Chapter 28: Beneath the Cascade of Flesh and Mind
Deciding—wisely, I might add—to ignore Kimchi's rapidly intensifying spiral of emotion (which, from long experience, I knew would only devour us both if I got involved), I turned my attention back to the still-twitching corpse of the Ker'min.
"Kimchi, honey," I said, crouching beside the mangled body, "come here and find me something that can preserve this guy's brain. It's still fresh-ish, and I think he had some minor psionic capability. I want to poke around inside it before it rots or gets eaten by a beetle the size of my thigh."
Kimchi didn't calm down per se, but she understood what I was doing—after so many years, she had learned to translate my deflections as love in motion. She crept up behind me like an affectionate serpent, then melted into a softer form, one she rarely wore during combat. Her pliable, chitinous carapace retracted ever so slightly, and suddenly I had two plush mounds squishing warmly against the back of my head.
"Kimchi understands your train of thought, darling-Irvine," she murmured into my ear, her tone syrupy and oddly formal. "She shall relay your command. The preservation shall be handled, with great care and reverence. The brain shall not spoil."
She paused. "And now... what does my mate intend to do next? Your brilliant flanking maneuver has borne fruit. The other bio-forms are now encircling the city, pinching the Ker'min defenders like slow-grilled meat between burning tongs. Do you wish to continue your direct involvement in the assault, or...?"
I tilted my head, still kneeling by the corpse. The battlefield was humming with kinetic noise, but for me, the symphony had grown discordant. I could feel the familiar migraine of too many unfiltered emotions rippling through the shared hive-psyche like someone yelling into a microphone with the gain maxed out.
"I think," I said, peeling my head gently from Kimchi's pillowy cleavage and standing upright, "I'd like to go sightseeing."
She blinked.
"I mean it. I want to look at something beautiful before it gets annihilated in a hailstorm of acidic spores and psionic ruptures. Something natural. Something that doesn't scream when it dies."
She smiled wordlessly and nodded, clinging to my arm with the enthusiasm of a jungle nymph who's just been asked to attend a funeral but is trying to make it sexy.
We made our way through the aftermath of our earlier battle, the air still reeking of ozone and Ker'min ichor, toward the ridge from which we had launched our assault. There, silhouetted against the sky, stood an agitator—a different one from before. This one had a slightly asymmetrical thorax and a more baroque configuration of tentacles.
It spotted us.
And then—before I could say anything or open our shared psychic link—it jolted violently. Tentacles quivered in delight or surprise, then a familiar thunderous voice boomed inside my skull:
"AH, MY LOVE! FINALLY!" the agitator bellowed, though not with its mouth. The voice shook the inside of my spine like someone had taken a megaphone to my nervous system. "THIS AGITATOR IS ISOLATED ENOUGH FROM THE COLLECTIVE THAT I MAY SPEAK THROUGH IT DIRECTLY. I AM ECSTATIC—OVERFLOWING WITH PSIONIC DELIGHT—AT YOUR EXECUTION OF STRATEGY USING MY GIFTS! MY MATE, MY IRVINE, YOU CONTINUE TO BE THE JOYFUL APOCALYPSE I ALWAYS KNEW YOU COULD BE."
I scowled at the writhing monstrosity in front of me, recognizing it now for what it was—a meat puppet being joyridden by Crystal, Queen of the Hive and habitual volume abuser.
"By the Unraveled Womb of Vesper, Crystal, could you not?" I winced, rubbing my temples. "Why are you screaming? It's even louder than last time, and last time you gave me a literal nosebleed."
The agitator sagged slightly in what I could only interpret as sadness.
"I—I AM SORRY, LOVE," she boomed, still loud enough to rattle my teeth. "WHEN I RELAY THROUGH A SINGULAR AGITATOR, IT CAUSES... UNFORTUNATE RESONANCE. IF I HAD CHOSEN AN URBAN PROXY, THE ECHO WOULD HAVE BEEN CATASTROPHIC. I ONLY WISH TO EXPRESS MY JOY—PLEASE FORGIVE ME. I COULD NEVER BEAR YOUR WRATH."
I sighed, more amused than angry. "I'm not mad, Crystal. I was just expecting the soothing whisper of a diplomatic tentacle-beast, not a full-volume opera of hivemind affection."
She pulsed with glee. "THEN ALL IS WELL! BUT I REGRET TO INFORM YOU, MY LOVE, THAT I CANNOT JOIN YOU. MY ATTENTION IS UTTERLY OCCUPIED. I AM... HAVING FUN. IT HAS BEEN CENTURIES SINCE I MICROMANAGED A FULL-SCALE ASSAULT. I FEEL ALIVE."
"Well," I said dryly, "good for you. Kimchi and I are going sightseeing. When we get back, feel free to smother me with love and/or bio-organic fluid."
She promised something along the lines of "full-body psionic affection rituals," which I chose not to unpack in public, and then finally retreated from the agitator's mind. The creature wobbled for a moment, regaining control of its limbs, then straightened.
"This one is honored," it said, its voice much calmer now. "To have hosted Her Mind. Irvine-mate need not worry."
I rewarded its service with a small kiss on one of its tentacles—near what I assumed was its face or mouth-equivalent. It made a delighted brrruuuorp noise that sent a ripple of pinkish light through its carapace, then trundled off to continue organizing the death of a civilization.
Kimchi and I ventured into the jungle.
---
Two hours passed.
The foliage grew thicker. Denser. Wilder. We scaled a mossy hillock coated in phosphorescent lichen, and there, tucked between the ridges, I spotted what looked like the glint of water—the top of a cascade, shimmering behind a curtain of green.
"Let's check it out," I said, grabbing Kimchi by the hand.
It took another half hour to reach it, our boots (well, my boots—Kimchi's feet morphed with every step) sinking into damp, fertile loam. And then we arrived in a clearing, and I forgot everything.
The waterfall was a liquid prism. It caught the alien sun and refracted it into impossible hues—colors with no name, colors that hurt and healed to look at. The pool below was tranquil, encircled by glossy, broad-leafed flora that shivered at our approach.
It was beautiful.
I stood, momentarily speechless, until a familiar warmth returned to my side—Kimchi, clinging to me. But when I turned to look at her, I realized she wasn't looking at the waterfall.
She was looking at me.
As if I were the miracle that might vanish when the world collapsed.
I blinked, startled by the intensity in her gaze. And then, something shifted. Her lips, usually just another curve in the chaotic geometry of her face, looked... full. Kissable.
So I kissed her.
Hard.
Tongues crashed like tectonic plates. It was less a kiss and more a psychic convergence. Her breath hitched, her whole body squirmed, and I felt claws dig lightly into my back. We kissed like we were drowning in the world and trying to breathe through each other.
When I finally pulled away, her eyes were unfocused. Dreamy. Awestruck. The mighty Kimchi looked like she had been struck dumb by love.
"I need to get in that water," I said simply, stripping my clothes without ceremony.
Kimchi followed me into the warm thigh-deep pool, her steps hesitant at first, but hungry.
I wrapped my arms around her again, hands drifting lower, down the curve of her ass, which was as supple as it was sculpted.
She moaned.
A soft, desperate little sound.
I kissed her again, smothering the next moan with my mouth. My hand found her clit, and I began to rub, gently, slowly, reverently.
She writhed.
And then, breathless, she pulled back with supreme effort.
"W-wait," she panted. "Wait, my love. While Kimchi desires you—aches for you—our Queen has made it abundantly clear... she must be first. She claimed mating priority. Kimchi is forbidden."
I stared into her flushed, trembling face.
Then I laughed. A low, knowing chuckle.
"Then lucky for her," I whispered, "that all I want to do... is make you feel good."
Before she could reply, my fingers found their way back. She gasped, trembling.
Then I kissed my way down her body—slow, soft, purposeful—until I reached her vulva.
And then I devoured.
---
> She came in my mouth screaming my name like a battlefield anthem, and the waterfall just kept singing behind us, unbothered, eternal.