by Frank Albelo
Whenever Koma and I had been free during the week we had managed to briefly discuss what we knew about the mutations, the ranks and the ‘evolution’ that looked to be looming in my future. Koma said that the Rank’s correlated to how ‘deep’ I could ingrain a mutation.
“Deep? Really? No better word?” I had told him.
“What is the issue? As it stands your mutation is superficial. You are limited to one appendage mutation at a time, even if you have two available. The connection between your nerves and your body is the key to controlling mutations. The Overmind fills in thousands of aspects of your mutation control.” He lifted all four arms and swung them in the air. “When I first mutated into a Calforn, I had near zero control over these. When I hit Rank II in Appendage Mutation and Subconscious Manipulation it was as if I had always had them.”
I mulled over his words for the days that followed and during the ration run. I could only assume the evolution would have something to do with my control. While I could call on the inverted leg mutation well, I innately knew I was simply scratching the surface. This was of course not even accounting for the potential of the size and strength enhancing mutation I had first unlocked.
It was not but twenty minutes before we arrived at B1. Between us we lugged two of the dogs and the rest of the centaur experiment topside. As the sun began to fall we arrived at the holding area of the base.
I told Koma to wait behind the usual snow drift that formed on the way to the base. I was still amazed the man looked completely fine being in negative temperature weather in simple pants.
Waiting just outside of the holding area was a pair of the extra large mechs. Once I got close enough, the dogs dragged with one hand, the centaur body with the other, the ATC’s spoke.
“Sufficient proximity. Message of delivery received. Four day ration crate will be provided.”
With that, one of the hulking ATCs picked up the corpses then repulsor jumped into the holding area and into the base. I stared daggers into the remaining robot, wondering what had happened to its sibling after I had fought it.
Once the ATC had dropped off the corpses, it leaped all the way over to us on the other side of the fence. I did my best not to appear shaken by the superior technology of the Government. I puffed out my chest for any that might be watching as the robot hustle closer. Those were the odds stacked against us, but I planned to become stronger to face them.
After dropping off our rations, the ATC just leapt back and stood next to the other one. I didn’t want to think about the amount of power required to run those machines, or squander repulsor leaps for that matter, so I turned and walked briskly back to the snowdrift. A minute later Koma and I were striding through the snow with me at the lead blazing a path for the slightly snow-blind Calforn.
From that day forth we attempted to go once per week to collect rations. Over the course of four weeks we exhausted our backlog of mutant corpses, netting us a total of about twenty days of food, for our original group that is, and about ten if we had to share amongst all of us.
Food hadn’t been a concern as Hunter and his group had been able to keep us supplied with meat and a few other vegetables on the side. Most of the vegetables we stored while the meat we ate within a day or two.
The farming area Gamma was working on continued to expand and with the efforts of everyone in the group was almost fifty feet by a hundred long. The sheer size of the grow area was a positive as it was growing potatoes and some of the long, carrot looking roots we had found in sections. Beta insisted we call them kakarrots for whatever reason.
The first section that was planted, about ten square feet, produced hand sized spuds after three weeks. Everyone was hopeful for the future as we continued to harvest, chop and grow our base of operations.
The camp had seen some massive improvements. Thanks to the few makeshift metal tools we had, in combination with Koma's and my superhuman strength, we were able to create a rough cauldron and a spit roast rack. With this, and Dana’s expertise in the cooking department, we were able to improve the quality of our food by leaps and bounds.
The biggest changes did not happen on the cooking front, but on the construction front. Thanks to clearing out the land for farming and herding, Galileo had about as much wood as he could plan to use. Without the need for elaborate pulley systems and leveraging of logs, the constructing Digit put my mutant behind to work. By the end, the humble cave entrance and flanking walls had turned into a ten-foot tall enclosed log cabin. Galileo had even planned it out such that there were small ventilation shafts cut into the ceiling logs, allowing us to keep the fire inside. I lost track of the amount of logs I shifted around the camp.
The most personally beneficial thing about slaving away on the camp was the improved control I now had over my mutations. With the slight surplus of food I could push my body regularly to see just how much the mutation would allow before threatening to overwhelm my consciousness. This game of cat and mouse was secretly overseen by Koma, who had to pull me back from the brink on more than a few occasions.
When I said you were getting stronger, I did not intend for you to do this. I remember the mental lecturing I had gotten after the third incident. I brushed off his concern. I focused on the joy and happiness I was seeing on the faces of the Digits. The strain I put on my body was necessary in order to grow; matching the threats that might come from the Officials aboveground and the mutants all around was all that mattered.
In the third week, I met the 50% Mastery conditions the Overmind had set. Thankfully, I had hit the mark due to my body repairing itself after a day of intense work. The other Digits had gone to bed when an incessant chirping hammered me to the ground. I did my best hold my tongue and not wake up the others. I hobbled out of the cabin calling for Koma with my mind. I inadvertently activated my inverted leg mutation and shot through the forest, crashing into the remaining trees around camp before instincts guided me around them.
A few minutes later Koma was able to catch up with me. Even through my mental fog in my head I noted the Calforn’s panting.
“Alpha! What is happening!? You sound like one of the experiments!” he said, after evidently trying to speak through my mind.
“I… don’t… knooow…” I said through chattering teeth. The man had me pinned to the ground but my body was shaking violently and Koma was struggling to hold me.
In a flash, Koma slapped his mutated hands to my temples. This time the world didn’t darken, instead the maroon color of my mutation tendrils swarmed around me. My mental body was nowhere to be seen. I reached out to the tendrils and they stabbed into my body, searing even more pain through my body. I felt my mind wall buckle completely and a vast emptiness encased me.
For what felt like an eternity I was a bundle of nerves in pain and jarred thoughts floating in the ether of space. At some point, the chirping returned, but it pulsed with soothing waves of energy. Each chirp sent relief through my body and reined in the mutation swirling around me. I lost count of the number of them I crashed into, but eventually I was free of them entirely. I was alone in the darkness.
From the inky black around me, my mental self rose. As I focused on the body, thinking of my painful ordeal, I saw mixes of dark blue and maroon swirls now encased my body. A few seconds after, flashing words for my Masteries jumped up around me.
<...>
It was strange. The Overmind seemed to be stretching a question to me. I wasn’t ready for that and my thoughts were filled with confusion. Apparently that was a sufficient prompt for the broken connecting mind of the Calforn.
I felt information and foreign memories wash over me. I saw the memories of myriad Calforn in different species as if I was looking through their eyes. My head reeled from the overload of information, but I watched all the vicious destruction the Hyperburn Soldiers could wreck. I smiled. The anger and frustration that always lingered at the back of my mind flared and I saw the power to exact my revenge.
Before the pain got too overwhelming, the world regained the normal colors of the underground dusk. Koma had pulled back his arms from my temple. I blinked, taking in the fearful look in the man’s face.
“Alpha?” he asked.
I’m okay. I… understand my abilities better. I am a Hyperburn Mutation Soldier now, I thought in response.
Koma nodded at my words, opting to let the silence between us linger. I felt stronger, the mental muscles connected to my arm and leg mutations that much closer. I looked at my clawed hands and a gray scaling that had begun to crawl up my biceps further. I concentrated on the scales and a furious itching moved through me. The next few seconds involved the scaling receding into my skin and my claws retracting, almost like the paws of a cat. It was an eerie sensation, but after flexing them in and out I knew they could be called in a moment’s notice.
“I think I’m okay now. We should head back or the others might worry,” I said.
Koma merely nodded and we made our way back to the Digits. I was apprehensive about the changes going on with my body, and the price I might need to pay, but I knew the strength of the mutations was a necessity for going against the USG.
I needed to get stronger still.
● ● ●
The second most noteworthy thing that transcurred while in the city wilderness was a conversation I had with Koma about two days after our wilderness escapade. The entire group was sleeping in leaf bedding Galileo had fashioned with help from Lara when the Calforn pulled me from the others. As we made our way past the embers of the fire, past the ever vigilant Marvin, the man continued communicating a sense of silence through our mental connection.
Once we were a ways away from the camp I finally pushed my thoughts out.
Koma. What is going on?
The man seemed hesitant to answer, even going so far that I didn’t feel the usual mental prodding he did throughout the day.
“I… remembered something. It’s still foggy, but it’s a Calforn Overmind memory. I am not sure if it was because we are together, setting up a stronger signal of some kind, but they are coming.” He paused to look around with uncertainty, the only light around us was coming from a few glowing mushrooms that grew on the trees. I could see a deep frown on his face, one of the biggest expressions I had seen on the man since we met.
“There are more of these… ecosystems. These cities used to house a lot of Calforn. They were responsible for manning some kind of space travel system. The memories aren’t clear and I don’t fully understand some of the concepts they hold.”
Resting my back on a nearby tree, keeping an eye on the Calforn and an ear on the forest around us. Waving my hand somewhat dismissively I said, “Okay. Important, but not exactly groundbreaking. I figured the city had to serve an additional purpose other than housing. Are you going to tell me what led to you take us out in the middle of the night?”
The man looked shocked, a slight undertone of disbelief slipping through his mental guard.
You’re an asshole. I am not an idiot.
Driving my point home I tapped my head. “I can make deductions, Koma, I don’t have to be a multi-consciousness entity for that to happen.”
Coughing politely while putting up his mental shield again, “Of course. Apologies.”
It was funny the man’s demeanor had returned to his usual detached air after my snappy words, but it felt good to put my nagging brother in his place.
“As you said, there is more to this. The fact that I am receiving more memories is because a new natural-born Calforn is on Dun Lund.”
“Wait, I thought you said the Calforn could only be born parasitically?”
“You are correct. Your case appears to be an exception of course, but this means that some human overwhelmed all but one of our siblings or some other freak scenario has transcurred.”
The man’s words did chill me to the core. The fact that someone was experimenting with Calforn mutations was a scary enough thought, but if other aliens began to pass on information to the USG we would be in even more danger.
“Any way that we might find our newborn buddy?” I asked.
“Not unless he broadcasts mentally again.”
“Okay. Sadly, there isn’t much we can do right now. We need to build some stability before we go out to the surface and start searching for some scaly telepath dude.”
I paused thinking of our options. “Keep a mental ear out, especially during out next surface run, if we get another hint of this it will be worth investigating.”
Koma nodded, and silence reigned as we picked our way back to the camp. I made note that Delta, Justin and Gamma had all shifted in their beds, but as soon as I laid down in mine I fell right to sleep.
On our forty-second day on Dun Lund we were thrown for a loop.
Chapter 14: Shaken Foundations
There was a humming that thobbed throughout the whole underground city. The different bird creatures of the wilderness took flight, adding their screeches and calls to the air. Our entire group jumped to attention within the minute, but by the time we had made it outside of our cabin the world had turned into an unstable rollercoaster ride.
Even standing on even ground, it felt as if we were on a boat. The very earth shaking and tilting enough to throw us off balance. I recognized it was an earthquake right away; they were fairly common when mining the moon. The issue was the intensity of the one we experienced. The shaking lasted a full minute, Lara told us she counted.
I feared our log cabin would collapse, the wood groaning as it leaned onto weaker sections, but Galileo had done a magnificent job planning.
When the shaking stopped, there was still ringing in our ears. The deafening cacophony that had resulted from being shaken inside a stone cave had all of us reeling. Koma and I recovered the fastest, but the others stayed down as they tried to endure the sensation of their brain rattling in their skulls.
“What the fuck is happening!?” I shouted at Hunter once I saw his eyes regain their focus.
“No idea!” the man responded back loudly. As I tried to converse with him I heard the others shouting trying to communicate with each other over the ringing in their ears.
“We had quakes a couple of times before but never like this!”
“We need to get to the surface for now. We need to figure out what is going to happen and I don’t want this whole cave falling on top of us. At the very least we don’t want to be here for the aftershocks,” I said, the ringing in my own ears dissipating completely.
“Yeah!” The man’s hearing must have still been shot since he replied loudly. I patted him on the shoulder as I turned my thoughts to Koma.
We need to get everyone moving. Start collecting the meat in one crate and the roots in another.
The man sent a mental nod and sprinted to the back of the cabin where the food was stored. I activated my armor, encasing my head and checking on Marvin with my HUD, “Marvin, what do we know? How are your power levels?”
“Richter scale vibrations estimated at 9.7. Power reserves holding at fourteen days run-time, internal battery addition in full status,” replied the machine through our comms.
Over time in the camp I had managed to get the recharging station working, even reversing it so we could charge Marvin with battery packs if the need arose. Thanks to an easy initiative, Marvin had been kept at full power. By rotating blood do
nations from everyone in the group our resident mech was in top form; donating blood was not as big a deal when we had a decent stock of food and people to share the struggles of surviving.
Focusing on the group again I noted everyone piling food into the containers. It was unlikely we would make it to the surface within the day while moving the whole group, but it was worth the effort. There was no idle chit chat as we set out from the camp, holding as many rations as we could.
Gamma said she needed to water the crops, just in case we came back. I wanted to argue, but the look in the girl’s eyes told me it would be futile. Lara offered to stay and help, so I directed the group. The best bet was that the main group head to the city with Koma and then the three of us catch up. The ladies seemed to agree, even though Hunter and Galileo looked visibly concerned.