Tier 3 Chapter 3 Version 3
Rallen and Jeena followed Isaarf into the garden directly across the elevated road. Once there, Isaarf pulled a small device out from the padding on his shoulder and started to press buttons on it.
After a while, Rallen broke the silence, "So... where's your ship?"
"In that generalized direction," Isaarf replied, pointing upward. Rallen and Jeena looked up and didn't see anything. Perhaps it was a similar concept to the ancient starship, which had a teleportation system that led up to it's main interior.
"Ah, Isaarf, there you are," a light, feminine voice came through the device in Isaarf's hands. "Ten more minutes and I would've sent an assault team in after you. How many fingers are you missing?"
"You're never gonna let Arrakis go, are ya?" Isaarf replied in a gruff voice. "These humans are non hostile, surprisingly enough. I managed to meet up with a duo of krawl hunters who are willing to come check out our little problem."
"You know I can't let you up here unless you say the line," the feminine voice said after a moment of Isaarf expectantly waiting for... something.
"Donn't maake me ssay thaat line," Isaarf said in his slow voice. "Unnliike youu, I haave no innteresst in humann 'nerrdinesss.'"
"Say it!" A rougher, but still feminine voice ordered.
Switching to his sophisticated voice, Isaarf said, "Beam us up, Scotty."
Rallen and Jeena, who hadn't understood most of what was being said between Isaarf and this other voice, suddenly found themselves surrounded by a bright blue light. When the light faded, the scenery had completely changed. Rallen and Jeena were standing in what looked to be a control room of some sort. There were creatures, unlike any that Rallen and Jeena had seen before, standing and sitting behind panels all around the room.
"Welcome aboard Terror-6," a short, blue creature with four arms said in a grumble. "Isaarf has duties he needs to be attending to, so I will be your tour guide around the ship."
Rallena and Jeena listened to the creature drone on about the engineer room where they presently were. In short, it was the safest part of the ship and was also the location of all the ship's vital organs.
The blue creature, who Rallen and Jeena now knew as Rionii, then led them into a thin hallway with a high ceiling. It was the crew's sleeping quarters. Its walls were lined with nearly four thousand sleeping compartments. All Rallen and Jeena saw was blank walls, so they couldn't quite grasp that number.
"I have a feeling he's gonna like this next room," Rionii said, pointing to Rallen with his lower left hand. "Welcome to the cafeteria. Our head chef just so happens to be a human, we picked hum up on New Folsom. Knowing your species, you'll probably end up in here a little more than three times a day just to be around your own kind." Before Rallen or Jeena could protest to this, Rionii was walking towards one of the other doors.
After several long explanations of the other rooms in the ship, Rionii finally led Rallen and Jeena to the eyes of the ship. Isaarf was busy leading a group of other creatures, most of which were the same species as it, in a series of ship diagnostics.
"Ah good, you're here," Isaarf said in his sophisticated voice. "I assume you're ready to go?"
"Ready when you-" Rallen was cut off by a beep followed by a communications screen popping up at the front to the room.
"Captain Isaarf," Commander Grant said respectfully, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but we've got a problem close to home. We'll need you to drop off Rallen and Jeena on planet Ziba."
"No can do, Grant," Isaarf replied in his gruff voice. "Despite what your species thinks, humans are not the most important race in the universe. We can't drop our mission just to help you with yours."
"I was afraid you'd say that," the Commander said with a scowl. "I suggest you consider the fact that Rallen and Jeena have the option not to help you."
"Damn human," Isaarf said as he abruptly ended the communication. "Looks like we're going to Ziba."
Faster than Rallen could blink, the great starship was in orbit around Ziba. It shocked Rallen and Jeena to suddenly find themselves some number of millions of miles from where they were only a second ago.
"Before you beam down," one of the other ooblajig said as he reached into the pocket on his shoulder, "I found this thing on New Folsom. It's human made, so you'll probably have better luck than us with it."
It then handed a pale blue prizmod to Rallen. Before Rallen or Jeena could say anything, they were on the surface of Ziba along with Isaarf and Rionii. Jeena turned to ask Isaarf why he had come along, but stopped herself when she saw a sense of awareness in Isaarf's eyes. Isaarf's nostrils twitched slightly.
"I smell fremen," Isaarf explained. "There are children of the spice on this planet."
"What's he talking about?" Rallen asked in complete confusion.
"The Ooblajig race never had good relations with the human evolution branch known as fremen," Rionii explained calmly. "Apparently, this planet is home to the descendants of fremen."
Isaarf then began to march purposefully in the direction of one of the paths nearby. Rallen, Jeena, and Rionii followed it to the location of the research facility. Professor Kate was waiting near one of the consoles inside the structure.
Without turning around she said, "Ah, Rallen, Jeena, I'm glad you could get here so soon. There's-" She was cut off by the sound of Isaarf pulling out a small weapon and disarming the safety cap. Professor Kate quickly spun on her heels to see a large purple monster aiming a pen at her face. At that precise moment, Rallen came into the room.
"Rallen, care to explain why this creature is aiming a pen at my face and you're just standing next to him?" the professor asked.
"Professor Kate, meet Isaarf the twenty-fourth," Jeena said as she walked in and saw what was going on. "He's a captain in our new allied empire. He thinks you're a descendant of a hostile race of humans that cut off several of his fingers. Considering the fact that his fingers grew back, I'm not sure why he's still holding a grudge. I also don't know why he's threatening you with a pen."
"This is a pencilizer," Isaarf explained. "In our original language, the term 'pencil' meant 'dead mind.' It has a ten percent chance of killing an organism with only one brain. I'm willing to risk killing a freman."
"I don't know who the fremen are, but I can assure you that I'm just as diplomatic as Rallen and Jeena. Please, lower the weapon," Kate said softly.
Isaarf capped the safety over the trigger. This action greatly resembles clicking the back of a pen. He then cautiously returned the pencilizer to its holster on his belt.
"So, Professor Kate, what seems to be the problem?" Rallen asked.
"A strange fossil was found in Aoboshi earlier this week, but it disappeared last night. Then, we got a distress call from Akaboshi saying that a leader krawl had appeared at the corresponding location to where the spectrobe was found on Aoboshi," Kate described quickly.
"We picked up a strange pulse of self-sustainable matter and self-sustainable antimatter in this area only a few minutes ago," Rionii explained. "Perhaps there's a connection between the three of these occurrences."
"What's self-sustainable matter and antimatter?" Jeena asked curiously.
"Thugo terminology for living light and living dark, like the spectrobes and krawl," Rionii answered.
"Where did this pulse come from?" Professor Kate asked, steering them back onto the topic at hand.
Rionii gestured for the others to follow him out the door. He used small, feathered wings that Rallen and Jeena had not noticed before to fly to the top of a steep hill. He then pointed in the direction of a well-known excavation site. Isaarf flew up after Rionii and left the humans to crawl up the side of the cliff. When they got to the top of the cliff, they saw something that they didn't expect at all. A huge, black crater had formed in the middle of the quarry.
"How is it that nobody noticed this?" Rallen asked in shock.
"It only ocuured a few minutes ago," Isaarf said. "Probably while Rionii was giving you the grand tour."
After a few more minutes of examination, the onlookers noticed that there were two beings in the center of the crater. One was bright white with blue lines of color covering its scaly body. It had fin-like appendages coming off from its back and a pair of bulky arms. It's head was obscured by some sort of black goo that was attached to the other creature. This second creature had a bulky, purple body with crimson markings. Similar to a blova, it had bulky arms and a tiny body, but this creature also had domes of green liquid mounted around its shouders.
"I guess we found the spectrobe and the krawl," Jeena said.
The goo spread down from the spectrobe's head down to its lower arms. The spectrobe responded to this by splitting its cone-like lower body into six mechanical legs. It then used these new limbs to claw away at the krawl's chest.
"Shouldn't we do something?" Rallen asked in terror.
"I think it can handle itself," Isaarf replied in his gruff tone.
As if on cue, the krawl then completely consumed the spectrobe and shaped its amoebic body around the spectrobe. This new creature then leaped into the air and was gone from sight.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Rallen said ominously.
ThoronWild gave me this idea
I really enjoyed writing this one because of all the references I made. I hope no one flames about them...
Keep reading and contributing... please!
I don't own Spectrobes, Dune, Starcraft, or any of their characters or planets. I do, however, own all of the strange aliens onboard the Terror Assault ship series.