It had been two days since she had infiltrated the herd of microbes, and Lucy’s inner membrane walls were already nearly covered with a thin layer of sprouting hairs, and her ribosomes had gone fuzzy. The spores even stuck to each other, forming little clumps that floated freely as they fed on the nutrient-rich liquid inside her.
They clung to everything. Like cat hair on clothes only…on her organs.
Lucy wasn’t sure what the fungus was going to do to her exactly, but she didn’t like the way it so easily spread throughout her body. It hadn’t done anything malicious or truly harmful yet, apart from using up some of her energy, but if it kept growing…
She paused from her Oxidizing and pulled up her System, unable to maintain the focus required any longer. Unlike the first time she’d used the skill in the area with less concentrated sulfur, here she needed to diligently regulate the flow, or too much would flow in and she’d be left helpless as her body struggled to catch up with the influx of outside molecules.
[Class: error:UNKNOWN]
[Sub-Class: Microbe. Current Evolution: None]
[Skills: Awareness (Meta), Gene Stealer, Protective Barrier, Reform Body, Spike]
[Next Evolution: 24/100]
[Energy: 100/100]
Well, at least I’ve got plenty of energy!
Even as she watched, the energy went down to 95, but Lucy knew from experience by now that it wouldn’t drop lower than 50.
And having the steady source of sulfur energy was nice, a comforting reassurance that, as long as she could stay hidden, she could survive.
But her real hoard lay in the shop interface, where a small counter told her that she had amassed a whopping 37 points she could spend on upgrades or new organelles. Enough to replace her lost cilia several times over, even after purchasing her new vacuole for storage. Close to the 50 she needed for mitochondria.
So far, eluding the notice of the guards and the winged bug had been no trouble at all.
Turns out being a guard is mostly just standing around all day. Not too many riots with microbes, I suppose. And Bug-Man must do something other than buzz around guarding; I haven’t seen much of him at all.
Her real problem was the fungus. On one hand, it was the only reason she’d been able to get so many points so quickly, since it happily used up her own store of energy when there was a surplus.
On the other hand, it was using that extra energy to grow, spreading fuzzy tendrils throughout her body.
Lucy had never been a fan of fuzzy tendrils spreading throughout her body.
Worse, she feared what would happen if she let it go unchecked much longer.
She’d finally scoured her System for anything that might help, but the only thing she’d found was the upgrade from the Shop that let her increase the production of a certain enzyme for 2 EP.
The problem with that was that she had to specify which enzyme she wanted to be able to increase, and she had no idea the exact kind needed to break down the fungus. She’d tried to check out its genetic code with Gene Stealer, but without more knowledge about how the fungus functioned, her System gave her no hints as to which enzyme would work.
If she could find the right one, she could regulate the fungus’ growth inside her, feeding it her extra energy to allow herself to get more Evolution Points long-term without compromising her own safety.
She decided it was worth the points to experiment a bit, and purchased the upgrade, selecting an enzyme almost at random from the list provided to her.
The first one she tried seemed to do nothing at all when she increased its production and it spread through her cytoplasm, so she shut it off, wishing the shop had a refund option.
The next one started eating away at her structure, and she cancelled it immediately.
The third gave her nausea.
The fourth…
On the fourth try, Lucy found an enzyme that reacted with the fungus, bonding to its tiny filaments before absorbing into their structure like oil into a wick. After that, nothing happened.
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It may not have been an immediate success, but that was nothing new to Lucy. Paradigm shifts were hugely important, but science usually proceeded by taking incremental steps toward truth, not by leaping over the intermediary stages.
The methodological insight was familiar to Lucy, but it felt especially relevant given her current striving towards the first of many Evolutions. She supposed it was fitting, in a way.
Guess I didn’t expect to be running experiments down here, but that’s what this is starting to feel like.
Unexpectedly, the feeling of experimentation was fresh and exciting, nothing like the dullness she’d begun to feel in her human job at the lab.
It helps for it to be a life or get-taken-over-by-a-fungus situation. Really…focuses the mind, I guess.
Spending her points also counted towards her first evolution, bringing her to 32/100 points toward it, with 29 left in the bank.
Just over halfway there.
Lucy went back to her list in the upgrade selection screen, narrowing in on the group of enzymes around the one that had had an effect.
But before she could choose another, a commotion in the herd nearby drew her attention, and she exited her System screens.
“Grrrggllgrrrgllll.” The call came from a guard transporting a new microbe over.
Lucy watched as the new microbe was shuffled and prodded over to the edge of the pit by a spear-armed larva with an especially wrinkled membrane, who she took to be the bumbling doctor’s assistant, since they were coming from the direction of his alcove.
Unlike the ones she’d seen in line, this new microbe struggled and writhed trying to escape, but the guard called over another and they soon shoved it into the pit along with all the others.
It immediately tried to roll up the steep slope out of the pit. Unfortunately, it chose to do so right where it had been pushed in, and the guards there just stabbed at it with their spears until it was forced to let go and fall back in.
It lay there on the ground with its membrane heaving as it recovered, then it slowly puffed back up and seemed to be looking around.
The guards were still watching it closely from above to make sure it didn’t try to escape, and as much as Lucy had wanted to talk with other organisms, she hoped this particular one wouldn’t—
Yep, making its way right over here. Just what I need, attention from the guards.
But at the last moment the new microbe split off and joined a group at a nearby geyser instead, where it was greeted with friendly nudges and a smattering of yellow communication particles.
Lucy kept her head down and prepared to return to her experiment, pushing away memories of cafeterias and group projects.
This is what you came here to do, she reminded herself, not to…gossip!
Still, as the new microbe was welcomed warmly by the others Lucy couldn’t help but feel like she was being shunned.
Is something wrong with me? Can they tell that I’m different, somehow?
Lucy reflected on the fact that her insecurities had transferred over to her new body with her. She sighed, not noticing the tiny stream of yellow molecules that drifted away from her.
Would it have been so hard for Jade to just yoink those out and replace them with—
At that moment, the new microbe jerked to look in her direction, then began to roll over towards her, and Lucy forgot her fears of being the herd pariah. It looked much the same as all the others, but clearly something was different about the microbe, since it had fought against the guards and proactively tried to escape.
It also…sauntered.
It was an absurd word to apply to an organism without feet, but as the microbe rolled slowly and bouncily over the tendril-matted ground, it was the description that came to Lucy’s mind.
As the newcomer approached, she found herself unaccountably nervous.
“Hey there,” the microbe said, in a smooth flow of yellow molecules that Lucy somehow interpreted as a masculine voice speaking out loud. “Fine day for some Oxidation, isn’t it? You know,” he leaned in closer to her, “I once knew a ‘crobe who Oxidized so much sulfur in one day that she—whoooaaa!”
As the microbe spoke he tried to lean casually against the geyser, and promptly got blasted in the membrane with hot sulfur. After shaking like a wet dog, he resumed speaking.
“Huh. Could’ve sworn that was solid. Don’t have the best vision, do I? Anyway, like I said, I knew this ‘crobula who honest to God expl—”
Bewildered, Lucy had intended to let the organism keep on talking while she figured out what the hell was going on. But at the mention of God, she couldn’t help herself from cutting off the monologue.
“God? What do you mean by God?” she asked eagerly. Maybe microorganisms had their own religions? “And what’s a ‘crobe?”
He paused. “Oh. Errr…did I say God? I meant to say…Claude.”
Lucy would have blinked in confusion if she’d had eyes. She didn’t say anything, since she didn’t know what to say, but a single yellow molecule still drifted out of her membrane. It must have conveyed her confusion to the other microbe, because his membrane immediately lightened to a different shade of green.
“Are you…blushing?” she asked incredulously.
The microbe lightened further. “No! I mean…of course not. ‘crobes don’t blush, do they? I mean, do we?”
Before Lucy could respond, he hurried on. “And Claude is, uh, my good friend over there!” he nodded towards a geyser she was confident he hadn’t been to yet.
At that geyser, an old and especially wrinkled looking microbe hunched close to the plume of sulfur.
Lucy had noticed that microbe, since it was the only one at that geyser and it was standing nearly on top of the spewing liquid. It hadn’t moved an inch since she’d arrived.
“…right.”
She thought for a moment, piecing things together, as the talkative microbe squirmed slightly.
Simon had hinted at sending some adversity her way, and though she had expected to be facing some kind of evil monster from the God of Death, maybe he’d sent one of his minions over in disguise? If so, he hadn’t chosen his secret operative very well; the microbe in front of her looked uncomfortable in a distinctly human way.
“You’ve never been…human, have you?” she asked suspiciously.
To her surprise, the squirming stopped, and he answered with what felt to her membrane like honest confusion.
“Human? No, I don’t believe I have,” he said thoughtfully. “Wait! I remember now. I’ve never been one myself, but I think a coworker might’ve had a pet…Yes, human…with the scales, right? And the barbed eye-hoods?”
“…no.”
Lucy stared at him. He stared back at her, then shrugged.
“I mostly work in Analytics, to be honest. More of a numbers guy, you know?”
They stared at each other a bit more. Eventually, she spoke again.
Might as well just ask I suppose.
“You don’t happen to work for someone named Simon, do you?” She examined him closely. “Or Dragtharanok?”
“Oh, Draggy?” He made a pshaw sound, like he was waving a hand dismissively. “You’ll love her!”
Lucy started planning her escape.