“Right… h-here…” she tapped her infinity claw at the base of her spine, “Where it usually is.”
Jaycee’s forearm buzzed to life and tore his attention away from the bizarre spectacle. He rolled up his sleeve and thumbed the ink toward his wrist, “This is Jaycee?”
“Jaycee,” Tripp’s voice came from the pinpricks in his wrist, “This is Tripp.”
“I read you, Tripp. Hang on, why are you whispering?”
“We’ve docked with Charlie. They’re performing an audit and getting ready to take us home—”
“—Meeoowwww,” Jelly whined.
“Hold still,” Wool ran her hot thumbnail ten inches down the back of Jelly’s Kevlar leggings, “Nearly there.”
“What’s that noise?”
Jaycee lifted his wrist to his mouth, “You’re never gonna believe this.”
“What?”
“Anderson. She’s getting bigger. We’re trying to fit her with my back-up exo-gear.”
Tripp ignored the comment, “Never mind that now. I need you to come and make yourself known to Charlie. They’ve sent these bizarre little droids on board but the actual crew haven’t docked yet. Getting kinda spooked, here, if I’m honest.”
“On it,” Jaycee palmed the panel on the wall and opened the door, “Gotta love you and leave you, now. We’ve docked with Charlie and Tripp needs me on the deck.”
“What?”
Jelly’s tail whipped out of the hole and accidentally slapped Wool across the face.
“Oww,” Wool cupped her cheek in her hands, “Jelly!”
“Sorry, mommy.”
Jaycee sniggered and shook his head, “I’ll leave you two to it. Leave your Individimedia on, Wool. We might need you.”
“Ugh,” she spat a tuft of fur from her mouth, “Fine. Just get us home, will you?”
Wool patted Jelly’s paw away from her shoulder, “Please. Be careful with your tail. You’re not a little pet anymore.”
“I said I was sorry,” Jelly began to purr and made a cute face of contrition at her ‘mother’, “Sorry.”
Wool squinted at her face and lifted her hand away. Her eyes suggested she was lying.
“You’re not sorry, are you?”
“No.”
“Well, if there’s one thing you’ve learned then it’s to lie convincingly.”
“Lying is fun,” Jelly chuckled. “I didn’t mean a word I said.”
Wool stepped through the open door and glanced at the window, “You’re getting weirder as well as bigger.”
Jelly stepped after her, “Mommy, wait for me.”
Wool focused on Saturn’s rings and raised her eyebrows, “Huh, that’s funny.”
“What, mommy?”
“The rings. It looks like Saturn is wearing a Decapidisc,” she shook her head and walked out of the room. “Speaking of which, where’s Tor?”
A jolly muzak version of Swan Lake played in the gents bathroom.
Tor sat in the first of five cubicles with his pants around his ankles. He grabbed the rail with his left hand and clenched his bowels.
“Uggghhh…” his heels squeaked along the tiled floor, “Ohhh, no. I think I’m gonna pass out.”
It looked as if he’d been swimming – the sweat smothered his face like a wet cloth. The veins in his temple bulged through his skin as he took a deep breath and squeezed once again.
Then, his left forearm beeped.
“Huh?”
The ink swirled around into three, long lines, waiting to be answered: Tripp Healy.
“Ah, God. Not now… ”
Tor rolled his shoulders, cleared his throat and relaxed his muscles. He squelched the ink to his wrist with his shaking index finger.
“Tripp?”
“Tor?”
“What is it? I’m kinda busy right now,” he winced in pain. “Can it wait a couple minutes?”
“Where are you?”
“I’m busy.”
Tripp’s huffs of displeasure waded from Tor’s wrist, “Look, we’ve docked with Charlie. You’re meant to be liaising with them.”
“I’m…” Tor groaned through his turmoil, “Not ready, y-yet…”
“Are you in the Fit Room?”
“No,” Tor burst into tears and drooled from his mouth, “I’ll be there soon. Just w-wait for m-me-oh-Christ-alive—”
“—Tor? I didn’t catch—”
He swiped the ink away from his wrist and slammed both hands on the sides of the toilet bowl.
BLOICK-CRUNK!
Something beyond evil occurred inside his abdomen. He kicked his feet apart and tore the waistline of his inner-suit legging apart with his ankles.
“Gaaooooowww…,” he squeezed his eyes shut and tore the plastic off the toilet seat. A final squeeze of his stomach muscles was all it took.
Tor’s eyes bulged out of their sockets. A blood vessel burst in his forehead.
SCH-JUNTT-SPLASH.
Then, an intense wave of relief smothered his very being. He’d released whatever had been causing the turmoil into the bowl.
“Ohhhh,” he cried pink tears with insane joy, “Thank God.”
He looked at the toilet paper dispenser and found that it was empty.
“Damn it,” He brushed the empty cardboard tube and muttered to himself, “Does no one replenish the facilities anymore?”
Against his better judgment, and with little option to improvise, he removed his left boot, rolled his sock off his foot and held it up for inspection.
“Farewell, my friend.”
Tor dropped the used sock between his legs and into the toilet bowl. He bent over, grabbed his inner-suit pants and pulled them up his legs.
The pain in his back had gone, too, much to his surprise. All in all, a very worthwhile trip to the convenience.
“A comfort break like no other,” he smiled with relief and went for the flush. His face fell when he saw the contents of the bowl.
“Eh? What the hell…?”
A fleshy arm the size of a toilet brush wriggled around in the water, thrashing for dear life.
SCHWIPP!
A talon swung out from the end and scratched at the porcelain, trying to climb out.
Tor gasped and slammed the toilet seat shut – right on the end of the limb. It squealed and kicked its talon around in pain.
GROWLLL.
Tor buckled over in pain and clutched his stomach, “Ooof,” He could feel something wagging from his behind. He squeezed his stomach muscles and put a stop to the commotion.
“Nuuuhh,” he squealed, “What’s h-happening to m-me?”
CREEAAAKKK!
The material on his right shoulder snapped apart, pushing the skin and joints through the sleeve. “Oh my God, Nooo—”
KEERRAAATTTCH!
His arm burst apart, splattering the cubicle walls with pink goo. The sleeve tore off and slopped to the flooded ground.
“Aggghhhh”
A Shanta limb unfurled from the socket in his shoulder and swished out its talon.
“Sha…sha…” Tor’s head shook around. His mouth flung a rope of pink gloop into the air. “Shaaaaantaaaaa—”
Thinking fast on his feet – and then his knees – he lifted the toilet seat up, scooped the dead limb from the water and lifted it in the air.
“Sha… shaaaaan…”
He gargled through his tears and hacksawed at his shoulder with the talon. The large limb squealed and flailed around as he hacksawed the Symphonium-laced talon across his upper forearm.