Page 55 of Leviathan

"Thank you for helping us, robot," she said.

"You're welcome," I replied. "But is your friend going to be okay?"

"He's my husband," she said. "I'll take care of him. Don't worry."

She vanished back into the cargo room, and I focused on the flight controls.

I had to get back to Lyrien.

TWENTY-ONE

LYRIEN

I reached out to grab the ship as it drew closer to my dock, dragging it inside.

“I’ve taken over, now get out of there,” I told Maria

She opened the door leading from the control room, and stood there, staring out into the cargo hold of the small ship, a room that took up most of the entire space of the ship, a size that had just become wholly inadequate.

I could see through the optics I installed in her MECH suit.

It was exactly what I thought would happen.

“That is envelopment,” I told Maria. “She is in the middle with his core.”

I triggered the door to close.

She wasn’t going out that way. He was in a full shelllocked rapid growth state, and would remain a liminal state of consciousness, aware enough to keep who was most precious to him safe with his core while his neurofilaments expanded rapidly outward with the sudden flux of calories. He would likely fully envelop the small ship before his growth slowed and needed more mass, something I would not provide him until he regained full consciousness.

“Should I try to cut her out of there?” Maria asked, worry thick in her voice.

"Don't," I replied as I brought over a tool kit and began peeling open the front window of the control room so I could lift her out of there. "You won't get in, and he will instinctively retaliate against damage. He isn't conscious."

I reached in with one of my larger neurofilaments and wrapped it around her waist, lifting her up through the opening I’d just created.

"But Leija!" she said. "She's trapped in there! I couldn’t even see her."

"It is the safest place she could possibly be," I said.

"He was eating people!" Maria said. "How can she be safe there? I didn't know you guys could grow that fast! He completely filled the cargo hold."

As she spoke, Eun's neurofilaments burst through the sides of the small vessel, clawing and grabbing as he clutched the ship around himself, using it as a framework for his growth as he wrapped it up entirely in a ball of filaments. My connection to the ship’s systems flickered and then cut out as he took over. I already had the inventory log, and knew exactly how many calories were on board and how much growth he would be able to get out of them. He shouldn't get much bigger, not unless I give him access to more supplies. Just in case, I began shifting things around, moving my gardens and farms to the other side of me so that he wouldn't be able to reach them and eat my birds.

"Eun isn't going to hurt her," I replied. "He reacted to her as if they were mated, and in periods of sudden trauma, it is normal to drag those who are most precious to the center. She is in his center right now. He should let her go once he regains full consciousness."

"When will that be?" Maria asked.

He should be more responsive than he was, so I reviewed my copy of the inventory logs. All of the meat on board was from the local planetary system, which meant only one thing.

"I'm not sure," I said. "He just ingested a large quantity of toxin and went into a shell-locked growth spurt. The state he is in is a liminal one, and will likely last until he filters out the poison."

"What toxin?" Maria demanded. "What poison?"

"All of the species in this planetary system have an element in their flesh that is addictive and damaging in large quantities," I said. "The amount in the vegetative matter we purchased is trivial and easy to process out with leaching, but it can become concentrated and potent in the flesh of those who live here, as they don't follow practices like that. The meat on that ship was all sentient beings who had had a lifetime of buildup, and he absorbed it all at once."

"That's horrible," Maria said.

"Yes," I said. "It is not a pleasant system, which is why we are already on our way out of it."