TEOTWAWKI (An Original Novel - Episode 149)
Come to Mother
Mother was a Residential SparBuoy Structure surrounded by a Cloud of SSmoke (a.k.a Utility Fog). She moved slowly by Kedging. An anchor drone would swim ahead to the end of it’s line then embed itself in the river bottom. Mother would reel herself to it, rinse and repeat.
The KinShip, SueToo , had no trouble finding Mother.
Dragon Lady: Welcome home Henry. You’ve been gone a long time.
Henry: The boys were getting restless. We’ve brought the shoal of strange Cuttle Fish with us.
Dragon Lady: I expected that you would. We’ve made arrangements. Please moor SueToo at(coordinates).
Henry Detention?
Dragon Lady : Such a harsh word. We consider it to be a precaution.
Henry noticed that mother had a new annex, a bubble. The SueToo moored herself within it.
Only a few people had gathered to greet them and to view their ‘exotic passengers’ in the Real World and they had taken precautions. Everyone remembered what had happened the last time alien life had been encountered. The DragonForce and the Maggi hovered over the SueToo supported by the SSmoke like HummingBirds attending to flowers. Everyone else, however, were present in virtual reality. There was quiet a crowd in VR.
“Ok boys and Girls” Henry said to the TheoPhorz in the hold. “We’re home. I’ve opened the doors. You may exit when you want to.”
The TheoPhorz were in cubby shelves grown from SSmoke. The cubby shelves had matrix floors and ceilings but solid walls. Each individual unit rested easily within a cubby. Each unit(syllable) could ‘hear’ every other unit(syllable) in it’s gestalt (name) easily since the floors and roofs of their stacked cubbies were perforated. The walls were solid however so that they could only ‘hear’ their neighbors only with great difficulty. Henry and he boys had developed the cubby shelve transportation based upon their comparison to the Tines. The names saw no reason to tell them they were wrong. The names had learned to expect strange behavior from the humans and cooperated as a manner of course.
Slowly, one syllable followed another from top to bottom and departed the converted cargo hold. Each name politely followed the next from front to rear. They all exited the kinship much more quickly than would be expected. MUCH quicker than a bus with the same number of people.
They swam along the surface keenly aware of the few humans hovering over them. KC and Henry had attempted to explain VR but that may not have “took’.
“Those are gnarly looking critters” Cody said to Joshua. Joshua was RW present, Cody was VR.
“They are that” he agreed. “Some things just look dangerous. I can’t imagine how they could look ‘inoffensive’ even if they wanted to.”
A hatch of K/C’s kinship opened. It had been surrounded by many of the TheoPhorz. When K/C exited the creatures became still as statues. They were gazing upon the true form of their god. Until now K/C had been inside the KinShip. This was the first time that he had swam among them unconfined.
TheoPhorz sensed the world differently than humans. They had been able to tell from their first encounter that K/C and Henry were NOT the ‘shells’ in which they rode. When the humans exited the KinShips the TheoPhorz recognized them instantly. It was as if they could see the soul, not the body. Henry was easy for Samuel. Raphael and Ishmael with K/C had a harder time since there were two souls in his one body.
THAT was confusing to them, for a moment. They adapted quickly however.
K/C took advantage of the airborne SSmoke to hover. He floated above the water. A dragon avatar flew unnoticed slightly higher above his human body. Carl was in the dragon avatar getting the bird’s eye view. Karl was in the body, up close and personal. Ish-ma-el and Rap-ha-el followed on either in the water below, The TheoPhorz were intently examining the human while ignoring the Avatar.
Henry and Sam did the same thing. Of all the many TheoPhorz exiting SueToo’s large holds, only a handful were attentive to his presence. That would be the syllables that formed Sam. Sam-u-el followed Henry like a puppy would follow it’s master. All was well in Sam’s world.
TheoPhorz do NOT look cuddly, far from it, to most people. To K/C and Henry they did. Henry anticipated what K/C was going to do and preempted them. If the situation turned lethal better an old fart near the end of his life be at risk than two young wet behind the ears whippersnappers. Throwing caution to the wind Henry leapt into the water. He and Sam ‘Tussled’, as his mother used to say, play fighting with each other.
At first those watching were alarmed. Soon it became obvious that none of the TheoPhorz meant any harm to Henry. They had too many opportunities to hurt him while rasseling that they ignored.
“Come on in, the water’s fine” Henry said to KC, who promptly dove in.
“We are trained Professionals” Carl said after a moment.
“Do not try this at home” Karl’s dragon avatar hovered among the other humans. They were used to seeing it and paid it heed.
“We and Henry have ‘socialized’ with the Names for some time. We can’t be responsible for how they would react to strangers. Be very careful.“ He said. “Consider them to be Wolf Puppies. They might bite.”
Everyone thought about that for a while.
“That said” Henry noted” Your OmniSuits will probably protect you, if you want to get to know them better. If you want to go swimming with them you do so at your own risk. We aren’t going to TELL anyone what to do, we’re only going to give strong recommendations and warnings. Be very careful. Is that right Sam-u-el?”
“Right Boss! We not bite!” Sam-u-el said right on cue. Henry breathed a sigh of relief. He and Sam-u-el had been practicing that line for a while. Henry was proud of the gestal and told Zhim quietly, so that none of the crowd could hear. “Very GOOD Sam. You did that just right. Sam is a good boy”.
“You won’t hurt anyone will you Ra-pha-el?” Karl asked from his dragon Avatar.
“No boss. I be good”. Ra-pha-el was having a bit of and identity crisis. His laird spoke from the odd flying thing, yet his Laird’s spirit was with the other spirit in the strange soft looking body. Ra-pha-el was slowly coming to grips with the problem but His life was SO weird.
“How bout you, Ish-ma-el? Will you be good and not hurt people?” Carl asked.
“I be good boss.” Ish-ma-el said ”I’m a good boy!”
The crowd all laughed at that.
“There you have it folks.” The Dragon Lady said cautiously.
“This can either turn out really good for the tribe.” she said “or be very bad.”
One of the names had cautiously approached the DragonLady. Zhe swam as close to her as Zhe could get without being perceived as a threat. All of the TheroPhorz many eyes were trained upon the human.
Kamiko heard a voice asking her. “Are you my god?” and felt something she had NEVER felt before, she was finally complete. It was as if her soul had something missing before that moment that she had never noticed before. One does not notice a void if the void has always been there.. NOW the round peg to fit that round hole had appeared to in her life in the form of a slimy mollusk.
Kamiko decided that form didn’t matter, only the soul did.
“That’s not the word that I would choose dear.” She said “but I think you have the right idea.”
Kamiko drifted low over the water’s surface until she could touch a syllable with her fingertips. The slimy body surfaced beneath her hand. She was touching Zhim.
“What is your name?” The DragonLady whispered.
“I be Be-th-el” the name replied.
What followed was rather intimate if only mentally.
To Be Continued
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The Hobo Picture is a Public Domain image from
Samantha at the Worlds Fair
by Josiah Allen's Wife (Marietta Holley)
Illustrated by
Baron C. De Grimm published by
Funk and Wagnall's Company 1893
Unless otherwise noted
All other Illustrations are from
Pixabay
writing scifi books future-technologies apocalypse
Really well written, but I'm afraid I came in a bit far along into the story!
Thank you. I can fix that...Here you go. Part One