The Slug Inception

by Matthew Pelly

  Chapter 8 - Release of pressure

  The Human

  "Hey", I wondered aloud as our scout ship began its rumbling after detaching from the starcruiser. "There should only be two hundred Slugs and two hundred Cyborgs here, right? If that's so, then how many ships actually came?"

  "Enough to show some figurative muscle!" Matthew said. "There are only two hundred of each of us here, at least as far as I know, but there's enough ships to hold five times that much. Five times at a guess, that is. Maybe it's actually four-and-a-half, I don't know. The point is, there's way more ships than we need, just to make sure the Cyborgs don't pull anything shifty."

  "They likely brought more ships than required for the same reason", Phill said. Well, bringing so much more ships than you needed to carry all of your troops didn't seem terribly efficient, which Phill and his race were supposed to be constantly pursuing, but whatever. I guess it made more sense to them.

  "How many Slugs are actually landing on Slugma then?" I asked. "And do you know how many Cyborgs?"

  "How would we know how many Cyborgs would be landing?" Phill asked me, which basically meant saying 'I don't know' while attempting to not lose your pride.

  "As for the Slugs", Boy put in, "we're planning on landing about one hundred and eighty, meaning that twenty will stay behind to operate the ships. All of the hundred new Slugs will be landing, of course, since that's the reason we brought them here in the first place."

  "Indeed it is", Matt said, "indeed it is."

  We didn't speak for a while after that, probably because everyone was busy focusing on the whole 'landing on Slugma' thing. As for me, I was tied up to the back of the scout ship (you ought to know the place by now) trying to come up with how long we were going to be staying on this planet. Did major negotiations like this usually take a long time? I think so.

  I also had a scared thought that maybe Slugma's atmosphere was full of carbon monoxide or some other poisonous gas (I didn't know of any other poisonous gas, you can blame my learning curriculum for that), but I quickly figured that Matthew wasn't dumb enough to land us all on a planet where we'd all instantly die. Assuming, that is, that carbon monoxide would be deadly to Slugs. Which I had no idea of.

  After some time, the scout ship started to greatly vibrate, which I was used to now as it meant we were descending through a planet's atmosphere. It didn't last very long though, or not as long as I was used to, which seemed to mean that Slugma's atmosphere was thinner than Earth's or Slugenis'. I'm not sure if that had any relevance, but hey, there it was.

  After some more time, the scout ship bumped, and the shaking stopped. "We've landed", I quickly said, before Phill could state the obvious, which he often did.

  "We are aware of that", the Cyborg said instead, trying to insult me for stealing his line.

  "The vibrations weren't so bad this time", I said, trying to impress everyone with my perceptiveness. But as soon as I said the word vibrations, a question came to me: if the spaceships were using engines to blast us through space, why where they so still? Wouldn't the vibrations from the engines be shaking the whole ship? Sigh. Can't ask that one right now, can I?

  "Alright everyone, time to roll out", Matthew announced, and undid the straps tying him to the dish he was sitting in. I wonder how he got the spike in there inside his slime without piercing his clothes - his clothes were in pretty ragged shape, as all of ours were (we hadn't gotten replacements since the last time we were at Earth), but I don't think any of the Slugs had big holes in theirs.

  Phill came over and untied me, since I was still incapable of doing it myself (one day I'd learn to do it - one day...), and we all got up and moved towards the doorway.

  "Are we ready for this?" I asked.

  "Yes", Rosetta said. "We've been working towards this ever since our invasion of PDN. It's time to go to work."

  "Got that right", Matt said, "and hard work it's gonna be. But I have faith in us. Right Phill?"

  Phill gave him a strange look for being singled out, and simply replied, "Yes."

  "Ethan", Boy told me, "if you have any questions, you'd better ask them now. We're going to be pretty busy later."

  Matthew laughed. "Why did you ask him, of course he has questions! Now you've just told him that it's alright to ask them!"

  "What would you like to know?" Frank asked me courteously, which meant that I had to ask something. Right?

  "Well", I began. "I was thinking just before... why don't the starcruisers or interstellar ships vibrate when the engines are firing, but the scout ship does?"

  Phill told me, "In relation to this question, you are yet to ask why you cannot hear any sound coming from the engines when they are in operation."

  "Umm, yeah", I said. "That too."

  Matt quickly said, "It's because our engines are in a vacuum. There, done. Now let's go."

  He started to march towards the doorway, even though there was no one sitting on a spike to actually open it, but Boy said, "That's not enough. Here, let me finish that, Ethan. The engines are in a vacuum, but they are obviously attached to the ship, otherwise they'd just fly off on their own. The key is that they are attached via several strong supports, which are the only things attaching them to the rest of the ship, and thus these supports are the only way for vibrations and sound to travel throughout the ship.

  "Now, on each of these supports are special devices that are very sensitive to vibrations. They sense when the supports are vibrating, and detect the exact amount of these vibrations. If they did nothing, the vibrations would travel throughout the rest of the ship, producing movement and noise, which is distracting to a Slug trying to concentrate on a battle. So we use these devices to counteract that.

  "What they do is detect the vibrations, and then cause the supports under them to vibrate in the opposite fashion. This opposite vibration cancels out the original vibration, and thus allows the rest of the ship to remain pretty well still and stable."

  I was quiet for a bit as I took all this in, which seemed to explain decently enough why there was no noise or movement coming from the supposedly operating engine (I'm sure it was more complicated than that, but it was good enough for me), when Phill said, "Cyborg ships have no need of such things, and as such the side effects of our ships' engines are left unchecked."

  "I wouldn't think that a Cyborg would care about noise", I agreed.

  "They don't", he told me. "In addition, our ships fly themselves. They are a Cyborg in their own right, as you recall." Yeah. Totally recalled that.

  "Right, enough chit-chat", Matt complained. "Someone get on a spike and open these here doors, I'm too lazy."

  Carmen almost sighed, and sat herself down on the nearest dish. The hatchway opened soon after, and she got up to join us as we all filed in.

  "Get ready to take in a deep breath of Slugma air!" Matthew proclaimed. "It will change everything, once you taste the splendour of the fresh oxygen."

  As we all waited anxiously for the outside door to open (more to get out of the cramped space between the two doors than anything), Phill said sullenly, "I won't get to taste the splendour."

  Every one of us laughed at that (except the Cyborg that we were laughing at), and we weren't yet finished when the door opened and admitted us to the small world of Slugma.

  This is the first thing I noticed when I stepped out onto Slugma's surface: it was rocky. Not like rocks everywhere, but there was dirt with lots of medium-sized rocks all over the ground, which was itself rather hilly. It was strange that I noticed that first, before anything else, but unfortunately I don't control what my brain pays attention to; that guy just does whatever the hell he wants, and the heck with what I think about it.

  Next up, I saw that the sun was pretty big, way bigger than I was used to on Earth or Slugenis (which was slightly larger than Earth's - I think). But it wasn't very hot, which was weird. The only explanation I could think of for that was that the sun must be really weak or something, otherwise it'd be bo
iling here.

  As I was looking up at the sky, I also noticed not one, but two moons. And they were big, much bigger than Earth's moon looked. So they were either really big, or really close. It was hard to tell sometimes. Slugma having moons was funny, since I hadn't noticed any on either Slugenis or PDN, although I supposed that it was possible that they just had long orbits and were on the other side of the planet the whole time. It wasn't like I was there for very long.

  While still looking at the sky (hopefully I wouldn't trip on a rock or something), I noticed something far more important - there were no clouds. Dammit! Why? Why? I just had sigh to myself and let it go. Earth was the only good cloud-spotting-destination anywhere in the whole damn galaxy, it seemed.

  So I guess Phill was right about this place not having any water, at least as far as I could tell for now. Good thing I'd brought my backpack then, which had my three bottles of water all filled up from the starcruiser's supplies (as well as several food bars). I tried not to think about the fact that the water had come from dish spikes, which spent a great deal of time inserted in Slug butts. Great, I just thought about it.

  The last thing I noticed (which really should've been the first thing I noticed) was that the gravity on Slugma seemed way weaker than I was used to. I felt really light, and almost tried jumping as high as I could, but then I worried about what would happen when I landed, so I didn't. I'm smart that way.

  "Nice place", Matthew commented. "Might come here for a vacation sometime. Bit chilly though."

  "Temperature's comfortable for me", I said. "But no clouds. It's ranking just dramatically decreased for that."

  "You cannot attribute the lack of clouds to any fault of the planet", Phill told me.

  "Sure I can", I answered back. "I just did." He didn't respond to that, but I could tell that he wasn't impressed.

  "Well then, let's get to work", Boy marshalled us back to the reason that we were here.

  We started to walk towards where most of the other half a dozen scout ships had landed (we could see them a little ways further on), and I asked, "Where are the Cyborg ships? I can't see them."

  "They would be down that way", Phill pointed out, indicating down the valley (I'll get to that in a second).

  I looked there, and, unsurprisingly, saw nothing. The terrain's gentle hills obscured everything that was at a mid-distance away. If you can picture in your head just how long a 'mid-distance' is. What, like half a kilometre? I have no idea about this kind of thing.

  As we travelled towards the bulk of the Slug army, I took in the geographical scenery that we'd landed in. In short, it was a valley. We were in a wide, long, indented area of land ('indented' probably isn't the best word to describe land), like a long - well, like a valley. Surrounding the rising and falling area of the bottom were tall mountain ranges that towered above the surrounding landscape, each peak competing against the others for the dominant height, each thus dwarfing all else beneath them, each rising majestically into the forbidden sky, vying for... what the hell, they were mountains, OK? They were tall and made of dirt and rock. What more do you want?

  While we walked, I asked everyone, "Have you guys got any water on you? Cause I don't think I have enough for all six of us. Excluding Phill, this is."

  "My two power sources should be enough for me", the Cyborg replied.

  "We don't", Matt told me, "but don't worry about that. It takes a while for a Slug to dehydrate, as our slime cells can squeeze out all of their moisture before they die, and if we ever did need a drink we'll just head back to the scout ship, which keeps its own reservoirs of food and water. Well, Slug food, anyway."

  "I don't suppose I could try Slug food?" I asked him. "I wonder how it tastes..."

  Matthew laughed. "It probably wouldn't kill you, since human food doesn't kill me, but it wouldn't be a good idea. Slug food is a uniform, pale, nutritional kind of paste. It probably tastes revolting - it sure looks revolting - because Slugs don't have a sense of taste, so that's not a priority when making the stuff."

  "A paste", I repeated numbly. They eat paste.

  "Yes", Boy replied. "Being in a semi-liquid form allows it to be pumped into us through the hollow tubes inside spikes like water, and allows us to digest it much quicker than if it were solid."

  "Due to surface area, once again", Phill stated. I don't know about you, but I still didn't know what he was talking about, once again.

  After this snippet of conversation, just before we reached the main body of Slugs (who had all congregated together), I felt a deep rumbling within the ground. It reminded me of the bombardment noises we'd heard on PDN during our original invasion (which had been Slug ships blasting the ground), except this felt like it was coming from... deeper in the ground. And it was a more groaning kind of noise, rather than a blast. If that makes sense.

  "What was that?" I asked, worriedly. The planet wasn't very likely to split in two anytime soon, was it?

  "No idea", Matthew replied, half-cheerfully and half-concerned (yes, you can sound like that). "Felt almost like an earthquake, didn't it?"

  "Have you ever experienced an earthquake?" Phill asked him.

  "No", he replied.

  Phill reasoned, "Then it felt like what you imagine an earthquake to feel like. In addition, we are not on Earth."

  "Good pickup", I told him. Then, "Well, if it was a Slugmaquake" - that actually doesn't sound too bad - "then it was a small one. Let's not worry too much about it."

  "Don't earthquakes have aftershocks?" asked Boy.

  Matt shrugged. "Not sure if all of them do. Besides, that one was so small, it was probably the aftershock of some other one. Maybe even the last. In any case, it's way too late to change our positions now - the Cyborgs would have a heart attack at the lost efficiency of having to move all these ships and peeps someplace else. If things get bad, we'll just run back to the ships and move then."

  "Although the ships are at some distance away", Phill commented, "and they take time to leave the ground, I agree that this is the wisest course of action."

  "Agreed", Frank stated, as if he was part of the conversation.

  That was the end of the discussion, and everyone seemed happy with it. As for me, I was a bit worried about maybe having to sprint back to our scout ship - I'm sure you imagine me as some super-buff, extremely toned and handsome guy, but the truth is that being homeless isn't very conducive to staying fit. Nor is spending large amounts of time doing nothing in a spaceship, for that matter.

  Well, whatever was really going on, we weren't changing our plans. As Matt had said, it was a bit late for that. I guess that we just had to hope that this whole valley didn't implode from underneath us and send us hurtling into a huge lava-pit or something. And I could be wrong about this, but I'm pretty sure that Matthew could pull off all the super-Slug tricks in the world and still not be able to survive that one.

  The Slug

  Ahh, Slugma; how I love thee. Well, "love" wasn't exactly the right word, in fact it almost definitely wasn't the right word, but I wanted the quote to be a good one, so I said that I loved it.

  Just as we joined the main body of Slugs, a gust of cool wind came across the vale we were in, from our side to where the Cyborgs had landed - which was to be expected, since we were surrounded by mountains - and I would've shivered if I were a Human. As I wasn't, I just left my body to take care of it for me; Slug slime was pretty good at automatically adapting to the changing environment, such as when it got colder.

  I clasped hands with the nearest Slug, found out that it was three cycles old, and asked it when we were going to head over to the Cyborg encampment. It replied - through slime, of course - that we were waiting for the orders of the oldest Slug here.

  Hmmm. That was interesting. So I wasn't the oldest Slug; there was someone here older than eight cycles. I hadn't actually arranged any of the Slugs that would be coming with us, just requested a hundred of them. That the Slug King had sent along a Slug older than I... interes
ting indeed.

  I could've asked the Slug just how old this newcomer was, but didn't feel like talking about it anymore. I let go of its hand, and turned back to my friends.

  'We're waiting on the orders of another Slug before we go meet the Cyborgs. There's a Slug here older than me who's in charge.'

  'Did you organise such an arrangement?' asked Phill.

  'No', I replied.

  'Interesting', he mused. And he was right; it was interesting.

  'That's hardly fair', Ethan complained. 'We - well, you - were the one who put together this whole expedition. If it wasn't for you, we'd have never gone to PDN, and this'd never be possible in the first place! Why aren't you in charge?'

  Feeling somewhat ashamed, but still feeling the need to say it, I hence said, 'Ethan, you forget that I am not a normal Slug. I've been estranged from my Empire for far too long to be accorded any respect such as that. My mentality just doesn't fit in with the race anymore. The invasion of PDN was just a mission, and it didn't matter how it ended. This is much bigger than that, with much more important ramifications. The King needed someone in charge who values the Slug Empire over their own life, over the lives of everyone on this planet. I... do not.'

  There was a long pause, then Boy, ever my age-old friend, said, 'If you are no longer a normal Slug, then neither am I. And let you never think otherwise.'

  I smiled at him, sad that I'd gotten him estranged from our people like myself, but happy that I'd picked such a true friend. If Slugs had genders and romantic relationships, Boy and I would probably be lovers. On second thought though - yuck.

  'I would be interested in understanding the dynamics of Slug friendships such as yours', Phill said, 'if you would tell it. Everything else Ethan and I understand hints that Slugs do not form close relationships with other Slugs, and yet you were friends long before our entrapment on Earth.'

  'Indeed we were', I said. 'What happens is - '

  'Allow me', Boy interrupted. I thought about tackling him to the ground and brutally murdering him for his insolence, but decided to let it slide. But only because I really liked him. 'Every now and then', he began, 'not often but often enough to not be rare, two or more Slugs chance to be on several missions together, and they chance to become kind of like friends.'

  'Comrades', I supplied. Mostly because it was an awesome word to use, and didn't sound too old or medieval.

  'Exactly', Boy agreed that it was awesome. 'If they decide that they want to stay together, they can apply when they get back to a Slug base to become these comrades.'

  'I assume that you and Matthew met in this way?' asked Phill.

  'Yes', Boy replied. 'When we got back to Slugenis, as that is where we were both born, although a cycle apart, we petitioned the Slug King to remain together.' He stopped to think, an important thing to do when one is talking, or doing anything really, and then went on. 'I say "petition", but the request never really gets refused, probably isn't even run by the King at all, at least as far as I know. So they allowed us to do so, and from then on we lived in the same houses and went to the same battles together.'

  'How old were you at the time?' Ethan asked.

  'I was two, and Matthew was three', Boy said.

  'So', Ethan said. 'I know that this is completely wrong, but I need a way to have the length of cycles in my head, otherwise it's just an abstract number. So if Matt landed on Earth when he was six and you were five, that means that you two were running around together for about thirty years. Thirty years!'

  'I suppose so', I told him, 'although the true number could be anywhere from fifteen to forty-five years. But yeah, that is a long time, isn't it?'

  'Why did you split up?' asked Phill, always getting to the crux of the matter. Heh - "crux". I can't believe that's actually a word.

  'We couldn't spend the rest of our lives together', Boy began.

  'Non-romantically together, he means', I quickly added, lest anyone get the wrong idea. I couldn't be too careful when my reputation was at stake.

  'Yes', my age-old friend continued. 'Sometimes, one of us would be called to a mission that only requires one older Slug; there's only so much the whole Empire will arrange so we could stay together, and this wasn't one of them. In this case, Matt got called to his mission which led him to Earth, and sending both a five and six cycle Slug there would be wasteful. So only he went. And Phill met him there.'

  'And lost to our battle', the Cyborg said.

  'Don't feel sad', I tried to cheer him up. 'You killed everyone on board except me, as I was the only one who managed to make it to a life pod in time. And the Slug who was piloting the ship completely fell for your missile who's radio-wave output was made to look like a friendly ship.'

  'It seems it was fooled by it', Phill said. He seemed he was in slightly better spirits. It occurred to me that perhaps it was wrong to try and make Phill happy by reminding him of all the Slugs he had killed, Slugs that I had known for a time. In the end, I decided that since those Slugs had wanted to die, they wouldn't hold it against me, so it was all good.

  'So that explains that', Ethan said. 'Why you two are such close friends, but I've never seen any other Slugs so close.'

  'Oh, they're around', I told him, 'but you wouldn't notice them as they look just like any other Slug. You don't often meet them, and I'd say that their relationships are nowhere near as deep as Boy's and mine is now, but they're still around. As I just said.'

  'I can claim the honour of the Cyborg having the deepest relationship with any Slug', Phill commented, somewhat smugly.

  I smiled at him, and was about to congratulate him on his supreme correctness, when the same Slug I communicated with before grasped my hand with one of its own. It seemed that this was a Slug that couldn't speak. I quickly read all that it was telling me, and then relayed it to my friends. And I relayed it with great skill, too.

  'Alright people, time to saddle up', I said. 'The Cyborg army has been spotted heading towards us; it seems that they've made the first move. Put your game faces on, and lets us get to the front of the action.'

  'We should be at the forefront', Phill agreed, and began to walk in that direction.

  'A man of decisive action', I observed, and began to follow Carmen, who was following Phill.

  Boy, who was walking beside me, smiled at my comment; and I smiled back. It was difficult to categorise your friends, so it was, especially when it involves such close relationships as within our group, and I wouldn't ever try to decide who was my best friend over all the others. They were all equally my best friends.

  But Boy; Boy was and would eternally be my age-old friend, and nobody else would ever claim that title.

  The Cyborg

  We were currently walking towards the front of the Slug army, getting ready to meet the incoming Cyborg army. I reflected upon my earlier planned undertaking to minimise as much as possible the points of contact between the two groups, so as to reduce the possibility of a fight breaking out to as small a chance as possible. With this in mind, I decreased my travelling speed, as I was first in our group, so that the others would catch up to me.

  "Carmen", I said to the first one to reach my position, "We need to ensure that only one small group of Slugs meets a small group of Cyborgs at first, to establish the peaceful intentions of our meeting here, and lay down the purpose for this gathering."

  "I'll tell Matthew", she said, and went back to him, several paces behind. Interestingly, she elected to touch him and send Slug communication signals rather than speak it out loud. This confused me until I arrived at the most likely conclusion; she was being careful not to be overheard by another Slug. With the English language so diffused throughout the Slug Empire, it was impossible to know which of the Slugs could speak or understand it. It was beneficial for our group to keep our counsel to ourselves, and I commended Carmen on her understanding of this before I did.

  After I observed Matt nod at Carmen, a strange occurrence as he could have simply sent her an
acknowledgement through their slime connection, he left Boy's side and touched a nearby Slug, obviously asking directions to the Slug older than he to relay our suggestion. We had to simply hope that that Slug saw this mission as a peace-making one, and not another battleground for the war.

  However, despite what I wished would happen, I still needed to plan for the worst. What shall I do if fighting breaks out, and a battle emerges? Should I engage in it? Stay out of it? Try to convince my friends to call the attempt off and leave the planet?

  It seemed that actively participating in the fighting would be suicidal; with so many enemy Cyborgs, a Slug mistaking me for one of them would be inevitable, and I would be getting attacked by both sides. I doubted that I could convince Matthew or the others to abandon our carefully-crafted plans here, not without doing our utmost to regain the upper hand. My best option then would be to stay on Slugma, and stay out of the fighting. Staying with and protecting Ethan would accomplish this, and the job would not be unfavourable.

  After I had concluded this, I reached the front of the Slug army. We were more towards one end of the valley we'd landed in than the other, and all the Slug ships had landed towards that end. This meant that there were no ships between our side and the Cyborgs'; that was good, as it meant there was little chance of them damaging our escape craft.

  Ethan, Boy, Carmen, Rosetta, and Frank were also with me, and we had but to wait for Matthew to return before setting off. Looking into the distance, I could easily see the vast number of Cyborgs heading towards us, enough to easily rival the Slug army. The average Cyborg will beat the average Slug in a fight, at least in the short term; even with Matthew, I doubted that the Slugs could win a skirmish here unless Human technology that has been integrated into their ships were utilised, which they most likely would.

  As we awaited Matt's return, another assumed clash of continental plates occurred, at a magnitude that I approximated as similar to that of the original. "Another one!" Ethan exclaimed. I considered informing him that we were aware of the occurrence, but abandoned the thought after I decided that he might construe such a statement as offensive.

  "They sure do feel like Earthquakes", Boy commented. "Do you suppose that they are common here?"

  "Matthew previously stated that Slugma is a volcanic world", I told the group. "Given that, quakes should be a relatively common occurrence on this world. Of course, I cannot say if having two of them in such a time period is normal or not."

  "Well", Ethan said, "it's not like it's hurting us or anything. Hopefully it's not a precursor to a way bigger Slugmaquake that'll kill us all or something."

  "A good thing to hope for", I observed.

  "Matthew's back", Rosetta informed us. Turning around, I perceived him too.

  "Feel that?" Ethan asked the Slug as he joined our group.

  "Indeed I did", he said. "If it happens again, I'm going to be worried. Until then, however, I'm not worried. Now, for an update. The oldest Slug here, who, incidentally, is 9 cycles, agreed with Phil's plan. We'll all be part of a small advance group to head towards the Cyborgs..." He looked at the approaching army, now closer. "They're almost here", he said, echoing my belief.

  "Anyway", Matt continued, "going with us will be this 9 cycle Slug himself - or, itself - and about 3 others."

  "Are any of these Slugs the newborn ones?" Ethan asked.

  Matthew laughed. "Not in this group of 4, but out of all the Slugs that landed, over half of them are. You can't tell by looking at them unless you know what to look for. And, if they were to get into a fight, you'd be able to tell pretty quickly which ones were brave and reckless and which ones weren't."

  I turned my processes to examining the Slugs, and attempted to differentiate between the ones which followed the Honour system and those that didn't. Apart from observing some of them standing alone looking towards the Cyborgs and the others conversing via touch in groups, however, I could see no distinction.

  After a short wait of approximately 3 minutes, several Slugs joined our group. "Begin", one of them, which I deduced to be the leader, said.

  At its word, our group of 11 began to travel towards the body of Cyborgs, which were now close enough to distinguish between individual units. The front row of them contained 8 Cyborgs, and they were advancing steadily towards us.

  "What if they don't send a party to meet us?" asked Ethan.

  "We can assume that they will", I hypothesised to him, "as they followed our example by landing on Slugma one ship at a time."

  "I guess so", he replied, and fell silent.

  We soon came within a medium range of the Cyborgs, about 100 metres away - approximately 109 yards or 328 feet - and Matthew cautioned us, "We should stop and wait here."

  "A little further", the older Slug stated, and kept on walking. The 3 Slugs with it followed immediately, but our group of 7 hesitated at the peculiarity of having Matthew's suggestion overridden; when someone normally contradicted his advice, it was given with valid reasons, rather than just being stated and then carried out.

  Matt eventually sighed his defeat, and began to follow his superior. We soon followed.

  After considering my feelings of this, I concluded that I did not like another Slug making the decisions. Although it could not be disputed that Matthew was not in his right mind, and that his every word and action were controlled by irrational impulses that I would never understand, I'd never known him to make a decision that would overly endanger anyone's life. I could not say the same of this Slug, which would likely sacrifice everyone on Slugma without hesitation if the option arose.

  A short walk later, the Slug leader eventually stopped, and we did likewise. "And now we wait", Ethan said sadly. I decided that he thought we would be waiting a long time; I did not concur.

  The group of Cyborgs soon ceased their forward movement. They stood facing us, unmoving for some time, obviously conversing through their radio wave network connection. They were most likely conducting a vote on their next course of action.

  If so, the outcome of their vote became apparent when 11 of them broke off the main group, and began to travel towards us. Exactly the same amount as our group - they could not know Ethan's non-combatant status, and thus their number was justified. This hinted much at their intentions to likewise avoid a fight. That was good.

  "Get ready for action", Matt said, and I could detect the tension underlying his verbal communication. The fact that this was perceivable, despite the fact that the Slugs technically should not show any emotions in their speech, indicated his feelings concerning the matter.

  "This is what we have been working towards", I spoke, recognising the effect that inspiring words often had on organic life forms.

  No one replied to my comment, and the Cyborgs approached hearing range. As I looked at them, I realised that I recognised one of them.

  It was Slob. True to his promise, he had come to Slugma and brought roughly 200 Cyborgs with him. It was now up to us to keep to our promise, and bring about an end to the Slug-Cyborg war before it reached an irrecoverable state due to the introduction of the Humans. Such a burden was ours to bear now.

  The Human

  Hey, it was Slob! I'd recognise that slightly-taller-than-normal-Cyborgs, skin-slighty-more-skin-coloured-than-normal-Cyborgs, face-slightly-more-face-like-than-normal-Cyborgs guy anywhere! I'd pretty much confimed by now that every Cyborg was the same height except for Cyborg leaders, who were somewhat taller (Slob was the only one in this Cyborg group). Was this meant to be some kind of leadership symbolism? Cause it didn't sound very Cyborg-like to me.

  "Hello Slob", Matt said evenly. "Thank you for meeting us here."

  Alright now, enough is enough. That is totally not what Matthew would normally say upon meeting Slob; in fact he'd been acting strange for the past few minutes, and I think I knew why. He'd been way more composed and less impulsive ever since the older nine-cycle old Slug had joined our group, as if he was trying to impress his superior or something. To m
ake himself look good.

  I'd known Matthew for many years (nowhere near as much as Boy, but for me it was still a heck of a long time), and he'd never tried to act normal for anyone. Which was probably the reason that I was his only friend - but that was besides the point! I didn't like him trying to suck up to some other Slug, just cause he was older. However, I respected Matt too much to complain about it right now, so I'd bide my time and wait until our group was alone again. Until then I'd have to deal with it.

  "It is as we arranged", Slob replied, still sporting that same monotone voice, and proud of it. "Have you thought of a way to end the war on a macro scale."

  "Yes and no - " Matt started to say, but he got interrupted by the older Slug.

  "Are you in charge of the Cyborgs?" it asked. What, didn't it know that the Cyborgs don't have a king like the Slugs? Does this guy know anything?

  "I am one of their leaders", Slob replied. Man, it was weird when both of them spoke in such a monotonous voice (the Slug was a little better, but not by much). You couldn't tell what the meanings behind the words were, but just had to take them at face value as if they were typed or something. Which I guess is as much as either of them knew of the english language - what the words were defined as, not exactly what they meant.

  "We are here to end the war", the Slug continued, "and intend to negotiate to find a way to do so." It sounded to me as if it didn't really care if the war ended or not. I had to remind myself that I couldn't tell what it felt by the sound of its voice, and that I was just biased against it. So that goes for you too - don't let biases influence your perceptions! Make Phill proud.

  "That is the purpose for which we came", Slob said. "It was expressly conveyed to us during this group's visit to the Cyborg Archives." He looked at us to mean our group.

  "What do you propose?" asked the Slug. Well, at least it knew how to ask a question properly. That was directed at you, Slob!

  "We believed you had a proposition", Slob stated.

  The Slug looked at Matthew with its eye holes (which was as freaky as it sounds). "Yes and no", Matthew said again. Before he could continue, another Slugmaquake struck. I was probably imagining it, but I swear that they were getting bigger as well. I wonder what they'd be on that earthquake scale they've got back on Earth. The one that everyone uses - you know what I mean.

  "Another one", Frank said. "This is beginning to become alarming."

  "I am now worried", Matt said in a statement-like manner that sounded more like something Phill would say.

  "It is not a threat", the leader-Slug brushed our worries off. I was sure doing my best, believe me I was, but it was so easy to dislike this guy. "You had a proposition?" it went on to Matt.

  "Yes and no", Matthew repeated again. "I have a vague idea, but I haven't thought about it too much because it needed to be run by the Cyborgs first."

  "You haven't mentioned any of this to us", I complained. He turned to me and gave me a faint smile, like the real Matthew shining through his fake calm and tranquil manner. I have no idea why this is annoying me so much, but, by God, it is.

  He turned back to the Cyborgs and said, "What I was thinking was this: it would be impossible for the Slugs to want to end the war, because they'd then lose the opportunity to die with Honour. I imagine that some Cyborgs would feel similarly. So I think that the only way to get around this would be to let the war continue in a secluded, isolated and quarantined place, a place like Slugma, perhaps several places, where the battles can continue to rage until there's no one left.

  "Meanwhile, our empires will start to create a new people, a people full of tolerance and understanding and lacking in hate, where there is no need for war or fighting. Hopefully the humans will follow suit. The point is, the war must continue in isolated areas for those who cannot live without it, while our races must forge on ahead towards a more peaceful, less violent future."

  There was a long pause. Slob was no doubt in furious conversation through his wireless connection to the other Cyborgs (he didn't need to click-talk now that he wasn't on PDN anymore, which was weirdly disappointing). Our leader-Slug was in contact with the other three Slugs. As for our group of seven, we were silent. Matt's plan made enough sense to me, but I wasn't in a position to be passing judgement on a plan to end a war I've never really been a part of. Apart from Jason, William and Terry (albeit to a lesser extent), I hadn't lost anyone to the fighting. I couldn't imagine what Matthew, Boy and the others had gone through back then, going into every battle knowing that the chances are you weren't going to come out the other side, and that some of the people you knew certainly wouldn't. Although, their belief of Honour meant that they liked that. Yep, I couldn't imagine that at all.

  Finally, Slob spoke up. "You mean to continue a fragmented war until all who oppose the peace are dead." Well, it sure sounded like an evil plan when you put it like that.

  Matt opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, another Slugmaquake struck. The ground almost trembled at the force, and I swear this one was bigger than the last. "OK, now I'm really worried about that", Boy said. "We should choose a different part of the planet to negotiate at." He looked at Slob. "Surely you can't disregard the signs of risk that we're seeing here?"

  "Such tremors do not harm us", the Slug-leader said.

  "I'm pretty sure they're getting stronger", I added.

  "The risk we are experiencing is increasing", Phill said, which I'm pretty sure was a more mechanical way to say what I just said.

  Slob said, "Altering our location would require the consumption of resources. Given the current hazard level, this may be necessary."

  "When will it become necessary, and not just be maybe necessary?" asked Boy. He seemed in a rush to get out of here. Probably because we were all on the verge of death or something.

  "More Slugmaquakes are likely to follow, and they'll probably be getting faster and stronger", Frank warned.

  "How could you know that?" Rosetta asked him.

  He shrugged. "Based on what we've felt so far."

  "Look", Matthew said, "whatever the case, the Cyborgs need time to mull over our idea, put it to a vote or something, then come back with any amendments or conditions or such. We can move our armies while they do that. Everyone happy?"

  "What if these quakes are occurring on a mass scale?" asked Phill.

  "Then we're damn out of luck", Rosetta assured him. I had a brief time to marvel that I once had an argument with her over whether or not luck had any impact on someone's life. It appeared that she'd come around to my way of thinking.

  "Does that sound good, Slob?" I asked the Cyborg. "We'll meet up somewhere else then and continue this discussion."

  And that was when it happened. 'What happened?' I hear you ask - well, I'm about to tell you.

  Slob opened his mouth to reply with something (probably a 'you can't tell me what to do!') when he abruptly stopped moving. As soon as it happened, I thought that his CPU had frozen or something, but soon after I figured that he must've been in frantic conversation with his fellow Cyborgs about what he'd seen, and was too busy to waste time on physical movement. He was probably just as shocked as I was soon to be.

  I then heard a loud crack, followed shortly by a louder boom. Now I know that we heard such boom noises back on PDN, and they were loud and all, but I'm fairly sure that these ones were way louder. Maybe it was just because I'd heard it most recently, but trust me - it was loud. Like, I think it even deserved to be in uppercase. So what I really heard was a loud CRACK and BOOM. That's more like it.

  It had come from behind me, and I stood there shocked for a moment. A brief memory flashed through my mind of standing back at my school, shocked, while a Cyborg held a sword to me (yes, a real sword). I suppose my constitution was a bit more iron now than it was back then, cause I quickly whipped around to check out who had fired the tank at us.

  Needless to say, it turned out that there was no tank. But the source of the noise was pretty obvious. Remembe
r how we were in a valley-like terrain, surrounded by majestic mountains, and that our side was close to one of the ends? If you don't, then we were in a long valley, about a third of the way down it (that fraction is a total guess, in case you didn't know). Well, it turned out that that had an impact on things.

  Because it also turned out that right behind us, at a respectable distance but not so far for us to think ourselves safe, one of the tall peaks that marked the end and edge of the valley had decided that it didn't want to end with rock anymore and was now peaked with an enormous, gigantic plume of some darkish smoke-like substance. Now, I was no geology expert (I wasn't an expert in most things, if you must know), but I had a pretty good feeling that that 'mountain' was actually a volcano, and that what we'd heard and were looking at right now was an eruption. As in, a volcanic eruption.

  "Oh, that cannot be good", Matthew said.

  All of us were just standing there, staring at it, and it was Phill's comment that spurred us to action. "That explains the quakes we've been experiencing", he said. Kind of a lame thing to say, when you think about it.

  "Time to move!" Boy yelled soon after, and grabbed Carmen and Frank's hand. After a moment, they fell out of their stupor, a result of whatever he'd frantically communicated to them I guess, and tried to rally the rest of the Slugs.

  "I guess we'll see you later, Slob!" I called as Phill and I ran to Matt's side. The rude Cyborg said nothing to us, but turned and bounded off in perfect synchronisation with the rest of his gang. Their running looked kind of funny, because of the low gravity on Slugma, but I guessed I'd be running like that shortly too.

  "What is the plan?" Boy asked Matt desperately.

  Looking at the mountain/volcano, I couldn't see any lava, so at least we wouldn't boil alive (just yet). But I did notice that the ash and dust cloud (I'm assuming that it was an ash and dust cloud, and so from here on out will call it that) had grown still bigger, still huger really, and still more dangerous-looking, and was casually heading along the sides of its creator's slope - in our direction. That cannot be good at all.

  "For now, get the hell back to the ships", Matthew said. "Everyone stay together; we can't afford to waste any time looking for someone who gets lost amongst all the others."

  "We won't leave unless we all leave together", Rosetta said, which seemed to be an alien way to say, 'No one gets left behind'. It was good for me too, cause I was the one most likely to end up getting lost.

  "Agreed", Boy said. "Now let's move!" At that, we all started to run back towards the main body of Slugs (and the volcano, which didn't seem like the best idea to me), who I could even tell from here were in a state of chaos. Despite all of this, I still had time to think that running in the low gravity was actually kind of fun. To think that I would probably die thinking that... not a bad way to go, right?

  Man, I was tired. We'd run all the way back from our meeting point with Slob and the Cyborgs to the main Slug encampment. I was expecting to see tents pitched or something, but no. Most of the Slugs were standing around, doing not much that I could tell. Keep in mind, of course, that Slugs in the standard form have no legs, so standing for them is kind of like sitting.

  And I don't know about the others, but I was completely puffed out. It was a miracle that I didn't need to stop for the whole trip, but I sure came close. Don't blame me for it - staying fit isn't exactly a top priority for the homeless.

  As for the ash cloud, it had managed to grow bigger still (a seemingly impossible feat), and was just starting to reach directly above us in the sky, but it did look as if it had all been expelled from the volcano. Looking up at the peak itself, there was luckily no lava or flying balls of molten rock that I could see through the smoke, but I guessed that it was possible that all that had spilled down the other face of the mountain. The wind was blowing in our direction, and that's why the ash cloud was nearly on top of us. I guess.

  As we slowed down, I asked (in halting, breathy words), "Now what?"

  "Where did the older Slug go?" asked Boy.

  "Don't know, don't care", Matthew said nonchalantly. "I was planning on all of us jumping back into the scout ship and getting out of here, but that's no longer an option now."

  "It would be suicidal to attempt to fly with such a weather event occurring above us", Phill agreed. "Our safest course of action would be to travel back the way we have come, away from the dangerous fumes." Great, more running. And in the opposite direction to where we'd just run in too!

  "Those fumes wouldn't be dangerous", Frank said. "How would they kill us?"

  "Not I and not Slugs", Phill told him, "but human lungs are susceptible to toxic clouds such as this."

  Everyone looked at me. "Sorry", I said sheepishly, as if it was my fault that I couldn't breath in volcanic ash clouds from an alien planet. Speaking of which, it continued to swell across the sky, spreading out and just about covering us.

  "What's going on with the ships still in orbit?" Matt asked. "We need to make sure they know what's happened."

  "None of us has a communicator", Rosetta told him, and so he quickly grabbed a nearby Slug.

  After a few moments, he turned back. "The cloud is interfering with our radiowave communicators. We've dropped out of contact with the ships."

  "So we're on our own", I said. "Great."

  At that moment, the first pieces of ash started to rain down on us. It was gentle at first, but I guessed that it'd get thicker soon. You know that ancient Italian town that got covered in ash? I forget its name, but yeah. Don't want to end up like that.

  "We need to move out of this area", Phill said. "You should also alert all of the other Slugs."

  "You guys move on ahead", Matthew instructed us. "Stick together, and don't get separated. Boy and I will go around and tell the other Slugs to follow us." He paused to glance at the dust cloud. "We're going to try and outrun this thing, which means heading down the valley towards the Cyborg side. Hopefully it'll be more thinned out down there."

  "Does that mean more running?" I asked sadly. I'd only just gotten my breath back. Actually, it still wasn't fully back.

  "Unfortunately so", Carmen consoled me.

  Before we took off, I had a thought. "Hey Phill? If this is blocking communications, doesn't that mean that the Cyborgs won't be able to talk to each other?"

  He looked at me solemnly. "If they should get within a sufficient range of the emissions, then we should assume that." Hmm. Hopefully that won't be a problem later on.

  "Come on guys, move", Matt urged us, and we took off without him and Boy. It wasn't too difficult, bounding in abnormally long strides, but I was quickly puffed out again. I was starting to kind of worry why I was tiring so easily, and having to take such huge breaths. Perhaps lazing around in a spaceship for so long had softened me up. Not that I was very hard to begin with, of course.

  After a while, I inevitably started to lag behind. Rosetta glanced back, saw me struggling, looked up to the dust cloud to see we could afford a rest (we'd gotten out of range of the ash-rain), and called the others to a halt. I was kneeling over struggling to breathe (it was almost painful too), when Frank said in a perfectly even voice, "We should keep moving."

  "Just... a minute", I gasped.

  As they all looked at my pathetic self, Phill put forward, "Based on my knowledge of Ethan's general fitness, he should be able to go on longer than this, especially given this planet's low gravitational force." I think he just said I was getting weaker over time. Thanks for that.

  "It is strange", Carmen concurred.

  "This leads to a likely hypothesis", Phill continued. "Slugma's atmosphere may very well have a much lower oxygen concentration than Earth, Slugenis or PDN, and this is why Ethan is so struggling to oxygenate his blood for exercise."

  I wondered if he was serious or was just trying to make excuses for me. Either way, I was happy with not looking like too much of a weakling.

  "That doesn't bode well for us either", Rosetta said.

/>   Frank elaborated, "It will take longer for us Slugs to feel the effects, but we should be feeling starved of air pretty soon."

  "Knowing Matthew", Phill said, "he has probably already shifted the inside of his slime to increase the surface area and thus expose much more of his slime to the air."

  Carmen said sadly, "I can try that, but it will be difficult to alter the signal my mental block is giving out."

  "Even if we're all tired", Rosetta warned us, "we still need to move. That cloud isn't going to wait for us to catch our breath." Looking up, I saw that she was right; now that it was out in the open and not surrounded by mountain peaks, the ash and dust was moving faster towards us. Well, either that or the wind had picked up up there in the sky.

  I turned completely around and saw the army of Slugs moving towards us at a respectable pace. Slugs in that basic form could move fast in the short term, as I knew well, but I wasn't sure how good they were at long-distance running. Why weren't any of them in that combat form I'd seen during our invasion of PDN? Well, no time to think of that now.

  "Time to go", Frank said, and we took off again. I spared a final glance at the cloud, looking dark and gloomy and moving steadily towards us in the sky. I sure didn't want to get a lungful of that - it looked pretty deadly.

  To think, that after all this time clamouring for them, I might end up getting killed by a cloud! Poetic justice or irony? I didn't know which, but it wouldn't exactly be a fulfilling and satisfying end to my life.

  However, despite all the things that had gone wrong, and despite the decades of travel I'd technically gone through, I was still young, and I still found it difficult to come to terms with the fact that this may actually be how I die. I don't think any young person really believes they're going to die up until the moment it actually happens, and I was no different.

  Well, it was time for the universe to give its best effort at proving me wrong.

  The Slug

  Unbelievable! It was just unbelievable! No time for worrying now, though; now was a time for action. And action I did.

  After sending Ethan and the others ahead of us, Boy and I frantically spread our message throughout all of the Slugs. We had to do it manually because the ash cloud had also blocked our communicators between each other. To think that the ash had knocked out all of our remote signal capabilities. Unbelievable!

  With the Slug older than me not around for the time being for apparently deplorable reasons, I was recognised as the authority. The Slugs, even the new ones who weren't so indoctrinated into our way, knew how to run away from a danger that they could see, so there was no issues there. The discharge from the badly-timed eruption was a dark, threatening mass of dust, rapidly spreading down the valley we were in.

  After we'd gotten everyone moving - Slugs we had given the orders to having passed the signal on to others, who then did the same - I tried to find Boy but couldn't in the masses. Knowing that he'd head to where the others had gone on ahead of us, I ran past all of the Slugs to meet him there. We all had to stay together; in this chaos, to be split up at a bad time could be the end of someone. And we couldn't allow that to happen.

  To think that a mission with peace and unity at its core could end so badly. Unbelievable! I would be tempted to say that the peace was never meant to be, but one mustn't be so rash as to attribute poor circumstances to fate. It could be that Slugma, which I'd known was volcanically active, was very volcanically active. Or perhaps this eruption was a worldwide event, not just two layers of bad luck on our part. Whatever the case, it had happened, and now was the time for action. And action I had done.

  Luckily our group was still ahead of the Slugs and the ash cloud, because I found them easily. Ethan seemed to be struggling to run with the others. This caused a sharp worry in me; he may have fallen over and injured himself, he may have taken a breath of the ash and dust, which could contain any number of toxic chemicals.

  I quickly caught up to them. 'What's the matter?' I asked.

  He stopped and turned to me and, amazingly, smiled. 'I seem to be having some trouble', he said, raggedly out of breath.

  'We suspect that Slugma may have a low oxygen content', Phill told me, 'and that this may be causing Ethan to struggle to breathe while running.'

  Ethan smiled again. 'Sorry.'

  'Don't be silly', I told him, 'it's not your fault. I didn't check exactly how much oxygen Slugma had, only made sure it was enough for Slugs to live, since we need more than Humans. If there isn't enough for strenuous activity, once the lack of oxygen reaches the Slugs' brains, whose slime is currently absorbed with lots of it, they'll all struggle as well. Yet another mistake I've made...'

  'Don't be silly', Ethan told me now, his voice partially regained. 'It's not your fault.' With no intention by me, I smiled back at him.

  'We need a plan - ', Carmen began, but she quickly changed her mind about what to say. 'Where's Boy?'

  'I couldn't find him in the mess', I said, looking back at the incoming Slugs which were alarmingly close. 'We'll have to catch up with him later. For now, it's time to keep going.'

  'Alright then', Ethan bravely stood up. 'Let's go.'

  We were very nearly immersed in the throng of Slugs, as everyone struggled to push on ahead of the ash. I noticed some of the Slugs just behind us having difficulty moving as well, meaning that Phill's guess about Slugma's oxygen was right. Slugs needed more oxygen intake than Humans, as well as food, to fuel the high signal output of our brain, so I could imagine that they would soon be having a harder time.

  As soon as the Cyborg had warned me about the air, I had shifted the inside of my breathing chamber - as distinct from my bones, or digestion chambers - to split into many small capillaries all around it which stretched deeper into my body. These little crevices dramatically increased the surface area of exposed slime inside me to the outside air that I breathe in, and thus increased my oxygen intake. Hopefully by enough that I wouldn't be experiencing too much problems.

  As I ran beside Rosetta, I glanced across from her to look at Ethan. He was struggling, taking big breaths, but plodding along well enough. Looking back at the threatening ash cloud, I saw it still advancing but pulling back from our perspective. That is, we were outrunning it.

  'What are we going to do now?' Rosetta asked me.

  'It looks as if we'll just have to wait until this cloud has dissipated', I told her. 'Until then, we may end up running into the Cyborg part of town.'

  'Wouldn't they run from it also?' she asked.

  Phill answered her, 'Unlikely. Although it may disrupt their communications, like it has ours, they would be unwilling to leave their ships alone as they know that we may be coming this way.' Trust him to understand Cyborg motivations. It's almost as if he's a Cyborg himself!

  As he finished, the main army of Slugs caught up to us and started to pass us; Ethan was gasping and slowing down.

  'Let's have a rest!' I called, and we began to slow to a walk.

  Although it was far too loud from the sound of moving Slugs to hear, Frank tried to call, 'Boy! We're here!'

  'Phew', Ethan said. 'This sucks.'

  'Indeed it does', I told him. 'We'll walk for now, but tell us when you're ready again.'

  'I'm starting to feel a little off now too', Carmen said worriedly. 'All of this running is starting to starve my slime of air.'

  'If it were required, I may be able to carry someone', Phill courageously volunteered. What a brave man.

  I almost laughed at that. 'That's OK', I told him. 'We all need to stay together, not have you and someone else run off ahead and get lost like Boy did.'

  The last remnants of the Slugs army passed us then, the Slugs struggling along behind them only getting slower and slower. The exercise and the air was starting to affect them, and not in a good way. In fact, it was quite the opposite of a good way.

  'How long till we reach the Cyborgs then?' Ethan panted. 'Maybe they'll shield us with their bodies or something.'

&nbs
p; 'It shouldn't be long', Phill told him. 'Although I should tell you that the probability of them doing that is extremely low.'

  The Human managed to give a shaky laugh. He looked back at the cloud, which was steadily advancing on us again, and said, 'Let's walk faster. I'd rather not die from breathing in whatever's been festering inside Slugma for millions of years.'

  'It is gross, when you put it like that', I told him. 'Come on then. We should reach the Cyborgs soon. I'm sure that they'll be cool and help us out.'

  'And if they don't?' asked Frank.

  'Then we're in trouble', I answered him truthfully. 'Big trouble indeed.'

  It was meant to be a gloomy, foreboding comment that no one responded to, but Phill, ever the spoiler of these things, said, 'That would be bad.'

  And the worst part was that he was right.

  The Cyborg

  After an additional running period of approximately 11 minutes, including a further 2 rest stops for Ethan, and, increasingly, some of the Slugs, the first of the Cyborg landing craft came into our view close enough to analyse.

  Like all Cyborg technology, the ships were designed in a modular, compartmentalised fashion, being composed of several large pieces which fit together at key junctures. Cyborg units themselves were constructed in a similar fashion, with our pieces held together by locking mechanisms which utilised internally-generated tension.

  Ships were made with the same methodology, although on a macro scale and with more fail safes installed. Of course, all of the Cyborg ships that had landed on Slugma were not Cyborgs in their own right; they were simply transport ships that did not house their own consciousness and experiences. Only the largest Cyborgs war ships were aware, sentient creatures.

  "I see ships", Ethan spoke through his verbally-communicated exertions. "That means we're almost there."

  "It seems so", Matthew replied in a steady voice. I, however, was not fooled by how the Slug sounded; as speech is not innate to a Slug, it does not generally reflect their current feelings, thoughts, or physical status like it does for a Human. Although Matthew was somewhat of an anomaly in this regard, he wasn't displaying this tendency now.

  I turned to observe behind us, and saw that the volcano's emissions, a result of the eruption's release of pressure, were not as thick as they were previously; the ash and dust, no doubt electrically-charged which was the cause of the radio wave interference, was more dispersed the further it got from its point of origin. At an estimate, I predicted that it still sufficiently obstructed communication signals so as to make the use of such systems impractical, and that the atmosphere here would be breathable for a short time.

  We soon got closer and closer to where the Cyborgs had landed, until we were there. Our observations once we were in visual range, however, were less than appealing.

  "What's going on here!?" asked Matthew in an outraged voice. After determining that it was not a question he expected to be answered by one of us, I said nothing.

  What we saw were Cyborgs and Slugs fighting, the very thing which we had worked so hard to prevent. The majority of the armies were not currently within our sight, but the small amount that were were in a battle. Based on a preliminary count, there were 18 Cyborgs fighting 22 Slugs, although 3 of those Slugs were not actively engaged; they were, in fact, doing nothing, which I deduced to mean they were either injured or too oxygen-starved to partake in the fighting.

  "Stop this, stop this!" Matt yelled, and dashed into the fray. Ethan stopped some distance away and leaned his hands on his knees, regaining his lost oxygen in large, gasping breaths. As per my previous conclusion, I remained with him, as did Rosetta.

  Frank and Carmen, meanwhile, chased after Matthew, presumably to assist him.

  "This is not what is meant to be happening", Ethan stated, although he did not seem to grasp the full failure of our fundamental mission here. After all of our hard effort and planning, a weather phenomenon threatened to undo everything. It would be a humorous predicament, if it weren't so impactful on our lives. "What are we going to do?" the Human asked.

  "All is not yet lost", I told him, hoping to inspire hope in the Human. "We must simply break up this fight, and then break up every other fight that we come across. After doing this enough times, things may yet go our way." This was the only way I could foresee as turning things around, but I chose not to attempt to calculate the probability of it occurring.

  "It was a mistake to send all of the Slugs ahead of us", Rosetta said. "Those are probably Honour-bound Slugs fighting there, and I bet that there are other isolated fights going on elsewhere as the Slug army split up while running."

  "What about the newly formed Slugs?" asked Ethan, starting to sound better. The Human body's ability to recover was startling in its efficiency.

  "They probably ran", Rosetta proposed. "With no interest in starting a fight, they've probably gone off elsewhere."

  "A plausible scenario", I told her. "However, it holds little relevance to our current state. We need to put an end to all of the fighting as quick as we can, for the more lives that are lost, the lower the chance of any recovery of this situation."

  "Recovery?" asked Ethan. "I'll be surprised if we get away with this with our lives. Based on how I'm feeling right now, every Slug is practically dead from not being able to breathe - or, absorb oxygen through their slime. There's no way they can fight in that condition, especially when the act of fighting uses oxygen which causes that very same condition!"

  "Perhaps so", I replied, "but look at Matthew and that battle now."

  As the 2 of them turned their attention to the point of interest, they saw how Matt, Frank, and Carmen had managed to split the two factions up. Lying between them, I noticed, were 5 Slugs and 2 Cyborgs, the casualties of that brief encounter. There would likely be other casualties elsewhere.

  Matthew was currently in contact with one of the Slugs, and so I chose not to disturb him for more up-to-date information. Frank and Carmen were likewise busy ensuring that the two sides of the conflict did not begin another skirmish.

  "How did we think that we could do this?" asked Ethan, his tone of voice indicating his declining faith in our mission. "You guys have been at war for like 12,000 years - how did we think that we, a couple of misfits, could end that?"

  "Sometimes", Rosetta told him, "it takes those who don't follow the status quo to change the status quo. Those on the inside are too absorbed in the matter to do anything about it."

  "Following that sound logic", I continued, "we are the only ones who can do this. Regardless of how impossible or imprudent it may seem, especially now; if no one were to try, no one would succeed."

  The Human sighed. "I guess you're right. So, what are we going to do to salvage this situation?" His quick transition from verging on hopeless to acceptable and practical was another testament to his race's sometimes useful volatility.

  "We need to find Slob", Rosetta concurred with my opinion. "He will surely agree with us, and having a Cyborg leader to help us break up fights will be much easier than just Slugs trying to do it."

  "And a Human", Ethan added, "although I doubt that I'll be doing much."

  "I shall be staying with you", I told him, "so you need not fear for your safety. As least as far as I can protect it."

  "Matt is taking a long time talking to that Slug", Rosetta observed. Looking to him, I discovered that she was correct; he was still in contact, his eyes closed, his face strangely strained, with who I presumed to be that same Slug.

  "Maybe he's the older Slug", Ethan suggested. "But if that's the case, where did he go before? I don't think he ran back to the Slug side with us at all."

  "I did not see him either", I confirmed. "Perhaps he stayed behind."

  "I can't think why though", Ethan went on. "Well, I suppose we'll find out soon enough." He pointed, "Look, here comes Matthew."

  Although Carmen and Frank stayed in their positions, Matt was indeed quickly making his way back to us. The look I observed on
his face did not bode well for the news which he would bring.

  "What is it?" Rosetta asked cautiously. "What happened?"

  "That darn Slug", he said in the obvious tone of anger and insanity which he was prone to when things went drastically wrong. "That darn, darn thing! That was the older one, that bastard, and he just told me, he might as well have ordered me, to leave you guys here and go off on excursions with some other Slugs. To leave you and go off alone!"

  Based on his reaction and speech, I deduced that Matthew had acceded to his superior's demand. Why should he do this when he had rebelled against the Slug king himself back on Earth? Perhaps because he felt that his close friends were still safe. Possibly, he also intended to use this as an opportunity to search for Boy, who no doubt received similar orders and was thus not here to meet us.

  "We're going to split up?" Ethan asked, worried. "We were meant to stick together, remember!?"

  "I do", Matt said sadly. "But we're going to have to. Frank and Carmen have been sent in a different group to myself; I'll be going off on my own. Luckily Rosetta is free for now. You 3 make sure you stay together, at least, and try not to stray too far from these Cyborg ships. I'll make my way back when I can. Goodbye, for now."

  "Goodbye", Ethan said softly as Matthew ran away, meeting a group of Slugs who had survived the brief encounter. The Cyborgs from that fight were gone; I hadn't noticed their departure.

  Rosetta turned to me. "Now what?" she asked.

  "Now", I answered her, "we do what beings have done since they first became aware of time: we wait."

  The Slug

  We ran for a bit more after Phill's spoiling yet true comment, desperately trying to reach the Cyborgs before anything bad happened. It wasn't too long before we began to see their ugly, box-like ships, landed on the ground. Because they had landed in them.

  Ethan puffed out, 'I see... ships. That means... we're almost there.'

  'It seems so', I replied, and continued on towards them. I had already started to slow down a bit, though. Ethan and his weakened lungs couldn't keep up with this running for much longer, and I judged that we were far enough away from the volcano for him to be able to breathe. At least for now.

  And that was when I saw it. Near the Cyborg ships, that was where I saw it. Through my eyes, or at least my eye-holes, that was how I saw it.

  What I saw was a mid-sized group of Slugs and Cyborgs in a fight. In a fight! Right here, right in front of us!

  'What's going on here!?' I called out, and quickly sprinted over to them, ready to do whatever I had to do. This shouldn't be happening, not at all, not at all. I had to stop it, I had to stop it!

  I hadn't checked on my friends, but I had to trust that they would be alright. I had more important matters to attend to right now.

  I could tell that this fight had been going for some time. Well, some time for a Slug-Cyborg battle, at any rate, which only meant over a minute or two. I knew because fights always started as an all-out free for all, but once they matured, little pockets of combat emerged. They were mostly distinct from other fights, but participants usually struck out at an enemy from a different fight as much as they could in order to help out the team.

  Before any more lives could be lost - and I could already see a few that had - I thrust myself into the largest brawl, which involved five Slugs and five Cyborgs. Given enough time, this group too would splinter into smaller sub-groups; there were usually only one to three fighters in the smallest sub-groups.

  Hoping that at least one of these Cyborgs could understand English, I cried, 'Stop this, at once! Our purpose here is not to fight!'

  Having shoved myself in between the two groups, I thrust my arms out to either side and stood my ground. It would be difficult to stop hostilities that had been going like this one had, but I had to do my best. Because this shouldn't be happening, not at all, not at all.

  I took two hits from the Cyborgs, luckily not on my head where my brain was, before they began to stop and think about the situation. The two sides formed into groups of five, one on either side of me, waiting for the battle to begin anew.

  Looking to my left, I saw both Frank and Carmen following my example in the smaller frays.

  I called once again, 'It's time to stop this. Time to stop it altogether. This is exactly why we came to Slugma, this! To stop this, to stop this altogether! Cease your quarrels, for the future of the Slugs and Cyborgs is to live in peace, without war, without battles!' I purposefully didn't say "without death", as the filthy Slugs that were the cause of our problems wouldn't be persuaded by that at all. Not at all.

  If the Cyborgs didn't understand what I was saying, they at least took the meaning of it. The group of them began to back away from me, still cautiously watching, but at least backing away. The small groups that Frank and Carmen had intervened in did likewise. As the other parties saw what was happened, each battle split into the two factions, those of the same race on the same side. The Cyborgs couldn't wirelessly communicate here, at least I didn't think so, but they all knew what they were doing nonetheless; they were retreating. We had stopped this, we had stopped this.

  As the Cyborgs came together in preparation for their leaving, a Slug behind me touched my hand. Instantly and without turning around, I knew who it was from their signal identification; the Slug older than I, the one who had seen this battle and not put an end to it. The one who had partook in it.

  It took a considerable amount of willpower for me to not reveal what I was truly thinking right now. If this Slug could read weaker communication signals like I could, it would surely see everything. Good thing it couldn't then; there was no way a wretch like it could perform so complex and delicate a task.

  As for my powers of precisely altering my slime cells to divert primary signals and so read background, weaker signals - there was no moral dilemma here. I turned the full force of my considerable concentration ruthlessly upon this Slug, ignoring all else around me. My friends would just have to wait.

  It was disappointed that I had intervened. Disappointed! Asking me why I had stopped that fight, telling me that every Slug here was about to receive their Honour - with the Cyborgs unaffected, at least physically, by the lowered concentration of oxygen on Slugma, they would have easily killed every Slug there. But they hadn't. And it was disappointed!

  Delving deeper, I found that it was also angry with me, upset with me, that I had halted a fight that an older Slug was a part of. The oldest Slug usually doesn't go on risky assignments, as it is considered selfish in our culture to order yourself to be on the mission most likely to end in death. This was this Slug's chance, perhaps its only glorious chance, at death. And I had stopped it. Because I had to stop it, I had to!

  Going deeper still, I sensed the disdain with which this particular bug of creation viewed our purpose here. It was a waste, so it thought, a peace could never be achieved, and no one would want it anyway. No sane Slug would want the war to end. I picked up almost that exact phrase: "no sane Slug".

  And, although I knew that the word "sane" could just as well mean "normal", I had no use for it if this is what it meant. If "sane" meant to crave one's own demise, to ruin the visions and futures of others, to go so fundamentally against the very nature of life so as to hardly be considered life at all, then I wanted no part of it, no part at all! I revoke "sane", and all those who use it to justify their despicable beliefs!

  This Slug here, this wretched thing, had obviously not run back with us after we'd met with Slob and the other Cyborgs. For all I knew, it wanted to run into the Cyborg army itself, and get killed instantly! It wasn't thinking anything about that right now, so I couldn't read it, but it probably wanted to. For all I knew.

  It was Slugs like this that I'd grown to hate and despise, Slugs like this which is why I prefer the company of a Human and a Cyborg to the vast majority of them. This was they called a sane Slug.

  Split up. I was distracted by that concept, and turned my attention back to the
betrayer's primary communications. Split up. It was telling me what I was to do, what we were all to do; split up. I was to go off with a group of other Slugs, Honour-bound things that I had no interest in being with, to find other groups of Cyborgs and "stop the fighting".

  I could easily read that it believed we would get into a battle, as they had, and I could also read its motivations behind this; it was doing me a favour. It thought it was doing me a favour, putting me in a situation where I could get myself killed. Because that's what I truly wanted, even if I didn't realise it. It thinks that I want that!

  At my lack of reply, it told me again what I was do to. What I was more-or-less ordered to do. Commanded to do. Required to do. When I had gone against the Slug King's command - no, "command" wasn't the right word, they just tell us to do it, and expect that we will - it wasn't a face-to-face refusal; I had simply not followed the exact specifications of his long-range message.

  This was different. Were I to say what every part of me wanted to - a resounding "NO!" - there's no telling what it would do. No Slug had ever refused an older Slug's instructions before, definitely not to their face. It might tell the other Slugs to attack me... to attack Ethan or the others. Boy was alone right now... he was alone and this Slug knew we were close friends...

  I sent back an affirmation and was about to let go of its contaminated slime, but it sent me another signal first. Frank and Carmen are also going away, separately from me. As if it was trying to split us up on purpose. As if it was taking our group of Slugs out of contact and hoping that we'd revert back to the "normal" Slug way. The wrong way. The revoked way.

  I could've gone deeper into its thoughts and background signals, but was too disgusted to touch it any longer. I replied with another affirmation and broke off contact, almost shivering when the touch ended. This should not be happening, not at all, not at all. And yet it was; yet it was. Striding back to my group - my only group - I thought about how to tell the others. It didn't matter though, none of it did, there was no way to tell them.

  Carmen and Frank didn't come with me, and I guessed that the bastard Slug was just now telling them their instructions. Like me, they would have no choice but to accept. After Slugma, though... after Slugma...

  'What is it?' Rosetta asked me, oblivious as to how we had been betrayed. 'What happened?'

  Even now, I was nearly speechless. But it had to be said; how far the Slug race had fallen had to be spoken. 'That darn Slug', I told them. 'That darn, darn thing! That was the older one, that bastard, and he just told me, he might as well have ordered me, to leave you guys here and go off on excursions with some other Slugs. To leave you and go off alone!' Alone, once again. Except this time, there'd be no Ethan to accompany me. Instead, I'd have some dregs of life.

  'We're going to split up?' asked Ethan, as ever the innocent one who didn't understand the capability of rational, intelligent life forms to do such horrible things. 'We were meant to stick together, remember!?'

  'I do', I told him, and I did remember. 'But we're going to have to. Frank and Carmen have been sent in a different group to myself; I'll be going off on my own. Luckily Rosetta is free for now. You three make sure you stay together, at least, and try not to stray too far from these Cyborg ships. I'll make my way back when I can.' Determined that this would not be the end of our days together, I left my final parting words as, 'Goodbye, for now.'

  As I turned and hurried away to the group of Slugs already waiting for me, no doubt hating me for delaying their upcoming deaths for so long, I heard a soft, 'Goodbye.' It was Ethan's voice, and I could think of nothing to meet that sadness, nothing at all. So I said nothing. Nothing at all.

  I was resolved, however. Once our business on Slugma was over, once this bastard had let us go, we were leaving. Leaving not just Slugma, but the Slugs themselves. I was done with my former race, done with how they did things, with how they saw things, with how they treated things. I should not have intervened in that first fight; the bastard might have been killed, and then all of our problems would be half over.

  But it was done, and I had to deal with what was happening, not make plans for what I'd have done if something else were happening. And once our business was done, so were we. We'd go back to Earth, and there we'd stay this time; I'd have so much to show Boy and the other Slugs. We'd be alright.

  But we were done. I was done. Done with the Slugs.