Location: Unknown, A-class planet, Cave system
Date: April 2 2728 — Standard Earth Calendar (SEC)
The tunnel looked different.
The giant snake thrashing, the Ateeve's railgun taps—it all left marks on it.
Stepping over the pile of rocks, wondering how it hadn't all crashed down yet, I held the needler at the ready while scanning for any danger.
I doubted that the snake was the apex predator in this place, in The Anomaly, but I was failing to imagine what kind of beast could top it.
No, my decision to leave the cave was the right one.
I had to find a way out of this Anomaly before it finally killed me. Not that it would be a tall order—it had already nearly succeeded once.
Reaching the old line, the place where I had spent days recovering and mutating, I paused for a second, looking at the old site. Crushed containers, a torn apart mat, and tarnished bags—all the valuable things we had, but lost during the snake attack.
Another costly payment that had been forcefully taken from me by this place.
Spotting one of the claw knives, I cautiously sat down to pick it up. I had used this one to carve the stone while thinking about all these mutations, and what to pick, if ever.
It felt like ages ago, but it was just the other day, less than a week ago.
Shaking off the memories, I stood up and, in a few quick steps, crossed the line. I had delayed enough.
An involuntary sigh of relief escaped my lips when the energy rushed into my tired core, and straightening my shoulders, I took a full breath in.
"You good?" I asked barely above a whisper.
"All green," Lola replied through the static.
"Good. Inform if anything changes. Over," I said, squeezing the needler hard in my right hand.
Now to the hard part.
Even if my decision to leave was spontaneous, I wasn't stupid. I needed to take any advantage I could seize.
That's why I ate that snake core and all the knots we found. I was risking getting unwanted mutations, yes, but in a nutshell, I had a plan. Or an idea.
The invisibility was a strong ability, and yes, it was failing in the aetherium field, but I was out of it, and any aetherium I had on me might not be enough to cancel it.
But if it was… If I were right, if all I needed was a bit of mutation, then it was supposed to help. It had to work.
Closing my eyes, I focused on my hearing first, activating the ability—my early warning system.
Immediately, I became aware of all the sounds coming from above. The rush of air in the valley, the hum of the waterfall—it was all familiar to me.
And it was working, even with the necklace on my chest and the needler in my hand.
Shifting focus to the next key star at the base of my skull, I activated the invisibility next.
It pulsed as before, and the constellation came to life. But instead of pulsing in rhythm, I felt something stretching over my body, while tearing apart in places where I had aetherium.
Failure, I had expected, but I had to try it first, before trying to increase the density of my energy, of the ability output.
It had to work.
And so, I closed my eyes again, beginning to breathe in sync with my heart.
Tuh-Dum, Tuh-Dum.
The key star of this ability was still lit in my inner eye, but somewhat less bright, as if on the verge of going out.
Stronger. I want it stronger.
Imagining the same field as before, but just more potent, I pulsed my core, as if directing my wish, my desire.
Tuh-Dum, Tuh-Dum.
It lit up, pulsed, and responded to it, with a heavy pulse of its own, sending an already familiar wave of energy through the circulatory system. The small stars pulsed in response, growing in size—if only for a bit.
Success?
And a new bright star was born at the base of the spine, shining even brighter than the one at the base of the skull.
Breaking out of my focus, I opened my eyes to see what had happened.
Shimmering. I was surrounded by shimmering air—the energy field. But instead of a single field, it was a surface made of hexagons, tightly fitted together.
Instead of increasing invisibility, I unlocked the energy field I had planned to begin with.
Why?
"I unlocked the energy shield," I said to Lola in a low voice, "but it's different."
"Different how?" asked Lola.
"Instead of a single field, it's a surface made of translucent hexagons," I explained, as best as I could.
"It's from the snake. It was able to swap them around, replacing the failed ones. See if you can do the same," Lola replied, surprising me.
Frowning, I slowly moved my arm holding the needler and noticed how hexagons around it were blinking in and out of existence.
Aetherium.
But there were more.
Bringing the needler closer to my face, I confirmed what I had noticed before—a low-level pink glow in the ST-100 mix covering it.
Thermal radiation.
Deciding to check on the necklace, I reached for it with my left hand, only to remember that I still held a knife there.
To my surprise, the energy field acted differently with the knife. Sticking to the claw surface, the hexes formed a blade around it, twice the length.
Not now.
Reacting to my thought, the effect around the claw knife disappeared, and I promised myself to check on it later.
Putting the knife away in one of the slots on the rig, I pulled away the vest on my chest and looked down at the necklace hanging there.
It wasn't glowing, of course it wasn't—it was covered in a different aetherium alloy. But the hexes on my chest were blinking in the same way they had with the needler, creating a weak point.
And then, the whole shield blinked out of its own accord, and I felt a familiar sucking emptiness inside my core.
"I am out of juice," I said to Lola.
I knew I had a small reserve with my F-rank core, but just a few minutes for the shield? That was nothing, barely enough for anything.
"Try to meditate, drawing on energy," Lola interrupted my thoughts."In the Directive dataset, it was the only method mentioned for energy recovery."
"Only for a few minutes," I warned, sitting down, back against the wall. "Call me if I take longer than that."
Closing my eyes, I focused on my heartbeat, on my breathing, looking at the new key star at the bottom of my spine.
It was the first time two constellations crossed over, using the same small stars, but why had I awakened invisibility on the first try, and the shield on another…
Unless the intensity was a key?
Later.
Focusing on the core, I paused for a moment, thinking of ways to draw the energy in. Previously, I had only been pushing it to pulse…
Breathing.
Unconsciously nodding, I imagined how the Anomaly energy surrounding me was drawn into me, into the core, with each breath in.
With each breath in, with each new cycle, the hollow feeling in the core lessened, making the core pulse faster.
"Time," Lola's voice rang in the emptiness I fell into, losing myself in the process, in the breathing and energy flow.
"Katee, it's time," I heard her voice again, finally breaking out of it.
"Here, I am here," I said, opening my eyes and feeling refreshed as never before.
The best power nap I ever had.
Rising back to my feet, I flexed my shoulders to adjust the backpack's weight, and with barely a thought, activated the advanced hearing.
There were no changes to the sounds, but something was hanging in the air. Something I had a hard time pinning down.
"Let's go," I whispered to Lola, making the first careful step up the slope. "We need to leave now."
—
Stepping over the scattered bones, overturned stones, and the fresh marks on the valley's floor, I walked out of the cavern.
Keeping to the valley wall with the needler before me, I carefully looked around.
Lola didn't have time to bring wolves' corpses inside, leaving them to be feasted on by the wildlife, and their bones were all over the valley.
Perhaps that was why the bear came over the other night, and why the snake visited later.
Another unwelcome consequence of my faulty judgment the other day.
Grimacing from the loud crunch under my feet, I reached the ledge and glanced towards the waterfall.
I was half expecting, half afraid to see the squirrel again there, but it wasn't there, and with a sigh of relief, I began to climb the ledge.
The memory of the squirrel reminded me of air beasts I had almost forgotten about, and I checked the sky.
Nothing, not even a faraway gliding dot, was there.
If I hunted one of the hawks, I might get some aerial abilities, like the squirrel…
Shaking off unwanted thoughts again, I continued my way up the valley wall.
For all I knew, I might develop a strong beak instead of the air steps, or whatever they were. I had already risked enough.
Reaching the top, I peeked over the edge, looking at the meadow before me.
Nothing had changed since last week—same greenery, same moss-covered stones.
And only the fresh cut into the forest, left by the doe, and healing marks from my fight with the wolf pack stood out, somewhat.
I remembered carefully looking over the grass last time, searching for signs of the invisible hunters, and in a way, it was poetic that I had become one of them, albeit defective, with all this aetherium on me.
Just in case—if acquiring the shield somehow helped—I wished to become invisible, focusing on the skull key star without closing my eyes this time.
The air shimmered around me, and I felt a pull down the spine again.
No.
Forcefully pulling it towards the skull, I saw how the light bent around me, distorting my shape, but not quite as I had before.
Whatever the ability was trying to do had failed, exposing every place where I had aetherium on me and covering everything else in broken streaks of grey, pink and brown colour, in an eye-breaking pattern.
Huh.
It worked.
It wasn't ideal, but the effect was perhaps to my benefit. The only question was, for how long?
Averting my eyes, feeling nauseous just from looking at myself, I looked across the meadow at the forest.
The forest was silent, and only the wind was swishing and rustling between the trees. But it meant nothing, as I learned before.
Though this time, I wasn't planning to go there. My goal was on the left, the stone knob I visited before.
Once more looking over the meadow, I crawled over the edge and, measuring each of my steps, began to move there, keeping close to the ground.
All the way, I partially paid attention to the way my invisibility worked. It didn't affect things I was passing by, but it did affect my form, partially mimicking their texture and colour.
It was also weird as hell, reminding me of multidimensional warping, often seen when a spaceship enters hyperspace.
There was something more to the interaction between aetherium and The Anomaly, but this was not a time or place to think about it.
Noting it for later, I finally reached the knob.
On the other side, as I saw it the first time, there was a steep slope leading to the river.
My way out.
I only hoped that it didn't lead to the areas of higher anomaly density, but there was only one way to find out.
Hiding the needler in the holster, I triggered another wave of pattern changes over me, and I had to briefly close my eyes to suppress the heavy desire to throw up.
It was worse than centrifuge tests in the Academy.
Slowly breathing, I used this moment to draw on energy again, but without going deeper into meditation, opening my eyes in less than a minute.
Hopefully, it had still replenished my reserves, if only for a bit.
Checking the sky, I began my climb up the knob, following my steps from before. The ever-glitching pattern wasn't making it any easier for me, forcing me to focus on each movement and rely more on my sense of touch than my eyes.
Just to somehow cope with the effects, I kept my rhythmic breathing with a mental image of me drawing on the Anomaly energy with each breath, and releasing nausea with each exhale.
If it helped, I didn't notice.
By the time I finally reached the old spot, I felt like I had drunk half the bar and only wished to lie down and for reality to stay still.
And so I did, resting my eyes on the rare clouds in the sky. Perhaps that was why I had noticed the air beast first, before it even dived to attack me.
I really hoped it would not.
It was in vain. The beast spotted me, or my glitchy form, and for whatever reason, found it worth attacking.
Internally groaning, I reached for the needler, triggering another wave of changes.
To my surprise, the beast almost lost control of her flight in that moment, falling into an uncontrolled spin, though it recovered halfway down and, flipping aggressively, began to gain distance and height, flying away.
Huh.
This nightmarish side effect was not just screwing with me, apparently.
Chuckling silently, I finally rose from the stone and looked down the slope on the other side.
The river, cutting across the mountainside below me and into the forest, was still there, blinking with reflected sunlight.
My goal.
—
Reaching the bottom of the steep slope, I breathed out with relief and began to bundle the rope I had.
It took all my focus and training not to fall from this hundred-metre slope. More often than not, I had to slide the backpack down the rope before following after it, checking each step and each stone.
It was exhausting on its own, but combined with my psychedelic camouflage, it was the trip of a lifetime.
Not something I wanted to repeat, ever.
Although I had to agree, it was effective.
A few more times, I saw aerial beasts approaching me, but halfway through, they decided against it. I only hoped it would have a similar effect on other beasts as well.
Attaching the rope bundle to the backpack, I detached the other heavy package from it.
It was a flat square, about a foot by a foot in size and a few inches thick.
Originally, it was much bigger and heavier, and when unpacked, it was designed to unfold into a boat as large as a one-room apartment—good enough for sailing across an ocean, or two.
Obviously, something I had no intention of carrying down the slope or sailing on the river.
On my request, Lola cut it, making it smaller, lighter, and ready to be deployed in The Anomaly, albeit only once.
Putting it down on the stony river shore, I pulled the yellow-coloured strip, and the square began to unfold, whizzing and hissing, while getting bigger and forming a simple boat shape, one side covered by a low canopy.
It didn't have an engine, like the original one, and was missing all the tech on board, but it was enough—enough to carry me and my backpack down the stream.
Taking the last needed piece—the paddle with a telescopic handle—I put the backpack under the cover and pushed the inflatable boat into the river.
Carefully climbing in, I pushed against the rocky shore with a paddle and began my new journey, hopefully to somewhere I might find answers.
Or a way up in space—and home.
The current caught my boat as soon as I reached the middle, and relaxing slightly, I looked around.
The river wasn't wide, perhaps twenty meters across, and the current was smooth for the mountain region I was leaving behind.
I would have to watch out for the possible rapids or waterfalls ahead of me, of course, but otherwise, it was promising a much more comfortable journey, especially compared to the forest hike.
The strip of the forest ahead of me was slowly coming closer, promising the shade from the sun, and the danger of the sunken trees beneath the water surface.
Reaching into the backpack, I pulled a prepared snack with dehydrated mutated meat. That reminded me of my need to be careful with water again.
I didn't have Ateeve with me anymore, and I had to filter water on my own, using the tools from the survival kit. A limited supply that I would have to carefully ration and use.
Chewing on the strip of meat, I still tried to avoid looking at my form. Somehow, my glitched invisibility, influenced by aetherium, was still on, really testing my stomach strength or my ability to fight nausea.
I didn't know if it was less energy-demanding or if all my breathing was helping to replenish my reserves, but I was glad for the result and continued to practice it.
In a way, it was peaceful, meditative. And with ten metres of water on either side, I felt somewhat protected and hoped that shallow water wasn't enough for any beast to hide.
But just in case, I kept my right hand closer to the needler, ready to fight.
And then, when I had already reached the cover of the forest, rising on either side of the river, I felt a sudden rush of goosebumps down my back.
Instinctively turning my head back, I looked at the towering mountain I was leaving behind.
As if waiting for this moment, a burst of purple lightning covered the top of the knob I had come from, and a few seconds later, the rocking thunder reached my ears.
The anomaly thunderstorm raged for half a minute after that, twisting my guts in fear, before eventually stopping.
And I knew that whatever had just raged there had come after the snake Lola killed, and it wasn't happy.
Not happy at all.