Argonauts: Books 1 - 3 by Isaac Hooke

Author:Isaac Hooke [Hooke, Isaac]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-10-20T23:00:00+00:00

A PHANT DIDN’T see so much as sense its surroundings. The best analogy was to imagine traveling in complete darkness, with tactile-sensing limbs extended in front, to the sides, and the back, with many sensory tendrils spread out between them. With those inter-dimensional tendrils, Surus was able to sense the walls of the cave and the different branches and caverns connecting them.

Surus also detected the gatorbeetles when they passed, and deftly flowed aside to avoid touching them. The Green didn’t release any chemicals that could be detected by olfactory organs, so she had no fear of the aliens ferreting her out by smell. In the more well-lit areas, there was a chance the poor-sighted aliens would spot Surus, of course. Indeed, when Surus had passed the cavern in front of the queen chamber, a gatorbeetle dashed forward to explore this strange flowing liquid, but when one of its antennae touched the inter-dimensional molecules that composed the Green, the alien vanished, ripped from existence.

It had taken several hours, but finally Surus had found the underground chamber that contained the Hoplites. The Green recognized the sensory pattern returned by the powerful mechs, but the characteristic “glow” that came from active AI cores was not present, meaning the mechs were currently offline. Surus did detect the faint residue produced by such cores, meaning they were still intact, so the Green knew precisely where to flow to assume control. Once Surus booted one of them, the Green would attempt to remotely activate the others; if that failed, then Surus would simply move from Hoplite to Hoplite and activate each in turn. Afterward, Surus would review the records to determine what had taken them offline in the first place, with plans to avoid that thing during the escape, if possible.

Surus didn’t anticipate that the escape from the nest would be overly difficult. Like humans with their Implants and aReals, Phants had a sort of built-in mapping software, in that any recent paths they had taken through this three-dimensional reality would appear as fresh imprints on their sensory networks. Psychic bread crumbs. And the firepower of the Hoplites should be more than enough to counter any gatorbeetles that attempted to block the Green’s path, assuming Surus could get out before too many of them descended upon her position. Even Hoplites could be overwhelmed if the opposition proved too great.

As Surus approached the closest mech, the Green felt a strange sensation. It could best be described, in human terms, as tingling. It was very odd, and seemed sourced from the cave floor. Surus focused all of her attention on the area immediately below, and realized she had moved over a surface composed of something entirely different from stone.

A strange vibration momentarily passed through that floor, as if some door had slammed shut nearby.

Surus attempted to retreat but came up against an invisible barrier.

And then the Green understood.

In their flight from the nest, the team had abandoned the glass container in the queen cavern. Apparently, it had been moved here and placed in the narrow passageway leading to the Hoplites.

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