Leanne and Jonah were already there, Tule as well. It felt like his left leg had gotten heavier all of a sudden. Jack looked down and saw Rye sitting on his foot. He shook it and Rye squealed in laughter as they clutched to keep on. How had he not felt the little creature?
“Rye… leave Jack alone and come here.”
“Yes my Lady.” Rye finally peeled off his calf.
----------------------------------------
“So… this is it.” It was another Door. Not as impressive as the one at the Cryo-Core but it still stretched perhaps 20 feet high and nearly as wide. There was a small portcullis in the side.
In response Lady waved her hand and the Door split down the middle as cycling could be heard from deep inside the mechanisms.
The Elder swelled with aquamarine light under his robe as sludge and writhing masses started to pour out. Lady’s arms swept in complex geometry as a woven web of aquamarine swelled from her fingertips and covered the entirety of the Door. The teal weave pushed into the room and the SI stabbed out with a palm, this one launching a pulsing soft-blue ball that swelled and receded in its sweep after the first energetic wave.
Jonah trailed in first, “It’s sterile. Perfectly sterile.”
Leanne followed and wiped a finger across a surface. Nothing. She seemed interested by the result.
Jack needed to know.
“Why are you doing this?” Her cracked blue eyebrow rose slightly, “Why are you helping us?”
“Because if you don’t land the ship then we all die.”
“Do you care if they die?”
“Of course the Lady cares!” That was Rye, popping in again.
“Hush Rye, go run along. Elder, bring Rye back to the village.”
The aqua glow from the Elder had faded. He bowed deeply to the Lady and again, although much shallower to Jack and Tule.
Rye broke from his grip and wrapped around Jack’s leg.
“Promise you’ll come back again?”
What was it with this child? I haven’t done anything to or for it.
“Uh, sure.”
“You too Uncle Tule!” Rye mirrored its actions with Tule then ran off with the Elder’s hand in tow.
“No, you’re right. I don’t particularly care if they live. Similar to Humans I’d imagine. You care about offspring or pets and don’t want them to die but then, on the other hand,” the familiar glow of antilife spiraled around her dancing fingers, “how much does their passing affect you? Truly?”
“Quite a bit.” Tule joined now, his eyes flashed a color Jack missed.
The glow faded from her fingertips, “I suppose you have a point. That’s why I’m helping you, so you can land the ship.”
“What if I can’t land it?”
“If you can slow it down from relativistic speeds then that will also suffice.”
Jack’s mind spun. He wasn’t sure if it was from the information or from the casualness in which she spoke it. Relativistic? They were traveling at relativistic speeds?
The soft tinkle of her laughter broke through his thoughts.
“Didn’t know that?”
“No. No I didn’t. Doesn’t change much though. I suppose.”
“No, I don’t imagine it does. If you can slow it and crash it you might give us a chance too.”
“How would you survive?”
“I am in control of trillions of gallons of water. I think if there is a way, I will find it.”
That was… a good point. Well, whatever type of point it was, the welfare of a group of people… Humans, maybe… whatever they were. The safety of those he’d just met was low on his list of things to care about. Get through whatever prisoner complex was down here, find a Terminal, get to the Bridge.
Jack paused. Find Yuma. Get to the Bridge. That sounded better in his head. Or find another source of electricity, then get to the Bridge. That made even more sense in his head.
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“Yumata. Do you know where Jack is? The Sentinel is missing as well. I presume…” The Clan Head pointedly looked down the hole.
Yuma wasn’t sure about the Clan but they had fought and won… and lost, she now realized looking around. There must be less than 40 of them. They looked hard, flint in each of their eyes.
“I do not know for sure. I believe they fell down there with the crab.” She pointed towards the hole. “I heard water down there as well.”
“Water?”
“A lot of it.”
“Interesting. Yosef, to me.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Here Clan Head.”
“Large quantities of water below us, what are your thoughts?”
“Most likely that would be the primary water storage for the ship. Perhaps a reclamation facility as well. I could get closer?”
“Do so, don’t fall in.”
It was a faint thing to Yuma’s attention, but still there. The Clan Head seemed different. More… relaxed? No that wasn’t quite it. Less tense to be sure. She looked around. She was more tense now.
She’d meet up with Jack and Tule then figure it out together. The thought of reuniting gave her comfort as the thought of what challenges lay ahead brought her anxiety. She’d need help.
“Clan Head, we are going to head towards the Bridge and try to find Jack. We will probably need help, can you come with us?”
The Clan Head thought this over.
“Hmmm, I imagine our journey isn’t so much as complete. Someone will need to head to the rear of the ship though.”
“I think I can swing that.”
Yuma looked around for the source of the voice, Kala. She had Mikey in tow along with Eilien and Uller. Uller was still entombed in his Medjel shell. She studied him. His eyes were Medjel closed but she noticed the slight flare from his nostrils. So he did survive.
“We’ll head to the back of the ship, see what’s going on.”
Yosef came back, whispered a few things to the Clan Head that Yuma, eyeing Kala, did not catch.
Yosef took a step away and back from the Clan Head, “To the South of here,” he pointed behind him, across from the hole, “you should find the Engine Department, or Compartment.”
The Clan Head looked askance at Yosef. He stammered out a response.
“Well, uh, that section of our Histories has been marginally corrupted. The original naming is unclear.”
Yuma hopped in, “Jack said that the ship was going too fast, so try and slow down or turn off the engines.”
Yosef nodded in agreement, “Yes that would seem the best course of action.”
Cura hopped in, “Perhaps you should secure the controls and wait for our communication from the Bridge when we get there.”
That sounded better. Everyone nodded.
Kala nodded in response and grinned, “Alright we’ll head back there and sort it out. Anyone seen Devin?”
Yuma and the rest shook their heads no. A lie fit much better than the truth.
She caught something in Mikey’s face. They met eyes and she saw a faint grin on his face, barely perceptible even to her prodigious Senses and EQ.
The Clan Head finalized the plan, “Take a Monitor with you. Not you Yosef. Send a guard for the Monitor as well.”
Yosef scurried off to find the two to send with them.
The Clan Head turned back to Yuma.
“So, are you going to introduce your friends?”
----------------------------------------
The light had been blinding, but it receded to reveal normal lighting, soft green orbs. There were two large desks in between the three individual doors spread out on the far side of the room.
The four stepped inside and peered around. Jack and Leanne didn’t touch a thing, Tule seemed more relaxed, and of course Jonah was still poking and prodding near every damn thing.
Jack sighed then turned to the side to ask the Lady a question. She wasn’t there.
Jack whirled and saw Lady’s hand on Rye’s head, who had their eyes screwed shut as they were still waving their hands around furiously, like an idiot.
“That’s why I told you to leave Rye.”
Jack breathed in and out reminding himself, perhaps convincing himself that it probably wasn’t a trap set by a somewhat insane SI.
“Which direction should we take?”
Lady shrugged and pointed at the center one.
Jack raised his eyebrow but still walked to the door terminal, inserted the AI disk and slapped it open.
He barely dodged the pluming spore cloud that burst out. He was on his ass as he sprawled back away from the growing, pulsing, writhing mass of mushrooms that started to leak beyond the door.
“Back!”
Jack didn’t need to be told twice as a spiraling spear of teal ripped down the center of the door. The spiraling trails turned the multicolored fungus into spores and grey, lifeless matter. The streamers greedily wrapped and searched out errant life around the primary lance. A wave-wall of soft blue followed washing the grey remnants away.
Taking a moment to make sure nothing was crawling towards him he got up. “Thanks. Why don’t you come inside?”
“I was already the limits of my Authority when I first opened the Door.”
“What happens if you go beyond your Authority?”
Her entire faced… glitched, for lack of a better word.
“Instability, at the least.”
“Yeah, probably best that you don’t come with then.”
“I can send my Elder with you, but… I’d say his value matched the two of any of you. So, two of you stay and pledge loyalty to me and he will accompany you to the Bridge.”
Jack looked back at her, he had no idea where the Elder had come back from but he was there, at her side.
He did the calculation in his head and completed it immediately, on a near instinctual level.
Tule or Jonah? Leanne was an obvious choice. Tule was of immediate and direct combat support. Though he was acting strangely as of late. Having Tule and the creepy old man covering his back would be bad if things turned bad between them. Jonah? Less direct combat efficacy but he had helped build the Nano-cloud bomb when they had been facing down the degeneration cannon and had been most by his side next to Yuma. He looked to his battery. That settled it.
“Are… you’re not seriously considering her offer were you?”
Jack looked up, eyes wide with surprise.
“You were!” Leanne had an open scowl on her face, Tule’s arms were crossed, his head slightly shaking, Jonah’s face aghast.
“What? No, I was just thinking!”
He looked around, shit he hated dealing with people. Yuma would have backed him up here.
“So. Who were you going to choose?”
Thanks Leanne.
“I wasn’t going to choose anyone alright!”
“Yes! Yes you were!”
“No wonder you’d be worried,” Jack mumbled under his breath.
“What was that?” Leanne. She just wouldn’t let it go.
“I said I wouldv'e chosen you twice.”
She looked offended but Tule hushed them while slashing the air with his arm. He was already several feet down the newly cleared hallway. It was a circular area, another door on the other side which was once clear glass, now tinted and showing faint signs of mushroom based life. It seemed slow to regrow in anti-life cleared areas.
Jack looked at the other door terminal on the other side of the small anteroom. Shit. He looked back at Lady and saw her arms over the top of the Elder’s head, chin resting atop her hands. She was smiling. Rye was waving like an idiot, he raised his hand in response to Rye and they squealed and jumped around, some great victory won.
Jack couldn’t help the small smile that crept on his face. He turned back to focus on the task at hand. Too many distractions, too much lost time. No more. All the way to the Bridge.
Jack pressed his hand against the door pad and realized his mistake a fraction of a second too late. Current ripped into his Gauntlet, which fought against it then absorbed the errant current.
[https://i.postimg.cc/qqNf6j39/Screen-Shot-2022-11-25-at-3-35-25-PM.png]
“Nice.” So it wanted electricity too? Normal or because he used electricity?
It wouldn’t release his hand until he inserted the AI disk and the door slid open. They all froze.
This time, they weren’t engulfed in a mycelia spore blanket. The environment was more calm, much more calm than the first areas and spreading growth. The floor was a soft blanket of different mycelial organisms. The walls and ceiling were blanketed by growth, some of the mushrooms’ soft phosphorescent lit up the hallway.
Jack pressed past Tule. He stepped into the hall and paused before placing his entire weight forward. It was soft, squishy. He really wished he still had shoes. He gingerly stepped forward. Little plumes spurted at his feet. Then forward again. He paused.
Nothing.
He said, “I think it’s safe.” Immediately before he jumped up on one foot and crashed into a wall.
“Shit!”