Voidrise

“It will be complete soon,” said Vo. “Complete and sufficiently stable to survive. For a while at least.”

Oa transferred her gaze to the display that monitored the changing shape and studied it carefully. Then she moved over to the damaged panel, waved the lingering smoke out of her way and scrutinised the floating image. Only then did she speak.

“For long enough,” she said, “though not, perhaps, in the greatest of comfort. The internal mechanisms appear to be less developed than they were with the first.”

“Are they different forms, then?”

“No. The internal structures are identical in arrangement and basic design. But this form seems to lack finer operational details present in that of the first Beyonder.”

“Will these mechanisms function adequately?” asked Vo.

“I’m not sure that they’ll function at all, though that need not necessarily be of concern to us. Presumably, the minds are sentient so they should be self-sustaining. The mechanisms themselves are not needed to keep the creature alive in our environment. Still, there will have to be some restructuring.”

“I suspected as much.” said Vo.

Oa transferred her attention to the creature itself, touched its mind.

 “Confusion. Too much confusion. It will need to be calmed down before we can get it to consent to the alterations.”

“You think that necessary?” Vo asked. “It will be difficult to get any coherent responses from it for some time. Longer than we have before that Bio-form starts to break down.”

“I think it wise to do so,” said Oa. “A being so particular about its form that it must wreak the equipment to preserve it is not likely to welcome any changes being forced upon it. We have seen how it reacts when in distress.”

“Very well,” Vo conceded. “How shall we proceed?”

“I think,” said Oa, “that we should keep the Beyonder unconscious for a while. Give the mind time to acclimatise itself to the new body and a period of peace in which to calm down. The mind of the first Beyonder is still unconscious and I have noted that its emotional activity is much quieted.”

“The mind of this one is already active,” said Vo. “You will need to use a suppression wave?”

“Yes. And while it is suppressed I can examine its body and that of the other Beyonder. A close examination may show us what these Bio-forms need to operate properly. If we can alter the environment so that these needs are satisfied then, when they awaken, they will be more comfortable and, so, less distressed.”

The hidden machinery chimed, once, twice, once more. All three looked up. The casket walls were transparent once more. The mist within had gone, no longer able to hide the dark, rubbery Bio-form that lay there motionless. Thin, spindly limbs immovably joined to a grotesquely contorted trunk. The place where the mind dwelt, what might once have been a sphere now dented out of shape, crowned the whole from a thick stalk, flexible but as inadequate as the rest.

Vo moved quickly to the panel he had left. “It is finished,” he said. “We must suppress the mind quickly, before it wakes.”

Oa joined him, producing a small, clear crystal that she touched to the display. It glowed as the terminal accepted it and activated it.

Te remained at her own panel, but she did not look at it. She was staring, instead, at the figure in the casket, the form that, a short time ago, her mind had shuddered to envisage. A nightmare stepping out of her mind into reality, in living Bio-flesh. She found herself moving towards it, her will unable to stop the motion. It silently drew her up to the casket, drew her vision down to look full upon it.

This was the creature she had rescued from the darkness. This was the creature that had no place in the creation she knew. This was the creature that had blasted her mind with a fear that she could never escape from.