Displaced

Chapter 108 Part 2

Bazzalth looked up from his work the next day as Blake woke with a weak and weary groan. "I feel like utter trash... what the hell?" the crawler muttered.

"What can Blake-crawler remember?" Bazzalth asked, trying to hide his nervousness. He'd run numerous tests through the night and unfortunately come up with little, as usual. It had gotten to the point where Bazzalth had set into motion a second plan in the hopes of finding an alternate route to a solution.

"Finally calling me by my name?" Blake asked, surprised and pleased.

"Bazzalth spent time reconsidering and decided that Blake-crawler's ability is worthy of slight recognition," Bazzalth told him.

"Great, glad you finally joined the winning team," the crawler replied. "But anyway, I remember... I was playing Tetris, and you said you needed another scan or whatever, and then you needed to give me something so this scan would get better data than the last one, and then..." He shot Bazzalth an angry look. "I don't remember anything after the injection. Did you drug me?"

"While Blake-crawler's body appears like other crawlers, body is actually entirely different on cellular level. Chemical Bazzalth injected presented unanticipated side effects in Blake-crawler's unique physiology," Bazzalth explained. Technically, he'd told no falsehoods.

Alarm played across the crawler's face, and Bazzalth internally felt relief wash over him that Blake had been fooled. "What did it do to me?"

"Blake-crawler showed signs of mental impairment, then lost consciousness. Once Bazzalth decided that Blake-crawler was not permanently harmed, Bazzalth decided to leave Blake-crawler to recover."

"Wait, so... are you flying blind here, medically? You have no idea what any of your test drugs will actually do to me?"

"Correct. Bazzalth does use cell samples to help judge safety, but unforeseen side effects still quite possible. Bazzalth neglected to test inspection drug, though unwanted effects would not have revealed themselves on cellular level."

Blake sighed. "Great. Wonderful. Well, do you need me for anything now?"

"Bazzalth does not."

"Aight, I'm going to play some more Tetris. I had a serious streak going last time before you interrupted me. Let me know if you need something."

The cavern descended into an awkward silence for several moments as Blake returned to his Tetris and Bazzalth took a moment to tend to the growth of his new device.

"Three thousand twelve," Bazzalth finally said.

"Huh?" Blake replied.

"Bazzalth is three thousand and twelve years old."

Blake blinked. "That's... that's really old, dude."

"Incorrect. Bazzalth is youngest person."

"Be that as it may, three thousand years is still a crazy long time to be alive, dude. You must have seen quite a lot of things in your life."

Bazzalth didn't know what to say to that, so he just huffed a non-committal reply.

"Hey, have you ever heard of a dude named Othar?" Blake inquired.

Bazzalth snorted. "Bazzalth knows of no person known by such."

"No, I mean, what about 'crawlers' named Othar? From a long, long time ago? Supposedly a really powerful guy."

"Bazzalth has never heard of crawler known by 'Othar' either," he told Blake.

"Damn..." Blake swore. "Thought I finally had a lead... what are you doing over there, anyway?"