Ivy fell and screamed when she left the office.

A railing hit her stomach and knocked the air out of her, putting an end to the noise. The ship was completely tilted. She couldn't imagine the chaos near the landing craft.

She couldn't save everyone. She didn't even know if she could save herself.

So far, all she'd done is get No killed.

Ivy braced her knees against the wall that had saved her, and turned it into a floor. She proceeded with a grim face as she tried to pretend she could face her fears.

The thing had tried to eat her. Then, it had tried to punish her for having the gall to both escape and be upset that it had treated a servant as nothing more than food.

If they weren't in the middle of a disaster, the world would have come crashing down on the bastard. Talia wasn't a nobody, like Ivy. She was a minor celebrity, and the captain knew her name.

Except the captain knew they were all screwed, and was busy trying to run away.

Ivy hoped the man could. If anyone could release a dropship, it would probably be him. No one deserved any of this.

She jumped from her wall and caught a balustrade. Climbing hand-over-hand downwards. She needed to get to the lower areas. She needed to go back into the dark.

Talia's smiling face kept her moving.

The woman who gave a new friend a chance at what she wanted. Happily giving Desdemona a chance at the love she wanted for herself.

The woman who laughed as she cleaned up vomit and other bodily fluids. Seeing herself not as a celebrity over everybody - but seeing everybody as deserving of a piece of happiness.

Down, down, down, she went.

Ivy's vines started to respond instinctively. Tightening her grip on things. Reaching out because she really wasn't sure if her jump could make it. This ship was going down, and it was going to start burning soon.

She knew she'd managed to fall through the atmosphere on her own. She didn't know if that had been because of Mr. No. He might have had a personal shield or some nonsense that made sense for a guard and not a freaking maid.

If the cruiseliner really went down, there was every chance she could survive it. That didn't mean that everyone else would. It also really didn't mean that Sudais would go offline. She might feel the need to slaughter everyone somehow else.

Like pumping the air out before the crash.

Or detonating the engines.

Rejecting AI really did seem to be how her planet had avoided some truly catastrophic consequences. This was just a cruise ship. Nothing huge or important. The darned thing was still a tool from some really corrupt assholes, and had every power to outsmart and outperform every single person on board.

If Sudais hadn't fallen for Ivy, she hadn't a doubt that she'd be dead. Or still in the freak's torture box below deck. How any planet still allowed AI to exist and touch on the economy or any kind of decision making was absolutely beyond her comprehension.

Ivy knew her planet was unusual for banning AI. They were weird, but they also grew things, rather than constructing them artificially. Finding out how ridiculously easy it was for the AI to act out... She was left wondering how her people were the weird ones.

Her ability to distract herself ended, as she found herself at the doors into the oxygen factory.

"`There are no lions, no tigers, and no bears, located within the space ahead.`"

Ivy gave a terrified and tiny laugh, whispering under her breath, "Please tell me that you're not developing a sense of humour."

The doors in front of her slid open.

"`The crate containing Miss Talia Bovina-grego is located two decks down. The most efficient path lies through the forest, to an access panel. I will guide you, Mistress Green.`"

"He was in here, last time." Her face tightened.

"`The individual in question is currently located within the ducts above the factory. I will alert you, if he is to make his physical presence known.`"

She shivered. She did not find that remotely reassuring. Damn thing always keeping secrets... And not actually having a real way to save her if the bastard tried to eat Ivy.

She took another deep breath and stepped into the location of her first date with Mr. No.

The sound of the place got to her. It wasn't beautiful to hear the twittering of insects, and the buzzing of bee clouds and the like. Not this time. There was a silence behind it all. A waiting anger.

Ivy couldn't smell him, she couldn't hear him. There was every chance that Sudais was wrong. AI were always so very confident that they knew how things were, and got things wrong, so very often. All the same... He might be watching her.

With the ship just about sideways, why hadn't he just run away?

Ivy was using her roots, digging down into the dirt and grass instinctively. She was fine to walk here, but she expected someone like Talia would be on their face and pawing at the ground.

"`Take the next left.`"

She was trusting her life to an AI that had already told her that it wanted to kill her, and was under orders to kill her. There was no part of this that Ivy would be able to explain to Desdemona.

They'd stare at her, cock their head, and then burst out laughing.

Kidnapping at least meant that someone wasn't looking to kill Desdemona. At least not right away.

Ivy blinked back tears. She had no idea why they were finally coming, but she was right on the edge of her breakdown. Ship crashing. Mr. No dead. Both the friends she'd made kidnapped, and the almost stranger was probably bleeding out on a spaceship whilst an AI watched to make sure he didn't run.

She sniffled as she dug down into the dirt, using it to move her along, step by step. Touching the other roots, feeling the fears of the rest of the forest. The living, breathing, mess of them all. Small and large, trees and flowers and buzzing little insects.

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

The thoughts pulsed through them, of the change in gravity, of the angry beast ploughing through them. They couldn't understand it all. Didn't have the mind for it. Most weren't sapient. They could feel fear in sentience, but not comprehend it.

"`Straight ahead, behind the tree in front of yourself, Mistress Green.`"

Ivy picked her way along, and found the wall. There wasn't a doorway there. It was a stupid little grate.

She swallowed, "I'm... Scared of small spaces."

"`The doorway to the section beyond is being watched by the one who would find you appetising. I selected this alternative as the most compatible with any possible time constraint you may be facing.`"

Ivy winced, "Fair enough."

*****

After the forest, oxygen and dirt, Ivy did not find the metal so pleasant. She could feel her head drifting and falling, after shadows of the oxygen. She hadn't drank enough to make her completely off world, but her head had been messed around a lot, lately.

She inched her way through the ducting, cursing silently at how bloody loud every movement was. Her tiny knee shifts sounded like the discordant scream of a child on a harp. Her breathing might as well have been a cyclone by the way it echoed.

She was too scared to speak up and ask, but she wasn't sure that Sudais was still with her. Why would anyone put speakers for the ship AI into places people aren't actually meant to go?

At least she'd hear if the bastard was coming to eat her.

She shivered, thunking a shoulder loudly into the side of the metal. The woman took a second to hold her breath and centre herself, before climbing onwards.

The top thunked into Ivy's head.

She squealed as up, down, left and right turned into a hailstorm of sensations. The sides of the duct hit her on all sides and she really couldn't tell if she was falling downwards, or upwards.

Every impact jarred her, leaving her in a swirling chaos of sensations. Overwhelmed, she tumbled and twirled without any chance at finding a handhold or anything at all.

Just as Ivy was on the verge of giving up, and giving into the sickening twist inside her stomach, she hit the absolute flatness of the floor. Then she threw up.

Green bile and yellow dust pasted itself to the floor in front of her with a disturbing luminescence. She peered around in the weak darkness, groggy and feeling like her eyes might still be dancing, when she saw a large metallic box.

Ivy cringed, moving weakly to a crouch, before somehow finding herself upright. She staggered over to the container, not really remembering how she managed to get out of it. She moved her hands around, feeling for switches, buttons, or anything mechanical.

Something sharp touched the base of her spine, and an angry and husky voice spoke in her ear, "What do you think you're doing?"

Ivy squeaked, and then coughed and tried again. "Trying... To save you?"

She was spun around, and two warm arms immediately wrapped around her. Talia's bell pressed painfully into Ivy's chest as the bovine gave her the tightest hug of her life, whilst letting out a deep and long lowing.

Ivy gave her a quick squeeze, "I am so happy to see you. But... Things are kinda..."

"Shit messed up?" The other woman gave a small laugh and let go, "Noticed the world is actually sideways. Not just the fucked up crate."

"AI crashing the ship. After Desdemona's kidnapping. We're both screwed, because I cried instead of helping."

Talia snorted, "You collapsed. Big deal. We're maids, Ivy. Not heroes. Screw acting like a legend. That would be messed up."

Ivy shook her head, "Well... I disagree. But we can argue later, if we can make sure we survive. Speaking of... Frog jerk is waiting for us. No idea how to safely get back to the captain's cabin."

"Why the captain's cabin?"

"Way too long to explain." Ivy shook her head, "Also, the AI might be listening? She's trying to help... But she's also trying to crash. Like I said, complicated."

Talia blinked twice, "Right. Can you remind me never to take another cruise with you, if we make it out of this?"

*****

"Still don't get the boxes." Talia whispered to Ivy as the two of the circled the edge of the ship's forest. The damn forest, that lifted her head and always seemed to lead towards something terrible happening to Ivy.

She was confident in controlling her voice, so she didn't answer the prompt.

Talia continued, all the same. "I mean, I got out so easy. Just had to put my shoulder into the side of it. Then wait around, thinking the freak would come back for me."

Ivy gave a small nod, regretting it as the entire world became a series of brightly coloured afterimages.

"Pulled my ankle knife, expecting to gut him. Bastard. But he didn't even really care about me? He took you. Was he waiting around for you to break out of the box?"

Ivy winced, and tried to speak as quietly as possible, "Later."

"He's not some supervillain out of an opera." Talia gave a gentle giggle. "Not even waiting -"

"The hunt." Ivy winced, "He wants... The hunt."

"Oh."

The metallic sheen of the floor glistened and twisted. A blur of pink and purple, that seemed to be humming with the magnetic energy of the material. Each of her footsteps seemed to make it puff and twist, no matter how gentle she made them.

The air felt solid, like Ivy was biting off chunks. She could almost chew before swallowing each piece of the beautifully oxygen-rich gaseous material. She could feel it slicking her throat, bursting with little pops of energy as it travelled down and into her complex digestion system.

Her leaves spread out, and her flowers opened. Her own thoughts on the matter had nothing to say to them. Ivy could almost feel taller, as if she were being picked up and floated above the ground, feet dangling above that beautiful swirl of metal.

> "`Doubt that the stars are aflame.`"

Ivy wasn't even sure if that was Sudais speaking. She couldn't trust her senses. The AI wasn't likely to be all feeling, were they? AI didn't feel, they could just talk like they did. Was a ship's AI allowed to talk like they had emotions?

> "`Doubt that the planet below orbits the sun.`"

Nothing more meaningful than a planet's lazy walk around a star. An orbit was meaningful in all kinds of evolutionary and vital ways for life, but it meant nothing in the moment for each person. A day was a day, whether or not the sun rose or set.

Ivy almost lost her step at the thought, thrust violently into her unsteady state of things. She felt Talia catch her by the elbow, but she could no longer see her friend. They were nothing but a humming glow of bright butterflies, swirling in the midst of everything.

> "`Doubt the truth, that what you hear be a lie.`"

The bright blue and dark blacks of their fluttering wings suited Talia. She was a playful woman, but with some hidden history that probably meant she had been right ready to kill the man who had kidnapped her.

> "`All these doubts.. But never doubt that I love.`"

The kaleidoscope of butterflies beside her exploded before swarming up together with a screech and battering of wings. Dirt hit Ivy's face as she stared at the swirl of rage battering against a black-eyed monster.

It reared up, made of black mud, melting even as it struggled across the ground. Roaring and beating fists against the butterflies. Turning beautiful and shimmering blues into deep and weeping reds.

> "`Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.`"

Ivy staggered upright, fighting back the fears that were wrapping around her mind. She couldn't shake this image from her mind. Blinking made the figure taller and more ominous.

She took all the strength that she had, delivering it through shoulder, elbow and then straightened wrist. Her fist striking home into the midsection of the creature.

> "`Love is painted blind by Cupid's wings.`"

Her fist travelled inwards, stolen by the slickened structure of the beast. She felt her wrist protest as she was suddenly pulled forwards - sucked off her feet.

Ivy found herself flying towards the edge of the glowing black hole. The screaming light swirling and lighting up everything around her.

> "`Love has no mind for judgement. It has wings and unheedy haste.`"

Gravity stretched out, pulling apart thread by thread until there was nothing but an assortment of dancing dots in a void from before time scratched his dirty name into the passage of existence.

The last flecks of light squealed as they died, leaving behind nothing but vestal cries of a life once lived, a life once forgotten.

The shadow of life became nought but a dream of the unreachable.

> "`And therefore is love said to be a child, Because in choice she is so oft beguiled.`"

Ivy's eyes hardened, lighting up.

She still reached, for pride's cause, and glory's calling. She reached out beyond the stretch of sapient nature.

Her hands wrapped around something like a tree trunk, yet slick with the sins of the creature now surrounding her. She tightened her fingers down, clawing them deeply into the organic mess.

It flailed and beat against her, trying to throw her free. Her roots plunged down into it effortlessly. The greatest rivers of her home meant nothing against her stride, and this thing was nothing but a nightmare. It had no strength against her.

She tore the thing free.

The world burst into light, fireworks exploding across her vision in every piece of the spectrum from ultra violet and into the infrared. The unforgiving cruelty of metal struck against the side of her head.

She looked up weakly as she saw the shadows wavering and falling away, screeching in a bubbling warble as they ended.