Chapter Four Sadie #3
“We’re calling them illusion slugs,” FM said in her own voice. “But yes, basically. Hoid here is going to accompany you on your mission.”
“Hoid!” the other slugs chimed from the table, their voices singing in harmony.
“I like the name,” Ferret said. It was apt; Hoid was a wanderer from Old Earth mythology who performed illusions, traveled the stars, and appeared in the unlikeliest places.
“Name!” Hoid fluted back, wiggling his spines happily.
“Will this be useful?” Alanik asked from her wooden chair.
She said the words in English, though she still wore her translator pin.
She’d been working on learning our language, and I wanted to learn hers in return, but I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to make my own words sound as elegant and flowy as hers.
“Good question,” Katri said. “Why would we want to change what we look like to approach the humans?”
“We don’t know what you’re going to encounter beyond that inhibitor field,” FM said.
“Drop illusion.” She changed into herself again.
I’d read about the strange disturbance around the planet when I’d finally received the mission briefing.
It did sound bizarre and out of the ordinary, which was kind of our team’s specialty.
“Hoid can do things like color the bottom of your ships to match the sky so that you’re camouflaged from beneath.
Then the scout ships can fly close over the planet without being seen, to gather better intelligence before you approach. ”
“Before you approach!” Hoid added, fluffing out his spines and preening, inordinately pleased to be the center of attention.
I wondered how much of this conversation the slugs understood.
They seemed to pick up on our emotions. I wished I had that power.
It would be really useful to cytonically sense when people were annoyed by me, instead of having to guess.
“Okay,” Arturo said, eyeing Hoid’s rainbow spines. “So you’re telling me that taynix can disguise itself to look like anything, and it chooses to look like that?”
“Actually,” FM said, “We think the rainbow colors are an illusion. They disappear if the slug is caught in an inhibitor.”
“That,” I said, “makes Hoid my new favorite flightmate. Sorry, Gilaf.”
“It’s fair,” Gilaf said. “Who can compete?”
“Can one slug disguise all our ships?” Arturo asked.
“Only a few at a time,” FM said. “The surface area one slug can affect is limited, and it goes down the more complex the illusion is. One slug can camouflage three or four ships against a blank sky—or a few people and their clothing, plus the color of their slug. More than that and you’d need a team of illusion slugs.
We don’t have reason to think you’ll need that on this particular mission.
Just a little gloss to help you check out the planet before Dasha, Katri, and Suki decide how best to make themselves known to the populace. ”
“That’s awesome,” I said. “Can the slug give everyone blue hair to match mine?”
“He can!” FM said. “It’s easiest to have a cytonic relay the instructions, because they can speak to the slug mind-to-mind to make the intention clear.”
“Alanik should be able to create the hologram, right?” Gilaf said. “She’s supposed to have all cytonic powers.”
Alanik gave Gilaf a blank stare, and the air in front of her shimmered a bit. “That is all I can do so far,” she said. “I am still learning.”
“Is Hoid asking permission from a commslug before he makes his rainbow stripes?” Katri asked. “Wouldn’t he have to ask permission all the time?”
That was a good question. I’d read about the new hyperjump rules in the briefing, but I had no idea how they applied to illusions.
“No,” FM said. “Only hyperjumps anger the delvers. Something about us physically passing through their realm is deeply annoying to them, so we’re trying to be respectful of their space.
Other powers like mindblades and concussion blasts don’t seem to bother them—maybe because we’re pulling fragments of their world out, rather than putting something in. ”
“That makes sense,” I said. “Like, if you had a house at the center of your neighborhood, it would be pretty annoying if all your neighbors traipsed through your living room instead of walking around.”
FM blinked at me. “I…never thought about it that way.”
“I don’t know about you guys,” Nedd said, “but I’m going to have another piece of pizza.”
“Agreed,” Gilaf said.
“I’ll let you all relax now,” FM said, moving toward the door. “And…” She bit her lip. “Be safe.”
“We’re always safe,” Nedd said.
FM looked down at his prosthetic, but Nedd acted like he didn’t notice.
“We’re going to hyperjump across the galaxy!” I said. “What could go wrong?”
“Sadie,” Arturo said. “Never say that sentence again.”
Okay, fine. Obviously a lot could go wrong. We were doing things almost no one in the entire universe had the opportunity to do.
At least no one was likely to shoot at us on a diplomatic mission. That was the kind of thing a person started to take personally after a while.