The biggest mistake of his life

The giant seed was about to smash into Nyco’s face when Levi flew by and grabbed the shocked boy by his arm. They were barely able to dodge it without getting hit. Nyco watched the seed fly away as he slowly calmed down.

-Thank you, Levi. I’m sorry-, Nyco apologised.

-Your head is not where it should be, Nyco. Focus on the mission-, said Levi calmly. The Star-finder was not faced by the fact that he almost died saving him. What bothered him was that they could have failed the mission because of the new recruit.

-You are right. It won’t happen again-, Nyco assured him.

-Good. It’s time to go in.

The mission had to take place when the moon was orbiting near the planet. The change in gravity helped the roots of the enormous plant to loosen up and separate them enough so they could fly between them without touching them. If they touched any of its roots they would activate the plant's defensive system.

Nyco, Levi and Silvy flew to the base of the enormous plant and watched how the roots separated from each other as they were being pulled by the moon.

-We have 6 hours to save the scientists. It should take us one hour to reach the location where they last made contact. Do not touch any of the plant’s roots if you don’t want a poisonous branch coming out of them. These branches are extremely fast, if they tangle you they will excrete an acid that will dissolve your suits in seconds. If by any chance you touch one root, transform one of your suit’s hands into a sword immediately and try to fend them off long enough for you to jump into the mothership above us. Don’t even think about continuing the mission. If you touch one root, jump out of here. We all have 3 jumping orbs in our suit. That means we can each try this 3 times. Let’s go-, indicated Levi.

Nyco got serious. This was by far the most dangerous thing he had ever done. A sudden rush of excitement filled his muscles. He knew it was dangerous but he also wanted to prove to himself he could overcome this extremely dangerous mission. He then looked at his partners and also noticed that they were smiling.

Nyco had to fly into the Green Glutton’s roots with extreme caution. The roots looked like a massive labyrinth you had to decipher. One wrong move and you would end up in a dead-end.

The three Star-finders flew slowly deeper and deeper into the planet’s core. The plant was so big that it took them a while to find Verdant-43's true surface. The plant had grown so much that it took them 30 minutes to reach the real surface of the planet.

They found a lot of holes on the earth. Some were made by the roots so the plant could extract the nutrients from the ground, but others were made by the poor rodents and other animals that had to adapt to live on a planet shared with the enormous plant.

It was one of these holes that the scientists used to find the special root from the plant that generated the sap they needed.

“So far so good”, Nyco thought as he entered one of these holes. This part of the journey was much easier as there were hardly any roots to evade. The boy turned on the suit's light as it was getting darker and darker as he advanced through the hole.

When he finally came out of the tunnel, he found a massive cave. This cave was so big it seemed like a complete new world. He saw a lot of different types of luminous fungus. He still needed his own light to see, but he appreciated all the fungus for the amazing view.

The roots from the Green Glutton still appeared in some corners of the cave, but they were a lot more scattered there, to his relief.

Silvy appeared before him and gave him a small nod with her head as a way of telling him he did well surviving up until now.

-Come, Nyco. Levi and I found the cave where we think the scientists are-, Silvy told him.

-Perfect, Silvy. Lead the way-, the boy said. He felt happy that both of them had survived. Silvy and Levi always acted distant as all Star-finders did. They did not find any benefit in human relations apart from completing their missions. Even though they were cold and insensitive, Nyco found that they were nice people, they just didn’t feel like he did. At least for now…

Nyco flew right behind Silvy to the cave where Levi awaited them. Nyco could clearly see that it was a man made cave from its size and shape. The good thing about this cave is that they could go walking, so Nyco landed and turned off the suit’s propulsion boots.

The three rescuers walked shoulder to shoulder inside the tunnel.

A small rodent that looked like a combination of a mole and an anteater walked past them. In another circumstance, Nyco would have loved to chase it and play with it, but he had an important mission to follow. Levi and Silvy didn’t even look at the rodent.

They saw a huge bright light coming from the end of the tunnel. “That must be where the scientists are”-, Nyco told the others. When they finally got into the illuminated room Nyco was left speechless.

In one of the room’s walls there was a big yellow ball sticking out of one of the roots from the enormous plant. It was this ball that illuminated the room. It was so bright that they could have sworn it was a fragment of the sun. Nyco couldn’t look at it directly or it would hurt his eyes. “That must be where they wanted to extract the sap from”, Nyco thought.

After they got used to the bright light they saw a scene out of a horror movie. There were bodies of fallen Planet-Gazers everywhere. They had obviously been attacked by the Green Glutton since parts of their bodies had been dissolved.

-Stay still-, Levi ordered. The Star-finder looked around but could only find the root with the big glowing ball. -Get your Warpys ready, the plant may attack at any moment now.

-Even if we don’t touch it?-, Nyco asked.

-I don’t know, but it’s not normal to find all these bo…

Levi stopped talking as he saw the three scientists they went to rescue on a corner. They seemed to be asleep inside their Star-Fly suits. They didn't seem to have any wounds. All three thought it was weird that the plant hadn’t attacked the scientists when all the other Planet-Gazers that had tried to rescue them were lying around in pieces.

-Make sure the Warpy has the mothership orbiting outside the planet selected. I’m going to check on that man over there and try to teleport him with me. If something happens, leave immediately-, Levi ordered.

Nyco nodded his head in sign of agreement. He already had the mothership selected, all he needed to do is press the button and he would teleport there. The suits Warpy was much more sophisticated than the one civilians used. This one was implemented in every Star-Fly suit and could travel longer distances. Nyco also checked that it had all the energy necessary for jumping. That reminded him of the incident with Mr. Litdawn, where a lack of energy on the Warpy really complicated things.

He pushed those thoughts aside and concentrated on the mission.

Levi got over to one of the scientists and tried to wake him up. At first he tried speaking to him but it didn’t work. That’s when he made the biggest mistake of his life. Levi touched the scientist to try and see if he could wake him up that way. But there was no one to wake up. Levi noticed that the man seemed to be glued to the floor. He took a closer look and noticed that the scientist’s suit was broken on its back. He got closer and saw a root from the plant merged with the skin of the dead man. They were now part of the plant and he had just touched it.

-Jump!-, he shouted to his team mates as branches like tentacles started. coming out of all three scientists.