RP1 Narrative

[Hydro]

Virgin Soil
2112

A light mist fell as Wayne watched the airlock control panel’s indicator light turn green. The door in front of Wayne shuddered as its powerful servos activated, and there was a brief, low grinding noise as the four-meter tall door labored to open. After less than a minute the movement stopped and Wayne and his senior administrator David entered the airlock of the main equipment bay.

Inside they faced a door that was identical to the first. Behind them the servo reactivated and the entrance closed with a dull clang. Air exchangers immediately started and in 10 seconds the atmospheric indicator on the left wall of the entry airlock went from red to green.

David and Wayne took off their breathers and rain slicks as the interior door started to open. David rubbed some of the chaffed skin on his left temple and soothed his hair while Wayne was meticulously sanitizing his breather, giving it a brief inspection, and then placing and sealing it in its velcro-topped belt holder. David irritably shoved his in its pouch.

“Damn things,” David muttered.

Wayne ignored the comment, as usual.

The interior door finished cycling and was fully open, and the unusually bright light of the bay flooded into the airlock. Wayne and David shielded their eyes against the glare as they walked into the bay. A phalanx of stocky men and women with shredders stood at attention in the center of the room. They were in front of a large object that was covered with a blue utility tarp, which obscured both the size and form of whatever was underneath it.

“What’s with the guards?” David asked.

“You’ll see. Patience my friend,” Wayne replied. His voice was quiet and measured, but this only served to pique John’s interest even more.

One of the guards walked forward. His shredder was drawn and pointed at both John and Wayne, and his new military issue boots echoed in the cavernous room as he approached. He intercepted them before they had gotten more than a third of the way toward the object.

“IDs please,” he asked.

“What kind of sh*t is this?” David asked, looking at Wayne. “You’re the governor!” David turned his gaze toward the unflinching guard. “And I’m the on the Council of Virgin Soil! Everyone here knows me, and Wayne!”

Wayne let him say his piece. Then he turned back toward the guard, who hadn’t budged a centimeter or and he didn’t look at all concerned at the bluster of a Councilman. Reaching into his breast pocked Wayne pulled out his holo card-chip.

“Here is my ID,” Wayne said as he gave him the card. “Thank you for following my protocol, Kishor.” Kishor nodded once to acknowledge him, took his card, and ran it through his improvised scanner.

“Your protocol?? This was your idea? You haven’t gone military on me, have you?” David said.

“Just give him your card, David, and we can move on.”

David got a steely look in his eyes, but there was something in Wayne’s voice. David decided now would not be the time to dig in his heals so he pulled out his ID card and gave it to Kishor, who took it and ran it through the scanner.

“Thank you, gentlemen. Your identities have been verified and authorization accepted. You may proceed,” Kishor said. Then he stepped out of he way.

“Follow me, David. We have to make a report to Dee in less than an hour.” Wayne walked forward with David right behind him. In moments they were in front of the object.

“Marin and Hersh, please lift the tarp,” Wayne ordered. Moments later the tarp puckered at the side and it was pulled off and away from David and Wayne.

David let out an involuntary gasp. “What the h*ll is that?”

Wayne smiled just a little. “No. The correct question is ‘What the h*ll are they?’.”

David reached out and the tips of his fingers touched the shoulder-high object nearest to him. It was warm to the touch, and had a faint pulsing vibration. Even stranger than that, his fingers never seemed to actually touch the object, sliding away when he applied pressure. No matter how hard he pushed his fingers never got within a fraction of a centimeter of its surface. The color was a vague greenish gray, and its shape was strangely curved and bulbous – no parts seemed to have an angle or flat surface. David observed that in some ways it resembled some of the modern sculpture from the late 20th and early 21st Century. These things, he decided, would never be mistaken for sculpture, though, at least not for long. Its curves and form simply looked, well, wrong.

“So what are they?” David whispered. His gaze was still locked on the slightly hypnotic surface, and his fingers were gliding over the surface in a general pattern of a figure eight.

“We know they aren’t from Unity, or any human probes,” Wayne said. “They are clearly not organic, although some aspects of them look organic. No one has any idea what these objects might be but one thing is clear; they must be alien in origin. David, you are looking at two objects that were made by an alien civilization – two alien artifacts. This is the first proof we have that there is, or at least was, intelligent life outside of Earth. Of course we’ve let Dee know, but given her no details. We’ll be sending them off to Landing in the morning.”

Wayne let that sink in for a moment.

“Wow,” David responded, being at a loss for words for once. “And to think we have two of them!”

“Yes,” Wayne continued. “The bigger question is where is the race that left them. What do they look like? How long have they been gone? Why did they leave? Could we communicate with them? Why did they leave these behind? Are there more of them? Do they do anything? If so, what do they do?”

Wayne walked forward to and extended his had to the second object. He touched it lightly, even reverently. “So many questions, and no answers,” he stated to himself. Soon his fingertips swirled over the throbbing surface of the alien artifact.

[Hydro]

Near Virgin Soil
MY 2115

clink…clink, clink…clink-cRack…clink………clink

Shannon looked at the top of her pressure tent, willing the sound to go away.

clink…………….clink

She winced at the last 'clink'. In many ways the anticipation was much worse than the sound itself. In one arcing throw Shannon threw off her thermal blanket, and a split second later it impacted on the fabric wall of the tent. It rebounded slightly and bounced back to where Shannon had been laying. She was, however, no longer there. By the time the blanket settled she was already at the airlock, which was open in a few moments.

It was cold and dark, but Shannon could see remarkably well. Both moons were out, and the clear sky was illuminated with stars. Leagues away she could see the faint lights of Virgin Soil, but it was far off downslope in the river valley.

clink,clink,clink……clink

Shannon didn't notice the stars, moons, or the lights of civilization. All she could see was a nearby tent, whose translucent walls were illuminated from an interior light. She made a b-line for this tent.

CLINK, clink….

Her fists were clenched, and her knuckles white. As she got within 5 meters she whispered loudly, "Colin, it's late. I've had a hard day. I'm wet, cold, exhausted and I can't sleep with you whacking on your stupid rocks all night!"

The clinking stopped.

"Oh," Colin muttered, "did I wake you up?" Colin's slightly portly shadow within the tent moved to the airlock, which cycled.

Shannon went inside and looked him in the face. He looked back with large brown eyes, not quite understanding what he had unleashed. "No, you didn't wake me up! I never went to sleep! Now, I ORDER you to NEVER work past midnight again!"

Colin wilted a little at the formerly evenhanded and likeable Shannon. "Ah, sorry. Sure. But these pegmatite deposits were so unique, I just…"

"PSHT!" Shannon almost yelled, and her hand thrust downward and toward Colin in a move that made him stop in mid sentence. "I don't want to hear it! Close down."

Colin backed away a little, and turned to put his prospecting hammer and sample on a collapsible crate. Strictly speaking he didn't need to break the rock samples manually since he had lots of probes that did a much better job. It was just that he liked doing it.

He looked back up, ready to apologize, but all he saw was Shannon's backside as she left.

I'll apologize tomorrow, he thought as he rushed forward to seal the airlock. He looked through the transparent duraplastic at Shannon, who was quickly disappearing into the night. Maybe she will be in a better mood.

He turned back to his bed, and quickly dismissed getting back to work, not after Shannon's little show. It didn't even occur to him that Shannon was going down the mountaintop and away from the camp.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Shannon knew herself well enough to understand that she had to let in all out, and there was nothing like a good, brisk walk in the crisp air to work off her temper. Shannon did not like being mad. Being on edge, yes, but not mad, or even in a bad mood.

As she walked the throbbing in her temples slowed, and then stopped. She took long deep breaths timed to her stride, and she focused on this natural rhythm. The air felt clean and pure even through her breather, and she feel the slight wind and the cold it brought against her face. She looked up slightly and at the horizon she could see the now familiar star patterns. Each star was like a twinkling diamond, and after looking for a second she saw Sol. But it was just another light in the sky. Planet was home.

All around her bulbous knobby forms rose, and the high points of each looked light to dark gray in the light of Nessus and Pholus. The recesses were a deep and impenetrable black. Shannon walked on through the edges of the fungal forest, and her pace slowed only slightly. She knew the way, as she had been studying this are of the fungus for over 3 months. In many ways she loved this area more than the lush Chiron-green plains that surrounded both Gaia's Landing and Virgin Soil. It was much more inviting, and more exciting. Everything about it roused her curiosity, and the more she saw and understood the more she realized she didn't understand. The fungus was complex, a fully symbiotic ecosystem. There was nothing on Earth like it and Shannon knew she could happily spend her life just living within it. At times she felt it seem to call to her, like a vague whisper in the back of her mind. At other times it was silent. But always there was a certain knowing, and Shannon sometimes amazed herself with her jumps of intuition about how these astonishing kind-of animals, kind-of plants lived and died with each other. They seemed to sustain each other, not merely by consuming and preying on each other, but more like each member was an organ within a body. Each has its place, and the elements could not function without each other. And, each patch of fungus, while huge, was like a person, since had a unique assemblage of plant-like organisms and animal-like organisms (although the differentiation of the two was sometimes difficult).

After 20 minutes Shannon reached her favorite place. The fungal grotto had trunk-like growths on three sides, and the thick branching arms partially reached over the 10-meter clearing. She had noticed these little grottos in almost all the fungal patches she had seen over the years, and they all were roughly the same. At her feet the fungal mat was springy, and even a little warm, probably from the lingering heat of the noonday sun. The entire center of the grotto was illuminated, since both moons were nearly overhead. At night the brilliant reds, greens, purples, and blues of the fungus were all gray. Even so, they were still beautiful, just in a different way.

Shannon realized she was now very cold, and she hugged her arms around herself and shivered slightly. The brisk walk had kept her warm, but that had worn off pretty fast as she looked had around.

She noticed something strange. Her feet and lower legs were not at all cold.

She bent down and touched the fungal mat. It was warm, almost hot, and the warmth extended a good one-third meter above the mat. Shannon sat down, and she immediately felt the heat seep into her. If felt so good, like a fluffy thermal blanket. She dipped down a little further, reclining on her back with her elbows resting on the mat, and the layer of warmth enveloped her. Shannon felt like she was in a picture; the black sky and the stars were the portrait and the fungal grotto was the frame. The last vestige of irritation at Colin melted away as she gazed outward in wonder. She just absorbed, drinking it all in. The mat was even soft. She laid all the way down.

So soft. And warm.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Extension. Examination - it is large. Mass. Not larger than we.

Taste. It is mostly water, carbon.

Sense. Hunger. All that is not sessile is food. It is not sessile.

Touch. It is not we.

Feel. Symbiosis. We feel it. It is net.

We are net. It is we. We are we.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Shannon opened her eyes. The sun had risen over the eastern mountain range, and once again the fungus was brilliantly colored in her little grotto. For some reason Shannon felt happy. She sat up, and her torso pierced the warm blanket of air in the grotto. The air was bracing, but felt good again since she was no longer chilled.

There was movement in the fungus and Shannon looked down. Throughout the fibrous mat there were little tendrils working their way up. A small part of her mind told her that this was strange, and possibly dangerous, since she had never seen this before. A feeling overrode these thoughts as she watched what looked like little wormlets erupt out of the fungal mat. In moments the entire mat was teeming with pinkish worms, which then started to bunch up against Shannon's sides. For her part, Shannon was amazed since the wormlets seemed to be floating in mid air! Hesitantly, she reached out to touch one, and as she did the fine hairs on her hand stood up. The wormlet dropped into her hand, crawled for a moment, and then floated gently into the air again.

A buzzing built up around her, and Shannon looked around. It seemed to be coming from everywhere at once, low and persistent. Then she recognized the sound: it was the same little sound she almost always felt when she was near the fungus, except now it was louder, and more focused. It was no longer a faint buzzing in the back of her mind, but immediate.

WE ARE WE

The thought came from somewhere. She didn't know from where, but at the same time she did. She looked at the little wormlet life forms that surrounded her.

WE ARE WE

This time she noticed that when the thought entered her mind that the wormlets pulsed in union. Shannon was delighted, and laughed to herself. Then she lowered her hands so the wormlets could cover them.

"We are we," she repeated, understanding even if she knew she shouldn't be able to. At this thought from her the mindworms bunched up into a boil and surrounded her. Shannon was now one of them.


WE ARE WE

[This message has been edited by Hydro (edited January 29, 2001).]
[This message has been edited by Hydro (edited January 29, 2001).]

[Hydro]

Gaia's Landing, MY 2117

Lady Skye stood up and the rest of the Council stopped their squabbling.

"I've heard the arguments, both pro and con," she said, nodding to both Marilyn and Günter, the leader of the 'pro' and 'con' faction, respectively. "Beyond the details about economic priorities and the proper husbanding of scarce energy resources there lies what we stand for: to never to repeat the tragedies of Earth. Part of what destroyed Earth was the thoughtless pollution and exploitation of its resources, and I think we all agree that we will do whatever is in our power to prevent this from happening on our new home. The best way we can do this is to lead by example. Therefore, I will cast the tie-breaking vote and approve the energy to finish the recycling tanks this year, a year ahead of schedule. We will still have plenty in reserve, Günter, and we will benefit, as will Planet."

Deirdre leaned forward, placing her open palms on the stone tabletop. She looked all the other four members of the Council in the eye, one by one.

"Is there anything else that should be added?" she asked.

Marilyn was smiling, since she had won the day, and Günter was clearly unhappy, but not livid. Deirdre centered her gaze on him. Finally, after a few uncomfortable seconds, Günter shook his head no.

"Good," Deirdre said, smiling as she stood upright. "I'd like to announce that this was a unanimous decision. Günter?"

Günter was busy deciding whether he was mad or not. His scowl slowly unscrewed. "Oh, all right. But I expect a little quid pro quo. Financial irresponsibility also destroyed Earth, and we should not travel down that road, either. Ja?"

"Agreed," she said. Then she reached over and touched his arm with her fingertips. "Thank you, Günter. I appreciate it."

Almost imperceptibly Günter softened and the barest of a smile crossed his face. Deirdre withdrew her hand.

"Do we have any other issues?" Dee asked.

"Yes," Günter stated. "I suggest we not build this prototype speeder our war mongers keep pining for. Our next project here at Landing should be to expand and form another exploratory base. It is not prudent to waste so many resources on what Shannon's amazing mindworm friend can do for us, which is to explore. The speeder research is already several years old now, and I say let it stay in our archives until needed."

Before any others on the Council could say a word Dee jumped in. "I agree, Günter. Virgin Soil is doing so well, and there are many fine locations for a new exploration base. As long as our resources hold out it shouldn't take more than 3 or at most 4 years to manufacture the needed homes and supplies. Is that acceptable, Günter?"

Günter paused theatrically to think about it. Finally he said, "Ja."

Dee looked around to the other Council members, who had temporarily been cut out of the conversation while Dee worked on Günter. "Is Günter's motion acceptable? Marilyn? Chang? Thomas?"

The other Council members nodded.

"Then it is decided: our next major project will be a colony convoy. Anything else?"

"Ah, yes. Any work from Lain? His last transmission didn't make much sense," Marilyn asked.

"Well, not really," Dee said. "His message was pretty garbled, and all we got was something about all the rain rotting his socks, and a strange virulent green fungus destroying his boots. That's all we got besides some very colorful cursing. We're sending a glider with provisions to his party as we speak. It will include rations, boots, and some fungicide."

No one reacted since this was day-old news.

"Could we play his transmission again?" Marilyn asked in a sheepish voice.

Dee nodded, sat down and tapped a few keys on the rapidly aging UN comp board that had been installed in the granite table. Soon Lain's raspy voice started, and colorful metaphors about socks, rain, and the parentage of the fungus filled the room. It took only seconds before Marilyn started laughing, which quickly spread to Chang and Dee. As the wild speculation on fungal mating habits continued even Günter started to chortle, and years seemed to drop away from his wizened face.

[H0bbes]

University Science Log: 2119

It is harder than ever to maintain these records in the face of our lack of progress in understanding Planet. We lack not for unsubstantiated ideas, unproven theorems, unauthenticated speculations or irreproducible experimental hypotheses; what we lack chiefly are answers. Solid, proven, reproducible, scientific answers.
We lack answers chiefly, because we lack sufficient resources to devote to these questions. Too much time and resources must be devoted to food production & other everyday minutiae. To rectify this situation we have devoted all our resources to producing 3 Colony Pods which I have dispatched to various areas of interest: 1 to the northern coastline near a small bay, 1 to the lush hillsides of the east near the alien monolith, and one (the most risky) to the unexplored lands to the west. It is hoped that these groups will increase our resources and energy production greatly- that we may devote greater resources to unlocking the tightly held secrets that Planet surrounds us with.
There is still no word from any of the other factions which I believe left the ship after us. They may have perished in this harsh world, lacking the necessary intellectual capacity to understand and survive. Still, we scan frequencies in hope that contact and a pooling of resources may still yet occur. We have much to teach any who survived.

Provost Hobbes

[Hydro]

Gaia's Landing, MY2120

Deirdre looked closely and pointed.

"There. That is what I am talking about," she said. There was no triumph in her voice and her face was dead serious.

Her companion looked up, distracted from focusing the scanner. He stepped away from the control panel and walked toward Dee and the section of the projection she faced. He bent toward the portion of the image she indicated, cocked his head to the side and squinted. For several moments he examined the section, and then he stepped back and looked over at Dee, who expectantly returned his gaze.

"I'm sorry, Dee. I still don't see it. To me it is just a complex crystalline intergrowth, with a curvilinear exterior at this magnification and finger-like development patterns toward the interior," he commented.

Deirdre was unfazed at the exacting description. "Doesn't it strike you as odd that there are 34 crystalline substances in a regular lattice," she explained slowly and calmly, "and that there are at least 15 more compounds that we can't identify, and that they form a definite structure, and have an organization that we can't even fathom happening in nature? It seems to run counter to all we know on mineralogy and crystallography, and its formation would surely defy the second law of thermodynamics. If it can't form by known physical processes, then it must be the result of another process, and the only other process that we know of is life. Sean, this structure has all the function of an egg. It is protective, and lets in what is wanted. In fact, the crystalline structure seems to be keyed to certain patterns of temperature and electrochemical stimulation.

This," she said, pointing at the interior of the 'egg', "holds more potential energy than what a mid-altitude Gaian solar cell can produce in a month. What else do most eggs hold? They hold nourishment for the larvae of whatever laid it, and the energy stored in these structures is enormous.

And do you see these structures?" Deirdre pointed at an irregular globular formation to the left of the center of the roughly spherical shape. The pace of her speech picked up a bit as she continued and the words flowed freely. "See how they are chaotically jumbled? And this portion looks slightly imploded, and its crystal form obviously ruptured. Although we will never know, I'd bet that is the zygote after it has been destroyed by the implosion and disruption of the mindworm. What you see here, Sean, is the remains of an extraordinary egg, which is one of thousands carried by every mindworm boil."

Sean didn't respond, but looked from Deirdre's intent face to the projection of a single 'planetpearls'. In the last two years expeditionary patrols had faced, and destroyed, three hostile mindworm boils, and after the teams had recovered from the shock of combat they had discovered these beautiful, and incredibly valuable, bits of mineral and energy debris among the gore.

"Use Ockham's razor, Sean," Dee said. "We have found the pearls in the remains of all the mindworms that have been disrupted and killed, and no where else. When we examine them we see elements that suggest they are part of the reproductive effort, even if the exact mechanism is beyond us. Is it a coincidence? I don't think so."

"Well, maybe," Sean responded, still focusing on the magnified planetpearl. "We'll have to study it more."

"Good," Dee said. "You do that. When you find something new let me know. Just keep you mind open to the possibilities, OK?"

Sean nodded and walked over to his control panel to resume his examination.

Dee watched him return to work and, satisfied she had planted the right seed, turned to leave the room. At the edge of the room were several harvested and unharvested planetpearls. The harvested planetpearls looked like broken whitish beads, their stored energy sapped out and used to feed the growing needs of Gaia's Landing and Virgin Soil. In contrast, the unharvested planetpearls were almost luminescent and seemed to hum with energy.

Deirdre paused, watching the vibrant planetpearls.

What might you have become? What have we done in killing you? she thought for the thousandth time. Visions of tiger's teeth being used for virility amulets, rhinoceros horns for ceremonial daggers, and cetacean blubber rendered for oil lamps filled her head - beauty and diversity harvested thoughtlessly, and wantonly, for no good purpose, even though it seemed like a wise idea at the time.

Dark thoughts troubled Deirdre. She knew the mindworms were a sentient life form from the ecstatic reports Shannon had submitted over the years on her mindworm partner, even if the mindworm's sentience was nothing that any human could ever have imagined. As she looked at the dead mindworm eggs she saw a boon, and a curse.

Deirdre set her lips, turned and left the room and the darkness of the laboratory returned as she left. She hoped she was making the right decisions, and that history didn't record her as Deirdre the Genocide.

[Alinestra Covelia]

A windfall! Though our major base was constructed out of necessity on the somewhat unwelcoming eastern front of a large hill-range, we have been able to locate a body of extremely torrid and humid subtropical rainforest terrain. We are still clearing out enough space for the foundation of several future base sites, but it appears that, for the moment at least, we will have no concerns in the matter of food and nutrition.

Plants grow so quickly in this jungle! When we sent out the expeditionary settlers, they planted some standard crop seeds to test the nutrient level of the area. Our star fruit came out the size of small shockballs! You could almost feed an entire family on one persimmon alone!

Kelly will remain in The Hive to continue her Worker Indoctrination. Most of the tasks will be routine maintenance, and so the children may learn in a relaxed environment. They are happy and healthy, and are overjoyed at the prospect of seeing the Monsoon Jungle with their own eyes. It has been some time since we have seen such verdant foliage covering the landscape.

Our industry is coming along well, too - each base now employs a full-time legion of terraforming craft to bend the landscape to our will. We still have to be meticulous in the disposal of industrial and human waste, as our living conditions do not allow casual "landfilling" of refuse. Each base also has a contingent of police, who have recently been given the right to bear lethal weapons. We were originally uneasy about this decision, but the incessant attacks from the native lifeforms quickly reversed this sentiment.

Our police forces are now thoroughly respected and highly experienced. This is what a security body should be - an organ of the state to which the rest of the people aspire and look for guidance. Their chief, Security Head Lin, will hold his office for five years, and his position will be open for review. He does a good job, as far as we see - I hope he may continue.

I looked for Hu at the capital, but he was not available. Apparently, he was wanted by the internal ministry on matters of importance. I do hope he's not in trouble.

[Hydro]

Near Virgin Soil
MY 2125

"Get that power tram moving! We're behind schedule, and we could have established our new base a year ago but for that idiot Karlos. 'Take a short cut across the river bend' he said. We did, and now look at us. Some leader he is," Dale said.

Helen looked up, and in the distance she could barely see Dale. He was gesturing wildly, which was totally unnecessary considering the comm system was on. "Keep your pants on. Yelling won't make this thing move any faster. We're not one of those fancy speeders, you know, and this module has a mass of over 60 tons. Oh, you do know this is an open mike, don't you Dale?"

Dale replied with silence and Helen smiled. Dale had a habit of shooting his mouth off and it had gotten him in trouble more than once. Even a semi-egalitarian society has its rules, and etiquette is one of the most important. Unfortunately, Dale was as deficient in that category as he was brilliant as an engineer. Tact was not one of his strong suits. Nor was checking on his mike settings.

Helen noticed he had stopped waving at her and was turning around. He was at the top of the mountain range, and was within 100 klicks of the new base site.

"Hey Helen, do you see something to the south?"

"No, Dale. I'm busy driving right now, and you're on the rise, not me. What do you see?"

"I'm not quite sure. Is that Lindly? I thought she was patrolling with her mindworm thing and wouldn't be back for who knows how long. Maybe it's Kirsten's scouting party. Dee will be mad if it is, since she was supposed to have her group finish patrolling to the northeast. I'll squirt her a message."

Helen waited for a moment. Dale must have put his mike on private. Helen sighed. He'd gotten his settings mixed up again.

Finally Dale's voice came back.

"Ah, Helen. I've got great news! It wasn't Kirsten at all, but another scouting party from another landing pod from Unity! Can you believe it? They were babbling about a collective something, but said that they follow Chairman Yang! He must have a new title. I've squirted their comm frequency to Gaia's Landing and invited them up for some lunch. We know someone else survived Unity! Isn't that exciting! Dee will be SO THRILLED!"

At first Helen thought he was joking, but then she caught the squirt he had sent. Sure enough - it was from another group from Unity! Dale was relaying vids of the advancing scouting party. They were outfitted primarily in blue, and seemed to be marching up the slope in an orderly 'W' pattern. By now the comm system was overloaded with incoming messages and inquiries, and a demand for more information, which Dale was happily providing. Helen stopped her power tram, got her breather and put it on, and opened the door. It was bright outside, and a little cool at this high altitude. She climbed down the two stories across the outside of the hull and onto the ground and walked toward the men and women in blue. She caught fragments of conversation from them, and it all sounded very official. What was a 'Hive', anyway?

Still, all the feelings of drudgery of her shift on the power tram fell away and she felt abnormally happy. It was nice to feel that they weren't alone anymore.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dear Chairman Yang,

Greetings from Lady Deirdre Skye! For all these years I have hoped that others from Unity made it to Chiron, but there was never any sign until now! I am so glad that you and those in your Unity Pod survived. We have learned that Chiron, or Planet, as we now call it, can be a hostile place and we are doing all we can to survive, and even prosper. Knowing you are alive makes me feel that humanity has a fighting chance of reclaiming some of what was lost in the tragedy of Earth and the chaos of Unity. I am sure we have much to share. I look forward to your reply, and my comm frequency is always open to you.

Sincerely,
Lady Deirdre Skye

Dee looked over her first message to Chairman Yang. She knew that the former Executive Officer of Unity was a strong leader, and she was glad he was here on Planet. How would he receive it? It was hard to tell. She knew she was a different person now than 25 long years ago. Dee had to admit even to herself that she was harder, and more practical, now than she was before Landing. Fighting for survival does that: the unnecessary falls away, as do pretty illusions.

Finally, Dee was satisfied and she sent the message.

She hoped he would reply soon.

[Hydro]

Lily of the Valley

"And this is our fourth base, Ambassador. Its accommodations are bare, but we are just beginning. As we both expand we will learn more about Planet, our new home," Lady Skye said. Around her the infrastructure of Lily of the Valley was almost complete. The name was a bit ironic considering that "Valley" was at the top of the great east-west trending mountain range. And "Lily" was situated on the bone-dry east side of the mountain range. All that grew were hardy pine forests, which were already established and thriving. Still, the colonists had chosen the name, and Dee had to admit there was a certain humor in it.

The Hive Ambassador surveyed the new outpost with hooded eyes. Her impassive features rarely reacted to very much, and Deirdre kept a close watch on what her gaze lit upon. The only item that had sparked her interest was the mundane recycling tanks at Gaia's Landing. Dee couldn't understand why, however. If she had had her choice she would have formed another colony rather than the recycling tanks, but the minerals from the Colin Lode and forest had been coming in too fast for that - they had overloaded the system, and would have caused a problem with overproduction. The tanks were the only choice, considering.

Then Deirdre had an idea. She stopped and placed her hand lightly on the Hive's Ambassador's forearm. She slowly turned to face Dee.

"Ambassador," Dee started, "let's celebrate our new friendship by sharing what we know about Planet. One of the first discoveries we made was to unlock some of the basic biogenetic secrets about Planet, which allowed us to solve some severe health problems caused by the alien ecology. Your people would benefit from this knowledge, and I'd like to share it with you. Chairman Yang would then reciprocate in kind, and we would both be stronger for it. Together we can help humanity survive. Please inform Comma.., Chairman Yang of my offer."

The barest smile creased the Ambassador's face. She bowed slightly at the waist. "I will do as you ask. You honor us with your confidence."

Dee smiled brightly, which put the Hive Ambassador off a bit. Then, slowly, her small smile reappeared.

"Come, let's have some tea," said as she led the Ambassador to a pressure tent. It was cool at this altitude, and Dee had noticed that the Ambassador was shivering in her blue uniform when she had touched her arm.

"Tea? You have tea?" the Ambassador asked, a little astonished.

"Of course. You don't have tea? Well, I suppose not. There are advantages to being a biologist and geneticist. We had most of the seed stocks, you know. I'll send some for you to take to Chairman Yang as a personal gift." Dee leaned toward her a little. "I'll send some tea with you, too," she said in a conspiratorial whisper.

The airlock on the pressure tent cycled, and they stepped in. The inner lock exchanged the air quickly enough and they both walked into the warm tent. Both removed their shoes and placed them on a straw mat by the side of the airlock. On the floor were two cushions and a low table, which was set with a small handcrafted teapot and two low cups. Dee motioned for her to take one of the cushions, and then sat on the other. After she was seated Dee picked up two hand painted wooden boxes that were sitting on the left side of the table and lifted the lids.

"Would you prefer green or Darjeeling?" Deirdre asked.

The smell of the cured tealeaves seemed to fill the room, and the Ambassador was sure she had never smelled anything so heavenly in her whole life. She nodded toward the green.

Dee turned to the warmer, which held piping hot water. As she prepared the tea she asked, "So, tell me about The Hive…"

[Hydro]

Gaia's Landing
MY2127

Helmut's face started to turn red. "What do you mean the terraformer group vanished?!! 120 metric tons of vehicles and crew do not simply disappear and then reappear by magic. Do you mean that you lost them?" he asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Sahel was not intimidated. "No. They vanished. Simply vanished. The former group entered one of the magnetic anomalies adjacent to the colony to determine if it was a Unity pod, or maybe another mineral lode. Then they vanished."

"So, they're destroyed." Helmut's bluster was muted now. He understood material loss very well, and this was a great loss. Former groups were quite expensive.

"I did not say that. Shortly after they vanished we got a weak transmission that was well over 1,300 kilometers to the south, deep into Hive territory. It was our former crew. They were disoriented and a little ill, but doing all they could to report in."

Helmut sneered. "Impossible. That is simply ludicrous. Over a thousand clicks? You need to lay off the fungal gin, young man. How did they get there? Fly?" His eyes narrowed, "What are you covering up?"

Sahel smiled in return. "Would you like to talk to the crew? I think they will confirm everything I say. I suggest you do not state that something that has quite clearly happened to be impossible, and instead that we try to understand. Observers reported that the area they entered shimmered and that the entire location seemed to shift and stretch. It appears, Councilman, that they were teleported by some sort of matter transmission effect."

Helmut made a sour face, and started to speak. Before he could, Sahel put up a hand and continued. "We do not know much about Planet, but we do know that an advanced alien race once visited, or perhaps lived here. This effect may be related to their habitation. We can not pretend to know everything, Councilman, since we do not. It is a fact: the former and its crew disappeared and then reappeared over 1,000 kilometers distant. We do not know why, and at this point we are only starting to form hypotheses to explain this strange event. I have entered the transcript and supporting data into the databanks for your and the Council's review, and if you have any additional questions you are free to question me. However, I think you will find that the account is complete, and that I will not be able to answer your questions."

Helmut was still glowering, but he didn't challenge Sahel. "Anything else?"

"Yes," Sahel said, "good news. Lily of the Valley explored another anomaly adjacent to the new base. This one was a Unity pod, and it contained an operational rover, which will prove useful in our exploration efforts. Beneath the rover was another fine mineral lode that is similar to the one at Gaia's Landing. In fact, there are two lodes adjacent to Lily, and when it grows large enough the colony should produce more minerals than any other Gaian base. Our formers are moving to plant forests at both locations as we speak."

Helmut softened. He liked hearing about more minerals lodes, and the resources that forests presented. Renewable resources provided more production options, and reasonable development. He almost felt a smile growing, but suppressed it.

"Yes. That is good news. Anything else?"

"Some bad news, I'm afraid," Sahel continued. "Our exploration team in the Jungle has not reported in, and I fear they are lost. Our Hive friends have not seen them, but they did report that there were some feral mindworms running rampant in the area. Ferals are very dangerous, and to date we have either captured or killed all we encountered. Evidently they did not bond with them as Shannon did with hers. We should keep looking, but I hold no hope that they will be found."

Helmut grunted. "Yes, it had to happen eventually. Planet is a hard place, and we have been lucky so far, the former incident not withstanding. Anything else?"

"No, Councilman. Give my best to the Council, and to Lady Skye. I am ever at your service," Sahel said, bowing slightly.

Helmut nodded in return, and then closed the connection.

[Hydro]

Monsoon Jungle
MY2129

The rain started at 2:15 pm, right on schedule. Outside the transparent tent the oblong leaves and branches of the Monsoon Jungle bowed down under weight of the torrential rain, and the jungle canopy reverberated under the impacts of millions of raindrops. Within seconds the roof of the tent started to sag as it channeled the rainwater down and off to each side. Inside the tent it sounded like a drum being sounded by a thousand tiny hands, and all conversation stopped.

Lady Deirdre Sky looked around. She never tired of the marvel of the Monsoon Jungle and she felt the urge to go outside and experience it personally. That, however, was not possible today, and she turned her attention to her host, Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang. He was looking at her, and his gaze was impassive. She noticed that the rainfall did not distract him, but this did not surprise her at all. He was, apparently, perfectly patient to wait out the short deluge.

He nodded toward the waiting teapot that was waiting on the low table. Dee nodded in return, and Yang took a small box, unsealed its lid, and took out a few dark tealeaves. He crushed them into a seeper, and placed the seeper in the hot water of the gray stoneware teapot. In a few moments the slightly sweet aroma of the tea filled the tent. Deirdre recognized it at once; it was the tea strain she had given him four years ago. It was still one of her favorites and she could only presume that it was one of Yang's favorites, too. Or was it? Was this a polite thank you? Over the years Dee had noted that Chairman Yang was quiet and soft spoken, but subtle, and every action was likely to have meaning.

In a few minutes Yang lifted the teapot and poured the tea into two low ceramic cups. He took one and handed it to Dee, which she accepted. Then he took the second. He lifted it to Lady Skye and Dee lifted hers in return, and then they took a sip. The tea was warm and pleasant to Dee in spite of the penetrating heat of the Jungle.

The rainstorm stopped as abruptly as it started and a general quiet replaced the drumbeat of noise. Chairman Yang put down his cup, and Dee did likewise.

"I am honored that you agreed to meet with me in this place of plenty, Lady Skye," Yang started. "This day is the culmination of our shared vision: that together we can build a stronger society, and that together we are stronger than we are apart. Have you considered our offer?"

Dee nodded. "I welcome the friendship of you and your people, Chairman. Together our peoples can explore and seek to understand Planet, and we can strive not to repeat the mistakes of Earth. I believe that many of our goals are the same, and I understand that even our differences make us stronger. On behalf of the Gaian Council I gladly accept your offer of Pact Brotherhood."

Yang nodded and what might be a faint smile crossed his lips.

Lady Skye reached down and picked up the data crystal in front of her, and then presented it to Chairman Yang, who accepted it slowly and with reverence. Then he drew up a similar crystal and handed it to Lady Skye.

"I gladly give you all of our information regarding Planet and our technologic achievements," Lady Skye said. She looked at the Hive crystal she was holding. She knew what it contained, and that Chairman Yang had given her much more technology than she had given him. "I must say that your generosity confounded all of my expectations. I assure you that I will reciprocate in kind with any breakthroughs that we Gaians may encounter.

I'm truly glad we are together, Chairman," Dee said. "You have rekindled my hope in humanity, and my hopes about our new home. May our partnership be a long and productive one!" Her deep blue eyes looked into his hooded brown eyes; in them she saw calmness. Was it a calculating calmness, or a serene calmness? Based on his actions, and the slight smile that she thought she saw, she decided it was a serene calmness.

Yang reached down and picked up his teacup, which he lifted to his chest. "Your unexpected gift of Biogenetics, given to us years ago, has already been put to good use. You placed your trust in the Hive with this gift, and this helped us see that we could trust you in return. To a long and productive partnership, Lady Skye."

Dee raised her cup and they took another sip.

For the first time in almost three decades she felt unbridled optimism. She knew that learning to understand Chairman Yang and his Hive would take time, but she also knew it was worth the effort. His people were so unlike her Gaians in many ways, and some aspects of the Hive's society were troubling. Still, the Hive had strength that the
Gaians did not possess, and Dee knew that her Gaians were strong in ways that Chairman Yang might appreciate even if he would not fully understand. As he had said, they were much stronger together than they were apart.

Chairman Yang put his cup down on the table. "The rain has stopped. Would you care to walk with me in our Jungle?"

Dee couldn't help but smile, since she had been thinking the same thing only moments ago. It was as if he had read her mind. But, no, it didn't take a mind reader to know that Lady Skye loved the Jungle and all of its contents.

"I'd be happy to," she replied as she placed her cup on the table. Dee stood up quickly while Yang seemed to unfold and rise in a single, smooth motion. They walked together to the airlock, put on breath masks, and waited while the airlock cycled. Both walked toward their honor guards, who waited attentively outside.

Yang set the pace with his measured steps. Dee's gaze darted from the movement of a fleeing pinkish animal in the undergrowth to a giant fungal flower as she tried to take it all in. Yang concentrated on one object, absorbed and cataloged it with his unwavering gaze before he turned to another.

"Tell me Lady Skye - what do you see?"

"I see biologic richness, and a treasure of growth," Dee replied casually. "I could spend a year or a lifetime here. Even so I know there is a whole planet to explore, and who knows what wonders it holds? I want to see it all, and learn all it has to teach us."

Yang turned his gaze from the flora and fauna to Deirdre and he examined her, in her turn.

"I see much the same, Lady Skye," he said a little while after she finished.

Dee nodded to accept this simple statement and it satisfied her in an odd way. Maybe the Hive would come to understand her Gaians? Possibly, quite possibly. And, if not, Dee knew she would do all she could to help them understand.

[Hydro]

Unexplored Territory, South of Hive and Gaian Lands
MY 2131

Nourishment acquired. We: prepare to flow. We-partner Earthhuman Lindley and low-resonance static, non-mobile Earth-things ready for flow?

Shannon couldn't see Fluffy but she knew he was close. His thoughts just seemed to appear in her head as a clear static-like whisper. Distance didn't seem to play a role in how clear his thoughts were when the reached her, although they were much stronger when both were in the xenofungus, like she was now. That meant that he could be 100 meters or a 100 kilometers away - it really didn't matter. Fluffy had a pretty vague notion of both distance and time, and Shannon had spent a lot of time explaining these critical human concepts. She wasn't sure he grasped their importance, but she was at a loss on how to further explain these concepts to a collective intelligence that could be effectively immortal and that could travel anywhere there was fungus.

Shannon thought back to him, I'm almost ready. Give me one-tenth of a daylight cycle and I will be prepared to travel.

A tenth of a day cycle was about an hour, which should be enough time to get her 'low-resonance static, non-mobile Earth-things' like her pressure tent, food concentrates, breathers, and few personal articles pulled together. Fluffy now understood that these items were crucial for her life and was willing to float them along when Shannon traveled with him. It was still a little strange to 'flow' through the fungus suspended by the electromagnetic fields of a mindworm, but after a decade or so she had gotten used to it.

Has We-partner Lindley linked with the Lindley-Partner Deirdre? Fluffy replied.

Shannon was a little surprised. She had mentioned Deirdre as a friend, but now he was associating Dee as part of a Shannon-Deirdre collective separate from the Shannon-Fluffy collective. That was quite a leap and Shannon was impressed.

Yes. Deirdre has asked us to investigate the magnetic anomaly that lies to the south of us, Shannon said.

We not-Lindley can go now, Fluffy immediately replied.

Shannon smiled. Fluffy was inquisitive and had been pestering her to investigate every one of the magnetic anomalies they had found since he thought they were 'interesting' and would 'taste good'. At a distance most looked like probable Unity pods, but she knew this was not necessarily the case. The anomaly by Gaia's Landing had turned out to be a mineral lode, two anomalies near Virgin Soil had been alien artifacts, and, even stranger, one had been a small temporal rift that had transported a former crew hundreds of kilometers away from their home. The stuffy scientists at Gaia's Landing were still puzzling over that one. Only the anomaly near Lily of the Valley had actually been a Unity pod, and it had produced a speeder.

No. Wait for me. We will go together, she thought back.

Yes. Together go We. Then We flow," Fluffy replied, and then Shannon could feel the tendril of his thoughts decrease and then pull out of her mind completely.

Shannon turned around and walked toward her small encampment. It wouldn't take long to break it down. Considering Fluffy's loose understanding of time it would be better to be done early since Fluffy was as likely to show up in 10 minutes than an hour. At least he didn't confuse minutes and days anymore.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Shannon hurt all over and felt severely ill. Her stomach was doing summersaults and her vision was still a little blurry. Worse, she felt very weak and even sitting up took effort. She sat upright only with heave and had to brace herself with her left arm to keep from falling forward, and even that effort made her arm tremble. It was like the worst combination of a virulent flu and a binge hangover rolled up into one exquisite ball of agony.

And Fluffy, blast him, was skittering around as usual and was no worse for wear.

Shannon realized a couple of things. First, the strange rippling effect near the anomaly they had entered had been another of those inexplicable teleportation effects. Second, she had no idea where she was and, third, she never, ever, wanted to be subjected to that effect again. She hadn't felt this bad since her first really big binge as a freshman at UCLA. She had paid then, and she was paying now.

We-partner EarthLindley: resonance is strong here. Structured. Weave tastes good. Explore? Fluffy projected.

Shannon winced and his thoughts sent new waves of discomfort through her throbbing head. She fought the vague urge to throw up. After a moment she got the gag response under control and could respond to Fluffy, Send me mind images. I can not flow with you right now.

Fluffy responded with a wordless interrogative, and then an affirmation.

Shannon braced herself and in moments Fluffy was transmitting what he saw to her as he morphed through the fungus. It was strange and disorienting, and she knew she would never quite truly understand how he flowed through the fungus. Every time he flowed up to a solid object and simply morphed around it Shannon had the urge to flinch and felt the need to stop, and sometimes her hands automatically came up to ward off the impending collision that never came. That was not even as bad as when he literally flowed through the fungal mat, however, since that was a completely different and alien world and Shannon had no frame of reference. When she physically traveled with him he traveled along the surface and he had learned that Shannon could not morph, and after a few painful incidents Fluffy became adept at making sure that Shannon was not subjected to any more sudden and violent stops when she ran into solid objects. Although he accommodated her it was quite clear that mindworms simply did not see the world the way humans did.

Images of fungus and the roller coaster-like travel through it made her head spin more than normal due to dizziness. She tried to hang on and keep with him, though. Then something caught Fluffy's attention and he stopped. Shannon sighed with relief as she absorbed the now non-moving images.

After processing them for a couple moments she knew why he had stopped - in the low plain below them a ring of eight monoliths rose from the fungus. They seemed to be perfectly aligned, and even though they were relatively small and widely spaced they dominated the land around them. In the past she had found a few monoliths standing on land at seemingly random locations, and sometimes they were surrounded by fungus and sometimes not. All had an ageless feel and made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

These monoliths made the others pale by comparison. These monoliths were still intensely alien but they did not look like they had been scattered without rhyme or reason - they seemed to have a purpose.

But what purpose? Shannon didn't know, but she wanted to find out. First she would have to send a micro ultralight with a data download to Dee since it would do no good explore, find out the secrets of the Monolith Ring, and then have an accident and be unable to report it. The ultralight would go to The Hive, which was the closest base. The data were not encrypted and the peoples of the Hive were welcome to them, as long as they sent it to Dee ASAP, as Shannon knew that they would.

Shannon screwed up her courage and slowly crawled toward her meager possessions. Every step forward was a victory but eventually she made it. Some of the nausea was passing but she fought on since there was much to do.

This was one message that had to get through.

[Hydro]

Gaia's Landing
MY2134

Dr. Tim Murphy put his datapad on the workbench and turned toward the door. Deirdre touched his forearm before he was completely turned around. Tim stopped moving and pivoted around toward her.

"Tim, are you sure you want to do this? You have just shown me that the simulations went perfectly. They're only simulations, though, and holomodels are only as good as the data and assumptions they are derived from. What if you're wrong? I don't want to lose you."

Tim gave her a good-natured smile. "We have to test it some time, and we can't go any further with the models until we do some real live testing. I know the risks, Dee, and while I'm willing to take them I am not willing to have anyone else do it for me. Consider it a test of faith."

That choice of words struck Dee as very odd coming from one of her best planetologists, especially since as far as she could tell he was a quiet agnostic. Still, faith can be in one's self or in science itself and needn't be in a higher being.

Dee sighed. "OK. What are your backups?"

Tim hesitated for a moment and then decided to tell her. "The room is sealed as well as it can be, and if the experiment fails damage will be contained. If containment fails then the room will be immediately flamed. It won't matter to me at that point since I'll be dead."

Based on the look on Deirdre's face his explanation of the failsafes had not given her much reassurance.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. There's only a 3% chance of a scrub, and less than a 1% chance of total failure. Either way we have to bring this to a conclusion, right?" Tim asked.

Dee felt like she had been backed into a corner. She wanted to say no so badly but, at the same time, she knew the potential value of the experiment, which could be critical to helping humanity survive on a sometimes hostile Planet.

"OK," Deirdre stated, "but be careful."

Tim patted her hand to reassure her, finished his turn, and walked into the test chamber. Once inside he sat down in the middle of the smallish room, crossed his legs lotus style, took a few deep breaths and closed his eyes. Dee watched through a remote observation port and noticed that his breathing rate dropped. She reached over and activated a medical diagnostic on Tim and it confirmed her suspicions; his heart beat and respiration rate both had decreased by about 20%, and there was evidence of cortical stimulation in his frontal lobe, although Dee didn't know what that meant. She voice activated the project physiologic baseline, which started cycling over the display: the results matched Tim's readings, and according to the specifications he was now in a deep trance.

Dee felt the next stage of the experiment begin before she saw it begin. It started with a vague feeling of uneasiness and before she realized it the feeling was close to panic. Even though she knew what was happening she felt like she was being dragged along the crest of a wave, almost completely out of control.

She tried to focus on the readouts and Tim. Inside the chamber Tim was seemingly unaffected and looked serene. Dee, by contrast, was white knuckled.

The general feeling of panic increased a notch when she noticed there was movement in the corner of the chamber. A miniscule boil of mindworms was pulsing across the floor, and it was making its way in an erratic path toward Tim. As the boil coiled up and seemed ready to flow over and attack Tim hesitated. Then, it retreated from its coiling motion and reformed its boil and began circling Tim again.

In the center of the attack Tim remained calm and did not seem to notice the pre-larval mindworm that was stalking him. The little ball of wormlets continued to circle but never came closer than about a meter, always veering off after an aborted thrust toward the immovable Tim. Finally the boil stopped coiling, and the boil flattened a bit. Then it flowed aimlessly around the room to no purpose that Dee could see. At the same time Dee felt her level of apprehension drop precipitously. Her hands relaxed and stopped clutching the edge of the workbench.

Then there was a burst of flame and light in the side of the room opposite from Tim, and the flame transfixed the larval boil. It sent out an inaudible shriek that caused Dee to involuntarily put her hands over her ears even though there was no sound and grit her teeth from the pain in her head. Tim didn't seem to notice. In a few moments the flame went, leaving the crisped remains of the wormlets, which looked like a smoking pile of blackened straw mulch.

Tim's chest went out with a deep breath. His inhalation seemed to go on forever, but finally he stopped and then finished the breath with an equally deep exhalation. His eyes slowly opened. He seemed to be looking at nothing in particular, but then fixed on the observation port. Tim smiled and mouthed to the relieved Dee, I told you I'd be fine. Dee couldn't help but grin in return. Tim gave her a thumbs-up and then rose to leave the chamber.

In a few moments Tim was at her side, and he took over at the console and voice scrolled through the data. "Well," he said, "I've only give it a cursory look but it looks pretty conclusive. With a little training we can use the trance technique increase our defense against mindworm attacks by about 50%. Now our scouts will stand a fighting chance if attacked out of the blue. Too bad we didn't have this when Lain and his men in the Jungle were attacked a few years ago. I suggest we squirt this to all our scouts, and at bases adjacent to fungus."

Tim tapped a few short sequences and gave his voice authorization. After a moment a green light on the console activated. "There," he said, "I've downloaded the data for you, just like you asked. I hope the good Chairman appreciates this." Tim picked up the data crystal and placed it in Dee's hand.

"I'm sure he will. He's been generous to us, so now we can return the favor," Dee said.

"One more thing," Tim said. Dee was immediately suspicious since he had that overly serious look on his face that Dee had learned meant he was up to something. "One of our techs finished a private project. It turns out he was a nautical buff back on Earth and has been toying with infrastructure requirements and basic ship designs that could be used here on Planet. His work is amazingly complete and it should allow us to field ships across the oceans of Planet once we decide to invest the resources. You might want to give this to the Chairman, too." Tim reached into his pocket and pulled out a second crystal. He took Dee's hand, opened her fingers, and placed the second crystal in her hand.

Tim was watching her closely and was enjoying the fact that the unflappable Dee was speechless.

"You can say 'Thank You' later," Tim interjected, "and be sure to put this in Theo's record. You might even want to call him to thank him yourself. I know he'd appreciate it since you're a hero of his."

"Ah, thank you," Deirdre said.

"Better late than never," Tim said. "Now, the comm port in my office is secure and can handle the data transmission feed. Feel free to use it, if you like. My team and I will be busy for a while to get all the nasty little details worked out."

Tim gave her a mock salute and left the room, and Dee left for his office. She had a gift to present to Chairman Yang.

[Hydro]

North of the Monsoon Jungle
MY 2135

Shannon gasped for air and felt her head swim.

Abruptly Shannon retched, but this time nothing came out. Exhausted, Shannon collapsed from her crouching position to her side. She shut here eyes and tried to close out the visions and the distorted perceptions from the strange teleportation anomaly, or whatever it was, that had afflicted her a second time. Shannon tried to make sense of it all, but it was so hard since the thoughts and memories it provoked were disturbing, or simply confusing. It sounded like a choir of a million off-key voices screaming at her at one time. It looked like a mélange of colors and textures that shifted so fast that she saw everything but understood nothing. But, worst of all, it felt like a hundred pairs of hands that had grabbed her body, twisting, pulling, and pushing in every direction simultaneously, forcing her nerve endings to scream in pain, pleasure, heat, cold, and every other sensation at the same time. Shannon was overloaded and it hurt to even think.

Even so she did have one clear thought, Damn you Fluffy!!

Not a month after the last anomaly had twisted Shannon inside out, deposited them tens of thousands kilometers south of where they were exploring near the Monolith Ring, Fluffy had dashed off toward another one. Shannon pleaded with him to stop, but all he kept saying was that it "Tastes good." Her dread had been well founded, for no sooner had Fluffy and his unwilling traveling companion entered the anomaly when sight, sound, and feeling left reality.

And now Shannon was sick. Again. And she had no idea where she was. Again. And she had no idea where Fluffy was and, frankly, she didn't care.

Peace. That's what I need. Quiet. Shannon thought as she sank into the semi-comfortable fungal mat she happened to be on. Or it kind of felt like a fungal mat, and it was pinkish. At least the part she had seen when she was puking had looked pink. Considering the other things here eyes were seeing she didn't need or want to look too closely.

Shannon took a few deep, ragged breaths and tried to still the memory of the sounds, images, and feelings. It helped a little, but only a little. They were still there, like a bad dream that is always with you. Normally Shannon was excited to be an explorer, but today she would give anything just to be back at Landing sipping a nice cup of chamomile tea with a lemon drop tart. There might be a few friends in the room, which would be warm and soft, and her friends would be talking among themselves quietly. Shannon would listen, just listen, and sip the steamy tea and take an occasional bite of the tangy tart. Fluffy would be far, far away. Bad Fluffy! she thought, not for the first time.

EarthLindley! It tastes good! Come; taste it.

Shannon scrunched her eyes together and willed the voice away. It sounded like another nightmare flashback where Fluffy starts babbling about something 'tasting good' and then scoops her up and dashes off toward one of those blasted anomalies.

There. The voice, the Evil Fluffy Voice, was gone. It was a bit strange since she could feel the wind on the back of her neck, and her hair was standing up slightly from the electromagnetic field. Actually it was a pleasant experience, and…

Wait. Wind? Hair standing on end?

Shannon struggled to process the information but her head felt like it was filled with cotton candy. Thoughts were slow in coming but, finally, something clicked.

She was moving! Shannon's eyes popped open a little bit to avoid the probing glare of the suns that was sure to hurt her eyes, and, sure enough, Fluffy had her and was morphing though the fungus again.

"No! No! Stop!" she yelled in panic as she rolled over to see where she was going. Yelling hurt, and rolling over hurt even more, but she did it anyway. It was amazing what motivations can do to overcome physical and mental discomfort. All you need is a reason and you can overcome.

Taste good! Fluffy thought to her.

All Shannon did was whimper in response. It was a mental whimper, which turned into a groan when she saw it; another anomaly not more than a few clicks from them, and Fluffy was making a b-line for it.

The anomaly got closer and closer, and Shannon's dread notched upward every second. She had nothing to hold onto except herself since she was suspended electro magnetically within Fluffy, which meant that she was effectively baggage. A low haze was coming off the water body nearby, and the haze partially obscured the true nature of the feature. All Shannon could do is look forward.

Then she saw it; it was a Unity pod silhouette! Shannon sighed with relief. No strange teleportation this time! In an odd way she was almost happy now that the dread was gone, or at least almost gone. As they got closer she saw an impact crater that was thoroughly overgrown with Chiron plantlife, which surrounded the pod.
The pod itself was nose-down toward the southeast, so it must have had a pretty low trajectory upon re-entry. Fluffy was moving along at a fast clip and they were not more than a 1000 meters away now, and Shannon could see it was pretty broken up. Who knows what might happen to its contents after having been exposed to Planet's elements and native life for over three decades. It still might have something valuable in it! Like a rover, or maybe some industrial supplies. Shannon started to get a little excited.

SCREEEEECH

Shannon involuntarily put her hands over her ears even though she knew that piercing mental call, and what it meant. Fluffy reared up and the next thing Shannon knew she was falling along with her few possessions. For a second the world went topsy-turvy and she saw a bit of pinkish blue rise and then pass by her. She had been unceremoniously dumped by Fluffy on a number of occasions and had learned the hard way to immediately tuck and roll, which he did, and pray that there wasn't something solid between her and the roll. Shannon impacted hard and kind-of rolled on the ground. Thankfully she had not landed on or near a trunk-like fungal stalk or boulder, or her landing would be a whole lot harder and much more painful, and in a few moments the world stopped its rolling spin.

Even though she hurt all over, both from the teleportation effect and her rolling fall, she felt none of the physical pain. Her attention was now locked on the reason that Fluffy had dropped her; he was attacking another mindworm, and the screech had been the dissident interaction of their resonance fields. Looking up, carefully and very slowly, Shannon could see that they were already locked in conflict. Two mindworms were streaming out of the rupture Unity pod hull and Fluffy was racing toward them. Shannon never knew how Fluffy determined what was an enemy mindworm but the wild mindworms always seemed to ignore him for some reason. There was only one occasion when she had asked Fluffy to attack a roving mindworm; that one was making its way toward the Gaian settlements, and Fluffy had attacked and killed it reluctantly.

The attacks themselves were generally not very spectacular. The nearest feral mindworm had finished flowing out of the pod and it was forming into a long, low ovoid. Fluffy was curled up into a more compact flattened sphere. Shannon could see through Fluffy's senses and knew that there were he was much bigger, and that he was controlling the tempo of the assault. Both almost stopped their movements, and mindworm pseudopods and thin tendrils from their bulk started to wave toward each other. In some ways Shannon could see the 'waves' that each was emitting, and the strange fields that surrounded each. Their attacks were not physical; their only purpose, apparently, was to disrupt the fields that held the colonies of mindworms together.

Fluffy was the first to get in a decisive attack, and a chunk of the feral mindworm's field wavered and collapsed, and the mindworm-lets from this portion fell to the ground to disappear into the fungus. The feral formed a large pseudopod and sent out a large pulse toward Fluffy, which he took in his north side. Like the feral, a portion of his bulk sloughed off. Fluffy felt no pain as Shannon understood it as the chunk of his
'body' collapsed, and she wasn't sure if his lack of pain was due to his concentration on the combat or from the fact that he had nothing resembling nerve endings in his being.

Fluffy repeated his first attack, which transfixed the smaller mindworm. It staggered, and the entire left side started to collapse. The mindworm stopped attacking and defending and tried to pull itself together, but it was too late. The field that held it together pulled in, forcing the remaining wormlets tightly together, and then a split second later their mutual repulsion caused them to almost explode. Many of the wormlets were rendered into a pulpy mass in the explosion of worms and it gave great, wet 'popping' sound as the feral met its end. Shannon shook her head. The attack had lasted less than a few minutes even though it seemed like forever to her, since in a strange way time seemed to stop when her consciousness went into another place.

Fluff, are you all right? she thought.

Yes, EarthLindley, Fluffy thought back after a moment. This feral is absorbed. I will take some of his bulk. The other is heading toward the Earthhumans. You told me this is bad.

Yes, this is bad. The ferals will kill Earthhumans if they can. I will warn them. Thank you, Shannon replied. Fluffy didn't reply. Apparently he didn't understand the human idea of being appreciative.

Now that the crisis was passed Shannon had time to feel terrible again. Every bruise and scrape screamed in agony, and the waking nightmares now included both the severely discomforting teleportation effect and the mindworm attack. She didn't feel like she had to throw up, but that didn't matter since she had a myriad of other pains to deal with. Finally she gave up, sank to the fungus a little, and resigned herself to a nice, long nap. She was dead tired and sleep was a way to escape the noisome aftereffects. Her body instinctively knew this, and she grudgingly gave into it at first and then abandoned herself to the inevitable.

Fluffy felt her go to sleep and felt as her mind went into its strange non-conscious state. It was very confusing to him since it seemed like there were two EarthLindleys every day, one that communicated directly and one that communicated passively when she went to sleep. The day EarthLindley mind was generally focused, but the night mind was much more interesting. Its thoughts flitted about and frequently made no sense, in as much as an Earthhuman's mind can make sense. It was remarkable. It really did taste good, and Fluffy stood guard over Shannon all night, tasting her fleeting thoughts as she slept.