Mirror Space - Marianne de Pierres [1]
Insignia.
Her link with the biozoon had dwindled to the faintest of whispers. Why so distant?
Insignia, where are you? Where am I?
She opened her eyes and blinked painfully into a hard light. There was water - she could hear it - but the light obliterated everything else.
‘Close your eyes,’ instructed a voice.
Mira gladly obeyed it, shutting out the pain of the glare. Something insubstantial like gauze or silk settled on her face. It moulded to the contours of her mouth and nose and then dissolved into the warmth of her skin.
She reached to touch it but something batted her hand away.
‘Do not. It is harmless but will allow you to manage the luminosity. Now open your ocular vessels.’
Ocular vessels? Mira blinked again, taking a second to wonder what kind of humanesque referred to eyes as ‘ocular vessels’.
Then a cascade of recent memories and probabilities flooded over her. She’d been with Bethany at the markets on Rho Junction. Rast had left them. Siphonophores, Beth had called them. Floating globular creatures with transparent bodies and feet suckers. No - not just transparent. They’d surrounded her and—
Mira sat up quickly, wildly, clutching her abdomen. Baby.
‘Please desist. You may injure Wanton-poda. Or yourself.’
Suddenly her surroundings came into sharp focus. She made little sense of the wider space beyond the quivering, transparent wall that encased her, save for what appeared to be sheets of undulating tissue swaying like they were caught in a breeze.
She did, however, comprehend that she was in - not a room exactly, but an amorphous space with no specific lines. A creature hovered in the air to one side of her, a curious bell-shaped thing, a little larger than her head and shoulders combined, with two sharp, earlike protrusions above large black eyes. Flaps moved constantly around the skirt of the bell, which Mira presumed kept it afloat.
She wetted her lips and let her hands fall to her side.
‘This is Wanton-poda,’ it said. ‘Wanton is the “I” and “poda” is the cephalopod.’
Mira digested that for a moment. The creature seemed innocuous and polite. ‘You are using a cephalopod’s body.’
‘For the moment. Naturally there have been some modifications. Wanton-poda does not require a water environment.’ It floated closer to her. ‘It is normal etiquette for the other party in a conversation to identify themselves.’
‘P-pardon m-my manners. My name is Mira Fedor.’
‘Yes, yes, Nascent humanesque.’
‘You an Extropist?’
Wanton-poda’s skirt fluttered, sending it higher into the air. “Extropist” is a term used only by Nascents. We do acknowledge the term “Post-Species”, but of course that only describes a small section of our community.’
Mira swung her legs off the spongy platform she was sitting on. Her breath came too quickly, leaving her dizzy. ‘I have been taken against my will, Wanton-poda. I must return to my friends and my ship. Where are they?’
The cephalopod’s ear flaps flattened and it spun in circles, making little squealing noises.
Mira put her hands over her ears. ‘Stop! Please! What is wrong? Have I offended you?’
But the creature took no notice, spinning faster and squealing louder.
Pressure built behind the bridge of Mira’s nose. Before she realised what was happening, unwanted tears brimmed and began to fall down her cheeks.
Wanton-poda suddenly stopped and floated closer again. ‘You are expressing sadness.’
Mira nodded and pressed her fingers to her eyes. She took several slow breaths to calm herself. ‘Distress. Please, tell me where I am.’
‘Of course, Mira-fedor. You are in a cultivation chamber on Hue in Interim territory.’
Her panic of a few moments before turned to anger. ‘In Extropy space? How far am I from Rho Junction? Who has brought me here?’
Wanton-poda began to spin.
‘Why are you doing that?’
The spinning increased again and it started to wail.
Mira’s head pounded. ‘Stop!’ she said. ‘Tell me what I’m doing to upset you.’
The spinning lessened and Wanton-poda’s ear flap shot up. ‘Nascent Mira-fedor should not express itself to Wanton-poda in such an impolite manner.