Chapter 3 - Paranoia
The Human
After more walking on our quest for Phill, we approached another one of those carriage stations, although this one was a lot smaller. Instead of hundreds of carriages and dozens of tracks, this station had about twenty stationary carts and five tracks.
"Another carriage station, huh?" I commented with trepidation, imagining the dark and terrifying trip ahead.
"Yeah", Matt confirmed the obvious. "So you've called it a carriage station, huh?"
"Huh?" I blurted. If Phill was here, he'd make a complaint about both of us repeating 'huh'. As for me, I had no idea that we'd all adopt my name for the stations. But, now that it looked like I'd made some kind of contribution to the Slug language... "Yeah. Yeah I did."
"What's wrong with train station?" my friend asked innocently. "It's pretty similar. Plus, it's easier to say, and I'm sure it's much easier to write and type, too."
"I don't know, train station sounds too much like a human thing. This is supposed to be an alien thing."
He paused, then shrugged. "Fair enough."
We reached the station, and got into a medium sized carriage this time, since there was only three of us. As the door closed, plunging us into blackness, I asked, "Why is this station much smaller than the other?"
Boy answered, "The first one was at a major spaceport on Slugapital. Obviously, it had much more traffic and transportation demands, and was therefore made with a much larger capacity."
"Like the train stations in your cities", Matt gave a comparison. "Those are always much bigger than some dead-town stop where nobody gets on or off."
"OK then", I continued, trying to distract myself from the darkness and paranoia of a sudden brake. "Why do we have train stations where the trains stop, but you don't?"
Matthew considered this for a few seconds, before replying. "Our carriages are more like taxis on train tracks. Instead of a large train going to predetermined stops, you get into individual carriages which can stop anywhere on its track to let you off. It lets you get closer to your destination, and faster."
"Wouldn't everyone just crash into each other?"
"Did you see the spikes on the seats?" Boy asked me.
I nodded, then realised that they couldn't see me. "Yep."
"Well", Matt continued, "We don't actually drive the carriages ourselves. I just tell it where I want to go, and a massively complex city-wide computer network works everything out for us. That way, there are no accidents, efficiency is maximised, and any large traffic delays are easily foreseen by the computer and diverted."
"Ahh", I said. "That would solve traffic problems then. I hear that's a huge annoyance for us."
"Indeed", Matthew said back.
After a few more seconds of silence, I persisted, "Then every Slug here puts their life in the hands of a computer. For it to not crash them."
"Well", Matthew replied, "every time you fly on a plane, or obey traffic lights, or go in an elevator, or, most especially, go to war, you put your lives in the virtual hands of computers. So it's the same thing; we all rely on computers to save our lives."
"Although in our case", Boy amended, "we also rely on other computers to kill us."
"Yes, that too", Matt agreed. "But for humans at least, computers are still friendly."
"Alright then", I said, "what if the Cyborgs managed to put a virus in your carriage network? To make them all crash into each other?"
"Then it would be a glorious day indeed", Matt said broodingly. "Such loss of life will be celebrated by the remaining Slugs, while at the same time the survivors curse their luck that they made it out alive."
I paused for a while. "Oh."
Boy added, "Of course, we'd also upgrade our computer defences, breed a large number of new Slugs to compensate, and probably launch a major attack in retaliation." Well. I supposed that that made it better. Somewhat.
"Although I plan to do that last part regardless." It was Matthew who spoke.
"Say what?" I asked.
Boy corrected me, "I believe the correct term is 'what did you say?' "
I ignored him and looked at Matthew. Well, at where his voice was coming from. "Oh, you'll see", he told me, and I could hear his smile at my not knowing. "Let's just say that I've concocted a grand plan. A grand plan indeed. But we need Phill."
"Oh, so that's how it is", I joked. "You only want him alive to use him against the Cyborgs."
After I said it, I almost regretted it, and hoped that it wouldn't trigger some kind of alien emotional outburst from Matt. But luckily he was my best friend, because it didn't. "It may seem that way, but it's not", was all he said.
I was silent then. Another few seconds passed, which felt quite longer than a few seconds but I was pretty sure couldn't have been more than a few seconds, and then the carriage stopped.
"Here we are", Matthew said as the door opened and the light almost permanently blinded me. "Now to find that pesky Phill."
About half an hour later, we still hadn't found the Cyborg. And searching around randomly had proven, perhaps unsurprisingly, fruitless (as had my unhelpful cloud-watching).
"Where on Earth is he?!" Matthew cried out in frustration.
"You mean where on Slugenis", Boy corrected him. "I doubt that he's gotten back to Earth so fast."
"Yes, yes", Matthew mumbled, deep in thought.
After we'd gotten off the carriage, Matt took us into a Slug building (that looked identical to the Slug King's house, although perhaps somewhat smaller) and to the back of it, where an open door led to a large metallic cube. It was a water tank, he told me. He also explained that the King told him that the water in this tank had been drained to another, and Phill was being kept in the empty one. Matthew had given the order to free him, and we'd come straight over to it.
Unfortunately, when we got there, he was gone. Boy had asked some nearby Slugs while Matt methodically searched the inside of the obviously empty tank. He came out somewhat wet. Boy then told us what the Slugs had told him; that they had received the order straight from the Slug King to free the Cyborg being held in there. So they did. And Phill had walked out of the tank, and off into the distance.
"Unbelievable", Matt said under his breath, but loud enough for both of us to hear him. "How was I to know that they'd just unbind him and leave him to his own devices?"
"Who knows?", I said, trying to defuse the situation. "Let's just think about where he might have gone to."
"To determine that, we need to know what he was thinking", Boy added.
"Well, let's see", Matthew mused. "He probably guessed that we had managed to get him out of there. So he would've gone to the King's house to find us there."
"Would he know where the King lived?" I asked while munching on a nutrition bar.
"No", Boy answered. "It is assumed that all Slugs know their way around the city, and they do. There are no directional signs anywhere, and even if there was, they'd be in a format Phill couldn't comprehend."
"Great", I said. "So now what?"
"We still need to think about what he was thinking about", Matthew said. He walked into the tank, and stepped out. "OK, I'm free, my friends just saved me, I need to find them. Hmmm. Hmmmmmm." He looked at us blankly. "I have no idea."
"Ethan", Boy turned to me. "You talked to him a lot on the ship."
"Yeah, but he didn't tell me what he'd do if he was captured by the Slugs, held prisoner in a water tank and then randomly released!"
"I suppose so", Boy amended after a pause.
"I guess, that way", Matthew said, pointing in a random direction.
I was sceptical. "How do you know that?"
"I just told you", he replied. "I guessed. Actually, more like an estimated guess. Because it involved an estimate. With no evidence."
Boy and I just looked at him, and then completely disregarded what he'd said. "We should split up", Boy suggested.
"No way", I protested. "I'd have no idea how to find my
way around here."
"If only we still had Carmen, Frank and Rosetta", Matthew mused. At least he was somewhat helpful this time.
"Hold on a sec", I said suddenly, causing the two Slugs to look at me. "You're the King. Well, the temporary King. It's easy then. Just put out an order across Slugapital that anyone who sees a Cyborg is to stop him and contact us."
The two Slugs kept looking at me. "Of course", Boy said.
"Of course indeed", Matt agreed. "I knew it was a good idea to bring you along, Ethan."
Proud of having done something productive, I asked, "So how do we give out that order?"
Matt answered, "The best way is to go back to the Slug King's house. That's where the King gives all of their orders."
My spirits lowered a bit. "Does that mean that we have to go back in a carriage?"
"Yep."
I shuddered. "Hold on another sec", I said again. "If you are the King, shouldn't you be doing kingly duties, not wandering around the city?"
"Actually, yes", he answered. "But I told that other temporary King to continue his responsibilities, making all of the decisions, because I was on an important errand."
"But you're the true temporary King", I continued. "Why would he agree to doing something that it wasn't his right to do?"
"Remember", Matthew reminded me, "he doesn't want to do it, because every second being the King is another second not at war. And he did it because his King told him to." Which made perfect sense, I suppose.
"I suppose so then", I said.
"Let's go", Boy said. We silently agreed, because we all started to walk back the way we'd come.
"Where's the nearest carriage station?" I asked, hoping it would be close. I was actually starting to get quite hot (the slightly higher than Earth's gravity certainly didn't help), and at least it was cooler in the darkness.
"Obviously", Matthew said, smirking and pointing in front of us, "that way."
The Cyborg
With the Slugs undoubtedly monitoring my every movement, I walked. I never deviated from my brisk, purposeful pace; I wanted the Slugs to believe that I didn't know they were watching me, and that I knew what I was here for. Unfortunately for my purposes, I had no indication of where I was going. I followed one of their fixed-position linear tracks at a distance, hoping that the Slugs inside the vehicles that occasionally moved along it could not perceive me, and that the tracks would lead me somewhere. Hoping that it would lead me somewhere important.
I had to do everything I could to prevent the Slugs from realising that I had no purpose here, save to accompany my friends. Paranoia began to consume me, forcing me to dedicate my processes almost solely to interpretation of every unexpected sensory input as evidence of my recapture; every fleeting sight was a Slug hurrying from my view, every unknown sound a Slug getting to a better vantage point. However, I determined that such a heightened awareness was necessary for the moment.
I continued travelling, following the track as it cut through the landscape in a perfectly straight line. Surely such a system of individual and small group transportation was inefficient? Even the Humans knew to let large amounts of passengers onto a single transport. Did, perhaps, the large number of these transport devices overcome this problem?
In addition, the tracks did not lead everywhere; such a setup would be remarkably inefficient and costly. How, then, did Slugs get to places with no nearby track? This was not an issue in Cyborg territory, but what about the Slugs? Did they simply walk?
I didn't know enough about the Slugs and the intricacies of their organic systems to understand how these things worked. I only knew of our Cyborg equivalents; in this case, however, we had no equivalent. Our worlds had no long-range ground transportation structures. This was due to the simple fact that individual Cyborgs did not need to travel. A Cyborg spent their entire life in the place where they were created, be that world or ship. For me, Earth had been the first planet I'd set foot upon. Had I not been defeated by Matthew, I would have spent the remainder of my existence in that very ship.
The sound of a swift movement of air particles due to a mixture of differing temperatures - also known as wind - caused me to internally startle. It was not a Slug this time, but that could only mean that they were getting better at concealing their movements. I had to move faster, but was reluctant to reveal that I knew I was being followed. After carefully considering this dilemma, I decided to keep my pace constant for now. Their perception of my ignorance was my only weapon.
After Slugenis's star had moved approximately 0.5 degrees in the sky, a relatively large amount for its slight polar movements from my viewpoint, two other tracks joined each side of the one I followed, eventually fusing into one line. I halted, hoping that the Slugs wouldn't read too far into it.
I considered;
This track had been running by itself now for some time, in a single direction. Now, two others had joined it, forming a single track. This indicated that the track was leaving a populated area - it must be leading to another city or built-up section of Slugenis. The clear lack of complex tracks, and the fact that several were congregating into one was a sign that not many transports came this way, and those that did needed to travel in only one direction.
This was not good. I had no evidence to indicate how far away this other place may be, other than the fact that the Slugs could build a track to it. With my inefficient and limited transportation, I could end up walking for days, and still be a significant distance from the track's destination. Such a waste of time that would be.
In addition, what would my Slug pursuers think of this? Would they think that I had given up on my task? Or that my task was elsewhere? Unlikely. Probability indicates that they will conclude that I was trying to escape from Slugapital, trying to get away from the place that had just captured me. They would believe that I planned to go into hiding, where I would attempt to find a way to get information back to the Cyborgs. That would give them no choice but to attack me.
Of course, following this track would also take me away from Matthew and the others, the only hope I had of communicating with my trackers and convincing them that I am on their side. That would be the only thing to stop them from eventually deciding to eliminate the risk my presence created.
So my choice here was clear. I abruptly turned and strode back the way I had come, keeping with my original pace. I hoped that the Slugs following me would deduce that I had come here specifically to see something, perhaps to examine the degree of their track complexity. With my observation complete, they should think that I continued onto the next phase of my mission.
Would they now decide that I knew enough and launch the attack? There was nothing that I could do about that possibility but hope. Hope that they gave me more time. With this unfortunate thought in mind, I kept moving parallel to the track.
With some luck, I would find Matthew soon. The Slugs that surely monitored my progress might decide at any time that I'd provided enough information for them...
A sudden and unnatural noise alerted me. It came approximately 14 degrees forward from my right, and was obviously a sound made by some kind of creature. I'd not seen any life form in Slugapital apart from Slugs, so I doubted that this case would be any different.
I turned, and saw 2 Slugs in that direction in the same basic form I'd seen all of them in. With their 'heads' held high, they started to move towards me, their front 'arms' outstretched in my direction. They had made their decision.
Luckily for me, those basic forms were not exceptionally good at combat or rapid movement; they were designed to be useable for a variety of tasks, which meant that they were not proficient at any of them. Also luckily for me, Earth's evolution had gotten one thing right. My fundamentally humanoid form was suited for sufficiently high speed travelling.
Yes, the Slugs had made their decision. I made mine when I away from them, but still on course back towards the inner city, and ran as fast as I possibly could.
The Sl
ug
This was weird. Very weird indeed. Ethan, Boy and I had made it back to the Slug King's dwellings. Once inside, I had relieved the previous temporary King from his duties; I now sat in the large dish that served as his "throne". Far from artistic considerations, however, this seat had been created so large and high to make room for the dozen-or-so spikes that now entered my body, streaming a constant supply of information to and from me. I had no idea that being a King would be so uncomfortable.
Data from all the major aspects of Slug life was being uploaded into my body every second, and then brought to my brain to be interpreted. I seriously had no idea how one Slug managed to coordinate all of this information. I knew that he slept and ate in this seat, but it was only now that I felt sorry for him - apart from feeling sorry because he has a low probability of death.
Onto my task at hand, however, and I had to sort through everything that was sent to me. The latest calculations on the length of a cycle, updates on major skirmishes, potential mining planets and Cyborg territory movements - it was all immensely complicated. And, quite frankly, boring.
I knew that I had my own mission to complete, however. I sent out a message, through one of the spikes, that a Cyborg was free in Slugapital, not far off the spaceport, and that he was on our side. It was fundamentally important that he was not harmed in any way, and that he be escorted to the King's house, as he would be a major contributor to the war effort. Any mentally-capable Slug would quickly realise that a Cyborg that worked for us would be a major advancement in understanding the enemy. And every Slug was born mentally-capable.
With the message sent out, I could relax a bit. Luckily Ethan had thought of the idea; I was somewhat embarrassed that I didn't. Here I was, one of the most psychologically strong beings in the galaxy, and I forgot that I had the powers of a King.
I wondered what Ethan thought of Slugenis; I hoped it was what he expected. I had, after all, tried to talk it up back on Earth and on the ship. Though I still wasn't sure if he really understood how essentially different it was from Human culture. Oh well. He would soon learn. And soon.
I got a message. Some Slugs out ages away on our borders had advanced into Cyborg territory and attempted to capture a minable planet. Their oldest Slug, and therefore their leader, had decided that it was worth the risk; this message was simply to inform me of what was going on. The time-lag due to the limited speed of light made every Slug world and expedition self-sufficient and self-reliant by necessity. Our armies needed - and had - a great deal of autonomy to make decisions; the simple vastness of space ensured that.
Only the very most important or contested decisions had to be decided by the King himself. That is, by the King myself. But other than organising the goings-on of Slugenis and nearby worlds, the position of Slug King was not much more than a ceremonial figurehead; in terms of the entire Empire, there was not much that I could really do. It would simply take too long.
I reviewed the data. Our current resource supplies and inventory of controlled minable planets was sufficient to cover any immediate needs. Of course, the Slug which had made the decision to attempt to take control of the planet didn't know this; we couldn't simply beam all the details of our Empire to every Slug world, and hope that Cyborgs wouldn't intercept and try to block or trace it.
And, this place was so far away, any message I sent would take three cycles just to get there. Which means that it had already taken three cycles to reach me; the leader who had made this decision and thought to tell Slugenis about it was most likely dead.
Now I understood how the Slug King could cope with so many decisions and so much information; when it involves such vast distances, waiting a day or two or even a week or two to respond would make no difference. I decided against sending a confirmation that I'd received their message. Long before that message reached them, the Slug King will have received the report for how the attempted conquest had gone - or no message, if they had failed.
Speaking of cycles, I wanted to see how long I'd actually been gone. I'd estimated it at one to one-and-a-half, meaning that I would now be about seven-and-a-half. Cycles, of course. Being that age in years would just be wrong, seeing as I'm the King and all.
I checked the records. And, by God, it had been two cycles. I was eight! I'm not sure why I was so excited about it, but it was just cool. That meant that Boy was now three cycles younger than me, instead of one. Haha! That youngling.
'Hey', I said out loud, just remembering that my two friends were actually in the room.
'Did you do it?' asked Ethan eagerly. It was his idea to do this, after all.
'Yeah', I replied. 'Message away. Anyone who finds a wandering Cyborg will now know that he's with us.'
'Good', said Boy. Which reminded me of what I just found out.
'Hey, Boy', I began.
'Yes?'
'Guess what?'
'What?'
'Good guess.' Even though my eyes were closed, as it helped to reduce other stimulus's - or perhaps stimuli - when concentrating on Slug communications, I could tell he was staring at me. 'What I meant', I corrected myself, 'is that I just found out how long I've been gone for. It's actually been two cycles, not one-and-a-half.'
'Really?' Ethan asked.
'Yep', I answered. 'Fancy that.' I didn't think that Boy would get that though, so I added, for his benefit, 'And what I mean by that is, think about that in a fancy way.'
Boy said something then, but I wasn't paying attention. I had just received a message from a Slug in the city. It and another had seen a Cyborg following one of the carriage tracks on Slugapital's outskirts. They had approached it, believing it to be friendly from the message I had just sent. It had turned, looked at them for a second, turned away, and sprinted off. Just like that.
'Unbelievable!' I exclaimed.
'What now?' Boy asked warily. He already knew that something had not gone right. Which was kind of obvious after what I'd just said.
'You won't believe what just happened', I started. 'Or maybe you would, despite me just saying that it's unbelievable. Regardless, a couple of Slugs found Phill and tried to go up to him and take him here. But, as soon as he saw them, he hightailed it out of there as fast as he could.'
'You've got to be kidding me', Ethan groaned.
'Why would he kid about this?' asked Boy.
'I did warn you that it was unbelievable', I told them. 'In either case, the Slugs saw the direction he was going in. You two will have to go get him.'
'You're not coming?' asked Ethan, in a clearly "not-happy" voice.
'Alas, I have "kingly duties" to attend to', I said, using his phrase. 'As you said, I am the temporary King. I couldn't let a younger and more inexperienced Slug run our entire Empire for too long. I'm afraid that, until the real King arrives, I can no longer leave this chair.' I sighed. Things would soon get very numb and uncomfortable. Luckily I didn't get pins-and-needles.
'How soon till the real King gets here then?' asked the Human.
I consulted my information inflow. 'It looks to be eleven... Damn, I don't have a word for this yet. Umm. I need a word that's like an hour, but isn't. If you know what I mean.'
'I don't know what you mean', Boy answered.
'How long is this hour-but-not-hour?' asked Ethan.
'Can't tell for sure, but it looks to be about three hours, I'd say.'
'That means the real King will get here in thirty-three hours, then?'
'Excellent math work.'
'Alright then. Let's go, Boy.'
And with that, they left the room and the building, seeing as how the building was only one room. I had some King stuff to do, which was pretty important and all, but I spent a lot of the time thinking about Phill and trying to conjure a word for an hour that isn't an hour.
The Human
Travelling with Boy was alright and all, but I still preferred the company of Matthew. Old habits, not favouritism (I think). Unfortunately, Matt was busy running an empire. So,
Boy would have to do.
After a few seconds of walking in a direction dictated by Boy, I decided that I still wasn't fond of Slugenis' clouds. So to have something to talk about, I asked him, "Where are we going? And how do you know where to go?"
"I have a communicator", the Slug answered. "Matthew is giving me directions."
"So you're talking to him right now?"
"Yes."
We didn't speak for another few seconds. "Have you always had this communicator?"
"Most of the time, including while we were defending Earth. But I only brought two then, so they weren't very effective."
That sure would've come in handy. "Why not?"
"I left most of them on the interstellar ship, at Jupiter. Once we discovered speech, I didn't think there was any need for so many. Remember, we had no idea then that we'd be defending the planet against a Cyborg attack."
"Oh."
Yet another few seconds passed. Which soon expanded into a few minutes.
I asked, "So where are we going?"
"Matt told me that Phill was running in this direction. If he kept his speed, he shouldn't be too far away."
"But why are we walking?"
"It's difficult to search for something while in a carriage." Got that right.
"Alright then", I said, "different topic: tell me more about this three hour time period Matt was talking about."
Boy thought for a bit. "I'd say that Matthew's estimate of about three hours is right. Unlike your systems of time-keeping, it has nothing to do with the movements of the stars or planets."
"What is it based on then? Atom fluctuations or something advanced like that?"
He chuckled. "That sounds more like a Cyborg time system. We don't actually know how we originally defined one of these periods. It just is. It probably comes from some part of our history that we can't remember."
I considered this. "What if you need to say a time shorter than three hours?"
"This period can be split into halves and quarters", Boy answered. "For more accurate measures, there is another, much shorter period, completely unrelated to this one. And for longer times, there is a longer one, also completely unrelated to either of the two."
"So you have three different periods of time, each of which is unrelated to the others, and each of which can be divided into halves and quarters?"
"Exactly. I admit, it is more complex than your sixty-based time-keeping system. But this is the way it's always been done, although no one can remember why."
Well, that was a bit weird. "We really need names for these time periods. I thought of carriages, so now it's your turn."
He thought. "Slughour?"
"That's way too unimaginative, come on!"
"More unimaginative than Slugenis?" he asked with a smile.
"Unfortunately, yes." I decided that I'd have to think of something. "How about a Slugeriod? No, we can't just add 'Slug' onto every word."
Boy shook his head. "I wonder how Matthew did this for every concept."
"As do I", I answered. "Perhaps we should base it off a cycle, even though they're unrelated. Wait, is the longer one longer than a cycle?"
"It's nowhere near as long as half a cycle."
"Good. We need variations on the word 'cycle'. Man, I'm getting hot." It was true; the temperature was getting quite uncomfortable. Of course, I was starting to get thirsty too. Great.
"I'm actually quite content with this heat", Boy said with a smirk.
"Yeah, yeah", I said. "And I wasn't freezing on Earth. But back to time, how about a cyc? It sounds pretty cool."
"Yes", he partially agreed, "but it may be difficult to pronounce."
"I suppose..." I started, but was interrupted.
"This way!" Boy shouted at me, and took off running.
Although it was difficult in the heat and gravity, I managed to chase after him. "Where are we going?" I huffed out.
Boy didn't sound winded at all. It was as if he, like, evolved and grew up in these conditions or something. "Some Slugs found Phill. They told Matthew, and he told me. Let's go."
"Alrighty then", I answered, and kept going.
After a minute or two of this, Boy thankfully slowed down, and turned into a narrow alleyway between two buildings (both of them identical to every building I'd seen so far, including the King's own house). It was about two metres wide. "Phill's in here?" I asked, struggling to not fall over and hoping that Boy wasn't judging my fitness. It wasn't my fault - I was feeling a bit light-headed. That was strange; we hadn't been running for that long.
"He is", Boy confirmed.
"Why wouldn't he run from the Slugs that found him again?"
"They have caught him", he replied. I didn't like the sound of that. Why couldn't we just randomly find him, and everyone would be happy again?
Oblivious to my musings, Boy walked on, and I followed, struggling not to fall over. We turned a corner into a slightly large space, where we saw three Slugs in a circle, all in the form I was now used to (for the most part), each grasping a Cyborg in the middle of them with thickly-slimed arms. Of course, it was Phill, and he was covered in the Slug slime, which had a mighty grip on pretty much every moveable part of his body.
The Cyborg actually gasped. "Ethan! Boy!" He looked extremely agitated. And when a machine is extremely agitated, you know you're in trouble.
"Hey", I said, feeling a bit better now. "What's going on here? How'd you manage to get captured?"
I soon realised that that was a mistake. Phill exploded in an avalanche of rapid, alarmed speech.
"I need help. The Slugs were chasing me. They think I'm here to spy for the Cyborgs, and were trying to decipher my intentions. I have no intentions except to accompany you, but they won't understand that, and won't believe me even if I could tell them. They've been following me, they have all of their cameras watching me."
"Umm, Phill..." I tried to say, but he cut me off.
"No time for that now. I tried to get away, but they've captured me again. We have to find the others, Matthew, Rosetta, Frank and Carmen, just Boy won't be enough to convince them that I'm on their side, we need all of us. It's only a matter of time before they try to dispose of me, they've gotten enough information from me and don't need me anymore. I don't want to be killed due to a misunderstanding, and I don't want to go back into the water tank..."
"Phill", I said firmly, surprised that he had hated being in that tank so much. It must remind him of his cave or something. "The Slugs aren't after you."
"Yes they are", he stated, as if he knew everything. Which he obviously didn't. "Why else would they release me, and leave me to myself?"
"Because Matt told them to", Boy tried to explain. I wondered if Matthew was watching all this through his communicator, and telling Boy what to say.
Phill didn't believe us. "Why would they trust the word of one Slug? I am a Cyborg, on their planet. They think I'm the enemy."
"Look, it's a long story", I told him. "Just trust us. We got you out of that tank, and you just disappeared before we could come get you, and we've all been looking for you ever since. The Slugs that have been 'after you' have been trying to escort you back to us, because we assumed that you didn't know your way around Slugapital."
There was a really long pause, during which Phill was probably calling himself an idiot. Several times, hopefully. Then he said, "I see. I was incorrect."
"Have you thought that the Slugs were trying to kill you this whole time?" asked Boy.
"Among other things", he answered vaguely, clearly unwilling to elaborate. Whatever had happened, it didn't look like he'd liked it one bit.
Boy touched one of the Slugs, and it let go of Phill. Seeing this, the other two released him as well. The Cyborg quickly stepped away from them and joined my side. Very quietly, I heard him say to me, "Thank you."
I paused, and then said kind of awkwardly, "Well then. Let's go back. I'm boiling."
The Cyborg
In short,
I didn't stop running. After those two Slugs had attempted to seize me, I couldn't allow myself to be caught like that again. They had likely informed the others that I would try to escape when encountered, meaning that all the Slugs now knew I knew I was being tracked, and that I was actively avoiding them.
Perhaps they had already suspected this. Or they decided that I'd given them enough information. Why else would they send two Slugs to acquire me? It appears that they underestimated my will to survive and right the situation. They wouldn't do so again.
So I ran, trying to plot an unpredictable course, weaving between identical-looking square buildings. At several points, I jumped over a track in the ground, as the gap was only approximately 1.5 metres wide, utilising the Human metric system of measurement. Although I couldn't know for certain which direction I travelled in, I estimated that I ran back towards the tank where I was being previously held. That was good, as they would surely not predict such an action.
However, I still had their automatic monitoring to consider. Unfortunately, there was little I could do to remedy this issue; I could never pretend to be a Slug and get away with it, nor find and eliminate these cameras. My only option was to try and predict where they would likely be facing and avoid that area. I determined that they would be positioned to view the largest areas which enabled the greatest fields of view, and so tried to traverse these parts via an alternate route.
After some time of keeping my speed constant, I decided to slowly decrease my pace. Cyborgs had a sufficient energy battery, but it wasn't designed for prolonged high drainage. In addition, my solar power generators, thanks to Matthew, were far from optimal capacity.
I was travelling through what appeared to be an alleyway route. I didn't believe that any Slugs would find me here, and I doubted that they would place cameras in such a place. Nonetheless, I was careful in my stride.
When I entered a meeting of 3 alleys, it was this carefulness that alerted me to another's presence. I halted and quickly stepped behind one of the building's corners, heedless of any noise I was making. If anyone could hear me, they were on my side.
The presence seemed to not notice me, as it was 2 Slugs which entered the joined alleyway from one of the passageways opposite me. Staying as far back as I could, I watched them. Both of them were in the basic Slug form; I had yet to see any in a different shape. My evidence so far indicated that every Slug on Slugenis adopted this form. That may be relevant.
The Slugs continued to move, unaware of my presence. It appeared that I had evaded them once again. That was until I heard a noise behind me. I quickly turned, and found another Slug regarding me. Regarding my trapped state.
Faster than the Slug could think, I had decided on my best course of action.
I considered;
I had to escape again, but I was trapped between the larger space with the previous 2 Slugs and the narrow alley filled by the new Slug. I could try to force my way past it, but I wouldn't be able to get past it before it attracted the attention of the others. Even if they couldn't hear us, they might see the movement of the commotion and look. In addition, the lone Slug may have Slug technology to contact them. There was no way I could get past all 3 of them, so this was not an option.
I could let myself get captured. This would result in either immediate death or another imprisonment in the drained water tank. Although I preferred the Slug's dominion over me rather than time, I would rather neither of them, so I dismissed this alternative.
That left only one choice; I had to turn around and run away. However, I could not see behind me. Had the other 2 Slugs gotten sufficiently out of the way? Were they now looking at me, having noticed my rapid turning? I didn't know, and I couldn't know. This was irrelevant, however, as I had no choice.
As fast as I could, I launched myself backwards, twisting in mid-air, and landed facing away. I heard the single Slug, now behind me, hasten to grasp me. Somehow, the 2 others were both in front of me, blocking my path. They not only knew my plan, but they were waiting for me. As to how they did this, I had no time to consider.
Without enough time to develop an alternate plan, I sprinted forward, intending to crash through them and continue through to freedom; there was little room for any alternative. Seeing this, they coordinated effortlessly, a direct result of them being in contact. The two of them crushed themselves together, creating a thick barrier of slime right in front of me. I crashed into it, and the 3 of us tumbled onto the ground.
During and after the fall, I felt their hands restraining themselves around my limbs, grasping me and withholding my movement. This was the end of it then. I was captured, yet again. As I struggled to stand, the previously lone Slug approached me. My right hand was still free, and I drew it back to increase the momentum of my strike.
However, as I looked into its eye-holes, I knew that I couldn't do this. If I attacked this Slug with enough force, and hit it where its brain is, perhaps I would kill it. Not only did I not want to kill a Slug, if I did I would be granting it the ultimate reward for capturing me. Perhaps it approached me, hoping that I would undertake such an action. Matthew had said that they were not allowed to risk their life recklessly, but this seemed a reckless move to me; I was already caught, there was no doubt about it.
Also, if I did attack it, the other Slugs would quickly kill me, rather than keep me alive for any amount of time. Matt and the others still had time to save me. As unlikely as that prospect was, it was my only remaining prospect.
So I dropped my offensive gesture, and allowed the Slug to reach out its hand to surround my arm. If it was satisfied or unsatisfied with my decision, it gave no sign of it. It marked a sharp juxtaposition to my friends, and their tendency to display what they were feeling via accepted Human emotional looks, and reminded me that I cannot trust any Slug as much as I do Matthew, Boy, Carmen, Rosetta, and Frank.
All 3 of my captors were now swelling over me, thickening their slime, slowly extending their cover across my limbs and body to ensure my imprisonment. I marvelled at how long it took them to shift, compared to Matthew; he could have had me completely entrapped by now.
So this is where I stayed. The Slugs did nothing save for strengthen their already unbreakable grip on me. They were determined not to let me escape. This could only lead to one conclusion; that they considered me too dangerous to destroy themselves, and were waiting for others to arrive and assist them. This was a somewhat flattering gesture; I doubted that I could defeat one of them, let alone 3.
To prove my hypothesis, after a painful time-span of approximately 32 seconds, during which I endlessly processed my likely fate, I heard the noise of approaching Slugs. Strangely, their movement sounded like footsteps. Would this be a different form of Slug? I believed that they had a humanoid shape for other purposes, but had yet to see it.
All of my considerations were proven irrelevant, however, when a Slug and a Human rounded the corner. Boy and Ethan were here. Although it defied probability, such things didn't concern me at the moment. My torment was over; I was saved.
"Ethan! Boy!" I blurted out. None of this made sense, but it didn't have to.
"Hey", Ethan replied easily. No doubt he was uninformed of what the Slugs had been doing to me. "What's going on here? How'd you manage to get captured?"
This confirmed my theory; he had no idea. It was time to correct that, but I didn't know how much time I had. Would the Slugs kill me first? I had to speak fast.
"I need help. The Slugs were chasing me. They think I'm here to spy for the Cyborgs, and were trying to decipher my intentions. I have no intentions except to accompany you, but they won't understand that, and won't believe me even if I could tell them. They've been following me, they have all of their cameras watching me."
"Umm, Phil..." Ethan began, but all this did was inform me that he still didn't understand. I had to make him understand, and fast.
"No time for that now. I tried to get away, but they've captured me again. We have to find the
others, Matthew, Rosetta, Frank and Carmen, just Boy won't be enough to convince them that I'm on their side, we need all of us. It's only a matter of time before they try to dispose of me, they've gotten enough information from me and don't need me anymore. I don't want to be killed due to a misunderstanding, and I don't want to go back into the water tank..."
This last part surprised me. I didn't want to die due to these unfortunate and avoidable circumstances. Although I'd been in danger of death many times before, I had rarely wanted to die in a meaningful way. The last time was when I wanted to die killing Rabadootime.
"Phil", Ethan said in a firm voice. "The Slugs aren't after you."
Of course they were; the Human must not yet understand the Slugs' way. I replied, "Yes they are. Why else would they release me, and leave me to myself?"
"Because Matt told them to", Boy told me.
Matthew told them to? I'd already determined that this would not happen. I doubted that the Slug king would heed the order of a mentally unstable Slug which hadn't been in their Empire for such a long period of time no matter how old he was, especially when that order involved trusting a Cyborg.
I attempted to explain my evidence and hypothesis. "Why would they trust the word of one Slug? I am a Cyborg, on their planet. They think I'm the enemy."
Ethan said to me, "Look, it's a long story. Just trust us. We got you out of that tank, and you just disappeared before we could come get you, and we've all been looking for you ever since. The Slugs that have been 'after you' have been trying to escort you back to us, because we assumed that you didn't know your way around Slugapital."
This... This made no sense. However, both Ethan and Boy were assuring me of their story's accuracy, so it must be true.
So my friends had arranged my release; the king had listened to their arguments. Pending my freedom from the water tank, I had immediately left the area without ever considering that perhaps I should stay. I had made a list of assumptions that brought me to an incorrect conclusion. This was evidence of a lack of information on my part, but also perhaps an unintelligent interpretation of the information available to me. I logged these circumstances in my memory - and tried to remember that my friends would always look out for my best interests.
In recognition of the truth, I told them, "I see. I was incorrect."
"Have you thought that the Slugs were trying to kill you this whole time?" asked Boy.
"Among other things", I said, unwilling to reveal the full extent of my mistake. Hopefully, such an event will never occur again.
Boy reached forward towards one of my captors, as they still held me, oblivious to the verbal conversation occurring directly in their presence. As a reaction, it loosed its grip on me, allowing its mental block to return its thickened slime back to its basic form. The other two emulated the action.
Once freed, in an attempt to rapidly distance myself from my once-enemies, I joined Ethan's side. Although those Slugs couldn't hear me no matter how loud I spoke it, I still felt my situation private enough to say quietly to Ethan and Boy, "Thank you."
Respecting my sincerity, they didn't respond. Ethan then announced, "Well then. Let's go back. I'm boiling."