Chapter 8: The woman beneath a tree
...
SCANNING
...
HOST STASIS HAS REACHED END OF COOLDOWN PERIOD.
...
REBOOTING...
...
RUNNING SIMULATION...
...
Cold.
That was the first thing K felt.
Usually he would wake up to pain or the hissing sound of a cryotube opening, but it was so cold...so quiet.
An endless, suffocating cold pressing against his skin like deep water.
Then came the music.
Soft.
Distorted. Like music on a gramophone, warbling at certain notes.
A woman humming somewhere far away.
The melody echoed strangely through the darkness around him, rising and falling like a lullaby sung to a child.
K’s eyes twitched open.
White.
An endless white horizon stretched in every direction.
There were no walls. No sky. No floor.
Yet he was standing.
The song continued on in the distance.
K frowned, "...where the hell..." His voice echoed infinitely, he turned slowly looking around.
The battlefield was gone.
Was this a dream? Did he finally die?
Then he noticed footprints. Pulsing in water-like surface.
Wet footprints trailing across the empty void.
K followed without thinking.
The humming grew louder.
Closer.
The further he walked, the heavier his body felt.
Like something unseen was wrapping around his spine.
Watching him. Telling him to keep walking. Whispering for him that there was something ahead.
Waiting.
Then.
...
HOST HAS MADE CONTACT.
...
PHASE 2 OF THE SIMULATION
...
He saw her.
A figure sat beneath a massive black tree growing impossibly out of the white nothingness.
Its branches stretched endlessly across the void like cracks in glass.
Pink leaves drifted silently downward. Some swaying off into the white abyss while some pooled around her.
The woman beneath it hummed softly to herself.
Long pale hair spilled over her shoulders. Her body glowing faintly with bioluminescence. Rings rotated slowly around her wrists, ankles and throat but the most outstanding one was the one that sat at the back of her head like an upright halo.
K reached raised his fists ready to fight this thing. There was no way this was an ordinary Vashki, because unlike every Vashki he had ever seen, this one had a face and hair.
Not smooth flesh plating or those disgusting mandibles.
This one had a face.
Beautiful.
A terribly beautiful face with soft features.
"Oh, you’re finally here?"
She turned to face him.
Dark fabric wrapped loosely around her body in layered strips resembling ceremonial cloth more than usual Vashki armor. The material clung tightly beneath her chest before disappearing around her waist in flowing translucent fabric that shifted like liquid in the white void.
Most of her upper body remained exposed. The cloth hanging on her shoulders revealing more of her silver skin that seem to glow softly beneath the drifting light.
Her exposed chest revealed deep blue markings running between her cleavage and along her collarbones like living ink, pulsing faintly in rhythm with the rotating rings behind her.
K had seen something similar happen with his armor when he was fighting Luituka.
She stood up slowly, picking up some of her flowing dress, and glided to where K stood.
"I’ve been waiting! I thought you’d never make it!"
K flung his fist, his hand went right through her, making zero contact with solid skin
"...you... what are you?"
The woman tilted her head slightly at the sound of his voice.
"You have such beautiful eyes!"
Her lips curved up but never opened instead her rings spoke for her, it didn’t come out layered or with those maddening clicks. Just one soft voice. And in perfect English
"It was hard influencing warrioress of Kun to come for you, her blood carries a dormant variable of mine and I needed her to come in contact with you! Not to mention the kept one had you so concealed! I thought you had died long ago!"
K immediately stepped back. "What are you talking about?"
"For a reaction to occur, a catalyst is needed. Khae’el, you’ve achieved a great feat. Now is time to save your people"
"What are you?"
The woman blinked slowly. Something almost sad crossed her expression.
"You used to know."
K clenched his fists."I don’t know you."
"No," she agreed softly.
"I made sure of that."
A pulse of pain suddenly tore through K’s skull.
Fragments flashed violently behind his eyes.
The white hallways from before but this time coated in silver blood.
Screaming came from everywhere.
A child’s voice crying.
Cold hands cradling his face.
K staggered hard.
"What did you do to me?!"
The woman lifted both arms and began to hover above him
The moment she reached a certain point, the white void trembled.
Rings materialized behind her back one after another.
Six.
Eight.
Ten.
Each ring larger than the last.
The pressure flooding the space became unbearable instantly.
K dropped to one knee.
His body screamed at him to bow.
But the woman simply floated back towards him calmly.
Bare feet against nothingness.
Petals swarming around her.
"You are afraid of me now," she whispered.
A strange sadness lingered in her voice.
"With time, you’ll come to understand and we shall take back what was rightfully ours and save our people"
K forced himself back upright. The pressure pushing him down.
"Stop this..."
She moved closer to him.
Close enough for him to see faint glowing veins beneath her skin and smell her.
Close enough to realize she was still humming that tune quietly under her breath.
She lifted a hand toward his face, "I have many names but you can call me Shira"
K tried to move away but he couldn’t, the invisible pressure kept him confined to that spot.
The moment her fingers touched his cheek,
his entire body froze.
The woman smiled again. Her dress slipping off her lithe figure.
"...let us become one again, let me feel your skin against mine"
...
SYSTEM WARNING.
...
MEMORY SEAL INSTABILITY DETECTED.
...
FOREIGN AUTHORITY HAS ENTERED HOST CONSCIOUSNESS.
...
EMERGENCY STASIS FAILED.
...
FAILED.
...
FAILED.
...
K’s eyes widened as she pushed him, the weight from before disappeared as he fell backwards. He braced himself for the hard impact of the ground but instead soft bedding greeted his back. He looked around.
They were still in that white void but somehow a luxurious canopy bed has materialized.
The woman looked toward the floating system text beside him.
"Oh," she murmured softly. "I did program some resistance but I never programmed it to reject me." Then she looked back at K.
Those glowing blue eyes softened again.
And she asked the question that made his blood run cold.
"...have you felt a woman’s wet embrace?"
