Skye Journal

[Hydro]

Monsoon Jungle
MY2129

The rain started at 2:15 pm, right on schedule. Outside the transparent tent the oblong leaves and branches of the Monsoon Jungle bowed down under weight of the torrential rain, and the jungle canopy reverberated under the impacts of millions of raindrops. Within seconds the roof of the tent started to sag as it channeled the rainwater down and off to each side. Inside the tent it sounded like a drum being sounded by a thousand tiny hands, and all conversation stopped.

Lady Deirdre Sky looked around. She never tired of the marvel of the Monsoon Jungle and she felt the urge to go outside and experience it personally. That, however, was not possible today, and she turned her attention to her host, Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang. He was looking at her, and his gaze was impassive. She noticed that the rainfall did not distract him, but this did not surprise her at all. He was, apparently, perfectly patient to wait out the short deluge.

He nodded toward the waiting teapot that was waiting on the low table. Dee nodded in return, and Yang took a small box, unsealed its lid, and took out a few dark tealeaves. He crushed them into a seeper, and placed the seeper in the hot water of the gray stoneware teapot. In a few moments the slightly sweet aroma of the tea filled the tent. Deirdre recognized it at once; it was the tea strain she had given him four years ago. It was still one of her favorites and she could only presume that it was one of Yang's favorites, too. Or was it? Was this a polite thank you? Over the years Dee had noted that Chairman Yang was quiet and soft spoken, but subtle, and every action was likely to have meaning.

In a few minutes Yang lifted the teapot and poured the tea into two low ceramic cups. He took one and handed it to Dee, which she accepted. Then he took the second. He lifted it to Lady Skye and Dee lifted hers in return, and then they took a sip. The tea was warm and pleasant to Dee in spite of the penetrating heat of the Jungle.

The rainstorm stopped as abruptly as it started and a general quiet replaced the drumbeat of noise. Chairman Yang put down his cup, and Dee did likewise.

"I am honored that you agreed to meet with me in this place of plenty, Lady Skye," Yang started. "This day is the culmination of our shared vision: that together we can build a stronger society, and that together we are stronger than we are apart. Have you considered our offer?"

Dee nodded. "I welcome the friendship of you and your people, Chairman. Together our peoples can explore and seek to understand Planet, and we can strive not to repeat the mistakes of Earth. I believe that many of our goals are the same, and I understand that even our differences make us stronger. On behalf of the Gaian Council I gladly accept your offer of Pact Brotherhood."

Yang nodded and what might be a faint smile crossed his lips.

Lady Skye reached down and picked up the data crystal in front of her, and then presented it to Chairman Yang, who accepted it slowly and with reverence. Then he drew up a similar crystal and handed it to Lady Skye.

"I gladly give you all of our information regarding Planet and our technologic achievements," Lady Skye said. She looked at the Hive crystal she was holding. She knew what it contained, and that Chairman Yang had given her much more technology than she had given him. "I must say that your generosity confounded all of my expectations. I assure you that I will reciprocate in kind with any breakthroughs that we Gaians may encounter.

I'm truly glad we are together, Chairman," Dee said. "You have rekindled my hope in humanity, and my hopes about our new home. May our partnership be a long and productive one!" Her deep blue eyes looked into his hooded brown eyes; in them she saw calmness. Was it a calculating calmness, or a serene calmness? Based on his actions, and the slight smile that she thought she saw, she decided it was a serene calmness.

Yang reached down and picked up his teacup, which he lifted to his chest. "Your unexpected gift of Biogenetics, given to us years ago, has already been put to good use. You placed your trust in the Hive with this gift, and this helped us see that we could trust you in return. To a long and productive partnership, Lady Skye."

Dee raised her cup and they took another sip.

For the first time in almost three decades she felt unbridled optimism. She knew that learning to understand Chairman Yang and his Hive would take time, but she also knew it was worth the effort. His people were so unlike her Gaians in many ways, and some aspects of the Hive's society were troubling. Still, the Hive had strength that the
Gaians did not possess, and Dee knew that her Gaians were strong in ways that Chairman Yang might appreciate even if he would not fully understand. As he had said, they were much stronger together than they were apart.

Chairman Yang put his cup down on the table. "The rain has stopped. Would you care to walk with me in our Jungle?"

Dee couldn't help but smile, since she had been thinking the same thing only moments ago. It was as if he had read her mind. But, no, it didn't take a mind reader to know that Lady Skye loved the Jungle and all of its contents.

"I'd be happy to," she replied as she placed her cup on the table. Dee stood up quickly while Yang seemed to unfold and rise in a single, smooth motion. They walked together to the airlock, put on breath masks, and waited while the airlock cycled. Both walked toward their honor guards, who waited attentively outside.

Yang set the pace with his measured steps. Dee's gaze darted from the movement of a fleeing pinkish animal in the undergrowth to a giant fungal flower as she tried to take it all in. Yang concentrated on one object, absorbed and cataloged it with his unwavering gaze before he turned to another.

"Tell me Lady Skye - what do you see?"

"I see biologic richness, and a treasure of growth," Dee replied casually. "I could spend a year or a lifetime here. Even so I know there is a whole planet to explore, and who knows what wonders it holds? I want to see it all, and learn all it has to teach us."

Yang turned his gaze from the flora and fauna to Deirdre and he examined her, in her turn.

"I see much the same, Lady Skye," he said a little while after she finished.

Dee nodded to accept this simple statement and it satisfied her in an odd way. Maybe the Hive would come to understand her Gaians? Possibly, quite possibly. And, if not, Dee knew she would do all she could to help them understand.

[Hydro]

Unexplored Territory, South of Hive and Gaian Lands
MY 2131

Nourishment acquired. We: prepare to flow. We-partner Earthhuman Lindley and low-resonance static, non-mobile Earth-things ready for flow?

Shannon couldn't see Fluffy but she knew he was close. His thoughts just seemed to appear in her head as a clear static-like whisper. Distance didn't seem to play a role in how clear his thoughts were when the reached her, although they were much stronger when both were in the xenofungus, like she was now. That meant that he could be 100 meters or a 100 kilometers away - it really didn't matter. Fluffy had a pretty vague notion of both distance and time, and Shannon had spent a lot of time explaining these critical human concepts. She wasn't sure he grasped their importance, but she was at a loss on how to further explain these concepts to a collective intelligence that could be effectively immortal and that could travel anywhere there was fungus.

Shannon thought back to him, I'm almost ready. Give me one-tenth of a daylight cycle and I will be prepared to travel.

A tenth of a day cycle was about an hour, which should be enough time to get her 'low-resonance static, non-mobile Earth-things' like her pressure tent, food concentrates, breathers, and few personal articles pulled together. Fluffy now understood that these items were crucial for her life and was willing to float them along when Shannon traveled with him. It was still a little strange to 'flow' through the fungus suspended by the electromagnetic fields of a mindworm, but after a decade or so she had gotten used to it.

Has We-partner Lindley linked with the Lindley-Partner Deirdre? Fluffy replied.

Shannon was a little surprised. She had mentioned Deirdre as a friend, but now he was associating Dee as part of a Shannon-Deirdre collective separate from the Shannon-Fluffy collective. That was quite a leap and Shannon was impressed.

Yes. Deirdre has asked us to investigate the magnetic anomaly that lies to the south of us, Shannon said.

We not-Lindley can go now, Fluffy immediately replied.

Shannon smiled. Fluffy was inquisitive and had been pestering her to investigate every one of the magnetic anomalies they had found since he thought they were 'interesting' and would 'taste good'. At a distance most looked like probable Unity pods, but she knew this was not necessarily the case. The anomaly by Gaia's Landing had turned out to be a mineral lode, two anomalies near Virgin Soil had been alien artifacts, and, even stranger, one had been a small temporal rift that had transported a former crew hundreds of kilometers away from their home. The stuffy scientists at Gaia's Landing were still puzzling over that one. Only the anomaly near Lily of the Valley had actually been a Unity pod, and it had produced a speeder.

No. Wait for me. We will go together, she thought back.

Yes. Together go We. Then We flow," Fluffy replied, and then Shannon could feel the tendril of his thoughts decrease and then pull out of her mind completely.

Shannon turned around and walked toward her small encampment. It wouldn't take long to break it down. Considering Fluffy's loose understanding of time it would be better to be done early since Fluffy was as likely to show up in 10 minutes than an hour. At least he didn't confuse minutes and days anymore.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Shannon hurt all over and felt severely ill. Her stomach was doing summersaults and her vision was still a little blurry. Worse, she felt very weak and even sitting up took effort. She sat upright only with heave and had to brace herself with her left arm to keep from falling forward, and even that effort made her arm tremble. It was like the worst combination of a virulent flu and a binge hangover rolled up into one exquisite ball of agony.

And Fluffy, blast him, was skittering around as usual and was no worse for wear.

Shannon realized a couple of things. First, the strange rippling effect near the anomaly they had entered had been another of those inexplicable teleportation effects. Second, she had no idea where she was and, third, she never, ever, wanted to be subjected to that effect again. She hadn't felt this bad since her first really big binge as a freshman at UCLA. She had paid then, and she was paying now.

We-partner EarthLindley: resonance is strong here. Structured. Weave tastes good. Explore? Fluffy projected.

Shannon winced and his thoughts sent new waves of discomfort through her throbbing head. She fought the vague urge to throw up. After a moment she got the gag response under control and could respond to Fluffy, Send me mind images. I can not flow with you right now.

Fluffy responded with a wordless interrogative, and then an affirmation.

Shannon braced herself and in moments Fluffy was transmitting what he saw to her as he morphed through the fungus. It was strange and disorienting, and she knew she would never quite truly understand how he flowed through the fungus. Every time he flowed up to a solid object and simply morphed around it Shannon had the urge to flinch and felt the need to stop, and sometimes her hands automatically came up to ward off the impending collision that never came. That was not even as bad as when he literally flowed through the fungal mat, however, since that was a completely different and alien world and Shannon had no frame of reference. When she physically traveled with him he traveled along the surface and he had learned that Shannon could not morph, and after a few painful incidents Fluffy became adept at making sure that Shannon was not subjected to any more sudden and violent stops when she ran into solid objects. Although he accommodated her it was quite clear that mindworms simply did not see the world the way humans did.

Images of fungus and the roller coaster-like travel through it made her head spin more than normal due to dizziness. She tried to hang on and keep with him, though. Then something caught Fluffy's attention and he stopped. Shannon sighed with relief as she absorbed the now non-moving images.

After processing them for a couple moments she knew why he had stopped - in the low plain below them a ring of eight monoliths rose from the fungus. They seemed to be perfectly aligned, and even though they were relatively small and widely spaced they dominated the land around them. In the past she had found a few monoliths standing on land at seemingly random locations, and sometimes they were surrounded by fungus and sometimes not. All had an ageless feel and made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

These monoliths made the others pale by comparison. These monoliths were still intensely alien but they did not look like they had been scattered without rhyme or reason - they seemed to have a purpose.

But what purpose? Shannon didn't know, but she wanted to find out. First she would have to send a micro ultralight with a data download to Dee since it would do no good explore, find out the secrets of the Monolith Ring, and then have an accident and be unable to report it. The ultralight would go to The Hive, which was the closest base. The data were not encrypted and the peoples of the Hive were welcome to them, as long as they sent it to Dee ASAP, as Shannon knew that they would.

Shannon screwed up her courage and slowly crawled toward her meager possessions. Every step forward was a victory but eventually she made it. Some of the nausea was passing but she fought on since there was much to do.

This was one message that had to get through.

[This message has been edited by Hydro (edited April 07, 2001).]

[Hydro]

Gaia's Landing
MY2134

Dr. Tim Murphy put his datapad on the workbench and turned toward the door. Deirdre touched his forearm before he was completely turned around. Tim stopped moving and pivoted around toward her.

"Tim, are you sure you want to do this? You have just shown me that the simulations went perfectly. They're only simulations, though, and holomodels are only as good as the data and assumptions they are derived from. What if you're wrong? I don't want to lose you."

Tim gave her a good-natured smile. "We have to test it some time, and we can't go any further with the models until we do some real live testing. I know the risks, Dee, and while I'm willing to take them I am not willing to have anyone else do it for me. Consider it a test of faith."

That choice of words struck Dee as very odd coming from one of her best planetologists, especially since as far as she could tell he was a quiet agnostic. Still, faith can be in one's self or in science itself and needn't be in a higher being.

Dee sighed. "OK. What are your backups?"

Tim hesitated for a moment and then decided to tell her. "The room is sealed as well as it can be, and if the experiment fails damage will be contained. If containment fails then the room will be immediately flamed. It won't matter to me at that point since I'll be dead."

Based on the look on Deirdre's face his explanation of the failsafes had not given her much reassurance.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. There's only a 3% chance of a scrub, and less than a 1% chance of total failure. Either way we have to bring this to a conclusion, right?" Tim asked.

Dee felt like she had been backed into a corner. She wanted to say no so badly but, at the same time, she knew the potential value of the experiment, which could be critical to helping humanity survive on a sometimes hostile Planet.

"OK," Deirdre stated, "but be careful."

Tim patted her hand to reassure her, finished his turn, and walked into the test chamber. Once inside he sat down in the middle of the smallish room, crossed his legs lotus style, took a few deep breaths and closed his eyes. Dee watched through a remote observation port and noticed that his breathing rate dropped. She reached over and activated a medical diagnostic on Tim and it confirmed her suspicions; his heart beat and respiration rate both had decreased by about 20%, and there was evidence of cortical stimulation in his frontal lobe, although Dee didn't know what that meant. She voice activated the project physiologic baseline, which started cycling over the display: the results matched Tim's readings, and according to the specifications he was now in a deep trance.

Dee felt the next stage of the experiment begin before she saw it begin. It started with a vague feeling of uneasiness and before she realized it the feeling was close to panic. Even though she knew what was happening she felt like she was being dragged along the crest of a wave, almost completely out of control.

She tried to focus on the readouts and Tim. Inside the chamber Tim was seemingly unaffected and looked serene. Dee, by contrast, was white knuckled.

The general feeling of panic increased a notch when she noticed there was movement in the corner of the chamber. A miniscule boil of mindworms was pulsing across the floor, and it was making its way in an erratic path toward Tim. As the boil coiled up and seemed ready to flow over and attack Tim hesitated. Then, it retreated from its coiling motion and reformed its boil and began circling Tim again.

In the center of the attack Tim remained calm and did not seem to notice the pre-larval mindworm that was stalking him. The little ball of wormlets continued to circle but never came closer than about a meter, always veering off after an aborted thrust toward the immovable Tim. Finally the boil stopped coiling, and the boil flattened a bit. Then it flowed aimlessly around the room to no purpose that Dee could see. At the same time Dee felt her level of apprehension drop precipitously. Her hands relaxed and stopped clutching the edge of the workbench.

Then there was a burst of flame and light in the side of the room opposite from Tim, and the flame transfixed the larval boil. It sent out an inaudible shriek that caused Dee to involuntarily put her hands over her ears even though there was no sound and grit her teeth from the pain in her head. Tim didn't seem to notice. In a few moments the flame went, leaving the crisped remains of the wormlets, which looked like a smoking pile of blackened straw mulch.

Tim's chest went out with a deep breath. His inhalation seemed to go on forever, but finally he stopped and then finished the breath with an equally deep exhalation. His eyes slowly opened. He seemed to be looking at nothing in particular, but then fixed on the observation port. Tim smiled and mouthed to the relieved Dee, I told you I'd be fine. Dee couldn't help but grin in return. Tim gave her a thumbs-up and then rose to leave the chamber.

In a few moments Tim was at her side, and he took over at the console and voice scrolled through the data. "Well," he said, "I've only give it a cursory look but it looks pretty conclusive. With a little training we can use the trance technique increase our defense against mindworm attacks by about 50%. Now our scouts will stand a fighting chance if attacked out of the blue. Too bad we didn't have this when Lain and his men in the Jungle were attacked a few years ago. I suggest we squirt this to all our scouts, and at bases adjacent to fungus."

Tim tapped a few short sequences and gave his voice authorization. After a moment a green light on the console activated. "There," he said, "I've downloaded the data for you, just like you asked. I hope the good Chairman appreciates this." Tim picked up the data crystal and placed it in Dee's hand.

"I'm sure he will. He's been generous to us, so now we can return the favor," Dee said.

"One more thing," Tim said. Dee was immediately suspicious since he had that overly serious look on his face that Dee had learned meant he was up to something. "One of our techs finished a private project. It turns out he was a nautical buff back on Earth and has been toying with infrastructure requirements and basic ship designs that could be used here on Planet. His work is amazingly complete and it should allow us to field ships across the oceans of Planet once we decide to invest the resources. You might want to give this to the Chairman, too." Tim reached into his pocket and pulled out a second crystal. He took Dee's hand, opened her fingers, and placed the second crystal in her hand.

Tim was watching her closely and was enjoying the fact that the unflappable Dee was speechless.

"You can say 'Thank You' later," Tim interjected, "and be sure to put this in Theo's record. You might even want to call him to thank him yourself. I know he'd appreciate it since you're a hero of his."

"Ah, thank you," Deirdre said.

"Better late than never," Tim said. "Now, the comm port in my office is secure and can handle the data transmission feed. Feel free to use it, if you like. My team and I will be busy for a while to get all the nasty little details worked out."

Tim gave her a mock salute and left the room, and Dee left for his office. She had a gift to present to Chairman Yang.

[Hydro]

North of the Monsoon Jungle
MY 2135

Shannon gasped for air and felt her head swim.

Abruptly Shannon retched, but this time nothing came out. Exhausted, Shannon collapsed from her crouching position to her side. She shut here eyes and tried to close out the visions and the distorted perceptions from the strange teleportation anomaly, or whatever it was, that had afflicted her a second time. Shannon tried to make sense of it all, but it was so hard since the thoughts and memories it provoked were disturbing, or simply confusing. It sounded like a choir of a million off-key voices screaming at her at one time. It looked like a mélange of colors and textures that shifted so fast that she saw everything but understood nothing. But, worst of all, it felt like a hundred pairs of hands that had grabbed her body, twisting, pulling, and pushing in every direction simultaneously, forcing her nerve endings to scream in pain, pleasure, heat, cold, and every other sensation at the same time. Shannon was overloaded and it hurt to even think.

Even so she did have one clear thought, Damn you Fluffy!!

Not a month after the last anomaly had twisted Shannon inside out, deposited them tens of thousands kilometers south of where they were exploring near the Monolith Ring, Fluffy had dashed off toward another one. Shannon pleaded with him to stop, but all he kept saying was that it "Tastes good." Her dread had been well founded, for no sooner had Fluffy and his unwilling traveling companion entered the anomaly when sight, sound, and feeling left reality.

And now Shannon was sick. Again. And she had no idea where she was. Again. And she had no idea where Fluffy was and, frankly, she didn't care.

Peace. That's what I need. Quiet. Shannon thought as she sank into the semi-comfortable fungal mat she happened to be on. Or it kind of felt like a fungal mat, and it was pinkish. At least the part she had seen when she was puking had looked pink. Considering the other things here eyes were seeing she didn't need or want to look too closely.

Shannon took a few deep, ragged breaths and tried to still the memory of the sounds, images, and feelings. It helped a little, but only a little. They were still there, like a bad dream that is always with you. Normally Shannon was excited to be an explorer, but today she would give anything just to be back at Landing sipping a nice cup of chamomile tea with a lemon drop tart. There might be a few friends in the room, which would be warm and soft, and her friends would be talking among themselves quietly. Shannon would listen, just listen, and sip the steamy tea and take an occasional bite of the tangy tart. Fluffy would be far, far away. Bad Fluffy! she thought, not for the first time.

EarthLindley! It tastes good! Come; taste it.

Shannon scrunched her eyes together and willed the voice away. It sounded like another nightmare flashback where Fluffy starts babbling about something 'tasting good' and then scoops her up and dashes off toward one of those blasted anomalies.

There. The voice, the Evil Fluffy Voice, was gone. It was a bit strange since she could feel the wind on the back of her neck, and her hair was standing up slightly from the electromagnetic field. Actually it was a pleasant experience, and…

Wait. Wind? Hair standing on end?

Shannon struggled to process the information but her head felt like it was filled with cotton candy. Thoughts were slow in coming but, finally, something clicked.

She was moving! Shannon's eyes popped open a little bit to avoid the probing glare of the suns that was sure to hurt her eyes, and, sure enough, Fluffy had her and was morphing though the fungus again.

"No! No! Stop!" she yelled in panic as she rolled over to see where she was going. Yelling hurt, and rolling over hurt even more, but she did it anyway. It was amazing what motivations can do to overcome physical and mental discomfort. All you need is a reason and you can overcome.

Taste good! Fluffy thought to her.

All Shannon did was whimper in response. It was a mental whimper, which turned into a groan when she saw it; another anomaly not more than a few clicks from them, and Fluffy was making a b-line for it.

The anomaly got closer and closer, and Shannon's dread notched upward every second. She had nothing to hold onto except herself since she was suspended electro magnetically within Fluffy, which meant that she was effectively baggage. A low haze was coming off the water body nearby, and the haze partially obscured the true nature of the feature. All Shannon could do is look forward.

Then she saw it; it was a Unity pod silhouette! Shannon sighed with relief. No strange teleportation this time! In an odd way she was almost happy now that the dread was gone, or at least almost gone. As they got closer she saw an impact crater that was thoroughly overgrown with Chiron plantlife, which surrounded the pod.
The pod itself was nose-down toward the southeast, so it must have had a pretty low trajectory upon re-entry. Fluffy was moving along at a fast clip and they were not more than a 1000 meters away now, and Shannon could see it was pretty broken up. Who knows what might happen to its contents after having been exposed to Planet's elements and native life for over three decades. It still might have something valuable in it! Like a rover, or maybe some industrial supplies. Shannon started to get a little excited.

SCREEEEECH

Shannon involuntarily put her hands over her ears even though she knew that piercing mental call, and what it meant. Fluffy reared up and the next thing Shannon knew she was falling along with her few possessions. For a second the world went topsy-turvy and she saw a bit of pinkish blue rise and then pass by her. She had been unceremoniously dumped by Fluffy on a number of occasions and had learned the hard way to immediately tuck and roll, which he did, and pray that there wasn't something solid between her and the roll. Shannon impacted hard and kind-of rolled on the ground. Thankfully she had not landed on or near a trunk-like fungal stalk or boulder, or her landing would be a whole lot harder and much more painful, and in a few moments the world stopped its rolling spin.

Even though she hurt all over, both from the teleportation effect and her rolling fall, she felt none of the physical pain. Her attention was now locked on the reason that Fluffy had dropped her; he was attacking another mindworm, and the screech had been the dissident interaction of their resonance fields. Looking up, carefully and very slowly, Shannon could see that they were already locked in conflict. Two mindworms were streaming out of the rupture Unity pod hull and Fluffy was racing toward them. Shannon never knew how Fluffy determined what was an enemy mindworm but the wild mindworms always seemed to ignore him for some reason. There was only one occasion when she had asked Fluffy to attack a roving mindworm; that one was making its way toward the Gaian settlements, and Fluffy had attacked and killed it reluctantly.

The attacks themselves were generally not very spectacular. The nearest feral mindworm had finished flowing out of the pod and it was forming into a long, low ovoid. Fluffy was curled up into a more compact flattened sphere. Shannon could see through Fluffy's senses and knew that there were he was much bigger, and that he was controlling the tempo of the assault. Both almost stopped their movements, and mindworm pseudopods and thin tendrils from their bulk started to wave toward each other. In some ways Shannon could see the 'waves' that each was emitting, and the strange fields that surrounded each. Their attacks were not physical; their only purpose, apparently, was to disrupt the fields that held the colonies of mindworms together.

Fluffy was the first to get in a decisive attack, and a chunk of the feral mindworm's field wavered and collapsed, and the mindworm-lets from this portion fell to the ground to disappear into the fungus. The feral formed a large pseudopod and sent out a large pulse toward Fluffy, which he took in his north side. Like the feral, a portion of his bulk sloughed off. Fluffy felt no pain as Shannon understood it as the chunk of his
'body' collapsed, and she wasn't sure if his lack of pain was due to his concentration on the combat or from the fact that he had nothing resembling nerve endings in his being.

Fluffy repeated his first attack, which transfixed the smaller mindworm. It staggered, and the entire left side started to collapse. The mindworm stopped attacking and defending and tried to pull itself together, but it was too late. The field that held it together pulled in, forcing the remaining wormlets tightly together, and then a split second later their mutual repulsion caused them to almost explode. Many of the wormlets were rendered into a pulpy mass in the explosion of worms and it gave great, wet 'popping' sound as the feral met its end. Shannon shook her head. The attack had lasted less than a few minutes even though it seemed like forever to her, since in a strange way time seemed to stop when her consciousness went into another place.

Fluff, are you all right? she thought.

Yes, EarthLindley, Fluffy thought back after a moment. This feral is absorbed. I will take some of his bulk. The other is heading toward the Earthhumans. You told me this is bad.

Yes, this is bad. The ferals will kill Earthhumans if they can. I will warn them. Thank you, Shannon replied. Fluffy didn't reply. Apparently he didn't understand the human idea of being appreciative.

Now that the crisis was passed Shannon had time to feel terrible again. Every bruise and scrape screamed in agony, and the waking nightmares now included both the severely discomforting teleportation effect and the mindworm attack. She didn't feel like she had to throw up, but that didn't matter since she had a myriad of other pains to deal with. Finally she gave up, sank to the fungus a little, and resigned herself to a nice, long nap. She was dead tired and sleep was a way to escape the noisome aftereffects. Her body instinctively knew this, and she grudgingly gave into it at first and then abandoned herself to the inevitable.

Fluffy felt her go to sleep and felt as her mind went into its strange non-conscious state. It was very confusing to him since it seemed like there were two EarthLindleys every day, one that communicated directly and one that communicated passively when she went to sleep. The day EarthLindley mind was generally focused, but the night mind was much more interesting. Its thoughts flitted about and frequently made no sense, in as much as an Earthhuman's mind can make sense. It was remarkable. It really did taste good, and Fluffy stood guard over Shannon all night, tasting her fleeting thoughts as she slept.

[Hydro]

North of the Monsoon Jungle
MY 2136

Tension rippled through the air; Shannon could almost see it, and she was acutely aware of what that tension was and what it meant.

Fluffy was on the hunt.

Fluffy had dealt with a few feral mindworms since they had joined, but generally these exterminations were at her suggestion or when she was in danger. Fluffy had been a bit confused, communicating to her that he did not know why the ferals needed to be killed, but had always complied. Now she was locked out and Fluffy was ignoring her, which was more than a little disconcerting. After all, without Fluffy she was all alone in the wilderness, and far from any hope of help or rescue. Fluffy may be a nuisance of the first order but he was still her friend. She had been with him so long now that she couldn't conceive of living without him, and she felt closer to him, an alien life form, than she felt with any human she had ever known, even her husband and various living companions.

Shannon sat down on a truncated funal stalk. This was all Fluffy's fault. If he hadn't jumped those stupid pods and gotten them teleported twice, and then jumped the last Unity pod that was infested with mindworms, she wouldn't be in this position.

Fluffy? she called out for the umpteenth time. No response.

She got up and looked around. The shattered remains of the Unity pod were still barely visible at the horizon. There was a stiff, westerly breeze off the ocean, which felt good. All around her there were a low drone of chirps, rustling, and unidentifiable wind noises, and some of the taller and slenderer fungal stalks were swaying with the wind. So, except for the tension she got from Fluffy, this was a peaceful place.

As Shannon watched she was aware of more than just Fluffy's presence; there was another. It was raw and disjointed, much like Fluffy had been when he had adopted her. It was a little hard to tell but it seemed that Fluffy and the feral were dancing around each other, not really attacking but also not letting their guard down. To Shannon their presences were like sine waves that were sometimes constructive and sometimes destructive, creating pulses that forced their way into her consciousness. This was the tension she felt. That tension was also becoming more intense, and she could feel it getting closer.

As she was concentrating Shannon noticed a few things. First, all noise but the wind had now stopped. The soft cacophony of fungal life had ceased. Second, and more important, she knew the two mindworms were now close. This in itself wasn't bad, except that they were so close that Shannon could now gage their relative presence with respect to her, and this is what worried her. The feral was in between her and Fluffy, and Fluffy seemed to be herding it toward her.

Now, why would he be doing that?

Fluffy, what are you doing? Hey, why are you and the feral getting closer? If you're going to fight do it now, OK? she broadcast.

No response.

Shannon felt her heart rate increase and a surge of adrenaline. What was going on?

Near her there was a rustling, and Shannon backed up, away from it. Her mind was suddenly filled with raw, stark terror. She knew what was happening but it was like trying to swim against a tidal wave. Her mind broiled with emotions of fear and terror, and visions of death and pain.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Metal shrieked, and the ship lurched violently to the left, throwing Shannon and Ben into the bulkhead. They bounced off, and were promptly thrown the other way as Unity pitched in the opposite direction. Ben grabbed her hand and pulled her forward. Here fractured right arm sent waves of pain through her, and she was too dazed to resist.

"Comon' Honey," he shouted as he threaded his way through the thinning throng of people. Most were going the other way, and some were standing, confused and unsure what to do.

To Shannon his hand felt like a vice, and it hurt. He pulled again and she collided with a pair of engineering techs who were evidently making their way toward the pod commanded by Zakharov. All she saw was gray shirts, engineering badges, arms, and chests. She focused on Ben's hand. He gave her another yank and she erupted through them, and they shot the other way.

More shouts. There was another lurch to the right and this time everyone was pitched into the bulkhead. Shannon saw stars and her vision narrowed. She could feel a feeling of panic grow.

Then she felt Ben's hand again, and he pulled her forward. His hand was always there.

Now the whole ship was trembling, and the single shrieks of metal had become a chorus.

She felt his arm around her waist, and felt her pushing her. She saw the hatch for Pod 6, and Ben was helping her through it. More hands grabbed her, and her broken right arm. PAIN! Shannon involuntarily screamed. Shannon felt Ben let go and she turned toward him.

"No! Ben!" she yelled as she tried to move toward him. But the hands from the pod retrained her and dragged her away, into its depths.

Ben turned as he exited the pod. "Viv is still in there, and the med bay still had damaged cryos. I have to go for them."

Ben disappeared into Unity.

The hands pushed her into a jump seat and belted her in. She fought, but she was no match for someone who was not hurt and dazed.

"Ben!"

Shannon felt Unity lurch again. There was an explosion and there was sudden rush of air out the hatch.

Hull breach! Someone yelled to shut the pod door. Moments later there was a reverberating clang, and the rush of air stopped, as did most of the sounds of tortured metal.

"Ben," she sobbed, looking at the closed hatch and understanding, with crystal clarity, what it meant.

There was a quick series of explosions and Shannon was crushed against her restraining harnesses as the pod was ejected from Unity. Shannon knew she was blacking out from shock and blood loss and the inertia. Her last thought was of the small, wiry man with black hair and dusty skin that she had loved for 10 years. She could still see his worried smile, and feel his strong hand. And now he was gone.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Shannon felt drained and weak, and her eyes were wet. She didn't know where she was. She remembered: the fungus, the feral, and Fluffy. But the panic was gone.

Earthlindley, Fluffy projected toward her.

She looked up, and pulsing in front of her was Fluffy and a smaller mindworm. He was irregularly shaped, but there was no more tension and pulses between him and Fluffy. There seemed to be accordance.

The new mindworm projected itself to her. Its touch was something like Fluffy, but there was another aspect to it: calm, assurance. Shannon gasped as she felt it. A picture formed in her mind, a picture of someone who was calm and assured, a person who had loved her. Ben.

Affirmation. Interesting. We: stay, the mindworm projected into her mind.

It melted into the fungal mat, and Shannon watched it go. First its bulk disappeared and then its presence waned, and then vanished. She knew it was heading back toward Gaian territory.

As it was gone she caught a few tattered fragments, and she wasn't sure whether it was projecting to her or if she was picking up stray thoughts. It was a half formed picture of her Ben, slightly wrinkled, black hair and graying temples, sparkling dark brown radient eyes. The image morphed into the mindworm.

Shannon was nonplussed. The mindworm seemed to have absorbed her Ben, or had absorbed her memories of him. Had that stopped its attack? And if so, why? Why hadn't Fluffy intervened? Or was this contrived by Fluffy?

Shannon didn't know, but she felt a strange joy as it left. In a way her Ben was alive again. Her Ben.

Hello, Ben, she projected toward the former feral mindworm. Suddenly her eyes were moist again.

!!!