Chapter 3

“I think it fainted,” Terisa gasped, still dizzy from the quick, double-teleportation of escaping the reduction field that surrounded the huge terrarium and then jumping right back into it.

She stared at the Arcadian lying on the rocks as her mother cautiously reached down and actually touched the vile creature. ‘Eww... ‘

‘Quiet! I need to find out what it did with Talina!’ Elaine commanded, instantly silencing the girl’s thoughts.

Elaine shuddered as she made mental contact with the Arcadian. This was a young one, its mind still somewhat curious about other life forms, the origins of the universe and the trail scent from the slightly older (They have males and females in their society? Which one is this?) that lived a few dwellings away.

She could see the architecture outside, as viewed in the mind of a half-grown child – wide and spacious and filled with places to explore. The station segments were square for the most part and all painted in exactly the same dull shade of brown. A signature of sorts was posted above the entrance indicating this dwelling as... ‘It’s name is Omsk? Weird. Using this slug’s mind, I can almost read those signs. So this is a school, huh? Some kind of institution. All the segments are connected to each other, and there’s no way to get outside. And it answers to someone it calls ‘Father’, who has dozens of offspring, just like me – I mean, Omsk. Way Too Creepy!’

‘So, little Omsk, what did you do with Talina?’

All she got for her efforts at communication was a terrified, half-conscious shriek of pure horror. Even as young as it was, it was xenophobic enough to realize its mind had been invaded by some unclean, impure, abhorrent life form, and it also knew the penalty for permitting such inter-species contact. Elaine watched as the young Arcadian tried to piece together exactly how it had condemned itself; watched as it reached into the terrarium with tiny tweezers and grabbed one of the three bugs that had arrived there earlier; watched as Omsk, grinning with glee as the tiny creature dribbled some of its insides out from being squeezed nearly in half had made little delightful screeching sounds, lifted then dropped it down over the healthiest, most omnivorous portion of the plant.

‘That’s when the other two got out, ‘ Omsk suddenly realized. It was while he was absorbed in the delightful wriggling and the mewling sounds made by the dying bug as he squeezed it half to death before dropping it down to be eaten by his special project. ‘And then those two evil things grabbed me!’ He shuddered at the memory of unclean, lesser creatures actually touching him. It was worse than a horror story. And now he was trapped inside his own school project, both his body and his mind contaminated beyond redemption by the vile aliens that had caught him. He would be turned into fertilizer and fed to the crops. Contamination simply wasn’t allowed. Elaine separated herself from the raving creature and sought out her missing daughter. Talina was conscious and wasn’t radiating any kind of fear or upset. In fact, she was quite... ‘Dear Hephaestus! She’s having SEX with a PLANT!’

Stunned, Elaine sat down, instantly separated from both Omsk and Talina. Omsk tried to swivel around so that its tail was beneath it, anxious to flee at its first opportunity. Terisa shoved the Arcadian back down to the ground and held it there, her mind blocked against its horrid emotional squall.

“You okay, Mom?” she asked, grimacing at the feel of the soft, squishy tissue beneath her hands. “You find Talina?”

Elaine nodded, then gulped down a lungful of air. “She’s fine.” Then she motioned for Terisa to get off their captive so she could return to her interrogation.

It was nearly an hour later. The Arcadian was unconscious and Elaine sagged nearby, exhausted by her brain-draining efforts. She had a new appreciation of how easily a Praetor could suck images and information from a mind, but she had also learned what was needed for them to escape.

Talina appeared and dropped to her knees, emotionally and sexually exhausted. “Oh, holy fuck me with a riding crop...” she muttered as her twin, delighted to see her return safely, wrapped herself around her.

Then Terisa gasped and exclaimed, “You didn’t! Oh my God! You did! Tell me Everything and I mean Right Now!”

Elaine rose unsteadily to her feet and dropped to her knees next to her daughters. “Okay, you two sex fiends, it’s time to go.”

“Wait!” Terisa exclaimed.

“We can’t!” Talina urged.

“We have to send the plant back,” Terisa explained.

“where it belongs!” Talina concluded.

“You’re standing on the bones of hundreds of creatures – some of them human beings – that that vile plant has consumed,” Elaine explained, exasperated at her two big-hearted offspring. “The Arcadians probably grew this thing right here in this big fish bowl. How do you propose to move it someplace else?”

Talina reached out and touched her mother’s arm, mentally communicating the things she’d learned while in contact with the plant. One of the things she communicated was a brief glimpse into the mind of the Arcadian who had actually ‘transplanted’ it. Included was the image of where the plant had originated.

Elaine easily deduced the coordinates from what she’d learned from Omsk. Reaching out to her daughters, she grasped their hands and teleported straight up. In an instant, three naked, filthy girls were in the tiny quarters where Omsk lived, taking up at least as much space as the terrarium containing the intelligent plant, and the unconscious Omsk.