Chapter 23: Fight by Your Side
A breeze carrying the scent of damp wood, flowers and rain drifted across his face. Somewhere nearby, water trickled rhythmically, accompanied by distant laughter and the occasional chirping of creatures unlike anything he’d ever heard.
His eyelids felt heavy.
Slowly, they parted.
Above him stretched an enormous ceiling woven from living branches. Golden leaves filtered shafts of afternoon sunlight through the canopy, painting dancing patterns across the wooden floor beneath him.
"..."
He blinked against the rush of light.
His body jerked upright.
Pain lanced through every muscle.
"...Easy!"
Two hands grabbed his shoulders before he could fall back over.
Iniko. And one of her many attendants.
She looked considerably more dressed than the last time he’d seen her. Animal hide wrapped around her torso and waist while her intricate golden markings shimmered faintly along her dark skin.
"You slept a long while."
"..."
K glanced around.
He lay upon an enormous woven bed surrounded by hanging vines and polished wooden furniture. The room itself seemed to have been grown rather than built.
"You kept trying to sit up while unconscious." Iniko smiled. "Mother said you’d break yourself in half if we didn’t tie you down."
K looked at his wrists.
Faint marks.
"...You tied me up?"
"You kept punching the air at least that is what they said you were doing after we were moved from the circle"
"..."
"Was your experience a fight with someone or something? Did you fight the Fallen Star?@
"No."
She tilted her head.
"Then who?"
K didn’t answer.
"...K!"
A tiny holographic figure burst from a nearby outlet.
Kagu.
She flew straight into his direction or rather tried to, falling off her outlet display before reappearing,
"You idiot!"
She crossed her arms.
"You died."
"..."
"Then came back."
"..."
"Then died again."
"..."
"And then your heart started doing interpretive dances!"
K rubbed his temples.
"What?"
"I go off to find answers for you and I come back to find out you engaged in sexual intercourse with Miss Jugs over here and somehow seized which they called a "trance"! I was so scared you selfish good for nothing bastard!"
She pointed accusingly at him.
"I had several panic protocols running!"
"Wow, really?" K said, his tone coated in all shades of sarcasm.
"I was really scared you know! What would I have told the doctor?"
Kagu rubbed at her arm, her face scrunching up sadly.
"I’m glad"
"What?"
"...I’m glad you’re alive."
"I’m alive."
"...you better keep it that way!"
For a brief second neither spoke. Processing what they’ve both been through.
Then Kagu clapped her hands together.
"Right! Report time!"
Instantly dozens of holographic windows surrounded her.
"I’ve been busy."
K swung his legs over the bed. Sitting and scooting closer to where she was, ignoring the dull aches in his body.
"I can see that. Let’s hear it."
She puffed out her chest proudly.
"While someone was busy rubbing reproductive organs with someone else! I, Kagu was deep in this planet searching for answers. First discovery!"
A three-dimensional map of Nythera appeared.
"I’ve completed a preliminary scan of the surrounding region."
Red markers lit across the hologram.
"The settlement we’re currently inside occupies less than one percent of the surrounding forest."
She zoomed outward.
"Nythera is much larger than Meredith predicted."
The map continued expanding.
"There are mountain ranges larger than countries."
"Oceans deeper than any on Meredith."
"And forests..." She swallowed,"...that my drone’s scanners couldn’t fully penetrate."
K frowned.
"You couldn’t?"
"I don’t know why."
Another section lit up.
"The interference resembles... static."
"Natural?"
"I don’t think so."
The image shifted.
Now a gigantic crater appeared.
"I also found this."
K leaned forward.
"What is that?"
"Mhm."
She enlarged it.
The depression stretched several kilometers across. But that wasn’t the strangest part, it looked like a huge person had fallen and created the impression.
"The oldest geological estimates suggest it’s ancient."
"How ancient?"
"I can’t tell exactly."Several scans appeared beside it."But...every fossil I’ve found belonging to Iniko’s people dates back to roughly the same period."
K looked toward the doorway where voices drifted in.
"So either..."
"They existed when the crater formed."
"Or..."
"They came from it."
Silence lingered.
Kagu dismissed the image.
"Second discovery!"
A rotating DNA sequence appeared.
"I didn’t understand how these people reproduced until a while ago..."
K blinked.
"...You were researching that?"
"I am a scientist."
"You’re a database AI."
"A database research Ai and I can be both."
She huffed and cleared her throat, "They possess no Y chromosome."
"No males."
"No evidence of males have ever existed."She folded her tiny arms. "And yet they continue producing offspring."
K looked unimpressed.
"...That’s impossible."
"That’s what I thought to!"
She looked personally offended by biology.
"I’ve rerun the scans multiple times. And the only biological term I can come to is ’Parthenogenesis,’" the hologram enlarged, "you see Parthenogenesis is a form of asexual reproduction where an embryo forms from an unfertilized egg. This is an extremely rare case in humans, and comparing the number of women here...it’s not so rare here"
"They’re definitely human..."
"They are...mostly"
"Mostly?"
"They possess several unidentified genetic sequences."
"Origin?"
"Traced to nothing"
Another hologram appeared.
Mineral scans.
"I also found traces of unknown crystals beneath the settlement."
Blue veins spread beneath the ground like roots.
"They’re everywhere, under every building emitting strange energy."
K remembered the glowing pond basin.
"...Living?"
"I couldn’t confirm."
She scratched her head.
"But...I don’t think they’re ordinary minerals."
The room fell quiet.
K slowly stood. "No shit"
His body still protested, but he ignored it.
He rolled one shoulder.
Kagu’s expression lit up,
"...oh and there’s something else."
K looked up at her, "what now?"
"The decoy."
Immediately his expression steeled.
"The drone is still impersonating Horizon."
She brought up another hologram with a timer.
MISSION COVER REMAINING
01 DAY : 07 HOURS : 16 MINUTES
"I’ve pushed it as far as I safely can." She dismissed the hologram, "Once that timer runs out..."
"...the expedition team will realize Horizon was never there."
K finished for her.
"And the admiral"
"He’d be happy as fuck to find out I’d gone out of line again."K silently stared at the Kagu, "So we have less than thirty-two hours."
"Exactly."
"If we’re returning..."
"...we need to leave soon."
He crossed the room startled by the silent form of Iniko.
He had forgotten about her, engrossed with the information Kagu was dishing him.
Iniko watched quietly.
"...You’re leaving, K?"
"I have to."
"Won’t you take what you came here for?"
"...huh?"
She lowered her gaze.
For a while she simply stood there.
"I’m coming with you."
K paused while checking for any external injury,
"No."
"Please."
"No, Iniko"
She folded her arms stubbornly.
"I must go with you."
"I’m not asking."
"I’m not either."
K sighed. "Iniko."
"I really must"
"And why is that?"
"When we were connected, I saw you. I saw you fight those terrifying things, I want to fight with you."
"No you don’t, Iniko, you can’t fight them"
"I can! I have my Ulu"
"You don’t even know where we’re going. And there’s only so much your Ulu can do!"
"I know."
"...then why?"
Her expression softened as she walked closer to him and placed a hand over her chest.
"...I didn’t just help open the gate."
Her golden eyes drifted toward the window.
"I saw more than just your war...I saw your world. I saw fire. I saw your stars." Her voice grew quieter. "I saw you fighting. I want to fight by your side"
K looked away. "Iniko"
She smiled sadly."I don’t understand your world but," she stepped closer. "...I know one thing. "When my ancestors spoke of the Other Kind...they didn’t speak of a conqueror or a perfect person, the burden of being the Other Kind is great enough. And as your key, I am obliged to walk this rest of this path with you."
She gently placed a fist over her own heart.
"If I exist because of that prophecy...then I don’t believe I was born simply to point you towards the depths of a lake."
K didn’t answer.
"Iniko."
An older voice interrupted them.
Everyone turned.
The Elder stood within the doorway.
She had clearly been listening.
"I see you have made your decision."
"I have, Mother."
"You understand what leaving means?"
"I do."
"You may never return."
"I know."
The Elder slowly approached K.
For a long moment she simply studied him.
Finally she spoke, "Our people have waited generations for the Other Kind."
She smiled faintly, "When you arrived...I expected someone unsure and not willing to risk death over the release of some Fallen Star"
She chuckled.
"Instead I found a selfless person, who didn’t hesitate."
K awkwardly looked elsewhere. "I’m not a selfless person and I didn’t do it for you people."
"I have lived long enough to know prophecies rarely unfold as expected."
She rested a weathered hand upon Iniko’s shoulder.
"My daughter has chosen her path and I will not stand before it."
Iniko’s eyes widened.
"...Mother"
"You wished to see the stars.You have always wished to see the world beyond our forests."
The Elder smiled. "Now the stars have come to collect you."
Iniko threw her arms around her.
"I’ll come back."
"Oh dear"
"I promise!"
"You should not make promises to old women."
She gently stroked her daughter’s hair.
"Simply live. Live the best life you can. They are your people now, you must fight for and with them"
They remained like that for several moments before separating.
The Elder turned back toward K.
"Protect her if you must."
K looked at Iniko.
The overly cheerful woman who had nearly beaten him to death.
Who carried him around like luggage.
He doubted she needed protection.
"...I will."
Iniko grinned from ear to ear.
"Then it’s settled!"
She hurried across the room, snatched up her twin staffs, chanted some words and the staffs melted down to a disk then slung them across her back in one practiced motion.
Kagu floated beside K.
"...She’s actually coming. Not that I don’t mind of course."
"So it seems."
"You know..."
She leaned close enough that only he could hear. He wondered why she did that, she wasn’t speaking English so they couldn’t understand her.
"...I like her."
K glanced sideways.
"You like what resides on her chests"
"I absolutely do not."
K gave a sarcastic hum of agreement as he picked her up by her outlet before heading towards the door,
"We should get doing"
"Oh on that note, you should put some clothes on."
"What?"
K looked down at himself.
He was naked.
"How long is your Johnny? Eight...seven...eight!"
The door slammed shut with a force that shook the treehouse,
"Do you have some clothes to spare?"
