Chapters
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The room was crowded, as much with people as objects. There were projection screens, bits of twisted metal, tanks filled with green growth. Despite the music and the smells, this was not the same space Felicity had visited for the fleet admiral’s tea ceremony. His clothes hadn't changed, at least. That strangely thin body with too many limbs still dressed in flowing silks, its shape not clearly suggesting one sex over another. He raised one delicate hand as Felicity entered, waving her over. When he…-
84.8 K •
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Felicity was far from pleased to be going back into a tank, particularly one that was constructed from salvaged material and scrap. There was a single comforting factor involved in this particular transition: this machine was built only to interface with her mind, it didn't put her into stasis. With enough reflex control, she could probably remove it.There were two cells—one for her, and one for Delta. Both were made of scraps of packing material for blankets, and so much repurposed hardware she…
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84.8 K •
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Felicity knew the moment the Varch'nai activated the ship's new communications device. Not just because the lights went out, and the ventilators all stopped blowing stale air. But Manny slumped forward, limp.She rolled out of the makeshift bed, beside where Delta was still sprawled. The former plant hadn't been able to keep practicing for long, but that was fine. She was learning faster than Felicity had.Then the lights came back on, and Manny sat back up. He hadn't been sleeping, just resting beside the…
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84.8 K •
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This was probably the wrong time to direct her attention to helping Delta. She would have more time once their position on this salvage ship was secure, and the communications were back up. Once that happened, she wouldn't have to rely on the will of a single, diminutive shred of Harmony to protect her from forces that desperately wanted to escape it.But when Harmony said that “her species” was driven to socialization and cooperation, she didn't really know for sure what that meant. But seeing a friend…
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84.8 K •
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The quarters they found for Felicity and her "friends" left a great deal to be desired. The deck had huge gaps, and an entire section of wall had been covered by a thin plastic sheet. It bowed out constantly, as though the pressure might rip it free at any moment. But it didn't, at least not while Felicity and the others entered the room."We're working on something better," Escape Gear said apologetically. She was the last one through the door, clutching the nearly-limp form of Delta in her arms. She…
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84.8 K •
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No transformation spell was easy.Felicity had experienced more than her fair share of the obscure magic, particularly during this ill-fated expedition. But no number of repetitions could prepare her for the utterly bizarre sensation of being ripped from a body she understood and crammed into something she didn't.Even when the new one was something she actually wanted. After spending so long in the body of something entirely alien, part of her resisted being restored. Spiritual inertia, perhaps. Or…
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84.8 K •
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If traveling in the skimmer had been cramped, hiding in a container full of water made that experience seem like a luxury vacation.It wasn't just that there was barely enough space for the two of them. Plants didn't really care about personal space, in the same way that ponies didn't have the modesty taboo that caused humans so much discomfort. It was the heat that really got to her, and the darkness. When she first woke, she found the liquid in the huge container had dwindled significantly, and that the…
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84.8 K •
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Felicity circled around the control-panel. She couldn't say exactly how many times she had swam around it. Not just to bask in the warmth that radiated from it, though there was certainly some element of that. After being in the dark for so long, even the emergency lights served to help wake her up.They were nowhere near as strong as the illumination that filled even the most broken-down skimmer she'd ridden in. Those were designed to nourish one of her kind, minimizing light-bleed along other spectra.…
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84.8 K •
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Felicity swam away from the entrance, leaving the fast-moving shadows behind on the other side of the glass. There was no way to look in that direction without feeling at least a little self-conscious—what was Escape Gear thinking, looking at her strange body through the glass? Would they ever speak again?Delta wasn't patient enough to wait, though, and swam along just beside her. One tentacle trailed against the metal at all times, though Felicity couldn't tell if she was investigating or afraid of…
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84.8 K •
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Felicity wasn't in any particular hurry to make it to the entrance.It wasn't just that they swam through a graveyard of the creatures she had killed to defend herself, though their alien corpses certainly didn't help anything. It wasn’t even the cold and the ice. There was something else on the surface, something clear and strange that didn't quite mix with the ocean.Water, she realized. I'm looking at actual water. There wasn't much of it—anything that separated would freeze almost instantly at these…
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84.8 K •
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