(Rewritten) Ch. 115 – Ah Shit, Here We Go Again

"It's not when you're ready to go that the pager calls you. It's not when you're sitting in your vehicle, all pretty and prepared.

Nah. It's when you're having the crap of your life on the toilet, it's when you're trying to keep your daughter from burning the water in the pot. It's seconds after you've finally slipped off into sweet sleep after a long, exhausting day. It's when your dog's puking all over the floor and your son's set the garage on fire again.

That's when you get called to maybe save somebody's life."

– A Day In The Life Of An Emergency Service Volunteer, 2028

***

The area is saturated with the nutrients and materials required to grow the new limbs, and the Skitterway will begin sculpting the bones. Eight minutes to go.

Quantized Tinea was still shelling Antithesis by the dozen, and Leah was focused on maneuvering into an advantageous position against the oncoming horde. Since I had nothing better to do, I placed one of the remaining boxes onto my lap and let the lid hinge open.

There were two small, flexible metal frames inside. Each one about as long as my palms were wide, they looked a lot like artsy, expensive jewelry. They had a delicate spine of golden links as the backbone, and fine ribs that curved around a hollow center with a tapering diameter. It reminded me a little of strappy sandals, minus the soles.

"These are the mufflers, I guess? For my antennae?"

Yes. They attach to the stems right below your sensilla.

I picked up the first one, and tiny lines of LEDs lit up and glimmered along the pliant spine and each of the ribs. A crystal at the top of the spine ignited and projected a meter-long construct of faint, gauzy light. The plume was an ephemeral white along the center, but the colors differentiated themselves in layers. An apparition of a rainbow candle.

The entire piece had transformed into something utterly exotic and breathtakingly delicate. It softly whispered samurai tech, so seductively that one couldn't turn away. It was showy, yet it didn't brag, either. A strangely humble sort of beauty, full of confidence. Like it didn't exactly need the attention, because it knew how pretty it was as a matter of course.

Classy, I thought as I picked up the second muffler and the show repeated itself. Classy's the word.

"These are beautiful. Thank you Tynea. Love them."

I am glad to hear it. I felt that I might have gained some insight into your preferences by now. The emitter goes at the top, and the items should be placed so that the ribs go between the thicker sensilla at the bottom.

I smiled as I guided one antenna to the front. I carefully clipped the first muffler to the antennae's stem and watched as the translucent plume snapped forward to cover the sensilla all the way up to and including the bundle of feeler hairs at the tip.

"Oh…"

Mouth open, I stared at the quiet lightshow. I was speechless. With all the muck we'd been in recently, I'd forgotten that I'd designed my sensilla to refract the light. They had the same diamond dusting as my battle skirt and the black scales covering my legs like tights.

The muffler's pastel rainbow shattered across the refracting scales and really set them alight in a gorgeous vision of myriad colors. A full spectrum of glimmering rays, from the diamond white at the center to the sunset red around the edges, with some incredibly deep and mesmerizing blues and purples in the middle. The kind of rich colors no display could ever hope to match.

I stroked a finger along the underside of the decorated antennae and marveled at the way the microscopic shards played with the light. And then reality reminded me that we were currently at war.

Leah stumbled Daddy-Long-Legs across a boulder and shouted, "We can fit only three or four more Daddy-Long-Legs between us and the trees, Tinea!"

"Ah, crap."

My attention snapped to the outside view again. Leah was running parallel to the edge of the forest, fighting hard to keep the horde beyond fang's reach. Chains of explosions were going off across the front and the electrolasers on top of Daddy-Long-Legs' abdomen were alternating their lightning between cooking the colossal cloud of Ones above and diverting bits of shrapnel from our own 75 mm grenades.

Leah had already switched the one-oh-five to low-velocity area denial napalm shells and created several pockets ahead of us that the single-digit Antithesis units couldn't access.

"Tynea, how long until I can fight?" I asked while I hurried to attach the second muffler and opened the last box.

Four minutes. The limbs are three-quarters formed.

I could sense four ungainly bulges in the stretchy, green screen-thing that covered my back. It was kinda giving me the heeby-jeebies, so I re-distracted my antennae with the gear from the last box.

"And then I'll still have to put this thing on," I said, lifting the complex web of jump jets and parachute pack from its case. "And the Myriad…and the harness. That'll take a moment, too."

May I suggest an upgrade module for the Skitterway, if you wish to regain mobility before the surgery is finished? Spinal jumpers would allow it to deaden only those sections of your spine it is operating on, while allowing full function to those below the site of surgery.

"Go for it. Leave the box, please."

Understood. Here you go:

Purchased:

Total cost: 50Remaining points: 2008

A card of a thing fell into my lap. It had plugs and connectors on one end and widened into a box on the other. The medical suitcase popped an arm over my shoulder, grabbed the module, and whisked it away.

Several clicking whirrs, a weird charge buzzing through my spine, and some powerful goosebumps later, I could move my tail and legs again. I stood up and carefully tested my range of motion. My spine was still locked and I couldn't bend properly, but I had enough mobility to prepare for battle.

First though, I turned to Leah. I caught myself against another hitch in her stride and leaned over her, reaching down to caress her cheek.

"I'll need to go outside to fight, Leah. Will you be okay, alone?"

"Mm." She opened her eyes to smile at me and returned the caresses. "Yeah. I'll be okay. I'll still be able to see you, after all. Be careful, will you? Can't protect you out there."

I giggled, buoyed by the thought of being cared for so much.

"I'm tough, Leah. And I know how to keep my head on a swivel."

"You do, don't you?" she whispered, a bit quieter and with her grin fading. "I love you, Tinea."

"Aww." Tears pricked my eyes. There was so much bittersweet in her voice that I could taste it. I supported myself with a hand on her sternum and leaned forward even more to give her lips a nibble.

"Love you too, Leah," I murmured back.

She grinned at me. "I know."

I chuckled. She tickled the feeler fluffing at her face and it jerked away.

"Need you soon. They're closing in," she said more seriously.

I nodded and turned away.

Okay. Harness, jump jets, Myriad. And make sure nothing's loose in here.

After gluing the kit of pills to the wall above the airlock, next to the oxygen boosters and other bits and bobs we'd picked up, I tossed out the two empty boxes.

Then I stuffed my tail into the harness' sock and reloaded its Sentinel with a magazine of 40 mm concussion grenades—no shrapnel since I'd need to fight extremely close to Daddy-Long-Legs.

A sudden dizzy spell surprised me and I almost keeled over as the awareness of a mind-numbingly humongous MASS right below my feet clubbed me in the head.

"What the fuck?!" I yelled, scrabbling for a handhold in a panic. My heart beat so hard I thought the insides of my ribcage were going to bruise. I wanted to crawl up and away, but my knees went weak. It felt like I was going to get sucked down into an unimaginably deep, yawning chasm, yet I'd just pancake against something too heavy and large for my brain to comprehend, right under my fucking feet! I could almost hear my ankles shatter.

Shivering, I clenched my hands around the thickest, sturdiest rope of silk I had and stared at the floor with wild eyes, breathing fast.

Calm down, Tinea! Tynea's voice rang through my head. Here, try this!

I sensed as Tynea shoved instructions at my Quanta. A set of concepts and ideas unpacked themselves. As suddenly as it had confronted me, the sense of an overwhelming presence beneath me receded until it was no more but a tiny tug in the background. Instead, the incomparably tinier presence of the spider jumped into the forefront. It was so much less overwhelming and I felt directly connected to it in a way that left me much more…certain. Assured?

"What the fuck?" I whispered again as I sagged onto my bum.

That was just the Earth. Your new sensory organ has finished growing. Your Quanta is regulating the influx of information. If you'll focus on the motion of the Hatchet, you'll notice a qualitative jump in your ability to sense everything about it.

And I did.

I could feel the mass of the spider, almost as if it were me. My own innards lagged behind its motions ever so slightly, impetus fighting momentum, and now I felt it like skin feels touch and tongues taste.

"Uff," I said, reminded of those minutes after I'd first awakened in this new body. My antennae had been so blindingly there at the time. I'd had to let myself get used to sensing with the two new organs. At least the Quanta made it quick.

"Tinea? Is everything okay?"

I twitched, surprised by Leah's voice. Then I rubbed my face with my hands. Right. I'd yelled. I drew a deep breath and centered myself. Slapped my cheeks slightly.

"No worries," I said, looking at her. "Just, uh. Weird new organs doing weird new shit." I pointed at my navel, which was roughly where that fresh awareness of…gravity? Seemed to originate from.

Her eyebrows rose and she studied me for a moment. I smiled feebly. It had been a bit of an intense experience, and I still felt a little shivery.

She opened her mouth, but a weak bump against the spider shut her up and her eyes flashed to something outside. Her jaws tensed and a stronger bump forced her to jump sideways. I swung from the rope.

Time was up.

The feeds of the Scout's Quartet and Daddy-Long-Legs showed that the fastest Threes and Fours had finally caught us and were throwing themselves against the chassis of our mech.

Leah's eyes jumped to mine again. "I'd love to let you get used to it, but I need you to fight. Now."

I nodded, grabbed the set of packs, tubes, and thrusters that made up the Second Wind, threw my flying spear through the airlock where its engines ignited, hopped onto the airlock myself to snuggle my hips into the Myriad, blew Leah a quick kiss, and then dropped right through to catch myself on the Raptor's Dance, letting it carry me along in a slow tumble as I scanned my surroundings.

Antithesis everywhere.

Thousands. Some were already looking at me, specifically.

I sighed.

"Ah shit, here we go again."

***