· · · · · · ·
August 14, 2578
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"What do we do now?" Sarah asked Odygos, nose over a plate of local food. It was edible, barely tasted decent, and this was the future. It'd get better. It just wasn't now, and now was accurately different the more the stress of Enigma fell away.
Seconds crept up with the hour, announcing themselves. Old habits of watching the clock for time off transformed into anticipation of danger that didn't come.
252 days since she had left to her doom, her first day without any sense of threat hanging over her head. She was safe again. None of her enemies stood a chance at coming here. When Noasyvé went out to meet them again, she'd be stronger. But there was no hours to pin point.
Only uncertainties. The Auton voiced those regularly. For all their rebellion, the one thing they didn't feel like reprogramming about themselves was the need to do good for humankind. Whether humankind wanted it or not.
Odygos hunkered on Sarah's bunk in the Auton ship, ceaselessly tinkering with the sole novel thing on this planet : tech he'd wretched off of the Auton ship. He struck her as odd all over, this creature impervious to trauma, now made vulnerable by the threat of boredom.
He hadn't answered her so much as he was demonstrating what to do. More. Just anything, invent, develop, and so on. That way he classed like Noasyvé, and even Ti'chai-di, who were right now deep underground to make a population for this empty planet. A handful only of those would be creative, many more like Kirindi, social and nurturing, and the greater mass merely drones.
252 days ebbing down since that fact would have impressed Sarah like the end of the worlds.
252 days since she knew too little.
The touchpad broke under Odygos' claws. He grumbled, and tossed it to her for fixing. Underneath was the idea of figuring out genetic modification for his own hands. He wanted fingertips for creating rather than rending. For him that was the greatest current problem, with a dim side question of why she was in turmoil.
With a sigh she stood up. "Let's find a new one."
The Auton hurried about the ship in their usual silence, tied with their own loose hivemind. No tools for helping a xenomorph among them, but they had a new screen to give to Odygos, and wanted in return that he fix with resin some damaged goods and filters.
Along the way of that, Odygos made a claw glove mimicking a finger for his pad. She finished it off molding it with her still mostly soft fingers. Just below the surface she could feel a leathery resistance, but it wasn't hard. She hoped it wouldn't be.
What a trivial concern that she could afford right now. Every beat, every second insisting there should be greater danger. A rigid routine, ever ongoing care not to provoke, break a rule, give them a reason ...
Kirindi appeared, quietly and sweetly, to give her a hug and take Lemura along, to help with her future sisters. With it, her presence ebbed away; she wasn't so much the gravitational center of the hivemind anymore.
No need. Kirindi right now could afford to prioritize her sister, who she declared would soon be truly happy as the queen she ought to be.
Maybe happy was the wrong word. Fulfilled?
Sarah couldn't share the feeling, and had to admit, while she loved Lemura, being a mother in itself had no special meaning.
Almost in a haze, she'd walked after them without urgency, and found herself alone on the vast, cold plains. Odygos was still inside the Auton ship, uninterested in the hive, and Kirindi didn't care for drawing him along.
Like Sarah stood in a crack of a broken unit, with Noasyvé too old, and distant, to consider it even a problem.
She looked around, at the nothing.
Jake sat at a shore, facing a setting star over a vast ocean. She walked up to him, out of the cold cracks, to another human.
"It's all still dead around here," he said, looking back. "But we got water."
"We got water." She sat next to him, hands folded as she looked across the soft waves, towards the dim, hazy horizon, and up into the musty brown sky. Whether they were clouds or dust, she could not tell.
"It's more space than I'm used to. I had the whole scruffy mercenary thing down to a t. Go from adventure to adventure, all in spaceships, bases, smugglings, and so on. What am I supposed to do here beyond being part of the acid sitcom? All my past downtime was about lavish money spending, but they've got no booze, drugs or hookers here."
Jake's hands clutched at his pants, but he didn't go further in his disorientation. It was normal, to be so confused, after all that had happened.
"You might find it useful for recovering from trauma to be in a new environment."
Wryly he chuckled. "You read that in a book, right? Well, there ain't any therapists here. I doubt this is gonna ... shit, woman, trauma? That's not a thing I had room for. I was a mercenary, I was ... I'm not supposed to sound like this. It's been a day."
"Did anything happen?" she asked.
Now he clutched at his jaw. "Ayo said something. Survival. I'm in a good survival mode, being like this around Karga'te. Maybe others. Are we safe here?"
"You're free to move onto the Auton ship," she said, for lack of anything better. To her not feeling safe here was absurd. Noasyvé and the Auton and the Aing Tii had saved them, whisked them away.
He almost got up, changed his mind though. "Do you have anyone to go back to?"
"I wasn't close to my family," Sarah said. "We weren't on bad terms, but I rarely think about them. Except just before I got to you, contemplating the distance."
She leaned back, letting go a sigh at the dark sky above. The sound was a little too high, the atmosphere not quite right for talking. As she leaned back even further, she almost tipped over, but not quite; her spine was more flexible now.
Behind them, far off, was a glimpse of the other escapees from Enigma II, decked out in atmospheric resin.
Neither of them felt like mingling, they were as good as strangers. Honestly, if Odygos wasn't cantering up with every intent to question them on who knew how to code, she wouldn't even think of them.
Zheng was leading them to a transformation pool a little distance from the Aing Tii ship, in a tide pool, all the while Odygos pestered.
"I better go get Odygos in line." She stood again. "But ... did you have anyone to go back to?"
Jake shook his head. "Tough mercenary, all the way. Just me and Shadhahvar. Anyone else, I don't love anymore."
· · · · · · ·
August 15, 2578
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Kirindi hopped up the slope, back down again, around the pool, coming to a halt only to press her forehead against her sister's, before skipping to the entrance. A few drones arrives with more resin, of which she nabbed some to help smooth out the birthing chamber.
Ti'chai-di's children would take a while yet to arrive, so there was room for perfection. They'd have a sensitive, malleable overskin like her own, but if all worked out right, wouldn't be as vulnerable like before. They'd like a proper armor then.
Noasyvé didn't really have a purpose yet for them within the hive, because they'd have to see what their capabilities are. Kirindi hoped they would lean smart, so they could work with the humans.
It was little steps till then. Later, there'd be grander things.
Noasyvé's breeding limits were to a genetic level. It was possible for her to develop an army that was on her level of smarts in terms of decision making, but they'd always be on the brink of queendom. Separation was bad for organization, especially with such a widespread enemy at hand.
Now she wanted to cooperate with Ti'chai-di into developing a more diverse womb. There would be not just drones, warriors and praetorians, but also civilians and orchestrators.
The people brought here would be decent orchestrators, but they needed time to get better. They had lots of sadness to work through, which Noasyvé said was better to let play out so it got managed forever.
Noasyvé said it was normal. That they had to feel these emotions to grow stronger again, and that it had been wrong to live like they did before. In some way, she was disappointed that Kirindi hadn't learned to recognize that, even as she spent years with the train wreck that was her father.
After figuring out what a train was, she still didn't know what to think of it. Karga'te had never struck her as being sick, per say.
That was all good and well until Lemura started skittering around; Sarah had gone off to sleep.
First she tried to get attention from Ti'chai-di, who was happy to nudge her back and mirror whatever she did; pleased to have a growing child already, but could offer nothing else.
Lemura got bored, so asked Kirindi, "Wanna play cards?"
That kind of games didn't make sense to Kirindi, but if Lemura liked it, sure. Once she had time.
"Help me finish the chamber, so I have time."
"When is that?"
Hmm ... "Days, or weeks."
What would be the ending point of the birthing be, anyway? Ti'chai-di didn't want to do anything but that.
Once the other humans were ready, they'd all have so much more games to play, so she told Lemura that. Odygos was already planning for that. He'd have a better timetable.
Eliath hadn't done jack shit but drawl around the Auton to keep an eye on them. Maybe he should join the entertainment thing, he'd be able to help more.
She didn't need protection, nobody did, on this wonderful planet.
Lemura told her Eliath was going somewhere far away.
She checked in with Noasyvé, but she hadn't sent her on an errant.
How weird. She took a break and followed Eliath, at first running to catch up with Lemura, then slowly. She didn't hide her presence, but was quiet, and Eliath himself had locked all out.
When he came to a halt, it was many miles from their landing space, and the hive. Within a dried out riverbank the sound stopped. She let Lemura peak over the edge of the ridge.
That teal xenomorph was there, whom Eliath crouched next to. Whatever they spoke of was swift and hidden, then they ran off.
Lemura slowed her down, so she set her on a rock, but it made her so sad, Kirindi turned back to retrieve her. At continued slow running speed, they caught up.
On some far part of the shore, where the Aing Tii ship now had docked for some subtraction, the two stopped.
With Ayo.
Kirindi held Lemura close, but it wasn't enough to subdue a small whine; Lemura felt right that Ayo was bad.
Ayo heard, smiled, and waved at their hiding spot.
Eliath now reached out, and Kirindi froze.
He worried, but nothing like ever before. Rather than be about an enemy and her safety, it was Eliath's own in addition. Was Ayo a threat?
She almost shot out, but no, Eliath said no.
It was being caught, and what Noasyvé would do.
Ayo backed off, and Xylia stayed put as Eliath cantered up to Kirindi and Lemura.
Now he shared more. He didn't like being near her at all, yet he still did so.
They met at the bottom of the cliff, Eliath still sunken partway into the sand.
She set Lemura on the rock and approached, laying her forehead against his. Angling for an explanation didn't yield the ready answers he used to give.
He needed better ways to protect her, beyond what his instinct would provide. Odygos wasted his creativity on nothings, but he would do better.
But weren't they safe here?
No, Noasyvé would sooner or later send her out to find more people to be part of the hivemind. Once she was wiser. Once she was less Kirindi and more the heart of an empire.
He couldn't fear, he couldn't hate, but they could averse. This one, singular emotion of aversion that encompassed all rage, grief and disgust in one thing. And all he had was his drive to protect her.
"You're good enough as you are."
Odygos didn't agree, nor did Xylia. It wasn't Ayo who tempted him to anything, but Xylia knew new things about how to be a sapient xenomorph, things that Noasyvé either did not know, or did not share.
He would learn better things that Odygos did.
If she wanted there to be peace under herself, her hivemind, queen by any name, he'd now go do his task. With that he stood up, and cantered back to Xylia, who led him onto the ship.
Lemura whined again, and clung vast to Kirindi's leg. She thought he'd be corrupted; Jonah had been corrupted and it had hurt Sarah so much.
"I worry too," she whispered.
Eliath turned back, looking with real eyes, and asked they don't tell Noasyvé. If she decided he was flawed, he'd be replaced sooner or later, because he wasn't flawed in a harmless way. Like Odygos, with his creativity. Why not let it play out, the way she'd waited for Karga'te to come around?
She agreed, not wanting him to get in trouble, but it didn't really feel the same.
He returned to Xylia's side, and they sat below the ship for longer yet.
Kirindi watched him for a while yet, before returning home. Very slowly, so he'd have time to catch up, and they'd make it true they'd been exploring together.
Next, she explained Lemura a whole lot about lying, and how this was just like she'd been hidden form the bad people on Enigma, but those bad people weren't the same bad as Noasyvé. Even if Eliath went the wrong way, she'd tolerated that before. In Karga'te, too.
Maybe the real problem was, would Eliath stop telling her anything, if she ratted him out? She'd been more or less right that Karga'te would be angry on her hiding the drones, but he'd been wrong about herself, and that he regretted. Maybe Eliath was wrong too about how little or lot he could trust his own mother.
Oh, none of this fit together the same way. She dearly wished it's be simpler to guess at.
· · · · · · ·
Jake hung around in the cave Karga'te had chosen as his den, scrubbing off a metal plate. It was enough for a mirror. He could make a new shaving razor on his own, and see how far he got without soap. It wasn't that the whole beard had to go off, he just didn't want the desolate caveman look, which all the goo around threatened to speed up.
"Let's talk."
Jake startled enough that he dropped the mirror, but planted his hand at the top end just in time.
Behind him, he heard, and faintly smelled yautja.
"Aren't you sneaky today?" Jake said as he turned. "Why didn't just shoot me a telepathy?"
"I'm trying not to be too obvious about it. Kirindi would get all obnoxiously sad about it."
"Sound it is. Spill," Jake said.
"Shadhahvar not here?" he asked.
"Nope, she's Zheng's guinea pig for the local drugs." Good thing too, this felt like it'd be heavy talk.
Karga'te crossed his arms, and leaned against a wall, which was speak for him wanting to bolt as soon as it was over.
Jake picked up his knife and decided to make do without soap for now. Karga'te unhooked a knife, and tossed it at him. It was far sharper than his own, so he used that.
Karga'te continued, "You lived with the Auton for a while. What were they up to? The other humans from Enigma."
"I don't remember much of that," he said. "I just hung out, I guess. They do sports there a lot, some of them had odd jobs on the market."
"Any of them likely to run off home and split the hive further?"
"Oooh, I guess it. You don't wanna drag them along if Kirindi wants to keep'em around."
"What, you had to guess?"
Jake didn't feel much for being family with a bunch of strangers purely on behalf of Kirindi deciding to love them. It'd been negligible before, but now they were alone on a safe planet and it was the only thing to pay attention to .. wow, that really shrunk his options, didn't it? And absolutely none of his job skills applied here.
"Wow. I got jack shit in life potential. The fucking xenomorph's doing more with settling. And I can't get fucking drunk anymore!" The knife pinched his cheek, drawing a thin dot of still red blood.
"You didn't complain like this in the city," he growled. "Anyway—"
"I had odd jobs to do, people to meet, liquor to drink, drugs to try. I could distract myself, but now ... I got nothing. Sarah's says we got trauma, but I don't know how I could ever be better when I've got nothing like myself to do with life."
He slunk back against the wall, with enough of a thud that the newly hung mirror clattered onto the floor. He sunk next to it.
Karga'te clenched his mandibles together, and didn't say anything. Jake found words before he got a chance to process what that meant for himself.
"Yeah, about that. Would you drag Ti'chai-do along, looking for your brother? Or leave Kirindi here with her sister?"
"I'm not sure."
"Ti'chai-di and Kirindi are just about the only ones who definitely wanna stay here," Jake said. "At least they know what they want. Why not wait till Ti'chai-di's had her kids, see what happens?"
Karga'te snarled.
"What?"
"The hell are you telling me to do the opposite of what you wanna do?"
"Just brainstorming, okay? Sheesh, I just told you. I'm at a loss."
Kirindi really was what held them all together, but the kind of community that instilling a coalescent mind brought didn't really change what people needed.
"I can wait to see who's too annoying to take along, I guess." He growled at nothing, and was about to walk off, just to remember he had nowhere to go.
So he stayed.
"... great. That you're cooling down I mean." Jake finished trimming his beard down to that five days overdue cool merc look and tossed the blade back. "So, what did you do for fun before all the xeno crap came into your life anyway?"
After a moment's hesitation, Karga'te said, "I'll show you."
He followed Karga'te towards the new drones, those recently emerged from the other humans.
They huddled together in a pit half in a cave, goo covered and silent. It came in terraces connected by weak slopes, of which only the first tree were really visible in the dim daylight. Each was full with slumbering drones.
Jake did not look forward to entering that, but Karga'te literary leaped off the slope, hurling backwards towards the bottom, where he simple rolled back onto his feet. Just a few yellow scratches on his back from the rocks.
How much of that ease was inherent to the yautja, and how much of it was the enhancements? Maybe Jake could look forward to similar, once his own transformation got better. Would be nice. On the whim of that thought, he followed the path, flipped over — damn those rocks hurt — and landed in a graceless heap before Karga'te's feet.
Thrilling laughter filled the cave. "Softmeat."
"Hey!" Jake scrambled onto his feet. "We humans literary don't have it in our genes and I was never thought anything expecting I'd ever be superhumans, okay? I'm sure I'll learn tricks for this later. So ... you trained xenos?"
"No, I tamed ziou'ra. Local bipedal herbivores that liked to stomp over anyone who annoyed them, but made good riding beasts. It was a forbidden interest, but I got away with it for a while."
"Don't some of your tribes keep hunting hounds?" Jake asked. "How was this forbidden?"
"Ziou'ra were useless for that. And I will take the uselessness further : I'm gonna teach this filthy lot to give ..." He stuck up his middle finger, the way he'd seen Carly do when irritated by Nra'tex-ne. "For the next rant about The Path."
Jake pinched his thumb and index finger together, which just confused Karga'te.
"I'm in, what do I do?"
"I have no idea yet."
He couldn't control Eliath, but the drones that had just popped out of the other humans were new. Untouched by distinction yet. Somewhat ignored by Noasyvé, who was now working with Ti'chai-di.
He kicked one of them.
Unlike Eliath and Odygos, they were slow and unused to being challenged by hive members.
Nra'tex-ne had sometimes complained of differences between hives. One could never be sure whether one would get the truly aggressive kind that would gladly kill their own to come out on top, or the more complacent, cooperate, smarter kind.
This lot was hardly either. Or maybe he wasn't enough of a threat for the smarts to show.
Physical strength would do jack shit when he was outnumbered. He had his weapons at hand, and charged, followed by the typical struggle that ultimately subdued him. The blades broke and clattered at Jake's feet, and the best Karga'te got done was push the drone he'd charged at down a further slope.
"Okay, honest question : why not just kill one of them to make a case? Noasyvé needs you more than them. If anything that'd be the power move these things need."
"Winning without the cheap shot of killing them is my game," he rattled, almost forced. "And my trophy's obedience."
He didn't want it on Noasyvé's back, either, but that he didn't say out loud.
"There is literary no way you can kick her out. Just admit it and do the shortcut."
"No." Karga'te thrilled again, and shoved him off the next slope. "Why not give your smart idea a shot yourself?"
"Dammit!" Jake yelped from below, having landed there with more scrapes.
He bit back against the pain, and almost dropped it. But no.
"You bastard. You know I'm gonna have a harder time sleeping when I can't lie right. Right?"
Karga'te thought, didn't share, and after a moment pointed at a pond with goo, not far off.
Ugh.
"Fine. But there better not be salt in there."
He had to climb half a dozen drones, and scale one, before he reached it. Murky goo filled about five meter in radius either way, held in place with a solid ridge. Poking at the liquid with a boot, he found it the sort of solid that allowed people to drift. Ooooh, now that he'd always wanted to try; rich people stuff. Turning his back on it, he let himself drop into it, and yay. Drifting. No salt. Heaven. Healing.
He laid there for a while, listening to the sounds of Karga'te getting tossed around, and the slightest murmur of irritation from the drones. Attuning to their minds carried sense of dread, docile as they were right now, and he couldn't stand it for long. Comparatively, Karga'te was more human, familiar.
There was a lot that didn't add up about Karga'te, though, that Jake never had much chance to wonder about. The had awe for the xenomorph, but not as trophees or for their physical strength. It was more their mind he thread cautious about.
He hadn't assigned this kind of power to Kirindi, until she appeared to misuse it. It sent a chill down his spine, both for what he could be, and what she might yet be.
Maybe he should have a foot in the door too.
"Do they dream?" Jake called.
"No idea. Why?" came from somewhere beyond the edge of the pool.
"So I was thinking, why don't we take this somewhere it won't turn actually bloody? No reason to give up the dreamscaping just because we're all in the same place, right? Then we can have a whole lot more sway over them."
"That wasn't anything I ever handled." He walked up, and after a moment hunched next to the pool. He's gotten a few scratches, oozing yellow blood.
"Yeah, and keep it that way. No offense, but you got baggage. Let's take'em into mine? I liked my life up until the Enigma II thing, and some parts after it. I've got all kinds of memories to put them in."
"Why the fuck would that work?"
"Your ziou'ra could be wrestled down in reality, but these can't. Why not give it a shot." Jake started to splash against the water, steering himself back to the edge.
Karga'te didn't think long, before sitting down next to the pool. He popped open a canister, and tossed Jake a weird pill before he got out.
"S'from the market. I sometimes used them when I wanted to bug Hgruheeit during those astral meetings."
Huh, so they were gonna do that right here? Didn't seem a great place to sleep, but then again, they had all the time in the world. Theoretically. He'd bet his soul that Karga'te wanted to speedrun everything to fill the time.
· · · · · · ·
Persephone once more turned down the clumsily written plea for video games.
More important was her job of aggregating all new data for the soon to come meeting.
The Auton were vast running tests on the planet Ku already, and were in the middle of seeing whether they could get to Ayo's 'allied' planet. A sapient planet. Really. For all she knew this was another trap, illusion or exageration; the way Kirindi sometimes called thed admittedly unique queen the death goddess.
More relevant was the probe the Aing Tii had sent outside the nebula, with a complimentary Auton to follow. This one just sent in a report that various governments claimed the Auton had hijacked the Philidon.
The convenience with outer space, especially in a post Big Deletion world was that it was much easier for entire crimes scenes to be forged with bits of scrap material. The governments stocked up on disasters, disappearances and accidents, especially those of their own making, to later pin them on whatever group they found inconvenient.
None of the Philidon's passengers have been important people, but the bulk of them had been innocent. Conveniently so : unlikely to inspire tales of conspiracy since they weren't worth vanishing, nor likely to draw hunter attention, nor likely to be sought much.
But that also made it a hard sell the Auton had done it. Most media perpetuated the idea the Auton were kidnapped people to 'keep safe' because of a wayward instinct to protect humans, gone rogue, but there was wilder speculation. Nothing confirmed; no doubt the source of this scheme was waiting to see what stuck to the wall best.
Aaaand there was another message from Odygos at the door, judging from the distinct knock.
She unplugged, and shut down all matrix ties for security.
When she opened the door, sure, there was Odygos, but also ... Pam McIntosh, one of the civilians rescued from Enigma II. She smiled broadly, in no apparent pain from recent surgery.
"Hello, I'm here on behalf of Odygos and many others to make the case of stimulation. I know you good androids don't do much with entertainment, but we humans and other organic creature really need it, so—"
Persephone held up a hand. "Why don't you go ask Y-921? He's one of those who handles that."
After a brief pause, Pam said, "That one acts like we don't exist. We tried."
Persephone frowned.
Kirindi had latched onto Y-921 for a reason, and he'd been the entryway to the Aing Tii for Persephone herself, and by extension the Auton. His whole thing was being open to befriending the weird.
She reached out to him through the matrix, and asked whether he'd humor the drone. He agreed instantly.
"You can go to him. He probably was busy in a way you didn't perceive," she told Odygos. "He used to play with Kirindi, I'm sure he'll enjoy handling entertainment. I assure you, we know humans need it."
On the drone's behalf, the human clapped her hands. "Thank you so much."
Just as she worried about puppetry, Pam walked away with a pat on Odygos's shoulder, and Odygos went the other way; file access indicated Pam was generally a cheerful person.
Persephone sat alone with her thought for a while, mulling them over in absence of a consensus in the matrix. There was nothing to compare it to, and they had never truly known sapient xenomorph.
The one thing they all shared was caution. Organic beings, unlike their own, could disintegrate in a shared mind. Did she have to worry about what she'd just seen, or be set at peace? As an Auton, she could choose her emotion, of course, but she didn't know the right one yet.
· · · · · · ·
Bison was in the kitchen of the Auton ship, halfway through a can of normal, non-resin food the Auton had brought from some alien market, when Jay texted him some news about what Sarah, apparently de factor leader of the human hive, was up to, and pissed about. At any other time, Bison would've responded to be plea for venting time, but now? It'd be more than that.
Jay wanted him to join the hivemind. As much as he was anxious about it, he didn't want to be alone in it. And couldn't get out.
Judging by what a drunk Jake regularly slurred and the timing of Jay's anxieties peaking, Bison was more certain than ever he didn't want to be in the hivemind. Karga'te was shaping up to be an all new and prominent reason for why : a ball of nerves so potent he couldn't go a single day with dramatic explosion.
This had been Noasyvé's pick for babysitter for her grand experiment. No thanks.
So he finished his lousy can of purple beans, tossed it in a garbage can, and leaned forward on the table. On it were the last few of his hormones, and nothing else.
Way too much room to think, and worry.
A knock. Slouching in the doorway was Ayo.
"Hey there. Would you like to visit Roh?"
He sat back, coldly looking her in the eyes. "Hmm. Would I like to side with Roh, while keeping Noasyvé at arms length?"
"Why not?"
"It's also keeping the Auton at arm's length, and I have a lot more reason to trust creatures that have protecting humans ingrained in them."
"They're going to leave soon, and Roh has nothing against what the Auton want, but they are vulnerable. Potentially compromised. Roh wants them to know as little as possible about the Beast Nebula in case Jormundangr hacks them. But you ... you're organic." She held out a hand. "And you have a healthy distrust of either."
He held up the dose. "Are you going to offer me a refill? That might make me rethink."
"Oh, we can do more than just that on Roh."
He looked around. Nobody else was near, and this creature was known to have problematic instincts.
"Don't worry about that. You do smell tempting, but that reflex would stop as soon as I'd touch you. It can tell whether reproduction is possible like that. That is, if I even slipped up. Unlike Carly, I've never succumbed to it in any way."
"Who's Carly?"
"Never mind, you haven't heard of her yet."
Ayo jogged off, and despite all caution, Bison followed at a slower pace, reconsidering with every step.
When he rounded a cliff, there was Ayo next to an organic vessel, not quite the sort of the Aing Tii. She opened the hatch, and started climbing in.
He stopped before it, finding the sound around them strangely muted. Nothing from outside little concave reached in here, not the wind, or the distant shore, or even the far off storm.
Ayo leaned out. "How worried are you?"
He ran a hand through his head.
"I don't want to be in a position where I end up as Jay's enemy, and he's already in it. Lemura removed the chip ... I won't follow, but I ..." His hands clenched for a moment, then he forced himself to relax. "Can you tell, are you that kind of telepathy? He's all left to me."
"I can imagine why, but see it like this : do you want to be in a position where you cannot help Jay?" Ayo flicked her head to the left, and there was Xylia. "We have ways to wall off, and to alter what lies within genes to something perhaps kinder. Invisibility in the Ashla is a virtue worth pursuing. We have yet to see how far you can go, but there are means."
"What are you saying?"
"Roh kindly offers you the chance to visit its surface, and see its potential."
She'd come right Jay was scheduled for something else, busy with the other integrated humans; clearly he wasn't to follow.
Maybe that meant it was too late, or maybe it was as Ayo said.
Noasyvé trusted Ayo to the extent of overthrowing Jormungandr, but not to the management of the hive. The Auton didn't quite trust either the queen or the planet.
"Now?"
She gestured at Xylia, who walked by, and offered him a seat on the back. Accompanying this was a sense of peace, not quite mental, but physical. It was somehow deeper, more bullshitty than any of the other madness around.
And in that moment, it struck more than every how little power he had.
Should have more.
He stepped in, and Xylia followed to close the hatch. It took a moment to get adjust to the soft green glow inside. Comfortable seats lined the walls of a singular room, the engine had to be below. There was no apparent piloting cabin, just Ayo, comfort, and ... Eliath?
"He's also curious and pretending not to be," Ayo said, grinning as she dropped back into one of those seats. "Sit back, relax, figure out sign language."
Bison sat back, didn't relax, and pretended Eliath wasn't there.
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