“Jesus, what was that?” Wool’s voice came from the darkness.
“Oh, God,” Baldron’s trembling vocal chords barreled around the room, “Is this it? Are we dead?”
“Stay absolutely still, everyone.” Tripp advised. “Don’t move a muscle.”
“I can’t see anything,” Jaycee said, pressing his foot forward.
“I said don’t move. Wool, is that you?”
“Yes, yes, I think so,” she said, trying her level best to keep calm, “I can feel your hand.”
“Don’t move.”
The walls and ground vibrated and shifted around. Despite the darkness, most in the room tried to keep their balance by holding onto something solid.
“What’s going on?”
“We’ve lost power,” Tripp barked, “Grab hold of something. Anything rooted to the ground or the wall.”
The shifting intensified and refused to let up.
Wool grabbed hold of the flight deck. Jaycee pressed his back against the wall. The sound of two metal Decapidiscs clanging together suggested Tor and Baldron hugged each other.
“Christ, we’re going to die,” Baldron bawled. “This is how it ends.”
“Shut up and hold tight,” Tripp shouted over the noise and turned to the flight deck’s acrylic frontage, “We’re not going to— Oh… my God. What is that?”
Stars formed across the black canvas of space. Lighting up one by one, they added glare and cast a dim light into the control deck.
Everyone staggered around in an attempt to remain upright.
Pink dust crept across the stars and fanned out in all directions. Seconds later, a giant circle appeared to the right of the shield, filling itself with a bizarre amalgam of black and orange clouds.
Six silver whiskers streaked out underneath the circle as it formed into a strangely familiar eye.
The vibrations of the ship conformed to a piece of classical music.
“Is that… Jelly?” Wool screamed over the commotion.
It was. Her enlarged eyeball peered against the transparent plastic, reflecting Saturn and its spinning rings. Violent-looking and beyond reproach, her face remained steady – and determined. Fire erupted in her thirty-foot eyeball.
“Jelly!”
Cracks tore down the sides of the control deck. A burst of pink light blasted the darkness away.
“My God!” Baldron looked at the eyeball in utter astonishment. He couldn’t move out of sheer reverence. “She’s…”
WHUMP.
Baldron and Tor blacked out. Their bodies hit the deck. Jaycee covered his face with his arm, blocking out the magnificent light from his eyes. It wasn’t long before he passed out and hit the deck.
Tripp and Wool kept their gaze fixed on Jelly’s face as the volume of the orchestra loudened.
“She’s… she’s…” Wool gasped and gripped Tripp’s arm. “She’s…”
WHUMP.
Overwhelmed, Tripp and Wool’s eyelids snapped shut. They collapsed to the ground together.
The cracks in the ship sealed up immediately, blanketing the control deck in darkness once again.
Then, Jelly’s face vanished in a puff of dust – taking the stars in the sky with it.
A bizarre phenomena that proved beyond comprehension…
The damage from the dumb bomb explosion could still be felt. The walls had been shattered to a point, leading into the sprawling and infinite Pink Symphony landscape.
Sitting with her back to the wall, Bonnie remained unconscious. The back of her hand lay against the ground with her Rez-9 in her palm.
The water tank suffered damage, broken into three sections. The contents gushed across the floor and soaked her inner-suit pants and boots. Her removable leg had come free during the fight with the creature. It was missing.
A pink tear collected in her right eye as she breathed. More and more watery effluence added to the build-up, forcing its collected weight over the eyelid and down her cheek.
It plummeted toward the ground and splashed against her good leg, soaking into the fabric.
It was enough to make her open her eyes and inspect the strange sensation.
“Ugh, what happened?” she lubricated the inside of her mouth with her tongue, “Good lord, what—”
She squeezed the gun and brushed her inner-suit down. Splatter from the creature she’d executed outside had soaked into it. Her focus shifted from her stomach to the stump on her right leg.
Fear set in.
Her titanium leg was nowhere to be seen. She leaned over and grabbed at the metal grille, hoisting herself forward. “My leg, my leg…”
She dragged the lower half of her body by her hands along the row of plants, trying her utmost to peek between them. Still no sign of her missing limb.
Instead, she saw a small, furry creature laying on its side. It’s stomach and sides pushed in and out. An indication that it was at least alive.
“God damn it, not another one,” she gripped her Rez-9 and aimed the sight at the beast, “Hey, you.”
Its furry ears twitched at the sound of her voice, but didn’t move from the fetal position.
“You want some more, you freak?”
She squeezed the trigger, blasting a warning shot across its body.
A tuft of fur flew into the air having been grazed by the edge of the projectile. The creature lifted its tail and whipped it back to the ground.
“Huh?” Bonnie watched in amazement as the creature rolled over onto its back and held up its paws. Its eyes opened, forcing it to yawn and reveal its front teeth.
“Anderson?”
Its ears pricked up at the call of her name. A slurp of the tongue, and the little thing was back in business. Of course it was Jelly.
“Meeooo…” she squealed at the top of her croaking voice, struggling to get the sound out. She meowed again. This time in much lower pitch.
“Where… where did you go?”
“Boh… Boh…” Jelly rolled onto her back and clawed at her tail. “Boh… knee…”
“You just said my name!”
Bonnie flipped around and dug her shoulders into the ground. Enthralled by what she’d witnessed, she lifted her forearm in front of her face. Her thumb scraped the three links of black ink across her synthetic skin, “Individimedia, access. Dr. Bonnie Whitaker, broadcast enable.”
The ink formed three individual dots. They flashed on and off, indicating a successful connection, “This is Bonnie. I repeat, this is Bonnie Whitaker. Does anyone read me?”
She kept her eyes on Jelly, who clawed at her own tail in the throes of turmoil.
“Bonnie?” Tripp’s tinny voice flew out of the pinpricks in her wrist, “We read you. Where are you?”
“Botanix. Anderson’s with me. Come, quickly.”
“Is she? What’s she doing?”
“Behaving strangely. Something happened to us, to her. Where are you?”
“We’re in control right now. Something happened here, too. We lost power, briefly, but we’re back on.”
“I’m scared, Tripp,” Bonnie looked around at the shattered walls. Behind her stood the door to Botanix. Directly opposite, the infinite landscape of Pink Symphony. “That pink beach thing is still here. I was attacked. I’ve lost my leg—”
“—Okay, okay, calm down. Just stay there. I’ll be right over with Wool.”
“Please be quick,” Bonnie lowered her arm and relaxed her shoulders.
“Make sure Anderson doesn’t run off out there—”
“—But, I can’t move.”
Tripp waved Wool over to the door of the control deck, “We’re on our way. Do you have your firearm on you?”
“Yes,” Bonnie’s voice came through Tripp’s forearm, “Just my Rez.”
An ethical quandary appeared in his mind as he reached the door, “Listen, Bonnie.”