Mirror Space - Marianne de Pierres [33]
The Bare World, it seemed, was just that - a barren moonscape of rock and sand but imbued with colours she had never seen in earth before. Seams of blue ran through the small ridges of rock and the sand around her glinted with hints of orange and pink and green. And yet there was a deadness about it that did not come from a lack of atmosphere.
Life had been here and then removed. She sensed it.
As the daylight brightened her perception of things, the small stain near her feet resolved into something of more substance but less appeal. It looked, Mira thought, like a slice of the livers that Faja often cooked for the alien children who needed high-iron diets. There were many substitutes for fresh organs, but Faja insisted on feeding her children as well as she could. The livers would arrive once a month, cryopacked, from one of her off-world suppliers.
Mira looked around for Wanton-poda. ‘W-Wanton-poda?’ she called out softly.
‘Mira-fedor?’ The response was thin but unmistakably emanating from the small gelatinous lump.
“I-is that you near my feet?’
‘Wanton is different.’
‘This is your true form?’
‘Wanton is not able to disclose my true form, which is within what you see - it’s illegal for my kind to do so - but this is my interactive skin.’
Mira moved closer. ‘S-skin. It looks too thick.’
‘It is a highly evolved material that can do and withstand many things. However, transport is an issue without a Host. Wanton would ask that you pick me up so that we can proceed.’
Mira swallowed. She felt the baby jerk, as if it had awoken and was not pleased. ‘How do I best hold you?’
‘Wanton would normally integrate into the Host’s nervous system, but as our relationship is not of that nature I would suggest placing me against your neck, just below your ear. Without a Host it is energy-consuming for Wanton to project sound.’
Mira stared at the Extro with apprehension. ‘Forgive my uncertainty, but will you hurt me? Or will you affect my control of my own functions?’
‘Mira-fedor can be reassured no harm will come to her,’ it replied. ‘And we must hasten now.’
Mira glanced around. The landscape in front of them was as barren as before, but behind her was a different matter. Behind her everything stopped. Nothing existed past a certain point. It seemed as though the nothing was just a clear, pale sky, or something as featureless.
‘The nutrient wall protects our environment. What little is left over is the Bare World.’
‘That sky is the wall?’
Wanton made an exasperated noise. ‘If it will help us to leave this spot, Wanton will explain as we proceed. But please, Mira-fedor, pick Wanton up.’
Mira reached out, stopping just short of touching the Extro. To her surprise, it sprang up of its own volition and settled on the palm of her hand.
She carefully lifted it closer to her face. It felt sticky, and had the odour of something alive and slightly bloody. She took a deep breath as it squirmed in her hand.
‘Please hasten, Mira-fedor. There are things we should avoid.’
She lifted her hand to the side of her throat and Wanton squirmed across to make contact with the flesh under her ear.
The sensation was not unpleasant, like having a cool compress applied to a bruise.
Wanton made a satisfied noise and wriggled a little as it burrowed into her skin. Mira felt tiny pricks as it anchored itself to her.
In Mira’s belly, the baby moved again, irritated.
‘Please walk in a northerly direction.’
‘Which way is north?’
‘Over the ridges in front of you.’
They kept to this pattern, Wanton giving directions and Mira obeying them. The unsettling feeling of being a slave or an automaton was countered by her anxiety to find some shelter, and her fascination with the composition of the Bare World.
It was hard to digest such a place; barren tracts of land ran like tributaries around sections of the Hue much like a maze or a river delta spread across land. Geology had only figured in Mira’s studium learning insomuch as it had pertained to the evolution and existence of particular alien genera. This was something