Practice makes perfect, and Hudson got lots of practice fighting the silicates both mid-air and in the ocean.

On his third dive through the swarm, he managed to smack two of the silicates mid-air with his sledgehammer.

On his sixth dive, he gave up trying to hit individual silicates, and began twisting his body like a figure skater, hammer held out perpendicular to his torso. He found this technique ridiculous but more effective, except when the head of the sledgehammer didn’t have enough time to charge up enough before it hit the next silicate. A weapon with an edge, or better yet, a serrated blade, would have been better.

A few silicates always managed to slap their tentacles onto some part of his body. They didn’t seem to actually weigh too much, or have much mass, as he could have ten of them floating off him like balloons and it only slowed his fall slightly.

The knife work in the water was always quick and brutal. Despite killing the silicates attached to him, the buzzing of voices and random flashes of images at the edges of his vision didn’t go away. They persisted and gradually increased with every silicate that latched on to him until the sounds were a constant, overlapping buzz in his ears.

After about twenty dives through the swarm, he had destroyed almost two hundred, mostly under the water. He’d made a sizable dent in the swarm, but it wasn’t over by any stretch of the imagination.

Luckily he got a break – they had entered an ocean current, helping them pick up additional speed. The silicate swarm began to fall back, outpaced slightly, until they were almost beyond Ix’s range, and Hudson was portalled back onto the catamaran.

“I need to meditate,” Hudson said to Cor, sitting abruptly on the floor of the boat. Now that the immediate need to focus was gone, the constant buzz of voices and flashes of color at the edges of his vision was overwhelming.

He concentrated and pulled up the Mind Gate technique that Ix had taught him. After a few tries, he was successful and he entered his mindscape.

Inside of his mindscape, the noise was even worse. Hudson ran around his yard, looking for the source of the groans, screeches, and odd clicks loudly reverberating through the space. He found the source of the noise was coming from the detached portion housing a sapling growing in a piece of Sal’s mindscape.

The scene inside was gruesome. Hundreds of transparent, writhing slugs covered the poor sapling. The slugs were constantly making the noises he was hearing.

He ran back to his house, grabbed a bucket, and filled it with water from his lotus pond. He threw the bucket of water over the silicate infestation, and wherever the water touched, the slugs dissolved into a wash of gray mud. A few more trips with the bucket, and he had silenced all of the invaders. The little sapling looked significantly worse for wear, but it had survived the onslaught.

Hudson shivered in disgust. What were those things? Obviously silicates, silicate consciousnesses or parts of them. Small worms of qi, intent, or something else sent into his mind to distract or corrupt it from the inside.

Mind poison, basically, Hudson decided. They had all latched onto the detached part of his mind. He didn’t know if that was because they had a greater affinity for that part because it came from another silicate, or because the defenses around the rest of his mindscape were greater.

How did they invade, anyways? And could activating the Mind Gate qi technique in the guarding mode prevent that? Something to try.

Hudson’s technique ran out of qi and he exited his mindscape, white mist giving way to his five bodily senses. In the brief time he had been inside of his mind, Cor and the alien woman had been having a quick discussion.

If pointing, yelling, and rude hand gestures could be called a discussion.

Hudson stood up and walked over to the back of the boat. Someone had pulled one of the leftover skins from the silicate remains up onto the catamaran.

“I don’t think yelling louder is going to make her understand, Cor,” Hudson said. “Shouldn’t Ix know this woman’s language? Can you ask them to translate?”

“Ix is telling me what she’s saying, and trying to tell me what to say back. But I ain’t much of a linguist. My lips just don’t pucker the right way.”

Hudson frowned and glanced at the alien woman. Up close, the differences to a human were more obvious. The bone structure of her face was slightly different, more streamlined, and her eyes were slightly larger. Then the gills, of course.

“Give her the ring? Or touch her with it?” Hudson suggested.

“Ain’t know way I’m handing Ix over,” Cor said. “She might decide to keep ‘em, then jump in the water and off she goes with her gills and that’s it. We’re stuck here on a boat without a paddle. Literally.

“As far as anyone ever knows, this ring right here is my wedding band, and I love my fourth wife very much. They can take it from my warm, dead body.”

Cor was making a good point. A very good point. It would be far better for them if they could keep Ix’s existence, and the extent of their capabilities, a secret.

“You’re right,” Hudson said. “So what are we arguing about here?”

“Well, apparently those skins or husks left over when you knife ‘em under the water are valuable. So she wants us to pick those up.”

“Ok, that seems reasonable, but hopefully we’ll just stay ahead of the silicates, right?”

“Not forever. And the problem is she is insisting on keeping half of the skins for herself.”

Hudson rolled his eyes.

“I don’t think we should be arguing too much with the person who has a boat,” Hudson said. “And who knows how much these skins are worth?”

“Exactly! But it’s the principle of the matter. If we give her an inch now, she’ll be taking a foot from us later on.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Hudson wasn’t so sure about that, and he felt that fishing loot out of the ocean from all of the silicates they – correction, he – had exterminated was less important than making a good impression with a person could help them figure out food, transportation, and a connection to the Disciples.

If they wanted to get back to Earth, finding the Disciples and asking them for help was their best bet.

They had pulled a decent distance away from the silicate swarm, and were not in any immediate danger. Hudson held up his hands, getting Cor and the alien woman’s attention. He decided that they needed a reset, and introductions were in order. He pointed at himself, then said his name, then pointed at Cor, who said his name. He then pointed at the woman.

“Tchae’rii Xithscurae Lurill’sh,” she said with a bit of a lilt and a few sounds at the ends of the words that human anatomy wasn’t going to be able to replicate. She pointed at Cor and said “Cor,” then Hudson and said, “Hud.”

Close enough.

“Uh-oh,” Cor said. “My first ex-wife’s name was Cherry; her name sounds too similar. I’ll never trust a woman named Cherry again.”

Hudson ignored Cor and said each person’s name again, raising a finger for each person.

“Cor. Hud. Tchae,” he said, holding up three fingers. He then pointed at the silicate husk and made hand motions, dividing it into thirds.

Tchae'rii seemed to understand, then think about the offer briefly. She nodded, and the gills on the side of her neck rippled up and down.

“Hud. Cor. Tchae.” She held up three of the four fingers on her slightly webbed hand. They were in agreement to split any future loot three ways.

“So does this mean I should focus on cutting them under water, and then gathering the skins before Ix teleports me back to the boat?”

Cor thought for a moment. “I wouldn’t do anything that would increase your risk. But keep doing what works for you.”

Hudson nodded, and turned to look at the silicate swarm. “Can I ask what you were talking about earlier? Like the level twos and threes and stuff about silicates.”

“Good call. Let me break it down for you,” Cor said. “At least the way we did back in my unit with S.E.C.T. Those blobs we saw on the trial world – we call them level ones. They are the most simple, most basic, and you see them everywhere you go.

“They ain’t much of a threat, even to non-cultivators, since they’re slow and stupid. But don’t go and underestimate any silicate – they can sneak up on you and smother you in your sleep as easy as apple pie. Sometimes they glom together into one big fat booger, too, but tactically that’s a good thing. More surface area makes them easier to kill.

“Silicate biology is strange. I ain’t a scientist, I won’t bore you with the details, but the most sure-fire way to kill a silicate is through the direct application of overwhelming force.”

“Seems obvious,” Hudson commented. “But what about water? They seemed to explode when fighting them under water.”

“Their insides are weak to water,” Cor acknowledged, “until they aren’t. You get up to a level 3, or a level 4 that’s evolved, and you’re starting to take chances.

“That last one that I shot – that’s basically a level 3. They can take on lots of different shapes or forms, based on what they’ve eaten, or consumed.”

“So if they, say, have absorbed a lot of trees, then they start to look like a tree?” Hudson asked, recalling one of Sal’s preferred forms.

“Sure. Shot a few of those, not too uncommon. After they start customizing like that, that’s when they get real dangerous. In your example, if they’ve absorbed a lot of trees, then maybe they’ve absorbed or developed some kind of special ability relating to water to cover up their natural weakness.”

Cor pointed at the swarm in the distance behind them. “I’ve never seen one exactly like these before, but it didn’t surprise me. They evolved and adapted, based on all of the fish they’ve sucked up on this planet.”

Hudson thought back to the feeling of the rough, leathery texture on his skin. “Maybe less like fish, and more like dolphins or seals,” Hudson said.

“You’re probably right about that,” Cor said. “But no matter what type of evolution they have, the basic biology of the silicate will try to redistribute the force of any attack over its whole body. So the worst way to deal with a silicate is light, continuous damage, like acid, UV light, pop music, etc.”

Hudson snorted. “Not all pop music is bad.”

“I’m gonna go ahead and ignore that comment for your safety and my own sanity,” Cor said. “But back on the silicates: you gotta overwhelm them. Guns always work well on the lower levels, levels one through four. Big force, small area, over and over again. Just don’t run out of bullets.”

“And on the level fives or higher?”

Cor shook his head. “At that level, they start to get smart. Sneaky. Weird powers stolen from cultivators that break physics in unpredictable ways. And that’s where you really cultivators to come in – just don’t get in the way.

“My role within S.E.C.T. was running counter-silicate operations. I recruited from the best of Earth’s special forces, and ran a high-performing team with an excellent mission record and low loss rate.

“We entered hot zones and eliminated anything lower than a level 5 using fairly standard weapon systems and tactics, although…” Cor paused here to smile, “we did have a few special toys to play with.

“Cultivators below Core Formation were useless to us. Less than useless – downright actively harmful.”

“But why is that?” Hudson asked, the comment striking a little close to home. He was one of those useless cultivators below Core Formation, and he had just killed a few hundred silicates.

“Because of their qi. They attract the silicates from miles around like moths to a flame, but don’t have enough strength to offset that attraction. They’ll do fine at first, then get overwhelmed, smothered and driven nuts by the mind attacks.”

“And non-cultivators don’t?”

“You gotta remember we’re food to them. Only the level ones and twos are gonna really care about us mortals. We have a little bit of qi, every living thing does, but it’s not enough to be worth any effort to higher level silicates. Why bother squishing an ant?”

Hudson supposed that made sense.

“So you’re an ant, out there stalking elephants?” Hudson asked.

“You betcha,” Cor said. “Hey, check it. Looks like we’re slowing down.”

He was right; the relentless swarm was starting to catch up again. Hudson sighed. Almost time to get back to work.

He decided to leave his sledge behind. He briefly thought about the giant silverine claw, but immediately discarded it as too unwieldy under the water. Instead, he took a few minutes to properly insert the claw into his palm, tying it tightly with strips of cloth.

“I want to try using my qi technique to keep the silicates out of my head completely,” Hudson said. “The problem is it will only last a few minutes. Plus I’m gonna need to grab up the skins in the water, right?”

“Yup. Ix will bring you back to the ship after every foray to drop off the loot, and you can let us know if you need a breather.”

Hudson took a moment to center himself, then concentrated on his qi technique. After he had successfully inverted the pattern and held it in place, he opened his eyes and nodded to Cor. “I’m good to go.”

“Copy that,” Cor replied. “We are weapons hot. Go-time in…3… 2… 1…”