Ortai Legacy: Arrival

5.1 - Mimics (L)

Something woke me up, but opening my eyes didn't banish the darkness. Was I actually dreaming?

A flash of purple irridescence rippled across the blackness as a small gap opened to reveal the rusty metal ceiling of the Mess Hall. The graxi had surrounded me in a cocoon while I slept. I willed the graxi to pull back so I could see what was making it quiver so worryingly.

The peephole in the graxi slid to the right. Through it, I saw a humanoid mix of gray-veined marble and blood-splattered hide struggling against cords of graxi binding it to a living carpet. It glowed red-orange. The creature greatly resembled the 'mimics' Mar'kost had told me about. They were basically invincible; even tearing off their limbs would only slow them down.

If I stood, the mimic would be within arm's reach.

"Weylan?" My voice verged on a scream.

No response.

Gritting my teeth, I cautiously propped myself up on my elbows. My left arm twinged badly enough to make me lurch. Had my arm not healed as well as I'd thought? I ran my hand down my upper arm to where my forearm had been. It was missing again. The graxi better not have stolen it, or there'd be hell to pay.

The mimic's joints squealed as it lunged toward me. I jumped, but the graxi held it just out of reach. What was I supposed to do? The mimic was inside the closest thing I had to a safe room. Even if I dismembered it and ran, I'd be running into the pitch darkness beyond this room, which held an unknown quantity of monsters. I needed more information. And a flashlight.

I reached out to Mar'kost, but there was no response. Weylan was my only other option. Could he even help? He hadn't known mimics could approach a Source—or if he had, he'd forgotten to warn me. What if mimics were a new addition to the ship? It'd been over two hundred years since AI Weylan was programmed; he wouldn't know about the most recent evolutions of the monsters.

I willed the graxi to form a hole on my right. They were nice and responsive, unlike the asshole AI who'd hung me out to dry. Grabbing my polearm, I opened my mouth to call for Weylan.

Weylan appeared and leisurely stretched his arms like I wasn't currently under attack. "Good mor-" His eyes fixed on the mimic. "What the depths is that?"

"It's one of your cousins. Say hi!" I lifted my polearm so he could get an even better view of the horrifying creature. "Apparently, they can't be killed permanently by dismembering them, but it'll stop them for a while. Any idea where we can hide? Oh, and I'm missing half an arm, so let me know if you see it."

"Your graxi has it."

"Thieving bastard." Moving carefully to make sure I stayed out of the mimic's reach, I willed the graxi to unwrap me and sat with my back against the fountain's basin.

"It will return the arm if you command it to do so, but I suggest you wait until we're in a less precarious situation."

I moved to sit on the rim of the basin. "If it eats my arm, I swear-"

"I highly doubt that will happen, but if it does, you can regrow it. Focus on surviving."

His curtness pissed me off, but I couldn't deny that it was appropriate at the moment. "How?"

He hesitated. "The only permanent solution is to disable the avatar."

"I already told you, we can't-"

"I assume your Knight told you that, but he wouldn't know the shut-down codes for Veil Piercer's avatars." He grimaced. "I'm attempting to input them remotely, but it isn't responding. You'll need to bring me closer to the avatar's core."