Unipsi, lovely entity

chapter 24: pair

Now that Iris was sleeping again Scilla could finally “relax”, she was trying her best to stay cool while Iris opened up to her. Knowing that Iris decided to relay on her was a dream becoming reality. Those were real and massive progress in their relationship. Conversation that will deposit in their brains permanently and will be used to brag about how their relation began. Scilla packed Iris up in her blanked to then pick her up.

“I like when you run out of battery like this. You give me a reason to pick you up. Fortunately you can’t hear me now. So let’s get moving”

She looked at Iris’ dish to see that she basically ate half of everything except the moss.

I guess she loved the disgusting red moss. She basically ate all of it. Maybe it tasted differently because we are from different species… wait I does make sense. she eats our food and it was normal. She described the same tastes as the one that I felt… so… maybe it’s all just a habit so you have to get into eating moss. I will find out later.

Scilla princess carried Iris out of the kitchen to then realise that she had a small problem ahead. The ladder. Iris was indeed light as a feather for Scillas standards. She could easily toss her up in her room but obviously that was not an option.

Balancing her while I try to push her up won’t work, and I don’t have a rod and a rope to block her and prevent bending.

“how the fuck I’m I suppose to bring her up? Is there no way to do so?”

her words spoken out loud activated something and Natrix replied.

--gravitational pull available--

“eeh emh active gravitational pull?”

--reversing forces--

it was an almost instantaneous change. The gravity force pulling Scilla on the ground inverted. Now a low gravity pull was moving her upward toward the ceiling of the ship. Once she reached the door a second change and now a gentle force was pushing her inside the room.

--gravitational pull completed--

“what the fuck was that!?!”

I just floated around pushed by the ship AI. How the hell did it do it? This ship is too small to have a gravity distortion generator on it, but I can clearly sense a difference in forces as soon as I step into the ship. Did they miniaturize one? Or it’s a totally different technology? Whatever it’s I suppose that is the key to her being immune to high acceleration forces while flying around. Aahh more things to ask about.

Then Scilla moved to the bed and placed Iris down.

“eeh oplà, now some covering… a pillow there one here and voilà. Perfect position to sleep.. maybe”

Scilla tried her best to provide Iris with a comfortable sleeping position but initially she was not too sure about her choices. She placed Iris on her side facing the wall and placed object all around her because as far as she knows Iris likes confined places. As she was thinking to remove some Iris moved in her sleeps adjusting to her bed with a smile on her face.

So I was just thinking too much.

“I’ll be right back Iris. Just going down to clean the dishes”. No reply at all but that’s the usually answer to all questions from a sleeping person.

Back in the kitchen she didn’t have much to do. She moved the dishes with all unconsumed food back into the machine and everything else was going to be done by the machine itself.

“well that was easy. I definitely want one of those robot in my life”

With nothing more to do and a sleeping Iris, Scilla allowed herself in bed again, but this time she kept her distance. As soon as she lied down the light went off.

So it’s not related only to Iris, but it’s also considering if I’m moving around. Feels strange to be spied on by the ship all the time. Wait the hell is this??

On the ceiling she was now seeing a lot more stars shining around. Iris probably added more but looking at them it was clearly a star chart seen from some unknown planet, probably Weeping Sky.

Scilla was not tired but soon sleep overcome her senses. A new “dream” was awaiting.

She “woke up” in a room. It was massive yet totally empty. Walls made of metal, probably steel. Beds built it said walls and really high celling with a series of dots. It was the same but more realistic version of the star chart inside Iris bedroom. Nothing much around. A big massive door behind her and several corridors opening up leading somewhere.

“why can’t I just sleep peacefully once in my life?. Come on artefact monster get out and do what you have to”

But nothing changed. Just the sound of the ventilation system and the metal expanding and contracting.

“at least tell me which corridor should I pick”

but again nothing at all. So Scilla chose the right corridor and walked in. she had to walk a lot, finding closed doors from time to time and some stairs. After what she felt eternal she finally reached a room. This was a massive spherical room and strangely enough it was on the surface.

Glass walls all around and a lot more personality. Blankets and lights placed around to make figures and places to stay warmer. In front of the biggest window a massive soft pillow bigger than a king size bed was lying on the floor with a creature on top. It was clearly Idra 511 but smaller, probably younger. She was staring out of the window into what was a really clear and beautiful swamp after a heavy storm leaving the sky. Strange flowers were all over the swamp. They kinda resembled the one that Iris used to draw. Maybe that was the Wiipsca. Scilla sat beside the staring Iris and started speaking.

“do you like flowers?”

the creature finally turned around. Stared a bit and then nodded.

“it’s a Wiipsca right? It’s beautiful”

A second reply but this time Iris rubbed her head against Scilla’s side. Odd behaviour from her but not so odd for animals in general. Then with a sudden movement Idra grabbed Scillas head and redirect her view to a distant flower. It was opening slowly and it was amazing. The geometry of that plant was astonishing and surreal, but more surreal was what was going to happen. Soon after the opening a massive creature emerged from the distant trees. It was as big as a bull but covered with an exoskeleton like a crustacean. The creature move closer to the flower and at some point it was clear that the creature was not thinking properly. It walked in the swamp water that was getting deeper and deeper until it was too deep. That poor beast was now back to reality but unable to move and brake free from the mud that was adsorbing it. Horrific and agonizing screams echoed in the room that slowly died down as the creature lost it’s strength to fight and drowned. It was a brutal yet honest work of nature. Predator and pray. Surely be killed by a plant is rare but it’s what it’s on an alien planet.

She is replying so how am I this time?

Looking down at her hands the illusion broke and she could see that they were covered with a similar black armour as the one that Iris usually wear.

So I’m another Idra. If all the alone stories were correct I suppose I’m 484, the only one that stayed with her.

But the dream had other plans. All started to fade as she dropped through the floor landing on her back in a different room. This was was definitely a laboratory of some kind. A lot of machines around and in the end a workbench where the young Iris was working on something.

“so what are you doing?”

Iris looked back and immediately turned to her creation. A bit more working and then she left the position grabbing Scilla hand. Now in a shooting range Iris showed what she was doing. A strange tubular structure was in her hands. It was a prototype with a button and a digital counter so it was definitely a bomb. Iris tossed it to Scilla and waited for it to be launched. A clear launch soon followed by the… scream.

The grenade started “screaming” extremely loudly, it was a high pitch and sinister sound for just 1 second then a massive pull toward the grenade. It attached everything metallic in the room to then release a massive explosion.

What the fuck was that. An attraction grenade?

“how did you…”

But the dream broke and Scilla woke up.

Something woke her up, something coming from her left hand. Scilla turned to see Iris covered with all she could find, like a turtle, playing with her hand. Iris was moving the fingers around, pulling them, rubbing her fingernail into the skin veining across the palm.

“what are you doing?”

“having fun”

“what kind of fun is my hand providing?”

“funny informations. You hand is big, your red skin is harder than mine and more rough. You have a lot of muscles and strength but little flexibility. We are both predators but our hunt styles are different. Your species goes all in with brute force to brake down the enemy while we prefer to manipulate our prey or poison it.”

“you can learn a lot from a hand”

“only with the right computation capabilities”

Iris was still shamelessly playing with Scilla’s hand.

“all good and fun but isn’t it awkward to play with someone else hand, without permission, while they are asleep, get caught and still keep playing?”

Iris jumped back immediately.

“it… it was not my intention… I didn’t mean…”

“well I can forgive you with a small payback.”

“what… what is it?”

“let me touch your ears”

“what?!? no they are personal”

“oh come own, you licked my face isn’t that personal as well?”

“but you told me that it was fine… if… if we apply… the same logic.. playing with your hand should have been fine as well”

“uff you got me. Well games over. I will be clear. From the moment I saw them I wanted to touch them. So can I touch your ears?”

“mmh how about you flip on your left side facing me, let your arm out and open your hand?”

“like this?”

Scilla followed Iris instruction and once she opened her hand Iris moved closer placing her head onto scilla hand, staring back at her.

“is this ok? I’m facing you and my ear is placed on top of your hand so you should feel it right?”

Scilla blushed getting even more red that her usual colour. She was getting exited feeling Iris hot and wet breath flowing on her wrist while having her head in her hand. To avoid possible problems she rotate a bit more toward Iris to cross her legs in order to stop something that could poke out of her body.

“thanks…. Didn’t thought you would oblige to my request… your… ear is… better than what I imaged.”

“well that was not a complex request… just… well don’t tell about it to anyone… it’s embarrassing”

“Iris I will never tell anybody about any of this or our relationship. Those are our private moments that are only between us and only for us to remember.”

“you are the jealous type”

“NO!.. well maybe… but I.. this is no jealousy it’s setting a limit. Our personal life is only our and nobody else should know or have a say into it”

“yeah… well I may be a tiny bit jealous. But just a bit.. you know the usual stuff… like dissolving in acid everybody that dares to not respect you.”

“well I kinda figured it out just after a few hours that you don’t joke around”

“eheh, still I also gained from this moment”

“what did you get out of it?”

“more images of you but, more importantly, I could get closer. Your smell plus your heart beat felt through your hands tells me a lot. You walked into it like a kid taking a candy from a doctor to get distracted”

oh fuck.. does she know that I’m exited?

“well your distraction worked really well, so what does the doctor says?”

“that you are perfectly healthy. Your heart is beating really fast but so are mine. I suppose it’s a normal reaction when you are in contact with the person you like. Still the only problem is maybe an increase in hormones that are flowing all around your body. I can also detect a trail of hormones coming from somewhere that is not your hand but I don’t know if I’m allowed to follow it”

holy fuck there is a trail… I can’t let her follow it.

“well you should not follow that trail and what do you mean by hearts?”

“oh I have 2 hearts. One pump after the other to increase blood flow and reduce energy consumption and muscle stress. It’s not specific to me, all esterian has 2. we compensate smaller lungs with increase efficiency in capturing oxygen. But as a Idra I have an additional organ as well. It’s an internal sack for machine storage.”

“is this esterian anatomy class for dummies?”

“if you want to?”

“I don’t know if I will understand much but I would just say that double the hearts double the love right”

Iris got immediately embarrassed and while covering herself she punched Scilla’s arm a bit, her punches were even lighter than her kicks.

“oh come on, I was joking. I know you like to explain things so let me ask a question. In what world are esterian a predator? You are extremely soft and fragile how the hell could you hunt with such body?”

“do you remember the fear device implanted in the suit?”

“yes??”

“well I lied. We are the device. We took from the morfian, the species we are hybridized with, the capability to produce a multitude of substance in our body. Most of us can just produce hormones and pheromones to become more attractive to their panther. That’s is why you detect a pleasant smell inside the ship. I’m not doing that on purpose. It’s just how I smell. Esterians are allowed outside if they have evolved this capability to produce also dangerous molecules such us the one that usually spreads fear in our enemies.”

“well that is really cool. But still fear is only momentary and doesn’t compensate for your weak body”

Iris uncovered herself to show and point at her teeth briefly.

“most of our chemical components come from the lungs but some can be mixed with saliva and injected into the prey. Our bite can easily penetrate your flesh and then we can poison the prey by splitting on the wound. All is left is to wait for it do die. We are immune to our own poison”

“that’s scary. You never bit me right?”

Iris withdraw a little and pulled her covers closer as if she wanted to vanish into them.

“you.. you bit me? Why? I’m going to die as well?”

“what?!? no I didn’t inject you. It.. it was a small bite. I...i… it’s the cheek lick fault! I got curious.. so I took a taste, before while you were sleeping… I didn’t want to eat you… just know your taste”

“of course you can’t eat me, that’s the bare minimum”

“well it’s not like I hurt you. You said I could do what I liked and I like to taste things. It also helps with medical checks”

“well at least you should tell me. Just in case you woke me up and scare me.”

“I won’t bite you again. I promise as a remnant of the Founder to never bite you again without warning or consent”

“you better keep your words or I’ll make you eat your machine sack.”

“don’t worry about it and my machine sack is not really accessible”

“is it somewhere deep in your body?”

“well it’s… it’s… wait…”

The strange choker around Iris neck emitted a green pulse of light while iris tried to finish her phrase. She was confuse, she couldn’t remember the location nor she could remember seeing it during a body scan. She was now speaking to herself, analysing the problem.

“my sisters had theirs connected to their lungs or their digestive system. As the technology allowed smaller machines they built smaller sisters. I’m the smallest one but there was not tech gap between me and the precious one. So how the hell am I so small and where the fuck is my sack seeing that I’m the strongest ever built I should have more machines. Why could I not remember? Is this fucking choker blocking even this information? If so why? it’s not sex related”

Iris jumped out of the covers to soon stop at the room ladder to go down. She was stumbling keeping a hand on her head. She moved to fast and too much.

“Scilla can you do me a favour and carry me to my medical machine?”

“sure”

as requested Scilla helped her down the ladder and carried her to the machine. Instead of the medical chair she asked to be put inside a long cylindrical machine. Once inside it Iris commanded it to work and so the scan begun. But a precise scan needed time.

“well it will require some time, especially because I’m wearing a lot of clothes that interfere with the machine. Thanks I guess, now I will know more”

fuck.. I’m not a genius but I’m sure she took more scans of this kind. So if she doesn’t remember a machine sack then she doesn’t have one. But she has even better powers as her sisters. So she really is an occultist, one that is probably developing. No. no no. it must be the artefact bending reality some how. She probably know something.

“Iris, eh, you see the thing that I wanted to talk about while eating… well it could be related to you, maybe more than what I thought.”

“what is it?”

“well I met with the liin obviously and we mainly spoke about 3 things…”

“let me guess 1, you spoke about using the accident at your advantages to repress someone”

“how?!”

“well it was not hard to predict, your liin is smart”

“well the other 2 are entirely related to you”

“they don’t want me any more?”

“quite the opposite. They asked me to marry you. A political marriage. I refused”

“I thought you liked me?”

“I do and that is why I refused. I don’t want your relationship to be a tool for some shit. I don’t want it to be used nor to be dictated by someone else. I… I’m… fuck why is it so hard…”

fortunately for Scilla, not seeing Iris in the face was helping her, at least she couldn't see her embarrassment.

“I’m fucking lost without you. I started by hating you and in such a shot time something just clicked and now.. now I can’t prioritize anything else except you. Even if I want I’m not able to not think about you. I..”

“thanks. That… that means a lot”

“I just can’t accept to even try to force you. If we marry I want to do it because we both desire so. I suppose the liin will persuade some of the Sheridan crew to flirt with you but I will defend you from them. I swear on my honour”

“hahaha, my knight in shining armour. You don’t have to defend me. I spied all the crew and you are the only one worth my time.”

“I don’t care. If I have to fight I will fight”

Iris voice tone suddenly changed. Now it was deeper and definitely not one she would use for jokes, her way of speaking also got more refined.

“your words flatters me soldier. I appreciate your devotion and so I will speak clearly. I have no use for underlings. I have no use for those that bow their heads before me. I am in need of a peer. To stand higher than I could ever reach alone. Our path will be filled with atrocities and horrific deeds. Do you still wish to stand beside me?”

“I can’t ask for a greater honour”

Iris voice got back to her usual happy tone.

“well now you are the one that should not take her words back. And the scan is finished”

their small conversation gave Iris the energy and adrenaline to overcome all her physical pains as she jumped out of the machine. Now she was staring at the screen that showed an internal reconstruction of her body. Expect the 2° heart nothing was much different from standard humanoid. No internal stings or shit like that.

“nothing.. there is nothing.. I.. I don’t have a sack. How the fuck could this be?”

“I may have the answer”

“what is it Scilla?”

“well the liin thinks that you are an occultist”

“a what? Scilla what the hell does an idiot believing in ghost or gods have to do with me missing a storage sack?”

“not that kind of occultist. You know people that can really do magic or sort of magic. People that can do things that are not physically possible like cooling down things while producing work.”

“you are not speaking about fake magicians on the planetary net right?”

“of course not. You know a lot of things, you probably know…”

“yes I do know. We call them Unipsi-bio-linkers but we never found one. We just calculated their existence as something that could happen to balance the universe interaction. But they can’t exist, the force should kill them in less than a month”

“well. This is a state secret but so is all you have told me about estarian so far. The liin is one of those linkers. We call them occultist because we have no clue on how they work. I can prove it to you. The liin believe you are just like her but I hope it’s just the artefact that you carry.”

“we will see. Show me your proof”