The LOW stomping towards me was like nothing I had ever seen before. My eyes just kept getting wider and wider the closer it came towards us.

"The LOW tend to be tight mouthed about their origins and traits but the one thing that I can tell you that is common knowledge is that they are absorbic entities," Meditati said in a whisper inside my mind.

"Why are you whispering? And what do you mean by absorbic entities?" I mentally asked her.

"I am whispering because while your eyes are stuck on the LOW coming towards us, mine are on my former owner making her way here as well." She said with a hint of fear in her voice. Sure enough, a quick glance revealed an armored and glossy carapace of a Tela scuttling rapidly towards us from the right. "As for absorbic entities... they are beings that can take traits from other beings in order to genetically modify their makeup. If you can help it, don't let it taste you." She said before she seemed to shut down. To me, it seemed as though she was holding her breath.

'Why was a mind as powerful and analytical as Meditati's suffering from emotions and fear? Could it be due to being absorbed by the swarm and subsequently being merged with me like Tutor had complained about earlier?' I wondered to myself. Nurse must have been following my thoughts because I heard her answer and felt that she shielded and blocked Meditati from being able to hear what she said. "Yes, when the swarm took over your Personal Live Matrix, they copied your traits into the AI's section. To us it is called genetic memory but since you didn't have that they copied over whatever else you had. Each new Monarch does so to any swarm they absorb. For you, since you are human, it was your emotions and all of your abilities and keys. Hence, your AI are a bit different than normal AI. More modified to serve you."

The thundering vibrations from the floor snapped my attention back to the large being making its way towards Ess and I. I would need to talk to my AI further about this when next I had a free moment. Right now didn't seem like the time to address their emotional issues.

While the approaching Tela mostly resembled an armored Roly Poly the size of a baby rhinoceros, the LOW was like a full-grown adult rhinoceros without a head. In place of where a head might be there was a strange vertical segmented opening that looked like a zipper of evenly spaced and very sharp teeth. A mouth, I presumed, that currently was blessedly closed. The LOW's skin or hide was a flowing mixture of a light green color and a light purple color, almost reminding me of a squid's adaptive skin. Adorning its back and shoulder blades were four large black horns that looked like sharp jagged spikes of black bone. Two larger spikes stuck out from its shoulders to the left and right and probably made going through narrow doorways a pain. Mostly for the doorway, I presumed.

Its four legs were thick and seemed to carry the immense and heavy load of its body with ease. Six toes or fingers adorned each limb and each had the same dark bone coloring for fingernails. It was hard to tell, based on how it was walking towards me, but it seemed as though both the front and back sets of limbs had dexterous digits. Each limb sported a large eye on either side of the limb located around the first joint, giving the LOW a complete view of its surroundings.

There was a belt or harness linked around the twin large spikes that acted like a utility belt that extended down and around the LOW's torso. Various sealed containers and gadgets were attached to the belt which made me smile. In the past, I had always had a thing for multitools and attachments on my person. The funny thing to me was the fact that I had never imagined a rhino wearing a utility belt.

The thing that made me wish that the lights were off the most, besides the creepy mouth, was how the skin became more transparent the closer it got to us. I began to be able see-through parts of its hide as though the coloring was just an expression it chose to show or a byproduct of the stress of walking. I could see fluids pumping inside its body and objects or bits of matter passing through its veins or digestive tracks just under the surface of its skin.

I swear that some of the things being pumped through its insides were alive, like little swimming parasites as big as quarters.

As the huge being suddenly came to a stop in front of us even more of its strange skin became transparent, letting me see into its body and to observe a truly massive brain that seemed to extend along the whole topside of its body.

I was fine, perfectly fine, until the LOW's large mouth finally opened, unzipped, and out flopped a three-foot-long tongue that pulsed like a garden worm. It lifted the end up and seemed to sniff, tasting the air in our direction.

"This new entity is invading our restricted materials procurement treaty. It does not appear to be a Tela Citizen. I foresee a precarious destiny for its continued existence," came a thundering broadcast from hidden speakers around the room and from the LOW's utility belt. It seemed that the LOW had a broken volume dial that was stuck on eleven and a strange way of speaking.

"Umm... Meditati, I think I am going to need you to translate parts of this for me," I mentally noted as things suddenly got out of control.

It was then that Ess decided to try to attack the LOW and to yank my arm, which was tightly holding the leash, out of its socket.

---

After the five strange creatures had decided to leave her alone, Sublimis had plenty of time to recover and to finish absorbing all of the energy held inside her nest in silence. She had long since finished her slow work at repairing the damage caused to her internal pathways along her tail. It had been long and tiring work, continually delving into the injured sections and returning them to peak vitality. She had been pleasantly surprised when the little voice announced that she was done.

-Energy-based research 100% complete. Leva energy lifeform research compiled. Sending research to helm's creator. -

-Error encountered. Creator's node is inaccessible. Error log updated and archived. -

"What does all of that mean?" Sublimis asked the little voice inside her head as she studied its reply and found that she was unable to understand most of the words.

-Please define which word you seek clarification on. - Came a quick reply to her question. It seemed that her little voice wanted to teach her, but didn't know where to begin.

"What is research?"

-Research is the systematic investigation into and study... - The small voice began to say, losing Sublimis after the fourth word.

"Stop! Please explain it using easier words." She said, hoping that her smart little voice was able to help her. Sometimes it would say things that she didn't understand and wouldn't bother to notice that she hadn't understood it. Sublimis was beginning to understand that she had to let it know every time and to ask for clarification on her own.

-Research is looking at something to learn more about it. - Came a reply after a moment.

"Ok! So what is compiled?" Sublimis asked happily as she coiled up on her nest and waited for her parent to return. She spent the next several hours questioning the little voice and learning its complex language all the while continuing to expand and strengthen her pathways out of boredom.

It was only later after her parent had been gone for so long that her little voice had given her a warning.

-Energy-based research in progress. 111% complete. Previously estimated limits surpassed. Warning! It is inadvisable to continue due to diminishing available nutrients. Further development without an influx of nutrients could lead to detrimental and eventual lethal consequences. -

"Ok, ok, I will stop deep cycling my energy. It was starting to hurt anyways." She commented to the little voice as she raised her head off of the nest and stared anxiously at the door. Her parent had been away for hours and hours. She hoped that everything was alright. A soft sound found its way through the vent in the floor. It was her parent's voice!

"I guess my signs scared off would-be thieves," She heard him say as she moved towards her door. It rapidly cycled open and revealed her little parent standing there looking back at her.

He only had a second to see her before she couldn't take it anymore and rushed to coil around him. She had missed him so much! The longer she had waited the more she had begun to feel bad and that feeling had gradually increased until she had felt horrible inside. Upon seeing her parent, all of her bad feelings had vanished and left her with such a wonderful glow inside.

She still felt a pain inside her tummy, probably from cycling her energy too much, but all of that didn't matter now that her parent had returned.

"Hey! You silly girl! I know, I know! I am sorry that I was gone for so long!" Her parent said as she nuzzled him, pressing her forehead against his chest. She wanted to be held so she decided to show her parent what she wanted by bringing her tail from inside the room and wrapping around him. Her parent was very smart and understood quickly, wrapping his arms around the sides of her head and holding her in a snug embrace.

He gently pat her head and continued to speak to her as she just basked in his attention. "There, there, I am back. You can calm down now."

She could feel his hands as he traced the scales on her head, drawing all of her attention to his gentle motions.

"Seems your armor has become more responsive," He said softly as he looked around the cargo hold. The things in the hold had fallen apart when her tail had touched them and they all were slightly different than before. Some of the tall things had fallen over and the blocks of her nest had been scattered a little.

A noise interrupted their reunion, a very tonal and pretty noise that came from outside of their den. Sublimis moved her head to focus on the noise, hearing other sounds accompanying it, sounds like the shuffling of feet, and other mechanical sounds.

"Hmm... looks like we have company Ess," her parent said as he freed himself from her embrace. Sublimis was not about to let her parent out of her sight again, she didn't want to feel that lonely feeling again. She kept close to him as he stood up and rested his hand against her head.

-Your parent is requesting access to interact with your armor. Do you wish to give him access? - Her little voice asked.

"Yes! Always! And please tell me about my armor. What is it and what can it do?" Ess replied to her voice as it began to explain to her how her body was covered in a layer of cr protection.

-Due to upgrades granted by your parent you also have access to all of your parent's keys. Regretfully, not all keys are biologically compatible with your current state of existence. Incompatible keys include the Alpha key and the Prime Speed Control key. Keys that you can use include Bullet Shield, Blade Barrier, Kevin's Butt & Body Wash, Remote Miner, and Fomys Pheromone Gland key. -

"Oooo! What do those do?" Sublimis asked, getting lost in the little voice's lessons while she closely followed her parent. She did notice the gathering of aliens down in the bay but didn't care about them as long as they didn't take out their noisy weapons again or threaten her parent.

She was busy learning about how her parent could create an Alpha key that would allow him to return to it at any time when her parent started to move down the ramp. Quickly, Sublimis nudged his back with her nose, trying to get his attention about the small opening of their den before he got out of range. She didn't want to be left behind again.

He continued to talk to the two aliens while widening the door for her so that she could easily follow him. Sublimis went back to her lessons, happily learning about how her parent could use his Prime Speed Control key to think really really fast. She wondered if she could learn to do that on her own. Thinking really fast sounded fun.

An odd smell caught her attention when her head reached the bottom of the ramp. The two aliens who were wrapped up in strange materials seemed to smell strange. Drips of liquid were running down and off of their bodies and making little scented pools under their feet. She swung her head towards the two aliens, none of the other aliens standing around were leaking liquids onto the floor.

Sublimis was in the middle of inspecting the differences between the two types of aliens when her parent tapped her gently on her head to get her attention.

"Hey girl, sorry about this but I will have to cover up your photon bulbs for a little while," he said before she felt her armor covering her body completely. The change was negligible to her since she hadn't needed to use them since the last strange alien who had rudely awakened her had asked her to. Her bulbs had grown in power considerably and she couldn't wait to see what her range would be the next time that she was outside. If her parent needed them covered for a while it didn't bother her at all.

She watched as her parent played with her armor, inspecting her side where she had been injured and checking to make sure that it had healed properly. After he was finished checking her side, he went back to gently petting her, much to her delight, as she asked her little voice to continue her lessons about the keys.

It seemed that even her parent didn't want her to leave his side again because he sent one of the wobbly and leaking aliens off to find something so that she could stay tethered by his side. This was wonderful news because she was having so much fun learning about what a Bullet Shield was supposed to do.

"What is a projectile?" She asked her little teaching voice after it had described the Bullet Shield's basic function.

-A projectile is something, any object thrown at you through the air. The Bullet Shield will move to stop it from hitting you. -

"How can I get something thrown at me? Will my parent do it for me?"

The answer from the voice seemed to pause for a second before replying. -Estimated odds of your parent throwing anything at you are very low. This usually requires a stranger or an enemy to happen. -

After questioning the voice about what an enemy or a stranger was, she determined that a stranger would be easiest to find since it was someone that she had never met before. The little voice said that enemies usually had to be people that knew you from past interactions and since she only recognized the two leaky creatures following behind her and her parent, she wondered if they would like to be enemies as well. When she glanced at them, they simply froze in place and started to leak a lot more until she looked away. Sadly, they didn't seem to want to throw anything at her. It was a pity so she decided to see if she could find strangers instead.

When they walked out from the inside of a long tunnel, she found plenty of strangers around in a wide-open cavern. As she followed her parent, she focused hard on each of the new strangers and waited to see if they wanted to throw anything at her. Again, none of them seemed to want to play. What did happen, which rapidly began to amuse her, was the odd reactions that seemed to happen in response to the strangers seeing her for the first time.

Some jumped in the air, some leaked fluids, and even others raced off into the distance. She guessed that each of the strangers had a way of greeting and playing with new people. Some liked to show how they could move, leak, or act like they wanted to race her.

She was having a fun time meeting new strangers.

What was more pleasant was the feeling of her parent's hand resting gently against her side as they both explored the new cavern together.

The next key for her to learn about was the Blade Barrier and it came with a strict warning about how it would harm or kill anyone that was too close. Sublimis noted that it would have been useful for her to have back when she was playing out in the open because it could have dealt with the thing that attacked her before it could have touched her. She didn't want to dare to try it out now, lest it hurt her parent, so she tucked it away for future use.

The Kevin's Butt & Body Wash seemed to be similar, but the teaching voice said that it would clean and take care of little attackers that were smaller than she could see. When she learned that it wouldn't hurt her and her parent she decided to turn it on and to keep it on so that she could stay clean and to let it attack invisible enemies. It was around this time when they arrived at another cavern and headed inside.

As they entered Sublimis took note that the two leaky beings chose to stay outside rather than to continue to follow. Maybe they would like to become enemies the next time she saw them. She hoped so, no one had thrown anything at her yet.

"How can I get an enemy? No one seems to want to throw anything at me?" Sublimis asked her teaching voice, growing slightly frustrated that no one had wanted to play with her the entire walk in the expansive cavern. She wanted to test out her key.

-Error detected. Definitions of two terms appear to be corrupted and or misunderstood. Helm will attempt to correct this. The word enemy appears to be incorrect: An enemy is a being or person who is actively opposed or hostile to someone or something. An enemy is like the parasite that attacked you. It will try to harm and hurt you and your parent. -

"What?" Sublimis asked as the voice continued.

-The word throw was used incorrectly. Other proper terms used would be "Fired, Blasted, Shot, or Launched." Terms like that are used to describe an action where a damaging object is moved at harmful speeds towards your body in an attempt to hurt you. An example would be: When the parasite got close enough to your side it shot needles rapidly into your body to hurt you. -

"So, an enemy is only someone that I have met before?"

-Incorrect. An enemy can be anyone, from both future and past, who threatens you. -

"Ok... so they are a stranger and not an enemy until they threaten or harm?"

-Correct. -

Sublimis cycled her energy rapidly inside her mind as she thought about these new terms. She understood some things but didn't have enough experiences to fully grasp all of the ideas that the teaching voice tried to help her understand. She had a perfect memory and could recall the pain she had experienced when the parasite had injured her before. From that experience, she instinctively knew that the parasites were her enemy.

"Can you tell me when something threatens me or my parent?" She asked the voice. That seemed to be a good way of preventing her from attacking nice strangers.

-Accepted: An alert notice has been created to notify of any perceived threat directed at Sublimis or her parent. -

Sublimis would also be on the lookout for enemies. No one would hurt her or her parent if she could prevent it.

Her parent was heading somewhere and seemed to find the colors on the walls to be interesting. He looked around and seemed to talk to himself as he led Sublimis along down the long tunnel. There was another opening ahead that led into a large dark cavern. Sublimis didn't like the fact that she couldn't see very far into the room that they were approaching. She briefly considered sending out a pulse from her photon bulb to help light the way before she remembered that it was currently covered by her armor.

"Voice, is there a way for me to see? My bulbs are covered."

-Enabling non-destructive forms of vision. -

Immediately the room brightened, and she could see two forms off in the distance. The being on the left glowed a little as her helm used the wavelengths generated by the gadgets decorating its belt to produce a representation of its physical dimensions. The being on the right used the passive wavelengths in exactly the opposite manner, showing what existed as cr while perfectly repelling the waves.

"Ah, my parent is here to meet two new strangers."

-Indeed. He is here to trade with them. -

This revelation and new word set made her focus on learning what trade was and how it could be used. While she was busy asking and clarifying such a bizarre and new concept a table rolled up to her parent and then rolled away after he touched it a few times. Light blossomed from above when he was finished using the table which allowed Sublimis to see colors again and more details in the surrounding area.

It seemed that the lights were also needed by the other aliens because they popped into existence above their heads as they both began to move towards Sublimis and her parent. The alien on the left was big, its body girth being larger than Sublimis's head but its length was far shorter than her long tail. It stomped heavily over while Sublimis switched to check out the other alien. The alien on the right was smaller, about half the height of the one on the left and it had many little legs that seemed to move in a wave pattern to propel it forward. Four eye stalks were raised high, all of their eyes were trained on her and her parent.

She wondered what they would want to trade. Her helm said that her parent was here to trade blocks of her nest. She couldn't even begin to imagine what they would want it for, she had completely used up all of its energy. She simply didn't understand enough about the strange concept to even begin to imagine what they would give for it or even why they would want it. Maybe she would find out if she watched what her parent did.

The rotund and short alien on the left stomped over until the circle of light above its head met her parent's and then stopped suddenly. The smaller, multi-legged alien on the right was just a little bit slower and eventually arrived. Before it could, however, the alien on the left began shouting, the offensive sounds coming from its body and all around the room.

"This new entity is invading our restricted materials procurement treaty. It does not appear to be a Tela Citizen. I foresee a precarious destiny for its continued existence,"

-Disguised verbal threat detected within the sentence "I foresee a precarious destiny for its continued existence," Threat is aimed at parent. - Her teacher's voice announced to her.

It was then that Sublimis bared her cr coated teeth and charged the enemy, fully intent on tearing it to pieces before it could harm her parent.

---