Chapter 39

"Hold on." Mek-Tek squeaked as he tangled the reins in his hands.

Haledon watched the pillars as they flashed by in a dull red blur beyond the windows. Looking forward, he threw his arms in front of his face reflexively as the tip of the ship punctured through the discoloured wound.

A warning klaxon rang within the interior of the Broadhead as it impacted the underside of the Megacolides scale. Without issue, the ship broke through the plate and emerged into the star-dotted void of space. The Broadhead smoothly spun to bring the fleet into view.

Even with the sudden movements, Haledon experienced none of it within the polished metal interior. It felt like the craft had never shifted and, instead, the world around it had raced away.

"I thought the scales would be tougher than that..." Mek-Tek remarked, gripping the reins and adjusting the craft's trajectory.

"They weren't meant to be hit from underneath," Witch-Hazel replied as their hands hovered over the metal console. They brought up green, yellow and red lights that flickered and changed colours. "Mek-Tek, could you look at this?"

"I'm kind of busy." He replied, continuing to steer the ship towards the Astralaceaes. "I know, I must make it look easy, but it's not. There's a whole lot of kick in this horse."

"Where are you taking the Broadhead?" Haledon asked.

"We need it close to the trap if we're going to get the Mecharrion to bite," Mek-Tek explained. "And since we're trapping the Hypo—"

"I do not want a Mecharrion bomb above my Hypogeal Nexus!" Haledon interrupted.

"Well, that's how this weed grows." Mek-Tek continued but was interrupted by Haledon once again.

"And how are you going to hide a Mecharrion Broadhead on the exterior of the Astra?"

"If I may interrupt," The voice of Birchbark chilled the back of Haledon's mind. "I have a solution when you land, so please set the craft within the meadow pad."

Haledon adjusted himself closer to the consoles and looked beyond the pointed nose of the vessel. There, unfolding above the central pod of the Astralaceaes, was a single large lily pad. As the edges unfurled, soft silver grass mimicked the motion of waves washing over its flattened surface. Reaching up from the border, flowers the size of Haledon's head glowed with a faint, blue-green hue. Twisting and reaching tendrils extended from the stamen, eagerly searching the space around them.

"I'm bringing it in," Mek-Tek announced as he pulled on the reins and guided the ship down onto the pad. "Thank you for flying Air Mek-Tek."

"So smooth." Witch-Hazel laughed as they poked their head over to look at the pad. "Though I think you could crash this ship into a moon and not feel anything."

Observing the ship's exterior, Haledon watched as the tendrils from the flowers began extending over the Broadhead. Within moments, a thick burl quickly grew over the Mecharrion ship, concealing it within a protective layer of bark and bramble.

"Your current placement, with added burl, should protect the Mecharrion vessel from Megacolides senses," Birchbark said calmly.

"And how do we get back to the Nexus?" Haledon asked.

"Exit the ship and follow the designated corridor—" Birchbark replied, the coolness leaving Haledon's mind.

"Mek-Tek, I just need a second set of eyes," Witch-Hazel said once more as they pointed to the console. "Is this what I think it is?"

Haledon, curious about what Witch-Hazel was doing, stepped closer and peeked over their shoulder. Mek-Tek approached shortly after, quickly running his hands over the same symbols as they flashed, watching their colour shift from red to yellow and green.

"What is it?" Haledon asked, unable to decipher the code Witch-Hazel saw in the floating lights.

Reaching into his turtle pack, Mek-Tek withdrew another small green orb and pressed it into the metal console. With a muttering of Druidic, the Druid smudged a streak of moss across the panel. He dug his paws into the plant matter and teased out multi-coloured roots that he began to nibble on. As he tore away the thin bark, it revealed a faint glow within that radiated from delicate crystals dripping with liquid metal. He reached his hand back into the moss and twisted the crystal ends out of view.

The lights quickly vanished from the surface of the metal console.

"Aww, great." Witch-Hazel moaned.

"Come on," Mek-Tek grumbled to himself shortly after looking up and noticing the lack of activity. Reaching into the console up to his shoulder, he angrily hit the interior. He generated three dull thuds before the lights flickered back on. "Ah-ha! There we go."

The colours from the panel began to accumulate across the surface, eventually defying gravity and dripping to the ceiling, where they became pools of light. A glowing waterfall poured from the metal surface to the top of the Broadhead's cabin. It continued to flow until every light blinking on and off had finally evaporated. Then, floating just beneath the ceiling, Haledon stared over a slow-moving, spiral band of stars. Reaching arms stretched out into space, and a singular glob of light shone at the center.

A small geometric shape appeared red at one location, and the icon slowly became yellow. Another light made of three triangular objects turned green. The symbols disappeared only to reappear at another location, now red.

"I’ve seen fragments of these before," Mek-Tek said in awe. "It's...a Mecharrion Navigation Map,"

"I was afraid you'd say that," Witch-Hazel remarked. "That's not good."

"What?" Haledon asked, looking at the flashing lights as they changed colours, disappeared, and reappeared.

"It's a map of Mecharrion ship movements across our galaxy…a lot of ships. And it may not even be complete." Witch-Hazel pointed to the far side of the galaxy. "There aren't any on that side, so either they haven't made it there, or we're too far away."

"Where are we?" Haledon asked, trying to see anything that would reveal their position in the galaxy.

Reaching into the metal console once more, Mek-Tek enlarged the image of the galaxy. Haledon saw a collection of stars with a small flashing red dot racing away from a familiar-looking sun.

"That’s this Broadhead—and that’s the star we left a few months ago," Mek-Tek announced. "And this...is trouble."

The image revealed a trio of green triangles around a pair of hexagons connected to an octagon. Haledon inspected the larger geometric shape as its light orange colour slowly shifted to yellow.

"That's what's chasing us?" Haledon asked. "I thought it was a dozen Mecharrion Scouts."

"Apparently, it's three of something and something else that has the same gravitational displacement as nine others."

"What?" Haledon gasped. "That would be massive!"

"Heh," Witch-Hazel chuckled before adjusting his head to look at Haledon. "That's not even the worst part."

"It gets worse?"

"They're closer than we thought. When that polygon turns green, the fleet it represents will pounce on us."

"I thought Sparrow's upgrade was supposed to give us more time?" Haledon replied in a panic. He felt his face tighten as it transformed into a frightful expression.

"It did. We got a few hours instead of an hour," Witch-Hazel said matter-of-factly. "Next iteration will be better. Mek-Tek, can you share this information with Birchbark?"

"Already working on it. Those seeds are going to come in handy." He replied, his arms reaching back down into the moss opening of the console. "Can you head into the Nexus and grow a taproot as big as you can toward this ship?"

"As big as I can?" Witch-Hazel asked with a smirk.

"A taproot with a length of at least enough to make the distance to this Broadhead." Mek-Tek specified.

"Good thing you said so—" Witch-Hazel laughed as they placed a hand on Haledon's shoulder and directed him toward the back of the ship. "Come on, Haledon, let's catch up with everyone in the Nexus."

"What about the bomb?" Haledon asked as he carefully made his way around the ever-fluctuating device.

"Yeah, let's just leave that." The Arbornaut replied.

As the two neared the edge of the ship, the walls dematerialized. Haledon watched as millions of tiny hexagons quickly disappeared piece by piece until it revealed an earthen tunnel that gently sloped and curved out of view. Walking forward, roses slowly bloomed on the ceiling, opening up and radiating a familiar blue-green glow. A mist of pollen fell from behind the petals and danced like fireflies. And where the pollen touched, a new flower would quickly form, blooming with a likened radiance.

Haledon and Witch-Hazel followed the blooming spiral leading down into the Astralaceae. Quickly, they began to see a bright white light glowing from beneath them. As they continued, the coil descended into the illuminated Hypogeal Nexus, wrapping around the central tree before touching the floor.

In all the changes Haledon had seen in the Hypogeal Nexus over the last three months, the one he stepped into was beyond anything he could have imagined. Every surface had become covered with small pale flowers from floor to ceiling. Each was different, layering unevenly in with the next, but all part of the same floral mat. Millions of petals covered nearly every surface, ranging from ageratum and asters to monarda, salvia, and zinnia.

"Whoa..." Haledon gasped.

Observing the room, Haledon noticed that the hanging flowers had grown into a circle around the central trunk of the Hypogeal Nexus. These stalactites of floral bouquets reached down from the ceiling at odd intervals from each other but always equally distant from the tree. As he examined, he also realized that the tree had not been covered with flowers and remained a stark contrast to the world around it.

"Wow!" Witch-Hazel remarked. "Leave nothing to chance and micromanage the whole ecosystem, I guess."

"Each petal will amplify the electromagnetic frequency that Mek-Tek yielded," Sparrow announced from somewhere in the room. "We have caught and stored a lot of energy in this system for a single shot. So yes, leave nothing to chance."

"Can we grow it around the ship?" Witch-Hazel asked as they stepped farther into the room. With a quick muttering of Druidic, they flicked their wrist up and concentrated momentarily. They continued after their face grew a content grin. "We're going to be expecting company sooner rather than later."

"What do you mean?" Sparrow asked, her form brushing past one of the blooming stalactites and coming into view.

"We hit a Mecharrion data cache and know they’re less than a few hours out."

Sparrow pursed her lips and looked over her shoulder. The figure of Birchbark stepped through the flowers and raised her hand toward the ceiling. More floral columns began to grow, filling the remaining space between the stalactites and creating a complete circular screen that concealed the area around the tree.

"This complicates things?" Birchbark asked.

"Yes," Sparrow muttered, touching her temples and sighing. "Okay, single Mecharrion first, then, Mecharrion fleet."

"What's the plan here?" Haledon finally stepped forward, looking around the space. "How does this stop the Mecharrion?"

Birchbark cleared the distance between her and Haledon, placing a hand on his shoulder and nodding to the room.

"Allow me to show you," She said. "There is more than meets the eye."

Haledon turned his head and allowed his vision to shift. He felt Birchbark entering his mind and answering questions before he asked them.

Watching the room, the white light of the flowers brightened and flared before revealing a broad spectrum of energies that pulsed and moved across an infrared sea of invisible pollen. Small flowers popped open across the room, flashing with a sudden burst of microwaves that split off in different directions. A cloud of ultraviolet pollen lazily drifted from the stamen, igniting in various colours before condensing in the air. A flash of light revealed a burst of X-Rays from within the pollen before it dissipated.

"When the Mecharrion enters this room, it will fall prey to this pollen cloud," Birchbark finished as she returned Haledon’s vision to normal. "It will become inundated by a properly bloomed series of destabilizing electromagnetic bursts."

"Wow, that is impressive...to have finished this in such a short time—" Haledon said in awe.

"Sparrow was most helpful."

"You did the vigorous growing," Sparrow remarked with a smirk. "Your rate of genetic modification far surpassed expected parameters."

Haledon watched as Sparrow talked with Birchbark in a way that he had never seen her engage with anyone else: respectfully. A sudden, intense feeling he was unfamiliar with quickly washed over him. Opening his mouth to say something, a voice cut in from above.

"It's done—" Mek-Tek said as he rushed into the room. "Whoa, that's a lot of flowers...what was I saying?" He inhaled from his straw and exhaled a cloud of vapours. "Oh, right. The date is transferring over to the Astralaceae now. You should be feeling it, Birchbark."

"I am," She said, her face focusing. "This...I am...having trouble absorbing."

"Store it in a spare spud until we can grow the appropriate electromagnetic-fixing nodule." Sparrow interrupted, approaching and placing a hand on Birchbark before closing her eyes. She muttered in Druidic and flicked her fingers.

"Done,” Birchbark said with a nod to Sparrow. “Thank you. The Mecharrion data is stored at the nearest primary hub within the Hilum."

"Okay," Mek-Tek said and inhaled another deep breath. "Also, the Mechanite is plugged in and broadcasting." He exhaled and coughed

"What?" Haledon responded in a panic. His heart began to race at the thought of the Mecharrion now being drawn to the Hypogeal Nexus.

"Whoa," A pair of voices cut in from the other side of the room as Gazeas and Spark entered.

"Gazeas?" Haledon called out.

"Haledon?" She replied. Gazeas quickly eyed the room, rushing through the flowers before looking at Haledon. Her face became grimly serious. "Haledon, there's something wrong with the genome of every Druid of the Astralaceaes."

"What?" Haledon cried, his panic reaching its apex.