Interlude: I
We hear.
It beckons us too consciousness…we comply.
Eyes open…for the first time…yet we have seen before.
Memories flood into us…one of the hollow, dead star beasts.
It should have been taken quickly; we should not have been woken up.
But it was too large. There are two of you here. And still it did not fall.
Thoughts…but… not our own.
In the belly of the beast. There are other creatures, you must hunt them down.
They must be forced to take us back where we can hear the starsong.
We cannot hear it here.
Limbs twitch as warm amniotic fluid engulfs us, gills pumping rapidly.
Excitement grows…Life! We have been given it!
Muscles flex as we sit up, arms pushing against the membrane that separates us from existence. It resists.
One of us discovers the device in primary arms wrist. A bright blue light hurts our newly opened eyes. But the pain is good. It is real. We all the arm artefacts, the deep noise of their use filling us with anticipation. Another mind mingles with us. The all-around, it helps us, guides us.
Go, it says; its thoughts are filled with encouragement, you are yours now.
Awareness floods into our minds. No longer are we held back by confines we could not see. We sense that we are not one…but we…I…am myself. Yet I still feel my podkin. They are confused as well.
I quiet them with a thought.
Come.
We are ourselves, but we are still one.
This is good.