“Yes,” said Peri, thoughtfully. “Some teachers at school said I seemed to be kinaesthetic, and I would make either a brilliant gymnast or a dancer. My grandmother wanted me to take ballet classes, but I – er, let’s just say I declined. I wasn’t very nice about it, as I recall.”
“We both know that you recall it perfectly,” replied Guanyin. “You know how rude and hurtful you were.”
“Ah, yes, I should have guessed that you’ve been keeping an eye on me.”
“You have a perfect sense of movement and positioning of your entire body. This is important.”
“Well, if I wanted to dance with a Devourer, I suppose,” Peri said sourly.
“Think back. Your military companions commented on your accuracy when using a pistol instinctively rather than consciously. Your proprioceptive abilities go far beyond that. Next. The key to unlocking a huge number of scientific achievements is an understanding of the time dimensions. Humanity lacks the necessary understanding.”
“So do I,” Peri interjected.
“Yes. But you have some control over the time dimension of conventional spacetime. You can manipulate the flow of time to some extent. You have already done so more than once.”
“I can? Really? I have?”
“Yes,” said Guanyin. “Hongfeng Road, Shanghai. Instinctively, you used two aspects of time manipulation. How did you know the young boy was in danger? And how did you reach him so quickly? There have been more recent examples of short-term precognition.”
“Precognition?” said Peri. “I guess I have some kind of heightened sense of danger. But isn’t time unidirectional? How can anyone experience the future and then come back to make use of the knowledge?”
“How is unimportant. You may as well ask, ‘How do I control my digestive system?’ It is enough that it works. Your precognitive sense operates over a very short interval. You can see the possible futures a second or so ahead, and identify high threats, in time to take action.”
“I can’t get my head round that,” said Peri. “If I see the future, but then act so as to change it, that’s meddling with the law of cause and effect. Isn’t it?”
“I repeat…”
“How is unimportant.”
“Yes,” said Guanyin. “Now, the other aspect is the ability to slow down or speed up the rate at which time flows relative to yourself. Do you see how useful this would be?”
“I think so,” said Peri. “Since time and motion are related…”
“Good,” Guanyin interrupted. “We have only moments left.”
“But how do I make it work?”
“Use a metaphor. Picture something that represents time passing, something you can manipulate, and will it to be manipulated. Your capability will do the rest.”
The white light began to grow dim, and Guanyin sighed. “Energy depletion is upon us. I am sorry, but this is going to be exceptionally painful.”
The slender figure of the Servator faded away, as did the armchair Peri was sitting in. The white fog and white light faded to black and she felt growing pressure round her abdomen and her limbs. Black tentacles edged with sharp bladed spines began to materialise, and Peri began to scream as the returning agony blazed through her.
Chapter 25
The pain that ripped through Peri was excruciating, all but indescribable. The creature’s black tentacles were wrapped around her neck, her abdomen and her leg. The knife-blade spines were digging deeper into her flesh as its muscles contracted and wrenched at her. She could feel air leaking from punctured lungs, blood flooding from ruptured arteries and her own screams fade into nothing as her larynx collapsed. There was a snapping sound and she could no longer feel the agony below her waist. Another snap and for a fraction of a second she glimpsed her torso being carried away into the darkness towards the creature’s mouth before, mercifully, blackness took her.
The others watched, horrified, as Peri came apart and the monster pulled the pieces back behind the iron doors.
“Ooh!” Tash was audible in each of their heads. “Another one down! Wonder who’s going to be next, eh, Gus? So come on, opposable thumbs isn’t much to ask for, now, is it?”
The big dog sat with its head cocked to one side, and Troy could have sworn it was smiling. With a yell of outrage, he levelled his assault rifle at it and squeezed the trigger. The bullets passed through leaving the dog unharmed. “Now that might have made you feel a little better,” said Tash inside his mind, “But it really didn’t do anything for me. And the door’s about to open really wide. What should we do, eh, Gus?”
Gus fiddled with the ring on his finger, and bowed his head.
“That’s it!” yelled the dog into their heads. “I can feel it working!”
All around the dog, tiny spheres of energy hovered, sparked, repelled and attracted each other in a random dance. The randomness of the dance rapidly diminished. Tiny energy packets, attracting each other, were forming larger parcels, and these in turn were overcoming repulsive forces to grow, dance more slowly, and merge into something greater. The pungent smell of ozone filled the cave. A low rumble became audible and the ground trembled. There was a sudden sharp rise in pitch, culminating in an unnatural scream, and the luminescent blobs of energy abruptly coalesced into a large glowing sphere, which blew outwards with a loud crack. The dog was gone. In the centre of a blackened patch staining the cave floor, there stood a human figure.
“Gus! This is fantastic!” Tash’s voice was audible now, as well as inside their heads, and the four humans blinked, disoriented and astonished. “Wow! Look at me! I’m a girl!”
Steve, Troy and Amanda gaped. The figure was a woman, naked but for a dog collar, skin the colour of olives, her small breasts tipped by brown areolae and nipples, dark-eyed, her black hair standing out from her head and crackling with static.
Amanda hesitantly whispered, “Peri? You changed Tash into Peri?”
Gus was shocked. He muttered, “It wasn’t me – really, it wasn’t.”
“Yah!” the figure replied excitedly. “It’s me! Tash! Hey Gus, look what I can do!”
The woman reached up to grasp the dog collar, which she unclipped and dramatically tossed onto the ground at Gus’s feet.
“See? Opposable thumbs, Gus, opposable thumbs! Fuck you and fuck your magic collar! Now you know why nobody else was ever dumb enough to give me opposable thumbs! I’ll be going soon, Gus, but before I do, just let me…” She ran her hands over the skin of her new body, and gave a whimper as they brushed over her nipples.
“Ooh, Amanda, how do you manage to leave your tits alone? Boys, you don’t know what you’re missing! This is amazing! I could do this all day. In fact, I think I will!” She tugged on her nipples, giving them a squeeze and rolling them in her fingers. “Ooh, yes, yes, yes! What other erogenous zones do we have…?”
Suddenly a voice crashed like thunder into each of their minds: “TAKE YOUR STINKING PAWS OFF ME, YOU DAMNED DIRTY DOG!”
Tash guiltily dropped her hands to her sides, and looked even more dumbfounded than the others. “Peri?” she said, aloud, hesitantly.
“Yes, Peri,” she replied to herself. Or more correctly, Peri replied to Tash. She looked around. “If anyone’s confused right now, let me just say, me too!”
Her eye fell on the dog collar at Gus’s feet, and she realised that she knew what the Servator’s hints had meant. She really did have what she needed.