Rain Harlow
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Chapter 4
🕑 Added 2025-03-20 17:46:12 +0000 UTCStifling his panic, Jack checked Neex’s pulse, hoping her anatomy was close enough for it to make sense. It was — he felt a weak pulse. Upon inspection, she also seemed as if she was still breathing.
A coma. But she was fatalistic. She might not last long. What the hell do I do?! What good is a hospital when she needs her Archon or whatever to survive? Supernatural shit.
He could try taking her to the Mems. But she may have never been in Memorial-controlled space. He could see a tactical cruise missile just vaporizing her, him, and Alice the instant Memoria became aware of a ‘contaminant.’ A threat that close? He could really, really see it.
He was set to do it anyway, maneuvering his arms underneath her to rise. He’d get the oxygen in the vehicle somehow or another.
‘Friendly, ally, help,’ she said. Maybe to Memoria. To humanity, right? What if this is important? Important. An important object. Wait.
He froze. Something important, just like whatever was in the box hidden and smuggled behind signal blockers and fake gears. Something destroyed… or lost. Something they might’ve found and brought. A ‘heart?’
An ‘alien’ artifact? She mentioned Qualakatus twice; the first time, what she needed… frag me, I have to open that box to see. It could be what saves her.
He pulled his arms from under Neex and said softly, “Just hold on for me, Neex. If there’s a heart in there, it’s yours. Batra- er, Bo- whatever!”
Jack hurried through the door, pulling the radio off his belt loop and clicking the receiver. “Uncle, you there? I need to cut through metal quickly. I think it's copper.”
After a moment, his uncle responded. “White-painted building on your right if facing the house. Workshop. Whatever you can handle, son. Knock yourself out.”
“What’s the fastest thing?”
“If it's a plate? Or thin? Laser fabric cutter. State of the fraggin art. Got it a year ago. Great for quick pattern cutting and smooth engraving. Don’t suppose you can operate one yourself?”
“Sure,” Jack lied, already outside. He was not going to slow down for anything at that point, including for safe machine operation.
“Gotta say, you’re not filling me with confidence that you won’t frag up my expensive laser machine, Jack.”
“I’m in here already,” another voice interjected. “I’ll help ya out. Bring it on in.”
Jack was just jogging up to his car. “I appreciate it. Be a few minutes at most.”
He grabbed his electric socket wrench, dug out the gearbox, and unscrewed the few bolts holding the case to pry it off. He then got off the bolts anchoring the copper box to the bottom of the works to get it free. As he began making his way to the workshop at a quickened pace, he fought to remove the tape wrapped around the box.
“Come on, you stupid ass tape! Off! I don’t need questions about your warnings. It’s not like we’re doing anything fishy here.” Jack was just slowing down near the workshop, trying to flick the rolled up, sticky ball off his hand — unsuccessfully — when he noticed the guy hanging out in front. He was slight and skinny, in overalls that were too big for him and a ballcap with a bullseye symbol on it. He was smoking a herbal cigarette.
“Oh, hey!” Jack called and held up the copper box. “Here it is. Heh.” He handed it over while still flicking his free hand. Unstick already! “Has some rough welding at the top.”
The man took it with one hand, taking a drag of his ciggy with the other, squinting and studying the box. He blew out smoke and half-pulled a paper pack out of his chest pocket to display to Jack. “Ciggy?”
“No thanks, trying to quit. So, uh, think you can cut it quickly, then? Up just at the edge? As quickly as possible, please. Quickity quick-quick.” Jack tried to finesse the sticky ball off of his hand. He ‘succeeded’ in transferring it to his other hand. Great.
The man gave him a bit of an incredulous look. “What’s the hurry, champ? Got a hot date? What’s in it?”
“A, uh, an antique. But I want to get it over with before sunset and get some food.”
“Now that I can understand.” He took a final hit of the ciggy and tamped it out into a thick leather glove. “Alright, no problem. Weird package.” He turned to pull open the door.
Jack followed. “Tsh, you’re telling me? Jack, if you didn’t hear.” The open door was a perfect opportunity — baring his teeth, Jack emphatically smushed the sticky ball to it, ridding himself of its curse once and for all, with great satisfaction. Ha. Get stuck, tape! I win, you asshole.
“Most call me Bullseye.”
“Wow. Like a codename?”
“Yup.”
“The hat says it all.”
“Yup. Like a nametag, basically.”
“That’s pretty handy.”
“Yup. If I was facing ya when it came up, I’d just point to the hat.”
“Pretty tragic that circumstances prevented it today.”
“That’s life, right?”
The shop was a typical mechanical facility stacked with copious tools, toolboxes, lifts, and work tables. It was a very clean one, though. Some sort of motor was disassembled on a platform. The laser cutter was in its own special room, along with a few other lathes, past an automatically closing door.
Inside, Bullseye put the box down on a grid of jagged metal teeth and utilized a special clamp arm within that matrix so the box was at a diagonal angle. He began plugging away into the computer terminal, which moved the laser array over the box and ‘scanned’ it. A few more clicks, and the laser got into position to cut diagonally through the copper.
Here’s hoping that hope is in there.
In short order, in a spray of sparks and compressed air, the laser cut through the top edge of the box, side to side, the clamp rotating it ninety degrees at each corner. With the last smooth cut, the thin copper top dropped onto the teeth with a clang.
Jack was holding his breath the whole time. But nothing weird happened.
“Can I get it out of the clamp?” Jack asked breathlessly. “Looks simple enough.” And I expose you less to whatever this is.
Bullseye shrugged. The laser was already parked well away from the box. “Sure. It’s ready; go ahead. Be careful. Don’t touch the top for a couple minutes without an oven mitt or gloves or something.”
Jack unclamped the copper rectangle and pulled it away. When he glanced inside, he only saw black within. He didn’t linger, immediately running off with it, calling behind him, “Thanks a ton, Bullseye!”
“Hey! Wait!”
“Hell yeah, brother! Can’t wait to check this out! Later!”
“But… don’t I get to see?” His crestfallen question was answered only by Jack’s dust and the closing of an automatic door.
Jack sprinted back to the house, holding the box awkwardly out in front of him. When he got to the bathroom, Neex was under the water and deathly still. Not good! But he forced himself not to react to avoid wasting time. Action, action, action!
He turned the box over and started trying to get whatever was in it out. It did not come free easily — some type of foam filled the insides. But it seemed to shift with more weight ‘behind’ it, so he kept at it with raw flinging force, and eventually, the foam peeked out of the edge. A little more effort and it was enough that he could pull it out.
Wrapped in a thick layer of brown foam and tape was something in a vague oval shape. It felt hard underneath. Sitting down in the chair immediately next to the bathtub, Jack pulled out his pocket knife to tear into it. He also turned down his radio to avoid sudden disturbances.
As soon as he pierced into the inner pocket, he felt something weird ripple through the air, unlocalized. In that split instant, he thought it was what he’d experienced from the monster three years ago, but in the next instant, he unequivocally knew it was not the same. What touched and passed through him was something else.
It was the brush of alien whiskers in a dark, cold, and wet abyss he was briefly adjacent to. Sensory recognition, but passing by in undulation, never stopping. Incurious, it took no hold of him — in fact, it ignored him. At that point, the feeling dissipated, leaving nothing more than an indescribable vibe and heaviness in the air.
The water of the tub rippled. It might’ve been Neex.
Swallowing a suddenly dry throat, Jack cut through the rest of the packing material with hands he was a bit surprised were steady. He peeled out the object but decided to keep from directly touching it. Maybe it didn’t matter, but…
He was mesmerized by what he saw. It was like a hand-sized nautilus shell, only the shell was iridescent, and it was not empty but filled with a… petrified creature, vaguely squid-like, though eyeless. All of it caught the light and cast glass-like reflections. The contours and colors were like a smoother petrified wood, but he could make out little squished-in tentacle outlines.
What was more, as he held it up to the light and the reflections shifted beautifully from within, when he caught it at a certain angle to the side, the whole thing became transparent, and he could see inside of it. The curves of strange inner organs, and then spiral layers — empty chambers — getting smaller and smaller and smaller, down seemingly into infinity.
Jack’s eyes locked onto that point, and he stared, feeling as if there was some subtle movement… and then the thing pulsed — all of it — like a muscle, like a heart beating, the vibration discernible in his hand. The unseen movement in the air rippled again, this time like a startled underwater creature hitching from underneath.
“Hyaah!” Jack spasmed and flung the thing by instinct. Before he completely followed through, he tried to correct and grab it, but, sadly, his grip on it was poor due to holding it with the foam packing between it and his skin. It was fumbled and tossed — right on top of Neex.
With a splash, it landed in the water and carried through into her shirt-shrouded midsection. As soon as it touched her, another ripple pulsed through the air, but stronger, and followed by more and more in a steady cascade. But they didn’t seem to touch Jack this time — instead, it was like they were bent toward Neex. Honing in on her. Reaching.
She first began twitching in her muscles and particularly in her head tentacles. Then something within her answered the resonance focusing on her — her own ripple. The artifact thrummed once, much deeper, a violent vibration that shook the water and even the walls. It was like the singular heartbeat of something massive, dwarfing all the other tiny and subtle motions.
Neex’s eyes opened immediately underneath the water, and they went wide as they beheld the artifact. Wonder and amazement glittered there. She twisted as agile as an eel to bring the artifact closer, holding it in two hands in front of her face.
Her mouth opened, and from somewhere deep within her, sounds came — first like a long, piercing whine or squeal with more harmonic depth, somehow pleasant to the ear and brimming with joy and excitement. Following it immediately was something more like a call, rhythmic and fluttering. It was musical, and its final notes were like one rapid line of a flute song.
Much like it caught the light, the artifact seemed to catch the song and reflect it, spitting it back out in deeper harmonics like a supporting undercurrent.
Jack stared and listened in stunned amazement, caught up in the alien beauty. I think it’s awakening.
Two more irregular heartbeats thrummed, and then it was going continuously. Thrum. Thrum. Thrum. The room vibrated.
Neex, looking livelier and livelier, continued singing lighter harmonics, as though encouraging and cajoling it, and moved her hands back slightly. Distortion in the water seemed to hold the artifact suspended, unsinking. Neex slowly shifted and raised her head above the water, transitioning smoothly from ‘inner sounds’ underwater to bird-like song from her mouth above it. She rose entirely out of the water and stood with it. The artifact levitated with similar wavy distortions in the air.
She made intricate wavy motions with her hands and fingers as her song became irregular rather than perfectly continuous. The water of the bathtub lifted out of it and flowed around the room into branching little rivers, and then the rivers branched into streams, and then the streams into smaller ones, on and on, until the water effectively disappeared into the air.
It became exceptionally damp in the room and also heavier, thicker, and colder. The light went dimmer, like the artifact was swallowing the majority of it, but a portion was still reflected out as though from an intricate prism. It was multihued and shimmered like sunbeams cast through an upper watery surface.
“More, please,” Neex said, her face one of intense focus. Her shirt had dried as the water was entirely pulled from it.
Jack had to shake himself from a stupor. “What? Oh, water? More water?”
She nodded, still not taking her eyes off the artifact. Jack obliged to turn on the bathtub’s water, which momentarily began streaming into the space of the room.
After another bathtub full of water — at the least — streamed out and thickened the air, Neex finally relaxed, breathing a slow sigh with her eyes closed. Her tentacles mimicked her, lifting up and then drooping. Meanwhile, the heart artifact was steadily thrumming away in midair above the tub.
It was then that Neex began to laugh. At first, her shoulders were shaking, but soon it was a torrent of musical joy. “Neja dorsul! No death!” She looked at Jack and held her hands up in presentation with a big smile. “Jack find heart! No death!”
Jack laughed a bit too, if nervously, and repeated, “No death! I told you!”
Neex burst into more hysterical laughter as she hopped over the lip of the tub and continued hopping up and down. “No death, no death!” Her head tentacles were doing a ‘wave’ like a dance. She took Jack’s hands and hopped some more. “No death!”
Jack couldn’t resist that compulsion, feeling such relief himself. He hopped with her — somewhat awkwardly — acting and smiling like an idiot. “No death, no death, haha! Hell yes! Get fragged, Death!”
The octogirl paused suddenly, blinking and looking down at Jack’s hands. Both of her hands shifted to take one of his, each half the size. She squeezed multiple parts of it —palm, finger, thumb — and then turned it over to pinch his wrist like she was taking a pulse.
“What is it?” Jack asked.
She shook her head slightly and then glanced at him. She blinked and pulled away shyly suddenly, eyes fluttering around and her skin immediately blending in with the background. She folded her hands in front of her and bowed. “Myself sorry.”
“It’s alright. There’s no offense, Neex. You’re fine.”
Neex gazed up at him as if reading intent in his face, then nodded. “Okay. Jack ella dun grobba.”
“Hmm?” He shook his head in confusion.
She opened her mouth and then paused, glancing at the artifact. Her pupils turned into a squiggly line as she hissed and made an exasperated motion with a finger at her skull, which Jack interpreted probably meant something like ‘stupid me!’
Neex made a musical whistle noise and lifted her hand to waggle her fingers at the artifact. Concentrated prismatic light beamed from it over to her, then formed into something plasma-like and brightly glowing that she shaped up above her head and between them. More manipulation turned the chaotic blob into symbols Jack didn’t recognize.
As Neex made a motion that seemed to reverse-image them, they morphed and shifted shapes until they formed clear English script. <Here! Finally, we can communicate like sapient beings instead of grunting imbeciles. Hi Jack! Through touch senses, I noticed you were bodily stressed and suffering from hunger. Is it normal for you?>
Jack burst out in laughter at that. She has to be a doctor. “Uh, yeah, I-” He cut himself off and pointed to the text questioningly. “Will it translate?”
She looked a bit embarrassed and nodded, then gestured with her hands. The text turned into a blob. She made an encouraging gesture for him to start.
Watching the blob, Jack said, “I didn’t have…” Sure enough, the text in English began to appear, so he continued. “Breakfast or any food. Not typical, but I’ll be fine. Thanks.”
Neex gestured, and the text reversed, forming into the alien script. Momentarily, she made more text in response. <Be sure to eat soon. I hope your stress over me is declining, too. Though it pains me, I have more to request. But you must have gaps of information you wish to fill.>
Jack nodded. “Maybe we should sit down.” He took the chair, and she came to sit down on the edge of the bathtub facing him, her legs and feet stretched out in front of her, one crossed over the other. The blob of plasma came with her to float between them.
Rolling his neck and sighing, Jack continued, “Why don’t we just take it from the top. Why are you here, and what happened with those men?” He glanced at the floating artifact. “How is this heart thing involved?”
Neex wriggled her fingers, almost like typing, making the text form. <This living biotechnological wonder, the Heart of Abyss Symmetrical, is of my creation, allowing very limited synthesis with our Archon outside of our territory. With certain special perks like this communication aid. Various survival aids, as well. Bondmaking.>
She shrugged before continuing to conjure text, getting faster and more excited as she went. <It is so I could have a chance at this. Speaking to humans! Speaking to the miraculous surviving originals! Near originals, at least. Earth is your home more than any other. Especially the land. Abyss Symmetrical (Quallakuloth) has watched cautiously from afar for a long time. Though your kind has killed dozens of ours and even a few Imbued, it deduces this to be in ignorance. Quallakuloth desires peace. Treaty. Alliance.>
Pausing at that point, Neex seemed to study Jack for a reaction. Jack nodded along slowly and soberly, her words beginning to make him cautiously optimistic that his gambles had been the right call.
Not that any of this shit is my call at this point. I’m no diplomat, I’m a taxi man. But he didn’t let any doubt show on his face.
Neex seemed relieved and happy at this and continued. <I knew Skymen could be reasoned with! I was very sad that I would die disconnected and not the Archon nor any of my people would know of your kindness and heroism. Before you, all we’ve had as direct evidence is violence and xenophobia. But now we have a counter. Now, Jack Laker is known. This is powerful evidence! Most of my people would not believe it. Even the Palanarch does not, in spite of Quallakuloth’s deductions.>
Jack was disbelieving and embarrassed at the idea. A whole other civilization being affected by his behavior? She had to be exaggerating. “Neex, I don’t know that I’m the greatest template to go off of, good or bad. I’m just an average guy for the most part. Nothing special. I mean, I literally dropped the artifact. If I hadn’t been facing you close to the tub, we’d have a, well, broken Heart.”
Neex giggled once she read the translation. <If you are average, then our hope is well-founded. I guess a different faction of yours was our disfavor to have as a first contact. My colleagues and I came in a special stealth vessel that used a network of underground lakes and rivers prolific to this landmass to arrive near a ground facility, with your storied Sky Cities gleaming far and high above.
<We made contact with the facility and were immediately attacked with overwhelming force. I saw my friend Ginnassa blown apart next to me, and then a greater explosion behind me. The power source of the vessel was probably hit. I vaguely remember being blown still in my seat through the hinged-open front face of the vessel; parts of the vessel blasting everywhere in my brief, last visions. Then I awoke naked in a preponderance of tight bonds, breathing dry, thin air. My suit was damaged, I recall. They took it.>
Jack grimaced. He was troubled, angry, and puzzled by the story. “I’m sorry you got put through such a thing, Neex. I’m sorry about your friend. Bastards for sure. Independent ground dwellers. Scavengers dealing with trash processing. There is zero expectation of trouble in that area. Enemies just don’t get that close. No offense.” Jack frowned. “Maybe drones hit you instead? Could’ve been automated defenses. Depending on just how independent the facility is. That I don’t know. I’ve never transported anyone in those areas. Different protocols.”
An automated attack worried him even more. Wouldn’t Memoria be aware of it, or would that be too automated for her to consciously realize the gravity of the situation? There were still dangerous, mundane creatures out in the wilds. But a vehicle getting blasted…
Well, she isn’t omniscient. Not with how much her attention is divided.
Neex gestured out a response. <I saw nothing. We were hit with undetected missiles. ‘Scavengers’ seems accurate of my captors, though at first I thought they must be government officials. But they ignored my pleading for treaty, for communicating with Memoria. The men were callous and dismissive of my claims or desires. They wanted to know ‘what’ I was, ‘how,’ where I came from. They brought materials to me, the remains of our vessel, asking what things were, how they worked. It was hard communicating. I learned a little more English through this.
<They never brought the Heart. At first, I didn’t mention it, but as I grew weak and my mission’s failure weighed on me, I also grew desperate. Through a frustration of words and drawings, I admitted to them I’d die without it and that it held answers to the technology they sought to exploit. I described it, drew it, and if it still existed, in whole or in part, they should bring it to me. I thought it might aid my escape, truthfully. But they didn't bring it. I thought it was destroyed. How did you find it, Jack?>
“Well, you just missed it. I was transporting a man to your location with it heavily hidden and shielded. He came up the tower for whatever reason. I guess they had it down in Southtower somewhere. It’s a pain getting flight traffic out from there. To anywhere. Doable, but a pain. Pressed for time? Forget it. Different protocols, tighter customs. He probably had a way to sidestep. Not that this means anything to you. Point is, they had it.”
Neex’s eyes widened as realization dawned, and then she dropped her head and shook it for a moment. But she shrugged and began gesturing again. <Better this than trying what I would have. Is tricky. It isn’t made to be a weapon. I deliberately avoided that for diplomatic reasons.>
“How did you escape?”
<They underestimated me. They did finally give me more water after seeing me deteriorate, but were obstinate and uncaring about salt. One did give me some weird drink in a can. I got a bit loopy but also energized. I decided to fake its effects because I was running out of time. I pretended to be in a coma. As I hung limp and unresponsive, they undid my bonds and were trying to move me with just two while others ran off, all of them arguing. I made my move and got out.>
Jack nodded at the text and chuckled.
<What, Jack?>
“You can buck really hard. Experienced it firsthand. And I saw you give three grown men hell before knocking them out with that pulse.”
Neex had a ripple of prismatic color cross her skin, and her pupils shrunk as she cast her gaze away. “Badda mei dosa…” After a moment, she gestured to make more script. <Apologies for your troubles. That electrical pulse was one of panicked last desperation. I shouldn’t have. I was already weaker than I realized. The strength of the drink was false! I crashed to nothing while running, the energy expended suddenly, and so I fainted.>
An energy drink, maybe? And her first time. With a different physiology. Oof. “And that brings us here, when I gave you a ride. Well, you're still my client.” He grinned. “This is my destination, not yours. How can I help from here? I don’t suppose a ride will do?”
Neex eyed the translation, and her eyes cast downward. She took a deep breath before answering. <I cannot leave this bubble, Jack. This is a temporary measure. Or, I should say, a preparatory stage I have to finish now that the Heart thrums. Its core purpose is underway. I was supposed to have more time. But to complete this mission, I must have a dialog with Memoria and higher agents. By your facilitation.> After this, Neex was gazing at Jack hopefully.
Jack frowned doubtfully. “Bring them here? This is independent territory. She’s blocked and stays out by contract without specific protocols. Not only that, but I’m extremely worried about the reaction to you and, uh… that. The Heart. What’s behind it. I can’t think of anything that would cause her and her organization to overreact and negatively respond more than this.”
Neex paused, flitting her eyes around despairingly before responding. <There is no other path. I must try to contact her and her authorities. There is a greater purpose involved in helping Memoria! I require a proper, chosen contractee that is Marred, to demonstrate via hard evidence.>
Even as Jack was puzzling over this, the Heart suddenly did a rapid series of beats, and he felt that resonance through the air — movement and whirls without sound or imagery. Neex jumped in surprise, scrambling and almost falling back into the tub, and her head whipped around to stare at the Heart. But Jack felt ‘the presence’ brush him again, too. This time, he was certain he was not ignored.
Neex turned a shade of purple as she bowed her head and muttered rapidly in her language. Then she turned slowly away, still looking down, thoughtful. Her color slowly faded as she shuffled her feet. Her head tentacles twitched around. Finally, she formed script. <Quallakuloth, Abyss Symmetrical, has spoken. There is a potential logical second solution. But first, I must ask: do you know of your people’s wounds? Your Inner Marring? Another word might translate: corruption.>
“No. What are you talking about?” More secrets, Memoria?
Neex eyed him sadly and shook her head. <Most Archons connect with all of their species to some degree and allocate power based on compatibility and merit. Whoever serves best, whoever proves worth. Something terrible afflicts Memoria-to-human connections and prevents all but a tiny fraction from doing so at all. Allocation appeared to be maxed out to those of some mysterious anomaly of immunity, likely with some genetic markers, and the rest of the vast potential is wasted. Tragic.>
Jack was stunned. Corrupted? Humanity? “What causes it?”
<Not everything is known to us perfectly yet. And we must focus on what is pertinent: we can help! Quallakuloth is familiar with this wound. It could never touch one of us. One can break our symmetry in pieces, but never Mar it. It is impossible. So it is with any bond we forge, any pact we make. There is one that we can make that would lend such immunity — to anyone, even of another subspecies.>
“A bond? With Qualakuloth?” That seemed absolutely insane.
Neex’s eyes averted, and she turned purple all over again. <Skyhumans could not bond with another Archon. But a Deucalian with the Bondmaking Gift can do it and thereby extend the Symmetrical Seal as a benefit to the bondsmate. It is somewhat common, and I indeed have the Gift. Free and ready for a pact. A side benefit would be my sustenance through the connection of this bondsmate to Memoria. A permanent solution, finishing the preparation of the Heart.>
Jack was squinting in thought, trying to get his head around it. “So you need some chosen hotshot arranged to do… some sort of bond-pact… thing? Huh. Tricky.”
Neex’s pupils squiggled like mad as her lips quirked to one side. One of her hands was strumming fingers on the tub. She darted her other hand to do the script quickly. <Remember the alternative solution? Quallakuloth and I would like to offer the bond to you, Jack Laker.>
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