Cerulean Planet (Blue Dust Trilogy #1)

Chapter 14

An enormous meteorite streaked across the sky. Jiayun looked up, taking in the blazing meteorite that grew brighter as it shot towards them. The monster changed their shape, immediately enveloping Jiayun inside their body.

"Our fighter ships!" Jiayun screamed.

The monster ignored him and took him deep underwater.

More and more meteorites fell from the sky, catching fire. The azure canvas, rendered orange-red by the blaze, became hazy.

The patch of water they were in was quite shallow. The monster dove under, swimming as fast as they could to deeper waters, but everything was happening too fast. A few pieces of meteorite smashed into the water, generating heaps of explosive steam. The calm ocean surface began to boil.

The monster stopped moving, taking Jiayun with them to lie low at the bottom of the sea. They propped their body into an arch, rearranging their endoskeleton to form a semi-circular bone-umbrella and clamping Jiayun in place underneath.

Jiayun was being shielded yet seemingly trapped in a cage at the same time. He looked up and saw even more meteorites coming down from the sky. Some fell into the water, smashing down nearby.

The meteorites were not entirely solid and drifted in the water. It was only then that Jiayun realized these were satellites that struck down on the planet due to some other influence; these satellites were primarily composed of water, hence why they managed to burn up so quickly on their descent.

Hopefully, this wouldn't be anything too serious.

He didn't want to die just yet.

The falling meteorites grew denser, stirring up sand and rocks from the bottom of the ocean. The temperature of the water rose rapidly; even though he was insulated within the monster's body, Jiayun could still feel the heat.

Then, a meteorite the size of a human head smashed into the monster.

Fortunately, the water served as a buffer and the collision didn't result in too much damage. But even so, the impact had caused the monster's endoskeleton to deform. They quickly rearranged their skeleton to return it to its original shape.

But the meteorite shower was far from over.

A bigger piece came crashing down. The monster moved aside, evading a second one that followed. It was pointless to try and dodge the tinier meteorites, so the monster chose to endure them all with their body.

Jiayun noticed the monster endlessly trying to shift and rearrange their skeleton. Their damaged skin became discoloured; some parts were discarded, let to drift off in the water, while others were reabsorbed inside their body and replaced with new tissue. They kept on taking damage, then rearranging their tissues to make up for the damage. But no one knew how long the meteorite shower was going to last. At one point, the mechanism that supplied Jiayun with oxygen had ceased. The asphyxiation made Jiayun's head dizzy.

Keeping this up would not be viable. Jiayun smacked again against the monster's inner wall and said, "Don't worry about me. You should head deeper."

The monster made no reply and seemed unmoved by his words. They remained rooted to the spot.

They could have shifted their form, or quickly dodged any oncoming meteorites. They could have found a much safer place to hide. But the monster chose not to; moving even a little bit might expose Jiayun to danger.

Jiayun curled up inside the monster's body, driven to tears with worry.

The monster said that their body wasn't invincible, that they were capable of dying too. How much impact and damage could they possibly sustain? Would they die like this? If they died, then how would he possibly survive all by himself?

On the other hand, his own death would not impact the monster in any way. He was, after all, but a speck in their long life. They only needed to undergo 200 short years of evolution in order to leave this place. There would be a new life for them, waiting to unfold.

Did they feel pain?

Why was he so frail? Why did he have to be human?

Time seemed to pass quickly yet simultaneously last forever as he sank into aimless rumination. The falling meteorites slowly began to subside. The sand swirling about in the water that once obscured his vision, too, began to quell, falling to the bottom.

Yet the monster remained unmoving, waiting.

Only when the dust finally settled did they finally decide to pull their body out from under the sand they were buried in. A human face shifted into being inside their body. "It is over," they said.

Jiayun pounced forward, cradling their face in his hands. Tears began welling up in his eyes once more.

"It is over," the monster repeated.

"Are you alright?"

"I am fine." As though sensing Jiayun's emotions, the monster began consoling him, "These hits were merely scratches to me. You need not worry. Even heavy weapons cannot easily kill me, so long as my 'brain' remains intact."

Jiayun let go. "Let's head to shore."

"Even if we move ashore, you will need to stay inside my body. It is unclear if the composition of the atmosphere has changed or if poisonous gases were produced as a result."

Jiayun didn't in fact want to head ashore at the moment. He just wanted to hug them, one individual to another. But still, he agreed, "Let's go."

The two quickly arrived on land. The monster shifted back into their humanoid form and handed Jiayun control of their body.

Jiayun didn't know whether he was imagining it, but the monster didn't seem as large as before.

It was like hell had been let loose onto these lands.

Pits littered the ground from the meteorites' impact. Some places were still burning. The soil was soot black. There was nothing left.

The bolder he perched under. The little hut they built. Remnants of their fighter ships. Nothing was left.

Even their last remaining hope of leaving this place was completely obliterated.

The joy of surviving was instantly wiped clean without a trace. Jiayun expelled a deep sigh and sat on the ground.

What was he still holding onto? Was living really all that important? He was doomed to die from the very start. Why did he have to be so stubborn, to the point that he kept trying to numb and deceive himself?

This place was not his, and neither did he belong to it. The horrid conditions, the lost hope; he would not be able to survive here.