Chapter 7

Haledon felt his heart begin to race as he looked into Sparrow's eyes.

"Sparrow, is it the Mecharrion?"

He crossed the room and tucked the piece of metal into a small vine loop on his hip. Placing his hand against the soft moss covering the nutrient lines, he paused and waited for Sparrow.

"Could be," She responded, setting a hand to the ground.

A small pedestal of roots formed a jar before erupting spores out into space above it. The orange glow danced in the air as it displayed the Astralaceae. An orange-red image of the ship was spiderwebbed with green veins that seemed to pulsate weakly as they diluted the orange to yellow.

"Graviton particles are emitted by approaching Mecharrion fleets.” Sparrow continued. “They also occur in Nature when two black holes collide. So, let's hope for the second—"

The image spun as she pulled the ship apart and looked at three individual pods. Haledon, looking over his shoulder, could see her scrutinizing the seeds. With a chop of her hand, she inspected a cross-section and hummed. Her eyes locked with his as she scowled.

Haledon nervously nodded and returned to his work, thinking about the threat of Mecharrion. His heart raced with anticipation as thoughts of confrontation plagued his mind.

He rested his hand on the wall and breathed. He connected with the coolness of the moss against the palm of his hand. With a slow breath, he extended his fingers wide and slipped them through the thick mat as Sparrow's had before. The warmth of the Astralaceae flowed through his body as he grabbed hold of one of the Lateral Dendron Rods.

With a gentle twist, he freed it from the wall and wiped it down to remove the excess nutrient fluids. Examining it, he stared at the prominent bands that represented the growth stages of the pod.

"Primeval Druid Sparrow..." Haledon muttered.

"Seral Druid Haledon." She replied sarcastically from across the room.

"Something happened a long time ago to this pod."

“We knew that—”

“No, I mean the pod were in. Something happened to the Hypogeal Pod.”

Walking the rod across the room, Haledon presented it to Sparrow. He pointed towards the bottom where a thick, brown line stood out from the rest of the otherwise yellow-green bands.

Sparrow eyed it curiously and nodded in agreement.

"What do you speculate?" She asked.

"A few generations after the formation of this pod, an exceptionally metal-rich piece of space debris struck the front of the ship. It became lodged in and began to poison future growth."

"Hmm, sounds familiar," Sparrow smirked and examined the rod further. "How did this debris differ from other metal-rich interstellar objects to cause such an adverse reaction?"

Haledon stared blankly for a moment, the question washing over him. He felt a sense of panic as he realized he had no idea.

Sparrow caught this and followed up her question with its answer.

"It damaged an accumulator nodule. That then began to feed an unregulated supply of metals into the nutrient stream."

Haledon quietly nodded as he eyed the rod as well. Having performed this procedure on his Astralaceae, he could easily tell the nutrient balance was off. Unlike the dark green lateral rods on his ship, this one had a sickly hue. There were also clues that mast generations, where the Astralaceae produced excess food and space after seeding, were near nonexistent. The thick bands, beginning with the dark brown, became thinner and thinner before not happening at all.

"If I had to guess," Sparrow muttered as she examined the ship's history. "The excess metals disrupted the cation-anion exchange capacity. A nutrient lock prevented regulated distribution. Each time there was a seeding, the pod left with a chunk of the ship's already diminished nutrient supply."

Sparrow stopped and placed a hand to the back of her neck. At that moment, Haledon felt an icy sensation trickle from his spine to the base of his skull.

"Where are we on the E.P.C.'s?" Sparrow spoke clearly in front of Haledon, and a soft echo of her voice whispered behind his ear.

"Ah!" He jumped and looked around. "What was that?"

"You heard that?" She asked and then continued before he could answer. "Good, you're suit is adapting to you nicely."

"On my way to your Dragonfly." Haledon heard another voice speak calmly. He could see the face of Sierra in his mind, attaching itself to the sound.

"Just completed, returning to you." The face of Sunray flashed, joining the image.

"Are they..." Haledon looked around the room. "Was that just—?"

"Your suit is developing a Celial Network. Communication across great distances is one of the features."

Rubbing at his neck, Haledon looked up to see that Sparrow had already begun to leave. He noticed that in her hands were both the E.P.C. rod and the piece of metal. Reaching for his side to see the section of metal gone, he stared in disbelief at Sparrow and how she was always one step ahead.

Chasing after her, Haledon caught up midway along the busy hallway. They were heading along the ship’s length towards the rear. He walked in silent analysis, staring down every hall and through every thinning veil. The view was the same everywhere, revealing weak Druids struggling to hold themselves up. But, even in their weakness, they fought to ensure the Earth Druids were eating what little food they could provide.

Passing a Watering Hole, Haledon peered through to see a desertified lagoon. Wilted trees were dying off as unhealthy vegetables attempted to push through the cracked soil. The once pristine water had dried up, leaving a thick, nutrient goo bubbling up just beneath the opening. Several Druids wandered the terraces, harvesting what they could into weathered baskets.

"We have to help them," Haledon muttered to himself. He felt a pain growing in his chest as his heart began to break slowly.

"And we will...we are!" Sparrow corrected herself. "We need to get this sample from Sunray and—"

"Sparrow, secondary graviton spike with a faint far-infrared now quarter A.U. out." Haledon saw the bark face of Witch-Hazel in the back of his mind.

"Prepare the Dragonfly. We're returning to our ship." Sparrow replied and changed direction. "Haledon, let's go. Quickly, now."

The two began to rush through the crowded halls. Occasionally, bumping into an individual and sending them tumbling down to the ground, Haledon would stop to pick them up. A quick snap from Sparrow would hurry him along, but it wouldn't take long before he stopped again.

"Haledon, keep up!" Sparrow shouted back as she gracefully floated through the crowd like a leaf on a stream.

"If we're in trouble, shouldn't we warn somebody?" He asked, causing Sparrow to stop and place a hand over his mouth.

"I'm testing something. I don't know if it works, so why panic the populous for nothing?" She spoke quickly and quietly as she looked around. "I would rather be safe than sorry. Plus, if it were the Mecharrion, the Colides would give us a five-minute warning."

"Attention! Mecharrion fleet detected. Defensive Positions." Haledon didn't see a face, but a dark and stormy cloud as the warning sounded in his subconscious.

Earth Druids rushing chaotically around the corridors stopped and began to flow in a single direction: back to the Colides.

"Damn, I was hoping for an earlier warning system, but it will do," Sparrow mumbled frustratedly before turning to Haledon. "There, happy? Everyone knows, now can we get back to our Dragonfly and not die?"

"Yes, sure, okay." Haledon nodded quickly and began to run with the stream of Druids.

Crossing the threshold into the Colides was jarring, as the world had changed once again. The walls seemed to vibrate with energy as bodies rushed through the halls. A low, repetitive groan echoed down every corridor, resonating deep in Haledon's chest.

"To the left!" A voice bellowed as a giant juggernaut ran past the duo. Its heavy feet thudded to the floor, causing mini tremors with each monstrous step. Dragging behind it was a cart on a continuous wooden track full of mushrooms glowing a fluorescent green.

Sparrow and Haledon cut down their designated corridor and worked their way through the thick ooze of the gel. Haledon stared at how even the density of the goo had increased, making it nearly impossible to pass through the hallway without touching it.

"Did the ship know?" He asked, flicking some of the gel from his shoulder. “Did it know the Mecharrion were coming before we left?”

"I believe so. It wasn't by design, but the Colides seemed to have evolved to sense Mecharrion even better than the Dragonfly. I will need to examine this further, but for now—" She placed her hand to the wall, opening to the back of the ship. "Get on, and let's get out."

Haledon stepped through, followed by Sparrow. Before closing the door, Sparrow turned and looked down the hall for a moment. She waited and stared out as Haledon rushed down the narrow passage and over the bend in the tail.

Witch-Hazel came into view, feverously tapping away at buttons as Haledon took his seat. The bramble knight took a moment to look over its shoulder at him.

"Exciting two days, huh?"

The vines crawled over Haledon's shoulders and tied him down to his chair. Sparrow stepped beside him, laying two Lateral Dendron Rods to the floor before jumping into her seat.

"Where's the third?" Haledon asked.

"Sunray had to report to her defensive station. We will collect it after the fight," Sparrow replied as she checked the vines holding her in place. With a tug against the chair, she turned towards Witch-Hazel.

"Get us back to our ship."

The gravity shifted around the Dragonfly as it detached and began to skim the surface of the Colides. After a quick pass, the ship ejected in the direction of Haledon's home.

At a glance, every Astralaceae looked the same, but he felt a pull in the right direction. It was as though the ship was calling him home, as a fluttering in his stomach gave way to nausea.

The pale blue light of the Dragonfly pulsed yellow as excited chirps echoed through the ship. The ship violently ripped to the side.

Like being thrashed against a rock by a wave, Haledon found himself pinned against the edge of his seat.

In front of him, Witch-Hazel withdrew its hands from the gooey console and gripped onto two thick branches that had formed.

"Witch-Hazel!" Sparrow yelled.

"Yeah, yeah! I see it!" It shouted back.

Haledon looked forward, watching the transparent screen at the front of the craft display what looked like a vortex in space. Particles, exaggerated by a filter, swirled and fell towards a void of black.

"What is that?" Haledon struggled against the pull of the craft as it accelerated forward.

"Gravitational...singularity," Sparrow grunted as her hands reached toward the console. "Flare...the...wings."

"We'll be dead—" Witch-Hazel attempted to debate.

"Flare them!"

With a series of taps against the bark console, the ship groaned and rattled violently before stopping. There was an eerie silence in the space as Haledon looked at the frantic Witch-Hazel and Sparrow.

"What was that?"

"We flared the wings," Sparrow responded as she tapped against the front of the ship and then placed a hand to the back of her neck. She began talking in a quick but hushed voice.

"It means the Dragonfly is using stored gravitational momentum to counteract the singularity's pull. We're no longer under gravity's influence, but, as I said, it leaves us dead in space the minute that dissipates."

Witch-Hazel pointed towards the void at the center of the vortex.

"Be more worried about what comes after the gravitational shift," Sparrow spoke towards the two before going back to her work.

"What comes after this?" Haledon asked.

As though by command, the particles exploded back towards the Dragonfly, clearing the area as a strange object emerged from the emptiness of space. Like a mountain rising from a horizon, the object continued to expand up and out as it rode the singularity.

Harsh, unnatural edges geometrically jutted from the external hull. Its polished metal surface reflected the faintest starlight. While its matte sections seem to consume the darkness, making the space around it even more oppressive.

Haledon felt a tingle down his spine as he remembered the darkness of the forest in his dream.

"That..." Witch-Hazel muttered as its hands began to slam against the ship's levers and handles. "Is a Mecharrion Scout."