“What is it then?” Michael found himself stepping closer to the stone, drawn in by his curiosity.
“Let’s go find out,” Aileena said.
Michael couldn’t quite understand what he was seeing. They had entered through the largest hole they could find, walking through a short tunnel into the interior of the object. Plant life grew throughout, it’s glowing lighting the way. Here and there was the familiar pink shine of the crystals they had seen. They were huge, easily the size of the one that powered the Sword. In the centre of the rocky dome was something, a pulsing writhing thing that twisted Michael’s mind.
It was fleshy, throbbing with an odd rhythm. Long tendrils stretched out from the mass, gripping onto the side of the walls. The main bulk of the creature’s body vanished beneath the ground, burrowing into the dirt, but the section exposed filled the interior, a thick trunk of slimy black skin.
“I guess this is our Vystok. It is real then,” Aileena said. She looked up at it. “I think this is just a part of it, a small fragment.”
“Must go on for miles around, I would think,” Brekt said. “What do we do now then? Kill it?”
“No,” Michael said. “No, we don’t kill it. It hasn’t even moved. I don’t think it knows we’re here.” He stepped forward towards the creature. Michael crouched, pointing at something that had caught his attention. “Look at this.”
It was a tear in the skin of the entity, exposing black wet meat beneath. Around the gash was the cold white of permafrost. Michael pointed to another, then another. They were dotted all over the beast.
“These look like, wounds, almost,” Aileena said.
“Yeah, and it’s cold I think.” Michael’s hand moved, touching the skin next to the ice.
Everything seemed to stop for a moment. Michael looked around. Aileena was frozen in place, reaching out to grab his hand, trying to stop him. Brekt was simply wincing, awaiting some horrible moment that hadn’t yet come. Michael wasn’t sure what was happening. The colours around him had faded, the universe becoming monochrome.
His mind raced as he found himself somewhere else. He was formless, drifting through the depths of space. This was right, as it should be. He had been born in the void, cast out into the blackness to wander until he found a planet to gestate within. A home to grow strong. There was another rushing sensation as he bolted forward in time. He was still drifting but now had wandered into a thick cloud of asteroids. He had no control of his motion, floating silently, but he knew he was safe. The gap between asteroids was massive, his chances of hitting anything were infinitesimally small.
That didn’t stop something from trying to purposely hit him. Something shot out from the nearest rock, shrieking through space. It was faster than Michael, much faster, and it was aiming to intercept him. It hit his side, burrowing into the stone that formed the shell of his egg. He felt it, trying to get inside him, to infect him. It felt cold and harsh against his infant skin.
Time rushed again and Michael could see a world before him, a shining green-blue jewel. He felt ill, weak, but this is what was he born for. He could feel the gravity of the planet grab him, pulling him into his embrace. Ships buzzed around him, trying to stop him, but he was too fast now. They fired at him, pulses of energy chiselling away at his stone shell. Sections fell away as it shrunk. Finally, he felt the warm burning of the atmosphere as it washed over him.
Colour returned to reality, and Michael felt his hand being slapped away.
“Don’t touch it! You don’t know what this is!” Aileena glared at him. She gripped his shoulder pulling him backwards.
“I do. I do know what this is. It showed me,” Michael said. His voice was low as if whispering ancient secrets. “It was in my mind. It’s not dangerous, and it didn’t mean to harm the Merydians, to do all of this.”
“It’s sentient?” Brekt said. He took a small step away from the creature.
“I don’t know if sentient is the right words. It’s just a baby, even now after all this time. This, it’s not an asteroid, it’s an egg. This creature is like, a symbiotic parasite, for planets. These plants, this growth, it should be doing this across the planet, bringing it back to life.”
“But it isn’t,” Aileena said.
“No, it’s sick. This ice on it, the ice crabs, they’re the same thing. A kind of intergalactic virus for these creatures. They hitch a ride and infect the planet when these things land. Almost the opposite of this thing really. The crabs are an adaptation, taking the form of the most powerful predator on the planet to better spread itself. I think… I think the crystals are like antibodies, that’s why the crabs don’t like them. This thing is fighting the infection in the planet.”
“So, what do we do then?”
“I know what we have to do, how we can help it,” Michael said. There was a thought resonating in his mind, a suggestion left by the creature. “The Merydians aren’t going to like it though.”
“They weren’t going to like it when we were going to tell them this was just a rock,” Brekt said.
“The crystals, they’re linked. Drawing power from them is what’s keeping the creature weak. It’s been fighting this infection as best it can, but it can’t strike the killing blow, so to speak. We need to switch off the tower.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The Sword began to vanish, ascending beyond the clouds back into the void of space. They had decided, together, what they were going to do, dropping off Michael, Aileena, Mellok and Skorra at the plateau where the tower was located. The Merydians had poured out of the gaps in the walls, scurrying out from their strange trans-dimensional city. The sight of the massive ship was just too tempting. Dozens of children had cheered as the main engines had fired, catapulting the Sword upwards.
Michael shielded his eyes from the sun as the ship vanished. They had brought only the people they deemed necessary. The news they had to deliver wasn’t good, and Michael had decided it best not to antagonise them. Michael had originally asked Mellok to stay aboard the ship, he was getting a little sick of the bird-like aliens fawning over him, especially once Michael had explained he had communicated with the Vystok. Mellok had become enthused, spouting nonsense prophecies about the knower speaking with animals. It seemed to Michael that having a messiah that could seemingly do everything, was extremely convenient. To him, it seemed like a horoscope, just vague enough that they could apply to nearly anything. Mellok had only been allowed to come after pointing out his translation abilities might not reach from orbit. Michael didn’t quite believe that was true but wasn’t in the mood to argue.
“We ready?” Skorra said. The Merydian twitched her ears and smiled, adjusting her goggles slightly with her hands. She had taken the news rather well, even bursting into laughter for a moment, her smile wide. She had spent much of her short life trying to free her people from imprisonment in the tower, to debunking ancient myth and prophecy. Being proved right had come as a huge relief to her. “I can’t wait to see the look on my father’s smug face.”
“How do you think he’ll take it?” Aileena said.
“Badly. This is his own little fiefdom. I barely saw him when I was a child, too busy climbing his way to the top. That’s how I got interested in machines, how I ended up trying to get the Sword working. To spite him, mainly.”
“Seems healthy.” Aileena stretched her arms, tugging at her shoulder muscles. She looked like an athlete limbering up. “Can’t say I can relate. Didn’t know my parents.” Aileena tapped her furry companion on the shoulder. The whole crew had taken to Skorra. She was irrepressible, constantly asking questions, about the ship, the planets beyond hers, everything.