CHAPTER 30 - COMPANION ARC: PRIYA AND ALEXA

Current Time

Loud thumps barged into their conversation from levels down. "Damn!" Alexa gasped. Just then she sensed the incursion of the squirrels, and they both bolted out of the lab-room back across the university grounds to the secret entrance, raced through the facility that was markedly silent and unpopulated by the buzzing of techs, and took the lift down to the Silo where they would make their last stand. "They're barging through the walls!" Echo pointed, seeing the first band spill through. They were about three fourths as tall as people, armed with spatulas in one hand for close combat and fired lasers from the mouths of sock puppets in the other hand. More flooded through, taking any opportunity to snag an acorn as they were distracted, the others grinding down their strength with attrition. "Sister, you're the only one I trust with a true mirror blade, it will melt in anyone's else's grip, so give them what they're asking for" she thundered as they both wielded the same knife side by side. After the first few waves, the individual soldiers became more of a nuisance as they activated energy shields akin to those that the Rikiral utilized, making their spells and sword arcs less effective. "How did they get this alien technology!" Alexa shouted with complete, verbatim hatred. Likewise, the spatulas and sock-puppet lasers gained advanced properties exponentially as each wave succeeded. Drilling through, more holes opened up along the interior, the army circulating around to their location. "Ahh! keep going! Don't stop!" Priya bellowed as their task went from mundane to intolerable. Ripping off the wall by their own, metal plates drifted away, prompting the scientist to take a second to notice their departure. "What is this, the Silo is becoming a realm?" she recognized as the familiar face of the black starry sky presented itself. Looking back, Alexa had been separated, fighting a ways off on a lower level of the volume. The density of space shifted, allowing more distance between the individual acorns. Priya knew the realm was unfolding, but the fighting was fierce, and it did not even matter, and barely gave it much heed. Freezing a row of attackers with a wintery spell arc of her sword, she tossed the nearest one over the railing and smashed the others. Dropships arrived with more reinforcements, so Priya summoned a group of nerds and with her telekinesis tore off their braces and shot them as a volley to the ships, and directing them to wrap around and squeeze the hull-frame until the vessels gave and exploded, then unsummoned them. But the bands would not stop, growing fiercer and more cunning. From below she could hear the mirror swords spat out in all directions as the Swordcarrier's cactus armor expelled its spines. The full scope of precise constellations glistened, looking on with voyeurism at their plight, when all of a sudden, the squirrels that had encircled her stopped, evenly spacing themselves as if in military formation, to salute a general. "Are you guys stopping?" she asked, the nearest one nodding to where several yards away the square platform had a railing that a vessel descended upon. In the shape of a trapezoid a spaceship came, its ramp opened and touched the floor. The scientist shielded her eyes from copious light as two figures made their way towards her. "Mom … Dad?" Priya shrugged doubtfully as Melina-Squirrel and Linden-Squirrel smiled, happy to be reunited. "A tad of scientific skepticism I see … oh dear, that is so like you" Melina-Squirrel chided.

Priya: Where have you been? Now we can combine our forces!

Linden-Squirrel: it's okay … you can tell her.

Priya: Tell me what?

Melina-Squirrel: Darling, I know you've really grown attached to all of this, but its time, we're here to bring you home.

Priya: Very funny mom.

Linden-Squirrel: Priya, that's a name you chose, along with the cover of a scientist. It should be coming back now. We came to this planet to harvest the life-forms as acorns. The Bushytail Zadoria fleet travels across known space, finding such worlds for our purposes.

Priya: Dad, I'm not a squirrel. I'm a big girl and right now I have a lot on my plate. Can you snap out of it and help me fight Telenon, and then we can start rebuilding the damage he has caused.

Linden-Squirrel: Who is this fellow? I see … you have been in that alternate form for too long, beginning to have your mind burdened by their primitive consciousness.

Priya: Next you'll tell me I'm royalty or something

Melina-Squirrel: To be precise, we are the commanders of the fleet, and you will one day inherit that post. That is why you are so analytical and like to evaluate the natives with ethnographic studies.

Priya: Give me a break. It's the other way around. You and dad became squirrels in order to collect the acorns into silos because they were being transformed by the acorn fever by the turbulence.

Linden-Squirrel: Priya, the fleet is the source of the turbulence. I call you that but that is not your name. And any attachment you have to this place is a misunderstanding.

Priya: There's no way. I know what's real. My dreams are real … stop looking at each other with that face!

Melina-Squirrel: Do you realize how pathetic that sounds? Let me detect if you have any permanent damage with this medical analyzer … hmm … it looks like you are suffering from something called loneliness, as well as other emotions. These are simply unique features of the structure of these primitive alien minds, but they serve no long term evolutionary or survival function. Where we come from, there is no such burden.

Priya: Loneliness is just an illusion? But it's like the center of everything I am.

Linden-Squirrel: Let's get going and fly to the next galaxy, this one has been reaped for the most part. This load should keep us for the next ten thousand years. Darling, you can come out of that human disguise.

Priya: What about all my family and friends? I'm not going to leave them in this place.

Melina-Squirrel: There is no such concept in actuality. All the primitive constructs that hamper you are disproven.

Priya: Certain things are true, like love and justice and friendship.

Linden-Squirrel: No, but the data you collected is impressive. The restoration pod aboard will help you transform back. Take a moment to collect yourself.

Priya: I can just … walk away from it all? That's, I don't know if I could even. I'm not ready.

Melina-Squirrel: This is a barren rock. We harvested it already, so there's nothing here for you.

Priya: Mom, I really like it here.

Linden-Squirrel: Daughter, you said that about the last world … haha, actually, you always do this and its quite the nuisance. We have andromeda to explore tomorrow morning. being human must be terrible.

Priya: Alright … I suppose this whole experience has been a little much.

Priya turned around to look back and locate her companion, but the two commanders quickly placed their hands on her shoulders after a quick view. Below Alexa was contending with the fury of the alien defenders. "Damn you!" she ranted, disarming a squirrel of his blue energy aura covered spatula, slicing through his shield barrier to end the argument. Through the channel of her palm three substances – succulent aloe, red cactus-fruit juice and purified cactus water as a coolant – flowed into the mirror sword, into interior channels within the structure of the handle and blade, giving it renewed vigor. From her point of view, she could see the enemy standing in formation in a half-circle, the patron surrounded, captured. "Priya! Get away!" she called, but the ambient noise from the hovering trapezoid was too much, dampening out her voice. "Uhh … that platform is too high, by the time I get up there …" Alexa thought as panic ringed in her skull. Then an idea sparked, and she aimed the sword down to the ground, discharging a burst of the red cactus juice amplified mirror light, propelling her upwards. Metal framework chimed as the solider arced over, her feet tapping onto it. Although the light cancelled much of the surroundings, she could see the goddess climb the ramp with the two others on either side, black hair swaying with relative freedom. Stopping, Priya turned to Linden-Squirrel, "But maybe I could say goodbye to one of them", glancing once again. Pulses of rage coursed through the soldier as she felt the thick humid delusion in the air, digesting everything in imaginary acid. Bolting forward she arrived at the railing at the base of the ramp, and received the gaze of the scientist upon her person. Lifting up the sword, an abstract charismatic force swelled across its length. Acting like a lightning rod on the roof of a house, the epicenter of the turbulence of the maelstrom reacted. Suffusing into the geometry of the blade, the exuberant currents rushed inwards, filling its hypothetical volume. "Get Bent!" Alexa howled, sweeping the blade downwards in one strike with all her vigor against the metal of the railing, shattering it. Returning to normal atmospheric conditions, Priya watched as the walls of the Silo reappeared. Turning around, her parents Melina-Squirrel and Linden-Squirrel changed back, falling over onto the platform mesh. Flopping over, she could see them as just ... white bowling pins. "That was a close one …" Priya panted, seeing the flash of a sarcastic smile emerge on her friend's overwrought face. Little harmless rodents scampered out of the way of her feet as they made their way to an opening that had been torn through one of the walls.