The Harmony Parasite (Mutagen Deception Book 3) by Gregory D. Little

Author:Gregory D. Little [Little, Gregory D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cursed Dragon Ship Publishing, LLC
Published: 2024-04-23T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 27

The colony of Anaranjado appeared to consist of a series of dome-shaped caves carved out of sandstone. Returned now to his human form so he walk comfortably, Karl had re-dressed himself in his flowmatter jumpsuit. Once freed from its death grip around his foreclaw, it had gamely reassembled itself around him.

Karl quickly learned that each chamber was linked by doors and narrow, claustrophobic interior canyons or tunnels serving as hallways. At a certain point, he came upon a light rail system and began to follow it, having had no better thoughts about which direction to pick. He found the rail linked most of the doors and chambers and hallways as well, though Karl saw no sort of vehicle that would ride on said rail.

This was a pity, since it meant he was forced to cover the distance on foot. Despite this, he had yet to tire. He was certain this planet had slightly lower gravity than Coldgarden. Either that or they had done more work on him than just his hip.

Oh well. It wasn’t like any driver of said vehicles was likely to let him aboard for a ride. Not once they got a close look at him and saw he looked nothing like an Anaranjadan native.

Whatever vehicles were intended to use the rail system, they couldn’t be all that big. The width of the doorways and the canyon hallways wouldn’t have allowed something even as big as a Coldgarden tram.

Aside from this discovery, he also learned quickly which sorts of doors he was searching for and which to not bother investigating. Whoever had laid out the design for this networked labyrinth of eerily perfect, hollow domes of rock, they had not bothered to link every door via rail system.

The rail-linked doors were all of one type. On approach, an amber LED would light up for a few moments, followed by a shift to green, and the door would open to admit him. Beyond lay another domed cavern or canyon tunnel much like whatever he was leaving behind. What the door was checking for, he didn’t know, but he never encountered one that rejected him until he deviated from the rail.

It happened in a sudden fit of anxiety that he was missing an easy and obvious path of escape. This led him to attempt to pass through one of the circular side doors. Those doors all looked more robust, and they were also a lot less frequent. The one Karl chose to approach was set at the end of a spur branching off from a canyon tunnel at something close to a right angle.

Walking up to this door produced a decidedly different reaction than the rail-linked doors.

At first, everything was very familiar. As Karl tentatively approached, the circle door shone an amber light identical to the others. Only this time, it did not automatically shift to green and grant him passage. Instead, a transparent panel in front of a palm pad set off to the door’s right side slid away, and the pad extended on some unseen servo, proffering itself to be pressed.

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