“Now,” Iris hissed.
Eyes transfixed on Iris and unblinking, Riyu retreated cautiously, holding the squash tightly against her chest with both arms. She placed her feet one behind the other, matching her footprints nearly exactly. When the doors shut behind her, and he heard her footsteps break into a sprint, Iris sprang into action. He could already tell Ishtan wasn’t inside the nursery. He crossed the space in a light jog and exited through a matching set of double doors. More vines and extravagant flowers greeted him on the other end.
You’re not alone anymore,cautioned VIFAI, whispering from the far corner of his mind.Stay alert.
Iris’s hand flicked ever so slightly, and the pulsar blade was at once in his palm, ready to deploy. He moved quickly, bare feet stepping silently through the dirt. Moving a thick vine from his path, Iris ducked underneath it and into the adjoining room.
Ishtan’s slack face was turned on its side. It peered from below some foliage, a mask of blank resignation. A thick vine had already made its home around his shoulders, and Iris tenderly unfurled it and placed it aside. He stowed away the pulsar blade. The archaeologist was lying on his stomach, still alive. The dark skin of his neck pulsed rhythmically with the beatingof his heart. Iris lowered himself by Ishtan’s ear. “Wake up,” he whispered. But Ishtan didn’t move. If he had more time, Iris would have been gentler, but he didn’t. He flipped the archaeologist over and firmly ran the second knuckles of his fingers along Ishtan’s sternum. That got a reaction. Ishtan flinched, his face animating along the folds of habitual wrinkles.
“Wake up,” Iris whispered again and ran his knuckles over Ishtan’s sternum once more. Faded eyes met his, then they widened in horror, and Iris slapped his palm against Ishtan’s mouth right before a scream could escape it. “You’re safe. Please, don’t scream.” Ishtan gave him a weak nod. “Did you see what knocked you unconscious?”
Ishtan shook his head.
Is it still here?Iris asked, and VIFAI responded with an affirmative ping. Then, it did something it had never done before. With a burning shock, Iris’s right arm sprang forwards, above Ishtan’s head. At once, the pulsar blade was in his hand, throwing out a faint, blue glow. Before the right side was fully extended, it had already sliced an attacking vine that had been spiraling towards Iris at blinding speed. In the deadly silence, Ishtan cursed.
“We have to go,now.” Iris yanked the swaying Ishtan to his feet and pushed him towards the doors. “Run. I’m right behind you.” His arm moved again on its own, this time the blade slicing a vine on his left that had been poised to puncture Iris’s neck on impact.
VIFAI was silent, but active. It poured itself from Iris’s brain stem, spreading along the nerves of Iris’s arm. Impossible, Iris knew, but he had no time to ponder it. His brain stem burned where the implant had been placed. All he could do was surrender to the ghost animating his body, to surrender to the otherbeingthat shared his consciousness.
Ishtan was already through the doors leading to the nursery, and Iris followed closely, slicing three more vines that came at him simultaneously with a quick flick of a wrist.How are you doing this?Iris called out into the far corner of his mind where VIFAI usually resided. No response. Something struck him on the left side of his head, and for a moment, everything disappeared into darkness. Then, he was aware of dirt on his lips; Iris had been momentarily knocked unconscious and fallen to the ground. Blinded by the hot blood that ran freely from the wound, Iris leapt to his feet, allowing VIFAI to direct him autonomously. Ishtan turned back, face contorted with horror.
“Get back to our deck,” Iris shouted and cut off a vine, wrapped tightly around his ankle. Without another word, Ishtan turned back around and ran through the double doors and out into the corridor. One of the vines lunged for the opening, but froze midway when Iris sliced it in half. He stumbled towards the doors, only to be knocked down again. This time, pain flared in his left shoulder, only now it was sharp and fiery.Inconsequential.Iris sliced cleanly through the vine embedded in his flesh. Adrenaline and fear were enough to dull most of the pain. Without looking, Iris swung back, severing whatever it was that was pressing him into the dirt, and with another three steps, stumbled through the double doors into the corridor.
He hit the cool, hard floor with his left side, winding himself. Safe. Just barely, but safe. Wasting no time, Iris scrambled to his feet and took off running down the corridor. VIFAI projected a map of the ship, and Iris followed it without glancing back. After a few turns, he allowed himself to slow down and nearly collapsed against the wall.How did you do that?he asked again, this time forcing a connection with VIFAI, so it had no choice but to respond.
I have access to your memory. I have access to your motor cortex, it said, its voice rushed and exuberant.Nothing precise, but I have been with you long enough to know how you fight, how your brain tells you to fight. I see things faster, react faster than you. We had no time. I had to do it for you. The adrenaline helps. By the end it almost sounded apologetic.
Iris pressed the aching side of his face against the cool metal of the wall. “Thank you. When did you know you could do that?”
I didn’t. It was an instinct.
The pain in his left shoulder was climbing. “What a perfect time to figure it out then. Thank you again. I am in your debt. We all are.”
VIFAI said something, but this time Iris didn’t hear it. His vision swam, half occluded with the blood that now covered most of his face. With a soft moan, he pushed himself upright and staggered towards the orchard. The pain in his left shoulder spread until it became a dimension in and of itself. It painted every other thought, muffled every sensation that reached any other part of Iris’s body. He hadn’t felt this worn out in years.
It was easy to scold himself for being too soft, for giving his body so much attention and yet so little discipline. If only he had trained harder these past six months. If only he had been diligent with his eating and his stretching.If only.Instead, he had somehow become the liability of the group.
“I’ve never seen vines move,” Iris whispered, letting his mind fixate on the idea instead of the pain. “They’re strange, like everything else here. They can’t move like that.”
You mean they shouldn’t.
“Nothing moves like that.”
Iris stumbled and steadied himself against an apple tree. The engineers were gone, screens and tools scattered on the ground. They must have left in a hurry, spurred into motion by Riyu’scries. Iris prayed that Ishtan had made it back safely. Before he could reach the double doors at the far end of the orchard, a new kind of pain doubled him over and tightened around his already empty stomach. The burning in his brain stem grew unbearable, and he dry heaved beneath a tree.
I’m sorry,VIFAI said, and it sounded genuinely contrite.Residual current.Having no energy to speak, Iris waved his hand in anit’s finegesture, and pushed himself forwards and through the double doors. By the time he reached the communal space, he was effectively blind, following the map by memory alone, with only marginal help from VIFAI. Their little stunt had been taxing on his inorganic companion as well, and it hummed softly, relying only on featherlight impulses to communicate. At some point, Iris stumbled and lost his balance. He fell forwards, into the darkness, but never hit the floor. He didn’t remember anything after that.
Waking up was resurfacing through a tidal wave of pain and nausea. Gritting his teeth, Iris forced his eyes open. Cracked ceiling tiles swirled and swam against an ocean of steel. He had no recollection of how he had ended up in the cargo bay, nor if he had met anyone on his way here. Someone must have carried him. A flush of embarrassment stained the tips of his ears red. He gingerly patted down his body and was relieved to find his bloodied robes untouched. What good was a Vessel if it had cracks? And this encounter would surely leave a crack.
Iris clenched his hand into a weak fist and raised it high enough to see. His forearm trembled with exhaustion, his fingers ached, there were cuts and scrapes along his knuckles, a few of the deeper ones opening as he tensed. This was the exact sort of crack he had spent years avoiding.
When the initial jolt of panic subsided, hushed voices reached Iris from the corridor.
“We need to do something. He’ll bleed to death or get an infection,” Tev said.
“We can’t touch him,” Ishtan intervened. “I am telling you. He would ratherdiethan have one of us violate him in such a way. This is beyond your understanding, Tev.”
Iris politely disagreed with that particular sentiment.
