The first thing they noticed was green vibrancy. The lushness of the area. The air, thick and fresh.
“Why, hello there, Human, care to rest for a moment?”
The entity was alternating in shades between green and blue, birds rested on his shoulders, he looked at ease and at peace with the world. Surrounding him were Humans, both man and woman, apprehensive of the pair, wielding makeshift spears. A benevolent smile was on its face.
The Arkology SI.
Jack and Jonah exchanged a look,
Not quite yet
Even worse, the SI was patiently waiting for a response. A bird flickered by. The Humans’ knuckles turned white.
“We’re in a bit of a rush, but sure, we could use a rest.”
“Now please put those down, we are all friends here.”
The Humans listened to it.
Jack’s eyes narrowed, his blade was already in his hand despite the awkward weight of Leanne’s body slung over his shoulder, “Not sure about that.”
The SI stepped forward, “Please, unhand your weapon. This commune is here because we are all one, united through life and consciousness.”
“What in the hippy-loving shit is this?! Befriending all this meat, you make us look bad!”
The Arkology SI looked amused by this, “You are riding on one’s shoulder, like a pet, brother.”
The eye-lasers were easily blocked by one sweep of the SI’s hand in a wash of sparkling green. Its other hand waved back the semicircle of Humans who had inched closer.
Jack finally looked to Jonah who had been trying to get his attention.
Not now. Soon.
Jack rubbed his jaw, feeling the fullness, the pressure was there.
“Alright,” he moved to put his sword away, “Let’s go.”
The Ark-SI turned around. There was the signal. On the back of the SI's head was a solitary, white capped mushroom. He looked to Jonah, now!
Jonah’s trauma from being mind-raped was faster than Jack’s signal. It was already in flight, the boom from its passage sent everyone except Jack sprawling.
The Ark-SI shifted to the side but the disk lodged into its shoulder. It gave Jonah a mournful glance that twisted into a mask of hate and impotent rage.
Between the SI disappearing and the AI disk dropping to the floor, Jack spit in the face of the first Human who had recovered. The pressure in his jaw released and the man’s skin immediately started to slough off as chunks of dead flesh dropped to reveal pitted bone. The pain would have been unimaginable if he hadn’t already been dead.
Between Jonah’s energetic fingers and the SI’s sweeping laser, Jack only had to kill one other, a woman. He punched his Gauntleted finger directly into her skull.
“Unaugmented?”
Jonah waved a Magno-Tube over them, a trickle of Nano came into it.
“Almost entirely.”
“You were pretty quick there.”
“Ship-damned mushrooms.”
Jack grinned at that. He was feeling proud of that, it had taken a while but he had finally gotten a good read on the old timer. He had known why Jonah had acted so quickly.
Idiot! Stop patting yourself on the back, it was obvious even with your pathetic EQ.
He frowned at the voice. He didn’t like that, and even worse, he didn’t know why it had come through just then.
Can you hear me?
No response. Jack’s frown deepened before a gentle, for a laser, dug a shallow furrow into the side of his head.
“Stupid meat! We’re just waiting here with these shithead ‘Bothers’, while you look constipated.”
Jack reminded himself that he needed the ‘0.49%’ of Trash’s ‘help’. He took a deep breath then coughed as electricity crackled inside his lungs.
“Shit, it’s in the air.”
Now that the bodies were decaying he had a chance to look around.
The green had a sickly hue to it. The lushness hid a sense of underlying order, of unity. The air stank with fetid heat.
“We’re not ‘Bothers’, we’re ‘Brothers’, vile machine.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Jack looked up and saw the three mushroom Brothers standing just on the edge of the clearing.
A ball-bearing fired and exploded the Psy-brothers head, the Middle Brother if he was remembering correctly.
“Shit! Fucking shitty old man!”
The Elder Brother, rolls and layers of mushroom-fat covering his prodigious strength, waved his Brother back.
“Leave them. We had come to take the Ark-SI with us. You killed him. These Ones desire recompense.”
Another ball-bearing kicked a storm of dirt as it impacted again into the Middle Brother.
“Fucking stop it!”
Ignoring his Elder Brother the Psy-Brother clenched a hand outwards at Jonah and squeezed.
Nothing happened.
“What? Why can’t I mindrape you?”
“Enough!” He swiped a hand and the Middle Brother’s body dissolved into the carpet of tiny grass-like mushrooms.
“Give us the SI on your shoulder and we will let you leave.”
Jack rubbed his jaw, feeling the pressure start to build again. It was a possibility. He could just hand over Trash and keep going on his way. He fingered the AI disk, they had already absorbed the Ark-SI. He didn’t know why the AI said it needed to absorb another SI but he might need to keep around Trash for that, he had no idea what was the status of the Bridge SI.
Jack had a feeling that the 0.49% increased success probability was more than that though. Maybe it wasn’t. Either way…
“Not gonna happen.”
The small mushroom man on the big one’s shoulder sneered, the ‘Little Brother’.
“Vile separatist!”
“So you don’t want to give these Ones the SI, what then, can you provide? Or do you wish to fight?”
“If I don’t get to the Bridge, the ship crashes and we all die.”
“If even a single spore survives, then we survive. This One likes those odds. Are yours the same?”
“We aren’t crash landing on some planet, we’re heading into the heart of a star. You know that right?”
Apparently they didn’t know that. Jonah couldn’t help the sneer on his face, Jack suspected the man didn’t care, “Hah! No one bothered to inform the mushroom hive-mind?”
“Big Brother, is that true?”
“This One doesn’t- those two,” he spat the word, “do not appear to be lying.”
Jack started walking, Jonah sticking close by his side, “Listen we’ll just get right out of your… mushrooms, or whatever. And in exchange for me not seeing you again, I won’t kill you and,” he waved a hand lazily in the air, “torch whatever you’ve got going on in here to the ground.”
“You would be wise to leave this area unmolested, separatist.”
Jonah was expecting an attack at any moment, but it didn’t come.
“That’s the key to a good negotiation, meat. No compromise!” The SI’s encouragement had somewhat the opposite effect on Jack’s prior confidence. Still, they were unattacked.
“I am having trouble believing that worked.”
If the mushroom jungle parting for them was any clue, it had worked. Jack gave him a look, unwilling to elaborate here. After seeing this…
They came into a clearing with a waterfall falling softly into a decently sized pool of water. Instead of carrying a sense of peace and tranquility, a fetid, green stream plunged into several feet of foam that floated up to where the water was supposed to be.
Jack and Jonah shared a look. He was definitely considering burning this shit to the ground. That bit of information the Elder Brother had let slip, if even a single spore survives. The risk was massive and the payoff? Well, he’d had to see once he got to the Bridge. It was all well and good to have an idea of a plan, but committing and adding detail to it was foolish when you lacked information. Foolish even, especially when you lack the fundamental ability to make the choice.
“Let’s get out of here.”
_____________________________
Hendrew being naked would have been a bit of a problem, if anyone in the Clan could even look at him, but neither Yuma nor the Clan could even look near the light-Nano user. The last Cargo Bay had been filled with oppressive light and everyone’s skin was red and peeling, despite their best efforts to shade themselves.
She wasn’t sure what had been worse, fighting creatures of the night or the burning desert of the last Bay they had just trudged through. She was ready for whatever else was next, as long it wasn’t something else, ‘environmental’.
“Clan Head, are you ready?”
He stroked his beard and looked over the Clan. Losses. Significant. Great losses. Still, if they did nothing, then even more would be lost. If they stopped, then everyone would have died for nothing. Their sacrifices to the Clan would have been meaningless. They might still be. The ship vibrated slightly
He met her waiting eyes and nodded, “Let us proceed, Miss Yumata. Always forward.”
She nodded and turned to place her hand on the Door’s HandPad.
“Always forward,” she mumbled.
The Door slid open to noise and chaos and violence.
----------------------------------------
Excellent Negotiating Tactics Jack.
“Jack, are you listening to me?”
He had not been, “No, why?”
“Do you know what is beyond this Door? What are we going to do about… this!” He waved his hands around.
“What about it?”
Open Door?
“Are you just going to let this… place exist?”
Engage Deforestation Measures?
“Yes, exactly that!”
“No.”
“What do you mean 'no'? Kill these mindraping freaks!”
“I also vote for the forest killing, meat.”
“You don’t get a vote, Trash.”
“Fuck you meat, I get a vote.”
He hesitated a few seconds then turned to Jonah, then to the forest offset 20 or so feet from the Door.
“You remember that waterfall that we passed by?”
“Why is that important?”
Jack suspected that Jonah’s Wisdom was outrageously low. Perhaps that combined with his hate for the mushrooms was affecting his thinking process. He was almost sure that it was.
“How close was the BioPrison to Water Reclamation?”
“Close, what does that have to do with-” Jonah stopped talking for a moment, “They’re everywhere on the ship.”
“Exactly, through the water supply. You know what that means.”
“Ok meat, I changed my vote.”
Jonah sighed, “I change it too.”
Jack struggled to hold back the wry grin, it wasn’t ever a vote.
“Open Door.”
It cracked then slid open in two parts.
----------------------------------------
Sharp cries cut and bounced from down the hallway to behind them, off of the closing Door.
The sound of fighting was unmistakable.
“Stay ready for anything.”
They crept down the hallway and around the bend, the sounds coming in clearer. Projectiles cracked sharp and loud, clanging metal and cries of pain came with it.
Jack sidled up to a corner and peeked around then slid back into cover. Sparks pinged off the metal near his head.
“It’s gonna be heavy, you ready?”
The older scientist was breathing heavily, clearly not enjoying the building tension.
“Jonah.”
He blinked, “Yes, what?”
“Are you ready?”
A deep breath, “Yes.”
“Stay behind me.”
“I’m ready too, meat.”
Jack bit back the retort and decided to try a more tactful approach, “I know Waste, you always are.”
“So you do know my proper name!”
Jack ignored the laser biting into the side of his head and, shield up and deployed, turned the corner.
----------------------------------------
Deploying the shield before he turned the corner immediately saved his life as incoming energetic and physical projectiles slammed against it.
He squatted lower to cover himself completely with his shield before drawing his sword and moving forward. Some of the incoming angles would turn bad as he drew closer but he wasn’t about to stand still and let them figure some other way around it.