The Slug Inception Page 2

  Chapter 1 - Discussions

  The Human

  I had just had a dream. I know this because I just woke up like five seconds ago, and I still had the vestiges of that dream lingering in my mind. It had something to do with clouds - but that was all I could remember. Stupid unreliable dream memory. What is the point of your subconsciousness sending you all these cryptic messages if they were not only un-interpretable, but you instantly forgot them as soon as you woke up?

  Trying not to think about what Phill would say on the matter, I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Looking around the ship, I saw Frank and Phill sitting together leaning against the back wall, Phill's favourite position. Actually, my favourite position too; it sure beat trying to sit on one of those spiked dishes.

  Nearby, Matthew, Rosetta, and Carmen were in a three-way Slug communication pattern, all six of their hands layered atop one another in order. They weren't speaking out loud, so who knew what they were discussing?

  Boy was sitting in one of the dishes, concave Slug seats, sleeping. Being in space and all, everyone just slept whenever we felt tired. Well, except for Phill, of course.

  I grabbed a nutrition bar from my stash (breakfast was apparently the most important meal of the day, even though there was no semblance of day or night on a spaceship), shambled up to Phill and Frank, sat down next to the Slug, and tried to catch up on what they were talking about.

  "... last very long?" Frank was saying.

  "Correct", Phill told him. "Cyborgs are not built for longevity; this is due to the fact that most of us die in battle long before our natural lifespan would end." Cyborgs and natural lifespan? They didn't sound like two words that should be together.

  "What is your natural lifespan?" I asked him.

  He looked at me. "It varies widely based on internal configuration, batch, place of construction, resource and time constraints at the date of construction, and chance in the process." He paused for a bit, then anticipated my annoyance and decided to give a proper answer. "I would estimate an average to be approximately fifty years, although this is by no means definitive, and may not be accurate for me due to my unique condition and experiences."

  I sensed some important information coming up, so I called to the others, "Hey, guys, come over here! We're talking about Cyborg stuff!"

  "Coming", Carmen called back, and stopped to shake Boy and wake him up. For some reason, the Slugs couldn't hear while they slept, so you couldn't just yell them awake. Weird, I know.

  I looked guiltily at Phill. "Oh. Sorry for just inviting them without asking you."

  "I am not offended", he replied easily. "If I meant for this information to be only for you and Frank, I would have explicitly stated so."

  Once everyone was assembled, Matthew asked, "What's going on here? And don't tell me it's something useless, because I was giving a great explanation of the most epic movies."

  "It would takes ages to go through all of them", I told him.

  He shrugged. "Maybe. But I made a start."

  Frank said, "Phill just estimated his life to last about fifty years."

  "It was a tentative estimate", the Cyborg clarified.

  "So that means you only have thirty years of life left", Matthew told him.

  "It was a tentative estimate", he complained, getting annoyed now.

  "More like twenty-nine and a bit", I corrected Matt. "If you include all the time after you freed him."

  Phill gave me a glare that made me laugh.

  "What is it that causes you to die?" asked Frank.

  He responded, "Apart from being killed while in battle with Slugs, which is the main cause of death, there are two ways for a Cyborg to die. Firstly, we must be so damaged either through battle, through some accident, or through damage caused by time, that it is more economical to create a new Cyborg from our recycled parts than to repair us."

  I was horrified, and it took a second or two before I could respond. "You mean that if you get injured enough, they'll just finish you off because it's cheaper to replace you?"

  "Cheaper in terms of resource cost, yes", he replied.

  I didn't know what to say to that, but Matthew said, "Of course, you don't need to worry about that. No matter how damaged you get, we'll never do that to you. So what's the other way to die?"

  Phill smiled at him. "I know, and it is appreciated. Another way for a Cyborg to die is if a fatal flaw develops within the hardware of our CPU. Should this happen, the magnitude of the problems would vary from outright death to major cognitive and thought process issues to malfunctioning of some minor utilities."

  "That doesn't sound very good", I murmured.

  "Hah", Matthew actually laughed. "Sounds like rampancy to me. And that means that the chances are that Ethan will outlive you! He's still got like fifty years of life left in him, probably more."

  "I guess so", I said. "But after all this time away from Earth, I don't know how old I am." I actually just realised that - I had no idea how old I was. It was a strange feeling, not unpleasant, but definitely not a good one either.

  "Probability also indicates that he may outlive you", Phill told Matt. "At eight cycles old, you are five cycles off the old Slug King, who died at thirteen." According to my awesome calculations, since Matthew spent two cycles on Earth for a total of twenty years, a cycle was an average of ten years. So five cycles meant he had fifty years of life left. And yes, I know that I'm extremely good at maths.

  "And that was an old age as well", Boy nodded his head. So that Slug I had seen was an old one? It had seemed pretty similar to every other Slug, apart from his shape I guess.

  "Indeed", Matt said. "But we can all agree that Rosetta, Carmen and Frank here will all live the longest." He suddenly rounded on them. "So it's up to you to continue our legacy, you hear that!?"

  "Yes, we hear", Carmen said.

  There was a longish pause before Phill said, "Perhaps it is time to begin the discussion of the events on PD-0034:N." Matthew had told us that we'd get around to doing a full group discussion of it, like what we'd done after what happened with Earth.

  "Meh, why not?" asked Matt.

  "Because we might not be ready to discuss it?" suggested Boy.

  "Well we are, aren't we?" Matthew challenged him.

  "So let us begin", Phill said to keep him on track (it could be difficult sometimes).

  The Cyborg

  It was time for our discussions to begin.

  "So", Matthew began. "After we left Slugenis, we went back to Earth to prep everything and all that. Then we found out that Earth got attacked by a small amount of Cyborg ships, but that the Humans were prepared for them and wrecked them." He looked across the group at Ethan. "I'd give you a high-5 now, Ethan, but I can't be bothered getting up."

  "Long-range high-5", the Human suggested, and the two of them raised their palms towards each other and thrust them in each other's direction.

  Knowing that Boy had trouble comprehending the purpose and reasoning behind the phenomena of a 'high-5', I looked at him and saw, via the expression on his face, that he still had that trouble. For my part, I simply converted every physical performance of a high-5 into 'We are friends with each other, and, at this moment and due to current circumstances, we enjoy being friends with each other'.

  "So then", Frank continued, "we landed on Earth and began the trading. After we'd gotten all the weapons we'd needed, we transported them into space with the scout ships, and outfitted them onto our star cruisers."

  "How did you actually do this outfitting?" asked Ethan.

  "By fitting them out", Matthew informed him. I deemed this statement to be a waste of time, as a simply rearrangement of the terms that constitute another term rarely contributes to the understanding of its meaning.

  Boy was the one to answer Ethan's question. "Like your missiles, Slug ones are made up of the ignition at the back, and the explosive at the front."

  "Well, I think missiles are a bit more complicated than that", the Human sa
id.

  "A simplified version of the truth is most conducive to understanding basic concepts", I told him.

  "Yes, thank you, Phil", he said back.

  Boy continued with, "Both of these two parts were modified based on what we'd learned from the Humans. You know that we also traded information and knowledge as well as technology, don't you?"

  Ethan shook his head, and Matthew said loudly to him, "Well now you do!"

  "So", Boy went on. "It turned out that the combination of fuels we use to power our rockets is not as efficient as it could be, according to Human knowledge. Of course, we couldn't change this once the fuels have already been mixed, but we sent this information back to Slugenis to test."

  "Wait, I thought that you actually made all of the changes to the star cruisers before we went to PDN?" Ethan asked.

  "Well", Matt said guiltily. "I kinda didn't mean all of that; most of the stuff we learned wasn't something we could just add to our ships without having tested them back at Slugenis 1st."

  "Oh", the Human replied. "Carry on then, Boy."

  Boy did. "Other changes we sent to Slugenis for analysis included adding a second-stage burn instead of just a single stage, which allows for extra manoeuvrability and unpredictability in avoiding the projectile, changing the exhausts to point at multiple directions for this same reason, and possible improvements to the technology of firing and then guiding the missile."

  "And, of course, we added Human explosives to them, which are much more powerful than Slug explosives", added Carmen.

  "And sent the plans for how to build these explosives back to Slugenis", concluded Boy.

  "So you're saying", said Ethan, "that even after how well we did at PDN, there are still many improvements to be added to your missiles?"

  "Indeed", sighed Matthew. "Not only that, but there are many improvements to be added to many different aspects of Slug technology. Not to mention EMPs, which, if they work, will completely change the battlefield." He regarded me. "In another time and place, it would not be looking good for the Cyborgs right now."

  "No", I agreed, "it wouldn't. Fortunately, however, Rabadootime, Slob, and all of us have agreed that the war no longer needs to continue, and that it is time to bring it to an end."

  "Yeah, how exactly do we plan to go about doing that?" questioned Ethan.

  "We're not finished our discussion of the events at PDN", I informed him.

  "Fine then", he told me. "Go on."

  I complied. "We arrived at PDN and defeated the initial opposition, due to our improved technology."

  "And Matthew's ability to control our ship and dodge 3 incoming projectiles", added Rosetta.

  "Yeah, yeah, I know I'm awesome", the Slug in question grinned at her.

  Continuing, I said, "Once we approached the planet, an unforeseen counter attack was launched from its far side, surprising us with its force. Decisions were made, and most of us, plus Terry and Kerry, went down to the planet while Rosetta stayed in the star cruiser to assist us."

  Rosetta nodded at this, while Ethan got a strange look on his face when I mentioned Terry's name. It appeared he was still mourning the Slug's death; it also appeared that he was the only one still mourning it.

  "What did you do up in space, Rosetta?" asked Carmen.

  "Well", Rosetta began, "I wasn't the oldest Slug up here, and Matthew and Boy were out of contact, so I was following orders from a 5 cycle old Slug on one of the other star cruisers."

  "5 cycles doesn't sound very old", commented Ethan.

  Matt told him, "Remember, that Slug is 5 times older than the average Slug. I have no idea how many Slugs there are - it must be in the very high billions, if not perhaps a trillion - but the number of Slugs who reach an old age is still very low. A Slug 5 cycles old is a fairly high rank. Well, what passes for a Slug rank."

  "How is it that you and Boy both got so old then?" the Human asked.

  Matthew and Boy looked at each other. "We are in... special circumstances. But I'll explain that later. Keep going, Rosetta." It seemed that there was more involved in the relationship between Matthew and Boy than there at first seemed. Perhaps some special function of Slug society? As with all things, I would have to wait some time to find out.

  Meanwhile, Rosetta went on. "It was this Slug that told us to start firing missiles at the planet - which was our objective - keeping a large area around where any Slugs had landed clear. Keep in mind that this was while fighting the remainder of the Cyborg fleet."

  "You were bombing the planet while in a space battle?" asked Ethan.

  "Yes", Rosetta said. "After you had left our star cruiser in the scout ship, I got some assistance to avoid the first barrage of missiles headed towards me. I then retreated to fairly far back from the battle, which is why we sustained no damage, but the radio signals I was receiving back there were too convoluted for me to interpret. Perhaps Matthew could have, but I couldn't, so I didn't know what was going on." Matthew smiled at this.

  Continuing her description of events, Rosetta said, "However, I found out later, before you returned, that some of the missiles fired towards the planet were purposefully intercepted by Cyborg vessels."

  "They sacrificed themselves to save PDN?" asked Boy.

  I understood this. "Cyborgs can be rebuilt", I explained, assuming that they remembered that the ships above PDN were sentient Cyborgs in their own right. "Valuable information, however, once lost, can be difficult or even impossible to recover. The Cyborgs defending PDN knew their priorities."

  "Wow", said Ethan, almost to himself.

  "In either case", Rosetta went on, "we quickly defeated them, although many star cruisers were also lost. The 5 cycle old Slug survived, but his ship was so severely damaged that he could no longer communicate with us. So another 5 cycle old Slug, slightly younger, took over, and ordered us to continue bombing the world in force and to send scout ships full of Slugs to the surface.

  "Soon, most of the Slug army that had come were on the planet, destroying any Cyborg resistance and searching for your group so that Matthew, or Boy in his place, could retake control of the operation. From what I learned, there was little ground resistance on PDN, and the Slugs had no problems."

  "That is true", Boy told her.

  "After they found you, you know the rest from there", Rosetta said. She took an audible breath, but I could not fathom its purpose since Slugs did not usually require uninterrupted breathing. "Now it's your turn. What happened on the surface after you landed?"

  "Wait!" shouted Matt. "I want to be the one to say it."

  "Oh no", groaned Ethan. "This is not going to end well." Matthew gave him a falsely shocked look, but I understood why Ethan would think that; and I concurred.

  The Slug

  'Right then', I said, then gave myself adequate time to mentally prepare myself. Once I was mentally prepared, I continued. 'So, we landed on our scout ship, then got out. There were these grassy things all over the joint, and they were wriggling around everywhere. It was pretty weird.'

  'Yeah, it was', Ethan agreed with me.

  I went on, 'So we saw some strange Cyborg building that just looked like a plain metallic box with some holes in it, and decided to go in.'

  Ethan added, 'It was the most boring building you could possibly imagine.'

  'What is the purpose of constructing it to be not boring?' asked Phill.

  'Does there have to be a reason?' the Human asked him back.

  'Yes', he replied.

  'Either way', Frank tried to steal the reins of the story from me, 'we entered the building.'

  Stealing it back, I added, 'And it was pretty plain on the inside as well. Nothing special.'

  'That is not entirely accurate', Phill dared to correct me. 'It was filled with computers, most of them performing an unknown purpose, and the ground descended into an underground network of tunnels.'

  'And the walls had two indented lines running along them', added Ethan.

  'Indeed they did',
I said. 'Phill reckons that they might've been for some Cyborg vehicle that we never saw.'

  'I hypothesised so', the Cyborg said.

  'You know', Rosetta told us, 'you're not making it very easy for me to follow along with what you're saying.'

  'Yeah, blame Frank for that', I grinned. Frank gave me a look that seemed to say "Why are you persecuting me?"

  'So Phill plugged into one of the computers - ', Carmen began.

  'Found nothing interesting', I added.

  ' - and we started to walk along the underground tunnels', she finished.

  'We were then encountered by Slob', Phill told Rosetta.

  Ethan said, 'And he was really weird. He almost looked... Human.'

  Rosetta thought about this, but before she could respond, Boy told her, 'The Cyborgs ran off, and we continued down the tunnel up to another room with more computers.'

  'You forgot how going straight turned out to be a good idea', I said. 'Not right, right Ethan?' I asked the Human. He narrowed his eyes at me, and I chuckled.

  'Boy has already told me what you discovered up there', Rosetta told us.

  I was shocked at my age-old friend. 'You... You spoiled the surprise!? Why would you do that? Why, oh why!?'

  'It was an important topic!' Boy nearly shouted back. 'I felt she needed to know some things before we gave her the full story.'

  I was silent for a moment, fake-fuming at him, when Phill said, 'I agree with Boy.'

  'Hrmph', I said, crossing my arms. 'You guys always gang up on me.' At the guiltily ashamed look on Ethan's face, I told him, 'Not you, just the others. At least someone here likes me.'

  He smiled brightly at this, just as Phill said, 'I believe that Matthew is attempting to purposefully make us feel bad.'

  'Is it working?' I asked him.

  He paused before replying, with, 'Somewhat.' Hah; I just made a machine feel "somewhat" bad.

  After a silent moment, Rosetta said, 'So I know that Rabadootime's original mission was to arrange a peace with Earth. It is quite interesting.'

  'Indeed', replied Phill. 'However, we can discuss the implications of this at a later time.'

  'So', I tried to continue the story, 'after that super-revelation, we went back through the tunnel we'd entered, and tried to make our way back to the scout ship.'

  'This is when we got ambushed', Ethan said.

  ' "Herded" is more like the word', I corrected him. 'They just forced us to take a different path by attacking three sides of a four-way intersection.'

  'Hmm', the Human mused. 'We got herded that way by five Cyborgs on three sides, so that makes fifteen of them. So why didn't they just outright attack us?'

  Rosetta answered him, 'By this point, I think that we were already majorly attacking the planet and sending many Slugs down in ships. Those fifteen Cyborgs were probably meant to go and assist a major Cyborg defence against the much larger threat. It wouldn't be worth wasting them on a team of eight.'

  'And yet they still managed to funnel us to where Slob wanted us to go', I stroked the slime that made up my "chin". 'He must have been in communication with them to have organised this so perfectly. Could he have done it using radio communication?'

  'Possibly', Phill answered, 'but unlikely. I believe it would take a greater emergency for Slob to decide to utilise that medium; his objective would have been to protect the data flow to the Cyborg Archives, and we did not represent a substantial threat.'

  'Well', Ethan told him, 'maybe you didn't, but I was the biggest threat on that entire planet!'

  'Whatever the case', Frank said before Phill could reply, 'we took that path and ended up in another above-ground building, where there were several Cyborgs waiting for us.'

  'Too bad they were no match for my skill', Ethan said smugly.

  Boy laughed at him, but Phill decided to say, 'You didn't do anything.' Ethan gave him a dirty look. As in, a look that was not clean. He really needs to wash that look.

  Continuing the story, Carmen said, 'We emerged onto the surface - '

  'Drank some water and didn't die', I interrupted her.

  ' - and started to travel', she went on. 'We soon saw a large tower which we presumed to be for radio communications, and started walking towards it.'

  'This was also the point that we began to hear the loud noises that we now know were caused by the Slugs' bombardment of the planet', came from Phill.

  Rosetta said, 'It seems that they started to fire missiles much closer to you at this point then, as we would've been attacking the planet for some time already in far-off locations.'

  'Before we reached the tower', Frank said, 'we were attacked by a group of Cyborgs who dropped off Cyborg ships on what Phill calls Cyborg Magnetic Insertion devices.'

  'Yes, Boy has explained this to me', Rosetta said. I glared at Boy, and he gave me a apologetic look.

  'I believe that the ship would have been cut off from all radio communications', Phill said, 'due to the nature of PDN. Which means that either Slob planned it in advance, or they acted of their own accord.'

  'Which do you think it is?' asked Carmen.

  The Cyborg thought for a bit, before replying, 'It would depend on how busy Slob was at the time as he organised the other resistance efforts, but, given his apparent interest in us, I would say that he didn't order that as he didn't intend to defeat us.'

  After we all considered this, I told Rosetta, 'In either case, we easily beat those Cyborgs and reached the tower. There was a nearby building which we entered, and it led to an underground chamber that was beneath the radio tower.'

  'This place was absolutely full of computers', Ethan added. 'And it was only the beginning. Most of the place, we couldn't see from where we were. But, it was big.'

  'Really big', I added onto his add. 'Super big. Like so big, that if you ever saw it, you would be like, "Wow. That is so big".'

  'Anyway', Frank emphasised, 'Phill discovered some important information about the layout of PDN, but was detected by Slob who informed him that he was coming.'

  'So we hurried outside to confront him', I quickly said, not wanting anyone to realise how I had purposefully stalled them in the hope of Slob finding us so I could kill him.

  'He came up to us', Boy continued for me, 'hoping to negotiate a ceasefire, but we obviously couldn't have known that, so we attacked.' I was grateful that he didn't reveal that it was me who'd lunged at him without waiting for the two groups to start talking. Grateful indeed.

  'That was when Terry, Kerry, and myself got attacked', Ethan said. He looked down. 'Unfortunately, Terry jumped in front of a Cyborg about to attack me, and didn't survive the blow.'

  Phill tried to console him, 'If Terry didn't block it, then you surely would have been killed.'

  I didn't learn that Terry had saved him until a bit later. And it was wrong of me; it was wrong, I know it was wrong. But I was infinitely grateful that Terry had died instead of Ethan. I hoped that I wouldn't feel the same feeling of relief should one of my good friends die to save the Human.

  'Well', Carmen went on. 'We defeated all the Cyborgs, Phill convinced us to keep Slob alive, we joined up with the main Slug army, and we left the Cyborg in the Slugs' care as we left. And now we're on our way to Slugenis.'

  'So that's that', Rosetta said. 'And now we're going to try and convince the Slug King to arrange a peace between the Slugs and Cyborgs?'

  'Yeah', I told her. 'Doesn't sound too difficult, does it?'

  'Slob's and Rabadootime's cooperation will be essential to this endeavour', Phill input.

  'It actually sounds quite difficult to do', Boy told me. I smiled at him, and he smiled back.

  We had a nice moment going too, what with the both of us smiling at each other and all. It was kind of touching, actually. So, in classic fashion, Phill chose this moment to say, 'Of course it will be difficult; but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't attempt it.'

  Alright, I concede that was kind of cool as well. And actually kind of wise, too, i
n a way.

  The Human

  "So that's that", I said to Rosetta. "Now everyone's up-to-date."

  "Indeed we are", Phill felt the need to reply, as if I was talking to him or something.

  "Well, now what?" I asked after a pause. As good as all that had been, it hadn't taken very long. As much as my time-perception was inaccurate and biased, I could still guess that we were a ways off of Slugenis. Which meant that I needed something to do. Unfortunately, nobody answered me. Great.

  The ship was now in its 'night-time', which meant that the lights that seemed to emanate from the metal of it were slightly less luminous than normal. Of course, the ship's whole day-night thing meant absolutely nothing to me and my sleeping patterns, since I had no idea how long the phases lasted for, only that it was longer than my body clock's idea of how long a day and night ought to be.

  The point of all this was that I was about to ask Matt (or anyone, for that matter) how the light got into the ship, and how the day and night cycles worked, but Matthew did something first which gave me a better idea.

  What he did was this - he yawned. Now, before you think, 'oh, nothing special about that', let me explain. Obviously there's nothing special about yawning itself, but the Slug did it somewhat differently. As he stretched his arms, they seemed to elongate themselves to pronounce the act of the stretching. His mouth opened much wider than looked normal for a mouth, and his back bent backwards which thrust his chest out forwards, much more than looked healthy for me were my spine to try such a thing.

  As he finished, he came back to his normal position and rubbed his eyes. "How do you do that?" I asked him dumbly.

  "What, yawn?" he asked back. "Well, it's simple really. I just throw my hands back, take a really deep breath, make sure it's loud - "

  "Why do you do that?" interrupted Phill. "You don't need to breathe, so you don't need to yawn."

  He answered, "Well, this starcruiser actually has the Earth mixture of air, or as close as we could get, so from time to time we need to take a breath to supplement the oxygen coming in through our exterior slime. And I have an inclination to yawn because that's what humans do all the time, so it's what I do."

  "So you only do it because it was once expected of you, as a human?" asked Boy.

  'Yep", Matthew answered. "I guess it's now ingrained in my behaviour or something like that. Some deep psychological reason. Actually, not that deep."

  "This is all well and good", I told him, "but it's not what I meant."

  Phill asked me, "What did you mean?"

  "I meant", I said, "the whole slime thing. How does it shift around your body to make different shapes? It doesn't make any sense."

  Matt smiled hugely at me. "Yesss. Insert evil laugh here; muahahahahah!" He looked around shiftily.

  "What was that evil laugh for, exactly?" asked Boy. "It's a rather simple explanation."

  "Yes, but it's epic at the same time", Matt told him.

  "I find it hard to believe that an explanation can be described as 'epic' ", Phill said.

  "Then you haven't heard much explanations from Matthew", Carmen told him.

  "Except I have", he told her back. The Slug simply smiled, as if was a child that didn't grasp the full meaning of anything that he saw. Or, in this case, heard.

  "Anyway", Matthew emphasised, "I'm beginning over here." He turned to me. "So, Ethan. Do you want the short or long explanation? Long explanation? OK then, long explanation it is."

  Phill opened his mouth to complain about this, but Matt first shot him a look that silenced him. "So", he said. "This is what's going down. In order to understand how our slime shifts, you need to know the structure of our slime cells. Now, I'm sure that there are a multitude of important differences between Slug and human cells, stuff that would make Pauline's day. But I'm only focused on one aspect right now, which is the cell wall. Well, it's called something else in animal cells, but whatever."

  I remembered some of this stuff from what I'd learned at school. See, it wasn't just a waste of time after all. "From what I know of it", I said, "the cell wall, or whatever its proper name is, is just a barrier that separates different cells from each other."

  "Precisely", the Slug said. "However, while humans and other animals on Earth have a single wall, Slugs actually have two walls on each slime cell. It is the second wall, the outer one, that is connected to the second - or outer - walls of adjacent cells. You follow?"

  "He means to say, do you follow with his reasoning", Phill helpfully input.

  "Yeah", I said slowly. "You're saying that each slime cell is surrounded by two walls, and each is connected to each other cell by the outer wall, not the inner one."

  "Yep", Matt said. "Now, firstly..." He sighed. "This could end up being a long explanation, because a lot of functions of Slugs are explained by this cell structure. OK. So. The outer cell wall is actually some distance away from the inner wall, and is therefore not really a part of the cell. Well, it depends on how you look at it. I mean, it could be argued that - "

  "Continuing on with the explanation", Frank interrupted him, "the two walls are connected to each other via many coils."

  "Hey, I was about to say that!" complained Matthew.

  "You were taking too much time by leading the conversation down irrelevant avenues", Phill informed him.

  "You're an irrelevant avenue!" the Slug yelled at him.

  Trying to steer the discussion back on course, I said to the group, "So the inner and outer walls are not touching each other, but are connected by coils. How do you know this, Frank?"

  Before he could answer, Matt interrupted with, "The coils are made of fibres or proteins or something, I don't really know. In case you wanted to know. That I don't really know."

  Frank then told me, "Every Slug has a basic understanding of our makeup, just as humans do." I could definitely imagine that not everyone knew about cells and DNA and other important(ish) stuff, but didn't want my race to look dumb or anything, so I didn't mention it.

  "Carry on then", was all I said.

  Matt quickly complied. "As you command. Do you remember when I said that slime cells were slightly acidic?"

  "I have a vague memory", I said. "Something to do with eating."

  "Yes", he replied. "That is how we digest. However, I kind of lied. Well, more like altered the truth to make it easier to understand. Yeah. Sorry bout that."

  "If it aided in the comprehension of the topic at the time, then it is understandable", Phill said, and he was kinda right.

  "Go on", I told the Slug.

  "Well", Matthew went on, "it is not the cells themselves that are acidic; it is actually these coils of fibre that are. So, the more slime cells there are touching whatever food we've eaten, the more fibres there are touching the food, and therefore, the more quickly digestion occurs."

  "What kind of food do Slugs normally eat?" I asked.

  "Hah. That's for another time", Matt told me.

  Boy added, "This is already looking to be a lengthy discussion."

  "Well", I shrugged, "we've got time."

  Phill added in a low but significant voice, "Yes. Yes we do."

  The Cyborg

  "So then", Matthew informed us, "time to carry on. What was I up to?"

  As he had concluded talking not more than 5 seconds ago, I refused to remind him of where to commence. However, Ethan told him, "You were talking about the fibres that connect the two walls being used for digestion. Because they're slightly acidic."

  "Acidic?" asked Matthew. "Or acidy?"

  "Acidic", answered Frank, mirroring what my response was likely to have been.

  "Alright then", Matt said. "Where was I? Oh, that's right. So. The outer walls of each cell are connected to the outer walls of each other cell; this is the makeup of slime. 2 important points to make before I go on; the outer walls of a cell can also connect to our brain directly, which is how we send signals throughout our slime. And, the outer walls of the cells are where Metal Slu
g particles reside, as they are made to bond to that specific substance. Going on now, and this is the magic part - well, not really magic, but you get the gist - the connection between slime cells isn't a hard fix. If you know what I mean."

  I did not know what he meant, and was about to inform him of this, but Ethan asked first. "What do you mean?" It appeared that he shared my lack of understanding; this indicated that the fault lay not with me, but with the explainer.

  "Well", Matthew elaborated, "What I mean is that these outer walls are not fastly stuck to the other outer walls. It's not like point a of one wall is stuck to point b of another, and these points do not move." He stopped speaking for a moment to stroke his chin, although the purpose of this act eluded me. I knew it was a common way for a Human to organise their thoughts, but for a Slug that technically did not have a chin? There were some things that I could not begin to understand.

  "How should I explain this?" Matt mused, in a low voice that indicated that he did not intend for us to hear it.

  "How about - " began Boy, but Matthew wasn't allowing any one else to take over his discussion.

  "Wait, wait!" he interrupted, "I got it! Okay then. So the walls of the cells aren't strictly attached to each other, they're only connected. Now - and this is how slime shifting occurs - the walls are able to slide off of each other. You know what I mean?"

  "Umm", Ethan replied. "Kind of."

  "Alright, imagine a slime cell as a balloon. A blown-up balloon, that is." Based on what I'd heard from my radio, a 'balloon' is a small rounded piece of elastic material that is filled with air and then closed off to entrap this air. Unfortunately, the radio never explained the fundamental purpose of such a device. I had devoted a considerable amount of my ample time during those days to try and divine why any intelligent being would create such a thing - and had achieved nothing but failure.

  "Balloon", the Human said. "Got it."

  "In your mind, I hope", Matthew smiled at him.

  "Where else would it be?" asked Rosetta.

  "And what exactly is a balloon?" asked Frank. It was a good question

  "Bah", Matt told them. "Never mind for now. And as for you, Rosetta, there could be one floating around in here, don't you think?"

  Based on my knowledge of it, I had a good feeling that there was no balloon anywhere on the ship.

  "So about the balloon", Ethan tried to continue.

  "Ah", Matt said, "yes. Pretend that a slime cell is a balloon. Now get another balloon - in your imagination, that is - and hold the two together. That's how slime cells are attached to each other. However, the balloons are not stuck fast or at a definite point. They can roll around all over the place, all over each other, all over... the place. You see what I mean now? The cells are connected to each other, but the point of this connection is variable, not at a fixed location."

  "Oh yeah, I think I get it", Ethan communicated his understanding. It seemed to me that there were better examples than balloons to facilitate in the understanding of the concept, such as wheels or the simple holding of one's 2 fists together, but as Matthew was delivering the explanation I said nothing on the matter.

  "So that's how slime shifting happens", Matthew concluded. "Each one of our cells is connected to the rest by this outer wall, which is able to slide and roll over the other walls. By manipulating this in the correct way, we're able to move our cells and thus our slime to whatever shape and position we can think of."

  "Oh", the Human said, but Matt was quick to interrupt him.

  "I'm not finished!" he said, and then concluded his explanation. "Another important thing is that this non-hard connection between the outer walls of slime cells does not apply to the connection between a cell and our brain. That is, wherever our brains are bonded with an adjacent cell, that is a hard fix that cannot shift. It can be broken, of course, and often is, but it can't shift. Which I just said. The point of this is that this is how we're able to manipulate our brains around our body; by shifting the slime cells connected to our brains in a particular fashion, they drag the brain along with them to whatever position you want to put it in. Even weird ones."

  "Oh", Ethan repeated after pausing to consider the information. "That's pretty cool, and I suppose that it makes sense now, but it sounds hard. I mean, you have to manually control each cell and where it moves? And it'd be impossible to coordinate all the cells around your brain to move them in unison!"

  "Haha", Matt laughed. "No, you're right, that would be much too hard. We just need to visualise what we want to do, and our subconscious brain and... instinct, or whatever, handles the particulars. Even with moving our brains. Just like when you Humans walk; it seems a simple enough process, because you think it and it just happens. But meanwhile, your body is taking care of a lot of things to make your walking work." Based on my experience, I knew that walking was a complex process, not a simple one, but that with enough practice it could become simple. It seemed that most advanced life forms were capable of the feat.

  "It's pretty easy to morph into any shape within reason", Matthew continued, "it's making abnormal shapes, or holding one's shape for any length of time, or shifting with any degree of speed that requires the real mental work."

  "You can do all of that", Boy told him.

  Matthew shrugged. "For the most part. But I've had lots of practice."

  Thinking about a much earlier thought I had once had, I asked him, "Do you believe it would be possible to train other Slugs to share your abilities?"

  He looked at me carefully before replying. "Yes. But it wouldn't be easy, not at all, and it would take time. And the proper incentive, which wouldn't be possible the way the Empire is currently run."

  I considered;

  The first condition he mentioned needed no elaboration; if Matthew was the first Slug to achieve such a feat, or at least the first known Slug, then it would of course be a difficult undertaking.

  All things took time, and this would be no exception.

  As for the proper incentive; the Slug Empire currently emphasises an individual's death as the pinnacle of their life. Any form of radical training such as what I suggested therefore runs counter to this basic need, as it would prolong the life of any Slug who undertook it. So it seems that the Slug race is not yet ready for such a thing to occur.

  However, this doesn't take Matthew into account; he achieved this stage, without the societal incentive that the both of us had already concluded would be required. Was he simply an anomaly, a single Slug who desired life when his entire species craved its end? Or was there some other reason?

  Assuming the first scenario to be true, what were the chances that the single Slug who did not agree with the Slug way of life found himself in an isolated place where he could strive for continued existence, forcing him to train himself to the point where he became what he is today?

  Knowing that the probability of this would be remarkably low, and therefore assuming this to be untrue, I was led to 3 alternative conclusions:

  1st, that many other Slugs had found themselves in the same situation as Matt, and had simply perished due to them not being like him and wishing for their own demise.

  2nd, that there were many Slugs within their Empire that harboured the secret, perhaps unconscious, belief that their lives were valuable and worth following to its natural conclusion, and that it just so happened that one of these Slugs found themselves stranded on Earth.

  Or 3rd, that no Slugs believed differently than the majority of the Empire, and neither did Matthew, until he landed on Earth. Until the Humans changed him. Based on my experience, this was an outcome which I found to be believable.

  Regardless of the options, the truth of which I would have to consult with Boy and allow for time before learning, I was left with one startling revelation; if every Slug could train and become like Matthew, the Slugs would, without doubt, win the war. Their culture of Honour is the biggest hindrance to this.

  According to Matthew, Honour had original
ly been crafted to combat the Cyborgs in the war. Now, however, it was Honour, and almost Honour alone, that prevented the Slugs from winning the war. The same mechanism that ensured their survival also prevented their victory.

  It would be an ironic and perhaps humorous scenario if it did not affect the lives of so many, if it did not equate with the deaths of untold amounts of life for needless reasons, and if it did not threaten to engulf Ethan's race in its maw and have them emerge as an indescribable thing, as it did with the Slugs.

  The Slug

  Hmmm. Would it be possible, he wants to know. Phill had just asked me if it could be possible to train other Slugs to be as adept at controlling their slime as I was. Well. I suppose so, although I don't see the point anymore; our plan is about stopping the Slugs' war with the Cyborgs, and thus removing the need for Slugs to be like I am.

  Nevertheless - or perhaps nonetheless - I answered him, 'Yes.' I failed to mention that, of course, no other Slug could be trained to be as awesome as me, but I took that as given. I went on, saying, 'But it wouldn't be easy, not at all, and it would take time. And the proper incentive, which wouldn't be possible the way the Empire is currently run.'

  The way the Empire is currently run; with "Honour". The problem, and it was a funny kind of problem, is that Honour would hinder any Slug from becoming more proficient at living. So such a feat could only be attempted after the war was long over, and thus after Slug Honour had been abolished. Now here is the funny problem part; if the war is over, then there is no point to training these Slugs, because there'll be no Cyborgs that needed killing anymore. So the war prevents them from training, but without the war, there is no need for training. Funny indeed.

  'Wouldn't that be cool?' Ethan asked. 'An army of Slugs running around that were like you. Or, well, as good as you.' He looked at the other Slugs. 'No offence. You guys are pretty good too.'

  'Do not worry', Boy reassured him. And by reassure, I mean he assured him, then assured him again. Boy continued, 'Each of us knows that Matthew has no equal when it comes to combat.'

  'And just about everything else too, eh?' I teased him.

  'I suppose so', came from Frank. Hah. They all knew how cool I was.

  'So, Ethan', Rosetta asked my best Human friend. 'After all of that information about us Slugs, tell us more about Humans.'

  'Umm', he answered, 'OK. What do you want to know?'

  Boy asked him, 'I once told you how Slugs regulate their body temperature to keep it at a stable level. So how do Humans do this? Do they need to regulate their temperature?'

  I didn't recall Boy ever explaining to Ethan how we transfer heat to and from our surface slime cells to keep our body temperature at a consistent level. I wanted to tell him that - damn Boy always stealing my explanations! Oh well. I suppose that I had plenty of other stuff left to tell him. And I'm pretty sure I've got the highest explainor-to-explainee ratio out of our whole group, although Phill might be a close second.

  'OK, where to begin...' Ethan pondered where he should begin.

  'I propose that you answer the latter question first', Phill suggested.

  'Good idea', Ethan answered him, and then proceeded to answer Boy's latter question. With an answer. 'Yes, we need to keep a constant temperature. If I recall, it's at thirty-something degrees, a high thirty, and that's in celsius. Don't ask me what it is in Fahrenheit, and yes, Phill, I know that having two different temperature measures is annoying.'

  'Hah', I said. 'There's more than just two, but go on.'

  Phill shook his head to himself, a quite organic trait, or so I thought, as Ethan continued. 'Alright then. So if we get too hot, we start to sweat. Sweat is basically a salty liquid that pours out from every inch of skin on our body, which causes heat to leave our body. And I think that when wind blows against it, that also cools us down.'

  'So you sacrifice water to keep cool?' asked Boy.

  'Yeah', the Human answered.

  'That sounds a bit like the solution of one problem creating another', Carmen commented. I half-agreed with her. Assuming that half-agreeing is possible. And I'm assuming that it is possible. Because I just did it.

  'Well it works pretty good', Ethan tried to defend himself.

  'Water is a good absorber of heat', Phill added, although I couldn't tell if he was helping out one side or just spouting out a fact to try and make himself look smart.

  Frank posed, 'What if you're stranded in a desert with little water? Whatever water you have with you will just be sweated out and lost. Unless you drink it?'

  'Yeah, that situation would suck', Ethan agreed. 'Although I'm not sure about drinking your own sweat; it doesn't taste very nice.'

  'Hah', I scoffed at him. 'Another perk of not having a sense of taste.'

  'You don't sweat, so that perk doesn't count', Phill reminded me.

  'Well if we did sweat', I told him, 'it would count.'

  'In every non-hypothetical scenario, it doesn't count', he told me back.

  Before I could respond - and I had every intention of responding - Boy asked Ethan, 'So how do you keep warm when it's cold then?'

  'Two things', the Human answered. 'Firstly, we shiver, which is like a prolonged series of short, rapid shakes. I've got no idea what that does, but common sense tells me that the movement generates heat.'

  'And common sense rarely lies', I added. 'Unless it wants your money. Then never trust a word of what it says.'

  'So you burn energy to keep warm', Carmen said. 'Another trade-off which may cause problems in the future.'

  'What if you were in a cold environment with little food?' asked Frank. 'What then?'

  Before a flustered-looking Ethan could respond, Boy questioned him, 'What is the second thing you do to keep warm?'

  'Ahh', he answered, relieved to have an easy question to divert attention from the fact that he couldn't answer the others. 'The second thing is the ancient art of cupping your hands and breathing on them.'

  I myself had seen many people do this on the colder mornings at school back when I was still masquerading as a Human. As making my exterior slime as cold as it could go without outright killing it all had stopped the majority of my chills but not all of them, I simply wore thick clothes to keep my body temperature at a survivable level. It turned out that Human clothes were designed with warmth in mind - very handy.

  'Once again', Carmen said, starting to get somewhat annoyed at Ethan's biology now, 'this doesn't make much sense. Breathing onto your hands just transfers heat from your breath to your fingers, with most of it being lost to the atmosphere. How is this an effective way to keep warm?'

  'What do you want us to do, stop breathing?' asked a now nearly-exasperated Ethan.

  'I propose that your body finds a way to retain the heat from your breath before expelling it from your body', input Phill. 'This seems to be a major source of heat-loss. Of course, such a function would need to be reversible should the environment prove to be too hot for normal body processes.'

  'Oh yeah, that sounds like a good idea', Ethan told him sarcastically. 'I'll just write that in a memo and pass it on to my evolution. It'll be done in no time.'

  Phill said nothing for a bit, then simply replied, 'It was simply a hypothetical discussion.' Ethan got a major guilty look on his face, which would've made me laugh if it wasn't an awkward moment. It seemed that the poor Human was getting a lot of flak - a way cooler word than criticism - for how his body worked. Perhaps next time I should handle the explanations. I did know a lot about Human biology after all; I had to study it enough to convincingly emulate it.

  'Well, that's enough for one meeting', I announced. 'We've discussed many a thing here today, which begs further pondering and private consideration.'

  'I intend to spend a great deal of time in private consideration', Phill assured me, although I wasn't quite sure what he meant by that.

  'Anyway', I continued. 'That'll be all. Rosetta and Carmen, you're with me. I need to finish off my epic movie descriptio
ns. Or, at least continue on with it. What was I up to?'

  ' "Gone with the wind" ', Carmen reminded me.

  'Ah, that's - ' I tried to say, but was interrupted by a strangled burst of laughter from Ethan.

  'You're putting that in your list of epic movies!?' he managed to say through his laughing.

  'Are you implying that it's not epic?' I asked him. 'Cause you'd be wrong! It's like fifty hours of epicness.'

  'I doubt that a mainstream movie would run for such a length of time', Phill said.

  'You know it?' I asked him.

  'I know of it', he answered.

  'Now I'm interested', Boy said. 'Count me in on this explanation.'

  'Hah', I told Ethan. 'See what you've done? Now Boy wants to know what's going down, and he's about to get an overdose of epic.'

  As the four of us - Boy, Carmen, Rosetta, and myself, that is - moved to a good spot to get into a four-way communication formation, Phill said to my back, 'One cannot overdose on "epic".'

  The Human

  "Yawn", I said while sighing heavily.

  "Why did you verbalise the action instead of performing it?" Phill asked me.

  "Because I didn't need to yawn, but I wanted you to know that I felt like it", I told him.

  "You could've just said 'I need to yawn' ", Rosetta told me.

  "Yeah", I sighed again. "I'll do that next time."

  We'd been flying around on the starcruiser for God-knows-how-long now, prancing around the galaxy on our way to Slugenis. Like every other long-haul space trip we'd made, this one went for ages (even though it was technically only a few months, it felt like forever), and the only good parts were when we all got together to have full-group discussions, like the one where Matt had finally explained how slime shifting works.

  The problem was, there was only so much we could get together to have full-group discussions about. The rest of the time was made up of sleeping and desperately trying to find a way to keep yourself busy. Well, I don't know about the others, but I was. The Slugs must be used to long-distance travels I guess, so they had their ways to avoid ripping their fingernails out due to boredom.

  That was another problem; the Slugs spent most of the time in touch communication, which meant I couldn't just saunter up to them and casually join in. Which kind of sucked, since I was quite good at sauntering.

  So this left me, as always, with Phill. Today, Rosetta had decided to grace us with her presence, so the three of us were up against the back of the central cylinder, where the back wall met the curvature of the ship. Since there was just the seven of us in a massive ship meant for an army, we spent most of our time in the main cylinder. Well, except when I snuck off to use my portable toilet or get something to drink. Sticking one of these spikes into my mouth had gotten no less uncomfortable though.

  Racking my brains for something to talk about, I said lamely, "So, Phill..."

  "Yes?" he asked.

  "Uhh", I answered. "Tell me something."

  "What do you wish to know?"

  After a few seconds, I realised I was at a loss. I looked to Rosetta. "Help me out here?"

  "Is there something you wish to know?" Phill asked her now.

  "No", she replied. "Ethan wanted to know something."

  "Actually, I don't", I admitted.

  Before Phill could say anything, Boy came up to us. "What are you guys talking about?"

  Phill told him, "We are waiting for Ethan to ask me to tell him about something."

  "Oh?" said Boy. "What was it, Ethan?"

  "Nothing!" I almost cried out. "It was just meant as a conversation starter!"

  There was a pause that felt like it went for way too long, before Phill said, "Well. It achieved its objective."

  After a shorter pause, Rosetta and I started to laugh. Before long, Boy joined in, and even Phill gave a nice smile (I don't think he was actually capable of laughing - in fact, how did he even talk?).

  "What are you stooges laughing about over there?" called Matt from across the ship.

  "We're laughing about you stooges not laughing", Rosetta answered back.

  Boy laughed again, then looked up thoughtfully. "Ah. I'm getting thirsty. I'll be back in a second."

  As he moved away, Phill said, "It's been over one second", but the Slug didn't respond.

  "Hey Rosetta", I said. "I got a real question now. Boy just said he's thirsty. But what does it feel like to be thirsty for a Slug? And hungry too?"

  "How does it feel for you?" she asked back.

  Before I could respond, Boy returned. "That was quick", I commented.

  "It was just a little drink", he explained.

  "Alright then", I began to answer the question. "When we humans get thirsty, our mouths and throats feel really dry. When we're hungry, we get this gnawing, empty feeling in our stomachs that can start to quite hurt."

  "Using your human system of pain?" asked Boy.

  "Yep", I answered. "It can be very annoying at first, but if you ignore it for long enough, it tends to go away. Unless you're literally starving to death or something." I'd had my fair share of going hungry to know all about it, and how you could lessen its effects without actually eating anything.

  "Well", Rosetta began, "for us, it's different. When we feel thirsty, all of our slime starts to feel dry, perhaps similar to your mouth and throat. It feels as if we've lost all of the moisture in our slime."

  "Sounds unpleasant", I commented.

  "It can be", Boy conceded, "but not to the point of debilitating us."

  "Unlike your feelings of pain", Phill accused me.

  "Yeah, yeah", I sighed. "I get it, pain sucks. Now, onto hunger."

  "Alright", Rosetta began. "When Slugs get hungry, we get this... this hollowed-out feeling. As if our core is simply a hole, empty of slime. It's a nagging feeling, and one which gets worse as our hunger increases."

  "So when you're hungry you feel empty", I mused. "Sounds like symbolism to me."

  "Except when we begin to starve", Boy told me gravely. "As we slowly die from the lack of sustenance, we get a horrid feeling, not of inner emptiness, but as if our inner slime is rotting away inside our bodies. It is quite unpleasant, much more so than thirst."

  "Why is that?" I asked.

  "Because we have ways to preserve and gain water in emergencies", Boy said, "but not food."

  Before I could ask more about that, Phill told us, "When our power begins to deplete, we simply get an electronic warning that increases in intensity as the situation worsens. There are no feelings or pain involved in the process."

  "You got it lucky then", Rosetta told him. "I've only ever felt hunger before, but even that is not a good thing to experience."

  "Have you ever starved then?" I asked Boy.

  "A couple of times", he told me, "all of them on an assignment with Matthew. It can be quite easy to get cut off from food supplies when on dangerous missions. Depending on how starved you are, it can be very severe."

  "It sounds like you Slugs do have some kind of pain that is similar to ours", I mused. "Even if it only happens when you're very hungry."

  "I suppose so", he answered.

  "The reasoning for the Slugs' way seems more logical", Phill once again dissed my biology, as if it was my fault the human body turned out the way it did. "Pain during extreme hunger is to stop one from overexertion, as this could cause their death due to lack of energy. Pain during injury, however, may serve to only incapacitate the victim, and thus cause more injury and therefore more pain."

  "A vicious cycle", Rosetta agreed.

  "Yeah, well, I'll get to work on that right aw- " I started, but I felt a slight change in the ship before I could finish that sentence. Being so attuned to space travel as I was (that's right - I'm attuned to space travel), I was pretty good now at feeling when the force of gravity onboard the ship changed. So when I felt the slightest tug towards the front of the starcruiser, I knew that that meant we were starting to decelerate.

  "
Oi!" I shouted out to Matthew, Carmen and Frank. "Are we almost there?"

  "Yar!" Matt shouted back in a terrible pirate voice. "We be almost there, matey!"

  "Please don't do that", Phill called to him.

  "Fine then, be like that", he managed to sniff and still have us hear him.

  "Well then", I said, turning back to our small group. "Who's ready for another space landing? What's my count for landings at now, like three? Four?"

  "Mine is much higher than that", Boy smirked at me.

  "Mine is one more than that", Phill told me. "If you count my crash-landing on Earth with Matthew as my captor a landing."

  I pondered. "Well, you went from space to a planet's surface, so I'd count that a landing."

  "Very well", he replied.

  Even though we were still a ways off from Slugenis, as the deceleration had only just started and usually began much before we reached our destination, I found myself starting to get excited again. We were back at the Slug homeworld! Although the last trip started out horribly and ended far too quickly, I had secured Matt's promise (Well, it wasn't really a promise, but I'm just going to infer that it was a binding contract when he casually said it) that this one would be much better.

  And I sure couldn't wait for it, not at all. Judging by what I'd seen and learned so far, this little trip was going to be very informative - and very exciting too.

  The Cyborg

  Some time had passed since Ethan had noticed the change of gravity on board the star cruiser, and we were now close enough to Slugenis to have its representative orange dot appear on the ship's visual readout.

  "Almost there", Ethan sighed to himself as he watched the dot slowly approach the centre of the map on its largest level of zoom.

  "Just a few minutes longer", Matt sighed with him. "Oh, but then we need to wait for Slugenis to give us clearance to land and all. Remember?"

  "Oh", Ethan hung his shoulders, a Human signal of disappointment. "I'd forgotten about that."

  "I didn't", I reminded him, causing him to give me a mean look. I didn't think that my simple comment concerning my memory warranted such a reaction.

  "Don't worry about it", Matthew tried to reassure him.

  "Yeah", Boy contributed. "Once we're on Slugenis, we'll be sure to give you a proper tour around the place."

  "Unlike last time", Ethan grumbled.

  "Precisely", Boy answered. "I'm sure that you're dying to see one of the places where Slugs are born."

  Ethan suddenly coughed and spluttered, which I predicted was a result of a sudden outburst of air from his lungs coinciding with his trying to swallow excess saliva in his mouth. This caused Boy to laugh, although I wasn't sure what was humorous about such an unfortunate coincidence.

  "Okay, we're pretty much there now", Frank said, indicating that he was guiding the ship. From what I knew of Slugs, this was unusual; I would have thought that the oldest Slug on the star cruiser, Matthew, would be the one to fly the craft. Of course, Matthew was not one to follow traditional Slug custom, so this didn't surprise me.

  In response to Frank's statement, I looked up at the ship's screen and saw that the map was one zoom off its maximum level of magnification, meaning that we were indeed close to the planet.

  Addressing my question to Matthew, I asked, "What do you plan to do once we land? In order to complete our objective, that is."

  "Well", he began, glancing at Boy for an unknown reason before turning to face me. "Boy and I are going to pay a visit to the Slug king first up. Sorry Ethan", he looked at the Human, "but important Slug stuff comes before your official tour."

  "Meh", Ethan shrugged his shoulders, which I interpreted as nonchalance. "It can wait. I mean, we're going to have plenty of time, aren't we?" He gave an accusatory look to his friend.

  "Hah", Matt replied. "That's the plan. Now, we're going to have to convince the king that perhaps the Cyborgs aren't so bad after all. The problem, of course, is that this is most likely going to be a different Slug king than the one we left last time."

  "Wait, you mean that that other one's died already?" asked Ethan in an astonished tone of voice.

  "Well, we went way out to PDN", the Slug explained, "which is far away from Slugenis. The previous king was at least 9 cycles old, which means he only had like 4 or 5 to go before he was around dying age. And a lot of time has passed between our visits to Slugenis. The truth of the matter is that every single Slug that you saw on the planet last time is more than likely dead by now."

  Ethan didn't reply to this, but I felt that that wasn't required for us to know his feelings on the matter; we all knew by now how emotional he could get when discussing the subject of another individual's death. I still perceived a downcast manner to him whenever William or Jason's demise was brought up, an event long since forgotten by the Slugs as they are constantly surrounded by perishing comrades.

  However, while the Human was brought up in a society that believed death to be the ultimate tragedy of life, and the Slugs believed in the opposite, I estimated that Matthew was more like Ethan than his fellow Slugs. The only proof of this I needed was imagining how he would react should Ethan somehow die under non-natural circumstances.

  Although the other Slugs and myself would surely be emotionally assaulted were such an unfavourable situation to occur, it was obvious that Ethan has not had the same effect on us as he had on Matthew during those mysterious years they had spent together on Earth. It was also obvious that, while the rest of us had a strong desire to keep Ethan alive, Matthew was the most protective of him.

  The evidence of this was in the events at PDN - Matthew had instantly made the choice to save Ethan rather than kill Slob, while I had hesitated on whether I should protect either Ethan, my friend, or Slob, one of the keys to ending the war.

  "So you're saying that we may have been gone like 50 years?" asked Ethan. "From 5 cycles, that is."

  "Geez, I've told you like a 1,000,000 times that a cycle isn't 10 years, and that you can't just calculate it out like that", Matthew complained. Although I wasn't keeping an accurate count, I could safely conclude that he hadn't told Ethan that anywhere near 1,000,000 times.

  "I just worked out the average", Ethan defended himself. "It has the same effect in the end."

  "That's as long as you calculate the cycles as you're assuming that you do", Matt told him. "It's not technically a straight average. But we can talk about that later. How are we going, Frank?"

  "Slugenis has taken control of the ship", the Slug in question answered. "They will land us as soon as they can, due to the importance of our mission."

  Rosetta asked, "Have they received the report?"

  "Unknown", Frank answered, "but I would guess so."

  "What report?" asked Ethan.

  "We sent a report back of the events on PDN", Boy explained to him. "Since our ship travels at only close to the speed of light, and not the actual speed, not including time lost in acceleration and deceleration, the signal would have arrived here before we have."

  "Ah", the Human replied.

  "Anyway", Matt said, turning back to me. "We're hoping that the Slug king will hear us out. Well, okay, he will definitely hear us out. What we're really hoping for is that he'll agree with us. Under normal circumstances, there'd be no chance of a Slug considering a peace treaty with the Cyborgs. But what with the situation and how everything is right now..."

  He trailed off, and I elected to list some things which made the current situation different than 'normal circumstances'. "Such as the Humans' entering the stage via trading, the Slugs and Cyborgs learning a method of cross-species communication, the presence of me on Slugenis at our previous visit, and the events on PDN concerning Slob's surrender."

  "Yes, thank you for that, Phil", Matthew told me with sarcasm in his voice, indicating that he wasn't thankful at all.

  Given this, I replied, "I intended to inform anyone who didn't know as much about the current situation as you implied."

 
"Everyone here knows, we were all there!" he complained.

  "Well", Ethan tried to mediate, "even if we all knew that, it was good to have such a... concise summary."

  "Pfft", Matthew replied condescendingly. "You're just saying that to get on Phil's good side." He jabbed a finger at his target. "Don't think I don't know what's going on here!"

  "We're getting ready to land", Frank warned us. "We'd better get into the scout ship and prepare to depart from the star cruiser."

  Up to this point, Ethan and I had been leaning against the back wall of the star cruiser, our usual position, clutching onto the straps which were used to tie us down in order to counteract the sudden changes of the centrifugal gravity in the ship as it manoeuvred around Slugenis's gravity.

  "I got it", Matthew said. "Well, what I mean is, I'll do it. The task that you just mentioned, is what I'm referring to."

  We proceeded to file into the scout ship, a smaller craft located within the star cruiser that is capable of landing on planetary bodies.

  "Get ready", Frank told us as Matthew finished tying Ethan and myself down at the back of the ship. He then got himself strapped into the nearest dish after easing himself onto that dish's spike, Slug technology used to supply them with water and allow them to control the ship via their electrical brain signals.

  Glancing up at the ship's main screen, I saw the orange dot that represented Slugenis nearly exactly in the centre of the map, meaning that we were very close to it.

  I considered saying 'We are here', but decided against it based on such a statement being something that Matthew would say, and therefore irrelevant and pointless.

  Of course, Matt chose just then to say, "Here we are", as our scout ship began to land on Slugenis and thus bring me to the Slug home world for the second time. Hopefully this trip would not prove to be as eventful as the last; that would not be good.