The Slug Inception

by Matthew Pelly

  Chapter 3 - Next-gen

  The Human

  "I'm hot", I complained. "Is anybody else hot?"

  "Nope", answered Boy casually.

  "No", said Phill at the same time.

  "Not at all", added Carmen, just to rub it in my face.

  We had just left the Slug reproduction facility, and were headed to the nearest carriage station to get a ride back to the King's house. Even though we walked from the palace to here, I didn't think I had it in me to walk all the way back.

  I took another drink from one of the water bottles that was in the travel bag the human ambassadors had given me. "What do you reckon Matt and the Slug King are talking about in there?"

  "The ambassadors are also with them", Phill pointed out.

  "OK then, them too?" I amended.

  Carmen answered me. "I imagine that they are discussing possible plans to try and broker a peace between the two races."

  "If I know Matthew", Boy said, "and I do, then he already had a plan before we ever met the King."

  "Does he do that often?" Phill asked him. I anxiously awaited Boy's reply, as he and Matt were usually tight-lipped about their old adventures together. In fact, I never even knew how they'd met, or heard one story of what they'd gotten up to in the pre-Earth days.

  "Yes", answered Boy in a strange voice. "He always used to tell me of the importance of having some kind of plan of action, a long-term goal to guide your current efforts. I do believe that it was this mindset, at least in part, that allowed him to survive his long exile on your planet."

  "Huh", I said, thinking. "I never thought about why he survived that, I just kind of took it as fact that he just did."

  "I have devoted some considerations to the matter", Phill told me. "Although 'exile' isn't an appropriate word to use for the situation that occurred."

  "I guess not", Boy replied, and left it at that.

  After a bit of walking, we were walking parallel to a monorail-like carriage track that led directly to the carriage station (every now and then, carriages would zip past us along the track, and terrify me into thinking that they'd derail and squish me). Even though we were still some way off, I could tell that it was a much smaller establishment than the one which was next door to the main spaceport that we'd always land in twice now. Which made perfect sense, seeing as how this one wasn't in such a busy area.

  "You know", I said thoughtfully. "It's never been fully explained to me exactly how this whole carriage system works."

  "Nor to me", added Phill.

  "What would you like to know?" Carmen asked of us.

  "For example", I began, "what's the deal with those boxes that are underneath and through the tracks at regular intervals?" I was referring here to the boxy structures that were under each carriage track about every ten metres or so, and through which each track passed. Although I'd noted them the first time we'd landed on Slugenis, I'd completely forgotten that I didn't know their purpose up until now.

  "I believe that that should be obvious", Phill said. "It appears to be either a kind of power supply unit, or a power generator of some sort."

  "Both", Boy answered, "but neither." At the confused look I gave him, he went on (although he probably would've explained it a bit more anyway). "Those 'boxes' actually serve three purposes.

  "Their first function is as a large battery, which charges itself from the electrical mainframe which powers the entire carriage circuit. Should this major power source fail, the boxes would collaborate to ensure that the carriages continue to run for some time, and to power any communications from and to each individual carriage."

  "You don't have a backup power source?" asked Phill.

  "Of course", Carmen told him. "We have three, to be exact. But precautions are sometimes good to take, even if they don't feel necessary at the time."

  Phill nodded wisely at this. "An intelligent concept to design a city by", he said approvingly. As for me, I felt that maybe having the mainframe, and then three backup power sources, and then this final box backup was a bit of an overkill. It must take a pretty bad disaster on Slugenis to make using the boxes as a power source necessary.

  "The second purpose?" I prompted Boy.

  He answered, "The second purpose is that each box has a unique identifier that is tied to its specific location. As the carriages pass over each box, they receive that identifier, and are pre-programmed to understand each of these codes as an exact place. Whenever a Slug passenger wants to know their location, therefore, they simply query the carriage itself, which has a constantly updating knowledge of its position. This prevents an external communication from being required to find out where one is, and helps to prevent our communication lines from becoming clogged with unnecessary signals."

  We were now at the entrance of the station, which was a large purple rectangular prism, as every single building on Slugenis was.

  "Another wise idea", Phill approved once again. "However, taking into account the usual speed of the carriages, having these boxes at such short intervals means that the carriage has a precise location which is likely to be too accurate given the nature of the query. Perhaps having the boxes every fifty metres would serve to maximise the cost-to-benefit ratio?"

  I was left flabbergasted at this remark, and had to quickly translate it in my head as 'it would be cheaper if you spaced out the boxes more' (cheaper in terms of resources, of course, since the Slugs didn't use any kind of a currency). See, nothing about speed, nature, and complicated ratios in there.

  As we climbed into a medium size carriage, with Carmen quickly placing herself on a spike and ordering the carriage to take off, Boy said to Phill, "You would be right if it wasn't for the other two purposes of the boxes. The more we have, the longer they can keep the entire system powered in the event of a blackout."

  "And what is this other purpose?" I asked as I groped my way into a corner and prepared to nearly wet myself in the pitch blackness of the carriage (since whatever genius Slug designed them decided not to include any windows).

  Boy spoke into the darkness, "The third function is to accommodate for the expansion of the tracks in the event of a particularly hot day. Usually, Slugenis' weather is stable and regular, but uncommon days still often occur. Should a day be of a high temperature, then the carriage tracks would expand, being made from metal. The steel we use minimises this effect, but the expansion cannot be entirely stopped. Left to itself, this phenomenon would tear the tracks apart and make them impassable.

  "This is where the boxes come in. As you noticed, the tracks pass through the boxes. However, inside the box, the two ends of the track do not meet - there is actually a significant gap between the two sides. That is, a track passes through a box and ends inside it. Another track begins just past this track, exits the box, and continues on to the next one. There is a space between the two."

  "That would help in the manufacturing of the tracks", commented Phill, "as the pieces are of a relatively small and regular size."

  "Indeed", Boy replied. "Now, when the temperature heats up and the track expands, the two ends of the tracks simply get closer together inside the box, rather than crashing into each other and buckling under the pressure. The box and the space within it, therefore, mitigates the effects of any abnormal expansion which would otherwise disrupt the entire system."

  There was a short silence before I said, "That makes sense."

  "Has the temperature ever risen to a point so as to make this gap not adequate?" asked Phill.

  "Never", answered Carmen. "Even though we don't actually know, as we keep no history of what has happened, if such a thing ever happened before, whoever was responsible for the tracks would have made the space bigger. If it happened again, the gap would be made larger again. So it's at the size now that no amount of heat has ever expanded the tracks to."

  "It's like a kind of evolution", I said ponderingly, "except of engineering and production."

  "That", Boy told me, "is not inaccurate."<
br />
  "That", Phill told him, "is a confusing statement. You should simply say 'that is accurate', which carries a similar meaning and does not carry such a high probability of being misinterpreted."

  "I don't know", I said. " 'That is not inaccurate' and 'that is accurate' can actually mean something quite different, depending on the context and how you say it. One could mean 'that could be right', and one could mean 'that is right'. See the difference?"

  Phill paused for some time, before he quietly replied, "You are correct."

  "Whatever the case", Boy told the both of us, "we are just about to arrive at the Slug King." He gave a little laugh as he said, "I know this because I just queried the carriage which gave me its current location that it's receiving from every box it drives over."

  "Goody", I said eagerly. I wasn't sure if I was so excited to go and find out what Matthew's ultimate plan was, or if I just couldn't wait to get out of this terrifying ride. I swear, when I become king of the universe, the first thing I'd do is add some windows to these things. Followed shortly by outlawing the colour purple.

  "Here we are", Carmen announced as the carriage noticeably decelerated. Once it came to a stop, the door opened, allowing light in. In my eagerness to escape its confines, I got completely blinded by the sudden brightness, and managed to stumble over the exit and trip onto the ground. It was there that I realised that I was out in the baking heat; inside the carriages was still hot, but the darkness and the lack of direct sunlight made it quite cool compared to outside.

  "Urrggh", I groaned. Boy came to help pick me up, and then I limped towards the Slug King's house, which the carriage had parked almost right outside of. Lucky it wasn't a long walk.

  As I stumbled inside the house, the first thing I heard was Matthew chuckling from the other side of the roof-pyramid, "What happened to you?"

  "I fell", I grumbled, and plopped myself down at one of the corners of the room opposite the entrance.

  "He underestimated the effect that bright light would have on his sensitive eyes after leaving the darkened carriage", Phill tried to humiliate me.

  Matt laughed at this. "Hah. That's kind of funny."

  "Not to me", I mumbled to myself, and then took a good look around. The room was the same as usual, with the Slug King in his royal dish and Matthew standing beside him. I noticed that they weren't in contact, which I marked as strange.

  Then I took another good look, and I saw why - there were eight humans in this room as well. How on Earth didn't I notice them before? Whatever. They had to be all eight of the ambassadors that were currently on Slugenis. I guessed that us being here was a big deal for them, which was why they'd all come to hear what Matthew had to say. Something that I hadn't heard yet, but was about to correct.

  "Hey", I said, noticing something else before I could get to that. "Where's Frank and Rosetta? Why aren't they here?"

  "They're off doing other important stuff", Matthew said. "Don't worry", he assured me, "they've already got all the info they need, and they'll be updated in due time."

  "So have you finalised a plan?" asked Boy.

  "Indeed", he replied, "at least on our end. There are still some sticking points to be explained, but they'll have to wait. But I'll get to them. In due time."

  When he said no more, Phill prompted him, "Is it time for you to divulge your plans to us?"

  "Oh, of course", he replied, smiling. "In a few hours."

  "A few hours!" I spluttered. "What for?"

  "Hah!" he shouted. "I was kidding. Fooled you!" At the look of outrage on my face, he tried to stop laughing. And failed. "Anyway", he began. "So this is what we've come up with. First thing's first; we're going back to PDN."

  There was a long shocked silence... then Phill said, "PD-0034:N."

  "Why?" asked Boy in a voice which indicated that perhaps he hadn't known the plan all along as I'd suspected.

  "Because we need to talk to Slob", Matt explained. "Last we heard, he's still alive, although that was some time ago. The Slugs didn't hold control of the planet for very long."

  "You let the Cyborgs reclaim it?" I exclaimed. "After everyone who died to take it?"

  My friend looked at me consolingly. "PDN was deep in Cyborg territory. There was no way we could hold it while surrounded by enemy territory on all fronts. And besides, our invasion was more of a tactical strike than a planetary takeover."

  "That is accurate", Phill commented.

  Even though I found it hard not to think of all the Slugs (and Cyborgs, of course) who had died at that attack, I knew that they were right. I wondered if any more had died after we had left. "Very well then", I conceded. "So we're going back to PDN. Why do we need to talk to Slob?"

  "To negotiate, of course", said Boy.

  "Precisely", confirmed Matt. "We can come up with whatever plans we want here, but we need the Cyborgs to go halfway with us. Slob is the only guy we know who has even considered a ceasefire, and he has at least some position of authority. So it's him that we'll go and find. Hopefully in a non-hostile way this time. This is less of an invasion, and more of a diplomatic mission."

  "What if they attack before we can land?" asked Phill.

  Matthew gave a huge smile. "We'll be going in a very advanced stealth ship, courtesy of human technology and assistance." He nodded towards the eight ambassadors, several of which nodded or smiled back. "With any luck, they won't know that we're there until after we've landed."

  "This sounds like a risky mission to me", Carmen said.

  "Which is why there'll actually be two ships", Matthew said. "The first one is an empty test, to see what happens. If the Cyborgs do nothing, then we'll go in next."

  "OK, so assume that we land successfully", Boy said. "Then what?"

  "Then we seek out Slob", Matt continued. "If any Cyborgs give us trouble on the ground, we'll take care of them. I've got a little... ruse planned. One that will throw them off." He chuckled to himself.

  "What deception are you planning?" asked Phill.

  "That's for later!" he almost yelled. "I'm telling you enough right now, don't get greedy. Sheesh. Anyway, once we meet Slob, that's when we'll negotiate. And by that, I mean we'll negotiate to begin the negotiations!" He shot everyone in the room a wild grin before going on. "The plan is for a large group of Cyborgs to meet a large group of Slugs on a neutral world where we can properly discuss the peace, and the best way of achieving it. And that is that. Ta-dah!"

  " 'Ta-dah'?" asked Carmen, confused, but everyone was too focused on what we'd just heard to think about that just now.

  Except, of course, for Phill. "It has a similar meaning to 'look at what I've accomplished' ", he told her.

  "Ah", replied Carmen.

  "The neutral world idea might work", Boy commented. "But which one will we choose?"

  "Oh, I've already chosen the most likely candidate", Matt said easily. "And I've already picked a name for it, so back off!"

  "Oh no", I groaned. "What name did you pick?" I wasn't sure that I wanted to know.

  "Well, it was obvious", he answered. "The place I've picked that we're most likely going to is a small volcanic world, almost exactly in between a certain section of Slug and Cyborg space. So I thought to myself, 'I want a name that reflects this place and what it's like. And it's slightly closer to Slug territory than Cyborg territory, so it gets a Slug name, not a Cyborg name. Now, it's a volcanic world, so it has lots of lava. And lava that is still underground is called magma. So there, done'. Get it?"

  I had nothing to say, so I answered his question with a blank look. "It's called 'Slugma'!" he shouted triumphantly. "Get it? Slugma!"

  After some more blank look - courtesy of my face - I looked over at the human ambassadors, and saw each and every one of them with an irritated grimace. So, he had been like this the whole time to them, too. Poor people.

  Boy just chuckled to himself. "I suppose you've started the tradition of beginning every Slug planet name with a 'Slug'."

  "Damn str
aight", Matt said back, smiling. "And it'll be a long and treasured tradition before very long, just you wait and see."

  Getting back on track, Phill said, "I foresee a major problem with this plan. You propose to have a large amount of Slugs and Cyborgs in a small space on this 'Slugma'. It is therefore likely that, despite our best intentions and the mission's objectives, a fight will break out, given our races' pasts and the predispositions of the Slug and Cyborg peoples."

  "Ah", Matthew said, leaning forward and grinning madder than ever. "We'd considered that. And guess what our solution is?" When no one answered (not that he gave anybody time to come up with one), he went on, "Some of the Slugs will be normal ones, just like what you said. But some of them will be special Slugs - Slugs that aren't bound by the doctrines of Honour. Slugs that don't yearn to end their lives. Yes, what you're thinking is right, assuming that you're thinking what I'm about to say. We are going to breed an army of Slugs that don't crave their Honour."

  The Slug

  The door to the Slug King's dwellings had just admitted four people, after the King had told his spike to open the door for them, of course. As I was standing beside the King's dish, I saw straight through the transparent inverted pyramid suspended from the roof, and saw that Ethan and Boy were the first two to enter. I almost burst out laughing when I saw the Human wearing a hat and sunglasses, which looked so wrong on his face that it wasn't funny. And by that I mean that it was incredibly funny. But then I saw that Ethan was limping, and was being supported by Boy.

  Ethan was limping! He had been injured somehow! I had almost stepped forward to help him when I noticed that Boy was smiling. Phew. If Boy was smiling, then it was nothing; he wouldn't be in a happy mood if Ethan had really been in danger. It must have been something trivial.

  So as they entered I simply laughed. 'What happened to you?' I asked him jovially.

  'I fell', he mumbled, as if he didn't want anybody to know. For some reason, I wasn't surprised that it was such a simple and stupid reason. Of course he simply "fell".

  Phill decided to give me a fuller explanation. 'He underestimated the effect that bright light would have on his sensitive eyes after leaving the darkened carriage', he said.

  'Hah', I laughed. 'That's kind of funny.'

  'Hey', Ethan questioned after taking off his hat and glasses. 'Where's Frank and Rosetta? Why aren't they here?'

  I told him, 'They're off doing other important stuff. Don't worry, they've already got all the info they need, and they'll be updated in due time.' What I didn't mention was exactly what they were doing; in fact, they were at the breeding facility that those four had just come back from, beginning the implementation of the first stage of my master plan.

  Seeming to read my mind, Boy asked me, 'So have you finalised a plan?'

  'Indeed', I replied, 'at least on our end. There are still some sticking points to get through, but they'll have to wait. But I'll get to them. In due time.' And those points actually were kind of sticky, at least in the figurative sense. It would be kind of risky - well, actually, quite a bit risky - but I was willing to bet that it would pay off. And I actually was betting quite a bit on it. So I really, really hoped that I'd win.

  Phill asked me, 'Is it time for you to divulge your plans to us?'

  'Oh, of course', I said, but I intended to have a bit of fun at Ethan's expense first. 'In a few hours.'

  Just as intended, it was the Human who burst out, 'A few hours! What for?'

  'Hah!' I pointed at him, laughing. 'I was kidding. Fooled you!' He gave no response, but the expression on his face was too funny for me to stop laughing at him just yet. So I didn't.

  But the time came when I did stop laughing. And it felt that it was about the time to begin explaining my plan to my friends, the plan that I'd had for a while and that had been given the green light by the Slug King. I wondered if he would've been so receptive to it had the Humans not been sending ambassadors to Slugenis for some years. Well, no sense thinking about it now; I should just count my lucky stars that they had been sending them. And I could count quite a few lucky stars. Like, at least fifty. That's a lot in the lucky star department.

  'Anyway', I began. 'So this is what we've come up with. First thing's first; we're going back to PDN.'

  After a pause, as everyone absorbed that knowledge, Phill had the audacity to correct me with, 'PD-0034:N.'

  'Why?' asked Boy.

  I explained, 'Because we need to talk to Slob. Last we heard, he's still alive, although that was some time ago. The Slugs didn't hold control of the planet for very long.' Not long at all, in fact.

  'You let the Cyborgs reclaim it?' Ethan exclaimed. 'After everyone who died to take it?'

  Oh. I hadn't counted on the Human taking it like that. Although, now that I thought of it, Humans tended to emphasise the importance of the lives lost in completing an objective. Well, at least they do in the movies; it's not like I'd been in any wars before. Although, now that I thought of it, perhaps that would've been a fabulous idea. I could imagine getting captured by enemies and then executed by hanging or firing squad. Except it wouldn't kill me unless they hit my brain. Haha - now that would be funny.

  But back to Ethan. 'PDN was deep in Cyborg territory', I explained gently. 'There was no way we could hold it while surrounded by enemy territory on all fronts. And besides, our invasion was more of a tactical strike than a planetary takeover.' Hmmm. Perhaps "invasion" wasn't the right word then. Well, it's too late to be changed now.

  'That is accurate', Phill supported my argument.

  Ethan seemed to struggle with his thoughts before replying, 'Very well then. So we're going back to PDN. Why do we need to talk to Slob?'

  'To negotiate, of course', answered Boy.

  'Precisely', I said. 'We can come up with whatever plans we want here, but we need the Cyborgs to go halfway with us. Slob is the only guy we know who has even considered a ceasefire, and he has at least some position of authority. So it's him that we'll go and find. Hopefully in a non-hostile way this time. This is less of an invasion, and more of a diplomatic mission.' Yes, I liked the sound of that - "diplomatic mission". Although I think I liked the sound of the actual phrase more than I liked the concept it conveyed. Strange.

  'What if they attack before we can land?' asked Phill.

  Aha, it was time for one of my plans to pay off. Well, to be explained, but it will pay off later. Hopefully. 'We'll be going in a very advanced stealth ship, courtesy of Human technology and assistance', I told him, and indicated the eight Human ambassadors. 'With any luck, they won't know that we're there until after we've landed.' Oh, how I couldn't wait to give Ethan a proper explanation of our stealth ships and how the Humans had upgraded them! If I had skin and nerve cells, I felt like I surely would be getting goosebumps.

  'This sounds like a risky mission to me', Carmen said, worryingly. It seemed that she didn't want to needlessly die. Oh, my wondrous and marvellous Earth, I have yet to meet a Slug that you couldn't convert.

  'Which is why there'll actually be two ships', I explained to her. 'The first one is an empty test, to see what happens. If the Cyborgs do nothing, then we'll go in next.' Yes, sometimes the complexity and detail of my plans astounds even me. OK, no, it actually doesn't, seeing as how I designed the majority of the plan. But had someone else come up with it, then I'd be surely astounded. I'd totally be like, "Wow!"

  'OK, so assume that we land successfully', Boy began to ask. 'Then what?'

  'Then we seek out Slob', I continued. 'If any Cyborgs give us trouble on the ground, we'll take care of them. I've got a little... ruse planned. One that will throw them off.' I laughed to myself. I had no intention of telling my friends this plan just yet, but they would have to just take it for granted that it was an awesome one. Which wouldn't be too hard, I supposed; I don't think I'd yet come up with a plan that wasn't awesome.

  'What deception are you planning?' asked Phill.

  Oh, so he wants to know now. Well, I don't thi
nk so! 'That's for later!' I scolded him. 'I'm telling you enough right now, don't get greedy. Sheesh.' Damn greedy Phill, always wanting to know plans before they're used to try and save his life. He gets another "Sheesh" in my thoughts for that. Sheesh.

  'Anyway', I went on, 'once we meet Slob, that's when we'll negotiate. And by that, I mean we'll negotiate to begin the negotiations!' I internally laughed at the looks of confusion on my friends' faces before continuing. 'The plan is for a large group of Cyborgs to meet a large group of Slugs on a neutral world where we can properly discuss the peace, and the best way of achieving it. And that is that. Ta-dah!'

  ' "Ta-dah"?' asked Carmen.

  'It has a similar meaning to "look at what I've accomplished" ', Phill told her. Hmm; that was surprisingly true.

  'Ah', she replied.

  'The neutral world idea might work', Boy said to me. 'But which one will we choose?'

  'Oh, I've already chosen the most likely candidate', I told him. 'And I've already picked a name for it, so back off!' Knowing this group, I had to quickly assert my naming rights before anyone else tried to take them.

  'Oh no', Ethan moaned. 'What name did you pick?'

  'Well, it was obvious', I answered. 'The place I've picked that we're most likely going to is a small volcanic world, almost exactly in between a certain section of Slug and Cyborg space. So I thought to myself, "I want a name that reflects this place and what it's like. And it's slightly closer to Slug territory than Cyborg territory, so it gets a Slug name, not a Cyborg name. Now, it's a volcanic world, so it has lots of lava. And lava that is still underground is called magma. So there, done". Get it?'

  The Human gave me nothing but a blank look, which invited me to announce my masterpiece. 'It's called "Slugma"!' I proclaimed. 'Get it? Slugma!'

  As Ethan's face remained blank, Boy chuckled. 'I suppose you've started the tradition of beginning every Slug planet name with a "Slug".'

  'Damn straight', I smiled back. 'And it'll be a long and treasured tradition before very long, just you wait and see.' Even though I'd only really named two Slug planets - Slugenis and now Slugma - it seemed that a tradition had been started. And I'll be damned if I wasn't proud of it. And I'm not damned. Which means I am proud of it.

  Trying his utmost to ruin the mood, Phill said gravely, 'I foresee a major problem with this plan. You propose to have a large amount of Slugs and Cyborgs in a small space on this "Slugma". It is therefore likely that, despite our best intentions and the mission's objectives, a fight will break out, given our races' pasts and the predispositions of the Slug and Cyborg peoples.'

  'Ah', I said, giving him a big grin that I hoped said "I'm one step ahead of you, buddy. Maybe even two steps. I'm at least a step-and-a-half ahead, that's for sure". Poor Phill had no idea that I was about to whack him with my most ambitious mini-plan-to-achieve-our-main-plan yet. Emphasise on "yet"; I'm sure there'll be better ones, down the line.

  'We'd considered that', I told Phill and the others. 'And guess what our solution is? Some of the Slugs will be normal ones, just like what you said. But some of them will be special Slugs - Slugs that aren't bound by the doctrines of Honour. Slugs that don't yearn to end their lives. Yes, what you're thinking is right, assuming that you're thinking what I'm about to say. We are going to breed an army of Slugs that don't crave their Honour.'

  The Cyborg

  "What?" asked Boy, astonished at the news which Matthew had just informed us of.

  "You heard me", Matt replied casually. "We're going to make a bunch of Slugs, probably about 100, that aren't bound by Honour. This group, along with about an equal number of normal Slugs, are going to accompany us to the final negotiation site on Slugma."

  I was not sure as to the validity of this plan, as there would be 4 diverse groups present at this one meeting place; I was not certain that Cyborgs, Honour-bound Slugs, non-Honour-bound Slugs, and our group of 7 could all congregate together in an entirely peaceful manner. However, I was sure that Matthew had thought of some counter-measure to this problem, and so did not state it.

  "How will you do that?" asked Ethan. Based on this single question, it was evident that he believed that Honour was something inborn in all Slugs, and so would have to be rooted out of newborn Slugs. However, not only was this entirely erroneous, but Boy had explained to us only recently how it was that Slugs were imprinted with their sense of Honour.

  I deigned to explain to him, "Slugs do not acquire their sense of Honour naturally. It is a process implemented by other Slugs that begins soon after their brain begins to form. Therefore, in order to create Slugs that do not follow the codes of Honor, there is no need to 'breed' such a sense out of them; we must simply create Slugs normally, and not imprint them with the importance of their Honour."

  "Exactly", Matthew confirmed my description. "10 points for Phil. Honour is not inherent in all Slugs, it is added when they are formed. We can quite easily just remove this addition, which will create a Slug not bound by their Honour."

  "Oh", Ethan said. "When you put it like it, it seems simple enough." It was simple no matter how it was put, but I did not tell this to the Human.

  "The problem", Boy said, "would be in getting other Slugs to accept these... newborn Slugs. Especially if we intend for them to work together. How will a Slug which understands and values above all else their Honour ever accept a Slug which values its own life over the Empire's welfare?"

  "They never will", Matthew responded grimly. "Which is why the two groups will be in separate ships on the way over to Slugma. Once we are at the site, the next-gen Slugs will be the ones to help us in the negotiations, while the Honour-bound Slugs will be to provide us with figurative muscle."

  "You don't think a fight will break out, do you?" asked Ethan, worried.

  "Nah", Matt said while slightly lifting his shoulders. "As long we we're there, we should be able to easily defuse any tense situation that comes up. It shouldn't be a problem, and even if it is, there's plenty of us Slugs there to handle it."

  "There will likely also be plenty of Cyborgs", I informed Matthew, lest he had not considered this.

  "I suppose so", he admitted. "But I'm sure we'll be fine."

  I felt that such an attitude could well lead to disaster, but I was confident that Matt had thought of all possibilities and come up with the optimal course of action in each. Although, I also considered the possibility that he was merely confident that the various parties in the negotiations being able to speak using language would negate any possibility of violence. I would be tempted to agree with such a belief, had not centuries of war plagued Humanity despite their best intentions and ability to communicate.

  There was a pause of approximately 3 seconds after Matthew's last hopeful statement, then Ethan asked in a bored tone of voice, "Well, now what?"

  It was Boy who answered him. "I'm assuming that Frank and Rosetta are at the reproduction plant, giving the Slugs in charge there the details of what we're trying to do?"

  "You assume correctly", Matt told him. "You're quite good at this whole assuming thing, you know?"

  "Indeed", Boy replied passively. "In that case, our next course of action is to head to PDN and arrange everything with Slob, correct?"

  "That seems to be correct", I stated. "Without Slob's approval, this entire plan will likely be defunct."

  "Double indeed", Matthew said. "So, I suppose we'd better get ready to go then."

  "Whoa!" Ethan quickly said. "Oh no you don't! We've got to stay here a bit longer. We already agreed that we'd stay on Slugenis for much longer this time, remember?" He directed this last statement at Matthew, and concluded by pointing his finger at him.

  "Fine, fine", Matt conceded. "I suppose that we can stay for another day or two - well, a Slugenis day or two, at least. Then we'll go. Happy?"

  "Yep", Ethan said. "Besides, when it comes to space travel, another day or two staying anywhere makes no difference at all, right?"

  "Correct", Boy told him.

&n
bsp; There was another short pause, this one lasting an estimated 2 seconds, before a worrying concept occurred to me. I decided to share my concerns with the group. "What will happen if we arrive at PDN is Slob is no longer alive? After the long travel times to get from there to here, and then back there again, he could very well have died of natural Cyborg causes by then."

  "Hmmm", Ethan mused. "You said before that Cyborgs usually live for like 50 years, right? So how long has it been since then?"

  "Can't really tell for sure", Boy replied. "We could possibly work it out in cycles, but then we'd have to convert that into Earth years, which would be pretty difficult."

  "It's easy", Ethan said. "Just average it as 10 years per cycle. Sure, it's not very accurate, but if you just used the average, I'm sure it'll come out close en - "

  "No, no, no!" Matthew interrupted him. "I've told you like 10 times that you can't just do that."

  "You have not told him 10 times", I reminded him, "although that is a more accurate figure than your previous estimate of 1,000,000." He gave me an exasperated grin in response, which I could not discern the meaning of.

  "Well", Ethan complained, "are you ever going to tell me why you can't just do that?"

  "Perhaps sometime", Matt grinned mischievously.

  This made little sense at all; if Matthew was purposely not giving Ethan the entire explanation which would rectify his incorrect beliefs, then he should not get upset when Ethan commented on those beliefs. It seemed yet another inconsistency in organic logic and actions that I could not explain.

  "Oh come on!" Ethan protested. "You can't get all distraught like that and then not tell me!"

  "That sounds right to me", Carmen added.

  Interesting; it seemed that perhaps not all organics were as I previously thought. Although, based on past experience, I could not make such a sweeping statement that applies to all aspects of their personalities.

  "Fine then", Matt huffed. "Maybe I will tell you then, since everyone's ganging up on me. But let's go for another walk around first. I'm pretty sick of this room right now."

  "But it's still hot", Ethan grumbled. However, he moved to follow without further complaint when Matthew and Boy began to leave the room. As Carmen and I turned to exit the Slug king's house, I perceived a look of relief on the 8 Human ambassador's faces; and although I felt differently, I attributed no blame to them.

  The Human

  Well, I was right about one thing; it was hot. I swear, I don't think I'd ever been anywhere on Slugenis where the temperature didn't feel at least at the boiling point of lead. There had to be air conditioners around here somewhere, right? In any case, I'd stocked up on my water bottle supply while at the King's home, so I wasn't going to dehydrate to death.

  As I huffed and puffed along (even though we were only walking), I asked, "OK, I think I'm ready to hear your talk on cycles now, unless you wanna keep getting annoyed by my speech on averages. Because, you know, you can easily just calculate the average as ten years in every cycle, and use that to - "

  "Alright, alright!" Matt exclaimed. "You win, I've gotten annoyed enough. So, this is what's going down. I've already said that the calculation to get the length of a cycle isn't just a simple 'average lifespan of every Slug', but that doesn't seem to be enough for you, so here we are.

  "Right. The reason that we measure our lives this way in the first place is to easily ascertain the relative strength and wisdom of a Slug simply by their age."

  "Why not use a measure such as the humans' years?" asked Phill. "That would also give a relative measure." And it'd be far less needlessly complicated, he forgot to add.

  "Why not indeed?" Matthew replied. "Oh, wait, you want the answer, not for me to just pose the same question in a wistful manner." He scratched his head as we walked, and I took the opportunity to take a quick swig of water. "Even though a simple age-measure such as years would be a relative measure, it wouldn't be a relative relative measure. You get what I mean?"

  "I don't even get what you mean", Boy joked, although I had a suspicion that he was telling the truth. Because I was extremely good at telling when an alien was lying and when they weren't.

  "Fine then", Matt said. "I'll have to explain this all from the beginning. Alright, so you first need to know the purpose of judging our lives by cycles, or the average Slug lifespan, rather than in some fixed measure such as years. Or perhaps lunar cycles, or something else really cool. And fixed. Does anybody know why?"

  Carmen answered, "To simultaneously measure a Slug's skill and to assess the current state of the war."

  "Precisely", Matthew congratulated her. "Here, have a gold star. Note that I don't have any gold stars at the moment, but as soon as I get some, you'll be the first to have one. Anyway, we've already covered the skill part, and you already know that a short cycle period means that Slugs are dying fast and we're not going so good and a long cycle period means that Slugs are taking longer to die and that we're winning us some good battles.

  "Of course, having an overall cycle count is good, but sometimes you need some localised information. So we have our high-level cycle, which counts towards all Slugs and is our official base of age measurement. But, at the local levels, we also have several other layers of cycle counts, each of which vary in how many Slugs they cover."

  "I am totally confused", I confessed.

  "I believe that I understand the concept", Phill said, "although further clarification would undoubtedly benefit the both of us."

  "Let me try", Carmen said. "Matthew's not usually as to-the-point as he can be."

  "Hey!" cried Matt indignantly.

  "So", went on Carmen, completely ignoring him. "We'll have the overall cycle which covers every Slug in the empire and is our real ages. However, there are also several less all-encompassing cycle measurements going on at various different levels.

  "For example, the overall cycle covers all Slugs. A lower cycle level covers all Slugs in a certain section of space, which means that it is the average lifespan of every Slug in that section. A yet lower level covers all Slugs in a solar system, while a still lower level covers all Slugs on a particular planet. For this lowest level, that cycle length is the average life of every Slug only on that planet, and so is likely to be quite a different length from the overall cycle."

  "Oh", I said. "I think I get it now. It's just different measurements based on how many Slugs it covers."

  "Yes, he gets it now", said Matthew sarcastically. "Pray, continue, Carmen."

  "I shall", she responded, and then she did. "So while the official age of every Slug is measured in terms of overall cycles, they also have several unofficial ages which will vary depending on where they are. Slugenis manages only the overall cycle, which each other major planet in various sectors manage their regional cycles. The more local calculations are performed, of course, at a more local level."

  "What is the purpose of keeping such a varied number of ages in any particular place?" asked Phill.

  "So that we can keep track of the average age of Slugs in a number of different settings", Carmen explained. "It is very useful to know the cycle-life of all the Slugs on a particular planet or in a particular solar system if a battle happens to be raging there. Based on this information, whichever Slug is in charge of the operation - which will be the oldest Slug in terms of overall cycles, of course - can determine how effective the Slug forces are at this specific battlefront. By comparing the local cycle length to the overall cycle length, they can also compare that battlefield's effectiveness with the rest of the Slug empire."

  She paused for a breather (or some other Slug reason), and I said, "I guess that would be useful, to know if you're letting your race down or not."

  "Yes it would be", Phill agreed. "Are any decisions made based on these local cycle-lives rather than overall cycle-lives?"

  "Not usually", Boy took over the discussion. "In most cases, the overall cycle comparisons rule over any other measure. However, there can be excepti
ons. Why, once when Matthew and I were in a battle on a planet with a large amount of a certain valuable mineral, the Slug leader at the time called for every Slug with a planet-local cycle-life over five to join him in an important assault."

  "Hah!" Matthew laughed. "I was five, in terms of that planet's cycle measurements, and Boy only three, so I got to go without him. And what a heck of a fight it was too! Our leader got himself killed, and I lost one of my arms - I was in Slug combat form, the humanoid one, so I only had two arms - before we drove the bastard Cyborgs off!"

  "So you won that fight then?" I asked, eagerly lapping up the details of Matt and Boy's seldom-mentioned past life.

  "Sure, we won that fight", Matthew shrugged, "but after that we suffered a crippling defeat in the main battle and had to flee the whole planet. Luckily I was busy recuperating from my lost arm, or else I might not be here right now."

  "As interesting as old war stories are", Boy said, "and let me assure you that we have a lot of them, it's time we get back to the main subject."

  "That of the cycle calculations", Phill supplied.

  "I guess you're right", Matthew sighed. "So demanding, these people... Anyway, the whole point of this whole conversation - indeed, the whole point of this whole walk that we're going on during which we're having this whole conversation - is that the way that we calculate the current cycle length is not a straight average of all Slug deaths ever. It's still quite simple, but not quite that simple, and there's two main reasons why.

  "The reason that we have these reasons - that is, the reason that it's not just a straight average of all Slugs' deaths - is that the length needs to be accurate and up-to-date. We don't want a major victory that occurred eons ago to make our current cycles look long when we're actually losing. It has to take current events into account, rather than past events. As all you mathematicians out there know, a straight average treats all values equally, meaning that a far-off event is giving as much importance as a recent event. Which is not good.

  "So first up, the current length only takes into account the previous twelve cycles, not the entire history of the Slug empire. That's one important thing. Second, it's not really an average of the past twelve cycle lengths of Slug deaths; it's more like a weighted average. How this works is that it uses some complex calculations to make it so that the cycle before the current one has a big impact on the final figure reached for the current cycle length. That is, the previous period has the greatest influence on the current period.

  "The cycle before the previous one has a slightly smaller impact, and so on, and so forth, until you get to the twelfth last cycle, which is the last one to have an effect on the current cycle. This final cycle will, of course, have an infinitesimal effect on the calculations. Actually, scratch that, it does have some effect, much more than an infinitesimal effect - I only used that word because it sounded cool."

  "I see", I said.

  Phill took it one step further when he said, "This weighted average system proves that all of Ethan's statements about averaging ten Earth years per cycle were wrong." Gee, thanks.

  "Don't forget", Boy added, "that the whole thing is made much more difficult because every Slug has to have their travel time taken into account when determining their age, so that only ship time passed, and not actual time passed, is counted towards one's age."

  If you don't get what he means by that, don't worry yourself too much - it's just some way too complicated mumbo-jumbo about how when a spaceship approaches the speed of light, the flow of time inside the ship slows down drastically compared to the outside world. See? Complicated mumbo-jumbo.

  "Yes, yes", I said. "I was wrong, you were right, whatever. Right now, however, I have more pressing matters to attend to than your belittling of me."

  "What is that?" asked Carmen.

  "I feel like I'm sizzling alive", I answered as I opened my travel bag, "so I'm going to put some sunblock on."

  As I put some more sunblock on to prevent a violent outbreak of instant skin cancer, Phill asked Matthew, "How long do you intend for us to walk around with no clear destination planned?"

  The Slug answered, "As long as I feel like it! Besides, it's not like anyone's watching us, commenting on us walking around 'with no clear destination planned'."

  There was a short pause, before Phill asked, "Are you saying that there are no general-purpose cameras on Slugenis' streets?"

  "Of course not", Boy answered. "There is no crime in Slug society, remember? And with no Cyborgs here, and no Slugs shirking their responsibilities due to the impact that would have on their Honour, there's really no need to monitor anything."

  Phill actually shook his head, and said in a strangely disappointed voice, "That knowledge would have helped me immensely in the past."

  I wasn't sure what the others were thinking, but as for me, I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

  But I did say, "By the way, Phill, I wouldn't really count this as a street. A street is for cars and has rules of traffic and stuff. This is just... this."

  I gestured at the stretch along which we were walking - it was, in true Slugenis fashion, exactly like every other stretch that I'd ever walked on in Slugenis. There was a row of one-storey buildings (all of them identical and purple, naturally) on our left, a sidewalk of sorts that we were on now that was just wide enough for the five of us to walk side-by-side, two lines of carriages tracks (which had carriages zooming along them every now and then) on our right, a sidewalk of sorts on the other side of that, and then another row of those buildings that I assumed were houses on the far right.

  Based on this and other places that I'd walked along, I guessed that a similar arrangement was on the other side of the houses, and then again, and probably all over the planet. The only deviation from this setup that I'd seen was the spaceport, the two carriage stations I'd been to, and the reproduction plant. Slugenis, like its dominate species, had a very organised and well thought-out design. It was probably symmetrical, too. I'd sure bet on it.

  The only surprise at all was that it was only the buildings that were purple; the sidewalk and the carriage tracks and their boxes were a shade of white. It was weird because it wasn't weird. And, when it comes to anything to do with Slugs, if it wasn't weird, then it not being weird was weird.

  "Not in the technical sense", Matthew half-agreed with my statement. "But in terms of what a street actually does, then I'd probably say that it is a street."

  "I guess", I said. "Say, what's the deal with all of these buildings? Are they actually houses like the King's? Cause they look really similar."

  "Indeed they are", Boy answered. "Each one is a home for between two and eight Slugs. Although, the term 'home' and 'house' does not apply to Slugs as it does to humans. There is nothing remotely personal or enduring about a Slug home."

  "I infer from this that the saying 'home sweet home' does not apply here?" asked Phill.

  "No it does not", Matthew smiled. "There's nothing sweet at all about a Slug home, other than if you happen to share it with a common partner, of course."

  Boy gave him a look, which my super-insight detected as a sign that there was a future story to be heard. Not right now however, as we were still talking about Slug houses.

  Matthew's old friend then said, "Every one of these buildings is identical to the Slug King's house that you've seen, the only difference being eight standard dishes rather than the one large one. There is no personalisation to a Slug's house, as Slugs actually don't have any worldly possessions. Slugs also don't spent any time in their homes; it is a place for them to sleep in comfort and out of the weather, and nothing more."

  "Sounds strange", I commented. "What do they do all day if they aren't lounging around at home?" I didn't know about normal people in houses back on Earth, but even I spent a lot of time just milling around my improvised home (the hard waste tip where I had lived) for a lot of the day.

  "They're either at war, which a good proportion of the Slug race
usually is", Boy explained, "or they're out working doing whatever task that they do during their half cycle of work." For those with poor memories, the Slugs basic lives follow a half cycle basis, whereby they spend half a cycle doing some predetermined work on a Slug world, and then spend another half cycle participating in the war against the Cyborgs.

  "Does each Slug have a unique house that they always return to?" asked Phill.

  "No", Carmen told him. "Each time that any Slug returns to Slugenis, or to most Slug established worlds, they are in most cases assigned the closest available house to their work location, and live there for the remainder of their visit. Upon their next visit, they are stationed at a different house."

  "So they are constantly changing roommates as well then?" I asked.

  "Yes", she replied. "It is rare for any unacquainted Slugs to find themselves in each others' company over multiple cycles."

  Phill then asked quietly, "You said 'in most cases', and 'unacquainted Slugs'. What do you mean by that?"

  Carmen glanced conspiratorially at both Matthew and Boy, who then glanced at each other. OK, there was definitely something going on here. Lucky for me Phill had picked up on Carmen's words - I sure hadn't noticed anything.

  Finally, Matt brushed it off with, "That's not relevant to what we're speaking of right now. But let's just say that there are some special exceptions to a lot of Slug customs."

  "That doesn't explain much", Phill rightfully pointed out.

  "Perhaps not", Matt agreed, "but that's all you're getting right now, so deal with it. Have you dealt with it?" Phill duly nodded his head. "Good."

  We didn't talk for a bit after that, which gave me a better chance to take in my surroundings. Although, there wasn't really much to take in; the same pattern of buildings-sidewalk-carriage tracks-sidewalk-buildings kept repeating itself along the path of our route.

  After a bit more time however, I noticed that the landscape was changing, if subtlety. The houses started to get sparser, which indicated to me that we were moving into less populated regions, and the footpath was getting narrower, which seemed to mean the same thing.

  Importantly, there were several points where a line of carriage tracks broke through a gap in the line of housing (how could the Slugs sleep in those houses, so close to the noisy tracks?) and fused with the one that was on our right as it led onwards towards the distance.

  Apparently, Phill must've seen me looking intently at these track junctures, because he chose to tell me, "I have inferred from this evidence that we are travelling away from Slugapital's main centre, as both the tracks and the amount of carriages moving along them are becoming less populous as they lead away from the assumed centre of activity."

  "Your inference is correct", Boy congratulated him. "We are moving away from the main part of the city, which contains the major spaceport, the various carriage stations, and the breeding facility. You won't find such large establishments anywhere else on Slugenis, other than the southern pole, of course."

  We were silent for some time more, as the buildings got more and more spaced apart, and the general area just gave off more of a rural vibe. "It's time we headed towards the nearest carriage station, I think", Boy suggested. "We've been walking for long enough."

  I sure agreed with him. It's hard to tell just reading words saying 'it's hot', but believe me, it was hot. Not hot enough to kill me or anything, but enough to make it quite uncomfortable and therefore enough for me to complain about.

  Before I could voice my agreement, I heard a loud slap, and Matthew shouted, "Aha! Got one!" He looked at Boy and gave him a huge smile. "It's been a very long time since I've had the pleasure to squash a bug that wasn't from Earth."

  "There's no need to kill it!" Carmen cried, shocked. "It was doing no harm to you. Why did you do that?"

  "Dunno", Matt said, somewhat ashamedly. "Humans take a great deal of pleasure in killing as many harmless creatures as they can find. I guess that it kinda rubbed off on me."

  "Well", Carmen nearly sniffed, "that's one aspect of humanity that you shouldn't have picked up."

  "What are you referring to?" Phill gave voice to my frustration, although in a much calmer way.

  "Oh, you don't know", Boy informed us, as if he ever thought that maybe we did know. "We're talking about a certain life form on Slugenis that lives symbiotically with us Slugs and another form of life."

  "Oh, oh, tell us", I begged. Come on, it sounded interesting. I'm sure you wanna know more too - well, you can't tell me, but I'm just gonna assume that you do.

  "In order for the explanation to reach its maximum awesomeness", Matthew warned us seriously, "it'll have to be a long one. Are you sure you can handle it?"

  "Do not fret", Phill smoothly assured him. "Ethan and I are much accustomed to such long explanations."

  The Cyborg

  "Yeah", Ethan agreed with my previous statement. "Lay it on us."

  As we physically travelled to the nearest carriage station, Matthew began his explanation of a symbiotic life form relationship that occurred on Slugenis.

  "Alright then", he began. "So this is how it is. For the start, this is a 3-way relationship of life going on, with 3 very different forms of life participating in it.

  "The 1st participant is us Slugs, who play the central role in the association. We also provide the meeting point for the other 2 species.

  "2nd is the bug that I just splattered with my hand, much to the horror of Carmen." He looked at her apologetically. "Yeah, sorry about that. I'll have to remember not to kill our bugs anymore. Before I continue, these bugs have two important points about them. The 1st is that they are carnivores, or the Slugenis equivalent; the 2nd is that their eggs require warmth to develop, but only hatch in the cold. Or, in the relative cold.

  "The 3rd species is a certain type of plant that lives out in the Slugenis wild, including just outside Slugapital. These plants, although I'm not too sure if they'd technically be classified as 'plants', produce a sort of pollen that they use to reproduce. Another important fact is that they are usually spread out pretty sparsely. Because a major food source for them comes from particles that they filter out of blowing wind - hence my unsureness as to their technical classification as a plant - there can't be too many of them in one area, otherwise the outer ones will get all the food from the wind and starve the others."

  He took a deep breath. "So, that is the beginning, and sets the scene for the relationship between the 3 races."

  "Is it a mutually beneficial relationship?" I enquired.

  Boy answered me, "Most definitely, for all 3 of us. The Slugs probably get the least benefit, but we are also the only ones to get a direct benefit to the individual involved."

  Matthew went on, "Alright, this is what happens. It all begins when this plant wants to reproduce itself, which it does by spreading its pollen - well, I'm not sure if its actually a 'plant' or 'pollen', but using those words is easier to understand, so here we are. Anyway, the plant wants to spread its pollen, but it doesn't want to spread it too close to itself, otherwise the new plant will grow and the parent and child will compete with each other for food." He gave a low chuckle. "Parent and child for plants. Heh.

  "Okay, so where was I? Oh, right, parent and child, I just said that. In order to combat this problem, the plant uses us Slugs to be able to spread its pollen and reproduce, but to ensure that the new plant grows somewhere far off. Now, I'm not sure if a plant can normally have a sense of smell, but, well, these plants do. They can actually smell when a Slug is near. Now, the problem is that if they can smell a Slug, that means that the Slug is upwind from them, and the wind carries their scent to the plant, which is not what they want. They need the Slug to be downwind, for reasons that you will shortly find out, but if the Slug is downwind, then they can't smell it, since the Slug's scent is travelling away from them. There you go, another problem for the poor plant.

  "The solution comes from plant intelligence, or instinct, or whatever, but the
plant knows what to do. It keeps careful track of the upwind Slug, and predicts the exact moment when they will be downstream from them. That is, when the wind is blowing from the plant to the Slug. At the exact moment when it predicts that the Slug is in the right location, it releases a big cloud of pollen, or plant eggs, or whatever they're called."

  "Eww", Ethan commented. "Plant eggs."

  I could find no legitimate problem with the notion of plant eggs, and so I concluded that the Human's statement of 'Eww' was not warranted.

  Matt said, "Well they're not really eggs, I guess, but what do I know, right?" I believed that he knew quite a lot, but I made no statement to this effect as it seemed that his statement was intended to be a self-contradiction.

  He then continued his explanation. "Anyway, the cloud of this pollen gets carried along with the wind and straight onto the poor Slug. Who then gets eaten alive! Really? No. What happens is that the pollen has some special substance on it or something that allow it to bond with Slug slime. So it attaches as much of itself as it can to the Slug. The Slug then carries on its merry way, and the next stage of the relationship commences.

  "Now, note that the pollen attaches to slime, it doesn't absorb in it. So this means that the pollen only attaches to the outermost layer of slime on the Slug. And what do we know happens to a Slug's outermost layer of slime?"

  Ethan was quick to answer. "It sheds!"

  "Exactly", Matthew went on. "The slime sheds. Which means that each individual slime cell that falls off the Slug's body, and that has the plant's pollen attached to it, becomes a new point where another plant can grow. Shedding is a slowish process, which means that wherever the Slug moves after becoming the plant's breeding ground is potential places for new plants to populate. You can see how the plant can reproduce quite a lot by this, and most of it will be far away from them which is just what they want."

  "I guess", Ethan said. "But where do the insects come into this?"

  "Have patience", I advised him. "They will be explained when it is their turn."

  "Wise words from a wise man", Matthew smiled. "Before I talk about them, you need to know the benefits that the pollen brings to the Slug. I did say that it was a symbiotic relationship, meaning that the life forms all help each other out. What the pollen does is increase the amount of nutrients, minerals, and other important stuff retained by the Slug after the slime cell sheds. What I mean by this is that the pollen particle releases some chemicals that cause important things such as water and minerals and stuff to move away from that pollen; that is, absorb further into the Slug and hence out of the cell that is about to be shed.

  "This means that that particular Slug keeps more of the stuff that would've been lost by the cell's shedding, and so is better off than without the pollen, and so we've evolved to tolerate the stuff. If you get a big spray of this stuff on you, you can last longer without food, and especially water, than otherwise. Doesn't do much nowadays, but back in the wild times, it would've been a big help."

  He took a breath and looked at Ethan. "Now for the insects. Now, these insects are mainly carnivorous, but their adults don't eat slime, luckily for us. They also don't eat the plants or their pollen, but they have an acute smell for this pollen, as it attracts other bugs that these bugs do eat. When it comes time for them to lay their eggs, they seek out the smell of this specific pollen, and if they find it already attached to a Slug, then bingo! They land on this area, and then inject the slime cell in question with their eggs.

  "Now, remember that I said that these eggs need heat in order to develop the baby bugs properly, but they stay in hiatus until that heat fades. This is why: the egg stays inside the slime cell, or in however many cells they impregnated - heh, impregnated - and it develops using the heat generated by the Slug's body. When that cell is shed, the cell, the pollen, and the eggs all fall with it. Once on the ground, the heat from the Slug's body slowly fades, and this cooling down triggers the egg's mechanism to hatch.

  "Once the baby insects are born - there's probably a proper name for them, but baby insects will do fine for now - the babies are naturally pretty hungry. So what do they eat? They eat the shed slime cell that they were born into! Keep in mind that they're born microscopic, so one cell is usually enough for a few of them. The pollen doesn't need the bug to grow, as it can simply push the remnants of the slime cell aside as it takes root, or Slugenis's equivalent of roots, but it is helpful if it can grow in a slime-free environment."

  He took another breath, this one deeper than the last. "So there you have it. Plant releases pollen onto Slug. Bug, which can't smell Slug but can smell pollen, tracks this scent down and lays eggs in Slug. Slime cell sheds later on down the track, and baby bugs hatch, eat shed cell, and then go onwards in their lives. Pollen, now unobstructed by slime cell, grows into a new plant. And the plant grows up and the process repeats itself."

  There was a long pause as we all contemplated the nature of Slugenis's complex and intertwined ecosystem. I considered informing Matthew that the correct term for baby insect was larva, but decided not to comment on that just now.

  Finally, Ethan said, "Wow. That seems pretty amazing. There's nothing like that on Earth; well, at least as far as I know." I was reasonably confident that such an intricate organic entanglement could be found in multiple places on Earth, and even in much more complicated arrangements, but as I did not wish to blatantly correct the Human I once again said nothing. Perhaps at a later date I would attempt to correct his lack of knowledge.

  "Well, I've done enough talking for now", Matthew huffed, even though I was sure such an action was not necessary. "Let's save all other explanations for some other time."

  "Well, where are we going now?" asked Carmen.

  "To meet Frank and Rosetta at the breeding facility, of course", he stated in a manner which indicated that he somehow expected us to know this. "I want to see how my babies are going."

  "Alright", Ethan said, "but I'm started to get tired."

  "They're not your babies", I informed Matthew, "nor are they babies at all." His only response was a grin; and although it would've meant nothing to most people, I understood it to be a recognition of his verbal mistake, but a refusal to correct himself.