Gizzy opened her eyes and sat up, noticing Jack looking worried.
“Something is wrong.” He said.
“I know. I’m high. I shouldn’t be high. The water isn’t safe, we need to go.” She said.
“Something happened on the ship. Look at this message.” He said, holding up his phone. On it was a text from Dee reading, “We are not alone,” with no response.
“We have another problem.” Vinn said.
“You high too?” Gizzy asked.
“High as fuck, I am barely functioning right now. Nicole doesn’t wanna leave.”
“Well, make her leave. She’s small, pick her up and leave with us. Problem solved. She’ll sober up and be fine.”
“Don’t you all feel it?” said Nicole’s voice, as she strutted barefoot in the water like a hippie, twirling and ballerina dancing to no music. “This is home. It feels safe in here.”
“Nicole, you’re gonna hate me for this, but only for a second. Look at me.” Gizzy said “You’re addicted to the snail slime. You were building a tolerance slowly and this place put you over the edge, so I prepared for this.” She said grabbing her arm and lifting a syringe.
“Don’t touch me.”
“Vinn hold her.”
“Don’t take away my joy, please!” she begged, beginning to panic.
“Nicole, Vinn is your joy, and that ship is your home.” She said, poking Nicole and shooting her full of a detox shot. Her eyes went black and she let out a primal scream, struggling and gnashing her teeth, then going silent. “Vinn, carry her tiny ass. Jack, let’s move. We have a scroll to find.”
“You mean we have to leave. Something is happening on the ship.”
“We can’t head back through that snowstorm, and we can’t recall the shuttle while it’s still happening. So we move forward, away from the storm. When it clears, we recall the shuttle. In the meantime, we look for the scroll.
“How?” Vinn asked. "You just knocked out our intuitive navigator. You two are the only two who can sense and find this shit with no map or directions, and if you don’t know where it is, and she’s out cold-”
“I’M NOT AFRAID OF NEEDLES!” She screamed, suddenly gasping and looking around as if questioning her reality.
“Welcome back, Captain.” Jack said.
“I know where to go. We follow the water,” Nicole said, getting up from the ground. Gizzy grabbed her shoes.
“You’re not touching that water again.” She objected.
“You have to trust me.” She said, applying her protective gear and shaking slightly as she forced her way down the stairs and out of the little ice hotel.
“Fuck it, yolo?” Gizzy shrugged.
She followed the almost immeasurably slow movement of the water as it flowed and drained into somewhere lower in the planet.
“Nicole, talk to me, where are we going?” Gizzy asked.
“This planet is alive. The water isn’t water, it’s some kind of bio fluid that circulates. It vents up like volcanic steam and freezes as snow, melts, and flows down. So where does the water go? None of us got high from the snow. It was pure and clean.”
“Until it flowed over the planet’s surface. It’s a filtration system, bringing surface nutrients down to be digested and filtered back out as clean snow.”
“So we’re going…” Vinn squinted “Into it’s digestive system, or kidneys?
“Exactly. The thing making the water into a superdrug IS the scroll. We follow the water, we find the scroll.” Nicole said, still looking high.
...
The city ruins faded to a more dark blue and purple biological color. A thin sheen of water covered the walls. They eventually faded back into cave walls.
“Well… that seems like the place.” Vinn said. The group stared into a vast cavern, purple fog blanketing everything, so it was hard to tell where the water became vapor. In the center of the room a pink glow emanated from what resembled a tree… at first glance. The roots flowed in and out of the water like the ripples of a snake, meeting in a thick trunk almost as wide as it was tall. Branches flowed from the ground to the top, all waving and moving like arms as it breathed in and out with a horrid swelling. The sound of water and air mixing was disgusting. The front of the tree had very intentionally stair-like steps, small as if for a person under 4 feet tall, arches like ribs flexed and breathed over it, and a bright blue glow flowing from the center opening.
“Well…” Gizzy sighed. “We know who’s the only one to barely fit through that.” She said, looking meaningfully at Nicole.
“I know," she stepped forward and waded through the now mud-like sludge of bluish grey and purple.
The silence was agonizing as she approached the strange tree. Gizzy and Vinn followed her. The moment they started, the water shifted and lowered. A large swell rose up from the right side, an off-white mass of biological material “stood” up from a lying position under the deeper water, something in between whitewashed wicker and living grey hair contorted into something with black claws and dark gold teeth. The white chalky whicker faded to purple meat, and the hideous patches of burgundy bones below let out a roar from what could loosely be called a mouth. It had no discernable front or side, teeth intersecting and shifting without a set location, and one central watermelon-sized eye gazed at them through it’s blue milky cataract. One side of its face moved downward into tentacles. A large tongue rolled out, and ribcage-like spines unsheathed from under its “chin”. The group opened fire, moving into random positions as Nicole trudged onward through the thick paste, equidistant from both the entrance and exit. The amalgam of all things animal without a form or structure rolled slowly towards the pair. Gizzy yelled and lured it to the far left wall.
“Little closer, ugly. I got a treat for you.” She called. It grew and opened its mouth to consume her. She drew the green jade dagger from her back and aimed for the eye, the blade lengthening 20 feet to it’s target and impaling the eye. It winced, pulling back its teeth and rotating something new, a row of daggers. Each molded like clay, but hardened into something as strong as steel, with a similar shape and pattern as the jade dagger, except coppery orange rather than green.
“Oh, that’s just cheating.” Gizzy squinted as about 50 copy blades angled towards her, stretching to sword length.
Nicole squeezed through the crook in the living tree and into the blue light, now waist deep in the sludge and starting to hallucinate. She was standing in a flooded house, the blue light pouring in through windows exactly like those from her childhood home, but darkening with the fog to a central fireplace like the one on Delmar. It was her home with Vinn before they left. The fire in the fireplace dripped and flowed upwards like molten lava but upside down as the entity tried to generate something it had never seen before.
“Why am I here?” Nicole asked. The room darkened as tentacles rose from the mud, matching the pattern of Candice’s tentacles and draping over her shoulder ina weirdly comforting way. “Everything here is something I should fear but find pleasing. My pet snail, impassable water, my home, and a roaring fire. Who are you?” she asked the fireplace. The molten fire spread out like a soft solid, forming both tentacles and the basic shape of Vicki. Her skin was the wrong color, her hair more pink than red, and her face more of a featureless blob with shadows and color changes for eyes and a mouth, but somehow it was clearly Vicki. It even sprouted the tentacles she found so horrifying. There was no discernable separation between the flesh of her ears and her flowing hair, like a fever dream or bad AI on some very sketchy mushrooms.
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“Can you speak at all?” she asked. It reached out a writing tentacle that formed into a more mitten-like Vicki hand, to brush Nicole’s hair behind her ear. She leaned closer as if to get a better look with the closed black mounds where her eyes should be. The liquid Vicki gripped her wrists with the tentacles and secured them tightly as she nervously waited to be either ripped apart, embraced ina kiss, or swallowed by a sudden appearing mouth of teeth. She felt them all equally likely as her mouth neared Nicole's. She breathed a breath in her face, the smell of lavender and ice, cold freezing breath and she gently touched her nose to Nicoles.
“You speak through feelings, but I don’t understand how they all connect.” She whispered, fear welled up as the strange creature pulled back, the dopple Vicki flattening out into a sheet of flesh and simply melting away at the sides like clay that had been stretched too thin. With a silent pull, the slimy coils around her wrists pulled her hands to the corners as if to say “take it” and when she grabbed the top corners of the sheet, everything else melted away, leaving her holding a 3 foot by 4 foot fleshy white skin, with the matte texture of parchment. She turned and simply felt the words ‘thank you.” Unsure if it was her mind thanking the creature for the gift, or the creature thanking her for taking it. But she understood both. She left the now dry and open wide splayed set of ribs as Vinn and Jack carried a very battered Gizzy covered in grey slime.
“I got the scroll.” She said as she gasped, noticing Gizzy missing a leg from the mid thigh down and eyes rolled back almost deliriously. “Oh my god, you’re dying.”
“Tis but a scratch.” Gizzy said faking a poorly done British accent for humor. She poured blood as Nicole and Vinn lifted her up.
“We called the ship, but through that snow, I don’t know if it can get here.” Jack said.
“Hey dumbasses.” Gizzy barked. “Stop freaking out and move. We got what we came for. Nicole got the scroll, and I can’t bleed to death… technically.” She said, trying to look less like she was dying.
“You’re in shock. That thing chewed you up and took a piece of you with it.” Vinn stated.
“Yeah, but it’s dead, and I got a piece of it too, hehehe.” She chuckled deliriously, holding up one hand with her dagger and the other with one of the teeth solidified into an eerily similar mirrored dagger. “I win.” She added.
“Can she die from this?” Nicole asked, looking to Jack.
“I don’t even begin to understand how an Osirian brain in a metal ball with a human body grown around it works. She should be dead, since there’s almost no blood left in her body.”
“How can you tell?”
“Because she’s not bleeding anymore, and she's not clotting or regenerating. There’s just nothing left to pour out.”
“I’m fine, stop talking like I’m not standing right here. Move out.” She said, motioning with her head. She reached out for the scroll and Nicole handed it over to help carry her.
Gizzy sluggishly hopped as they exited the cave and stopped dead still, staring at two skinny grey aliens between them and the shuttle.
“Look down, don’t look them in the eye.” Gizzy reminded as they all stared at their feet. The 4 foot tall almond-eyed beings approached them calmly, one staring at Gizzy and the other at Nicole. The one in front of Gizzy reached out and firmly pulled the scroll from her hand. She gnashed her teeth, fighting the urge to defy and forcing herself to let it go. She knew that even in peak fighting condition, they were a joke against 2 Sil-Ken soldiers. It took Nicole’s hand and firmly placed the scroll in hers, tilting its head and forcing her chin up to look it in the eyes. Scroll in hand, she stared back, dilating her eyes entirely black it backed away, not from intimidation but accepting her, leaving to join the other as the shuttle gleamed in the light and the two aliens, now shimmering in full clear armor invisible in the dim light, disappeared into the snow.
Gizzy looked at her and sighed. “I guess this one’s your item to keep safe.”
...
The shuttle made its way back as Gizzy and Nicole sat silently in the back, communing silently over the scroll.
“What did it show you?” Gizzy asked.
“I saw Vicki, darkness, and fear. I saw Earth and Delmar, and memories. Vicki wasn’t herself, and then she breathed out a breath of cold air and and lavender and she was Vicki again.”
“The fuck does that mean?” Gizzy asked in total confusion, still bandaging her stump and digging in the med kit for blood bags. She tore one corner open and began chugging it like a demonic Capri-Sun.
“I’m afraid to say what I think it means. Vicki always drank lavender tea before bed when she couldn’t sleep. Back on Earth, before her cancer. She said it helped silence the stress that wasn’t her and made her feel like only herself, so she could fall asleep. The cold breath wasn’t just winter cold. It was sterile, chemically neutral, and cryogenic cold. It wasn’t until after then that I smelled the lavender tea. The tentacles were part of her. Now around her, through her, merged with her body, growing out of it. It was Candice, protecting her.”
“I’m lost. So she likes tea, she can’t sleep, and she’s pregnant with Candice’s snail lovechild?”
“None of that is remotely close to what I can’t explain in words right now. All I can really express is that we’re losing Vicki, and the rest hasn’t become clear yet.”
...
They stepped into the cargo bay, Gizzy now walking on a robotic prosthetic that was mean for a man 2 inches taller.
Jack was stopped by Dee, who looked concerned and scared.
“What happened?” He asked.
“I don’t fully understand it, but you need to listen carefully. Lock me in Tweet’s cell, lock Vicki in the brig under full code 5 security, and do it quickly.”
“Where do we put Tweet? We can’t lock you in there with him.” Gizzy insisted.
“He’s already locked in a much smaller container and I don’t think he’s going to hurt anyone anymore.” She whispered.
“I need more than that, you need to make sense.” Gizzy said aggressively.
“Tweet’s dead, Vicki is going to kill everyone on the ship, and I’m going to help her whether I want to or not. Lock us up, if you don’t do it fast and in one move, there won’t be time to try again.”
“She’s right.” I can handle Vicki.” Nicole said looking very confident.
“What in the hell does that mean?” Jack asked.
“It means that if you ever trust me, trust me now. I’ve seen what has to happen to save her life. There is an enemy on this ship, and if you don’t listen, I’ll call Captain’s rank and order Vinn to restrain you by force as GIZZY takes Dee to her cell. So Jack…Take Dee to the cell, lock her in, and await my orders. Do you understand, Soldier?” She said. Gizzy puffed up behind her as if to make sure he agreed.
“Understood… Captain.” He said, half sarcastic and half angrily submitting, knowing even with one leg, Gizzy could probably do the job.”
...
Nicole opened the doors to the Captains Quarters, noticing Vicki sitting on the sex room bed, looking proud of herself. Nicole tightened her grip on the gun behind her own back as she casually strolled forward.
“Back already? Find the scroll?” She asked.
“No we didn’t. Why exactly are you on that bed?” Nicole asked back.
“Felt a little frisky, figured I’d borrow it. You’ve let me and Vinn use it before. If it can resist that bloody mess, nothing me and Jack can do will cause it any harm. You did say to meet you in the Captains Quarters”
“You wanna feed on Jack on my sex bed, after I let you watch my ship? I’m actually glad you had the guts to sit there like you were the captain, right in that spot.” Nicole said, drawing the gun and aiming carefully.
“Why? You wanna kill me in your own bed? Nicole you absolutely adorable little kitten. You don’t have any claws. You can’t shoot an animal, let alone your friend. You’re not a killer. You don’t even want to be.”
“Oh, I didn’t plan to kill you with the gun, you’re just lined up perfectly without me having to lure you in front of that glass.” Nicole said. She pulled the trigger and shot through the curtain into Candice's tank, busting the glass and sweeping her into the floor as a giant wall of red and orange tentacles came barreling through on top of her.
“Protect!” she yelled. Candice grabbed a limb and with each of the larger appendages and wrapped the 5tharound Vicki’s throat as she screamed and struggled, genuine fear of death in her eyes and a very brokenhearted Nicole holstering the gun and petting Candice to calm her. “Let her breathe, but don’t let her go.” She whispered as the tentacle around her throat loosened and covered Vicki's mouth, leaving her nose and tear filled eyes still uncovered as she shook, paralyzed with horror.
...
Vicki stared through the glass, ankles and wrists shackled, shock collar on her neck and Gizzy staring at her from outside the cryo tube.
“Love the leg.” She snarled.
“Got it on sale at Home Depo. It was cheaper than a full recloning and works well enough for now until we can get things a little more calm and collected. Love the hickeys. That Hentai love really leaves some tell-tale marks, doesn’t it?”
“You think Jack is going to just let you kill me?” Vicki asked. “He’d kill you himself before letting you hurt me. I’m his wife, you’re just the bitch that killed his mother and taught him to kill people for you.”
“Oh, I’m not killing you. I’m doing something way more creative and he’s not gonna stop it, and you’ll wish you were dead. You don’t think I recognize the eyes of an enemy I’ve faced before? You don’t think I know the difference between those and my friend? Jack follows orders and hits targets from a mile away, but I hunt and toy with my enemies… like you do. Do you have a name you prefer, or just Mommy Dearest?” She asked.
“Oh you don’t understand your enemy at all.” Vicki chuckled. “Give it time. You’ll know me intimately and on your knees.” Vicki whispered, giving the glass a sensual kiss and then slamming her head against it to try and break it, chuckling as the blood ran down her face.
“If you can hear me Vicki… this is almost over. I promise.” Gizzy said, turning her back and checking the locks on the cryo-tube handle, the chains securing it shut.