He couldn’t worry about that. There were other more pressing things to consider. Like hostile predators—and Audra. He must not fall prey to her lusts...
The forest wheeled by in a ghastly daze. Who knew what manner of beasts lay out there? He remembered seeing lights from a settlement outside the port glass. If he could reach those precincts, there may be sanctuary...intelligent beings or infrastructure that could shield him from the harsh reality of this lunatic world.
Miko scrambled on, squeezing through the gummy gaps between the massive trunks and slashing at creeper vine with his pipe as he passed more of those frightful pools...
III
Audra roamed the Rogosian wilderness, searching every crevice for Miko. She had a vague sense that, barring the crash, something wasn’t quite right, that the two were no longer in the same time dimension. The signals were clear. The absence of the Zikri base, the tilt of the stars, the primitive life forms of this planet, it was all wrong. An interesting metaphysical conundrum—which the scientists on her home world would ponder for an age. She was not exactly sure how it had happened, though she guessed it had everything to do with the unstable propulsion system of the NAVO craft. There were ways of using the broken ship’s advanced hardware to recalibrate the time shift, and get them back to their own dimension. But it would take time—perhaps years. The planet supported the necessary raw materials to effect the repairs and ship’s required modifications.
What else was there to do? It seemed time was at her disposal. She almost laughed at her own joke.
As for the myriad denizens that wandered these feral lands, she felt neither fear nor remorse. The eel had been an idle amusement, although it had proved a disappointing adversary in the end. How silly of the thing to try and bite her! The creature’s brain capacity was small compared to hers. It had succeeded only in gobbling her down whole. But the electricity and poison she had injected into it from her cilia had caused the thing much anguish, melting right through its stomach lining. Quite an experience to witness the bottom feeder thrash and spin. The creature had suffered an unpleasant doom...
As for traitorous Miko, she would get her revenge. She was quite disappointed in his behaviour, which was both juvenile and timorous. His reaction had been downright crass. Did he not know that he had shamed her? Stupid of him to think that she would not take care of the snake thing!
Withal, he did not realize how much he needed her. A feisty lifeform, to say the least, this Miko, thought Audra. Nevertheless, he would not last long alone in the wilds. This body of his was not as resilient as hers. She knew this from intimate experience, that he needed her as much as she needed him. Not to mention, he was comfortably warm to nestle against. Naughty of the human to flee so hastily! She still could not get over his whimsical bravado. She must find him! And when she did...well, he would not be so bold to escape again.
Her flexible body made effortless progress through the forest: through the twilight-lit glades, across the stagnant, weed-riddled pools. She waded or glided, over the soft gummy logs and the loams and moulds and streams of the varied surface, and sometimes over the intertwined branches of the giant trees. Many things she saw, marvels never before witnessed, creatures that glided above on three wings, others that sung whistling songs, inscrutable things that dug trenches and burrowed deep, and violent predators like the eel, which did their best to harm her, but all ineffectually.
In this wise, Audra would not have wont for food. The sulphurous air was an irreparable inconvenience whose tart ambience did not sit well with her. But, she was happy for her Zikri constitution, which was strong, and the bizarre evolution which had created the Zikri race over the aeons. How the humans were so handicapped in their movements! She could move two miles for their one without hindrance or tiring jerks. Proudly, she pulled on her convection sac grown from her underbody…the one that pushed heat currents under her body similar to how a convection oven moves heat. It nullified her weight and allowed her to glide over the turf, and negated the need for accessory limbs.
Even with all her powers Audra was still wary. Not inconceivable there might exist some indigenous life form out there that could bring about her demise. The nameless creature, for instance, that roved the shadows, lurking, and had made the strange horn sound from time to time was an entity that brought chills to her body. For this, she stayed on the watch...
Audra marvelled anew at the NAVO invention: a curious technology that had given her an opportunity for advancement. Her awareness had been enhanced, to levels unimaginable. She saw almost everything around her in an exalted four dimensions. All the beings were like light sources: the trees, the water, the marsh fiends. Even the smallest insect was not just a 3D cutout any more, but a living entity of dancing colour, pulsing with a life she had never known, lit with various energetic spectrums and unique vibratory signatures.
The splicing had magnified Audra’s hungry desire multifold: to be more than just one, more than a single entity, more than just her. For the thousandth time, she craved the human Miko. To be complete, she must have him!
Her mind drifted to her ambition for rulership over the dominant races. It pulsed under her skin with all the force of an obsession. The scheme was on hold. Not that her ambition was realizable at any time soon, but the potential existed. The NAVO bullies and the Zikri war-pirates were weak, disorganized, a band of
