Blood and Profit: Chapter 43

The Starseeds led Mew and Eamon to a clearing deep within the jungle. The leaves in this area had landed in a near perfect circle creating an opening in the canopy that the light poured through. In what looked to be the center of the clearing there was a single leaf ship that had been buried almost completely in the ground. Already starting to sprout the beginnings of something that would dwarf the rest of the forest around it.

Eamon’s communicator gave off a chime and he checked the messages he had received. “Great.” He said in mixture of joy and frustration.

Mew turned away from the new growth in the center of the circle of light to reply to her brother. “What now?” She asked.

He was furiously typing a reply to something he had read. “Kepi has given the senate the information we sent her. They are currently debating their next move. I also have a message from the Senate leaders demanding my immediate return to the capitol.” He explained without looking up from his device.

One of the Starseeds touched Mew on her shoulder. She turned back toward the ring of light. “Eamon I don’t think we could leave right now even if we wanted to.” She said moving closer to the circle of light.

Eamon looked up from his communicator to see Mew being led into the open clearing. “Mew what are you doing? Don’t go near that thing!” He shouted.

“They haven’t done anything even remotely hostile since I landed here, they came here to save us, I need you to stop freaking out.” She said without looking back.

Two more Starseeds stepped up next to Eamon and walked him out into the clearing. “What is this thing anyway?” He asked. “You already have plenty of trees, why is this one so special?” He continued. “I mean, this tree’s going to be pretty big from the looks of it, so hey, yay you guys.” He nervously threw thumps up into the air. And his escorts stopped him next to his sister.

Mew shook her head. “Eamon, shut up.” She glared at him.

From every edge of the circle Starseeds emerged into the light. One by one reaching down and implanting their upper limbs into the ground causing the grass between them and the giant seedling to grow several inches the ground to spout hundreds of flowers. As more and more Starseeds pressed themselves into the dirt the seedling sprouts slowly but surely began to grow inch by inch until the seeding was now an impossibly thick intertwined grouping of vines that had begun to spout giant leaves.

When the tree stopped its growth the Starseeds retreated one by one until only one was left. It had discolored bark in the midsection area between its upper and lower limbs and Mew recognized that this was the Starseed crashed into her space station, the one she had rescued and brought down to the planet with her. For a second she got overly excited and ran up to give it a hug. “Oh my god you’re alive!” The Starseed did not return the hug and Mew let go quickly. “I’m sorry, you probably don’t know what hugging is do you?” She asked awkwardly.

The Starseed’s face appeared so that it could answer. Eamon had not seen any of the Starseeds with faces yet and promptly freaked out. “Why does it have a face now?” He shouted.

Mew sighed heavily. “They’re a psychic species Eamon. The little dream journey you took? The view from space? Their ‘faces’? All of that are ways they can communicate with species that cannot interface with their dark matter.” She explained.

“Dark matter?” Eamon asked.

The Starseed finally spoke. “These bodies are only one of the forms that we can exist in. Technically speaking there is no such thing as “we”. Only a singular consciousness that is made up of a living cloud of dense neurofibers. “we” are all the knowledge the cloud contains. Normally the cloud is not present in this phase space, but something about traveling through the ring with our escape pods has pulled a piece of the cloud with us. Now that our consciousness is physically present in this phase space it can be damaged and even destroyed. We must grow another elder tree that can phase shift before we lose "our mind" completely.”

Eamon had a completely blank look on his face. He looked to Mew. “I’m assuming that made sense to you.” He said.

She nodded. “I grasped the general concept, yeah.” She confirmed.

Eamon nodded. “Good cause when my bosses ask, you get to explain all of this. Tree ships, collective consciousness, psychic bonsai plants. Sexy fun time dirt rituals, everything that’s happened since I landed has been totally wacko fantasy dream time.” He ranted heading out of the clearing.

Mew smiled awkwardly at the Starseed. “Sorry about him.”

The Starseed shrugged.