K ♦

In the blackness, a light flashed. Spider spun, sensors probing. No light had penetrated this shell of ice since Spider had cut the last rock from it. Spider stole quietly towards the source.

The light flashed slowly, but constantly, from a small hole in the ice. Spider knew the terrain - had carved every inch of it. This hole was new. Unpredictably, sensors long silent in Spider's array detected something. Life. There was life in that light.

6 ♠

The wind didn't slow him down while he was on the ground, so he transformed back, and ran. The bird-skeletons didn't follow. Their black bodies absorbed the light around them, so that even flying in sunlight, details were hard to discern. The wizard thought of fish swimming deep beneath water's surface, horrible fish with no right to exist, huge fish, somehow flying, and dripping with hatred, fire, death.

Only one could know what they are, what to do. He must see his Oracle.

9 ♦

Out of the center of the black void rose a steep plateau. Once on top, Spider deposited the capsule into Pyramid. New orders. Maybe now they would be moving to a new planet, hopefully one with rich minerals. The orders must be rendezvous coordinates.

Spider waited for Pyramid - unusual. Typically Spider had something to do, and Pyramid's analysis could wait until the next report. But by all accounts, Spider had completed mining, and it was better to sit and wait, rather than waste precious metal by moving needlessly. Besides, Spider wanted to know when they would leave.

A ♣

Power still lit the room, though. The halogen emergency lights drown out the blues, reds, and greens of the dance lights. Those source-fours kept everything pretty warm, even if it was dead. A disco is a scary place when you're the only one still on your feet.

She stepped carefully over the few remaining bodies. The whole area was sealed off, quarantined. Nothing warm left alive, they said. Nothing could live in that gas.

taptaptap

What was that?

2 ♥

Finally, I stared directly into those multifaceted eyes. He sniffed deep my irritation and clicked. "Apology accepted, now go away."

"You're Ωω." Not a question. He knew his stuff. "I was waiting for you. Θξ. I need your help."

Hmm. Θ. He really is a scientist. I laughed to myself. "You need my help. I suppose you need a trench dug. Maybe some dung collected? Forget about it."

"It could mean a promotion. I don't mean within Ω; I mean above it."

I seethed curiosity and doubt. The bitter odor made him smile. No one moves above their station. It doesn't happen. How could he offer that?

8 ♦

Spider scuttled along on its sleek black metal legs. It navigated the sheer wall of ice quickly and easily. Each leg pounded a hold into the smooth surface, pulling a share of the massive body up further. Any level surface lurked miles and miles below, probably beneath the ocean of methane gas. This hunk of sick yellow chlorine was the only dry land on the planet.

Spider reached a hole and clambered through. Inside, a void stretched into the vastness of space. The chlorine shell of ice was almost completely mined. The puny volume on minerals Spider had collected barely sustained it, and soon, now, starvation would become a major threat.

4 ♠

The wizard slipped and fell into the muddy grass, stumbled back to his feet, and kept running. He could hear the sickening rustles behind him, gaining. They were heavy; he could hear the earth crushing underneath their feet. And they were fast. Too fast. The wizard panted an incantation, and then he was a moth. He flew up and up, dodging raindrops as best he could, and then he turned around.

It was worse than he thought.

It wasn't just one...thing... following him. It was many. And they weren't confined to the ground, either. Their skeletal wings shed the water from the storm, and somehow the wind wasn't even slowing them down.

10 ♥

He sat on that rusty bar stool, his hairy legs dangling, his antennae shifting. I walked up to him, sat on the next stool, and ordered my usual. The frothy, filmy milk cooled my throat, and I wiped my claws across my mandibles. It's tough, not having sweat glands. I picked up the leaf pitcher again, brought it to my face. He just watched me. Studied me. Like I was some kind of microbe. I hate scientists, even when they're half-stoned.

3 ♣

The misty green air didn't smell like roses. She wasn't surprised. The last time she shuffled her feet in this particular club, it was to the constant tune of ambulances arriving and departing, arriving and departing, hauling their load of suffocating bodies off to the rapidly overflowing hospitals. Pity. It used to be a nice place.