[ Through the Gate ] Red x Tarmagon

[Red Sinfonia]

Through the Gate

for

Red Sinfonia & Tarmagon

​

 

[Red Sinfonia]

SLIDEL

This was it.


Professor Slidel was standing on the precipice of discovery, of action, of unearthing everything he and his predecessors had worked for. It was the culmination of years of research, of failures, of staying up into the late hours with a freshly empty bed at home. If this didn’t work, he swore that the force of its rejection would tear through him and rip out his heart.


There, before him, was the beautiful amalgamation of everything he’d sacrificed and everything he’d desired. Its expression was unreadable as it watched back at him, all silver enigma that inspired enormous temptation in him, but could not, and would not, divulge its secrets until the right things had fallen into place. The Bridge was hauntingly silent, its ghostly image flanked by the dual beasts behind it, its arching threshold awaiting the first to step beyond into a world that was not this one. Slidel was darker than green with envy for the mercenary thug they were prepared to toss into it, but Nova Quantum had denied him first passage.


If the SCDRB was just a deathtrap that they’d managed to design, they were content with leaving Slidel to experience a living death from his defeat.


The stalwart captain of the ‘security’ team was quick whenever Slidel requested one of his men to aid him in the final steps. He had conversed amongst his own and sent his messengers, leaving Slidel’s interns and scientists unmolested in their duties to bother with the trifles of who would go.


They flitted around like bees, their fingers quick at the controls, their eyes glazed from the bluish glow of the screens. There were those who hadn’t slept, who’d refused to sleep, waiting to witness the birth of a new era. It didn’t matter the possibility of the SCDRB not being what it was meant to be. If it was, everything changed.


“Start them,” Slidel said almost breathlessly to his chief scientist, a small, older woman with mousy hair.


If she noticed his tremble, she didn’t mention it, but instead made her ways to the controls and oversaw the waking of the Polaris III engines. After she’d flipped their switch and adjusted the dials, they purred to life, softly rumbling the room with their eager grandeur. Slidel was almost ill when the interns subsequently activated the gate, permitted via a nod, and it flickered around the archway’s edge. This was it.

ARCHON

It had been so soft and so quiet, lying against the veil of all that was, but something unusual sought to disturb it. A ripple scattered across the waters, a fly caught in the corner of a web, cracks fleeing over the pane of glass. Archon was frozen with inquisition, every fiber of her being screaming and silenced all at once.

Startling her to life, the feeling doubled, hands against the fabric pressing inward.

One slowly retracted, so Archon focused herself on the initial. It seemed harmless, almost gentle, as it blindly sought its way through the stellar place of in between. It was unlike her, but like her, and she marveled over its complexities.

'Hello?'




The prodding was soft, the language of the mind and mind alone, but it did not answer it. It was a trembling force, shy and shallow, like a dying creature who was barely breathing.

'What are you?' Archon revolved around it, sidled up to it, but it made no reaction. It was metal against the mind and silent in its expression.

 

[Tarmagon]

Initial Activation + 2 days


Ryan sighed as the raucous blaring of his alarm cut through a wonderful dream that didn’t involve slate gray walls, humming electronics, or dry, scientific conversation with researchers who were so full of themselves that they had forgotten how to interact with ordinary people. He rolled out of his bunk, wincing a bit as his feet hit the cold metal of the floor, and made his way into the tiny washroom to deal with the requirements of the morning? Was it morning even? Time was a little hard to keep track of in the facility with no windows, but windows wouldn’t really have done much one hundred meters below the Antarctic landscape. Shrugging off the oppressive feeling of the multiple tons of rock overhead, Ryan stepped into the shower, grabbing a razor on the way in.


Ten minutes later, clean and clean-shaven, he was back in the living area of his cubical pulling his uniform on. As he checked himself over in the mirror, Ryan couldn’t think of a person who lived up to the hard-bitten mercenary look less than he did. Barely topping five foot ten, with close-cropped brown hair that matched his eyes, he wasn’t the chiseled mass of muscle that the recruiting posters displayed. True, he was in good shape, and was good with his weapons, but he just didn’t live up to the image that folks like his captain did. McAllister, and that was all anyone ever called him, was the epitome of the mercenary, well, security contractor, image.


“They didn’t hire you to be their poster boy,” he thought to himself as he strapped on his sidearm. “They hired you because you actually have a clue about what the scientists here are working on.”


Palming the ident pad on his locker, he pulled out his rifle and automatically checked it clear before slipping a clip of frangible rounds in and working the charging handle. Tapping his wrist against the rifle, he made sure the ID lock was active before slinging it over his shoulder and stepping out into the brightly lit corridor outside his quarters. Forty meters down, turn right at the intersection, then another forty meters to the first security station.


“Yo! Ryan!” Cliff called from behind the desk as he approached Security 1. “One of the eggheads wants to see you before you go on shift. McAllister’s already cleared it, and Kim knows you’re gonna be late. Just hurry up with whatever Professor Slick wants eh?”


“That’s professor Slidel,” Ryan replied dryly. “And whatever you think about them, those ‘eggheads’ are paying our salary. His office?”


“Nope,” Cliff said with a shake of his head. “Operations control.”


“Ops con it is,” Ryan replied calmly, though his mind was racing. “Best I get moving then.”


Cliff just waved, hitting a control on the security desk to pass Ryan through the checkpoint. As the door hissed shut behind him, Ryan turned his steps away from the path to the inner security office, and headed towards the heart of the scientists territory, his thoughts whirling.


“What could professor Slidel want with me that McAllister couldn’t handle?” he thought. “I understand the science going on here, but I’m no expert. Oh well, best not to wonder. Best to just go find out.”


Suiting actions to words, Ryan made his way deeper in towards the core of the base. He thought it was a little odd that none of them actually knew the name of the base they were guarding, but what they didn’t know, they couldn’t spread around by accident. Not that there was actually anything to guard against this far underground, but hey, they were being paid well.


“Well,” he thought a trifle wryly; “There’s also that little caveat of providing the first person to actually make the transit jump when they stabilize the Gateway, and the fact that you’ll be stepping into that thing in another couple of days.”


Wry thoughts aside, Ryan was actually excited about the prospect of being the first person to transfer through the gate. While he was nowhere near the league of the scientists who actually had put the massive machine and its counterpart in an isolated station on the far side of the moon together, he understood that they were actually working to change the properties of space-time in two entangled locations, making a temporary bridge between them. The theory was sound, it was just a matter of the proper power supply, and the new Polaris reactors seemed to be just the things to fill the bill. They were the latest in He3 fusion technology, and had at least five times the energy output of the older generation reactors for the same physical footprint. Most of the mass of the reactors was buried in the walls behind the Gateway room, but their final energy conversion nodes flanked the Gateway apparatus, making them seem like hulking guardians for the innocuous looking arch that was all that was visible of the actual mechanism.


His musings had taken him through two more security stations on autopilot, and Ryan felt, rather than heard, the deep purring rumble of the active generators. It had been two days since they powered them on, creating the entanglement between the Gate here and on the moon, theoretically.


“You’re going to be finding out just how accurate that theory is,” he told himself as he placed his palm on the ident pad outside Operations, then stepped inside as the door hissed open. The door slid shut behind him, and Ryan paused for a moment to let his eyes adjust to the lower lighting inside the Ops Con room. Most of the light came from the various screens dotted along the various control stations, with surprisingly little making it through the massive window that dominated the wall overlooking the Gateway. Before he could steal a look through said window though, a harsh voice called his attention to the rear of the room.


“Collins! Over here if you please.”


Ryan glanced in the direction of the call, and saw professor Slidel sitting behind a low desk that was mostly made up of monitor banks. Plastering a carefully neutral expression on his face, Ryan moved quickly over to stand in front of the desk.”


“What can I do for you sir?” he asked respectfully.


“What? Oh,” professor Slidel looked up from the monitors and scowled at Ryan. “Not there, here.” He gestured quickly at his side of the desk. “Mercenaries. They’ve the brains of… No…. Nevermind…Look here!”


The agitated professor gestured to one of the monitors, which was showing an obviously unoccupied lab.


“What am I…” Ryan began, but the professor cut him off with an irritated gesture.


“Just watch. Watch the table with the chemical storage rack.”


Ryan picked out the table on the image and watched, nothing happen. Just as he was about to snap at the professor for wasting his time, the air over the table, rippled. The distortion floated just above the table for several seconds, then seemed to collapse in on itself and vanish. As is vanished, glassware and bottles flew away from where the distortion had been, almost as if a shockwave was radiating out from the empty air.


“Professor?” Ryan didn’t even get the question properly started before Slidel was pointing to another monitor.


“Here, a few hours later.”


This time the view was of a darkened office, and the distortion appeared again, this time over a desk festooned with papers and coffee cups. The lower light in this room made it obvious that the distortion was emitting a faint radiance of its own, a pale blue nimbus that the eye could barely make out. It seemed a bit larger than the first image as well. A few pieces of paper rose slowly into the air to twirl before the distortion before it shrank into itself and vanished. This time the circular nature of the shockwave it left behind was visible in a storm front of papers that swirled madly for a few moments before settling to the floor.


“Now, just minutes later.”


This time the distortion was almost human sized, and it appeared to float around the Gateway, as if it was trying to examine it from all side. There was nothing to be blown about in the Gateway room, but the shock wave picked up an expanding ring of dust as the strange effect vanished.


“This was all within hours of the initial establishment of the quantum entanglement effect between here and the Luna base,” professor Slidel said. “The effect is obviously an artifact caused by the activation of the SCDRB, and it has continued to grow in power and frequency. We have named the phenomenon the Kellerman/Everett life form from the Slidel interface. It is also getting more powerful. This was taken this morning.”


The view was of the original room the phenomenon had appeared in, but this time it was drastically different. The form that seemed to step out of mid air was definitely humanoid in shape, an androgynous form lent a certain femininity by what appeared to be long hair that moved as though stirred by a wind that could not exist in the lab. Glowing orbs seemed to flow and shift though the dark mass of strands, the pale blue that they had first seen in the second appearance of the phenomenon. The skin seemed to be smooth and gray, though there was a bluish tint that lurked just below its surface. There was what appeared to be a flattened nose, though the glowing patches on the face made it hard to tell for sure. The eyes were pools of blackness, though there might have been purplish swirls drifting inside them. The figure deliberately picked up several of the vials of chemicals, examining their contents before carefully placing them back into the racks. It was holding two of the vials, looking back and forth between them when the door to the lab began to open, and the figure seemed to collapse in on itself to a shimmering point, which vanished with the now familiar shockwave effect as the two vials crashed to the floor.


“As you can see, “ the professor said, cutting the playback, “The Kellerman/Everett life form seems to be intelligent, and curious. The ability to jump from point to point is most likely an aspect of its fundamental nature, as is the unfortunate side effect of the minor blast front created by its disappearances. We have tried leaving messages for it, but it seems not to understand them, and it will not manifest in an occupied room.”


“Why haven’t you told McAllister about this?” Ryan asked. “It could be dangerous.”


“Spoken like a true mercenary,” Slidel scoffed. “It is a new life form. Of course it could be dangerous! If we can establish communication with it, it could also increase our understanding of the quantum universe immeasurably. Besides, what would you do? Shoot it? So far it has not deliberately done any damage, and we want to keep it that way. You are scheduled to enter the Gateway in two days, yes?”


“Yesss,” Ryan said carefully. “What did you have in mind.”?


“We are moving up the timetable, effective immediately.” The professor said briskly. “I will inform your superior that your services are needed for Gateway penetration within 12 hours. It is imperative that we establish at least enough communication with the Kellerman/Everett life form…”


“Kelsi,” Ryan said firmly. “Her name is Kelsi.”


“How can you presume to assign a name and sex to such an entity?” Slidel asked indignantly. “Besides, we have already named it the…”


“Use the initials,” Ryan interrupted. “It’s easier to remember and say in a hurry. And as for sex, well it is fairly androgynous, but something about the face and hair says female to me. Besides, it’s for my comfort anyway. Feel free to call he/she/it whatever you wish.”


Professor Slidel actually looked thoughtful for a moment, and then nodded sharply.


“Very well, Kelsi is much easier to say, and the word has a feminine ring to it. I agree. We shall call her Kelsi for conversational ease. Now, report for your physical! You enter the Gateway in 12 hours.”


12 hours later


Ryan stood before the metal arch that contained the shimmering distortion of the Gateway while the once quiet purr of the Polaris engines thundered through him like a raging stampede. He had been poked, prodded, injected, had blood drawn, answered question after question until he thought his brain would explode. He wore his standard issue armor, but carried no weapons what so ever, not even his knife. What he was armed with was every form of recording device the scientists had had on hand, or had been able to cobble together.


“This damned gear weighs more than a combat load out,” he thought, shifting under the weight. “At least this will be a short trip, either way it goes.


He looked up to the Operations booth, and saw all of the scientists watching him with ill concealed envy, and he suppressed a chuckle.


“Won’t be so envious if I get spread all over the room I bet,” he thought.


Before he could change his mind, he waved up to the watching faces, then turned towards the Gateway, and stepped forward into the area of twisted space-time.

 

[Red Sinfonia]

It was silent within the plane that was between all planes, as it had always been, but Archon found it more disturbing than ever before. There was a new place that she'd touched upon, that had opened its maw, welcoming her. It had cajoled, in its quiet, reassuring way, and sucked her through its skin until she was cast into the pulsing sounds and vibrant colors that engulfed her. That place that was spoiled with chrome and liquids and tight, noxious smells, that made her repulsed and inquisitive, wary and excited, all at once. That place that encouraged complex contradictions and the furious tangle of emotions. Her physical manifestation, as much as had formed, had buzzed with the pleasure of it, a titillating vibration that whirred every cell to life, in tune with the hum of the environment she'd touched upon. Slowly, piece by piece, with every visit, she'd formed a part of herself, fresh and raw like a new creature from its fleshy skein.


There had been other creatures there, similar to her in stature and facial pieces, that Archon almost wondered if they had subconsciously inspired her visceral phenomenon, save for the differences that made her Other.


Despite a personal desire to interact with them further, her true nature had gotten the better of her, and she'd whisked away. Jumped to previous places visited, moved within the world that had invited her, and back to the safety that was between all worlds. There, she'd felt the exhilaration color vision, pierce the nebulas and starfields and passive noise that composed what she saw in her space. A space that, until the very next moment, had truly been hers.





It was a shock that oscillated along her sensory field, stroking fingertips that had been, only some time ago, grasping vials and glass in a three-dimensional form. Here, however, there was no space or dimension, so it was an odd, phantom feeling that she recognized instead.


Something throbbed against the wound that was her entrance and exit point to the other world, an infection that weaved its way in, or out depending on perspective. It drew Archon in, as its splitting had done so before, and her mind stretched fingers along the vastness that was and was not empty. 'Hello?'

 

[Tarmagon]

Ryan wasn't sure what he expected when he stepped forward into the distorted space-time that filled the arch, but this wasn't it. He stopped dead and stared down what looked like nothing so much as a shimmering crystal tunnel stretching through a landscape that twisted and flowed like the patterns oil made on water. Turning around, he could just make out the laboratory, through what looked like a wall of intense heat shimmer. Turning to look down the tunnel? It really was the best word for it, he thought he could just make out similar shimmer at the very limit of his vision.


"This is so bizarre," he thought, taking a step deeper into the strange reality that stretched out before him. "I wonder if this is where the entity lives?"


He took another step, and suddenly the shimmering wall that he hoped marked the other end of the entanglement rushed towards him as the 'tunnel' twisted and turned through every possible axis he could imagine, even seeming to reverse on itself. He froze in place, trying to wrap his mind, and more importantly his rebelling stomach, around the warping of his perceptions this place was causing. He squatted in place as his guts roiled and churned, taking deep breaths... Where was the air coming from? It must be coming through the Gate. As his breathing slowed and his stomach unknotted, Ryan rose to his feet, but before he could take another step something tickled the edge of his perceptions.


"Hello?"





"Kelsi?" he called into the twisting aether. "Kelsi, is that you?"

 

[Red Sinfonia]

Something startled Archon - a reply, an electrical charge across her mental fingertips that she marveled and reveled over. What beauty, this little sensation was, what glory. It echoed across her energetic phenomena, a ripple that she fervently devoured like words. Sounds with meaning beneath them that scattered across her like nonsensical creatures, their noisy flesh peeling away and leaving their significance behind. Yet they confused her, perplexed her. 'Kelsi?' What was it? An alien sound that was left untranslated? A word? A name?


Moving across the web that spanned beneath space and time felt arduous, having spent so much effort in the physical world, but Archon attempted it. She shifted closer, felt an anomaly disturb her sensory field. One that was familiar, and yet not. The contradictions pained and excited her, and she made a sound that was almost like a laugh. 'I don't... I don't understand. Who are you? How are you here?'

 

[Tarmagon]

Ryan felt something shift, as though the ground? or whatever he was standing on had suddenly lurched to the right. As he struggled to maintain his equilibrium while the assault on his inner ear continued he became aware of... something. It was as though he stood in a dark room, with someone just close enough to him that he couldn't be sure of their presence, or absence. It was, unsettling. His eyes roved over his odd environment, and for just a second he thought he saw a distortion in the 'wall' that separated him from the rest of this place, but when he turned his gaze fully on the spot, there was nothing there. Shrugging, he steeled himself to take another step, then froze, foot half raised as a cascade of ripples spread down the 'wall' of his tunnel, accompanied by, well, it wasn't laughter, at least not in the human sense, but it made him think of the delighted giggle of a child discovering something wonderful.


"I.....don....und-st-d. Who.........? HOW.........here."


Reality rippled and flowed around him as the words impinged upon his consciousness. He wasn't even certain he was hearing them with his ears, but Ryan knew one thing... Something was trying to talk to him, and the unsettled feeling vanished, to be replaced with a sense of wonder and excitement. He had no idea how he understood what the entity, no Kelsi, was saying, and he had no idea if this was in response to his call, but he didn't care.


"Hello," he said slowly and distinctly despite his building excitement, trying to form the words with his mind as he formed them with his mouth. "I am Ryan. Who are you?"

 

[Red Sinfonia]

There it was again! A corpulent noise that shattered across Archon's field and sought her, wrapped around her, then fled away, so similar to those that she'd experienced in the world she had visited. It was so completely unlike anything she had felt, but the spirit of them, those she understood. Those curled against her mind like an old friend. 'Ryan'. What in the flesh was a 'Ryan'? "Ryan?" Was that its role in its society? So intangible by her stream of thought that she could not grasp the translation?


It had taken her time to understand, so many moments that couldn't be moments lapping against her before she perceived the personal ownership that the thing had said it with. The ownership as though no one else could have it, even if the concept was preposterous. A word came to her, one that she hadn't known in years. A descriptor that she hadn't used. "Your name is Ryan!" She delightedly exclaimed into the aether, the sound of a laugh dancing from her phenomena once more as Archon got its meaning.


When she had been on the other side of the wound, she had heard the conversations through the walls. Archon had heard the tags they'd given each other, the 'Professor' and 'Kim' and 'Sir' and 'Robert', but now the thing was asking what her tag was, wasn't it? There was some perplexity, as to what she would pick, for she was many things, and they all felt personal. Then she fell upon one she valued above all. "I am Archon," she responded to it, pleased as anything that she'd landed the right one.


"Did you follow me after? How did you manipulate the wound? Did you know that I was here?" Archon began, the thoughtstream so large and chaotic that she couldn't manage to hold the floodgates.


As she questioned the Ryan, another feeling pulsated about her sensory field and she almost purred from the pleasure of it, until she realized that it wasn't a hand against the fabric as before. It was something else. There was someone else already within. "How many of you came through? Will there be more?"

 

[Tarmagon]

Ryan waited, hoping against hope that the entity would respond, but when it did, it nearly broke his mind.


"Your name is Ryan! "





The force of the exclamation threw him to his knees as it exerted itself on his reality, the tunnel twisting and warping, the glimmering fabric of this place that made up its wall bulging and pulsing ominously. The pulse of delighted laughter, and this time he sure it was laughter, that ricocheted up and down the link, was slightly more bearable, the ripples of its passage marked by motes of light cascading through the tunnel walls. Just as they were dying out, a fresh statement ripped reality.


"I am Archon."





The totality of that statement hammered at his mind as it hammered at the fabric of reality, but before he could fully grasp it, a torrent of questions slammed him to the ground in agony. He could barely make out parts of words, the questioning came so fast, each one imposing it's own form on his world. He could feel something warm on his face, and the salt taste of blood filled his mouth.


"Please, " he whispered, his mind barely able to form the thought. "Too much, too fast. It hurts. I mean no harm."

 

[Red Sinfonia]

Before the noises replied, tumbling against her senses, Archon was met with a barrage of sensation, meekly wrapping around her mind with a tone of pleading. It shocked her, making her mental outstretch recede and fall in upon itself as she fought to understand it. She fought with it and grappled, tossing her mind into an anxious complexity. No, wait... there was a word for it. Pain. "Oh... I...." The thoughts were gasped apologetically and she fumbled with the helplessness.


It had been so long since she'd felt pain. This was the place of inbetween, the plane between all planes, the world beneath the flesh of time and space. There were no sensors for her, very little to stimulate besides the ripples against the silence. Agony was null, but this...





The physical being was like a solid rock against her spread backdrop, so she forced her consciousness around him. A cajoling and gentle sensation, almost like what the wound had done to her when it had welcomed her to its maw. That was the only carefulness that she knew, unused to visitors in her realm that did not share in her spaceless being.


"I'm sorry..." Archon just barely felt, like a scarce breath that was hardly a breeze on her sensory field. "Is this better, Ryan?" She asked, focusing intently on keeping herself dull and quiet, just like the place that stretched between all places.

 

[Tarmagon]

"Oh... I...."


Ryan struggled to his knees as a wave of confusion washed over him. There was also, apology? He started to stand, but thought better of it as a wave of dizziness hit him. He settled for sitting cross-legged, and reached into his medikit. The little diagnostic module was dark when he pulled it out, and after tapping the activation button a couple of times to no effect, he replaced it with a shrug and drew out an old-fashioned gauze pad. Dampening the pad with water from his harness bladder, he wiped his face, not surprised when the gauze came away red. He turned the pad over and wiped his face again, noting with some relief that it was nowhere nearly as red as it had been. He dampened another pad and finished cleaning his face, then put both into a bag that he dropped into an empty pocket, the action automatic after having been drilled into him for so long.


"Leave nothing behind," his drill sergeant had said. "There will be times when you have no choice, but never leave anything traceable behind if you can help it, especially your blood. It is far too easy for an enemy to figure out who you are if you leave them a large enough sample."


Just as Ryan was about to try and stand again, he felt...it was... Warmth, welcome. The gentle caress of a warm breeze on a summers evening. The clean calm that came only after the mightiest of storms had passed. He looked around, and saw slow cascades of sparks flowing over the walls near him, drifting like dust motes in a sunbeam all about him.


"I'm sorry..." whispered out of everywhere, making the motes of light dance, but having no effect on the rest of this reality. "Is this better, Ryan?"





"Thank you Kelsi," he said, then blanched. "Oh, I am so sorry.. Thank you Archon. It is much better."


Ryan concentrated hard, doing his best to keep his words and thoughts slow and deliberate. It was difficult, since the world? around him still seemed to be dipping and swaying. He thought that the reality-storm of the Archon's excitement might actually have given him a slight concussion, but without the diagnostic module he couldn't be sure.


"You have a very powerful voice Archon," he said a trifle wryly. "I wasn't prepared for its effect. I rather doubt any human will ever be prepared for it. If you can maintain this, I will try to answer your questions... If you wouldn't mind repeating them a little more slowly?"

 

[Red Sinfonia]

It was hardly a tremble that masqueraded as what Archon truly felt, what she meant, but she determinedly allowed every fiber of her to concentrate, to be scarce and soft, to just barely touch what was there. Much as she wanted to let it flow freely, she was enjoying the communication, the broken endless silence of the place she knew as home. Now, she knew, if she let it go as freely as she willed it, the creature would be slaughtered. It wasn't meant to happen, she knew. The physical, that which contained space and was ruled by the realm of time, should not be in the place that broke those laws. The Ryan was at her mercy, and the mercy of the exoskeleton that he'd used to climb into the wound, or out of it.


There were many things that she meant to ask, but Archon took to care this time. It took her several moments, mulling over what was first and foremost toying with her curiosity. The excitement tickled the back of her mind, reminding her that it could not bring her to harm in here, and she was as free as she could be. She was at leisure, in charge, and the only thing she had to fear was killing the thing asking for her hospitality.


"Kelsi..." Archon whispered, remembering the tag, the name, spoken several times by the Ryan. He had said it with question when he'd first arrived and mistakenly said it again as opposed to 'Archon'. She had wondered, briefly, if that had been one of her titles and she hadn't known it, or that it was something she was that she didn't understand, but it didn't make any sense either way. The creature would not know her for what and who she was. "What is a Kelsi," she asked and subsequently paused. "And why do you keep saying it?"


Tenacious and determined to be patient, Archon waited for the Ryan to respond to her inquisition, until she felt the trickle across her sensory field again. So caught up she'd been in her delight, and ensuing apologetic behavior, that she'd forgotten about the wringing on her web, which had phased in and out during those times, that she'd forgotten about its entrance. It hadn't felt the same as the Ryan's entrance and yet it had, so she was drawn to its complexity, as she was in all other things.


Though she attempted to wait and be slow, a sense of urgency gripped Archon's phenomena and she sent a gasp along her existence. "How many of you came through, Ryan? Did they come through on another end?" She asked, fighting to keep her voice soft and still, betraying the sense of growing pressure she truly felt. The presence was growing closer, dancing haphazardly along her field and fighting towards the center - something that didn't belong in this place more than it did. A soft of protectiveness curled around the Ryan, replacing the apologetic expression from moments before. Archon had never responded this way to something in the aether before, as death was a constraint of time and space, but there was something wrong with this visitor - unlike Ryan, who was constrained by time and space.

 

[Tarmagon]

"Kelsi...What is a Kelsi, and why do you keep saying it?"





Ryan felt his cheeks heating in embarrassment. Archon had noticed his slip of the tongue, and now he had to find a way to explain to an entity that seemed nigh omnipotent that it was a name he had dared to give it. Of course, he had had no way of knowing her? its? actual name beforehand, but that last slip. He sighed, trying to order his racing thoughts when something changed. The warmth around him seemed to shift into something harder, more focused. The dancing motes of light began to congregate towards the 'Luna' end of the tunnel, and he glanced towards where the other end should be, only to jerk to his feet in shock. There was a film of inky darkness eclipsing the shimmer of the interface at the end of the tunnel, a darkness that bulged up into a strange, nearly humanoid shape that pounded clawed fists on the insubstantial shimmer as though it was a wall of solid steel. As Ryan stared, the shape dissolved back into the dark film, and flowed down to the tunnel floor, only to rise up as the humanoid shape again.


"It almost looks reptilian," the analytical portion of Ryan's brain noted. "And it definitely wants to get through that portal. Is that a member of Archon's race?"


The shape turned, and Ryan was able to make out gray shapes on the things face, eyes? before the shapes narrowed, and it sank back into the black puddle that had spawned it. The pool of darkness began to flow along the floor of the tunnel towards him, moving in fits and starts as though it were fighting a hard wind, but it continued to move towards him.


"How many of you came through, Ryan? Did they come through on another end?"





Ryan took a deep breath, pulling his eyes from the pool of blackness flowing slowly towards him, and addressing the motes dancing about him.


"There was only me Archon," he said, with only a slight quaver in his voice. "As far as I know, no one came through from the other end of the Gateway. Is that...person coming towards me another of your kind?"

 

[Red Sinfonia]

The question struck a chord that vibrated her phenomena, dragging Archon into the ghost of a feeling, the remnant of a memory, that didn't belong in this place of all places. It surprised her and her field seemed to dangle on the end of a thread, a chest that paused between breaths. The waiting stretch of time that had no time to be waiting. "No," she responded. "There are no more of my kind. I couldn't-" The part she had meant to finish was obscure beneath the tremors that rocked her senses. There was something with them, something that was part of both Archon and the Ryan's worlds, but wasn't. Something both energetic and physical, but it could do little to Archon in her vast web of beingless self. That wasn't the same for the physical creature that didn't belong here.


It felt dark and somber, equally angry and terrified. It radiated a sense of desperation that increased Archon's protectiveness. It hovered at the wound, like an infection, waiting to fester and savage it. There, it blocked the Ryan's means of escape, and she did not desire to wait and see what it would do to that which was physical in this place. Where simply her voice could make the creature feel pain. She could shout at the Wrong thing, but not without the Ryan suffering the consequences, and there was no certainty that the creature who did partially belong would be as affected.


That moment, Archon realized what the Ryan meant and where he had been going. There was another wound, a throbbing pathway that had lead through the aether. It had invited Archon in because she'd been on it, or near it, and she'd meandered into its one side. Across, there was another. The Ryan had been walking a path opened between the two. So there was another end, surely.


A sense of fear and vigilance filled Archon and she wordlessly concentrated, feeling the Wrong come closer and closer. The Ryan had vocalized its approach, assuring her that it was targeting him. He moved, away from it, but it wouldn't be enough. The thing had traversed paths like these before and despite its arduous task, it moved quicker than the Ryan ever could. She had to think quicker. She had to move faster, but she wasn't sure what that entailed.


The Ryan's stream of thought was spilling onto her field, translating his perspective into physical terms. The shape that was black, consuming light and color around it, was nearly upon him. It took so much effort, so many moments that couldn't be moments as the Ryan was watching it encroach, for her to gather and work, focus and fight, to bring some sort of manifestation to the place that was above and below space and time. Her sensory field collected as a skein of energetic fabric, her urgency rippling it and warping it. It narrowed around the physical thing, the Ryan, as a blue phosphorescence, and it grasped at his flesh, every fiber of Archon's self. The thing had attempted to latch on, but the perpetuated, concentrated energy ripped the Ryan free.


Having achieved some sort of phenomena that crossed physicality and energetic, Archon's consciousness enveloped the Ryan and she bucked against the forces that meant to dig their claws into her. Unsure of what was and wasn't her at the moment, Archon did as she'd done before, save that she pushed herself to the untouched wound, the Ryan in clutches that were and were not physical, and propelled them outward.


They broke the flesh of the gateway, throwing Archon back into a plane that knelt to rules without preparation. The pieces of her that had blanketed, spread, even fused to the Ryan, were forced into a manifested form, unsettling her so quickly that she knew even less than before what was her and what wasn't. There was so much light, so much silver, dazzling itself across her vision that she was folded into her physical self, attempting to block it all out. Noises and voices and mania jumped around her, making her wonder if this is how the Ryan had felt.


Fear made her jump, squeezing at the air, but her fingers met the contradiction of hard and soft - flesh, and a feeling that this was the flesh of the Ryan. The assurance of his presence made her grasp ease, but not entirely, feeling herself vulnerable, and temporarily blind, in the world that was not hers, but his.

 

[Tarmagon]

Ryan began to slowly back away from the pool of darkness flowing along the tunnel towards him, somehow certain that whatever the person? thing? coming at him was not another of Archon's species. The thing seemed to move in fits and starts, but somehow it was covering the distance far faster than he was backing away.


"No, there are no more of my kind. I couldn't-"





The stream of Archon's words? thoughts? broke off suddenly as the humanoid form rose briefly, gray glowing eyes, and Ryan was now certain that they were eyes, gazing at him hungrily. Then, the shape was gone, and the pool that spawned it lunged forward, covering the distance between them before Ryan had could do more than gasp. A pseudopod of purest darkness lashed out from the inky surface of the thing, and he raised one hand to ward it off, only to stare in shock as it engulfed his hand. An icy chill that made the Antarctic surface seem like a tropical island assaulted his senses, and he could hear a sibilant hissing in his ears. He felt powerless, watching pulses of the dark fluid begin to rise towards his trapped hand, somehow knowing each would erode a little more of himself. Before the fear he was feeling could get more than a foothold, his world exploded into an intense blue radiance. The blue glow intensified, then sank into his flesh just as the darkness was doing, but this felt...it felt like Archon. A brighter pulse of the light flowed up his arm, and he could actually see it forcing the encroaching darkness out of his skin, like an oily sweat.


The dark thing manifested its humanoid form, reaching for him with claws of shadow and icy cold, but the radiance suffusing him deflected the claws, causing the thing to howl in fury as it redoubled its efforts to breach his protective shell of, Archon. Even as he grasped that Archon was infusing him with its essence, he found himself propelled forward, far faster than he could have ever moved in this strange reality on his own. The Luna end of the Gateway suddenly filled his vision, then he erupted into an almost perfect duplicate of the Gateway room in the Antarctic base. The far lighter gravity told him that he had indeed made the jump to the moonbase, but he had no time to fully appreciate the situation as shouts of alarm rang out.


"What's that?!"


"That's the entity!"


"I've got a shot!"


The last shout registered in Ryan's brain, as did the snik-snak of a charging handle on an assault rifle. Just at that moment, a cool hand closed on his forearm, and he KNEW it was the Archon, just as he knew the trigger happy guard was going to fire. He didn't have time to think, but then, he didn't really need to. He turned smoothly, sweeping the form he was certain matched the image he had seen on the video, into his arms and away from the rising rifle. He felt her stiffen at his sudden move, then he felt the impact, like the kick of an angry mule, on the back of his armor as the frangible round struck and shattered. He grunted as the armor stiffened and then rippled, spreading the kinetic energy around his body even before the crack of the shot reached him.


"BLUE!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. "BLUE! She's a friendly! The hostile's hot on our heels! SHUT THE DAMNED GATEWAY! SHUT IT NOW!"


He could hear shouts of "Cease fire!" and "Stand down!" but he kept his body between the Archon and the guards as he prayed that the Gateway would shut down before that, thing followed them through.


"Please," he thought. "Don't be angry with them. They're scared, they didn't mean to shoot. Please, don't go. I owe you my life..."

 

[Red Sinfonia]

The brays of the fleshy creatures reached Archon's ears, so loud and harsh and unlike the murmurings through the walls that she'd heard on the other side of the wound. Though unsure of their exact intentions or the meaning behind their strange sounds, the understanding of the danger that they meant to bring to her became clear. It shot through her like a shock wave, beckoned on the alien waves of thought washing through her. Immediately, she knew that these were not her own. They coincided with a sudden overwhelming desire to protect, even when she wished to run, and she was swept into the arms of the creature that she had grasped for only seconds before.


Breaking through the wound and its confusing circumstances aside, Archon was equally startled by the invasion of emotions, partial thoughts, sudden distress, and just how warm the thing was that was holding her.


Before she could contemplate the new temperature beside the variations of cold and average she'd felt in the past, a loud crack made her jump and her fingers tightened around whatever limb she could grapple. A spark of fear dissipated across her skin and she felt herself tingle with the sudden eagerness to flee, though she highly doubted that she could at the moment. Every fiber of her, contained in this new plane, had exhausted itself to push them through the wound. "Don't go," one fragment of several fighting its way through, interrupted her stream of thought.


Looking up, fighting through the sparkling webs that streamed across her gaze, she saw the being that she had saved and, in turn, had saved her from his own kind. Archon had glimpsed them before, if briefly, and her instinctive urge was to reach and touch, as she had always done with her sensory field in the world between all worlds. There was so much pink, but not, and undertones, and browns, and highlights, and the substance of flesh was so strange. The creature was wearing things, but for what purpose, she did not understand. "I do not think that I can leave, Ryan," Archon thought, wondering if he would hear her as she was sure she'd heard him.


The creatures were bustling about now, responding to something, she thought, that the Ryan had shouted at them. Turning her head, she saw the wound that they had come through, and feared that the Wrong would follow them, where she was vulnerable and unable to port back, especially with the Ryan in tow. It made a loud, guttural sound that caused her flesh to jump again, until its constant rumble withered into a soft, gentle hum. The wound shrank, her glimmering world dimming into hardly a sheen, before it was gone, leaving an arching gateway.


Quickly, her eyes darted around, taking in the surroundings and watching for shadows. Archon's visage returned to the Ryan and she gently grabbed his face, turning and moving it, unsure of what she was looking for, but needing to look. "The Wrong, did it harm you? I know that it touched, that it meant to savage its way in, but I cannot tell entirely." She turned again, to the closed wound. "Did it follow?"

 

[Tarmagon]

The roar of the paired generators filled the room, as did the chaotic shouts, though the latter were quickly dying away under a barrage of orders, but a quiet voice cut through the bedlam like a surgical laser through flesh.


"I do not think that I can leave, Ryan. "





This was not the thunder of Archon's previous speech, nor the torrent of questions, it was personal, nearly intimate. The voice of a dear friend, cutting through the noise of a party to capture your attention. He could also feel an undercurrent of fear as the form in his arms turned towards the Gateway. Certain now that there would be no more errant bullets, Ryan released Archon as the thunder of the generators died back to a standby purr. As they did, Archon stood to her? oh yes, DEFINITELY her, full height, looking nervously around before taking his face gently but firmly, in both hands, turning him to look him from as many angles as she could.


"The Wrong, did it harm you? I know that it touched, that it meant to savage is way in, but I cannot tell entirely. Did it follow? "





The words and the worry were plain in his mind, and Ryan could not let it go unanswered. Reaching up, he squeezed one slender gray/blue shoulder gently as she turned to study the Gateway area again.


"I'm fine," he said aloud, as much for the guards benefit as hers. "We closed the Gateway in time. It didn't follow us. Thank you for saving my life in there. "


Archon turned away from the quiescent Gateway to face him, and he noted her prominent hip bones, oddly curved and protruding under her skin, as well as dimly glowing slits, almost like gills, that ran in trios from under each breast to just above the hips. Her hair was no longer moving as it had in the video, and the lights within were dim, but otherwise, it was Kelsi.


"Archon, " he thought to himself. "Her name is Archon, not name you gave her. "


"Archon. .." he began, then paused as an obvious scientist and a man wearing captains insignia stepped forward.


"Welcome to Luna 6," the captain said, nodding to Ryan. "Collins, right? Let's get you and your, friend settled, then professor Kellerman here has about a million questions I imagine. "


"Yes sir, " Ryan responded. "Thank you captain Taylor. "


Name tags did have their uses he guessed.


"Archon, if you would come with me, we'll try and scrounge you up some clothes. "

 

[Red Sinfonia]

A touch on her flesh to the left briefly alarmed Archon and she wondered when the sensory violations that caused her to violently startle would end, but there was delight that colored the feel afterwards. Briefly in awe, she wondered if it was the touch itself and if these creatures were able to perpetrate that sort of power, or if she was overtly enjoying the warmth that the Ryan exuded. She wondered, thereafter, if they all were the same temperature, or if that was only a feature of the Ryan.


The wondering was interrupted by the Ryan's voice, which sounded garbled and strange to her, and by his clear thoughts. "I'm fine. We closed the Gateway in time. It didn't follow us. Thank you for saving my life in there."


Archon rested fingertips on his hand briefly, returning the gesture with something that felt, in turn, reassuring. "Thank you for saving mine out here," she thought to him, strange to the idea that she was thinking to someone other than herself or a beingless thing in the world between all worlds. Though the feeling of being strange to something was not strange lately, she noticed, glancing down at her feet and stretching the toes against the floor.


Before, on the other side of the wound, Archon had similarly felt the physical sensations, but she wasn't as manifested as she was now. Her fingers stretched on her lower limbs and she curled them, pulling the nails against the flesh. Her vapid curiosity was broken when the Ryan simultaneously spoke and thought to her. Her gaze snapped up and she saw the small group of gathered fleshy creatures, eyes uncomfortably on her with visages that she did not appreciate.


They had been drawling among themselves until the Ryan had addressed her. The others began to move and a hand went up, gently grasping the Ryan's upper arm as Archon tailed behind him. "What are clothes, Ryan?" She questioned him, the inquisition warming itself in the rapport of a companion. "And why do I need them? Will they hurt? Do you have them too? Is it something on you now? Is it like this exoskeleton?" She plucked a few fingers at his gear.

 

[Tarmagon]

Ryan followed Taylor and the scientist, Kellerman, that was his name, down a corridor that could have been transplanted from the Antarctic base. He was acutely aware of Archon's touch, and the free flow of what he now realized were not words, but her thoughts,coming directly to his mind.


"What are clothes, Ryan? And why do I need them? Will they hurt? Do you have them too? Is it something on you now? Is it like this exoskeleton?"


He could feel her fingers plucking gently at his armor, and suppressed a smile. She was so, well, interesting.


"You do realize that the only reason you and that, entity are not in quarantine is a combination of McAllister's trust in you and the fact that I have seen the footage of the entity's antics," captain Taylor said as they walked down the corridor. "However, since I cannot be sure that you are the same you that went into the Gateway, you will not be receiving a firearm during your stay on Luna."


"I, understand sir," Ryan said slowly. "Thank you for not clapping us in quarantine. I do not believe that Archon would have appreciated that."


"Is that it's name?" Taylor asked? "How does it communicate? It hasn't made a sound since it got here, but you have been speaking to it as though it were in communication with you."


"She has been sir," Ryan replied. "I believe that her act of assisting me out of the Gateway has created a means of mental communication with me. I could 'hear' her clearly even in the bedlam of the Gateway room."


"Archon," he thought, trying very hard direct his thoughts towards her, "Can you communicate with anyone besides me?"


Before Archon could reply, professor Kellerman palmed open a door and ushered them inside. Captain Taylor remained outside.


"The professor will take care of you for now," he said. "I need to get on the link with McAllister and the scientists in the deep freeze."


"Sir!" Ryan said as the captain turned away. "Please include a warning. If a black substance made it through the Gateway, treat it like a level 4 biohazard. There was a hostile entity in the transit made up of an amorphous substance that resembled thick motor oil."


"I'll pass that along first," the captain promised as the door closed.


"I believe we have a suit that will fit your companion," Kellerman said, opening a locker in what was obviously his office. "I do not know what her physical limitations are, but decompression suits are not optional here. Please remove your combat harness so we can analyse the footage. I shall take it while you explain the hazards of being on the moon to your, companion. Hopefully she will deign to speak to us."


"I don't think you will get anything," Ryan said, removing the combat harness and all it's recording gear. "My diagnostic module didn't function in the Gateway interface."


"You didn't have time to try and use a diagnostic module," Kellerman scoffed. "You were in the interface for under two seconds."


Ryan didn't have a chance to reply as Kellerman drew a pile of fabric out of the locker, then collected the combat harness, and exited the room.


"So, Archon..." Ryan began, then shook his head. "Before we get into the idea of clothes, I need to ask. Is Archon your name, your race, or your title? In my language, Archon means ruler. It's making me feel, odd to always address you in such an impersonal manner."

 

[Red Sinfonia]

Despite how many times Archon thought, long, hard, and with direction, 'Hello?' at the fleshy creatures that were leading them, neither of them seemed to budge. She had thought, very briefly, that she'd made contact when the one stopped and morphed his expression at her, but she was unsure if she thought it different only because she hadn't studied it before and it was moving through a natural cycle of the valleys and creases in its face. Even the Ryan, whom she was now connected in an almost intimate manner, with his warmth and his pinkish hue and bumps on his face and pink things that flapped and garbled sounds as he thought to her - it was all alien and discomforting, though equally exhilarating and exciting. Regardless, she wouldn't know if he was laughing at her or shouting at her if it weren't for the fact that she could receive his thoughts.


Moving into a new room broke Archon's rapid train of thought, which had been spiraling out of control and would have landed ungainly in a pile of overwhelming, suffocating questions. More flapping and garbling went on between the Ryan and the creature, the one that had followed them into the room, but she saw it fit to release her hand from the Ryan's arm and meander.


Now that she was free to mobilize without being discovered, if only for the moment, she began touching everything foreign she could find - which happened to be most things. Archon had marveled over the portal that the creature had pulled a skein of flesh from, but she waited until he moved on to examine its edges, wonder if it dipped into another dimension, and was still impressed that no, it just opened up to a space. Filled with things. Things that she wanted to touch.


The abrupt end of the creature's gabbing, then subsequent opening and closing of the door, wrenched Archon's attention away from the locker and fixated on the pile of flesh that the creature had left. For moments, she stared at the preposterous thing, until the Ryan's thoughts invaded her mind.


It was a valid question, though at the same time, Archon felt that it was a bad question. One that she could not answer sufficiently, she felt, so for several seconds, she only stared at him blankly. "It's everything. All three and more," she replied simply, but immediately knew that was not the right thing.


"More than ruler. A leader. A true Leader," Archon recited, almost as if they were not her words, or thoughts, though she didn't have any doubts that she may have pulled them from faded memories. Her fingers stretched and then wove together. She glanced down, pretending to be astonished at their interlocking capabilities. "Everything I am is the true Leader. I cannot remember for what, but that is what I am. My race, my title, my 'name'. I am Archon." There was an unwarranted trace of sadness that threaded the words, for they were felt for centuries, if not thought. She shooed them away. "You called me something," she thought, dropping her hands and looking up at him. "In the plane. Was that a name? I would like a name. So that you may address me personally."


The latter was said with a sort of smile, though Archon would not have known what it was called - just that the pieces of her face shifted and she felt it mostly in her cheeks and she pushed it aside as a bizarre assault on her senses. Briefly, her attention was drawn to the pile of skin that the creature had left behind and she reached out to it.


When Archon found that it was temperature neutral and unlike any flesh she'd vaguely seen before, nothing at all like she expected to feel, she gasped and made a sound like 'oh' before spooking herself and slapping her hand across her mouth. Even though she was inwardly fascinated by the ability to make sound, the revelations of the fleshy creatures and their 'exoskeletons' and colored furs came together. She understood now. Grabbing the pile, she lifted it towards the Ryan, nearly jumping with the excitement. "Show me. Show me how."

 

[Tarmagon]

Ryan didn't bother to try and hide his smile as his companion's attention shifted from topic to topic like quicksilver. How a being so ancient could be so fascinated by, things, was actually quite refreshing, making him look at the world around himself anew.


"If it suits you then," he said, smiling at the enigmatic being exploring her surroundings with the wonder of a child, "I shall call you Kelsi, and will use Archon when I must introduce you by title."


He couldn't help but grin as she, Kelsi, grabbed the decompression suit and turned towards him, her thoughts bubbling with excitement.


"Show me. Show me how."





Ryan started to speak, then made himself stop, and carefully examine Kelsi from head to toe. She had breasts, which the suit would accommodate easily. The prominent hips might be an issue, with their strange bone structure, but he was fairly sure that the semi-smart material of the suit could compensate for those as well. He forced himself to assume a clinical detachment and let his gaze drop to her crotch. He could see what appeared to be standard female genitalia, but he had no idea whether they were functional, or whether she would have to even eat or excrete.


"Better to play it safe," he mused, taking the suit gently from Kelsi's hands and opening the control compartment built into the suit's belt. A few deft manipulations of the controls disabled the 'plumbing' system of the decompression suit, withdrawing the connections back into the processor packs and converting the interior of the suit's crotch to a smooth expanse of fabric. He made a few more minor adjustments, then closed the control compartment and laid the suit on the table in front of him.


"Kelsi," he said and thought, trying to convey the seriousness in word and thought, "Please do NOT open the compartment I just closed. This suit was designed for humans, with human bodies. If you touched the wrong thing in there, the suit would try to, 'connect' to your body as if you were a human female, and I am afraid that might hurt you. For now though..."


He ran a finger across the waist of the suit, and the top partially separated from the legs, folding back slightly. As he ran his finger down the front seam of the suit, it opened wide from neck to where the waist had separated from the legs. He ran a finger along each arm and leg, making sure to go slowly so Kelsi could see the silver line he was tracing in the blue and grey fabric. The arms and legs didn't open, but the fabric loosened visibly.


"Now," he started, then stopped, looking thoughtful. He stared at Kelsi for a moment, then shut his eyes and tried to concentrate on her. He imagined her picking up the suit, slipping her legs into the legs of the suit, then running her finger up the silver line, causing the suit legs and waist to tighten firmly about her legs and waist. He then tried to imagine the image of her slipping her arms into the suit arms, one by one, then pressing the open seam closed before running a finger over each line to tighten and fit the suit.


"I hope you can do that," he thought, as he spoke slowly, hoping Kelsi could start to associate words with thoughts. "The fabric will squeeze you a bit, but it will not hurt you. As you move it will loosen to fit you as best as it can, and if something feels wrong, let me know and I will try my best to fix it. I don't want you hurt Kelsi. If you do not understand, I will help you."

 

[Red Sinfonia]

'Kelsi.' Yes, that had been it. The sound that had been spoken in the plane, the sound that held personal value and yet didn't. The sound that was meant for her, even if she did not recognize it as her own. Her mind formed it again and again, like a ringing bell, as she watched the Ryan fiddle with the skein of flesh.


Much as she wanted to question and fiddle as well, her fingers twitching with the desire to touch, Archon's- no, Kelsi's mind was locked into a loop of feeling and adventuring, forming the name to fit herself. There was already something personal to it, something that was gifted to her, as opposed to something that she just was. She would have asked the Ryan where he'd gotten it from, but she supposed that, in the end, it was trivial. It was hers now, a special gift that couldn't go wasted. She was Kelsi, even if less than Archon, but she was it.


Before she could make a special request of the Ryan, a stark, grim emotion penetrated her mind, accompanied by the grave thoughts that her companion sent to her. Archon's eyes snapped up, making contact, as he conveyed the instructions of what not to do. She glanced down, briefly, to make sure that she understood exactly what compartment he'd been playing with that she shouldn't touch. Natural instincts to pry and experiment scratched at the back of her mind, but her trust for the Ryan and his knowledge of the world that was not hers stilled it.


'Human', was her first response, lips parted as Kelsi's mind worked the new pieces of the puzzle together. 'Your race,' she amended. It was an easier title, she supposed than 'squishy, flabby pink things'. Though, looking down at herself, she new that she now fell into part of that category, minus the pink.


The images, like errant strikes of paint that strained to form against one another in a manner that made pictures, faintly brushed Archon's consciousness. She gasped again, this time undisturbed by the sound she created, and carefully took the 'suit', as the Ryan had called it, from his hands. Holding it out the way that he had showed her, she stared down at it curiously.


The way that it gaped, like a creature holding open its maw, temporarily stifled her desire to crawl into it, but seeing as it had not digested the Ryan and his ilk, Archon pushed aside her doubts.


As the transplanted images had instructed, she started with her legs, feeling the fabric just graze the skin on the way down. It was a unique sensation that she likened to a tickle across her sensory phenomena. Just as she had showed her, Kelsi dragged her finger along the silver line. And froze.


The suit gripped the flesh of her legs, even tucked itself around her protruding hip, and made them feel rigid and slow. Immediately, her flesh crawled, and she wanted to frantically peel it off, but she didn't, as equally excited by it as she was horrified. Fingers suspended, curved, and expression bunched with disdain, she looked at the Ryan. 'I hate it,' she thought with a hiss, the blue of her luminescence temporarily flickering. She could feel every cell pull outward from the pressure, wanting to initiate a jump and shed the restrictive thing, but her exhaustion and want to see more kept her in place. With a sound of a gentle rumble, Archon picked up the remaining pieces and pulled them onto her arms, mimicking the motion she'd done on her legs with the silver lines.


When they tightened, she frozen again and held her arms out miserably. The skin gripped her in so many places she didn't know there was sensation. Places that she hadn't bothered it. Places that weren't her feet or hands. The flesh of her knees felt suspended. A uncomfortable agitation that begged to be dealt with formed at the valley between her legs. Her hips felt crushed, as did the lumps of fat on her chest, and her arms felt as though moving them would pull them out at the shoulders.


'It all feels wrong,' Kelsi thought to him, brows pulled forward, unamused. 'Why do humans suffer themselves?' She questioned with a demanding tone, slowly flapping her arms up and down to ease the rigidity in her armpits and across her back. When the suit relaxed, she made a sound of relief and continued to bend other things, such as her elbows and wrists.


'We're going to meet with those humans again, aren't we?' She asked cautiously, pausing in her physical endeavors. 'Will you do something for me before we do? Will you say your name? And my name, too. Slowly.' This time, as Kelsi thought to him, her attention immediately turned to the flappy things on his face, which she noticed he moved when he thought, even if she could not understand them.

 

[Tarmagon]

Ryan watched as Kelsi pulled the decompression suit on, then winced as a wave of fear and discomfort struck him like a physical blow when she sealed the legs of the suit.


'I hate it.'


Before he could respond with reassurance though, Kelsi made a sound remarkably like a grumble of distaste and pulled the suit the rest of the way on.


'It all feels wrong. Why do humans suffer themselves?'


Ryan watched as Kelsi stood rigid for a moment, misery evident on her face. Once more he tried to respond reassuringly, but once again Kelsi beat his reaction with her own actions, flapping her arms, then flexing her joints. She visibly relaxed as the suit 'read' her range of motion and customized itself to her body.


'We're going to meet with those humans again, aren't we? Will you do something for me before we do? Will you say your name? And my name, too. Slowly.'


Ryan could see that Kelsi was staring fixedly at his lips as the words formed in his head. He knew she could vocalize from the little gasps of surprise and distaste she had made during her experience with the decompression suit, so maybe she was going to try and speak aloud?


"Of course," he replied with a smile. "My name is Ryan. Yours is Kelsi."


He sounded out the names slowly, making each phoneme distinct as he thought the words.


"I am sorry the suit is not to your liking Kelsi," he said, trying to convey both his regret and the utter necessity for the suit at the same time. "But you seem to be breathing, and where we are is, artificial. Maintained by machines. Machines can break, and if they do, we would have no air to breathe. This..." he reached out to stroke the source of Kelsi's displeasure, "Will give you air to breathe and protect your body if the machines fail unexpectedly. Everyone here is wearing one under their outer clothes, or just wearing the suit as their clothes. I will promise that the more you move while wearing it, the better and better it will fit you. Is anything about it particularly bothersome? And yes, when you are ready, we will meet the other human again, but only when YOU are ready."

 

[Red Sinfonia]

My name is Ryan. Yours is Kelsi.





Intently, Archon watched the Ryan form the names with his mouth as much as his thoughts. She watched patiently and formed them similarly with her lips, mimicking his movements almost exactly. The guttural braying was the hard part, so she saved it for last and instead formed those words over again with her mouth. Despite that he'd slowly spoken out their names, she moved her mouth to the whole instrumental, the whole seven words that he'd spoken, over and over again. Even as he spoke, assuring her that the damned second skin was necessary, she diligently formed them, preparing for the harder task until she was sure she'd gotten it right.


That, or she was simple going to 'bray' differently than he was.


The gentle quiet that had fallen between them, in the expectation of a reaction, was what snapped Kelsi back to the Ryan's affirmations. 'It is suffocating,' she responded plainly, as though it was the most obvious thing she could have spoken. Her hand raised, her fingertips stroking along the ridges that ran along her side, framing her luminescent gills, which glowed faintly beneath the suit. No oxygen filtered through them, unlike the Ryan and his human compatriots, but Archon was unsure of how she knew that, just that it didn't. Just that she was and wasn't like them. 'You are wearing a second skin, are you not? A suit? And also an exoskeleton?' She asked, her hand reaching out to touch the equipment that holstered his finger. 'Wouldn't you prefer to shed them both? To not feel so trapped? I would save us both, should those machines fail,' she said, her brow lowering in seriousness. 'I would take us home and you would not have to breathe.'


That, however, was felt with an uncertainty. Archon did not know what would happen if that which abided by space-and-time went to a place that lacked it. He had been fine before, but Archon assumed, like the suits and the machines and so on that the Ryan had given brief glimpses of, in his thoughts, that it was due to something that was not natural to him. Either way, she would be faster that the failure of machines. She knew it, due to her visits to and form. She could save him in time, regardless of what the world that wasn't artificial could do to him.


'A moment more,' Kelsi thought quietly, a soft, silencing hand rising. She had been watching him, as he'd spoken; she had seen the movements of lips and throat, the exertion of what she knew to be vocal chords, and the writhing of his tongue. She formed the words several times with her mouth again, as a precursor, and thought of how they would work together, recognizing the sounds that he had made in her head like a recorded message. There was a pattern, a distinct one, that mapped itself out in her mind. "Aah," she tested, opening the vocal chords of her own carefully and feeling it subsequently vibrate her throat. 'I see.' She thought, and made the correct connections. "My name is..." she paused, applying logic to the words that she'd mimicked almost exactly and switching the phonetically spelled-out words. "Kelsi. Yours is Ryan," she finished, smirking triumphantly at her accomplish. At least, she thought it was. The words had come out slightly clipped, unlike the Ryan's, but they were there and she had made them. Each word's significance became apparent, but frustratingly, she could hardly think to string together anything new. There was too much more she needed to learn. 'How was that?'

 

[Tarmagon]

'It is suffocating. You are wearing a second skin, are you not? A suit? And also an exoskeleton? Wouldn't you prefer to shed them both? To not feel so trapped? I would save us both, should those machines fail. I would take us home and you would not have to breathe.'


Even as Kelsi's words formed in his head he could feel both her absolute certainty that she did not breathe in the traditional sense and that she could be, elsewhere, before any failure of the life support could harm her. He could also feel her certainty that she could take him with her, though something about him being in her space? dimension? worried her. He started to reply, but stopped as she held up one hand in a remarkably human gesture to wait.


'A moment more.'


Ryan waited, watching Kelsi mouth something over and over, though she made no sound. Suddenly her face lit up as though she had understood something that had previously eluded her, and this time when she opened her mouth a smooth contralto emerged.


"My name is...Kelsi. Yours is Ryan."


The words were perhaps a little clipped, but perfectly understandable, and Ryan couldn't help but grin as what could only be a smirk of satisfaction tugged Kelsi's mouth up at the corners.


'How was that?'


"That was, astounding." he managed to say after a moment. "Absolutely astounding."


Before he could continue, a wave of what could only be irritation flowed out from Kelsi as she moved and the suit didn't move enough to satisfy her.


"That suit just does not work for you at all," he observed, wondering if there was anything her could do to make the experience more bearable for her. "I would feel very uncomfortable without my, second skin and exoskeleton, but for you..." he trailed off, thinking hard. After a minutes consideration he moved to the desk and typed an inquiry into the terminal and smiled at the answer that flowed across the screen.


"Give me a few minutes please Kelsi," he said. "I think I have located something that will be more, comfortable for you. I hope that your ability to protect yourself is as good as you feel it is, since what I have just requested will do nothing for you if we decompress. If should provide you with a, second skin, that is much more comfortable. I would say.."


He paused, blushing furiously as he tried to figure out how to explain body modesty to an alien life form who obviously had no interest in, or experience with, clothing.


"It's just that she's so human looking," he thought. "Oh, she's different enough that it's obvious she's not from around here, but she's human enough that casual nudity would be, distracting to everyone around her. And that voice.... lovely."


His thoughts broke off in a sudden slither of confusion as he noticed Kelsi watching him intently.


"Oh no.... Did she pick that up?"