Most of the tube-like organisms coiled lazily in tangles, moving only to avoid drifting out into the current from the alcoves and cave-entrances in which they dwelt.
But in the cave closest to her, Lucy saw that the water was agitated by a frenzy of activity. The dozen or so worms there were swarming over something, snapping and thrashing around in a blur.
At first Lucy thought they were fighting amongst themselves, but eventually one of the worms broke off from the frenzied mass, carrying a scrap of membrane in its mouth.
It swam just out into the open water outside the cave, its body coiling around the scrap of membrane to keep its prize in place as it fed.
Lucy recognized the tough grey material as coming from one of the digging creatures. Her theory was confirmed when a shovel-like claw eventually came drifting out of the cave from beneath the mass of worms.
Guess that’s what happens when there’s too many to slurp up.
The solid piece of organic material drifted slowly out and down, passing below the lone worm who’d left the cave to feed in peace.
When the claw continued to float down, however, a worm from the cave below noticed and swam out to it, and within moments the previously languid mass of worms from that cave boiled forth like a stream of bubbles, all with hungry, eager jaws.
They enveloped the lone worm, which didn’t even have a chance to flee. Its body was torn apart, its own soft membrane carelessly ripped into pieces like the wrapper of a candy bar as the other worms began to feed.
Maybe those teeth are shaper than I thought, Lucy thought, watching the grisly spectacle.
After she had gotten a good look at the six cave entrances, she backed off, not wanting to get swarmed like the lone worm before she came up with a plan.
The obvious first step was to go back to Rikorlak and Sam and tell them what she had found. She could solicit their input and figure out a way to handle the large number of worms as a group. Three organisms fighting together had a better chance than one alone, after all.As much as she had wanted to make this first scouting trip on her own, it would be foolish to ignore the fact that she had potential allies who could help her.
She began swimming back to her own cave, finding the last of the symbols she had etched into a trail in the stone. She could come up with a clearer plan as she went.
Just as she was leaving, the mass of worms in the open water finished consuming the lone worm and its bit of food, then immediately writhed into the cave it had come out of, joining the frenzy there to consume what was left of the digging creature.
A single bit of worm-membrane with a tooth attached drifted slowly down where they had left, so mangled that Lucy couldn’t tell if it was from the lone worm’s own mouth, or if one of the others had lost a tooth in the attack, leaving it embedded in its victim's flesh.
Lucy let the sight slip out of her Awareness as she followed her trail in the stone, returning to the matter of planning.
The problem was that she wasn’t at all sure the three of them would be able to coordinate effectively in combat. Rikorlak’s speed and Sam’s defensive ability would make nice compliments to Lucy’s offensive capabilities, but only if they could all work together.
In the sulfur pits, Rikorlak and Lucy had ad-libbed well together in their escape. That had been against a much smaller number of less mobile enemies, but she thought they could try something similar here.
If Rikorlak was able to lead most of the worms off on a chase, he could lead them into a trap. Or Lucy could go in and take care of any that stayed behind.
But what if they caught up, and Lucy suddenly found herself on a rescue mission rather than a hunting trip?
Or a body retrieval, she thought grimly. Wouldn’t that be ironic.
She thought of the tiny bit of membrane with the tooth in it that she'd just seen.
Not that there would be much less, I guess.
And then there was Sam to consider. Lucy was sure the young microbe would be eager to join in, but it was unclear how their defensive slime could best be utilized, or how the worms would react to it.
Lucy swished her flagellum in frustration, keeping herself pressed near to the stone wall as she swam and thought, scanning the area for threats.
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There were too many unknown variables right now. Too much that could go wrong.
It only takes one failed plan for this to end. A single mistake.
The simplest thing to do would be to rush in and release cloud after cloud of enzymes as the worms swarmed her. It had the benefit of simplicity and didn’t require any coordination with others, and less moving parts meant less that could go wrong.
But she would have no control over the one thing that could go wrong.
She’d been confident trusting in the strength of her Evolved membrane when fighting a single group of worms, but sixty of anything trying to chew her apart would get through eventually. Going in by herself would basically be a coin flip to see if Lucy could produce enzymes fast enough to kill all the worms before they killed her.
And after the display she had just watched, she didn’t like her chances.
Jade’s warning played in her mind.
Luck is not a reliable friend, she told herself.
Lucy needed more information. If she could take out a few worms at the same time and thin their numbers, so much the better.
As she had that thought, the path forward cleared somewhat, not quite revealing itself completely, but crystallizing into a familiar overall structure. A plan began to take shape in her mind.
The worms were not an insurmountable foe. There were a lot of them, but they were easy to rile up. Predictable.
If she could learn even more about their behavior, she could come up with a better plan as needed.
Mind made up, Lucy traced the last few chemical symbols back to the cave.
It was time to do a little testing.
“Alright, everyone ready?”
Huddled around her, Rikorlak and Sam both bobbed up and down in acknowledgement as Lucy looked over the cave.
They had chosen the shallow alcove where Lucy had found the worm eggs before. It was about two-thirds of the way between Wormville and the group’s cave, and setting up here would give them a good place to conduct the experiment.
The idea was basically to get a few of the worms to chase after Rikorlak, who would lead them to where Lucy waited in the alcove, ready with her deadly cloud of enzymes. In addition to hopefully killing a few of them it should give her an accurate idea of how they would respond.
Lucy didn’t expect all of the worms to chase the whole way, but if they did, the cave was prepared.
Thanks to the digging creature Lucy had scared off before, the alcove had a narrow tunnel leading deep into the stone.
Next to that narrow tunnel in the back, Sam and Rikorlak had prepared a sludgy mass of debris that now waited to be shoved into place where it could block the tunnel if needed.
The plan was simple: Rikorlak would swim close enough by the worms for them to give chase, then make his way back as quickly as he could. If any worms were still chasing him, Lucy would release a cloud of enzymes to kill them.
And if all of the worms were still chasing him, Lucy would release her cloud of enzymes then follow him into the tunnel, pulling tight the sludgy blockade Sam had made behind her to keep the worms from following.
If they were lucky, they might be able to repeat the process a few times, killing a decent number of the worms each time.
Either a good number of them follow and we leave a sizable dent in their numbers, or we learn that they don't like to chase too far. Win-win.
Rikorlak took the biggest risk out of the three, relying completely on his own speed to make it to safety. If most of the worms followed and they caught up with him before he made it to the alcove, there was little Lucy would be able to do. She would try to fight them off if that happened, but her enzymes were just as likely to kill Rikorlak as the worms were.
Sam would be safe in nearly any scenario, and with her ability to create a zone of membrane-dissolving death around herself, Lucy felt good about her own chances if anything went wrong.
After they had gone over the plan once more, Sam moved back into the narrow tunnel, and Lucy led Rikorlak to the worm caves above, following her trail of symbols.
Rikorlak had seemed a little confused by her explanation of them, but after Lucy had pointed out the trail and he’d gone up and down a couple times slowly, he was confident he knew where to go.
Leaving him just below the worm caves, Lucy quickly made her way back down, checking that Sam was well within the narrow tunnel at the rear of the cave before taking her own position in the alcove, ready to follow Rikorlak into the tunnel and pull the blockage in after herself.
She exchanged molecules in a steady flow as she waited, imagining deep, calming breaths and leaning out over the edge to look for Rikorlak.
Long moments passed in silent anticipation.
He must be waiting just to make sure I’ve had plenty of time to make it back here, she thought nervously. Hopefully about a dozen or so will follow, and we can take care of them easily before—
Lucy broke off her thoughts as a shape came hurtling down at her from above.
It was Rikorlak, followed by…
Nothing. Not a single worm followed him.
Despite this, the microbe swam as fast as his fin would take him, careening wildly to get into the entrance to the tunnel at the back of the cave and yelling as he went.
“Pull it shut! Quick, quick!”
Lucy stared after him in confusion, but swam over anyway.
“What is it?” she asked, getting ready to block the tunnel, “did something else come after you?”
Only then did Rikorlak slow down, after nearly knocking Sam over.
He poked half his body back out of the tunnel.
“Oh.” His stream of molecules sounded sheepish. “Well, they were following me, and…well…nasty things, worms.” He brought himself fully out of the tunnel, then eventually spoke once he had confirmed that nothing at all had followed him.
“Err, right. I’ll just…try again, shall I?”
Try again he did.
And next time, the plan worked perfectly.
As Rikorlak passed by her, going a little slower than before, Lucy shot forth her enzymes, enveloping the couple of worms that had chased after him.
Already into the alcove with her, the worms had nowhere to go, and Lucy’s enzymes made quick work of them.
Emboldened by the success, Rikorlak took even more time on his way back down next time, and was able to lure down a few more.
It wasn’t until their third round of killing worms that things started to go wrong.
Lucy readied her attack as she waited, feeling energized and excited rather than nervous now that she knew the plan was working.
Maybe he’ll get a dozen this time. I’m pretty sure I can handle—
A shape came hurtling from above like a stone in free fall.
It was Rikorlak, trailing what appeared to be every single worm in the area.