Chapter 24 #3
The membrane retracts after several seconds and the teeth withdraw with it. Krix’vorr studies the opening before continuing forward.
I follow more carefully than before. “You knew that was there?”
Krix’vorr crawls on. “Of course not. I’ve never been anywhere close to here. Nor has anyone else, to my knowledge.”
“Wonderful,” I comment as drily as I can.
“Yes, isn’t it?”
The tunnels continue for what feels like forever. Eventually we reach a vertical shaft. Krix’vorr climbs it easily. I follow behind him until the living surface beneath my hands suddenly gives way.
The wall opens. I drop.
For a terrifying instant there's nothing beneath me except darkness. Then Krix’vorr catches my wrist. Pain shoots through my shoulder as I swing against the side of the shaft.
Below me, a pit yawns open. The cavity is lined with pale tendrils that twist and curl as though tasting the air. Some of them snap as if trying to grab my feet.
“Oh, that's just mean!” I exclaim as my heartbeat pounds in my ears and I curl my legs up under me as I dangle.
“We’re seeing the Beast’s realest nature,” Krix’vorr says as he hauls me upward with one arm and deposits me back onto solid tissue. The pit seals immediately behind me. Within moments there is no sign it ever existed. “And we already knew she has a mean streak.”
I lie there, breathing hard. “There is…,” I pant, “such a thing… as being too mean.”
“I think meanness is appropriate in a warship,” Krix’vorr quips.
“To its enemies, sure,” I seethe. “Not to its freaking crew or its guests or whatever the heck I am.”
I push myself upright and continue crawling. The tunnels become narrower and warmer the deeper we go. Gradually the color of the tissue changes from pink to ivory. The surfaces feel older somehow, denser and less active.
Even Krix’vorr grows quieter. The passages stop feeling like maintenance routes and begin feeling like something sacred.
Eventually the tunnel widens. I squeeze through one final opening and immediately stop moving.
The chamber beyond is enormous. White structures fill it from floor to ceiling. At first I think they're trees. Then I think of coral reefs. A moment later they remind me of gigantic nerves branching through a living brain. None of those comparisons fully captures what I'm seeing.
Countless formations rise from the floor and disappear into darkness overhead. Some are as thin as fingers. Others are thick enough to contain buildings. Pale strands connect them in vast networks that spread throughout the chamber.
The entire hall glows with a faint internal light.
“Oh,” is all I can say.
Krix’vorr emerges beside me and studies the chamber. “This must be it. Memory storage.”
For several moments neither of us moves. The scale is difficult to process. Every direction reveals another forest of branching white structures disappearing into the distance.
Then Lucius squeezes through the opening behind us. “May I, sir? Just step a little further forwards… yes, that’s it. Thank you.” The drone hovers into the chamber and begins rotating slowly. His sensor cluster turns once, then again. The movement becomes faster as he scans the space. “Oh.”
“That’s what I said,” I comment, satisfied to hear the drone lost for words.
“This is…” Lucius begins, then trails off.
“What is it?” I ask, worried. I've never heard that tone from him before.
Lucius drifts farther into the chamber. The glowing formations stretch away beyond even his sensors. “I was wrong.”
Krix’vorr folds his arms. “You better not have been wrong about the Beast’s memories, machine. There’s a lot riding on this.”
“Oh, I’m not wrong in that sense. It’s just that this is vastly larger than I expected.”
“How large?” I ask.
Lucius doesn't answer immediately. For several seconds he simply hovers among the glowing structures.
When he finally speaks, his voice sounds almost distracted.
“Imagine every conversation the Beast has ever heard. Every star she has ever seen. Every port she has visited. Every species she has smelled. Every route she has traveled. Every battle. Everything she has seen.” He pauses and rotates toward one of the towering formations.
“Now imagine all of it stored without organization.”
I look around again. The size of the chamber somehow feels even greater now. “That sounds messy.”
“Doesn’t it, though?” Lucius rises toward a structure thicker than a house.
Branches spread outward from it in every direction.
“The Beast never built an archive.” His lens focuses on the glowing coral-like growth.
“She gathered memories.” For the first time since he was assigned to me, I hear genuine excitement in his voice.
“And we're looking at centuries of them. Or more.”
We leave him there and make our way back out. This time the Beast doesn’t try to trap us, and when Krix’vorr lifts me down from a hole in the ceiling, we’re standing in a normal corridor.
Immediately two crewmembers come running, then throw themselves at Krix’vorr’s feet. “Chief Harrower! The Queen commands your presence in her chamber!”