38. The Collection rooms

“Wait a moment,” Marius said, tapping his head, “For the next ten minutes, I can read Ferrian. Now we could go back to the Star chart and see what those menus say. Or we can find another room where I could read something useful.”
“Why didn’t you do that before when you were waiting for me?” Nox asked, confused that now Marius had decided to flex his not-insignificant brain muscle.
“I needed to rest before trying. Now I have, so let's try this other door before throwing ourselves into another battle, right?”
“Right…” Nox sighed, and following the other.
 
Marius led the way back to the Star map room and the yellow bracelet door. Fureva-Yung presented her tattoo. The door flashed, recognising the tattoo, but did not open.
“Magic bracelet it is,” Nox presented her arm, and the door opened. Fureva-Yung shrugged and followed Marius in.
 
The next room was bright, evenly lit with white light. Every wall was filled with bookshelves as far as the eye could see, which was considerable for Marius. The shelves were filled with screens flashing information, books, tablets and soft-covered magazines. Every source of information was represented. Just above them, a red-robed figure flitted from shelf to shelf. Ahead, in the centre of the space, stood an eight-sided diamond encircled by black snake-like energy.
“Go see who that is?” Marius said to Nox, who looked up at the robed figure with suspicion.
“Why?”
“You can just blink up there and back.”
“So, can you. It’s the datasphere.”
Marius stared at Nox as if she’d said he could sprout antlers. She rolled her eyes and turned to the figure.
“Hello. Can you help up?” She called. The red-robed figure paid her no attention. Unfortunately, the black tendrils of energy did.
 
“Um…” Nox pointed out the tendrils now ‘looking’ in their direction and tried to read their thoughts.
Knowledge…hunger…information…feed…. take!
“It’s hungry for information.”
“Well, let's see what we can do about that,” Jaden smirked.
“I don’t like it. It…feels weird,” Nox said as the first tendril zipped across the intervening space. The black tendrils moved straight to her eyes, ear, nose and mouth, seeking a way in.
Marius watched as Nox choked and spluttered, realising the being was so ravenous it probably wouldn’t think about what it was eating if it was presented the right way.
 
Fureva-Yung swung her chain, but fearful of hitting Nox, the chain slipped passed without hurting the creature.
Jaden, knew she’d found the right audience for her confounding jargon. She sprinkled her technobabble with a mixture of nonsense words, just in case the thing was clever enough to understand what she was saying.
The tendrils paused in their probing of Nox to listen to Jaden. It gave Nox the chance she needed to wriggle free.
This statement is a lie…this statement is a lie… She repeated the paradox in her head, hoping that it too would confound the creature.
 
Having lost its prey, the tendril lashed out at their tormentor, Jaden, grabbing her and trying to force its way down the throat, making it hard to speak. Marius swung and missed, the tendrils were too firmly wrapped around Jaden to hit.
“Thought Eater?” Fureva-Yung mused. It sounded like a good idea, so she grabbed the tendril and bit a piece off.
 
Visions of place and people, things and creatures filled Fureva-Yung’s mind flashing into a confusing blur. From the outside, Fureva-Yung’s body split into three overlapping versions, all slightly out of sync with each other. Jaden, now clear of the tendrils, continued her jargon, this time projecting the vision of an empty plain in her mind, a space the tendrils couldn’t find appealing. Nox blinked to the diamond, now clear of tendrils. The top four surfaces were green screens and were a catalogue to the library around them. Collecting what raw data she could, Nox started creating a parcel of information to entice the tendrils. Like Jaden’s jargon, she was hoping and dense collection of nonsense data would keep the tendrils attention until they could work out how to get rid of it.
 
Meanwhile, the tendril once more lashed out at Jaden. Focused on her fictional landscape, Jaden couldn’t stop the black tendrils from disappearing inside her mind. Jaden stood quietly, focused as she had before, unharmed.
“Urgh! Are you alright?” Marius asked, unable to keep the grimace of disgust off his face.
Jaden could feel the blackness squirming behind her eyes.
“Concentrating…” Was all she said, pointing to Fureva-Yung.
 
Fureva-Yung’s glitching was getting worse. It was impossible to work where one Fureva-Yung started, and another ended. Tentatively, Marius reached a hand out to try stabilise his friend. Fureva-Yung froze for a moment before all her colours inverted and split from the original. With a familiar bellow, the negative Fureva-Yung spooled out her chain of black energy and struck out at Marius. After months of fighting side by side, Marius knew Fureva-Yung’s moves better than her as he expertly dodge the attack, getting under her guard to struck.
 
Fureva-Yung reeled back from her negative self, trying to make sense of the nonsense that had been dumped into her mind. She did understand her chain and hitting stuff. She swung her weapon through the negative Fureva-Yung. It blurred, shivering in place before reforming for its next strike.
 
Nox was at a loss at what to do. She had an information packet ready, but it would do no good against a Fureva-Yung, even a negative one. She carefully stored the information packet before pulling out her dagger once more and blinking across the space, striking the distracted negative in the back.
 
Marius’ next attack was slow. His fist, instead of striking and doing damage, sunk into the malleable body of negative Fureva-Yung. With a smirk, it pulled Marius into itself pulling him through their middle. Nox blinked as she was now face to face with the black and white boy.
“I don’t think I have the stomach for this!” He lamented
 
Negative Fureva-Yung now went after her namesake, hindered by the full-grown man through its middle. Shaking her head at the ridiculous position Marius had found himself in, Fureva-Yung grabbed his arms, placed her foot against her negative counterpart and pulled.
“Go on Furry, break a leg!”
Negative Fureva-Yung bucked, and instead of pulling Marius from its middle, Fureva-Yung found herself diving head-first into its chest. Now both of them were stuck.
“Now, this creature is not big enough for the two of us.”
 
With Jaden still focused on the other half of the tendrils, Nox was the only one left free to fight. She lashed out with her dagger, hitting the negative Fureva-Yung’s rubber armour, doing nothing. Marius tried hitting the creature but his arms were pinned and the best he could do was hinder its movements. It didn’t stop negative Fureva-Yung from flinging her chain at Nox, striking her in the head. Nox spun away, delirious from the brutal hit that nearly knocked her unconscious. Fureva-Yung swung her chain, only succeeding in hitting Marius.
 
The battle was descending to a farce, with neither side able to hurt the other. Fureva-Yung got Nox’s attention and pointed to the button that retracted the rubber armour on negative Fureva-Yung. Picking up on the hint, Nox gathered her wits and blinked, appearing above the button, striking it with her small fist. Negative Fureva-Yung’s armour retracted back into its pouches, and Marius, still stuck halfway, crowed with delight.
“I was never into rubber!” He struck out; this time, his fist made Negative Fureva-Yung shimmer and glitch.
The creature swung out at Nox with its chain, but she blinked away.
 
“You not hit my Nox!” Fureva-Yung bellowed, reaching not for the creature but the chain weapon it had copied from her. Wrapping the black chain around her fist, she now used the copy’s weapon against it, punching it in the face. Negative Fureva-Yung glitched and pixelated, breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces of data. The pieces fell away until the Negative Fureva-Yung had dissolved away freeing Marius and the OG.
 
“Furry! I never knew you had it in you.” Marius laughed at the confused Fureva-Yung, who looked down at her own furry pink belly.
 
The black monster was gone or contained for the moment. Marius floated across to the diamond and accessed the catalogue for information on the Shard. The library seemed a collection of general knowledge and only had what they already knew. The Malignant Entity had first been encountered by the Sacristan faction during the war around the planet Rectolon. They had developed technology to confine the entity, but shards break off and escape to still cause issues from time to time.
 
Thoughts of the war had Marius thinking about Fureva-Yung, her ship and her crew. He scoured the database for any information about Admiral Fureva-Yung, specifically looking for notable members of her crew that may be the two other Sions. An image of a younger, Fureva-Yung in military uniform proudly standing in front of a group of officers appeared, and Marius ushered Fureva-Yung over.
“Anyone you recognise?”
 
Marius watched as Fureva-Yung’s face moved from surprise to a ravenous desire to a wistful longing. She shook her head sadly. Though there were ‘feelings’ of knowing, there were no names to accompany the faces staring back at her from the photograph. Marius wasn’t finished. He started looking up the several ship names linked to the Admiral’s entry including one marks as Flagship DWF Illistra.
 
Meanwhile Jaden strained all her will into containing the other half of the data-eater. Distracted, Nox watched on with concern as she listened into the internal struggle with the creature.
“Umm… you might want to hurry up what you’re doing,” She said to the other two around the diamond, “I don’t know how long Jaden can hold this thing.”
 
Fureva-Yung responded instantly, loosening her chain and flying over to Jaden, ready and waiting. Marius, on the other hand, glanced up looking for the red-clad figure. They were nowhere to be seen. He floated up to where the figure had been looking at books on the shelves, pulling out a few at random. The first was a treatise on Interdimensional travel the second was an archeological report on Planet Rectolon. Remembering that name from his search on the shard, he put the book on Rectolon in his bag.
 
Jaden’s struggle with the entity was now a physical strain. She was curled up in a foetal position, her arms wrapped around her torso as she strained all her will into containment. But like putty through a too-tightly clenched fist, the creature oozed out, using Nox’s telepathic network to bounce to Marius. Black tendrils started squirming out of Marius’ eyes, ears, nostrils and mouth. Gagging, he grabbed the thread and yanked them free of his head, only to be bound up in them like a rope. Wriggling free, Marius dodge the creature’s next attack as Nox blinked close, her parcel held in her hands. The tantalizing parcel of information was snatched up and devoured even as the creature continued its attacks on Marius. Nox watched on with grim fascination as the black tendrils started shuddering, shaking and contorting as the dense parcel of corrupted information was digested.
 
Now free, Jaden started her jargon again, distracting the creature for Fureva-Yung and Marius to swing away on its physical form. With a pop like a balloon, the black being burst and dissolved leaving behind a cypher that Nox quickly identified as a Dataflood, a mental connection to the datasphere.
 
The group took stock of their surroundings. The library was now theirs, a good place to rest as those with the ability could unlock the next two door. Jaden took on the level three door and after an hour had a red bracelet around her wrist. Nox worked away on the level four-door while Fureva-Yung again studied the information on her ship and crew. The faces were familiar, but as hard as she tried, she couldn’t place names on them.
 
As soon as Jaden had her door open Marius was up, ready to move on, though Nox was still working on her own door.
“While Nox is busy, why don’t we see what's beyond Jaden’s door?” He said, not waiting for an answer.
Fureva-Yung shook her head, “We should not split up.”
“We’ll just go have a look and be right back.”
“I will not leave Nox undefended,” Fureva-Yung replied adamantly.
“Suit yourself,” Marius stepped through the door, followed grudgingly by Jaden.
 
It was strange after floating around for what seemed days. They were standing on a green hillside, the sun warm on their skin, a breeze ruffling their hair. Winding away from their feet stone steps lead to a gravel path following a babbling stream. In the water, on the banks, up the slopes of the hill were planted every conceivable type of vegetation known and unknown. The path led to a shallow valley where a gazebo stood covered in vines and flowering plants. Beside the steps leading to the covered space, two stone dogs stood, alert and resolute.
“Okay, we’ve had a look, lets go back,” Jaden said placing a hand on Marius’ arm, “We shouldn’t stay here too long.”
“What do you think this place is?” Marius asked stepping off the path into the grass. The blades were cool and heavy with dew. He could feel it seeping into his shoes.
“A collection, like the library…experimental…entertainement…” Jaden shook her head. After the empty rooms they’d been presented for the past few days, the scene before her was a chaos of colour and form that she couldn’t make sense of. Marius bent down and plucked a blade of grass. He noted the earth underneath the blade stain his skin, turning it a rich brown. Reluctantly, he turned and followed Jaden back through the door. Floating once more into the library, Marius looked down to see the blade of grass still grasped between his fingers.
“Well, at least we can take things from there.”
“I wonder if there’s anything useful for Fureva-Yung?”
 
It took Nox four hours to finally open her lock. A black band appeared on Nox’s arm. As soon as Nox heard there was a place full of plants, she grabbed her book and blinked through, the others following. She was flying high above the hill when the others entered the garden room. From her height, she could see that the gazebo was the centre of four paths that all met in the valley. One path was laid out formally with bushed pruned into pompoms on sticks while others made knotwork patterns around their bases. One path was lined with rows of identifiable and unidentifiable vegetables. From root vegetables and tubers to bushes and vines neatly tied to pyramids of bamboo canes. Small bushes of herbs grew along the path edge, sending up a heady fresh, savoury scent. The next path led to a forest, climbing high into the canopy on bridges and supported skywalks. The last entered a dark cave mouth into the side of the hill.
 
Nox blinked her way around the garden like a giant bee, testing each plant against her notes. She noted the growing conditions and collected seeds, roots and stems as well as the active parts of each plant. She hoped, with Temila’s care and attention, that at least some of these plants could be grown back at the apothecary farm.
 
“If these translate back…” Nox said, zipping past the group to another interesting plant, “...I think we’ll have everything we’ll need to help Fureva-Yung!”
Fureva-Yung who had been eating random leaves off the plants up to that moment, looked up at her excited friend. The contagious excitement sent Fureva-Yung jogging after Nox into the cave.
 
Though dark, the cave was lit by glowing fungus growing from every surface. Inside the cave, a small waterfall roared, filling the air with moisture. On either side of waterfall, two more stone dogs stood, one with a fungus growing jauntily from its head. Checking her notes, Nox identified the fungus as one that could be useful and plucked it from the dog’s head with her hedge magic. It sailed across the space and into her bag, the last that was required.
“That’s the last of it!” Nox spun in the air out of pure happiness. Caught in the infectious feeling, Fureva-Yung patted the stone dogs head companionably.
“Good dog.”
The stone dog’s head moved to face her.
“Oh hello!” Marius exclaimed, noting the movement, “Lovely garden you have here.”
“Are you the guardian?” Nox asked, clutching her bag full of leaves, roots and seeds.
The dog turned to face her, and snarled.
 
“Ah, good boy, nice dog!” Marius stepped between the snarling stone muzzle and Nox.
The dog leapt for him, shaking as it landed and spreading a cloud of spore into the air. Surprised, Jaden, Nox and Fureva-Yung all took in a lungful fo the spores. The air instantly filling the imagined colours, lights and sounds. Marius, quicker than the rest, covered his mouth and nose and escaped the spores to dodge the dog's attacks. Jaden, a seasoned tripper, focused her thoughts enough to start talking jargon at the dog in an attempt to confuse it. Nox hung in the air, clutching her bag to her chest.
Please, I need these to help my friends, She pleaded through a mind link at the dog. It showed no signs of understanding. Fureva-Yung was transfixed by the lights and sounds. Jaden’s jargon was making amusing bubbles as Marius and the dog’s movements sent ripples of sounds through the air, tingling her hair. She picked a flower and ate it.
“Hey, Furry!” Marius called as another stone claw raked the air where his chest had been, “Why don’t you give the nice doggie a cuddle?”
“Cuddle?” What a nice thought. Fureva-Yung grabbed the dog by the scruff of the neck and pick it up into a bear hug. It twisted and fought against her, the stone teeth snapping at the air in front of her face.
“Now, you be a good doggie, and I’ll rub your belly,” Fureva-Yung slurred, flipping the lump of rock onto it wriggling back and scratching its belly. The dog stopped fighting and seemed to melt into Fureva-Yung’s arms, one leg twitching as some unknown itch was satisfied.
 
“Here, puppy. Fetch!” Nox made an illusion of the fungus she’d taken from the dog’s head. Showing it to the stone dog, she then threw it across the cave. The movement instantly attracted the stone dog who leaped from Fureva-Yung’s arms and chased the fungus. A few moments later it had returned, its whole body relaxed and friendly. It once more took up its place beside the waterfall, and froze back in place, it’s mouth open and tongue hanging out to one side.