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If I’m going to do something this stupid, I’d better commit to it.Unclipping the cutting laser from my belt, I tested it on the decking, watching it burn and part under the beam. The weave separated, edges bubbling as liquid boiled away.
I learned from my mistakes, and this time I anchored a line before stepping through the gap. A good thing too, because the next level down had stronger gravity, a good two-thirds of Earth Standard. The motor-winch on my belt whined under the strain, but it got me down safely. More importantly, the rope gave me a way back up.
Which was great news, because I felt like I’d stumbled into a treasure trove. This room seemed as vast as the hold above, though it was hard to be sure because of the jungle filling it.
Yes, a jungle. I know it sounds crazy, but there it was. Tree trunks stretched from floor to ceiling, branches forming the deckI’d just cut through. Other plants grew between those mighty columns. Bulbous fruit hung from vines, glowing a faint blue-white. Strange shadows flickered as they swung back and forth, adding a creepy, surreal air to the place.
I stared around in awe. This wasn’t the fossilized remains of an ancient garden. These plants were living, growing, millennia after the fall of the civilization that planted them. And they were beautiful. Flowers bloomed, dark purples and royal blues catching the light of the fruit. Vines wound around the trunks, glittering wetly and seeming to mark a path through the forest.
Turning slowly, I let my suit’s camera get a good long look at everything. Biotech companies would fall over themselves to pay for this stuff, and rich collectors would want those flowers. If I filled my sample bags with plants from this garden, I’d make a fortune. And it would leave more than enough for the mobsters to get rich off, too.
My crazy gamble had paid off, and the mob wouldn’t carve me up for my organs after all. For the first time in weeks, I let myself relax and breathe. Volkov and Hess followed me down the line as I took careful pictures of the first plant I wanted to harvest.
An awed silence filled our comms channel. The mobsters stared around the dark jungle, silence stretching until Volkov muttered something in Russian. I didn’t need to speak the language to recognize a swear word when I heard one.
That broke the spell. Hess shook himself and spoke in the quiet, reverent tones more appropriate for a church.
“We’re gonna be so fucking rich. Grab a sample ofeverything.”
Chapter 4
Monster
My cocoon parted as soon as the pressure outside was enough to breathe. Built to defend Home, my body functioned for extended periods without air, but there was no point in using up my reserves. Not when an unknown intruder walked the halls.
My neck frills fanned out, listening for the comforting brush of the colony’s mindsong, and found only silence. I’d entered my cocoon listening to the painful melodies of the dying, but I emerged alone. The absence of my siblings burned like a star in my primary heart, a terrible pain no warrior should ever know. All my life, I’d been part of the colony-chorus, and now I sang alone.
Almostalone. Home herself still sang, though her song was weak, fragmented, distracted. What little remained of her focused on using the gift of light the intruders brought to repair herself and storing the excess.
She sang to the flowers and branches of the garden, shaping the flow of air and precious water to take advantage of the energy the creatures brought. She sang to the walls, weaving fresh material to plug the gaps in the hull and heal the damage the intruders caused as they explored.
I followed that branch of Home’s song to find the attackers, hoping to prevent further damage. A painful, discordant note entered Home’s voice as one plucked a flower, disrupting thedelicate ecosystem of the garden. Eons of inactivity left it balanced on a fine edge, and the slightest push might kill it.
I surged forward, unwilling to wait for my body to awaken fully. Using my four lower limbs to run, I held the remaining two high, ready to rend and tear. I would kill these intruders and feed their bodies to Home. Their nutrients would help repair the damage they had done.
Had the colony been healthier, I’d have rushed them as soon as I arrived. But now I had to be careful—if I died, I would leave Home defenseless, and that was unthinkable. Knowing nothing of my targets, I needed information before charging in.
So, instead of heading straight for the lights, I climbed into the branches above the garden and looked down to examine the intruders.
Three of them walked among the plants, and they weren’t any species I recognized. Four-limbed bipeds, each wrapped in tight insulating suits, they looked clumsy and uncoordinated as they moved. Clear helmets let me see their faces, pale and soft under the glass. One bared his teeth in an expression I couldn’t read, radiating cruel joy and jealousy as he plucked another flower to add to his already bulging bag. I tagged him the greatest threat to Home.
Another, by far the largest of the trio, kept a careful watch on the trees. I tagged him as the greatest threat to me.
But it was the third intruder who gave me pause. Her face, framed by curly red hair, was stunning for all its alien strangeness. There was something about her green eyes, the curves that her primitive spacesuit hugged so tightly, that made my hearts blaze with an emotion other than rage.
Unlike the others, she walked with care for the garden she moved through. When she stopped to pick a plant, she examined it carefully first, minimizing the harm she did to surrounding life. She acted with respect for the place she found herself.
I didn’t know what to make of that, but there was no excuse for harming Home. Instinct told me to slay all three of them, yet I hesitated. Curious, I spread my frills to listen to the intruders’ mindsongs.
Chapter 5
Myra
The forest stretched in all directions, dark and glorious. It was like being in a place of worship, some gigantic alien cathedral of plants. One more impressive than anything humans had built.
Ten thousand years of neglect, and still it functioned. The Tyradyn awed me, and I understood why the authorities didn’t want people poking around in their ruins. If they could do this, what other miracles had they achieved?
I won’t figure that out, I’m no xenoarcheologist. All I need is something worth selling, and I can go.The thought felt almost sacrilegious. Stealing from this place was too close to tomb robbery.
