending two Morgan 'professionals', a sassy bible-thumper, a googlie-eyed, half-trained Gaian boy, and a crabby old woman and her pet against the Aliens."
Kirsten stared at Rider, daring him to say a word in reply.
Rider, for his part, stood quietly in front of the irascible old woman, who had been recommended as an 'old salt' who knew more about native life than any non-psi adept was supposed to. In her bio she had bone almost everything, like most Landers had, from farming, to pure science, administration and, recently, crèche leader at Garden of Paradise.
This is not starting well, he thought as he let the silence deepen. He knew he had to choose his words carefully.
"First, delivering out 'package' to the Alien is hardly a stupid idea, since it has been approved at the highest levels. Simply put, it is important to the Axis. Second, I have to tell you that you were all selected for this mission for a purpose. Each of you has special skills that we will need, since we are going into totally unknown territory. We'll need your jack-of-all-trades skill," he said, nodding toward Kirsten, "and understanding of native life to cross the expanse of fungus we'll have to cross to get to the Alien settlements. My partner here will provide a little expertise in 'materials management…"
"Explosives, and nanos. Don't beat around the bush, Rider," Alice stated in monotone.
Rider smiled a little.
"…nanos and explosives, then. Sister Jessica and Private Jay Fredrickson will provide our psi shield, and act as our extra sensory eyes."
Jay shifted uncomfortably. His eyes darted between the looming man Rider, his new mentor Kirsten the 'Mindworm Lady' and the beautiful Sister. Between all these distractions, and the fact that he was the lead empath, he was all tied up in knots inside.
"…and you need to know that on our way we will be meeting the sixth member of our team. I've been instructed not to reveal this person's name, but you'll probably be surprised," Rider continued.
"Now lets move on to the briefing room. You have probably heard a lot about the Aliens, and much of it is likely to be false. MorganLink 3D Vision is not known as a paragon of accuracy during sweeps week. Please follow me," Rider said as he led the lithe group out of the room and deeper into the hollow-out interior of the Isle of the Deep.
Jessica dutifully followed, noting that she really didn't have much choice. It did seem like a motley team, and while the two Morganites seemed detached and professional the Gaian contingent seemed unhappy. First, Kirsten was close to belligerent. And the young man Jay seemed ill at ease. Jess wondered if it was her imagination that he seemed to surreptitiously glance in her direction fairly frequently.
As she considered, the roughly cut passage descended. Was the Isle that big, and that deep? After a moment Jess decided it was really too hard to tell since she had lost all sense of direction long ago. Between the twisting corridors and the Song that was always at the edge of her consciousness she was more than a little disoriented.
Jay hurried up to get behind Jessica in the queue, with Alice in back of him. Kirsten and Fluffy pulled up the rear. Fluffy, at least, seemed to be having a good time, since he was darting about at an almost frightening pace, bouncing up the walls like they were racing ramps and generally getting on Jessica's nerves. After about five minutes Fluffy, mercifully, disappeared. Shortly thereafter Jessica stopped short. Something was oozing out of the wall! It looked like hamburger being extruded out of the business end of a meat grinder, and it flowed and flowed. The little pink blobs hit the ground, reformed, and Fluffy was off again, tearing around the hallway and getting in everyone's way. Now Jessica was annoyed.
In the back Kirsten smiled.
+++++++++++++
A bitter wind howled, making the slight mist that was falling even more unpleasant and cold. Jessica looked around the fungal wasteland, not liking what she saw. Strange, unnatural shapes erupted in clumps for as far as the eye could see. Most of the fungus was less than waist high, but some formed continuous forests. All of it was pinkish, with hues ranging from bluish to gray. The gray sky and heavy mist with a little fog didn't help either, making the fungal plain seem even more threatening.
It didn't help that Jessica was dead tired, both physically and mentally. Hiking through the fungus at an almost reckless speed took a lot of energy, and it didn't help that she and Jay had to be 'on' almost all the time. Jay had been helpful in honing her 'seeing' techniques, and always had a useful analogy to help Jess 'get it'. But he was so shy and quiet Jess didn't quite know to make of him. She was really tempted to 'peek', but after the fiasco with Rider she decided it wouldn't be a good idea, and Jay was an empath, and more skilled than Jess by far.
Alice and Jay came up to relieve Jess and Rider. Jess nodded and clambered down to their makeshift camp. The little pink domes were at least dry, and the beds were comfortable. After the exertion of the night, when they traveled, Jess had no trouble sleeping. It was just that she had a shift during the day, and never seemed rested with her 4 hours of sleep.
The one person who seemed unphased by all this was Kirsten. She seemed right at home in the fungus, and had a knack of finding the most disgusting looking things and preparing them for meals. But, even if they looked absolutely awful, they were generally quite good, either because of their form or how Kirsten prepared them. On more than one occasion Kirsten has served a meal and was obviously watching everyone's reaction as the little bowl's contents writhed as if trying to escape. Jess remembered almost throwing up. Kirsten picked up her bowl and ate with relish, explaining about the gelatinous goo with a long set of technobabble about biologic harmonics and something about resonance, whatever that was. Strangely enough, after you got over the fact that your pink pudding was moving it was actually delicious, even if it did seem to fight going down…
Jess hiked herself over a one and a half meter diameter fungal limb, and down the little trail to camp. Off to the right she could see Fluffy darting around, always in constant motion. Out here in the fungus he was not nearly as irritating, and Jess was even grateful for his presence since he would do more than anyone else if a wild mindworm appeared.
Her little fungus-shaped dome appeared, and Jess activated the airlock, which cycled open soundlessly. Jess crawled in, waited as the airlock and atmosphere exchanger cycled, and then crawled into her cubby. In moments she was asleep.
+++++++++++++++
Jess blinked a couple times.
She felt distinctly uneasy.
What was wrong?
Jess didn't wait for answers, but inserted her picobreathers into her nostrils and used the emergency cycle. As she did there was a 'pop' as the Chiron atmosphere rushed in, disturbing her blanket and a few of the belonging and supplies.
The vague threat was growing, and Jess felt it was toward the south. Jess made her way as quickly as she could through the forest of fungus and spongy undergrowth.
Coming on a low clearing Jess stopped, both physically and mentally. There in the clearing Fluffy was fully involved in what appeared to be aerial acrobatics with a smaller mindworm. Whereas Fluffy was generally ovoid and compact, the feral mindworm was irregular, with stringers of worm tendrils extending out in at least three directions. The tendrils were reaching toward Fluffy like daggers, but Fluffy seemed to anticipate the basic attack and expertly darted to the side or under the spearing action.
Jess watched in admiration. Little Fluffy, who could be so incredibly annoying, had the grace of a dancer and his fast, darting movements were obviously practiced, since he was clearly outmaneuvering this feral.
Jess opened her psi a little, and tried to 'see' the worms as they danced with each other, to the death. Although she could just barely understand and grasp the meaning, each mindworm seemed to emitting pulses of energy in wave fronts. When a pulse reached Jess she was filled with angst and terror as each bored into her consciousness. Jess shuddered to think what these pulses would do to a normal human that didn't even have her rudimentary shields. By now she would have curled up into a ball in terror, while the worms descended.
Each pulse did affect the mindworms, though. As each pulse hit the other mindworm the worm became a little less cohesive. Maybe it disrupted its magnetic fields? Or killed some of the worms that made up the collective sentience? It was hard to say. All Jess knew for sure is that little chunks of the feral mindworm were being blown off or were disintegrating, whereas Fluffy wasn't taking nearly as much damage. Finally, the feral's tendrils were all severed, and its core ball was noticeably smaller. Fluffy darted right, and the feral's ball sluggishly flowed right. In a move that Jess had trouble following, Fluffy changed direction almost impossibly fast, formed a giant dagger, and speared into the center of the feral.
There were a series of loud popping sounds, and there was an explosion of pink and gray pulpy flesh, some of which impacted on Jess. The feral seemed to expand like a blooming flower with the force of the explosion, and then each of the pedals unfurled and sank to the ground.
In the center was Fluffy, largely undamaged.
Then he did the strangest thing. He flowed toward some of the pulpy patches, which still had some resident worms in the oozy mess, and he absorbed them. He continued to flow over the tattered remains of the feral and, when he was done, he was noticeably bigger.
As she watched Kirsten walked into the low fungal field, smiling broadly.
"Good job Fluff! I loved that dagger double back, just like we talked about! Poor bastard didn't have a chance against the mighty Fluffy!
No, you can't eat another now. You've had quite enough. It'll take you while to get to know your new worms, now won't it? Yes, I thought so. Yes, I know it was fun, and really, Fluff, you shouldn't play with your food like that."
Fluffy's grayish pink form was a compact ovoid again, and he was apparently finished absorbing feral wormlets. He zipped toward Kirsten and coiled around her feet, pulsing a little.
"Yes I know she was watching. She doesn't hate you, at least not anymore. No, you can't eat her! Aren't you full? Really, Fluff, you are such a glutton! You need to work it off. Go find Jay. I'm sure he will be impressed with your stunning victory. If you hurry you might catch him when he's not looking!"
At that Fluffy perked up, and formed a little head. A second later he darted off toward the little observational rise they had chosen for today's lookout. He had a new mission: to ambush Jay. Again.
Kirsten watched him go, shaking her head a little. Then she looked up and at Sister Jessica, who was at the edge of the clearing by a heavy branching fungal tree.
"Well, what did you think?" she said, walking toward Jessica.
"I…don't know. I've never seen mindworms fight before. Or any mindworm attack, for that matter. All I have to say is that I'm glad he is here, and that he did a great job."
Kirsten got within two meters of Jess under the branches of the tree, and stopped, turning toward the battle had taken place.
"I'll tell him you said that. He is pretty sensitive and doesn't like empaths. The only ones he has warmed to are Dee and Jay. Why he likes Jay I don't understand, but I'm not complaining. I'm not getting any younger, and Fluff could live thousands of years. Both are really a good kids, you know."
Jessica couldn't help it, and her question kind of blurted out. "Dee? You mean Lady Skye?"
"Yah. I call her Dee, like all the landers. She was more practical then, and hadn't been hurt as much. The Lady part came a lot later. I think Lal gave her that moniker, and I think it was a compliment. Now she's stuck with it, although it must gall her egalitarian spirit."
Kirsten looked over at Jess, and her eyes squinted a little.
"Hold on. I'll be right back," she said.
Jess watched her as he ripped at the dark gray soil at the base of the fungal tree, poked at its root stem, then grabbed a finger-shaped mass, which she removed with a sharp tug. Standing again she broke it in two, smeared it on the back of her hand and then added a touch of dirt.
"Come here. You're bleeding," she said, looking up from her hand.
Jess moved forward, and Kirsten gently but firmly took her left arm and turned it to the side. She took the fungal rood and smeared the broken surface on a cut that was bleeding vigorously on the back of Jess's arm.
"A iron parasite must have just dropped off. You need to check yourself every time you turn in for bed, and several times a day. I've seen he-man Spartan soldiers die from blood loss without even knowing it from a little limpet-shaped worm. Be next careful next time."
As she smeared the icor on the wound Jessica felt a slight sting, but nothing more. In seconds the blood flow stopped.
Jess notices something else. Kirsten's gruff manner had completely fallen away, and was almost motherly, even warm and friendly.
Jess reached out and gently touched Kirsten's shoulder, and she looked up.
"Thank you, and God bless you, Kirsten," Jess said, meaning every word.
"No problem. Now let's see what those worthless men are doing. Hopefully Alice is keeping them in line, or they'll do something stupid that will bring the entire alien army down on us."
With that Kirsten started walking through the fungal woods, and Jess followed.
Overhead the sun was breaking through.
Maybe it'll be a good day after all Jess thought hopefully.
"…this is the stupidest idea I have ever heard in my entire life," Kirsten stated, her arms crossed across her chest in defiance. "I've seen a lot of stupid things in my life. Unity was a good idea run amuck, run by a bunch of well meaning but incompetent bureaucrats. Dee's trusting Yang was another. Bless her, she didn't have much choice. And I won't even start in on that old fool Zak against Santiago. We all pay for our idiocies, and this is idiotic; sending two Morgan 'professionals', a sassy bible-thumper, a googlie-eyed, half-trained Gaian boy, and a crabby old woman and her pet against the Aliens."
Kirsten stared at Rider, daring him to say a word in reply.
Rider, for his part, stood quietly in front of the irascible old woman, who had been recommended as an 'old salt' who knew more about native life than any non-psi adept was supposed to. In her bio she had bone almost everything, like most Landers had, from farming, to pure science, administration and, recently, crèche leader at Garden of Paradise.
This is not starting well, he thought as he let the silence deepen. He knew he had to choose his words carefully.
"First, delivering out 'package' to the Alien is hardly a stupid idea, since it has been approved at the highest levels. Simply put, it is important to the Axis. Second, I have to tell you that you were all selected for this mission for a purpose. Each of you has special skills that we will need, since we are going into totally unknown territory. We'll need your jack-of-all-trades skill," he said, nodding toward Kirsten, "and understanding of native life to cross the expanse of fungus we'll have to cross to get to the Alien settlements. My partner here will provide a little expertise in 'materials management…"
"Explosives, and nanos. Don't beat around the bush, Rider," Alice stated in monotone.
Rider smiled a little.
"…nanos and explosives, then. Sister Jessica and Private Jay Fredrickson will provide our psi shield, and act as our extra sensory eyes."
Jay shifted uncomfortably. His eyes darted between the looming man Rider, his new mentor Kirsten the 'Mindworm Lady' and the beautiful Sister. Between all these distractions, and the fact that he was the lead empath, he was all tied up in knots inside.
"…and you need to know that on our way we will be meeting the sixth member of our team. I've been instructed not to reveal this person's name, but you'll probably be surprised," Rider continued.
"Now lets move on to the briefing room. You have probably heard a lot about the Aliens, and much of it is likely to be false. MorganLink 3D Vision is not known as a paragon of accuracy during sweeps week. Please follow me," Rider said as he led the lithe group out of the room and deeper into the hollow-out interior of the Isle of the Deep.
Jessica dutifully followed, noting that she really didn't have much choice. It did seem like a motley team, and while the two Morganites seemed detached and professional the Gaian contingent seemed unhappy. First, Kirsten was close to belligerent. And the young man Jay seemed ill at ease. Jess wondered if it was her imagination that he seemed to surreptitiously glance in her direction fairly frequently.
As she considered, the roughly cut passage descended. Was the Isle that big, and that deep? After a moment Jess decided it was really too hard to tell since she had lost all sense of direction long ago. Between the twisting corridors and the Song that was always at the edge of her consciousness she was more than a little disoriented.
Jay hurried up to get behind Jessica in the queue, with Alice in back of him. Kirsten and Fluffy pulled up the rear. Fluffy, at least, seemed to be having a good time, since he was darting about at an almost frightening pace, bouncing up the walls like they were racing ramps and generally getting on Jessica's nerves. After about five minutes Fluffy, mercifully, disappeared. Shortly thereafter Jessica stopped short. Something was oozing out of the wall! It looked like hamburger being extruded out of the business end of a meat grinder, and it flowed and flowed. The little pink blobs hit the ground, reformed, and Fluffy was off again, tearing around the hallway and getting in everyone's way. Now Jessica was annoyed.
In the back Kirsten smiled.
+++++++++++++
A bitter wind howled, making the slight mist that was falling even more unpleasant and cold. Jessica looked around the fungal wasteland, not liking what she saw. Strange, unnatural shapes erupted in clumps for as far as the eye could see. Most of the fungus was less than waist high, but some formed continuous forests. All of it was pinkish, with hues ranging from bluish to gray. The gray sky and heavy mist with a little fog didn't help either, making the fungal plain seem even more threatening.
It didn't help that Jessica was dead tired, both physically and mentally. Hiking through the fungus at an almost reckless speed took a lot of energy, and it didn't help that she and Jay had to be 'on' almost all the time. Jay had been helpful in honing her 'seeing' techniques, and always had a useful analogy to help Jess 'get it'. But he was so shy and quiet Jess didn't quite know to make of him. She was really tempted to 'peek', but after the fiasco with Rider she decided it wouldn't be a good idea, and Jay was an empath, and more skilled than Jess by far.
Alice and Jay came up to relieve Jess and Rider. Jess nodded and clambered down to their makeshift camp. The little pink domes were at least dry, and the beds were comfortable. After the exertion of the night, when they traveled, Jess had no trouble sleeping. It was just that she had a shift during the day, and never seemed rested with her 4 hours of sleep.
The one person who seemed unphased by all this was Kirsten. She seemed right at home in the fungus, and had a knack of finding the most disgusting looking things and preparing them for meals. But, even if they looked absolutely awful, they were generally quite good, either because of their form or how Kirsten prepared them. On more than one occasion Kirsten has served a meal and was obviously watching everyone's reaction as the little bowl's contents writhed as if trying to escape. Jess remembered almost throwing up. Kirsten picked up her bowl and ate with relish, explaining about the gelatinous goo with a long set of technobabble about biologic harmonics and something about resonance, whatever that was. Strangely enough, after you got over the fact that your pink pudding was moving it was actually delicious, even if it did seem to fight going down…
Jess hiked herself over a one and a half meter diameter fungal limb, and down the little trail to camp. Off to the right she could see Fluffy darting around, always in constant motion. Out here in the fungus he was not nearly as irritating, and Jess was even grateful for his presence since he would do more than anyone else if a wild mindworm appeared.
Her little fungus-shaped dome appeared, and Jess activated the airlock, which cycled open soundlessly. Jess crawled in, waited as the airlock and atmosphere exchanger cycled, and then crawled into her cubby. In moments she was asleep.
+++++++++++++++
Jess blinked a couple times.
She felt distinctly uneasy.
What was wrong?
Jess didn't wait for answers, but inserted her picobreathers into her nostrils and used the emergency cycle. As she did there was a 'pop' as the Chiron atmosphere rushed in, disturbing her blanket and a few of the belonging and supplies.
The vague threat was growing, and Jess felt it was toward the south. Jess made her way as quickly as she could through the forest of fungus and spongy undergrowth.
Coming on a low clearing Jess stopped, both physically and mentally. There in the clearing Fluffy was fully involved in what appeared to be aerial acrobatics with a smaller mindworm. Whereas Fluffy was generally ovoid and compact, the feral mindworm was irregular, with stringers of worm tendrils extending out in at least three directions. The tendrils were reaching toward Fluffy like daggers, but Fluffy seemed to anticipate the basic attack and expertly darted to the side or under the spearing action.
Jess watched in admiration. Little Fluffy, who could be so incredibly annoying, had the grace of a dancer and his fast, darting movements were obviously practiced, since he was clearly outmaneuvering this feral.
Jess opened her psi a little, and tried to 'see' the worms as they danced with each other, to the death. Although she could just barely understand and grasp the meaning, each mindworm seemed to emitting pulses of energy in wave fronts. When a pulse reached Jess she was filled with angst and terror as each bored into her consciousness. Jess shuddered to think what these pulses would do to a normal human that didn't even have her rudimentary shields. By now she would have curled up into a ball in terror, while the worms descended.
Each pulse did affect the mindworms, though. As each pulse hit the other mindworm the worm became a little less cohesive. Maybe it disrupted its magnetic fields? Or killed some of the worms that made up the collective sentience? It was hard to say. All Jess knew for sure is that little chunks of the feral mindworm were being blown off or were disintegrating, whereas Fluffy wasn't taking nearly as much damage. Finally, the feral's tendrils were all severed, and its core ball was noticeably smaller. Fluffy darted right, and the feral's ball sluggishly flowed right. In a move that Jess had trouble following, Fluffy changed direction almost impossibly fast, formed a giant dagger, and speared into the center of the feral.
There were a series of loud popping sounds, and there was an explosion of pink and gray pulpy flesh, some of which impacted on Jess. The feral seemed to expand like a blooming flower with the force of the explosion, and then each of the pedals unfurled and sank to the ground.
In the center was Fluffy, largely undamaged.
Then he did the strangest thing. He flowed toward some of the pulpy patches, which still had some resident worms in the oozy mess, and he absorbed them. He continued to flow over the tattered remains of the feral and, when he was done, he was noticeably bigger.
As she watched Kirsten walked into the low fungal field, smiling broadly.
"Good job Fluff! I loved that dagger double back, just like we talked about! Poor bastard didn't have a chance against the mighty Fluffy!
No, you can't eat another now. You've had quite enough. It'll take you while to get to know your new worms, now won't it? Yes, I thought so. Yes, I know it was fun, and really, Fluff, you shouldn't play with your food like that."
Fluffy's grayish pink form was a compact ovoid again, and he was apparently finished absorbing feral wormlets. He zipped toward Kirsten and coiled around her feet, pulsing a little.
"Yes I know she was watching. She doesn't hate you, at least not anymore. No, you can't eat her! Aren't you full? Really, Fluff, you are such a glutton! You need to work it off. Go find Jay. I'm sure he will be impressed with your stunning victory. If you hurry you might catch him when he's not looking!"
At that Fluffy perked up, and formed a little head. A second later he darted off toward the little observational rise they had chosen for today's lookout. He had a new mission: to ambush Jay. Again.
Kirsten watched him go, shaking her head a little. Then she looked up and at Sister Jessica, who was at the edge of the clearing by a heavy branching fungal tree.
"Well, what did you think?" she said, walking toward Jessica.
"I…don't know. I've never seen mindworms fight before. Or any mindworm attack, for that matter. All I have to say is that I'm glad he is here, and that he did a great job."
Kirsten got within two meters of Jess under the branches of the tree, and stopped, turning toward the battle had taken place.
"I'll tell him you said that. He is pretty sensitive and doesn't like empaths. The only ones he has warmed to are Dee and Jay. Why he likes Jay I don't understand, but I'm not complaining. I'm not getting any younger, and Fluff could live thousands of years. Both are really a good kids, you know."
Jessica couldn't help it, and her question kind of blurted out. "Dee? You mean Lady Skye?"
"Yah. I call her Dee, like all the landers. She was more practical then, and hadn't been hurt as much. The Lady part came a lot later. I think Lal gave her that moniker, and I think it was a compliment. Now she's stuck with it, although it must gall her egalitarian spirit."
Kirsten looked over at Jess, and her eyes squinted a little.
"Hold on. I'll be right back," she said.
Jess watched her as he ripped at the dark gray soil at the base of the fungal tree, poked at its root stem, then grabbed a finger-shaped mass, which she removed with a sharp tug. Standing again she broke it in two, smeared it on the back of her hand and then added a touch of dirt.
"Come here. You're bleeding," she said, looking up from her hand.
Jess moved forward, and Kirsten gently but firmly took her left arm and turned it to the side. She took the fungal rood and smeared the broken surface on a cut that was bleeding vigorously on the back of Jess's arm.
"A iron parasite must have just dropped off. You need to check yourself every time you turn in for bed, and several times a day. I've seen he-man Spartan soldiers die from blood loss without even knowing it from a little limpet-shaped worm. Be next careful next time."
As she smeared the icor on the wound Jessica felt a slight sting, but nothing more. In seconds the blood flow stopped.
Jess notices something else. Kirsten's gruff manner had completely fallen away, and was almost motherly, even warm and friendly.
Jess reached out and gently touched Kirsten's shoulder, and she looked up.
"Thank you, and God bless you, Kirsten," Jess said, meaning every word.
"No problem. Now let's see what those worthless men are doing. Hopefully Alice is keeping them in line, or they'll do something stupid that will bring the entire alien army down on us."
With that Kirsten started walking through the fungal woods, and Jess followed.
Overhead the sun was breaking through.
Maybe it'll be a good day after all Jess thought hopefully.
Comment