《WORK》 The Captain
The planet orbits so far from its sun that it is classified as a Sunless. Snow-covered fields and mountains on this dark planet hide underground rivers of shining purple plasma. Plasma is the fifth form of matter. It is between liquid and gas, high-energy, and volatile. On the sunless planet, a plasma rig is the only place habitable by humans. Plasma rigs perform a process called Flame Mining. This type of mining creates turbulent magnetic fields that kill robots and electronic processors. Without AI, plasma facilities are run by men''s brute force and old-school mechanical machines. On this Sunless, a lonely plasma rig extracts, transforms, and relays plasma energy to cyberplanets. Working in the rig requires strength. It does not hire women.
The Captain The captain is confused. Extreme situations are not new to him. As the security captain of a highly unstable plasma rig, he¡¯s been through many of them. This morning, he saved three of his men¡¯s lives by preventing a truck from unloading prematurely. Still This one This one right in front of him. This one is different. Ten minutes ago, at 01:14 in the morning, he received a radio call about unusual activity in the men¡¯s resting area, branch C14. He kept asking for a description of the situation over the radio, but the other side was too confused, they could not give a proper description. When the captain arrived at the resting area, he saw men staring at the wall at the far end of the corridor. This corridor has two rows of bunk beds on each side. 15 men are standing inside the corridor, mostly wearing their sleeping shorts, all staring at the wall at the far end. The captain searches for Lucas, he is the one who radioed in. In the dimly lit corridor, he finds Lucas holding his radio, staring at the far end like the rest of the men standing in the dormitory. Lucas is wearing a working jumpsuit with a yellow worker¡¯s helmet. When the captain reaches Lucas, he sees what is in front of the men on the wall. The wall is changing; A circular hole is forming in the middle of the wall, around 2 meters in diameter. It looks like a giant round digging tool is digging into the wall from the other side and has now reached its destination. However, there is barely any noise. It''s just a soft whistle with a rhythm. ZzzZzzZzzZzzZ No, the captain has never seen anything like this. He starts walking closer, cautiously passing between the men standing in the corridor, he has to ask some of the men to move so he can reach the far end. All men are dumbfounded. The captain points his torch at the wall. The corridor is half-lit and the captain wants to ascertain that he is not staring at an illusion. A few seconds later, small sharp teeth start protruding out of the wall; five circular rolls of teeth, varying diameters, encircled within each other. It seems like those rolls of teeth have been digging through the wall, into the room, by rapidly rotating. No, this is not an illusion. Whatever is growing out of the wall, is alive. A few moments pass like a lifetime. Suddenly an extension protrudes from the middle of the round hole, like a tongue. The extension grows out with an enormous speed, it reaches the head of Lucas, his yellow helmet falls as the tongue attaches to the side of Lucas¡¯s head and immediately drags Lucas into the rolls of teeth. His screaming face passes in front of the captain in a fraction of a second. Not enough time for him to react, but enough for him to remember that Lucas was just a 16-year-old who had joined the rig, under the captain''s protection, only a few months ago. As his screeching face passes in front of the captain''s petrified look, he is reminded of the teenager''s smiling face this morning stating high hopes for "starting the rig-punk lifestyle". Lucas is violently dragged into the center of the circular teeth, which right now is growing oozing shapeless flesh. Lucas''s head is rapidly buried fully in the creature and his screaming stops followed by a loud breaking sound; Crunch! His body becomes lifeless. The creature slowly sucks in the dead body. The captain shouts from the depths of his lungs: ¡°EVERYONE GET OUT!¡±
Plasma is romantically described as "close to what the flame of a candle is made of" Rule #1 Encourage patience
¡°GET OUT!¡± The captain yells for the second time as he sprints towards the end of the room pushing the two men close to him to go as fast as possible. He keeps one eye on the giant round mouth on the wall that is slowly swallowing Lucas. This is the chance to escape before the mouth can grab the next victim. As the men in the corridor sprint towards the other end, one of them, who is wearing sleeping shorts, runs towards his pillow, grabs a handgun from under the pillow, and starts shooting at the mouth. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! The unformed flesh of the creature absorbs the bullets like they are made of flesh. Lucas¡¯s legs are still outside the mouth, slowly being sucked in. They look lifeless. The captain runs to the shooter and grabs his arm, the men look at each other in panic for one moment, they both sprint to the door at the other end of the corridor. The captain is the last one to pass the door to the hallway. He locks the door and steps back. He is unsure whether that tongue can pass through the flimsy wooden panels. "Captain!" They hear the faint scream of a man from the far end of the concrete windowless hallway. The hallway is lit by buzzing yellow lights dancing off brass tubes on the walls. The silhouette of a man appears running towards them from the far end. He is wearing a yellow worker¡¯s helmet and a jumpsuit. As he gets close he shouts: ¡°THINGS ARE GROWING OUT OF WALLS EVERYWHERE!¡± The captain cannot waste any more time. He raises his radio and orders: ¡°Doug, contact CASTEL. Ask for immediate backup.¡± Doug responds immediately on the radio: ¡°They already know. They are sending a convoy." Doug sounds alert. "They recommend we take cover in areas with Faraday-Cage protection. They say the creature is most likely a Vermillion worm.¡± A Vermillion worm? The captain heard about this in his re-training three years ago. What was it? A massive worm with an enormous main body and smaller branches that dig inside plasma facilities. So those creatures growing out of his walls must be just the branches. The main body is somewhere much deeper. The captain knew they did not have the equipment against a Vermillion worm on the rig. He also knew that the worm must never be disturbed with regular weapons. He has to act fast. He pushes his memory to remember which walls in his rigs have Faraday Cage installed. ¡°Bert, announce that everyone takes cover in one of four monitor towers." The captain has to get every man in the rig to one of the four flare exhausts¡­every 865¡­ The alarm sounds throughout the facility. "Everyone follow me to monitor tower three." The captain starts running. He shouts his lungs out at any man he sees to make them run like their life depends on it. Halfway to the control tower, he remembers something important ¡°Doug, ask CASTEL how much their convoy weighs. We need to balance the portal.¡± ¡°7 tons 116 kilos,¡± Doug replies on the radio. ¡°Fuck fuck.¡±
CASTEL is a private megacorporation that manages all trades involving plasma rigs. The bio-cyber company also provides security backup in rare emergencies such as a Vermillion worm.
A round white room dimly lit by artificial yellow lights. In the center, a brightly lit glass incubator stands on a white one-meter cubicle. A red-haired woman with green cat-like eyes, wearing a white coat and a face mask, slowly moves her gloved arms inside the incubator. Rose is very diligent when she removes the lid of a glass flask holding crystal pink liquid. She aspirates 3 drops into her pipette. Slowly she moves the pipette to a petri dish in the middle of the incubator. She anchors her arm on the table and aims at the center of the dish, inside, a 1-centimeter blob of poorly formed flesh slowly mimics Rose''s every move, specifically her arm with the pipette. The pipette''s tip halts over the blob, 5 centimeters away. The flesh slightly rises as if trying to reach the tip. Rose takes a deep breath and exhales. It does nothing to calm the worried look in her eyes. She turns her neck to look at the only other person in the room. A silent observer, protected head to toe in a white hazmat suit is standing 50 centimeters behind her, holding a tablet, ready to write. Rose can almost see her reflection in the observer''s chrome visor. "I hope she knows how loud her breathing is inside that overprotective suit." Rose takes another deep breath and dismisses this thought. She turns her head back to the incubator, The blob of flesh is eagerly stretched towards the pipette. Rose closes her eyes and repeats the instructions in her head "Give one drop, wait 20 seconds, if no reaction, give a second drop." She opens her eyes. The blob is no longer stretched upward, it is covered with a crystal-pink liquid. Rose frowns. She looks at her pipette. It is empty. "How many drops was that?!" the observer yells behind her. Startled, Rose''s mind goes blank. The blob absorbs the liquid. Slowly it grows. Rose shockingly removes her arms from the incubator gloves and steps back. The observer violently grabs her by the back of her white-coat collar and throws her on the floor. The blob''s growing speed increases as poorly formed arms shape out. Claw-like protrusions appear on top of the rapidly growing flesh. The observer pushes two transparent buttons on the corner of the incubator window. A see-through tube running along the inner corners of the incubator starts shaking. In a few seconds, the 50-by-100-cm glass box is s crammed with moving flesh. The word JAMMED appears on the front glass, just under the see-through buttons. "Fantastic!" the observer''s sarcasm is clear through her muffled voice. She turns to Rose and orders: "Push the red button". Rose is frozen on the floor, shockingly watching the incubator''s walls concave outside as the growing flesh presses against the glass. "Push the button!" The observer repeats loudly and points to the other side of the room. Rose regains her thoughts. She turns her head in the direction of the gloved fingers, at the other side of the round room. She sees a panel of four round emergency buttons. Without thinking, Rose sprints, and within a few seconds, she reaches the panel. Yellow, blue, green, and red round buttons. Without hesitation, she pushes the red one. "WARNING, CODE RED ACTIVATED. LAB QUARANTINED" a female robotic voice resonates in the room. Rose hears clicking in the walls surrounding her. They are locked in. "COMMENCING ACID WASH IN 40 SECONDS." Rose''s heart stops for a moment "Acid wash?!" Her face loses color, "Wait, what am I wearing?" she looks down at her chest. She hopes that her memory is mistaken and she is magically wearing protection. Her hope is shattered as she sees the white coat covering her bosoms. She desperately looks at the observer who is calmly fitting her tablet inside her hazmat suit. She closes the pocket, kneels, and opens a hatch on the floor opposing the incubator. Rose feels hopeful, is this an escape? Her hope is shattered as she sees a shallow container for a black ax and a gas mask. The observer throws the gas mask at Rose: "Put this on." Rose immediately puts it on. "Wait, what about the rest of my body?!" "30 SECONDS" The observer lays the ax on her shoulder and closes the hatch door. She presses the corner of the white cubicle under the incubator. With a clicking sound one of its walls opens. There is enough space inside the empty cubicle to fit a small human. The observer grabs Rose by the collar and shoves her inside. "Keep your feet off the floor," she closes the wall on Rose. "20 SECONDS" The flesh keeps pushing against the glass. The observer stands in front of the incubator and swings the ax in a crescent to her front. Now she is holding the ax with two arms, changing her posture to guard. "10, 9, 8,..." Bang! She breaks one of the incubator windows with her ax. The flesh freely grows out of the broken window. On top of the mass of poorly formed arms and claws, a mandible starts forming. The observer grabs the poorly formed mandible with her gloved hand and drags it out of the incubator. "...7, 6, 5,..." Nozzles rise out of the round room''s walls. The observer holds the growing and moving blob of flesh by its barely formed mandible and keeps it with an extended arm in front of her face. Poorly formed claws move aimlessly as the body of flesh grows bigger, crawling on the floor and surrounding her. A large nozzle descends from the ceiling. The observer holds the mandible right under the nozzle as brain-like tissue slowly forms on top of it. "...3, 2, 1, COMMENCING" Green liquid squirts out of nozzles, filling the room air. The room turns darker as the light sources are covered with a crimson mixture of acid and flesh. A few seconds later, the nozzles stop pouring. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it The creature has disappeared from the observer''s hand. The room is dimly lit by a red light. The floor is covered with red steaming liquid, and so is the observer. Rose is breathing heavily inside her gas mask in the pitch-black darkness of the cubicle. Outside is finally silent. She has been keeping her feet off the floor by pushing her back and feet against the opposing walls of the cubicle. The other wall of the cubicle opens. The room outside is barely lit by lights covered with red dissolved flesh. Rose, struggling to keep her feet off the floor, looks up at the observer standing in front of her covered with red steaming goo. She rests her ax on her shoulder, bends her knees, her visor stops at the level of Rose''s eyes. She sighs, it resonates inside her hazmat suit, "I''ll talk to my sister". The nozzles squirt again. This time a clear liquid streams through the air and down the walls, slowly washing the acid and blood from the observer and the light sources into newly emerged drains on the floor. Rose hangs to the walls of the cubicle until the squirting stops. Her white coat is now a Pollock artwork. A few minutes later the observer is in her private changing room. Rayne removes her hazmat head cover. She is a young woman with grey eyes and short white hair. She opens the knot on the back of her hazmat collar slowly removing the rest of the hazmat suit. Her body is covered with a tight black armor. A thin layer of interwoven carbon fiber plates. Rayne steps out of her hazmat suit, leaving it on the floor. She walks barefoot to the entrance of a round tunnel lit by artificial yellow and white lights. As she steps in, she is showered by a gentle stream of water coming from the walls of the short tunnel. Rayne closes her eyes and enjoys the water streaming down her face for a few seconds. Keeping her eyes closed, she starts removing her black armor piece by piece. She crosses her arms. Each hand removes the opposite elbow cover, exposing hidden zippers on both sides. She fingers the zippers up and presses them between two fingers, slowly unzipping to her shoulders. Once opened, she removes her left armpiece, letting the gentle stream of water wash her well-toned shoulder. She removes the other armpiece, the stream of water flows down a tattoo of a bird-like creature staring to the front with white eyes. Rayne throws both armpieces on the floor. Her hands move down along her waist, they find and grasp hidden buckles on both sides of the carbon-fiber breastplate. She removes her breastplate. A black sports bra is soaked by the water streaming down prominent collar bones. On her neck, a purple crystal is horizontally attached to a thin golden chain, slightly etched into the skin. Rayne throws the plates on the floor and unbuckles her belt. She readily slides the armored black pants down her legs and removes them, which leaves her with black leggings covering her up to high waist. The leggings reveal protruding pelvic bones and well-toned thighs. She takes a deep breath. Sucking her belly button into her diaphragm, Rayne slightly raises her ribcage. She places her right palm on the top of her belly button, her left palm pauses on the curvature of her lower back. Rayne exhales slowly, gently sliding her hands around her waist. Twisting the leggings in harmony with her slow breathing, they loosen and slide down her waist. Suddenly, the wall on the other side of the tunnel turns into a bright monitor. An enormous portrait of a young blonde woman appears on the empty wall. Rayne is startled. She turns her head away from the monitor, closes her eyes, and tries to calm her nerves. Even though she is familiar with interruptions at the worst times of the day, she did not know that they had placed a communication monitor in her private changing room. Clenching her fist she tries to exhale as inaudible as she can but she cannot help a faint grunt. The blonde woman is wearing a simple brown pantsuit, her hair is tight in a high ponytail. Her face is expressionless. "Sorry to bother you, this is an emergency." "I figured." Rayne tries to sound as calm as she can. The tunnel is fully lit by the enormous monitor. She does not want her face to show her anger. She keeps her eyes closed, takes a deep breath, and waves her hand clockwise in the air. The shower stops. She raises her right arm and shouts "headphones!". She waits for a second, nothing happens. Rayne opens her eyes and doubtfully looks at the round ceiling of the shower tunnel "...please?". Finally, a hatchet opens and a pair of black headphones drop into her hand. She puts them on and starts walking towards the monitor. The woman disappears from the screen and numbers start flowing from the bottom of the screen to the top. Occasionally graphs appear. Her leggings are at the level of her pelvic bones, revealing a toned abdomen and multiple old scars. "I agree, it is a Vermillion worm." Rayne reaches the wall and stops in front of the screen. She uses her finger to scroll up and down the report a few times. "When is it due to hatch?" The blonde woman reappears on the screen. She is touching her earpiece. "It seems that it is already hatched." Rayne exhales in disappointment, she drops the headphones on her shoulders, runs her fingers into her hair, and drains the water. "Meet me there." The blonde woman nods and disappears. The wall turns back to the simple white wall of the changing room. "Jane!" Rayne shouts as she remembers something. The monitor turns back on and the blonde woman reappears. Rayne claps her hands once. The words Recording: OFF appear in the corner of the screen and the blaring of Jane''s background is inactivated. She is standing in front of two rows of desks each with monitors occupied by women in pantsuits. All are sticking their necks out of their monitors, curiously staring at Rayne. Jane turns her head and takes a look behind her, she turns her head back at the camera "I am switching to private audio". Her image disappears and the words Audio Call appear. "Did you pay attention to the rig ID?" asks Rayne. "Yes, it is the one from the events of two years ago," Jane replies in a stoic voice. "You know what to do." Rayne sounds solemn. "Copy that." Jane''s tone does not change. "Wait! Did they install a communication in my bathroom too?" Jane stays silent. "Jane?" Rayne does not hide her anger this time. "I''ll file the complaint when we come back," she does not sound reassuring.
A BP has a positive pole and a negative pole. The balancing weight must be close to the negative pole. Humans should never travel on the negative pole, there is no guarantee they will reach the other end intact.
Plasma is the only source of energy on the dark planet. The rig is designed to heat itself using the excess plasma that occasionally floats up and turns into enormous purple flames. This excess flow of plasma is rather unpredictable. The four towers of the rig are built around 4 plasma exhausts, periodically releasing the excess energy into the resting areas and warming them up. The rig employees are trained to find the nearest door and shelter immediately if they see a purple light at the end of any hallway.
Rule #2 of TBO A TBO session requires a question.
There is always one idiot who can¡¯t look away.¡± Rayne thinks. The Girl Behind His Window
The men who run plasma rigs are descendants of pirates. Their ancestors were mostly unwanted young men who left their homes for a rather short life full of adventures. The strong magnetic field formed around plasma sources makes these rigs uninhabitable for robots and electronic processors. Old-school steam-powered plasma rigs are run with the help of mechanical machines and the muscles of men. The rig on planet JX129 is one of the oldest rigs ever built in the universe. It has 4 exhaust flares, each with its own surveillance towers. On top of the towers are round surveillance monitor halls with windows facing the flare exhaust. Each flare exhaust on this rig has the diameter of a football court. Excess plasma warms the rig as it exits through the exhausts. The monitors in the surveillance halls can show the rig corridors and chambers in real-time but do not have the ability to record the images, most likely due to the strong magnetic field generated around plasma flares.
The Girl Behind His Window Knock knock! A young girl is hanging from a barely visible cord behind the window of the round surveillance hall. She is small and skinny. She has short white hair with a slight purple hue. She has a tattoo of a phoenix-like creature on her right arm. She is wearing a black sports bra, black pants with lots of pockets, and heavy black boots with a green hue coming from their soles. She is comfortably hanging from a fine cord stretching from the top of the window to some apparatus attached to her back between her shoulders; her boots are resting on the wall below the window. A greenish hue comes from the soles of the boots, which seem to be magically glued to the wall. Before the girl has to knock again, John walks to the window and opens a hatchet. The hatchet is a few meters to the left of the white-haired girl. Using the cord to hang and her boots to stay attached to the wall, she walks towards the opened hatchet and grabs the upper edge of its frame. She maneuvers her abnormally flexible body through the hatchet into the monitor hall, the frame is small but the girl is small too; she easily passes through by curving her body. Once her entire body crosses into the monitor hall, she remains hanging from the edge of the hatchet by her left hand while dislodging the cord with her right hand. The fine silk-like cord dislodges from the outer top of the window and immediately curls back into the apparatus on the girl¡¯s shoulder. Now the girl is hanging from the edge of the hatchet with one hand while her boots provide extra support, relaying part of her weight to the wall below the window. Without thinking, John lifts his arm and gives a hand to the weird girl with white hair, helping her jump from the window to the floor. The jump is only 1 meter but the girl accepts and smiles, implying ¡°thank you¡± to John. A few seconds of awkward silence. ¡°Captain,¡± says the girl. ¡°Doctor¡± Replies the captain. ¡°Oh, you remember me,¡± responds Rayne with a smile. She walks to the captain and shakes both of his hands. Before that, the captain had never realized how her smile makes her look like an innocent kid. And she is the commander of the convoy that is supposed to save them. The captain sometimes wonders if the world ever makes sense. Rule #5 of TBA: At any given moment during a TBA session, the hierarchy is established and obvious. ¡°Would you be kind enough to let my companions in? They prefer to use the stairs,¡± says Rayne as she shakes the hand of Mr. Porgo, chief manager and head financial officer of the rig. While she shakes Mr. Porgo''s hand, the captain realizes that she is wearing two watches on her left wrist, one round golden analog watch with brown leather straps and one black digital watch with a green and purple glowing screen. ¡°I have told my men to keep the control tower entrance unlocked, you could have used the stairs too,¡± replies the captain instead of Mr. Porgo. The morbidly obese man seems to be even more red than before. Also, unusually quiet. ¡°I know,¡± replies Rayne ¡°I had to adjust my equipment to the gravity of your planet. I hope it was not an inconvenience.¡± Rayne tries to look as innocent as she can. The captain keeps a stern poker face. Rayne waits for an answer for a second then continues: ¡°I understand that you have a Vermillion worm problem. My companions will explain the biology of the creature shortly.¡± The door at the other end of the monitor hall opens and two girls in armored black suits enter. They are not wearing helmets. They are each carrying a large suitcase with them on wheels. Rayne introduces them: ¡°This is Jane¡­¡±, Rayne points to the blonde woman, who is wearing her hair in ponytails and her face is expressionless, ¡°¡­she is my first assistant.¡±. Rayne points to the second woman: ¡°This is Karen, she is an expert in worm extermination.¡± Karen looks slightly shy, she is smaller than all three girls, she is wearing oval glasses and has long curly black hair she is wearing loose. ¡°Jane, could you please describe a Vermillion worm for the employees?¡± says Rayne loud enough so that everyone can hear her. ¡°A Vermillion worm is a subspecies of segmented worms¡± explains Jane loudly in a monotone emotionless voice, ¡°the name Vermillion is given to this worm not only because of its red color but also because the worm is formed on the border of disposed organic matter and a highly magnetized energy source, such as the plasma under this rig.¡± Karen looks at the confused faces of the employees and explains: ¡°Poop exposed to the radiation of the plasma turns into a worm.¡± Rayne is not listening to any of this. She is focused on rapidly scanning the surveillance monitors. The captain has to make sure the women do not mess with his security system. He quickly checks outside the window, the exoskeletons surround the surveillance towers, five stories beneath them. It looks like they are positioning themselves with the help of their handler. The cord attached to their back extends very slowly. The captain knows that the exoskeletons must remain connected to their cords because of their short battery life. He also knows that this is a huge disadvantage for these weapons. "They must have a backup weapon for these slow junk," thinks the captain. Behind him, the girl with glasses continues explaining biology to the confused employees. He turns to glance at the crowd and is surprised to find the white-haired girl standing right behind him. ¡°I studied the maps of the rig on my way here,¡± Her swift inaudible movements remind the captain of something. "The White Weasel" The words come out of the captain''s mouth before he can stop them. "Excuse me?" says Rayne looking slightly confused. "Um... this is your code name in CASTEL... right?" the captain holds his breath. His memory is not very good with weird names but this name is too weird to forget. Rayne''s face is expressionless. "YES!" she finally replies with a shy smile. The captain releases his breath. He tries a crooked smile on his face. "So I was saying, I need your help," Rayne pauses for a second and continues "I studied all the maps I could find of this place, this place is a confusing maze. And it is one of the oldest rigs we have in our files." The captain returns to his stern face; he knows what is coming. "I could never know this place as good as its security captain.¡± Rayne looks at the captain hopefully: ¡°I need your assistance.¡± Before the captain can answer, his thoughts are interrupted. Karen nervously continues explaining to the anxious and confused employees in the monitor room: ¡°¡­also the creation of the worm requires a seed. The seed starts the chain reaction of turning organic matter into living matter, forming tubes over tubes, and when it finally matures, usually over one or two years, it starts its reproduction cycle and that is when it starts feeding on humans to turn their bodies into egg-beds¡­¡± ¡°Thank you, Karen!¡± Rayne interrupts. The air feels heavy; the rig employees nervously look at each other under the lights of the monitors. Their faces are barely illuminated but their panicked eyes glow in the white and yellow light. The captain tries his best to get the horrifying image out of his head and focuses on answering Rayne: ¡°Tell me what you need.¡± Rayne approaches the main control boards. She stands behind one of the boards and looks at the controls: ¡°I would like access to all your security cameras. Plus the most recent and the most detailed maps of the rig.¡± The captain glances at Mr. Porgo. Mr. Porgo has a weird expression on his face that the captain neither understands nor needs to understand. The captain looks solemnly at Rayne and nods. ¡°One more thing about the worm¡­¡± shouts Rayne loud enough so that everyone can hear her ¡°¡­the worm does not usually infect a Faraday cage, not because it can¡¯t, but because it does not see the inside of the cage and hence does not know it exists.¡± The men look slightly more nervous than before now. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°¡­ so, I ask you all to remain calm and quiet until the worm is completely exterminated. The worm does not see the inside of the cage but it may be able to hear us if it gets too loud here.¡±
Later Rayne argues that ¡°the presence of hidden corridors in the rig indicated that neither the captain nor the chief finance manager was honest [with her]¡±.
¡°I believe I got it, thank you.¡± Rayne thanks the head monitor supervisor, Doug, after he explains the camera controls. Rayne needs to get ready for high-paced analysis for the next 4 to 6 hours depending on the size of the worm. She opens one of the pockets on her pants and removes a small box. She puts the box on the control table and opens the lid. Inside, are syringes and patches. Rayne removes the protective layer of one patch and sticks it on the skin of her left shoulder. She then pinches the middle of the syringe box and removes its first layer; the box has a hidden second compartment. Inside the hidden compartment¡­ The captain cannot see so he walks closer¡­ ¡­it¡¯s a lollipop, five lollipops to be exact, all flat and of different colors. ¡°No, nothing makes sense in this world,¡± thinks the captain. Rayne takes a lollipop, unwraps it, and puts it in her mouth. She closes her eyes, puts both her hands on the edges of the control table, and takes a deep breath with her nose while her mouth is closed around the lollipop. She opens her eyes, takes the lollipop out, and starts giving orders on her radio: ¡°We have 9 exoskeletons and 16 supporters. I will guide 5 exoskeletons and 8 supporters through the western port, the captain will guide the other 4 exoskeletons and 8 supporters through the northern port.¡±
CASTEL exoskeletons contain bioengineered tissues that form muscles inside the exoskeleton. Their design is inspired by the anatomy of an insect. The human pilot inside the exoskeleton acts as the central nervous system while the bioengineered tissues provide the motions. A neuro-connector gel connects the pilot¡¯s skin to the engineered muscles inside the exoskeleton. The pilot must keep constant contact with the neuro-connecter gel through the skin of her fingertips, shoulders, neck, and soles of her feet. Each exoskeleton walks on six legs and has two multi-functional arms. The left arm is equipped with a powerful clamp and a torch that easily cuts through flesh. The right arm is equipped with a clamp that hides a medicine cannon which shoots a chemical cannonball into the flesh of any infecting creature.
¡°Why doesn¡¯t it eat the chickens?¡± The captain has been guiding the second exterminating team through a mini radio Jane gave him. In the past 80 minutes, he has been checking the cameras from all possible angles and guiding each exoskeleton unit through its corresponding corridor. It took 10 to 20 minutes for the units to locate the mouth, fight the tongue, grab it, cut it, and shoot a medicine-cannonball down its throat. The chemical in those cannonballs was so potent it would kill the entire branch connected to that mouth, turning the red flesh into grey powder. The act has been giving the captain uncanny pleasure, especially since the effects were immediate. The only problem with the exoskeletons was their short battery life, around 3 minutes, which meant they had to keep attached to the thick cord that provided constant electricity to them. Handling the cords was the cumbersome responsibility of the armored supporters; they extended very slowly from the source -the positive portal- and this significantly slowed down the progress of each unit through the corridors. The captain has been busy guiding the girls under his command through the corridors and halls. However, this one question wouldn¡¯t stop bothering him the whole time. He needs to know the answer. ¡°I know Vermillion worms usually like chicken.¡± The two women keep silent and look at Rayne. The captain looks at Rayne. She does not want to answer the question. She keeps silent. ¡°There is a mouth inside the chicken farm but it won¡¯t grab any of the chicken.¡± The two women look at each other with concern while Rayne is silent. ¡°Why does it only grab my men?¡± ¡°Because it does not do this out of hunger,¡± Rayne responds suddenly ¡°There is plenty of food source for the worm on this planet. It has infinite energy and an infinite supply of human waste. It does not need to do this¡­,¡± Rayne explains while keeping her eyes on the monitors ¡°It wants to do this as part of its reproductive cycle. And it needs humans for that. Not chicken.¡± ¡°This is an act of pleasure for a creature with a refined palate,¡± Karen adds, trying to cut the tension by being poetic.
There are currently 9 exoskeletons and 16 supporters actively exterminating worm branches. 4 Exoskeletons and 4 supporters remain in the flame tower guarding the central control tower and the C-MRQ crystal.
¡°Captain, here on the map it just says sewers.¡± The captain was checking the monitors to find a route for one of his exoskeleton units. He was interrupted when Rayne stood beside him holding a folded map of the rig. She points to a spot on the corner of the map, the captain looks, this is a folded piece of the floor map of the lowest level of the rig. ¡°Do you have a more detailed map of the sewage system?¡± ¡°There isn¡¯t much there to map, the entire sewage system of the rig ends up in this pipe here¡­¡± captain points to the spot right before the sewers, ¡°¡­and it empties there.¡± ¡°How often do you inspect the area, if you don¡¯t mind me asking?¡± says Rayne trying to sound innocuous. ¡°We inspect annually, per CASTEL protocols,¡± replies the captain with a stern voice. He tries not to sound irritated. He was expecting CASTEL¡¯s envoy to start meddling in the rig¡¯s business and scrutinize their every routine, however, not this early in the middle of the active extermination process. ¡°Do you perform the inspections yourself?¡± asks Rayne immediately, keeping her voice as innocuous as she can. The captain swallows his frustration: ¡°Can this¡­¡± ¡°Cinza-3, ACTIVITY OVER YOUR HEAD!¡± Rayne suddenly shouts on her radio. She can see dust falling on the exoskeleton Cinza-3 on the surveillance camera in front of her. The exoskeleton unit called Cinza has been exploring the gym, they were focused on a mouth formation on the ceiling about 10 meters to their left. Now suddenly Rayne suspects that they have been distracted by the wrong hole. Something is happening on the ceiling right on top of the exoskeleton Cinza-3. ¡°SHIT!¡± The entire worm mouth protrudes from the ceiling and swallows exoskeleton Cinza-3 from top to midway to the legs in an instant. The exoskeletons are too heavy for the tongue, this time the worm extended its entire mouth out of the ceiling to swallow the whole exoskeleton from above. ¡°Cinza-8, use time-bomb, NOW!¡± Shouts Rayne. ¡°Roger!¡± For one moment the world turns pitch black and reappears in front of the captain. He feels nauseous. As if his inner organs have moved slightly out of their places and back. He is not sure what happened. Then, for one second, he feels that under his feet the entire building jitters. ¡°Unit Cinza, you just used a 100 seconds time-bomb. Do NOT proceed until we analyze,¡± says Rayne while checking her two watches on her left wrist. The gold analog watch seems to be functioning normally while the green and purple screen of the black digital watch shows noise. ¡°Roger,¡± says Cinza-3 on the radio. ¡°Roger,¡± says Cinza-8 on the radio. Some girls on the radio start whining and complaining. ¡°Kudos team Cinza!¡± says one of the girls on the radio sarcastically. The captain checks the camera showing unit Cinza. The exoskeleton Cinza-3 and the supporter Cinza-8 both look fine now. Although they are standing a few meters away from where they were a few seconds ago. As if the events of a few seconds ago never happened. ¡°What the hell¡­!?¡± asks the captain. ¡°It seems the hole in front of you on the ceiling is not an orifice, it is the body. Do not attack it. Let me find the active orifice. It is in the ceiling digging somewhere else¡­ah! There, 9 o¡¯clock! Cinza-3 do you see dust falling from the ceiling on your 9 o¡¯clock?¡± says Rayne on the radio. ¡°I told you that was not the mouth! Look at the waves you idiot!¡± says Cinza-8 angrily to Cinza-3 on the radio. The captain never liked cyber technology. For centuries, the rig has protected men from technology that turned humans into useless house pets. This time-bomb or whatever..., he just was not sure. Rayne sees the concerned and slightly disgusted expression of the captain and explains: ¡°A time bomb reverses the direction of time within its radius for 100 seconds which means that the ones experiencing inside the radius go back around 15 seconds in time, and the ones outside the radius go back 15 seconds divided by their distance to the power of gravity. Gravity in your planet is 8.4¡­. So, for us, it was a fraction of a second and for them, it was 15 seconds¡± The captain now looks obviously confused. ¡°Don¡¯t worry it took me 4 years to understand this confusing math.¡± ¡°How much is the ¡­space¡­ radius of the bomb then?¡± asks the captain, regaining his focus. Rayne is slightly surprised by this question. ¡°This one had a radius of 80 meters¡­.¡± Replies Rayne; she also looks slightly relieved. ¡°Oh, before I forget;¡± says Rayne ¡°inside the impact radius, some objects may become¡­ loose. You know¡­.¡± Rayne looks at the captain with an embarrassed face ¡°So, make sure you check the area with your men later for... unstable stuff. Sorry¡±.
Fun fact #1 You can only use a time-bomb once per 30 hours in a space unit. If used more than once, a time-bomb may rearrange an entire partition of the universe by causing a massive paradox cluster.
The first analysis is in ¡°Girls, the first analysis of the trunk is in,¡± announces Rayne on her radio. She is looking at what Karen has been preparing, a 3D reconstruction of heat signals from satellite scans. ¡°¡­and it¡¯s a big one. Estimated length 235 meters, diameter 26.¡± The captain can hear the girls on the radio expressing concern. He is not an expert on the size of Vermillion worms but this sounds like an enormous object, and it can move on its own. Massive objects that could move on their own were not rare on this extremely unstable rig and it has been his job to make sure they don''t crush his employees for the past 10 years. This worm ¡­ the captain takes a deep breath¡­ is just another enormous moving object he has to control. Things are starting to make more sense now. ¡°How many main branches?¡± One of the girls asks on the radio. ¡°Wait a second on that¡­ ok it''s eight adult main branches. Five budding branches. You don¡¯t need to worry about the budding branches for another 6 to 7 hours...¡± ¡°Has anyone seen Adam!?¡± Rayne is interrupted by an employee shouting. She turns towards the voice looking alert. The captain looks in the direction of the shouting employee. His men look at each other with confusion. ¡°Adam is missing?!¡± Rayne puts her lollipop back in her mouth and starts rapidly scanning the cameras; Jane and Karen join her. ¡°Where was Adam immediately before the worm attacked?¡± asks Jane loudly while keeping her eyes on the changing images on the monitors. The shouting employee sprints towards the captain. ¡°We were in our dormitory in D when the worm attacked. Adam came here with me, he was standing right next to me before that weird blackout, I don¡¯t understand¡­¡± ¡°Occasionally, a time-bomb causes a disturbance in timelines,¡± Karen explains nervously ¡°A crucial decision may be altered in that area within the past few hours, causing alternative outcomes¡­¡± ¡°There!¡± says Jane. She points to a monitor. On the monitor showing dormitory D11, the captain can recognize the huge figure of Adam in the corner; Adam is a big man, he is 195 cm tall with almost 100 kg of pure muscles but he seems to be sitting on the ground, hunched over in fetal position. He is holding something in his arms, pressing it firmly to his chest. ¡°Is that a cat?¡± Asks Karen. Crunch! Rayne chews the lollipop off its stick and swallows it in one angry gulp. She starts scanning the maps rapidly ¡°Jane, give instructions to the nearest unit.¡° The employee that noticed Adam¡¯s missing, walks closer to the monitor to see better, he is a hunched-over muscular man with a huge belly and a face burned from standing close to the generator ovens ¡°I told him to forget his cat and run to the central tower. He listened and came here with me. I don¡¯t understand what is going on now,¡± he says nervously. Everyone looks at the girls for an explanation. Rayne is talking to CASTEL on her earpiece while rapidly scanning the maps and cameras. The captain can hear her say: ¡°¡­ calculate¡­ calculate¡­ ¡­ what¡¯s the 95 percent CI? ... choose.¡± Karen looks at Jane. Jane explains: ¡°Timeline is slightly changed. In the current timeline, Adam made the decision to go after the cat first. Looks like it was the wrong decision, he is trapped in the dormitory now, and he seems to be frozen in panic. This is a common reaction, the brain cannot fathom the contradicting memories of the two timelines.¡± The captain turns to talk to Rayne but Rayne is already standing behind him, looking at him with serious eyes ¡°The timeline change occurred in the D area, one of the worm branches in that area is also altered. My girls are working on that. The closest exoskeleton to Adam is unit Azul, it will take them 11 minutes to reach Adam. I am going there to keep him safe until unit Azul arrives. Jane and Karen will assume my position until I return.¡± Rayne grabs a pair of large black headphones from Jane and rests them around her neck and on her shoulder. She also grabs a thick black jacket and puts it on. She strides to the windowed wall. ¡°The worm has detected Adam. It is digging a mouth on the wall to his right.¡± Jane says in a monotonic voice. Rayne does not look back and keeps walking. The captain grabs the rig¡¯s loudspeaker microphone and shouts: ¡°Adam! Can you hear me? You need to move! Now!¡± The captain¡¯s voice resonates in the tower. The employees are sure Adam can hear the captain; however, the loudspeaker is very weak in the D dormitory. Adam barely reacts. He starts rocking back and forward in his place. Rayne strides all the way to the windowed wall under the still-open hatchet, jumps, and grabs the upper frames of the hatchet; she starts curling up through the frame. The captain cannot stand there and watch. He runs to Rayne. ¡°What exactly are you planning on doing?¡± Rayne stops midway, jumps back on the floor, and turns to face the captain: ¡°I am very fast but I cannot carry heavy objects. I will try to get Adam to safety by guiding him and distracting the worm.¡± Rayne puts her black headphones on her ears and pushes one of the ears, the headphones rapidly change shape: they extend backward and cover her entire scalp, then a greenish glass extends from the anterior edge of the headphones and forms a green semi-see-through visor in front of Rayne¡¯s face. ¡°If you choose to come and help me, remember that the worm is attracted to the yellow worker¡¯s helmet.¡± The captain opens his mouth to say something but stops himself, an image he saw earlier comes to his mind, of the worm tongue trying to remove the yellow helmet of the volunteer when they were moving charcoal bags to the portal. Rayne steps back and jumps up to the hatchet in the window, grabs the upper edge of the hatchet frame, and curls her body through... like a weasel. Once through, she pauses for a second and assesses the flame tower while hanging on the other side of the window. Whoosh! Rayne is no longer at the other side of the window, within moments she appears at the bottom of the tower, just near the east-side gate, the entrance to D area. The captain is not sure but he thinks he saw her slide on some large invisible spiral slide inside the tower walls. Rayne enters the gate to the D area and disappears. Schr?dingers Cat
Once upon a time, a crazy scientist put an unfortunate cat inside a box next to a fragile bottle of poison and locked the box. Actually... Schr?dinger''s cat is only a concept. But the paradoxical situation of the cat closely resembles Adam''s. Two timelines are merged; in one timeline, Adam definitely survives and in the other, Adam definitely dies. The result is the current timeline where Adam may live.
The captain rushes back to the monitors. Rayne appears in one of them, entering the main eastern corridor through its open gate. He doesn''t need to look at the map to remember that the main eastern corridor is a 200-meter-long, 8 meters wide, straight hallway of concrete. The two worm mouths that grew in this area are now perished thanks to extermination by unit Azul, leaving two empty holes. One hole in the southern wall and one in the floor. Rayne makes four steps to her right and puts the sole of her left boot on a thick column protruding from the wall next to the gate. She stretches her right arm out, pointing four fingers in the direction of the other end of the corridor, and then she simply¡­ jumps. In less than a second, Rayne appears on the opposite end. The captain is not sure how exactly she made the jump, but it looked like the gravity manipulators on the soles of her boots had something to do with generating the momentum. And perhaps the fingers help with aiming. But the jump... it seemed supersonic. She was so fast that only a dark silhouette could be seen on the monitors traveling from one end to the other end of the corridor. ¡°What exactly is her speed?¡± ¡°It is hard to calculate an exact speed for her equipment because it depends on the length of the corridor,¡± answers Jane. ¡°What?!¡± the captain is baffled. On another monitor, Rayne appears walking past a door and standing in the middle of the second corridor. Her next destination is 40 meters to her right at the far end. The only worm infestation in this corridor is successfully exterminated. ¡°Her equipment manipulates gravity, and time. Time and gravity are always intertwined." Karen jumps in to explain. Rayne takes three steps to her left to stand in the middle of the 4 meters wide hallway. She opens her arms, pointing four fingers of each hand at each opposing wall of the corridor. It looks like a barely visible cord is generated between the walls, a cord that passes through her jacket on her arms and shoulders and connects the two opposing walls. "...her time manipulation is dependent on the distance she has to travel..." Rayne turns; twisting her arms while turning as if making a giant knot mid-air. Each arm ends up pointing in the direction of the beginning and the ending of the hallway. "There is no column to support her momentum here," thinks the captain "...All jumps between two ends of a corridor take exactly 400 milliseconds, no more, no less..." continues Karen. In the monitor, the helmeted woman springs in the opposite direction of her destination. A dark line appears on four monitors at the same time and disappears immediately. Rayne appears on the other end of the corridor in less than a second. "Did she start by leaping in the opposite direction?" thinks the captain. "...So, a C-MRQ user like the doctor can travel 200-meter corridors at 1800 km/h, and 20-meter corridors at 18 km/h,¡± Karen seems to really enjoy numbers.
No one knows how C-MRQ users manipulate time and gravity so easily, CASTEL keeps the details of this rare technology a secret. Although, it is well-known that most CASTEL technologies rely heavily on bioengineered cells.
On the monitor, Rayne appears in the hall currently being de-infested by unit Azul. Unit Azul includes one CASTEL exoskeleton, right now wrestling with a worm mouth and one armored supporter. Using its clamp, the exoskeleton clutches to the tongue, keeping it from retracting to the mouth. The tongue is obviously very strong, forcing the heavy exoskeleton to lean back on its 6 legs, struggling not to get sucked into the mouth. Unit Azul''s armored supporter is standing a safe distance away from the fight, keeping the exoskeleton''s cord stable while it wrestles. This fight is at the far left of the hall. Rayne''s next destination is in front of her, about 60 meters on the other side of the hall. Half a second later, she is there. The captain is doubtful about the numbers Karen just said. He makes quick calculations in his head. Mathematics is not an easy subject but calculation is part of his daily job and he is good at his job. 1800 km/h is the speed of a bullet. This can''t be right. His surveillance monitors did not have the ability to record the images, but his memory is excellent. Based on what he has just watched on the monitors, the white-haired woman traveled all distances in less than a second. So the speed of a bullet is completely plausible. ¡°In 1905 a German scientist called Einstein described the theory of relativity¡­¡± Karen continues explaining. ¡°I got it. Time¡¯s speed is the dependent factor here.¡± ¡°Excellent captain.¡± Says Jane non-sarcastically. She looks a little surprised. This may be the first time the captain has seen some kind of emotion on her face. On the monitor showing dormitory D, Adam is in the same place. The worm''s mouth is growing out of the wall on his right side, only 5 meters away, becoming more prominent as it digs its way out. ¡°ADAM! MOVE!¡± The captain shouts desperately in the loudspeaker. Adam is crouched over in the fetal position, rocking back and forth. He cannot see the worm¡¯s tongue getting ready to launch. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Rayne is now two corridors away from Dormitory D and Adam. The first corridor is 40 meters long and has a worm mouth, active and waiting on the floor halfway through the corridor. In less than a second, Rayne appears on the other side of the corridor. The worm did not realize her passing. Rayne crosses the door at the far end and appears in the last hallway between her and dormitory D. This hallway also has a worm mouth, one-quarter of the way on the left wall. The door to the dormitory is at the far end of the corridor. Less than a second later, Rayne is at the dormitory door. Inside the dormitory, the fully-grown tongue lashes toward Adam, "NO!" Something interrupts the tongue, throwing it off its course midway. The same thing also violently pushes Adam to his right. Adam splatters on the ground on his right flank and has to support his head from hitting the floor by extending his arms. The cat escapes from his arms, runs towards the nearest air vent, jumps inside, and disappears. Rayne is on the monitor now, she is on the other side of the dormitory. Did the captain just see her throw a giant ball of air at the worm? Was the camera tricked by something just now? Does it matter? He must do something. Rayne runs towards Adam and tries to lift him off the floor; she is half his size. The task of supporting Adam to stand up seems like a grapple, especially since Adam seems to be resisting it. ¡°Dammit, Adam!¡± The captain grabs his coat, he must do something, and he decides to go after them. ¡°Wait¡­¡± Jane grabs the captain¡¯s arm ¡°¡­give her a second.¡± The worm¡¯s tongue is slowly sliding on the floor, rolling back to the mouth. They all know the tongue will launch again once fully retracted. Rayne is no longer forcing Adam to stand, he is standing on his own, but he is not moving. Rayne takes her helmet off, it turns back to the shape of black headphones. She puts the headphones on the ears of Adam and pushes one of the ears. The headphones turn back into a black helmet with a green visor, matching Adam¡¯s head. ¡°You can speak in Adam¡¯s ears now.¡± Jane offers her mini-radio to the captain. The captain grabs the radio immediately. ¡°Adam, can you hear me?¡± For a second that seems to last forever, they can only hear Adam¡¯s irregular panting on the radio. ¡°Ca¡­ captain??¡± utters Adam eventually. Everyone in the monitor room takes a breath of relief. ¡°Listen to me, buddy. You need to move and you need to move right now.¡± ¡°Ye¡­Yes, captain!¡± Adam¡¯s shaky voice is the sweetest thing the captain has heard all day. The tongue is fully back inside the mouth now. ¡°Run to the door! NOW!¡± Adam starts running. The tongue lashes. Rayne jumps between them, she interrupts the tongue midway by making an invisible cushion between her right boot and the tongue, it is like she is playing football with a giant invisible ball. ¡°This is not good.¡± Says Karen, for the first time her voice sounds serious. On the monitor, both Rayne and Adam pass the door before the tongue can fully roll back inside the mouth. Rayne grabs a pillow and a blanket from one of the bunk beds while running and brings them with her. On another monitor, Adam and Rayne appear passing the door back to the last hallway. Rayne closes the door behind them. In this hallway, a mouth has dug a hole in the wall 25 meters to their right. Rayne grabs Adam¡¯s t-shirt and pulls him backward until their back reaches the wall to their left; they are now 27 meters away from the mouth. Rayne pushes herself and Adam to the wall. The tongue lashes toward them, but it is not long enough to reach them. It falls on the floor in front of them and slowly rolls back to the mouth. ¡°If they can keep this position, unit Azul will reach them in 9 minutes,¡± says Jane. ¡°Uh-oh,¡± says Karen. The mouth disappears from the hole. Waves of flesh covered with red oozing skin appear on the hole. Is it digging to its left? ¡°It is digging to its left,¡± says Jane on the radio. On the monitor, Rayne touches her right earpiece and nods. Jane approaches the captain. She looks even more serious than before ¡°The doctor¡¯s equipment has finite battery making gravity bursts, only 9 strikes¡± explains Jane in her stern monotonic voice. ¡°She just used 2 of them.¡± ¡°She may need your help eventually,¡± says Karen sounding concerned. The captain did not understand CASTEL''s technology or these... bursts... they talk about. But if there was a limitation in how long they can defend themselves, it is time for him to act. ¡°Adam, listen to me carefully, follow this woman, she will protect you,¡± says the captain on the mini-radio ¡°I am coming to get you, ok? Hang in there and do everything the woman says.¡± ¡°Ok, captain,¡± says Adam in a voice that is almost crying. The captain grabs his coat and runs out of the monitor room to the stairs. He jumps the stairs 3 by 3 and gets himself to the bottom of the tower as fast as he can. The moment he steps foot outside the tower, he remembers that he no longer has Faraday cage protection. But he does not have time to linger. He runs out of the door, into the exhaust tower, he knows exactly where he is going.
The captain is a skilled ice climber and a military-trained medic. He can establish intravenous access in any victim in a few seconds. His current job has a lot to do with removing half-crushed bodies of his employees from under malfunctioned constructions on top of preventing those accidents from happening.
Rayne is not sure if she correctly heard the captain say ¡°¡­do anything this woman says¡±. Adam¡¯s panting is so loud she can barely hear the voices inside his helmet. Let¡¯s see if Adam will follow her directions. ¡°Adam!¡± They are both pressing their backs to the wall. Rayne turns her head towards Adam, puts her left hand on top of Adam''s helmet, and turns his helmet so he faces her. Adam''s eyes are protruding but they lock on Rayne''s eyes. His cheeks are red but his breathing is regular and that is good. Rayne looks directly into Adam''s eyes. ¡°Stay behind me. Move with me.¡± Rayne¡¯s stern expression and firm command leave no choice for Adam. He stops panting for one second. He nods. Rayne holds Adam¡¯s shirt with her left hand and steps in front of him to his left. She slowly moves both of them to the wall on the opposite side of the worm and slowly walks closer to the hole. The hole shows waves. This means that it is the body, so the mouth must be digging somewhere else. Jane just confirmed that the mouth is digging to its left. They have to get out of there while the mouth is still digging. Rayne grabs a desk that was standing next to the door they just escaped from and adds the desk to the pillow and blanket she carried out of the dormitory, keeping the legs of the desk pointing at the hole, making a DIY shield. She looks for signs of a digging mouth appearing out of the concrete wall to her front. She starts walking slowly to her left. Uh-oh, behind her, Adam is not breathing properly. His breathing is shallow and he keeps holding his breath. If he continues like this he may pass out. Raynes turns her head towards Adam and looks him in the eyes. With her mouth, she words ¡°BREATHE¡±. Adam has a tired look, he understands Rayne but his breathing is taking over him. ¡°BREATHE¡± mouths Rayne again. She grabs Adam¡¯s left wrist and places his palm on her chest, making him feel her chest moving in and out with power. Adam understands Rayne better now. He takes two strong breaths. Rayne watches his breathing become more regular. She turns her focus to the front. No sign of excavating mouth. Rayne pulls Adam to the left wall and continues walking along it, keeping their backs as close as possible to the wall behind, slowly getting closer to the enormous hole on the wall now showing oozing wavy skin. The worm''s body shows signs of digging. "But this worm is fucking smart," thinks Rayne. As they pass in front of the hole, the mouth reappears right in front of them, back in the same hole. In a fraction of a second the tongue lashes towards them. Rayne reacts fast, she jumps and holds the desk between herself and the lashing tongue, using her right arm, the sole of her right boot, and her left knee. She holds Adam behind her using her left hand. The tongue presses them to the wall behind them. ¡°Shit¡± The tongue is not stuck on the desk, it gives up pressing and slowly moves back to the mouth. It will strike again very soon. ¡°RUN TO THE DOOR!¡± shouts Rayne while dropping her DIY shield. Adam runs to the door. Behind him, he hears the same bang noise he has heard Rayne¡¯s boots make when they strike. Adam passes the door and stands in the middle of the next corridor. An active worm mouth is dug out of the floor in front of him, a few meters away. Rayne closes the door behind her, puts her back on the door, and pushes Adam with the soles of her boot, throwing him to the opposite wall. The worm''s tongue passes between her boot and Adam''s body. "Shit," thinks Rayne. The tongue rolls back inside and launches again. Rayne defends with a gravity burst. BANG! The tongue is thrown to the other side of the corridor. Rayne grabs Adam and pushes him to run with her toward the mouth. She prays that Adam will not resist running directly at the mouth. The tongue is rolling back. Adam obeys Rayne and follows her. The tongue fully rolls back inside and launches again, Rayne defends with a late strike, and the tongue lands on the wall right next to Adam''s head. Adam screams and crouches over. "Shit!" The tongue rolls back and lashes again. Bang! Rayne defends with another strike. "Adam! Run! Please!" Adam is holding his head with his hands, crouched on the floor in the fetal position. Bang! Bang! "Adam! Please! Run! Now!" Rayne sounds desperate. Bang! "ADAAAM!" the captain''s scream echoes all the way through the corridor. Adam raises his head and looks around. The captain is standing on the other end of the corridor holding what looks like a makeshift scarecrow wearing a yellow worker''s helmet attached to a stick. "RUN!" Adam starts running toward the captain, passing the mouth. The tongue lashes out but this time it is aiming at the scarecrow. It attaches to the scarecrow''s head and the helmet, sticking to them and pulling them back to the mouth. Adam passes the mouth. Behind him, Rayne passes the mouth too. Suddenly, Rayne is violently pushed to the front. The tongue is attached to her back, on her jacket. As the tongue starts pulling back, Rayne helplessly extends her arms in front of her, hoping to grab something midair. In her moment of despair, she sees the face of the captain, he grabs both her hands midair like he is holding to dear life. He puts his feet in front of him and bends his knees, getting ready to resist the force pulling her with all his might. Rayne grasps his hands with all her strength. The tongue pulls Rayne''s jacket. The jacket rips open at designated zip lines. The tongue retracts, attached to the torn-off jacket. Rayne stands still, wearing only her black sports bra, holding the captain''s hands. The Order of The C-MRQ Ouch! Rayne feels an intense pain in her head. A sharp pain starts behind her left eye, the pain immediately spreads to her entire left face. This is a rare but important pain for Rayne. It means a warning from The Order of The C-MRQ. The sharp stabbing pain leaves as soon as it appears. A throbbing vague pain replaces it. Trying not to writhe in pain, Rayne opens her eyes. ¡°Oh right, his eyes. They are so calming.¡± The captain is looking deep into Rayne¡¯s eyes. ¡°Are you ok?¡± Rayne is on the ground, hunched over in the fetal position. She has been holding her left forehead and hiding her face between her knees for the past 4 or 5 seconds. ¡°Embarrassing¡± ¡°Um, I am not sure, what just happened?¡± she straightens her back, she is sitting on the floor a few meters away from exoskeleton Azul. She looks at the calm exoskeleton. The metallic cyber-bug has just finished fighting the mouth and is now recharging. Its armored supporter is standing a few meters away from Rayne. She is a middle-height muscular woman with curly blonde hair and greenish-yellow eyes, Tania. Tania is holding her helmet under her right arm, looking at Rayne with concern in her face. ¡°We were just walking back to the tower when you¡­¡± the captain suddenly stops explaining. He stares at Rayne. He looks pensive. He reaches for his belt. The captain is not sure if Rayne is oriented. He kneels in front of her and checks her pupils while opening a pouch attached to his belt. His instincts tell him to refer to his medical background and examine her mental status. So, he reaches for his medical pouch and grabs an ornamented brass lighter. He turns it on. A purplish flame, the size of a candle appears. Rayne knows she has to explain herself. She stops his wrist from reaching her with the lighter. When she has headaches, purple light can harm her eyes. ¡°I think I just had an episode of cluster headaches,¡± Rayne tries to look calm and kind. She takes a deep breath. ¡°I am ok¡­¡± She closes her eyes and smiles. Closing her eyes calms her nerves and soothes the intense pain she has been holding for the past few seconds. She takes another deep breath and covers her eyes with her hands. ¡°Do I have five minutes?¡± The captain is impressed. Cluster headaches are rare but one of his men has it. He knows exactly how to deal with them. ¡°Go ahead take your time,¡± he puts the lighter in his medic box and reaches for his pocket watch. ¡°I¡¯ll watch over.¡± He smiles at the pun and starts counting Rayne''s breathing; they are regular and slow. He takes a few steps away from her and turns to the hallway to check the area. So far so good. Rayne appreciates being left alone. She takes a deep breath. She hates the metallic smell of rigs. Their acidic airs always give her headaches. But not cluster headaches. This special intense pain can only mean one thing: a warning from The Order. ¡°I wish there was a less painful way for them to send their warnings.¡± She takes another deep breath and tries to remember what just happened. Oh right, the tongue ripped her coat and retracted itself. Exoskeleton Azul finally showed up and started attacking the mouth. It was not connected to any charging cord, it fought freely with the tongue. Rayne rushed to help the armored-supporter with the arduous task of extending the cord to reach the exoskeleton as fast as possible. The captain ordered Adam to return to the central control tower and he obeyed. The exoskeleton killed the mouth fairly easily because the tongue was stuck to Rayne¡¯s ripped coat. That is when the ... Stupid headache! The pain is still there and is there to stay. It would get better with good-quality air. But the metallic-acidic air of the rig must do for now. Rayne remembers her own medic box. The box of remedies and candies. ¡°I am sure I have 5-HT in the box.¡± She reaches for one of the pockets on her pants and grabs her box. She finds the patch she was looking for and sticks it to her shoulder. She removes the top layer of the box, takes a lollipop, unwraps it, and puts it in her mouth. ¡°Much better¡­¡±
There are 30 C-MRQ users in the universe. They can send a single-word message to the past if all members of The Order agree. They usually choose pain as the messenger.
In the monitor room, Jane is screening the monitors and matching them with her maps. She loves this task. ¡°I am sure I can be of some assistance,¡± Mr. Porgo shouts from a short distance behind Jane. Jane could hear the obese man walking over the past few minutes. His loud breathing made it impossible not to notice him pass between the employees standing in the monitor hall. Still, Jane was startled by his loud shouting. She closes her eyes and tries to shake it off without showing any signs of getting startled. ¡°Absolutely!," Jane turns to face him. Her face is back to her usual stoic, "your help would be appreciated." She tries a formal smile and continues with her task of checking monitors and writing on the maps on the enormous control board in front of her. Mr. Porgo spots a pile of maps on the opposite side of the control board, he slowly walks over there while keeping an eye on the monitors behind Jane. Jane does not want anyone to interfere with her task. She thinks of a way to entertain the old man. ¡°Could you find the oldest map of the rig?¡± Mr. Porgo stops at the other side of the control board. He lingers before he answers. ¡°Sure, it must be here¡­¡± He starts searching in the mountains of paper-maps on the control board, keeping one eye on Jane and the monitors. He notices that some of the monitors are showing corridors that do not have worm infestations. ¡°May I ask what you are searching for?¡± Mr. Porgo tries to sound as polite as he can while keeping the panic in his chest in check. Jane is writing notes with a pencil on the corner of a map. ¡°I am calculating the ratio of the medicated worm,¡± she continues writing as she speaks ¡°The first Lethal Dose 50 of the medication should be reached any moment now.¡± she puts the butt of her pencil in her mouth with her right hand and starts playing with her ponytail by wrapping it around her left index finger. The building starts shaking. Mr. Porgo tries to keep his balance by holding on to the control board. Jane smiles. ¡°Doug, what¡¯s the situation?¡± the captain asks on his radio. He is not sure if this is an earthquake or if one of the flames is overflowing. The walls and floors suddenly started shaking. He does not feel a rise in the hallway''s temperature; a flame overflow would cause immense heat in the hallways of the rigs and sometimes you could even see purple neon light bursting from the end of the hallways. All rig employees know the protocol in case they see those lights: run to the closest door, get inside and close the door behind you. Right now, the captain''s surroundings are dark and cold. The only lights in the corridor are the dim yellow lights of the wall lamps and their shimmering reflections on the round metallic walls. ¡°I do not feel any heat, over.¡± Rayne puts her right hand on the captain¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Relax, this is a good sign,¡± she still can barely open her eyes. Her left hand is on her left ear, pushing an earpiece while holding a lollipop, she is listening to her mini-radio. ¡°It means that the worm is half finished.¡± The shaking stops. ¡°Now the fun part of the extermination begins.¡± Rayne closes her eyes and tries a crooked smile.
Lethal Dose 50 or LD50 is a pharmaceutical term for when a medication reaches the dose that exterminates half of the invasive organism.
In the monitor hall, Karen is explaining science non-stop to any employee who would listen. Talking about science calms her nerves. The dark unfriendly hall and the bright monitors do not compose a welcoming environment for her. On top of that, she just watched her boss and that poor guy Adam get so close to getting swallowed by the worm; there was nothing she could do except hold her breath or bite her nails. Once Adam stepped inside the monitor tower, she felt relief, enough to calm her breathing and stop biting her nails. But now, she cannot help explaining science. "So, the cluster headache attack that my boss just experienced is simply a temporary malfunction of the blood vessels in the cranium. Fortunately, the attacks are not common and only occur when things are calmed down. Like now, with Adam safely rescued and back in the Faraday cage protection. However, we don''t need the protection anymore. Once the Lethal Dose 50 of the worm is reached, the creature has no choice but to shed off all of its remaining branches to save the main corpus..." Karen''s mouth seems to have a brain of its own. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. RJ has been listening carefully to Karen the whole time. Before the two women arrived, the captain secretly asked RJ to watch over CASTEL''s employees in case of his absence. The captain did not fully trust CASTEL and neither did RJ. However, the two women in the monitor hall have been acting diligently so far. Or so it seemed. Mr. Porgo has been watching the tall stoic blonde and RJ has been keeping his focus on the petite brunette wearing square glasses. "What do you mean shed off its branches?" RJ interrupts Karen. "Um, I am so glad you asked that question.¡± Karen is taken aback by the question but regroups her focus, she did not expect anyone to actually listen to her. She clears her throat, and answers in a clear, brave voice that only slightly shivers: ¡°The mouths that have been opening in the walls are just the endings of each branch. We have successfully medicated half of the worm''s weight through those mouths. If we continued, the worm would have died by poisoning. However, this worm is smart, smart enough to change its strategy.¡± Karen pauses to see if the mustache man in front of her follows the chain of logic. The man has a severe poker face, his facial muscles intense. Karen cannot understand the expression so she continues: ¡°The main body just cut its connections to all its branches, sacrificing them to save the main corpus. The earthquake that you just felt was the main corpus moving under the rig. It is trying to synchronize with the core plasma source underneath this rig. Synchronizing is important to absorb energy, grow new healthy branches, and attack again. We have about 8 to 9 hours to eliminate the main corpus. Otherwise, we have to do the whole procedure again." ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it make more sense to make a more potent medicine?¡± RJ decides to chip in on his own understanding of the situation. Karen¡¯s expression suddenly changes. Before, she looked anxious, now she looks angry, but her eyes shine from excitement. ¡°Finally, a worthy opponent.¡± A crooked childish smile appears on Karen¡¯s face.
In cases of plasma overflow, the rig''s flame exhaust and its corridors function as heat distributors. The metallic hallways convey heat to the rooms, making them warm and keeping the employees from freezing on the sunless planet. The employees wear jackets that can be taken off any time the rig gets too hot.
¡°Have you ever ridden a roller-coaster?¡± The captain and Rayne are riding the captain¡¯s steampunk snowmobile on the snowy mountains of the northeastern pole of the rig. The sky is black but the purple glow of the lake on the far south gives it a soft purplish glow. The captain and Rayne have been communicating over the radio. The path is rough and the steampunk snowmobile is not a smooth machine. Rayne is hugging the captain from behind, and holding him around the chest as tightly as politely possible. The snowmobile is so loud that the captain and Rayne have been communicating through CASTEL helmets. ¡°Come again?¡± the captain was not expecting this question. ¡°I will explain when we get there. Have you ever ridden a roller coaster?¡± Rayne¡¯s helmet muffles the noise of the snowmobile but the steam-making metallic machine is so loud that she has to shout as loudly as she can. ¡°You know? Those fast train-thingies in entertainment parks?¡± The snowmobile streams on the snowy mountain, the noise of its engine echoes through the valleys. ¡°Umm, I am not sure if it counts," the captain is confused but he tries to keep up "but fixing the boiler in the processing plant A1 is very similar to riding a roller coaster.¡± The captain is not sure why Rayne is asking this question, ¡°Don¡¯t tell me your plan is¡­¡± ¡°Yes, the plan is stimulating the worm until it leaves the snow and I am planning on riding iiiiii.....¡± Rayne is suddenly interrupted by the loud brakes of the snowmobile followed by a sharp left turn. The captain skillfully balances himself but Rayne is pushed forward and to the right, she holds tight to the captain¡¯s belt to stay put from the sudden change of direction. The captain skillfully finishes the turn. ¡°Go on,¡± he calmly shouts as they ride in a straight line again. ¡°Ok¡­so, where were we?" Rayne tries to remember her last words. The snowmobile is running straight uphill on the edge of the mountain. The black starry sky of the sunless planet has a purplish shimmer on the horizon that reflects on the snow-covered mountains. The snowmobile''s bright yellow front light shows the path on the snow for them. Rayne sits straighter and organizes her thoughts. "Right! First things first." She tries to hold her chain of thoughts. But this ride through the snow in the darkness is captivating for her. She swallows and continues "My team is predicting the location where the worm will be closest to the surface, we call that the Hot Zone,¡± she checks the map on the see-through green screen of her helmet. "We arrive at the Hot Zone in roughly 14 minutes. There I can use shockwaves to exaggerate the worm''s wave-like movement, and hopefully, it will leave the snow at the predicted spot. That is the easiest way to grab onto it." ¡°Wait, is the worm going to be moving while you grab on?¡± the captain could think of worse ideas. ¡°Yes. Unfortunately, that is the fastest way of eliminating a Vermilion worm.¡± Rayne is not unhappy about this part, actually she is excited. The only fun part of exterminating a Vermilion worm. ¡°I love roller-coasters.¡± She thinks. ¡°Are you ready for some science¡± ¡°Go ahead, our ETA is roughly 13 minutes,¡± the captain replies. This was indeed Rayne¡¯s favorite part. ¡°Around 3000 years ago, a man on earth wrote a science-fiction novel called Dune.¡± ¡°I have read that book.¡± Dune was in fact the captain¡¯s favorite childhood book. Rayne feels a rush of blood on her cheek. She has no idea why. She suddenly gets a flashback of her cluster headache and the warning from The Order. ¡°Oh right, it happened when the captain and I were walking back to the security tower after rescuing Adam.¡± Rayne suddenly remembers what she was doing when the cluster attack struck her. ¡°The warning came when I was looking at the captain from the back, watching him walk and thinking he was¡­ sexy?¡± ¡°The enormous creature has shaken off all of its branches,¡± Rayne decides to forget about the warning and focus on the problem at hand. ¡°Now the Vermilion worm is desperately moving under the snow in a wave-like pattern to absorb energy from underground plasma and wash away the medication we have been giving it.¡± The Order''s warning means that one of Rayne¡¯s objectives on this rig will cause her grave consequences. ¡°Well, my first objective is this damn worm. And second objective¡­¡± Only Jane knows about Rayne¡¯s second objective, the secret mission they have been planning for this specific rig after the events of 2 years ago. ¡°It¡¯s not the time to think about this... but I won''t lose this opportunity.¡± "So now we are looking at a Dune-style ride on a giant underground worm?" The captain can imagine what Rayne is talking about. He is not sure if she has the correct equipment. Back in the monitor room, he saw Jane help the white-haired woman put on a very tight armor. The armor was a thin black suit that shaped her body but filled the curve of her lower back. The captain suspects a hidden compartment inside what looks like a lower-back guard in Rayne''s new black armor. ¡°Close enough. Except that Dune got the science wrong.¡± Rayne sounds very sure of herself shouting this in the speaker of her helmet. The captain does not agree with the statement but replies "Go on¡­" ¡°Well, the fast wave-like movement of the worm this size is only possible through sonic molecular dissociation.¡± Rayne does not want to get too technical. The snowmobile is too loud and the mountains are too beautiful for argument on the ride. "It is only feasible in snow, a semi-solid. This type of movement on an object this size is not possible in sand because sand grains are true solid. Anyways... I am going to ride on the back of the worm by grabbing onto its back as it ejects itself from the snow. The predicted angle of ejection is 35 degrees to the slope of the location." Rayne tries not to giggle from how weirdly sexual that sounded. "And what will happen when you jump on its back?" The captain tries to keep calm on the radio but he has to shout as loud as he can. "I am assuming that you are planning to jump on its back." Rayne is happy with the question, looks like the captain is too serious to get the innuendo. "Let me check something with CASTEL before I answer that question. " She pushes the left side of the helmet. ¡°Rose, where are we on the Cosmic Mirror request?¡± ¡°Anytime now,¡± a woman replies on the radio. Rayne taps on the captain¡¯s shoulder: ¡°Slow down a little please.¡± From the horizon, a yellow light starts glowing, piercing the dark sky, slowly growing it finally changes to bright orange. The orange turns bigger and changes color to beige covering half of the sky, the other half twilight. A few seconds later, the beige grows and turns blue, the entire sky shines bright blue. A sun starts glaring through the snow-covered valley. ¡°What is going on?¡± The captain has never seen anything like this during his 10 years on this planet. ¡°Sunrise,¡± explains Rayne. ¡°Well, actually a mirrored sunrise. We are reflecting the sun from a nearby solar system onto your planet.¡± The captain is mesmerized by the view. He slows down. Partly to let his eyes adjust to the new brightness. Partly to appreciate the breathtaking vista. ¡°Wow.¡± The white mountains and the blue sky are a combination the captain had never seen in his life. ¡°Your planet is beautiful!¡± Rayne has a childish enthusiasm in her voice.
All rig employees come from pirate ancestors. They unanimously hate AI. The oral history of the rigs tells them that AI stole their ancestors'' jobs and made them useless.
RJ is still not convinced of Karen''s explanation. He decides to stop arguing with "the brunette with ridiculous glasses" and changes his gaze to the monitors to check on his captain. In the monitor showing the mountains of the northeast of the rig, RJ finds the security captain riding a snowmobile... also giving a piggyback ride to the commander of CASTEL, the petite white-haired woman. RJ did not see this coming. "Wait, how long do I have to keep watch in the monitor hall? How long do I have to watch these women? Is it safe to leave the security tower now?" Karen has been arguing with RJ for the past half an hour and she is tired of science and the boring logic of biology. She wants to keep arguing for the sake of science but she decides to be more useful instead. "RJ, your name is RJ!" RJ turns his head towards Karen. His facial muscles are too tired for a poker face so they show a little surprise "Yes... It is written on my badge." "Ok, RJ! Nice to meet you, I am Karen." "Um, nice to meet you." They hesitantly shake hands. "RJ! Your attention to the details is awesome." Karen tries an innocent smile. "Um, thanks, I guess." his cheeks turn red. He looks away and continues watching the monitors. "You are very smart, I can tell, ''cause I am smart too." He keeps his eyes on the monitors. Karen greens childishly.
All CASTEL employees must pass courses on "Winning an argument against a man"
The captain and Rayne decided to stop at the peak of one of the mountains, get off the snowmobile and assess the maps. Rayne is holding her helmet with two hands in front of them. In the dark, Rayne''s helmet was seethrough green. Under the fake golden sun, the visor is chrome black. The captain has to shade the. the bright square on the top right corner of the visor to see what the mini monitor is showing. Their destination is barely visible. They have been having trouble finding their destination, mostly because of the convoluted mountains and the unhelpful map. "I am sorry about the GPS. We only have one -barely functioning- satellite, so GPS is not accurate on the planet." The captain knows it is not his fault, but he decides to remind the CASTEL employee that he has been asking for better satellite coverage over bureaucratic channels and they have all failed so far. "I am sorry about that too¡­¡± Rayne answers without raising her head, ¡°I understand that the radiations of plasma rigs reduce the half-life of satellites. CASTEL is usually reluctant to buy more than one satellite per rig. I will talk to my sister when I go back." The captain looks at Rayne. He does not enjoy being predictable but he decides that it is okay. If it means better security for his men, he is willing to swallow his pride occasionally. He tries to keep his poker face but suddenly curiosity fills his face. "I''d appreciate that." Rayne looks into the eyes of the captain and nods. They both return their focus to the screen of the helmet in front of them. Suddenly the captain grabs the helmet from Rayne and zooms in on the map. "I think I know where we are going, hop on," his voice sounds firm and reassuring for Rayne.
The Cosmic Mirror project was funded by CASTEL''s charity foundation. The donations resulted in the construction and launch of an enormous cosmic system of mirrors to "Bring light to sunless countries". CASTEL constantly uses the enormous system for its own missions.
Mr. Porgo is pretending to search between the paper maps on the control board to keep watch. Jane, the tall blonde CASTEL employee, has asked him "to find the oldest map of the rig". The stoic woman is standing 5 meters away in front of Mr. Porgo on the other side of the control table. Mr Porgo can''t help but notice that the woman is lean and tall, wearing a tight black armored suit, writing notes on papers, and occasionally, putting the butt of her pencil in her mouth... "Focus man!" "Oh, I found the oldest map," announces Jane with a fake enthusiasm in her voice. Mr Porgo is baffled by this news. "Um, let me see the date." He walks close to the woman and stops one meter away from her on the same side of the control board. "Of course, she smells good too." Jane has never had a problem keeping her poker face. But seeing the beefy red cheeks of the rig''s chief finance manager as the obese man waddles close is very entertaining for her. She has seen his type before; the type that is usually reliable when it comes to her job. Jane hands the map to Mr. Porgo. Mr. Porgo checks the map for a second, then removes a monocle from his pocket and holds it against his left eye to read the date on the map, in the left lower corner. Jane narrows her eyes. "Why is it the first time I have seen him use this monocle?" Jane is slightly angered by the obese man pretending to help her, he was obviously watching her from a distance and did not need the monocle to see better. This means that the old man will not be helpful in eradicating a man-eating Vermillion worm. "I am guessing you did not need the monocle to find the map for me." Jane can''t stop the words from leaving her mouth. She is shocked by herself once all the words leave. It is not like her to lose composure. "I know the maps by heart, I don''t need to read the dates to find them." Mr. Porgo realizes his mistake after the excuse leaves his mouth. Jane decides not to say anything. "Some people need spanking sometimes." The Unstable Roller Coaster
Raye is about to drop 3 sonic stimulators on three different locations in the snow-covered valley. The Vermillion worm is currently moving at 80 km per hour shadow-speed under the snow surrounding the rig. Moving in a wavelike pattern. The 3 stimulators will harmonize with the frequency of the worm, mimic the frequency with sonic waves, and then exaggerate it until the worm ejects from the shallow parts of the snow-covered valley. CALCULATE: Where should Rayne stand to get a good grip on the worm ejecting from the snow with a speed of 116 - 180 km per hour? The ejection angle is predicted to be 35 degrees.
"Explain your equipment to me one more time please..." The captain sounds calm, he thinks he understands the equipment''s technology. High school physics came to his rescue a few times. Rayne claims her team can calculate the exact location the worm will be ejecting from the snow and that would be her only chance to grab onto its back. The captain is reassured of that part of the plan by the white-haired woman many times. The part he needs to understand right now is how the petite woman is planning on grabbing onto the back of the enormous object moving at the speed of a car on a highway. "Because 116 to 180 km per hour sounds very fast to me" he tries not to sound sarcastic. Rayne stops spotting through her mini binoculars and looks at the captain "I understand your concerns," maybe the captain failed to hold his sarcasm. "My boots have the ability to manipulate gravity." Rayne starts explaining with a calm voice. "Every object has its own gravity. The bigger the object, the bigger the gravity. This worm is enormous, so my boots can attach to it fairly easily. I am relatively small compared to the worm so I can anchor to the mass of the worm using these extension cords. I know the cords look thin but they are made of carbon fibers woven by bioengineered spiders. They are almost impossible to tear." Rayne points to a string on both sides of her tight armored pants. There seems to be a cord inside each string, originating from her waist and ending at the sole of her boots on each side. "That sounds...possible" the captain''s favorite book, DUNE, told him it was possible to stand on the back of a giant worm moving through sand. He always considered that book as fictional close to reality. "I would give this insane idea... a shot." "How do you...land on its back? Do you jump or...?" Rayne looks pensive. "Look through these." she finally replies, handing the binoculars to the captain. The captain hesitantly grabs the binoculars. "Between the peak on the northeast and the hill on the north, there is a valley. The worm is headed there. The snow is the shallowest in that valley." The captain looks in the binoculars at the location Rayne is pointing. Rayne keeps her eyes on the captain while pointing at the spot with her left hand. "If I drop the 3 sonic simulators at the entrance of the valley, the worm will be ejecting somewhere near the ridge, the speed and the angle of ejection will be perfect for me to grab on." The captain checks the location in the binoculars for a few seconds. "Ok let''s get there before the worm."
The exact location of the sonic stimulators and the real-time location of the worm will be picked up by CASTEL drones. The drones send the information to CASTEL AI and the AI calculates the perfect location for Rayne to wait in the snow-covered valley. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Rayne depends on the crystal in the flame tower to stay connected to CASTEL. She needs her waiting location to be very exact.
The captain is watching the snow-covered valley from a ridge. 150 meters away from him, in the middle of the valley, Rayne is waiting for the worm, fully armored with the helmet on. "So, how often do you leave the mountains and explore the outer lands?" asks Rayne on her radio. "We never cross the mountain. The probability of death is almost 100%." The captain replies on the CASTEL''s mini-radio. The sky is bright blue with no clouds. The fake sun is shining on the ridges. The valley is in the shadows but the captain can clearly spot Rayne from his position. He is still not sure of the entire plan but he has already decided to trust the white-haired armored woman and her team of his worst nightmare...computers. "Those things only give confidence to idiots." that was the maxim of the men of his rig. The captain suddenly feels a weak shaking under his feet. He kneels to feel the rocks with the palm of his hand "I feel shakings," the captain tries his hardest to concentrate and detect a pattern in the shakings. "...it is pulsating.". "Oh, I don''t feel it yet," Rayne replies in her helmet, "I am standing on powder snow, I should feel it in any seconds now." The captain realizes that pulses are becoming more rapid. "I think it is getting closer to us." In the monitor room, RJ is checking the pressure indicators. In the past few minutes, he and Doug have been recording high percentile pressure in the exhaust. "Captain, an overflow may be on its way in, exhaust 3." Doug finally announces on his radio. Karen''s eyes grow large. "Copy." The captain replies on the radio. Doug and RJ can see him from the camera showing the edge of the northeastern mountain. He is barely a dot on the monitor. Behind them, Karen approaches with pure fear in her face. "An overflow..." she looks horrid "...is predicted?" Doug and RJ turn to look at the curly-haired woman. Intense fear on her face shocks both of them. "It is okay, the rig is built to withstand an overflow." Doug tries to ration with the panicked woman. "Doctor, do you read?" Jane announces on her mini-radio. She has been paying attention to this conversation. "Got it, let me think." Rayne sounds concerned. "We can''t abort now. If we get disconn...." Rayne''s radio is cut off. The monitor tower starts shaking. Karen feels the hall getting warmer. "Wish it would stay this warm," she thinks. "OH NO WE ARE DISCONNECTED!" Karen screams like she is woken up from bad a dream into a nightmare." On the snow-covered valley, Rayne feels the worm getting closer. She finally can feel the shakings caused by the worm moving deep in the snow and hitting the rock bottom. According to the CASTEL''s AI calculator, she is currently standing in the best position to hop on the back of the worm. Once she attaches herself to the back and synchronizes her time-key, the rest would be a piece of cake. She could do without CASTEL''s help "...but having them would be much more reassuring." "I am cut off," Rayne shouts so that the captain can hear her. "Me too." The captain shouts back. Voice travels easily in the snow-covered valley and Rayne is only a few dozen meters away. They can feel another shaking now. The exhaust tower is a few kilometers away and the overflow''s energy is reaching them. From a distance they see enormous purple flames rising in the sky. Rayne is worried. She is not used to getting completely cut off from her AI support. She starts reanalyzing the surroundings and tries to guess her distance from the worm. The captain is calculating in his head. He can see Rayne, and he can feel the worm getting closer. Suddenly, he sees a slight rise in the level of the snow, about 250 meters in front of Rayne. He is certain that the woman cannot see the change in the snow level. "Something is not right," he hates this gut feeling, it is never wrong. "Fuck the stupid AI" Suddenly, the captain angrily removes his malfunctioning headphones and tosses them away. He then jumps from the cliff. He lands on the snow, a few meters away from Rayne. Rayne looks back to see the captain running towards her. "What the..." The captain grabs Rayne by wrapping his right arm around her chest and locking it under her arms. The petite woman weighs nothing compared to his employees. He easily picks her up and starts running downhill. Rayne is shocked; she retracts her helmet into a headphone, and turns her head to look at the captain''s face: "WHAT THE HELL?" The captain keeps running downhill. The snow under his feet suddenly starts rising. "Shit" The snow around them rises. An enormous red mouth appears from under the snow, right at the place Rayne was standing a few seconds ago before the captain grabbed her. The mouth emerges and the rest of the worm''s enormous body raises the snow, violently emerging out, lifting the captain and Rayne with it. "Here we go! Hold on!" Rayne shouts in the chaos. They are both being pushed violently upwards into the sky, Rayne puts the soles of her boots on the moving body of the worm, the snow is being wiped out from the worm''s back, leaving its gooey red skin exposed to the soles of Rayne''s boots. The captain has no idea how he got himself into this chaos. He instinctively holds onto the small woman from the back by locking his arms around her waist. He feels they are moving very fast. The next moment, they are in the middle of the blue sky. The Freefall "Listen!" Someone screams in the captain''s ears. He feels like he is woken up from a nightmare into a reality, a reality that is at least 150 meters above the ground. The blue sky is around him, the fake sun is right in front of him, and the snow-covered mountains are under his feet. He can see the four flame exhausts of the rig and the enormous purple flame of the exhaust number 3, right under his left foot. He can even feel the heat of the giant flame on his face. The rig feels only a few meters away even though he knows they are at least 9 kilometers away. "Rayne, do you read?" a woman''s voice echoes in the captain''s head. It looks like the captain is wearing Rayne''s headphones. She is right in front of him, she is not wearing anything on her head. Both of them have their feet firmly on the worm''s back. The worm seems to be standing in midair in an arch "Has it stopped moving? How long have we been in the air?" "The worm is about to dive," says the woman in the captain''s headphones "Lie down on its back, keep yourself as flat as possible. Breathe normally!" The instructions sound logical to the captain, he looks to the front. The head of the worm seems to be dropping, and the rest of the body is following the head, speeding up. Any second now, they all will be diving to the ground. He tries to look at the face of the white-haired woman, he is still holding onto her waist from the back, his arms seem to be locked around her. She is breathing slowly and calmly, her gaze is focused on the dropping head of the worm. "Should I keep holding?" Rayne turns her face to the captain and presses a button on the headphones, the headphones turn into a helmet and cover the captain''s entire head. "Stay behind me and hold on to me like your life depends on it, stay flat" The worm''s head is no longer visible and its body drops from under their feet, pulling them down with it. "LIE DOWN ON YOUR BACK" Rayne screams. The captain feels the words in her chest, he is holding his arms around her chest. The two of them let the speed of the worm''s downfall push them back and force them to lie on their backs. They dive with the worm into the snow surface at a speed that feels faster than freefall. Each of Rayne''s boots is attached to a 5-meter cable that seems to be hooked to the worm''s back. The worm dives into a slope behind the mountain ridge. Its head collides with the surface and easily penetrates it as if the snow was made of steam. The shockwave of the speed change travels the whole body. The worm keeps digging at a speed that feels like a train inside a tunnel of ice, pulling the captain and Rayne deep into the snow.
Almost all AI-calculated predictions were incorrect. Rayne was standing in the worst location possible. Without the captain''s intervention, she would be worm food. The worm is moving at the speed of 50 km/h inside a tunnel of sand-like ice. If the captain and Rayne do not stay flat enough, they will be ground to death.
Inside the monitor hall, pure chaos. The crystal that was giving emergency light to the rig is now in disequilibrium because of the overflow, the hall is dark again, only lit by the blue screens of the monitors. One of the rig employees thought he saw their captain getting swallowed by the worm and shouted it out. Now the men are on the verge of losing it. Mr Porgo tries to yell his instructions to Doug; Doug has trouble hearing him in the noise. "EVERYBODY SHUT UP!" Two people scream at the same time. Mr Porgo looks around to see who was the second voice. The whole monitor hall turns silent and the rig employees turn their heads to look at the source of the second scream. Jane looks red. "Enough talk, the flame tower is a safe zone now, you can all wait outside the monitor tower." Jane tries her best to be calm. She does not get angry very often. Mr Porgo did not expect this. He, on the other hand, spends most of his time angrily managing money and food for 900 men. He knows what to do. "As far as I understand, the captain is fine. He is just disconnected." Mr Porgo hopefully looks into the eyes of the employees, searching for signs that his words mean some relief. He may have succeeded in calming the mood by around 5%. He does not have the charisma of the captain, even though his authority is technically higher. "Yes your captain is fine," Jane angrily follows Mr Porgo''s announcement. "Our exoskeletons are checking the rig for living remnants of the worm''s branches. This exhaust tower is cleared now. You can all wait outside..." Jane looks around and hesitantly continues: "...please."
Probability of death: very high. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. Equipment: not built for this. Size of the worm: way more than predicted. Connection to center: DEAD
Rayne feels that the tunnel''s icy wall is grinding her armor in two places: under her left arm and just above her left groin. "Don''t panic don''t panic don''t panic. Breathe normally." Rayne does not need the instructions of the headphones to know that panicking means getting ground to death right now. The two of them must stay flat inside the worm''s sonic protection layer, which is only a few centimeters thick. "Bending the knee means losing the knee," Rayne repeats the instructions in her head. "I hope the headphones are giving recorded instructions to him" The grinding gets close to her skin. Under her left groin, she feels the grinding reach the skin. Rayne remembers the piece of nicotine gum she always keeps at the back of her mouth. She moves it under her teeth and bites hard to forget the pain of her skin being ground. She knows she can not move even though the pain screams inside of her begging her body to do something to get rid of it. "Moving means death, moving means death, moving means death.." Inside the headphones, the captain is completely focused now. The wall of the tunnel is grinding his elbows. He is used to pain but this is unbearable. He knows that moving means death. He takes normal breaths and tries to focus on not dying. He can feel the grinding in the armor of the woman he is holding between his arms. "I hope her armor is strong enough to protect her skin." The oozing red skin of the worm shines neon purple in the darkness of the icy tunnel. The icy ceiling of the tunnel reflects the green neon light of the captain''s helmet, the visor is a green see-through monitor. He can see numbers going up on the screen, showing mathematical calculations and algebra formulas. Occasionally he sees graphs. He understands most of them. The pain in his elbows gives him a surprising focus. IF you are being ground, check the worm¡¯s skin behind you for any protrusions. Try to move to a flatter surface by slowly sliding to one side. Never bend your knee. Protect your fingers. Breathe normally. ¡±Ok let''s try something,¡± the captain says out loud. He tries not to shout, his ribcage can push the woman in his arm into the grinding ceiling. "Nope, she can''t hear me." He tries to feel the texture of the surface he is lying on ¡°I am lying on gooey rocks...?¡± He rotates his neck to look at the rocks. He realizes that the helmet does not rotate with his head. "Yup, we have gooey glowing purple rocks and an annoying helmet."
A 35cm rock behind the captain''s lower back is pushing both of them into the icy grinder.
"Let''s slide to our right," the captain is hopeful that the woman can feel his announcement in his chest. He slowly starts moving his right leg, parallel to the surface of the worm''s skin. The gooey rocks don''t help with the smoothness of his movement. To his surprise, the woman starts following him. Her right leg follows his.
The two cables holding the captain and Rayne on the worm''s skin are currently attached to Rayne''s waist. The design of the apparatus allows for a free change in the attachment site: either Rayne''s waste or her boots. The captain is keeping his right arm hooked firmly under Rayne''s right arm. The left side of Rayne''s torso overlaps the right side of the captain''s. She is protecting her face with her right arm, The captain suspects that the rock pressing against his back is reducing the safe space between them and the grinding wall of the tunnel.
The captain feels increased tension in the cable attached to the left side of Rayne''s waste as he slowly moves his left leg to the right side. Rayne follows and immediately the grinding stops. They both take a deep breath of relief. Suddenly, the worm reaches the bottom of the snow. Its head collides with the rock bottom and reflects upwards. Violently changing direction and taking them with it. "What''s next?" The captain desperately reads the sea of instructions on the helmet''s visor. "Damn it how do you rewind in this thing?" Then an instruction pops up. Connect your brainstem to the worm''s skin and find a neural knot. "What?!" This instruction is obviously for the woman. The green screen shows the schematic body of a woman. Three red spots appear on the body: behind the neck and the palms of both hands. Remember that your brainstem is the origin of your life and your time. "Huh! Informative." The woman tries to push her head backward, stretching her neck to reach the gooey rocks. The captain''s right shoulder seems to be blocking the way. The woman arches her back. The captain feels grinding once again in her suit. This time it is just under her ribcage. "There has to be a better way." Keep your neck connected and remember the four TIME-KEYs for protocol SLEEP. To the captain''s surprise, the screen starts showing musical notes. "These are instructions for a rhythms." The captain can guess that this must be some kind of complex lullaby to put the worm to sleep. The grinding gets worse; the red dot on the neck of the schematic woman turns green in the captain''s visor. The red dot on the right arm turns green immediately after. Knot located. Left palm disconnected. Proceed? Yes/No "Wait am I supposed to click something?" The captain tries to rotate his neck to look at the woman''s left arm. The helmet blocks his view. Ouch! The woman kicks the captain in the shin. "Okayyy I have to click something," he says out loud, hoping the woman can hear him in the chest. He is unsure but he feels the words Yes! Choose YES! in the movements of Rayne''s chest. "The question is how do I click YES...?" You just chose YES. SLEEP protocol initiated. Waiting to reach the surface¡­ "Huh! Voice-activated," the Captain can imagine stopping the worm right now can mean getting trapped under hundreds of meters of snow and certain death. He tries to look at the head of the worm, maybe he can see signs of reaching the surface. Slowly at the end of the tunnel, a light appears, ¡°must be the fake sun.¡± Whoosh The sound of the enormous worm leaving the snow at the speed of a car on the highway plus the sudden bright sunlight saturate all of his senses or a few seconds. Next thing he knows, he is once again hundreds of meters in midair, on a very unstable roller coaster about to fall asleep. The Glare Mr Porgo is trying not to look directly at the fake sun. It hurts his eyes when he even tries. He shields his eyes with one hand, trying to find the courage to crack up two fingers to let a ray of sun hit his eyes. The rig employees are dazzled by the change in their usual sky. After the blonde woman cleared the space outside the rig, many left the monitor tower immediately. Some of them went to the outdoors to feel the sun on their faces for the first time in years. Karen is in a heated argument with a rig employee "...yes I CAN explain to you why a space laser is NOT one of CASTEL''s options to remove the worm..." Karen pauses to regroup her emotions and plan her thoughts for one second. She continues: "...those devices are highly inaccurate around plasma sources. Plus they act like sparks. High-power lasers are forbidden around plasma sources because they may spark an explosion." She tries to sound less dogmatic and more caring scientist this time. Maybe a little motherly. She sometimes sees everyone as children. "Miss Karen, they need you in the monitor room," a polite rig employee informs Karen that she has to leave the warm exhaust area and climb the five-story monitor tower to reach the dark cold monitor room. Karen sighs and starts the journey. "Elevators...and air conditioning... I miss you both..." "I miss air conditioning too!" Karen looks back to see RJ striding to reach her. "I grew up in a cyber-city you know." RJ stops in front of Karen. "You did?" she is slightly surprised by this information. The Captain is in shock. He tries to regroup his thoughts. Many things happened in a few seconds. First, he remembers a bright light that almost blinded him. The helmet''s visor immediately turned black and protected his eyes. But the white-haired woman removed the helmet. She put it on her head and covered her face with the black chrome visor. "Bitch, almost blinded me." She was kind enough to protect his eyes with her shadow. Her head was between him and the blinding fake sun. The Captain tries to remember what happened next but is too angry to remember, plus he is distracted by the scene in front of him. The white-haired woman is wearing black gloves covering her hands up to mid-arm, she forces both of her arms, elbow-deep, into the worm''s bleeding flesh, searching for something. "Maybe losing my eyesight is not the worst thing that could happen to me." The captain slowly walks closer to the woman. Rayne pulls both arms out in an instant, blood gushes out and spills some drops on the captain''s face. "Oh I am sorry." She is covering her nose and mouth with a mask made of a black bandana, her eyes look solemn. She walks a few meters to her left to find another scale on the lifeless body of the enormous worm in the snow. She puts her fingers under one of the rock-shaped scales and pulls it off with one sudden movement, throwing the scale in the air. The worm''s humongous body jitters, as if shocked by a sharp pain. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. The sky is no longer blue. The fake sun is on the edge of the mountain chain to the captain''s right. The rig''s flame is more orange-colored now; it''s been filling the sky with black smoke for the past few minutes. The flame is slowly dying out. The sky looks almost crimson. Rayne pushes both her arms into the worm''s exposed oozing flesh. The captain thinks he saw a glimpse of an electronic device in her right fist before it was buried in the red flesh. She keeps her arms buried for a few seconds. Finally, shaking her head in desperation, she violently pulls both arms out, scattering blood droplets in the air. "Her eyes are closed?" She opens her eyes and start walking along the worm''s body, turns her head, as if she just remembered he was there, she stops and looks at the captain. The captain is perplexed by her face. She is wearing a face mask but the captain is certain of the new look in her eyes, they look desperate. "How can I help?" is the first question that runs inside the captain''s head. He ponders for a second before stating it. "I''m a trained medic. I can assist in...whatever surgery you are doing right now." Rayne''s eyes calm down slightly. In a few seconds, her eyes focus on something midair, making her look like a cat focusing on a hunt. "Help me with removing the scales," she finally replies. The captain looks at what is in front of them. Miles of flesh covered with rock-like scales. Each scale is 30 to 50 centimeters in length. "This is going to take hours..." the captain prefers not to think his thoughts out loud. He removes a 15-centimeter knife from his flank pocket. He remembers that the knife almost pierced him when the woman pushed against it as they entered the icy tunnel. A few minutes ago the captain was in the middle of blue skies. Rayne had removed his helmet. The sun almost blinded him but he did not care. They were about to fall to their deaths in a few seconds. Rayne quickly scanned the area under their feet with her helmet. She turned the helmet back to headphones. Grabbed the captain by his collar. Pushed his face close to her face and pronounced eight words: "RUN WITH ME, JUMP WHEN I SAY JUMP." "This one, remove this one." Rayne points to a scale that looks like the others. The torch on her right breast pocket shines intense white light on where she is pointing. They have been removing scales for the past 10 minutes. The last removed scale is a few meters to their left, still bleeding. The captain hooks his knife under the scale, pushed it up and removes the 45 centimeters of rock-like plate from the skin of the creature. The worm jitters with pain, the flesh under the scale starts oozing blood. The Captain moves to the side and Rayne pushes her arms deep into the exposed flesh holding the small round plastic ball with glowing numbers. The captain suspects it is some sort of measuring device. "What exactly are you looking for?" Rayne turns her face to the captain. She stares at him for a second as if to gather her thoughts. "I am looking for the central nervous system." She violently pushes her arms out. The captain is at a secure distance away and is spared from receiving blood on his face. He is still not used to the nauseating scene. Rayne walks a few meters to their right and points to another scale on the worm''s body "This one." The captain walks to where she is pointing. He looks at the red-purple scale for one second, pushes the knife''s tip under the scale, and detaches it in one movement. He jumps back to stay away from the worm writhing in pain. The exposed flesh slowly starts oozing. Rayne pushes her arms deep into the flesh. Her eyes become dark. "A worm has many nervous knots," she finally replies. She looks at the captain to check if he is following. "A knot is a decision-making center." she removes her arms from the worm, spraying small drops of gore into the air. "There are many knots on this enormous creature, but there is always one central knot that connects the whole system. It is the seed that Karen was talking about." The captain remembers the monitor room and the woman with glasses explaining "...the creation of the worm requires a seed..." "How big is this...seed?" "Must be around 4 to 5 kilograms," Rayne looks at the captain to check his reaction. "...about the size of a baby," she walks and points to another scale on the worm. The Clockwork Cyberpunk Karen is panting, climbing up the round staircase to the monitor hall; she is accompanied by RJ the brunette with a mustache. He is wearing a pair of round glasses now. Karen hates awkward silences and usually breaks them by explaining her favorite scientific topics. Right now, for some reason, she feels perfectly calm walking up the stairs in silence with the mustached man. "So, elevators..." RJ breaks the silence. "We have them here but they are so high maintenance we keep them only in working areas. The resting blocks have none, you have to walk up and down stairs all the time." RJ finishes with an awkward smile. Karen smiles back "He must be uncomfortable with awkward silences too." "Batteries don''t last here too, I hope your friend''s headphone batteries are special because lithium batteries die in the magnetic field in just a few hours." Karen stops on her step. RJ stops to look back. "Her batteries are cesium, they last longer." She looks at her watch and resumes climbing. "The headphone batteries have failed by now." She pinches a stream of her hair on her right shoulder and starts curling it around her index nervously. "I hope her pocket flashlight doesn''t fail."
For unknown reasons, CASTEL does not allow the Cosmic Mirror to reflect sunlight on plasma rigs for longer than a few hours. Some assume that it has to do with reflecting energy onto a volatile rig.
Damn thing is waking up." The jittering stops a few seconds later and the worm returns to looking lifeless again.
The doctor''s equipment has protection against magnetic radiation but its half-life is limited.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. "Where do you think they are?" asks RJ. "I don''t have a clue. The doctor always does this part of the extermination alone." The two of them are facing the metallic entrance door of the monitor hall. Karen has never accompanied the doctor in the final procedure of any past Vermillion worm mission. The doctor never took an assistant with her. She only needed remote backup from the center to calculate the exact ejection site of the worm, "The location must be AI-calculated live. That fucking overflow killed the connection." Karen suddenly realizes she just spoke loudly.
Karen and most of the CASTEL employees are completely AI-dependent, Rayne and her everyday assistant, Jane, are some of the few trained to go offline if necessary.
That Night Two Years Ago The Captain was drunk. He was surrounded by three beautiful women, or at least the alcohol told him they were. All three women were eager for the next level and the Captain was trying to remember his way back to his room. As the security captain, he had the privilege of having his own room and a private bathroom. That night he had every intention to use that privilege. The party was hot and loud, the main hall was intentionally darkened. Transient party lights, violet and white, illuminated the rig employees'' faces dancing and chatting with CASTEL women. Every year they had that party to "release steam". Every year, until ... . SMASH! The Captain heard glass shattering. "Please don''t be a fight." He was too intoxicated... and excited... to break a fight between his drunk employees. He looked around and was relieved to see that the noise came from a CASTEL woman accidentally breaking the shot glass in her hand. She had short white hair, the Captain could not see her face but her body looked tense, was she angry? "She needs to loosen up, maybe one of the boys can help... maybe two, perhaps three." He drunkenly smiled at his joke and tried to focus on finding the way to his room. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Two hours later he and the women, naked in his bed, were woken up by the rig alarm. He could not remember how he dressed up to his working attire, neither did he remember how he ended up in the chemical processing plant, where he was staring at the remains of what was possibly a CASTEL woman in the main acid pool. "It appeared that the woman intentionally jumped." Doug reports to the Captain as he and the on-call employees stood motionlessly on the deck watching the black and red liquid mix with the acid 100 meters below them. "Was she trying to pull a Harley Quinn or something?" says CJ in disbelief. A few meters away, Mr. Porgo and a tall blonde woman from CASTEL were arguing loudly "I''m afraid no CASTEL employee can approach the area. And no, you do NOT have permission to take a sample..." Mr. Porgo was as red as his usual when he fervently fought against the bureaucratic invasion of CASTEL "...until you bring a permit from CASTEL" The blonde woman was equally adamant and almost as red "We need to take samples NOW or there will be nothing left to test." "What is there to test? These events happen all the time on the rig. Except nobody cares when it is one of our own" Every year they had that party. Every year until that cursed night two years ago. Prologue: Fifty Shades of Bronze The noise of the cargo airship is deafening. Lucas presses his headphones to his ears as he is lowered to the ground with the rest of the passengers: fifteen new rig workers, himself included, and two pilots. His headphones are not playing music, the airship is too loud to let him hear anything. He keeps the headphones on his ears to calm his nerves; he is finally here. The plasma rig he has been longing and training for most of his life is only a few minutes away. He stretches his back; two weeks of hibernation during the intergalactic journey had its toll on his spine. To his right, stacked rows of empty radium capsules rattle as the ship begins to enter the planet''s atmosphere. Lucas glances out of the window to his left. A purple glare creating a border between the void of space and the planet''s atmosphere passes upward and Lucas feels the gravity strengthening, glueing his body to the his seat. He sees his reflection in the glass and immediately starts fingering the four mustache hair he has been proudly growing during the past five years. The view distracts him. He presses his headphones to his ears once again, this time to help him focus on the gorgeous vista outside of the window. Snow-covered planes end in a mountainous horizon embracing the starry night sky. The planet''s famous purple hue timidly shines in the horizon, blurring some of the stars. Small and large lakes of glowing purple are scattered on the white planes. Three mountain chains are visible from Lucas''s window, the greatest is stretched on the entire northern horizon, the two smaller chains closest to the airship intersect at a 90 degrees angle. Located in that angle, on a mountain''s base, is the magnificent rig. Chrome, brass, and bronze walls of the enormous rig are covered by pipes traveling in every direction. Brightly lit by a multitude of yellow torches, every corner of the metallic giant is visible from Lucas''s window. He can clearly see the four main towers that constitute the structure, each equipped with an exhaust for the events of plasma overflow. "The sight of the exhaust flares must be magnificent" he thinks. From his studies, Lucas knows that plasma rigs do not need suction equipment. In fact, their main role is to control the highly unstable substance as it naturally flows from underground rivers to the surface. In the process, the rig turns the excess energy into heat, creating a warm half-habitable place for the employees to live in. Slowly, a giant red H appears on the courtyard behind the northeastern tower. The airship slightly veers to align in an invisible predesignated line, gradually losing altitude as the H appears bigger and brighter. It passes fields covered with tankers and stacks of radium capsules being pushed on wheels by rig employees into parked cargo airships. Lucas feels goosebumps; he is here. He has finally escaped the nightmarish life of Cyber-Planets, where he would stare at a monitor all day to claim he has "worked". His new life is ahead of him. No computers, no robots, just hard working men, mechanical tools, and raw power. The airship lands on the H, blowing off the thin layer of snow covering the metallic platform. The back of the ship opens as the passengers line up to exit. Lucas straightens his hoodie, puts the hood on his head and marches outside in line as the door fully opens. The northeastern exhaust is towering in front of him, it is even bigger from the ground. A bearded man carrying a clipboard is expecting them on the metallic pathway leading to the rig. He is a big man wearing a khaki jumpsuit holding his yellow worker''s helmet against the wind with his right hand, his wide muscular shoulders hunch over his muscular body and his big belly. His half beaded beard is floating in the wind blowing off from the airship. As the last passenger marches out, he waves his clipboard to signal the airship''s pilot. The airship''s door closes as it moves on the ground towards the loading fields. Lucas keeps marching as the man waves his clipboard at them shouting "MOVE MOVE" trying to compete with the deafening noise of the airship. They march inside the hangar through the entrance, the airship''s noise slowly fades, Lucas can finally hear the noises of the rig: metals clanking, grinders grinding, fans filtering the air. The sounds echo in the steel and bronze empty hangar covering what looks like an old flood drain. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. "M''name is Gordon," the big man shouts in a deep voice, "welcome to Rig Thirty-Seven, or as we like to call it, our last home." He grins and scans the line of newcomers for a reaction. One person coughs. His grin turns into a fatherly smile: "follow me." He walks towards a door at the end of the hangar. Lucas hesitates. From his pocket he removes an old mp3 player wired to his headphones. He has made his decision. He knows batteries do not last long on the rig, any minute now the mp3 player will stop working. Yes he has made his decision, he will play his favorite music one last time before the player dies. He presses play and marches behind the last man in the line following Gordon on the metal balcony on the side of what looked like an empty flood pool with a giant sewage drain. Metallica plays in Lucas''s ears, his favorite classical music. "There''s a devil waiting outside your door..." Lucas was not expecting this song. It has been ages since he has listened to "Loverman" by Metallica. "There''s a devil waiting outside your door..." They pass through multiple doors, walk through hallways of brass and concrete. Every hallway is lit by soothing yellow lights in oval cages. "How much longer?" The singer whispers in Lucas''s headphones as they march through a warehouse with workers pushing carts of what looked like cages of live chicken. They pass the entrance to a hallway with a plaque saying "Dormitory D4" and enter an enormous courtyard with a railway in the middle. Lucas is enjoying the chorus of the song more than he ever have. "I''m your lov... [glitching noises]" The song starts glitching. "The battery must be reaching its end," Lucas thinks. He is casually walking on the railway, the rest of the newcomers are marching on the sidewalk in front of him following Gordon. Lucas sees four workers in jumpsuits and yellow helmets on a balcony a few stories higher in front of him. One of the workers turns to him, bends over the balcony''s guard and starts waving his arms. Lucas is unsure who the worker is referring to. As he walks closer he realizes that the worker is saying something, possibly screaming, the music playing in the headphones are too loud for him to understand the words. And his eyes, the worker has the angriest eyes Lucas has ever seen. BANG! Something hits Lucas in the head. He is violently pulled away from the railway to the sidewalk. Lucas removes his hood and headphones and starts rubbing his head, looking at Gordon with pain in his eyes. Gordon is holding onto Lucas''s collar, looking unamused. "You cannot be distracted on this rig, this is how you die." Gordon lets go of his collar. Lucas keeps rubbing his head. "You should never walk on that railway, every 40 minutes a cargo passes it so fast that if you are on it you turn into pancake." Gordon grabs a yellow workers helmet. BANG! He hits Lucas in the head again, this time with the helmet "And wear a helmet in working areas or the next one will hurt for real." Gordon points to an old rusty sign on the wall showing an almost faded yellow workers helmet inside a red triangle. Lucas takes the helmet and puts it on. He removes his headphones from his shoulders and puts them in his pockets. "Also, don''t make the Captain angry. You do NOT want to make the Captain angry, trust me." Gordon continues walking, the rest of the crew follow him. Lucas, trying to hide the pain tears in his eyes, keeps his head down but watches for signs on walls. Plasma rigs have notoriously high death rates and he did not come here to die. He must learn to sharpen his senses. Vermillion Cries "How long is this thing?" The Captain asks desperately. He has been watching Rayne in silence in the past 10 or so minutes as she kept her arms inside the oozing exposed flesh of the worm. Her face is slightly lit by the bright flashlight reflecting from the flesh. "The calculations were wrong. It is way longer than a kilometer." The Captain looks around, outside the flashlight''s limited reach his eyes take a few seconds to adjust to the darkness. The curved shadows must be the enormous corpus of the worm dissolving into blackness. The reddish night sky casts shadows on the angular curvatures of the snow-covered mountain. He is certain the motionless waves are the half-buried body of the worm. It has not moved in the past 10 minutes, or at least he hopes. "How far did you say your device can scan inside the flesh for...whatever it is you''re looking for?" "I''m looking for the central nervous system. Around 12 meters." The woman sounds calm, the desperate look on her face has now vanished; she looks determined. The Captain can see small drops of blood on her face. He sighs in discomfort and scans their surroundings, adjusting his eyes again to the darkness. As far as he knows, the worm can be kilometers long; "this will take forever." He looks back at the eyes of the white-haired woman. This is the first time he can see their color. He only paid attention to them once in the monitor hall; they seemed to reflect the monitors. Now, under the indirect light of her flashlight, he can see that they are... grey? The woman looks calm and focused. She has not said a word for the past hour or so. He has been removing the rocky scales of the worm for her, 20 or so meters apart, exposing the flesh. It would slowly start oozing red blood, and the woman would push both her arms into its flesh, holding a triangular device in her right hand. Each time, the worm would immediately jitter, shaking the ground under their feet, and go back to laying motionless once she stopped pushing, halfway to her shoulders.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! The Captain''s mind is calm as he keeps re-analyzing the situation; his gut feeling has never let him down, and right now, it is mildly in panic, meaning they are in mortal danger but there is a plan. The mission is simple: keep scanning for the central nervous system, which seems to be the only vulnerable part of the monster. And find it before the damn thing wakes up. And this weird triangular device inside the woman''s fist, is some measuring device. He is certain she was carrying it in the pouch fitted to the curvature of her lower back when they were riding the worm on that near-death roller coaster. "What else is she hiding in the pouch?" Wooooosh She pulls her arms out. The worm jitters, the snow under their feet shakes. Blood dripping from her arms, she walks and scans the worm, "This one" she points to a giant scale. The Captain removes his knife from one of his holsters, pushes it under the scale, uses it as a lever and lifts it. The worm''s exposed flesh bleeds. Rayne pushes her arms deep into the flesh as the snow under their feet shakes for a few second. "This is going to take forever." "Listen, about the Harley Quinn incidence..." Rayne''s eyes fix on the Captain''s mouth as if she dreads the next word. The Captain swallows and continues "... I am sorry." The muscles around Rayne''s mouth loosen up slowly, she sounds unsure as she asks "The Harley Quinn incident?" and looks directly at the Captain''s eyes. The Captain opens his mouth but stops, the hair on the back of his neck is rising. Something is happening in the darkness behind him. His heart sinks. He turns and scans the giant curvatures on the mountain behind them; it is too dark to see. He reaches for a pouch on his belt and removes his brass lighter. Click! The purple flame lights up parts of the mountain in front of him. The giant creature seems to be motionless. He sharpens his ears. A beat? A heartbeat? They both sharpen their ears. The Captain is not sure if he is mistaking his own heartbeat. Suddenly, a cry, a faint, weak cry. Yes, something, is crying faintly. "We must be close" Rayne violently removes her arms. I, Rayne The cry erupts into a full-blown screech; the Captain''s ears scream in pain. AAAAAAAAAA Rayne casually puts her bloody hands on her ears and walks to the next spot. Her white hair absorbs some of the blood. The Captain turns his lighter off, puts it in his jacket''s front pocket and covers his ears. The pain is unbearable. He cannot see Rayne''s face, she is holding her ears firmly, walking and calmnly observing the scales. AAAAAAA........heeeeeeeee The cry is stopped by what sounds like an inhalation. A childish inhalation. The Captain loosens his hands, uncovering his ears.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Silence. AAAAAAAAAAA The screech restarts. The Captain covers his ears again, this time harder. He can see Rayne''s face now. He cannot hear her but her lips read "Its close". AAAAAAA....heeeeee...heee...heeee The painful screech is replaced by inhalation sounds. "What is this noise?" "Any flexible tube can make noises like this," Rayne slowly uncovers her ears. Her hair is painted with two red stains around each ear. She casually points to a scale "this one!". The Captain watches her for a moment. Finally, he grabs his pocket knife, walks to the scale and removes it. Blood oozes from the exposed flesh. AAAHhheeeee......AAAAHhheeeee....AAAAHHHheee... Inhalations change into animal-like respiration sounds. "It is desperate and it is being creative," Rayne calmly adds as she slowly inserts her arms into the flesh, increasing the oozing flow.