by James Murdo
“Bright!” Prood shouted.
A scraping sound made them all look in the direction of the compartment one down from their own. From the side of the hatch entrance, another of Galphranx’s species emerged.
The new arrival tentatively came close to Galphranx and stopped a hand’s width away. It appeared identical to Galphranx, although its body pulsated less rapidly.
Prood stamped one of her feet. “Welcome!”
“Doesn’t look particularly happy,” Seremend whispered to Tolren.
“We don’t know that,” he whispered back.
The new arrival moved back, as though noticing the others for the first time. It settled in front of Prood.
“Welcome!” Prood shouted again, stamping the other foot.
The new arrival moved backwards and stopped.
“Did it say anything to you, Prood?” Tolren asked. Prood did not reply, so he spoke again. “Has it said anything directly to your mind?”
“No,” Prood replied, loudly but less energetically than before.
The new arrival moved over to Seremend. Despite all her travels through the Spires and the Outer Layer, she felt unsettled.
“What should I do?” she whispered, reaching into her pocket.
“Don’t,” Tolren warned her. “It’s not been aggressive.”
She left her hand in her pocket, holding her ground firmly against the new arrival. “How do you know that? Maybe this is aggressive.” Her comments were left unanswered as the newcomer moved over to Tolren. It settled in front of him, as it had with the others, and stayed there, wobbling gently.
“It’s taking quite a while,” Seremend whispered. “I don’t think it’s safe. Are you sure–”
“Long time!” Prood yelled.
“Wait,” Tolren said, flinching a little. He flicked his head gently towards a window, at their home spire behind them. “We’ve got time.”
“Long time!” Prood yelled, again.
“Prood,” Tolren said. “Is nothing appearing in your mind–”
Tracker.
The word flashed across Seremend’s mind. She turned to Tolren. “Did you just–”
“Tracker?” he asked, surprised.
“Yes… Tolren… I think we should be careful. I’ve heard of the Tracker before.”
“I think this is called Tracker,” Tolren said.
“Tracker!” Prood shouted.
“Tolren,” Seremend was panicked, “we really need to–” She stopped speaking as Tracker began to pulsate more rapidly, far more rapidly than Galphranx ever had. Its blue streaks brightened so much she had to shield her eyes.
Squinting, she saw Galphranx moving slowly towards Tracker. A moment later, Tracker’s top half folded and bent over completely, so that both ends were now attached to the floor. Seremend gasped in surprise, and she and Tolren stumbled backwards. There was a tearing sound, as individual segments along Tracker’s body split around the blue circular streaks, all joined along its low spine. It seemed to push itself out, and the splits enlarged. Seremend stared, horrified, as each split appeared to contain rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth.
“Seremend!” Tolren shouted as Tracker rushed towards him. He barely had time to jump back as Galphranx crashed into Tracker, pushing it against the wall. Galphranx’s body was bulging, as though it was trying to split its own circular rings.
“Run!” Prood shouted at them. “Galphranx attack!”
Seremend reached into her pocket, seeing Tolren do the same. Galphranx was struggling with Tracker, it was going to be difficult to help when they were so close.
“No time!” Prood shouted. “Run!”
Tolren turned to her with a pained expression and cursed. “We’ve got no choice!”
They ran.
Seremend heard loud crashing sounds as they raced back towards their modules. Tracker was coming after them. She reached over and pulled her pack around. Tolren already had his in his hands. It did not appear that Prood had any weapons. She glanced back again and saw Tracker still coming after them, with Galphranx a short distance behind.
“Ready?” she shouted.
“Now!” he replied.
They stopped and turned around. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Prood do the same. She held up the device in her hand and activated it. A cube flew towards Tracker. Upon reaching it, the cube dissipated into a cloud of dendrium shards – lethal to all species she had come across. Tracker simply opened one of its segment-mouths and sucked them in. Simultaneously, a blue bolt erupted from Tolren’s right hand and hurtled towards Tracker. It simply dissolved against Tracker’s skin. She raised her other hand to fire a green plasma stream towards it, while setting the other device to send a group of cubes flying over to Tracker. She even set the plasma stream to red. Nothing worked. Tracker had slowed, but continued towards them regardless.
“Nothing’s working,” Tolren shouted.
Prood was stamping her feet, screaming at Tracker. “Stop!”
“Prood – come on,” Tolren screamed. They all turned and ran.
“You have anything else?” Tolren panted.
“Nothing seems to work,” Seremend replied. “I don’t know. Shields won’t work either – they’re for energy targets, none of them’ll contain Tracker.”
“Where’s Prood?” They looked behind and Tolren cursed loudly, stopping.
Prood stood ready to fight. Curiously, Tracker looked to be trying to swerve around her. Tracker turned sharply but Prood pounced – faster than Seremend would have thought her capable. She crashed into Tracker and they went tumbling onto the floor in a whirling heap.
Prood wrestled with the undulating Tracker, avoiding its jaws with astonishing speed. She flicked her body rapidly about, far quicker than she had been able to move her legs, and succeeded in throwing Tracker against the wall when Galphranx caught up and helped by crashing into it. Prood turned and began running towards them.
“It! Said! Run!” Prood shouted. She caught up with them and they ran together. They reached the compartment with Tolren and Seremend’s modules, when a force from behind knocked Seremend to the side. Disoriented, she looked up and saw Tracker tumbling around with Galphranx. Prood launched herself into the fray. Seremend rose to her feet, disoriented.
“Sereme–”
Tolren had been in the middle of shouting her name when she saw Prood grab and throw him into a module, fitting in tightly behind. Galphranx and Tracker wrestled in front of the other module, and their fight blocked the route up ahead – where Prood’s own module had docked.
“Tolren!” she shouted, alarmed. “You need to know…” She saw him turn and face her, terrified. He struggled to release himself from Prood. “Memories of Hope – find her. The copies will guide you!”
With little space, one of Prood’s arms wormed its way behind and closed the module’s casing. She saw Tolren hammering on the side of the casing, screaming her name. Prood held him down. A moment later, the module exited the spire.
Time was running out. Galphranx and Tracker were still fighting, rolling around in front of her module. She ran around, narrowly missing one of Tracker’s gnashing mouths, and made it to the next compartment. She looked desperately for signs of Prood’s module.
Something collided with her again and she was thrown towards a wall.
36
CONFUSED ABSENCE
Seremend came to, lying in the dark. The last thing she remembered was a wall racing towards her. Then blackness.
Something was pressed against her from above, wobbling faintly. Alarmed, she screamed and fought against it, until she realised it was not fighting back against her. When she relaxed, it slid off a little, and she was able to sit up and lean forwards. It was still pitch black.
Galphranx.
The word appeared in her mind, but she immediately knew what it meant – or hoped she did.
“How long have I been here?” she asked in panic.
Tracker angry.
“Gal
phranx, please – we need to go!”
Tracker confused.
“How do we get to one of the modules?”
Exposes its teeth.
“Please, Galphranx – where are we? A side-room?”
Opened hole.
“We need to go now!”
Tracker confused.
“We need to go!”
Newly integrated.
“What? Please – we need to leave now,” she said, panicking. “We need to get to a module before the spire is out of range.”
Holes open. Holes close.
“What?” she said, angry. “Let me go!” She struggled against it, but it was pointless. She was helpless.
Tracker confused.
“We need to leave!” There was no reply. She punched and she kicked, but Galphranx would not budge. She crumpled down, crying. A chiming sound rang quietly, and she looked up. A circle of light had appeared, behind Galphranx – an entrance. It expanded until it was clearly wide enough for them to leave through it.
Galphranx slid off her and moved out into the light. She followed. They were back in one of the spire’s compartment corridors. There was a flicker of movement to her right. From quite some way down the spire, to her horror, Tracker was rushing towards them. She turned and ran the other way, side by side with Galphranx.
When they came to the module, she grabbed the handle and pulled it open. Galphranx pushed her in, following swiftly behind and tugged the module’s casing closed. There was little room, but she managed to work her way round to the window. Reaching up, she peered through the window. Tears filled her eyes. The spire was gone.
Tracker reached the module and began to hurl itself wildly against the casing.
*
Tracker was still thrashing animatedly about – no longer just against the module’s casing, but also against other parts of the section. The walls, the hatch between sections, everywhere.
“Why doesn’t it use the module you came here in?” Seremend asked miserably, not expecting an answer. She closed her eyes.
Tracker confused.
*
Sometime later, Galphranx’s movement woke Seremend. She looked up through the window to see a spire in the distance.
“It’s not his,” Seremend said, despondently. “He’s gone. Again.”
PART 5
37
EXPECTED CONFUSION
Seremend glanced at Galphranx – close behind, as usual.
“Get ready. You’re in for a shock.”
Unlike the other hatches within the spire, this one was different. She had only come across the type once before. There was a white brightness that shimmered like a sheet of solid light in front of them.
“Not that anything seems to shock or excite you,” she added.
Outer Layer.
“So, you are excited. Let’s hope we’re lucky.”
Holding her breath, she stepped forward and passed through.
Taking in a fresh influx of air, she smiled widely. “Seems we’re lucky, after all.” The pressure and gravity were not dissimilar from the end of the spire they had just left, although it was a little hot for her liking. There was a low, consistent, and strangely pleasant hum. She pushed her hood back. All around, a twilight landscape beckoned.
“Tolren?” she asked loudly, as she always did in a new place. “Are you here?” Her smile began to fade.
She was distracted by sliding sounds behind her. Galphranx scuttled around, testing the new ground beneath its circular peripheries. It was visibly swaying, more than usual, although no words of distress flashed across her mind.
“Nothing to comment?” she asked, waiting for a few moments. “Fine.”
There were no others around them, just her and Galphranx. She stared down, lifting her legs gently and pushing down. The ground was reactive, padded, providing a gentle deceleration. She leant down and saw that each part of the ground was hexagonally shaped, with fuzzy edges. Upon closer inspection, the fuzzy edges were generated by small needle-like protrusions that attenuated finely into obscurity. Pushing one heel firmly into the ground, she was able to tilt one of the hexagons to the side, exposing what looked like a dark brown spine.
Skidding sounds took her attention. She lifted her heel, letting the hexagonal top spring back into place. Galphranx was still wobbling exaggeratedly. She laughed. Its particular method of movement was evidently not suited to the new terrain, which continued for as far as she could see. Gentle hills rolled all around them, punctuated with what she assumed were settlements of some kind. Looking for the nearest cluster of lights, she pointed it out. “Let’s find out where we are.”
They set off, with Galphranx moving slower and more loudly than usual.
*
They neared the lights and Seremend stopped, tilting her head. The glow had appeared yellow-orange when they had started towards it, but now it was a bright white.
New atmosphere.
She looked sharply at Galphranx. “You’re talkative, today.”
The light sources did not look artificial. It almost appeared as though the hexagonally-topped ground-parts had been pulled up from the ground and adapted into lanterns. They were arranged circularly, although from their current vantage it was still difficult to make out what they were really looking at.
She looked at the ground suspiciously and knelt down. Pushing her nails through its fuzzy edges, she clasped one of the hard, hexagonal tops and pulled. It would not budge.
Tough task.
She ignored Galphranx and struggled harder. Finally, she felt something give. Slowly, it rose from the ground, and she was able to add her other arm to the effort, with her feet firmly planted on either side.
She lost her grip and fell backwards, although upon leaning forwards from the ground, she was captivated. There was the hint of a white light from within the fuzzy needles around the base of the dark brown, vine-like protrusion she had just dragged from the ground. The hum that permeated the air was also a little louder now.
“Tough task, eh?” She winked at her companion and pushed herself back to her feet. “You’ll learn. It’s stranger than the Spires here.”
She set her feet on either side of the protrusion again and pulled with both hands, closing her eyes with the effort. Soon, it was at hip height, and she stopped again, unable to pull any further. She glanced at Galphranx with a satisfied smirk. A white light, of the same type as that in the distance, came from somewhere within the needles covering the protrusion. She tried to push through the needles, but they were too thick.
“Least we know what it is now,” she said, vindicated. “And the hum’s coming from down there.”
They set off again, towards the large collection of well-lit protrusions ahead of them. The collection became more distinguishable, and Seremend involuntarily whistled in admiration. They were far higher than the one she had managed to pull – many multiples of her own height – and densely packed. From a distance, they appeared to have been arranged in a tight circular formation. Up closer, there was a clear entrance. A pathway.
“Always pathways,” she said to Galphranx, glancing into the distance. She swept her arm across. “Everywhere, there’re different pathways, and everyone follows them.” One of the collections of lights in the distance had a different hue – more yellow than the rest. She pointed it out. “Might be a boundary over there, between this territory and another. First thing’s first, we need to find out where we are though – let’s see if anyone’s here.”
They walked right up to the entrance. Seremend checked her pack was tightly fastened to her back. “Want to carry this?” She offered it to Galphranx, humorously. “No? Thanks for offering anyway.”
The pathway after the entrance wound around, with the tall protrusions forming an impenetrable wall on either side. Despite the lights at the top of them, it was dark at ground level. Every now and then, Galphranx would force itself against the walls, as though trying to understand more about them. They barely
gave way.
“Don’t worry,” she said, soothingly. “The next place we go will be different.” It gave no indication of having listened.
They had been walking for some time, winding in ever tighter circles towards the centre, when there was a rustling ahead of them. They both slowed, with Galphranx a short distance behind, as always.
“Steady,” she whispered.
They were there – the end of the pathway. The protrusions seemed higher than before, and the base was even more gloomy. At the centre, just ahead of them, it was too dark to see anything.
“No point giving up now,” she said, reaching around to retrieve the Lujmin device from her pack. “I think–”
A dazzlingly bright light shone in front of them. Seremend stumbled back, temporarily blinded. Loud, worryingly loud rustling sounds emanated from just below the ground. As her vision returned, Seremend saw a wall of protrusions rising quickly from the ground at the centre. Soon, they were higher than any they had passed before. They were thinner at the base, and the circular hole from which they came was clearly visible. The protrusions promptly stopped rising, before something forced them into two separate, tightly packed bunches, and pushed them to opposite sides of the hole.
A large, clawed appendage appeared near one side of the hole’s rim, grasping one of the bunches. Then another appeared on the opposite side of the hole, clasping the other bunch. Finally, another two appeared in between the others, clasping at the hole’s rim. Seremend kicked her legs against the ground to push herself up. Galphranx was beside her, nudging, which unhelpfully tipped her more off-balance.
Four thick, glistening limbs, attached to the clawed appendages, raised themselves as high as Seremend had been when she had been standing. They were doubled over. Something was pushing itself out of the hole. Galphranx moved in between her and whatever was about to appear, arching itself back in a move Seremend had rarely witnessed before. It was getting ready to expose its many mouths and sharp teeth.