FALAHA'S JOURNEY: A Spacegirl's Account in Three Movements

Episode #69

I touched the plant's soma space to read the data: as a Yajur Sangu, my presence was unseen to lower-level Sangu. Some time ago, a large portion of Shaamta's Harvest had started to hatch all over the plant. Those that targeted Rifa's group were the first of this new wave.

I unfolded the map of the plant, scaling down to my current location. I chose this spot on purpose: several cocoons were about to hatch right next to where I'd disembarked. Informing Eyuran or Baro of this tiny detail was unnecessary and I wasn't planning to engage the freshly-born Hunters in a battle. I just needed them to hatch so I could leave my present there somewhere, from the depth of my soma, with love. Something I had learned from that accident with the little Maok.

I carefully studied every one of the cocoons through the plant soma space, settling on the system slot as the point to attach this thing, a small sphere of active consciousness, a trimmed copy of a person—myself, along with a leftover of my Node, Falaha Nine-Zero-Six. It will grow and eventually hatch in synch with the cocoon, entering and spreading throughout the system, infecting active cocoons at random, spreading further, making each of the newly captured slots into the source, expanding into a large entity, but carrying something else—the bloodlight of Kané. How many Sangu could you guys take at once?

Intelligence was a force which drove the system to maximize its future freedom of action, and a runaway self-aware arcai was a troublesome entity to handle. It would give me some time to reestablish the link with Anika, while Shaamta found the actual source, dealing with countless annoying parts of the arcai which would feed on plant's resources to stay alive. The rogue copy-me would use the energy of the plant, saving my own strength to investigate, and transfer all the data to me.

Finishing with the settings, I climbed into one of the hatched cocoons, using its sticky spilled innards as a ladder. Staying here was fine.

"Baro," I called, making myself comfortable.

"Yes?" was the response.

"You will have around eight minutes to complete your task before they start reacting. That's the best I can predict for now. How are things at your end?"

"Multiple enemy confirmed. Eyuran is in the field, but we haven't announced our presence yet."

"Any of your family there?"

"Yes. You knew about this, didn't you?"

"How many dives will you need?" I ignored his question.

"Five."

"I see. I will have to cover the others' bloodlights too, since Eyuran will remain here during the op. You have my cover, so don't worry about being found."

"Got it. Thank you, rjgnis."

I checked the state of the small copy-me sphere—it was ready.

So was the cocoon. I heard a crack and the next moment I soared through the network.

"Eyu, Baro, begin," I whispered, listening to the sounds of Hunters crawling out of their cocoons, none of them approaching this place. Good, they hadn't found my tracks. Yet they remained in the area, definitely hungry, and a big problem if I needed to relocate. The hungrier they got, the sharper their senses became.

Ugh. I hoped they won't discover me too soon.

Kané's powerful bloodlights ignited all over the plant. The Hunters ignored those, yet this spectacular sight froze the Baali in their tracks, confusing them enough to shift all the focus from their targets.

The coordinated wave broke into chaos, trying to figure out whether they were under a ship-scale attack, and eventually I caught a glimpse of high-level administrators of the plant. However, no actions from their Sangu followed. So this wasn't interesting enough for you to get involved, eh?