Aleph took a breath then exhaled heavily.

Omega and Quarti looked at each other then back at her.

“So just to be clear, in the half hour since you went off...”

Aleph laughed and shook her head. That was a laugh right? Her throat kind of hurt.

[https://i.imgur.com/F0pDFMR.png]

“No, No. Most of it was over in a few seconds. Actually I think most of it was over when I blinked.”

Omega’s hand was on her bare shoulder all of a sudden, she didn't mind. When had the muscles in her shoulders and neck gotten so tense? She tried to relax and ended up shuddering again.

“Right, so in a few seconds, after Tunie shifted and everything wobbled? Then El’sie uh... ‘reflexively’ jumped away from pylo by blowing up their leg?”

Aleph nodded. She had said all of this already before. But it was nice to hear Omega say it so slowly.

“Then used that momentum to carry over a kind of crazed gallop through the corridors. Slammed into one of the airlocks with enough force to get it spinning. Flew out of it just in time to in their own words “stop two of the clerks from being mortally wounded and rescue a third”

Aleph started to try and correct or amend for her but Omega held up a finger and so she stopped trying to say something. Wow her shoulders were aching why did they? Oh she had tensed up again.

“Simultaneously and ALSO ‘reflexively’ El’sie queried Pylo for the digest on several hundred different tools that were in the cargo holds across Tunie. Which she was able to provide in full?”

She could just nod, her throat felt tight and she was finding herself getting light headed. Everything was getting fuzzy and her heartbeat felt wrong.

“Breath slower Aleph. It’s all over and everyone is fine, just breath in and out and let your body calm down. You’re just letting everything panic you into a panic because you’re panicked. Breath... Okay so because they had the digest they then uh, right about when they got into the hold finished reading the instructions on some kind of ‘brushie’ which Pylo uses on Tunie’s feathers?”

Aleph nodded and tried to focus on keeping her breathing even. Relaxing the muscles in her neck and back again. She kept tensing up and she really could not say why. Omega’s hand gently squeezing in time with her breathing helped her notice how taught her shoulders were.

However she had to clarify this bit, didn't she explain this part before? Oh wait Omega was continuing. So she had explained that bit good. She was so tired. It was hard to think.

“But this is not like a comb kind of brushie, it’s uh, right it’s actually some kind of atomic restructuring machine? That is used to restore Tunie’s feathers on a fundamental level good as new? And it also has like control jets or something? Right So El’sie uses the remote because they have the manual and call the Brushie but it has to go through a bulkhead to arrive in time. But that’s okay because it can manage that without being damaged and it also can be used to repair the damage after the fact”

Aleph coughs and manages to get ahold of her throat. She had forgotten a bit! Stupid tired brain not working!

“Actually for a moment El’sie flubs that up, but manages to catch the mistake and sends the command to clean itself up afterwards just in time. I didn't see it, that was one of the parts that literally happened faster then I could blink”

This was brand new alien abilities and technology she should be wide awake. Not about to pass out and yet also so tense her jaw was hurting because... Right, she had to relax.

Omega nods a moment and huffs.

“So they fumble a little but make it right after that, then they proceed to use the Brushie to stop a Clerk from exploding into a splatter of gore?”

Aleph nods numbly.

“Hey! Breath! Right, and it takes them a while to work out how to do anything but simply stall and rewind the last few flickering moments? So while they are working on that and figuring out how to tell the brushie to do what they really want it to do without turning the clerk into one of tunie’s feathers Pylo shows up?”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

She coughs to clear her throat before she shivers a little bit. Her spine and face hurt in a way that probably meant her symbiotes or maybe the interstitial between them and the rest of her body was strained.

“Pylo was so angry. Omega, we have never SEEN her angry before, but she was pissed! Everything else she’s just been a little annoyed. Agitated but not upset l-like that. She just seethed with it and the way she moved. It was like she was snapping and lashing in every single look and move”

The momentary memory wake her up a bit.

“So you decided the best idea was to get between her and El’sie... and she stopped?”

Her toes flexed, her spine and back complained.

“Uh yeah, she was not happy with it, but she stopped and it's like it kind of shocked her out of it? She sort of went limp and just slumped. Then we talked for a little bit about El’sie and she said some mean things about them that sounded like she thought they were a liar or faking being nice”

Omega patted her head which was nice, she was getting tired.

“And then El’sie came over and the clerk was good as new?”

She had to shake her head.

“Not exactly, uh... El’sie explained it a bit after they cooled down. They do uh, medical exams of all the clerks every shift. They ended up using um, some kind of integration math sounding thing on the recoverable remains from the... the corpse... and then combined that with the records from a medical exam. So the Clerk did not have many memories that survived between now and the last check up”

Omega was turned toward Quarti. But aleph could hear a frown in her voice.

“Did El’sie say why they didn't just wait to use the brush later when it wasn't going to need to blast a hole in the hold like that or interrupt their thing with Pylo or whatever? I mean if they were using a backup for most of it anyway?”

Aleph focused on breathing deeply a few times and unclenching the muscles in her shoulders and neck again.

"It all seemed pretty urgent, but they did say something on that..."

Omega was there with her now. Face to face looking her in the eyes with a soft concern, worry was there but also a sharp attention to detail. She had pulled a lot of experts together for this second time around going over just what had happened.

“El’sie said that this was the only outcome which would have saved ME if I had been the one smeared on the floor? They can’t get a RECORD of terrans sufficiently because we are too tied up with our souls. They would have HAD to act to this degree to save one of us. ”

Quarti nodded solemnly to her.

“Acted on for with being as our hearts and eyes they did. Holding up muchsome deals, contingent be that on every err and unknown known they did to hold and support. Is clever like be they but cold games played. Very cold games. Plotting us at our worst like seeming and our best.”

Aleph slumped. She coulden’t keep standing like this. They were at the end of the story again. Her back felt like it was going to give out, her jaw and neck ached, damn it she needed to relax again and yet when she did her eyes drooped. She should have been ecstatic, new wonders but all of this just was too much. Dragging her down.

Her brain and symbiotes needed a nap. Even if her spirit was willing. She wished she knew how to do that astral projection thing. It sounded useful.

Omega’s voice drifted towards her as she felt everything fall away.

“We need to look into this Quarti”

Quarti’s words were so soft.

“Worrisome things it be hinting true”

What a crazy shift.

Aleph slept.