Psychonautz

by Gentry Race

  Nathan maneuvered his body a full half-circle around the spheres, spotting Tang in the corner. As usual, he was sulking. Nathan couldn’t tell if he was happy, mad, planning, or regretting what had taken place since his eyes were fixed on an indented dark spot within the orbs. The small batch tussled, and Nathan realized it was a human form—Switch fully submerged.

  “Tang, help Switch up,” Nathan ordered, wading through the orbs in his path.

  “Why? Old boy got us in this predicament. He should have told us our ship was gonna get swallowed up. Besides, he’s squirming like a girl,” Tang said.

  Nathan made it to the dark spot, reaching down and pulling Switch up.

  Switch was trying to swim through the orbs like water in a pool, but Nathan was quick to temper his erratic movement. “Switch, stop. It's like quicksand. The more you move, the more you sink.”

  Switch smiled in embarrassment as he sat back into a neutral position, one where he wasn’t being swallowed up.

  “Now, how long do you think this thing will take to get to Gigantica?” Nathan asked.

  Switch thumbed through a few catalogs of numbers on his keypad, too many for Nathan to make sense of. “Well, depending on speed, distance, and whether they’re using Shadow World subspace, it could take minutes or hours.”

  “Hours? That’s better than taking that ice-nap,” Fery said, lying on her stomach. She bobbed her feet while looking at the glowing balls like a little girl inspecting her mother’s jewels.

  Nathan was reminded of her sly departure earlier. “The lone wolf speaks. Tell me, Fery, how’d you make it off the ship again?”

  Fery was silent for a moment, glancing at Tang. “Beightol done came and got me, like I said.”

  “And you were just recovering?” Nathan said, probing further.

  “Yeah? Would you know what that’s like? All I saw you do was hover back and watch us get creamed,” Fery said with a bite in her tone.

  Nathan could feel the anger swelling inside him. If those brats only knew what kind of sacrifices he’d made in the fight against the Syndicate… Hell, his eye was evidence of that—but then he stopped, remembering the undisciplined recruit he’d once been and the entitlement of thinking he deserved rank without working for it. That’s what Fery was—self-entitled.

  Hastings caught wind of the disagreement and made her way over. “I suggest everyone take what time we do have to get some rest and tap that MRE reserve to replenish your bodies. When we hit Drækonia, it's connect-to-kernel time, and then we release what goo Tang has left.”

  The group chuckled inappropriately, and Hastings rolled her eyes at the juvenile behavior.

  Fery got giddy thinking of what food she would pick out. “What’s it gonna be for us, Big Daddy?”

  Beightol thumbed through a dial of meal choices that included a main course, a side, and a dessert. He stopped at a foot-long sandwich that was piled high with roast beef and drizzled with a copious amount of yellow goo.

  “Wit Wiz, please,” Beightol said, smacking his lips.

  “Oh, come on, Daddy. Another Philly cheesesteak?” Fery said, selecting it, too.

  “Pennsylvania is best gourmet,” Beightol said.

  Nathan tried to ignore both of them as the processed Cheese Whiz was pumped into their bodies via the suit. He looked at Tang, who was already asleep, and then at Switch, who was heavy into satiation as he fed on his favorite meal—bacon mac n’ cheese. Hastings, only a few feet away from Nathan, slowly thumbed through a menu, readying an intravenous entree.

  “Dinner for two?” Nathan asked.

  Hastings smiled slightly. “Get some rest, Marine.”

  A quick jostle pushed Nathan farther into the orb nest he’d perched in for the long haul. He pulled himself up, opened his eyes, and realized that he felt rested for the first time in the weeks since starting this crazy mission. It was as if the Voxel suit was continuously draining his thoughts, and it felt like being wired on caffeine all the time. Mentally, it was exhausting.

  A sliver of light poked through where the lid met the bulk of the container, and as the opening grew, the container turned. Nathan instinctively looked for something to grab onto, but just slid into Hastings.

  Switch and Tang hit them from behind as the container turned more, sliding them into Fery, Vix, and Beightol. It was nearly vertical now, and they could see one side lowering, serving as the perfect dumping chute.

  Sliding out, Beightol grabbed the lower lid while each ‘naut grabbed onto him. As they clung to his large, swinging body, Nathan was able to look around, scanning the facility. It looked like a big, grey funnel with a series of sweeping hands that combed through the brilliant white orbs, pushing them down to a center neck-hole that glowed white-hot.

  “The weight is too much,” Beightol said, his fingers tearing into the container even more with his suited grip until there was only a little meat left to bear the weight.

  The metal gave, sending the ‘nauts to their fates. They hit the soft orbs and managed to dodge the first combing hand that swirled by. Nathan could see the upper lip. There was a way out, but with no Æther, they were fucked—physically and psychologically. They would need to work together.

  “We’re sliding down to that fire,” Switch said.

  “Catch a ride on that combing thing when it comes around,” Hastings ordered.

  “No, it's cycling downward. New ones come from the top,” Nathan said, countering her order.

  The ‘nauts slid farther down with the orbs, like trash to an incinerator.

  “Tang, how much Æther do you have left?” Nathan asked.

  “Enough to blow this place up,” Tang replied.

  “Can you link with Fery and use her harpoon?” Nathan asked.

  “She’s only 'tuned' with Beightol,” Hastings said, looking for another way.

  Tang and Fery looked at each other with a glance Nathan had never noticed between them before. Tang pulled himself out from the consuming orbs and slid the few feet down to her, connecting his forearm with hers. They synced instantly and voxelized the harpoon gun.

  "Are they fucking?” Switch said to Hastings.

  “Now, we have to wait for the next hand to pass or the cable will get caught—”

  Tang and Fery shot the hard-edged harpoon shaft toward the wall, ignoring what Nathan was trying to explain. Nathan could see the hand slowly making its way toward the cable in giant swooping circular movements.

  “Damn it! I said wait!” Nathan yelled out, trying to move against the small Æther orbs.

  The combing hand snagged the cable, yanking Tang and Fery up to the hand that was descending. They cut the cable just in time, landing on top of the truss. Tang and Fery unhooked from one another, and Nathan tried to make out what they were saying as he slid farther down toward the white-hot furnace.

  The hand went through its repetitive motion again. Just as it passed, Nathan watched Fery mount a large hand cannon Tang had voxelized, her feet covering the front of the barrels.

  They are fucking crazy.

  Tang pulled the trigger, but instead of firing ammunition, a large smoke plume exploded outward and launched Fery up to the lip. She caught it effortlessly and climbed over.

  Tang jumped off just as the hand made another pass, falling next to Hastings, who had a smug look on her face.

  “Never knew you could link with her,” Hastings said.

  “Time to level up,” Tang said, avoiding eye contact.

  “I guess sometimes you always never know,” Switch said, trying to lighten the situation.

  “Is she gonna come back?” Nathan asked.

  The ‘nauts slid closer to the heat, and Nathan could feel the warmth behind the voxel plates. It was now or never. Fery had to come back to save them.

  “There she is,” Beightol said, but something else was with her.

  Fery stood on the ledge, her arms subdued in restraints. Behind her were golden draconic creatures that carried long staffs. The beings were unmi
stakable as Drækonians, and the group could see them pointing their staffs in their direction.

  “We’re fucked,” Switch said, peering up.

  The machine stopped its progress, the hands slowed, and the fire within the center funnel cooled down.

  “Well, at least we aren't going to die today,” Tang finally said.

  Suspended in holographic blue, the ‘nauts were crowded into a large net and effortlessly pulled along the ground by the Drækonian guards. Fery was kept separate, being pushed in the front like a prized ornament. The creatures looked like human-dragon hybrids, their scaly skin seemingly covered in large flecks of gold. Over their draconic, polished skin, they wore thick, green plates of armor that were almost like coral rock mixed with cratered pumice.

  The Drækonians appeared to weigh no less than a ton, at least by Nathan’s assessment. He noticed the small, thin strip of light that ran across the backs of their shoulders above two nubs. The netting they were held in was tied to those spots. He looked at Vix, crowded in the net with him, and motioned to where the light was coming from, recognizing it from the attack on the Starcadians.

  As they left the mundane processing facility, large bay doors opened and vented in bands that were so heavy on the yellow spectrum that Nathan had to shield his eyes. The guards pulled the ‘nauts into the open, exposing them to the cold air. Nathan felt his lungs tighten in response to the new atmosphere, and his emergency reserves immediately kicked in, adjusting his body's metabolism to the new planet. For a second, he felt panicked and then immediately became light-headed. He took a deep breath that smelled like sulfur mixed with a tinge of garlic.

  “Weeep woooop. Desi od Bood,” one guard said.

  A second later, Nathan felt pressure on his eardrums, as if they were climbing a mountain too fast. As the pressure built, their words became clearer, and Nathan could understand what the guards were saying. He could thank his Voxel suit for that.

  “The deserter was an easy catch,” the guard said.

  “Did you hear that?” Hastings asked, looking at her crew and trying not to dig her weight into them too much in the single net.

  “Yeah, deserter,” Nathan said, looking at Fery. “I knew she couldn’t be trusted.”

  Beightol was quick to reach past the others bundled into the net and grab Nathan for his disrespectful comment.

  “Beightol, she was going to leave us,” Hastings said.

  “Quiet!” one of the guards yelled.

  Nathan looked at the flora and fauna that decorated the golden path they were being pulled along. The bluish grass was well trimmed and grew around tall, purple trees that looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

  “The colors are unbelievable,” Nathan said quietly.

  “Well, actually not unbelievable,” Switch said. “Green plants contain a lot of the pigment chlorophyll. Because chlorophyll molecules are very good at soaking up blue and red light but not so good at absorbing green light, plants containing a lot of chlorophyll appear green to the human eye.”

  “Yeah, definitely green like Earth,” Hastings said.

  Switch continued to explain. “Pigment is also behind a purple plant's vivid coloring. Plants that appear purple, blue, or red contain a higher concentration of anthocyanin than chlorophyll. Anthocyanin is a pigment adept at absorbing green light but less skilled at absorbing red, blue, or purple light.”

  “Thanks for the science course, Mr. Wizard,” Hastings said.

  "M. Knight use color red in films to show important,” Beightol blurted. “That why plants colored.”

  Everyone was quiet for a few heartbeats. Then, as if in a scripted chorus, “Shut the fuck up, Beightol,” shot into the silence.

  The creatures pulled the netting down tighter. “You will be silent, Terrans!”

  Ahead, Nathan could see many copper trusses extending upward. Rather than constructed, the architecture looked as if it had been grown from the bedrock. Crystalline in texture, the main hexagonal tower was preceded by the next connecting tower like someone had arranged a pack of smokes at varying lengths and held them together within a circle. Along each tower there were crews on planks that were suspended at different heights, cleaning what looked like a green tarnish from the sides of the structures.

  “They sure like it shiny,” Hastings pointed out.

  “I bet you it’s patina,” Switch said.

  “What’s a patina?” Tang asked, shifting his weight onto Beightol.

  “Oxidized copper,” Nathan offered.

  Switch nodded. “Yes, think of it as rust. This is how copper is responding to the oxygen in the air. It's a great way to preserve the metal. Not sure why they would want to rub it out. I think it looks amazing.”

  Vix fought with the holographic netting, adjusting her awkward position. She then signed a series of words to Hastings.

  “Vix says you should know how that is, Switch," Hastings said. "You rub something out all the time.”

  Nathan giggled, despite being hung up like a fish to dry.

  The grand doors of the Drækonian Empire were not a sight for the faint of heart. The large, vertical slabs were carved to perfection in the likenesses of seven different species of evil-looking dragons, arranged in a totem. The doors were made of jade stone and had red-veined striations throughout. A large dragon with a snake-like body overshadowed the rest, and at the base, two dragonesque dogs stood guard, their eyes as menacing as their large, serrated canines. Waterways glistened in the yellow light, and Nathan wondered if they formed a network of passages.

  As the guards pushed past the doors, the captives saw a long, golden rug that was wedged between two rows of dark green, shaggy carpet. Nathan could see small filaments snapping with tiny electrical charges up and down the material. The emerald shag led to an altar of the same color and a pile of charred bones. But as he looked closer, he realized it wasn’t a pile of bones but rather a throne made of burnt spinal columns—six in all. The vertebral columns were interwoven, coming to a point that jutted into the sky like an antenna pointing straight to heaven.

  “Well, that’s creepy,” Switch said.

  “You think that’s bad? Check out the walls,” Hastings said, pointing to draping that looked like sheaths of loose red skin.

  “Roast beef curtains, anyone?” Nathan joked.

  The guards stopped abruptly, and the ’nauts could see the fleshy curtains wrinkling around the throne. After a few tense moments, the curtains parted, revealing a figure standing no less than twelve feet tall. Along skin that was the same polished gold tone of the guards’, it sported six tiny legs that met several abdominal sections bearing the texture of brown leather, which squeaked as the creature coiled onto its throne. Nathan couldn’t help but notice the large claw at the end of its tail and the sizable ring around its neck.

  “It snake?” Beightol whispered.

  “No, this is the High Priest of Drækonia,” Switch said.

  “Silence,” the High Priest said, his thin lips pursed with a hiss. He raised the small limb that was closest to his head and opened his palm. “Remove the restraints from our guests.”

  “Yesss, sir,” a guard hissed, retracting the projection that stemmed from its back.

  The ‘nauts landed on their feet, except for Switch, who landed directly onto his wide hip. Vix reached over to help him up as the High Priest sat in silence, inspecting each one and seeming to focus on their dark, paneled suits.

  “Why have you come to Drækonia, Terrans?” he asked.

  Nathan stepped forward. “We were sent a gift—one that turned out to be a threat.”

  “A gift?” asked the High Priest.

  “Yes, sent from Drækonia,” Nathan said.

  “An invasion,” Tang added.

  “An invasion? We have not contacted Earth since the Great Passing,” the High Priest said, the tone in his voice a cross between surprise and slight offense.

  “What Great Passing, Your Holiness?” Switch asked.

&nb
sp; “The Great Passing of knowledge. Drækonians were responsible for your inheritance of technology. I am sure this has allowed for Terrans to flourish, including the development of that suit you use, yes?”

  “Our Voxel suits were derived from Syndicate technology and the gift, but then we were attacked by your kind,” Tang interrupted.

  The High Priest laughed out loud. “My dear boy, I assure you that we had nothing to do with an attack.”

  “Then why do the Spry bugs originate from this system?” Tang asked, replaying a holorecording of the Spry bug incident.

  “Those are native bugs from the moon Invidia. How did you even see those? They move faster than the tachyon particle itself.” The High Priest laughed, pointing to Nathan’s discolored eye. “Perception can be a reality.”

  “Cut the esoteric crap. You attacked the Starcadians, too,” Tang fired back.

  “The Starcadians have helped us. Why would we destroy the ones who provide us with manifestation? The Ætching grants us the Æons.” The High Priest uncoiled, circling his fingers and tracing light into the air.

  A large, dragon-like figure made of blue light formed behind his back and laid its arms around him like they were family. Donned with a crown of horns, its skin was striated with veins of fire, and it held a large hammer that was fit only for a king. Nathan recognized the beast as similar to the one from the Starcadian attack.

  “Everyone sees that thing, right?” Switch asked, checking his sanity.

  “Unless…” The High Priest sat down, vanishing the creature above him.

  “Unless what?” Hastings asked.

  “Please forgive me. If you will come with me, I will show you what I mean,” the High Priest said, passing a small, two-fingered hand over the green filament hairs, causing small sparks to snap.

  The sheaths of tattered crimson skin pulled back and another corridor behind the High Priest opened to a large room that resembled something from a museum exhibit. At the center of the room was a replica of the brilliant yellow gas giant, striated with purples and greens. Nathan recognized the seven moons that encircled the planet, locked into distinct regions by a glowing net of blue light.