Far Away - Chapter Three
"This stuff is colder than ice!"
Chris shouldered the clubhouse door open and swung his way in. Danny, Cathy, and Sam looked up at him as he came in.
"Hey Chris!" Danny and Cathy both greeted in unison. Chris looked at Danny for a moment, then felt his face turn red as he remembered the movie from science class earlier that day. He looked away.
"Chris, you okay?" Sam's brow was creased as she looked at him.
"Why do you ask?" Chris asked, forcing himself to move the crutches again even as they dug further into the sore grooves in his underarms.
"Cause you look like you just ate a Salamarian slug raw!" Cathy teased.
"I'm pretty sure we don't have those on Earth, Cathy. My arms are sore from these stupid crutches." Chris hissed at the contact against his skin, rubbed practically raw. Danny jumped up from his chair and patted it. Chris gratefully sank into it, mumbling his thanks.
"Hey Chris, wanna try the tissue analyzer again?" Cathy hoisted the machine with a grin. "I think we've recalibrated it to human!"
"…think?" Chris asked skeptically.
"Well, it did this." Danny held out his arm, tinged slightly green around a rash and a thin white line of a healing cut. "But it's not at green as it was earlier."
"Pass," Chris said automatically. Danny shrugged and dropped his sleeve. As Danny turned back the computer, Chris realized he had let Cathy test the analyzer on him.
"We're trying to run the gel we collected from the worm yesterday," Sam informed Chris, typing away. "But it's cold and actually froze the analyzer."
Danny rolled the vial of the collected sample between his hands. "But look, it's a gel now…" he set the vial down on the desk. As Chris watched, the gel hardened and frosted the glass of the vial.
"Weird!" Chris picked up the vial, cold to the touch. A few moments later, the jelly stopped being solid and moved again. "It's responding to touch?"
"I guess so," Sam shrugged. "We can't get it in the analyzer to get any more information before it freezes."
"Maybe it's just cold," Danny suggested, stretching out on their floating cot.
"Cold?" Chris thought for a moment, shaking the vial in his hand. "Hey, Danny, good thinking!"
"Of course," Danny replied matter-of-factly, then paused and asked, "What did I think?"
Chris scooted his chair over to the computer, Sam sliding out of the way for him. "It's cold. It becomes a solid when it's not being held. So, I think it's using the warmth from us when we hold it." Chris pulled a lampbeam over the jelly sample and refocused it, but the gel didn't move under the heat. "Hmm…" He removed it from under the lamp, still cold to the touch. In his hand, it warmed and became liquidy again. He turned back to the others, watching him expectantly. "It doesn't respond to artificial heat."
"So… body heat? It needs body heat to move?" Sam asked, and took the vial from him.
"If we try to scan it, we'd have to hold it or it'd freeze, and we'd just mess up the scan." Sam turned to Cathy. "We know they're Zerellian worms, right?"
"Yeah, but Zerellian worms don't leave a trail of jelly like that." Cathy shrugged her arms. "Unless it's the mother worm when she's making a nest and getting ready to have her babies."
Chris, Sam, and Danny all stared at her.
"Wait, that giant, disgusting, wriggling worm that slimed us was getting ready to make more worms?" Danny asked, disgusted. Chris glanced at him and had to keep from laughing at the grossed-out look on the brunette's face. He found Danny's reactions always humorous.
"Yeah, and they'll eat anything in front of them. They're born really, really hungry!"
"We have to go find it and stop it before it's babies eats all of Singletown," Sam ordered.
"They'll eat a lot more than Singletown," Cathy interjected helpfully.
"Thanks Cath. Anything else you want to impart about these worms?" Danny asked sarcastically.
"If there's a mother worm ready to give birth, she always has worker worms with her to protect her and her nest."
"So there's more of these things around here?" Chris asked, then turned back to the computer. "Okay, we need to find their nest."
"Let's get in the shuttles and spread out." Sam nodded to each of the members, then called out "MBC, power up!" and ran to the shuttles. As Cathy followed suit, Chris started to get to his feet, hissing as his leg reminded him of his injury.
"Not you buddy," Danny teased, getting up from the floating cot and clapping Chris' shoulder. "You're staying here."
"I'm useless here," Chris objected. "I can still pilot my shuttle."
"You're staying. Here." Danny pushed on Chris' shoulder until he sat down again. "We need to figure out how many of these there are and where their nest is. Use the A-scan. Help us track that."
Chris scowled. "You're trying to think of something for me to do."
Danny just grinned and patted his shoulder as he turned away and pulled his sleeve up to access his communicator to morph. Chris saw the rash on Danny's arm, still barely faintly green. He reached out and caught Danny's sleeve, frowning.
"You let her practice using that thing on you?" Chris asked. "Even after you had to pull it off me?"
"Well, I figured," Danny shrugged. "It might help your leg." Danny grinned and looked at Chris. "But you don't want green skin."
Chris smiled back. "Thanks, though."
"No problem." Chris led his hand slide off Danny's arm. "See ya in a bit." Chris nodded as Danny thrust his arm into the air. "MBC, power up!"
To be Continued
I didn't like this chapter -.- But it's necessary for what is coming up.