Most believe that going up the food chain has only advantages, but being a mere insect can have unexpected quirks. Evolution comes with limitations, and Tejeda knew all about them. He had tiny hooks and barbs on his legs that helped him grip the duct's inside walls.He had to modify the original form of the body, making it unusually long for its size to be able to engulf his core. This was the smallest thing he had ever been.From his new viewpoint, he didn't shrink. The world around him became so huge that additional details were apparent, much like when you magnify a photograph and start seeing its pixels. But, instead of pixels, there were even more intricacies, like a world inside a world.The interior walls of the duct would have seemed level and smooth to a normal-sized person. Tejeda used every microscopic no

Maybe too accustomed to breathing air, living underwater felt peculiar to Tejeda. Every time the rush of liquid barged inside his gills, he thought he was going to drown. Even though both breathing organs diffuse oxygen from the environment across thin membranes into the blood vessels, the difference in structure felt awkward for him. He needed a lot of time until he could coordinate the entire procedure and run it at a normal pace.Looking around, he noticed he was near the outer reef of the spa island. The sun was shining bright and hot, but the cool water running through his gills allowed his body to keep cool.A salty sensation remained stuck on his pointed tongue, and he imagined what food might taste like now. The transition had not triggered his psionic powers as he was in the darkness of his non-organic core. He had to find out how things worked within

While watching the epic battle outside in the depths of the ocean, everyone in the airarium was petrified. Sometimes the air breathers couldn't see anything because of the darkness covering the two opponents as they took the struggle farther away from the glass wall. On the ocean floor, the line of sight wasn't the best.But what they witnessed stayed with them. The pictures were etched into their minds, and no matter how hard they tried, they could not erase them. But this type of brutal aggression was nothing new to any of the Space Spoon crew.When the waters around them settled into an ominous stillness, Shayla’s eyes narrowed as she glimpsed something strange hovering in the waters and advancing at a steady pace.A metallic shape reflected in the glass. As it approached, they could glimpse the familiar form of one of Hanga's self-sufficient repair droids. Cato gasped, while Shayla smiled. A sphere similar to a transparent force field kept the water away from the small contraption

Shayla slacked off in Tejeda’s chair inside the captain’s office. Everybody arrived safely aboard the Space Spoon, but she didn’t feel safe anymore. Her index finger tapped on the desk at a maddening pace as she stared at the Nubilae’s silica core. “How long are you going to gawk at him instead of giving him a body?”She flinched. Her fingers stopped beating the rhythm. E00’s unexpected intrusion came at a moment when she was in deep thought. “He can wait a bit more. After all the shit he put us through, I think I owe him something.” Shayla clicked her tongue. “I can’t stop thinking about what he’ll do once he has a body again. Will he pick the most dangerous task on the mission board? Will he drag us again into a so-called vacation where we’ll almost die?”“Are you afraid?” E00 always knew what questions not to ask and still voiced them aloud."No." Shayla rose from her chair and began pacing around the room. "I used the Beridium dagger again today, a weapon I promised I would not

To avoid making a mess out of things, the Space Spoon remained hidden behind RK10’s moon, Rurar. C1313 was a bit upset that they wouldn’t land on the moon. Instead, she and Jackeye took a shuttle toward the planet and docked safely at the edge of the outer ring. The sky above their heads glinted gold, with bands of pink, lilac, and silver.When the shuttle docked, the pair disembarked and headed toward the spaceport. Only a few hovercars appeared in sight since most of the beings around here didn't need one. They left the docks behind and strolled through the crowd."It looks like it's not a normal day on RK10," Jackeye commented. "We should have come earlier. It might be too late to attend the event."“Oh, don’t worry about that."It was difficult to move through the swarm of entities that went back and forth. Each robotic component glittered in the sun, so it appeared that the conference was going to be aluminum-ating.C1313 had a comprehensive map of RK10 in her memory bank, so th