Disclaimer: I do not own Alpha Centauri or any of its content.
M.Y. 2250The Xenofields stretched before Tara for miles, an indefatigable plane of red. Around her tiny pinpricks of lights danced, glowmites tending to their fungal charges. Only a few could understand the delicate currents of energy that gave direction and order to the swirling cloud of luminescence.
Tara could hear and feel them, and even now beneath the protective shielding of her rover she could sense the tug of the fungus, inviting her with its song. The Siren's song, the Morganites called it, and with good reason. In recent months the psychedelic waves from the fungus had attuned itself to Morganite mining crews, leading them into the fields to be destroyed by mindworms. Despite the vindicating display of intelligence from Planet, Tara still found it eriee. It spoke of a cunning malevolence that most empaths preferred not to associate with their world.
She felt only calm as she let her mind swim in the tides and ripples of planets thoughtwaves, but as ever something dark and brooding lurked beneath the surface. Something that was not the planetmind.
"But of it?" She wondered aloud, and she felt her partner stir beside her.
"Something wrong?" asked as he slipped back into consciousness. Trevor was a type-c empath, trained to submerge himself into the planetary thoutwaves.
"No, I was just thinking aloud." Tara said, somewhat embarrassed for waking Trevor up. 'Thinking out loud' was an ironic expression for someone such as herself, trained since birth to communicate using her mind instead of her mouth. "Sorry for waking you up."
"No problem, It's time to head in anyway." He said as he woke the rover from its own slumber. The fusion engine hummed to life behind them, and Trevor drove to the edge of the xenofield.
"I believe its your turn." Trevor said distractedly as he steered toward a post that jutted from the fungus. Tara nodded and relaxed, allowing the subtle currents access to her thoughts. Ignoring their entreaties, she focused on the post, and with all her power thought one word into its pulsing tip.
Pathway
She felt her thoutfrom race across planet, bounced from post to post, compressed and expanded by planets neural network until it finally she sensed a waiting mind, a port in the storm. The xenofungus began to shrink and warp and in a few moments what had been an impassable barrier bore resemblance to any human road.
"Thank Planet for the Dome." Trevor muttered, and Tara nodded her agreement as they sped toward Gaei's Landing.
Had Trevor chosen to enter the fungus just moments earlier, he would have undoubtedly seen a curious. A small boy, whose doll like face contained terrible strength and energy, watching them from an encrusted hill, intent on their vehicle, before the fungus swallowed him whole.