Resurrection Dawn by Marc Secchia

Author:Marc Secchia [Secchia, Marc]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-06-09T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Standard 1301.07.01 Estimated – Sailing up Mountains.

PECKING AND PAIN WOKE her. Stirring, Alodeé slapped away a few reptoid avian scavengers. “Not … breakfast!”

They chattered angrily and returned for another bite of her nose.

Nanodagger!

She hurled the corpse into the river and slumped back into the coracle. “Ugh, freaking lumoslugs, I feel terrible.”

Opening her eyes might be quite the trick. Especially since they were stuck together with dried pus. She scooped up water and bathed them until the crustiness softened and she could part her eyelashes. Blearily, she focussed on her surroundings. Gorgeous day. For once, the river behaved itself like an actual river, flowing through a channel that cut between bushes, reeds and farther back, stands of bamboo-like, tufted plants 20 mets tall. Most of the foliage boasted shades of purple – deep purple for the berry bushes – yum, gotta get over there – a lighter purple for the wispy river reeds and a fetching luminous violet for the bamboo. Purple fruit dangled enticingly from the branches of the large, overhanging trees just ahead.

Somebody liked a theme of unrelenting purple.

After a pause to consider the unnatural experience of a river’s running up-slope into the mountains, Alodeé focussed on her immediate needs. Food, water and an awful stomachache. Actually, she had a stomach for once. A pot belly. How exciting – she had never experienced such a thing in her life before. It … moved. Writhing, it did unmentionably nasty and painful things to her gut and organs.

Horror!

Honestly, after all I’ve lived through, this terrifies me?

Maybe the prospect of having funky alien wildlife infesting one’s gut would put the chills into most people. Fumbling with her belt, she extracted a tube of tablets packed for, admittedly, a less urgent or repellent scenario than this appeared to be. She read the tiny script on the back at top speed.

Bug Off

One-stop protection from all gut infestations, fungal, bacterial, or parasitic.

Bug Off? Perfect name. The small print stated that one dose would kill any known parasite. It also said that more than one dose in a week would probably kill her. Yep. Time to get rid of the bump. Pregnancy was not in her future, as best she knew. Especially not this sort. Popping one of the tiny pink pills into her palm, she slugged it down with a mouthful of water and looked for a place to make her landing. If she knew anything about these pills, she had just swallowed the medical equivalent of a stun grenade.

Paddling with her hands across a steady current, challenging at the best of times, became considerably more exciting as the inhabitants of her gut protested being ousted from their cosy abode with increasing vigour. Sweat dripped off her brow as she doubled over, groaning. Finally getting to the shallows, she ripped off her armour and combat skin just in time to frighten off all of the local wildlife with the explosive evacuation of her bowels. Delightful. Dozens of blue-grey blobs with waving tentacles, not unlike freshwater anemones.

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