by Elin Wyn
It acted as a pillar for the vine-dome that covered us. As we looked around, I noticed nearly a dozen other such ‘pillars’ stretching high into the sky.
I pulled Tella around to the front of the building, and came face-to-face, so to speak, with just how truly massive this vine-pillar was. It had displaced almost the entire street in front of the office building, stretching an easy twenty feet across. I touched the vine as we made our way around it. It was rough, rubbery, and warm. I could feel the life pulsating through it.
As we rounded the corner, Rouhr, Tobias, and everyone else from the building were coming out, stepping over what was left of the piece of roof that had fallen.
“General,” I called out and rushed over, Tella half a step behind me. “Are you alright, sir?”
He nodded. He looked fine, just covered in dust. “No injuries. A small bump to my ribs is all. What is all this?”
“I have no idea sir. But that vine there,” I said, pointing to the one that had broken our building. “Is easily twenty feet around. It’s…” I was interrupted by one of the women yelling and a few of the men shouting as they pointed upwards.
I turned to look. Hundreds of tendrils the size of my arm began ‘falling’ from above and sprouting out of the pillars. I grabbed Tella and pulled her behind me. Instinctively, I took a knife from my waist and handed it to Rouhr, and watched Tella pull out her own knife. I grabbed the knife I had gotten from Umi and we all prepared for a fight.
Nothing happened. The tendrils stopped well out of our reach and just moved around of their own volition. There was no pattern, no coherent reason to their movements that I could see.
I let out a string of curses that would have seriously angered my brother, embarrassed my mother, and would have made my father look at me as if I had brain damage.
“Well, that’s disconcerting,” Rouhr said through a forced chuckle.
I had to agree. Of course, I wasn’t sure if he was speaking about my cursing or the vines, so I assumed the vines. “What do we do now?” I asked.
“We figure out who’s hurt, what’s broken, and then what all of this is,” he answered.
I looked around. It was going to take time to get all of that information. “Well, at least we still have…” before I could finish my statement, several streetlights began popping and the collective hum of city power went silent.
Tella looked up at me, a hand on her hip. “You were about to say that we still had power, weren’t you?”
“No,” I drew out my answer slowly. “I was going to say, ‘at least we still have each other,’” I finished.
“Yeah, sure you were,” she nodded knowingly. “You just had to say it, didn’t you?”
“What? I didn’t even get to finish saying it, so it’s not my fault.”
“Excuse me?” We both turned back to see Rouhr looking at us, a resigned look clear on his face. “Are we really thinking that jokes are good right now?”
“Sorry,” we both said simultaneously. I nodded an apology to Rouhr. “I’ll go find the team and see if we can see how bad this all is.”
“Thank you.” He headed back into the building, which, when I looked at it more closely, it wasn’t in bad shape, considering. The windows were broken, or cracked, and a small section of the roof had fallen, but otherwise it still seemed structurally sound.
A quick look around showed that the damage in the surrounding buildings was similar…nothing had been knocked down, just damaged. The hope was that the rest of the city was the same.
“You up for some walking?” I asked Tella.
She shook her head. “I need to get back to the lab, make sure everyone is okay in there and see if the samples are doing anything.”
“Okay. See you later?” I asked.
“Of course.”
Tella
The vines had knocked the power out, which meant the lab was nothing more than a room filled with shiny metal boxes until it came back on.
Leena was, understandably, unhappy about that. She hadn’t finished running the more complex tests on the contents of the toxin.
I looked out the window at the wall of vines, eager to get outside and collect samples. I didn’t need the lab to tell me the vines belonged to the Puppet Master. They couldn’t be anything else.
“General Rouhr wants everyone in the conference room,” Rokul said to me. He briefly left my side to help clear the corridor to the med bay. As far as I knew, no one within the building had been seriously injured. I expected the med bay would be opened to the public.
“All right,” I replied. Before I let Rokul lead me to the conference room, I walked to the nearest window and looked out onto the city. The glass was cracked, but remained in place, unlike most of the other windows in the city. Yet, aside from the windows, there wasn’t much damage. It puzzled me.
As Rokul lead me by the hand through the corridor, debris littered the floor. A waterline had burst somewhere. A puddle was rapidly forming on the floor.
“We’re going to have our work cut out for us,” Rokul sighed heavily.
“After the meeting, will you come with me to collect samples from the vines?” I asked.
“Of course,” Rokul agreed. “I’m sure General Rouhr will want us to do a thorough examination of the perimeter. When we were out there just now, we focused on the civilians.”
“You didn’t notice anything about the vines?” I asked.
“Other than the fact that they’re big, green, and very much in the way, no, I didn’t,” Rokul grinned.
I laughed despite everything. I suddenly felt overwhelmed with gratitude towards Rokul. I appreciated that he could make me laugh even when things were looking grim.
“The general’s probably going to want you to take over during the meeting,” Rokul continued. “Any idea what you’re going to say to everyone? You’re the resident plant lady. They’re going to look at you for answers.”
“They’ll be disappointed,” I said. “I have no idea what’s going on.”
“None?”
“Well, I have a theory but I don’t have any proof,” I replied.
“Care to share?” Rokul asked.
“Sorry, you’ll have to wait to hear it with everyone else,” I teased. Truthfully, I didn’t even have a full theory at the moment. I was counting on the moments between now and General Rouhr calling me up to complete it.
Rokul and I were some of the last to arrive to the conference room.
I spotted Leena right away. She perched in the lap of a massive Valorni I could only assume was Axtin. He had one arm around her waist, holding her to him. She lazily ran her fingers along his arm. It was odd seeing Leena acting affectionate, but not in a bad way. In fact, seeing them together made me think of my time with Rokul. I reached for his hand and squeezed it, letting him feel my affection, too. He squeezed in return and I felt a warm feeling inside that told me that despite anything else, I had something special with Rokul.
General Rouhr began to speak shortly after Rokul and I found a place to stand.
“Naturally, we’re all quite shocked by the turn of events,” he began. “As of this moment, it does not look as though it’s possible to leave Nyheim. However, we will be thoroughly inspecting the base of these vines for a way out. If we are to find one, we’ll need to stage another meeting to determine the best course of action. Right now, our efforts should go to tending to the injured and repairing the city. Comm systems are currently down, but we should be able to piggyback a signal to re-establish them on reserve power soon. Once we do, we’ll contact Fen to see if she can open a rift.”
“Damages are minimal based on initial sweeps,” Karzin jumped in.
“How is this even possible?” Sk’lar asked. “In all my years, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“As our resident plant expert, do you have any thoughts?” General Rouhr asked me.
My tentative theory was still rough around the edges, but it would have to do for now.
; “During my last field expedition, Rokul and I came across a kodanos under the influence of the Puppet Master’s vines. We tested the neutralizers created by Leena, but they were ineffective. What’s concerning about that, besides the obvious, was that it led me to believe the Puppet Master is able to negate most of our pesticides,” I explained.
“We’re all but defenseless against it, then?” Leena’s mate, Axtin asked.
“Not completely,” I replied. “I had on my person a rare toxin that was able to kill the kodanos as well as the vines that piloted it.”
“We were working on replicating the toxin when we lost power,” Leena chimed in. “Until we have power again, there’s not much I can do.”
“What’s the origin of the toxin?” General Rouhr asked.
“Analysis in the lab tells me it’s most similar to a rare plant that grows near Glymna,” I explained. “However, I don’t believe the toxin comes from that plant. While there were some commonalities, there were almost as many differences.”
“Like a related plant?” General Rouhr asked.
“Possibly. Possibly something else entirely. Leena and I won’t know for sure until the lab is up and running once more. And even then, it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to stroll out and collect what we need.” I laughed dryly.
“Can’t we just cut the rekking vines down?” Karzin grumbled.
“What happens to the vines when we slice them down? What’s to stop them from toppling into the city and actually destroying buildings,” Rokul spoke up. I shot him a thankful smile. He winked in return, a gesture I felt sure didn’t go unnoticed by the others in the room.
“Why did it grow in such a particular pattern?” Tu’ver, a K’ver from Strike Team One I knew only through reputation, asked.
“I have some thoughts on that,” I said. “When the group of sorvuc attacked the outpost, reports tell me that it took a considerable amount of coaxing to get the sorvuc to attack Strike Team Two, correct?”
“The sorvuc were more interested in destroying the man-made structures rather than the people living there,” Rokul confirmed.
“Now that we know those sorvuc were being controlled by the Puppet Master, I believe these vines are a similar principle but on a larger scale and without a host,” I explained. I was met with a sea of confused faces. “Unless something happened that I’m not aware of, the last interaction anyone had with the Puppet Master was me when I injected the kodanos host with that toxin.”
When no one contradicted me, I moved on.
“This is only a theory, I can’t prove it. But if the Puppet Master can neutralize most toxins, it must’ve been very surprised to come across me with my toxic dart. I believe that it utilized its seemingly limitless web of consciousness to track my movements back to the city. It may have guessed that Nyheim was the source of the toxin and took steps to contain the threat,” I finished.
“If that’s true, and the Puppet Master views this place as a threat, why didn’t it just destroy the city?” Karzin asked.
“That same question could be asked about the earlier attacks on human settlements,” General Rouhr jumped in. “If you remember, most of the damage was to physical structures. The lives lost and injuries caused were collateral damage.”
“I don’t think the Puppet Master’s goal is to take lives. If it was, we’d all be dead under piles of rubble right now,” I added.
“Goals?” Takar said. “With all due respect, this is a plant we’re talking about. It’s nothing more than an overgrown weed.”
“If you want my opinion, the Puppet Master is showing intelligence so advanced that I don’t think we can classify it as a plant anymore.” I shrugged. “It’s a sentient creature capable of complex planning. We should start thinking of it as an opponent rather than an overgrown weed.”
Takar didn’t say anything in response. Instead, he stared me down as he considered my words. When he nodded his head, accepting my opinion, I felt like I’d won some kind of battle. I glanced at Rokul. He grinned with approval.
“What’s our next step, then?” Karzin asked.
“Our priority has to be getting through those vines,” General Rouhr replied. “I’d like Tella and Leena to do everything they can to recreate that toxin.”
“As soon as we have power, we can do that.” Leena nodded.
“What about Jeneva?” Axtin asked. “Will the power outage affect her care?”
“Power should be back on by tomorrow,” General Rouhr replied. “Once we’re finished here, I’ll apply to receive one of the city’s emergency generators.”
“Isn’t the woman who delegates that your mate?” Axtin asked with a laugh.
“Yes,” General Rouhr chuckled fondly. “But that doesn’t mean I get to take shortcuts. I have to prove that our building is important enough to merit one of the limited number of generators. I expect that we’ll receive one, I just have to go through the process in the name of fairness.”
“What are our orders until then?” Sk’lar asked.
“Get out into the streets. Help where you can,” General Rouhr ordered. “The humans are going to look to us to solve this. If they ask, assure them we’re doing everything we can. Remind them that this is nothing like the Xathi invasion. Direct them to Dr. Parr if they’re injured. Dismissed.”
Rokul
While some reports had been coming in, Rouhr wanted a first-hand account from his own people of what kind of damage had been done to the city. While Vrehx’s team went to check the north side of town, Sk’lar’s team went east and we went south.
Coming along with the five of us in Team Two were a few of the medics, in case we found more injured, and Tella. This was going to be my first real look at the damage the vines had caused when they shot out of the ground and formed the dome.
The city itself was in the dark. Many of the buildings had no power, and most of the generators that were worth anything had been taken to the medical center, the lab, and a few stores to help keep food preserved. None of the lights worked, and the holes in the dome only let in small shafts of light.
As we made our way to the outskirts of the city, we could see dozens of small head lamps, flashlights, and even small lanterns moving about the streets. The only lights in buildings were candles or, for the few people that had chosen them, fireplaces.
It all added up to create an eerie environment throughout.
What changed it from eerie to frightening for most of Nyheim’s denizens were the thousands of tendrils that hung down from the vines. They were everywhere and, on occasion, several would come down and invade homes, stores, and anything they could get into. They poked around, as if they were looking for something, then pulled back up so another section of tendrils could drop down.
A faint scream reached my ears. Off to my left, a section of tendrils dropped down and forced their way into a house.
We were close to the edge of the dome, and the houses and buildings here were hit harder than the buildings where the pillars stood. The massive green vines had pushed up through the ground, breaking through pavement, walls, and streets as if they were paper. Occasionally, a pipe could be seen sticking out of the ground, water or steam emanating from it. A small pipe with electrical wiring had been pushed out of the ground a few feet from a house, but the wires were dead.
The houses in the area had been made of wood and a brownish-red brick, and while most were still standing, a few hadn’t been so lucky. Two houses on a street corner had been obliterated, their remnants scattered all over the streets and in neighbors’ yards. I had heard that the people inside had suffered some of the worst injuries of all those who’d been hurt.
Tella walked next to me as we brought up the rear. Slung across her left shoulder was a small pack filled with portable equipment that she intended to use to study the vines, if there was a chance to study them. “How are you holding up?” I asked as I stepped over a small piece of rubble that was still in the street.
She looked up at
me and forced a smile. “I’m doing alright, considering. How are you doing?”
I shrugged in an attempt to show my nonchalance, “I’m good, better off than these people.” I indicated the broken house, and the house next to it. That one no longer had a roof, and the southeast corner of the house was missing, replaced by a vine thicker than me. I followed the vine upwards, the latticework pattern causing me to lose track of the individual vine.
“Yeah. Hope they’re doing okay.” she said quietly. I looked at her and could see pain and anger in her eyes. A small shudder shook her body as we continued our way around. So far, there were no holes in the dome except towards the top.
“Eyes up, people!” Karzin yelled from up front. I looked up quickly, to see a batch of maybe three dozen, it was hard to count with them wiggling around so much, tendrils as they came down and invade two houses just ahead of us. A few screams travelled to our ears and my hand clenched.
“Sir?”
“No, Rokul,” he answered with a slow shake of his head. “We have no idea the repercussions of cutting any of the tendrils. As of right now, they’re not harming anyone, just scaring them.” His expression made it clear to me he didn’t like it either. “The best we can do is wait a few moments, then check on the families. The tendrils will be done soon enough.”
He was right. Within a minute, the tendrils pulled up and another set came down in the distance. Karzin motioned to the medics and they ran to check on the families. “Let’s keep looking around, inventorying the damage, and looking for anything that might suggest either a weak spot or at least a spot that Tella can study,” he ordered.
Tella and I headed for the house with the corner missing. She wanted to see if there had been any damage done to the vine by the building, hoping there might be a way to get the toxin into the creature’s bloodstream.
We looked and, as expected, found nothing. The floor of the house had been pushed up and broken, as had the ground around the base of the vine. There were no scratches, no cuts, not even a pore evident on the vine for Tella to look at. It was identical in all but size to the vine that had damaged the office building.
