Soon, thoroughly chilled and clean, they left the water and ran along the ground. Again the three females made an impression on the two males, as they intended to. Something about the way the flesh on their chests and lower hind torsos moved. Burgess enjoyed feeling their minds as they played this game of show and see. The females pretended not to be aware of the attention, and the males pretended not to be paying it. Both knew better, especially since they were all sharing each other's minds to an increasing extent.
"And now you Felines know what it's like on the Virtual Mode when it's good," Colene said as they dressed. "We have no secrets from each other, especially when Seqiro is near."
"It is a remarkably relaxed scene," Cat said. Cat, being neuter, had no sexual inclination, but did appreciate social interaction.
They ate from their packs, and stepped in turns across a Mode line for elimination of bodily wastes. Unlike Burgess, whose processes of assimilation and elimination were continuous, they stored their wastes inside their bodies for a time, then expelled them in liquid or solid masses. Only their breathing followed Burgess' way, constantly taking in a vital nutrient and passing out a waste gas. Life had many mechanisms of processing.
They resumed their trek. Because they were now traversing living territory, their route was irregular, in contrast to the straightforward progress across the barren Modes. They had to go around trees and brush, and were wary of wild animals. In time they came to another discontinuity: suddenly the next Mode, instead of being a land, water, and vegetation scene, was something else. Something new to all of them.
"What do you make of it?" Darius inquired of the others as they put only their heads through the boundary and gazed at the confusion before them. Burgess put an eye stalk through. The scene was so different as to be difficult to assimilate.
"Something must have come and chopped up this landscape and scrambled the pieces," Nona said. "It reminds me of something."
"An avalanche?" Cat asked.
"That should be a pile," Darius said. "This seems to be suspended." He poked a hand through and touched a segment of vertically standing ground, and it moved. There was no sky above it; instead there were irregular segments of sky in the jumble.
"A jigsaw puzzle!" Colene exclaimed. "A Three-Dee puzzle, with the pieces scrambled."
"Please clarify," Cat said. Burgess appreciated that; the girl was nice despite being a vessel of dolor, but her concepts could be confusing.
"At home on Earth, we have puzzles that are pictures, and they are cut up into a bunch of little curvy pieces and mixed up. The challenge is to put them together so that the picture is there again. Some are easy, some are so difficult they can take weeks. Each piece fits in only one place, but dozens of pieces look almost the same, so it's hard to figure out. Some of them are in three dimensions, so that when you put them together they form, oh, maybe a castle standing on a mound. Those can be real bruisers."
"How are we to pass this?" Pussy asked. "There's no path."
"There's no scene," Nona said. "The very substance of this world seems to have been taken apart."
"Maybe we have to make a path," Colene said. She put her hands on a piece of tree, and brought it toward her. It was about the thickness of her body, and part of it was green. She stood it up with the green at the top, and it remained in place.
"A puzzle Mode," Pussy said. "This is interesting." She took a piece of sky and pushed it up over her head.
"It seems to be malleable," Cat said. "We shall have to make a path for Burgess." From the start of their association, Cat had been attuned to Burgess' nature and problems, perhaps because the two of them were different from the others, albeit in different ways. Burgess was completely alien, physically, and to a significant degree mentally. Cat differed by being genderless and unemotional. Both were accepted by the others, but their differences would never abate.
"Maybe we had better see how many of these scramble Modes there are," Colene said.
"I may be able to explore ahead," Nona said. "I am recovering a bit of my magic, so may be able to levitate, and to move segments by telekinesis. If you can read my mind across the Modes, perhaps I can find a way through."
"Seqiro's connection is getting stronger," Colene said. "Maybe you can."
"I'll go with you," Tom said.
"Thank you." Burgess felt the woman's turmoil of emotions. She liked Tom, but did not love him, and love was important to her. So she was treating him politely while she considered whether there was any prospect for more. Meanwhile, she could not have a more ardent protector. That was important, here on the Virtual Mode, because danger could strike as readily as surprise.
Nona and Tom pushed their way across the boundary, and found themselves in the middle of a truly confusing disarray. Segments of ground, forest, river, and sky were intermixed, oriented different ways. It was indeed like Colene's concept of a cut-out puzzle, except that this was reality. When Nona touched a piece of ground, her body oriented to stand on it as if vertical, though she wasn't. When Tom reached into a section of sky, he oriented so as to be standing below it, though that meant that he was not aligned with Nona. Each piece of the puzzle had its own alignment to impose on those who touched it.
They moved pieces, getting skies aligned above, trees beside, and ground below, slowly forming a path. They stood on that path and reached for other pieces to extend it, and suddenly were at the next Mode boundary. This Mode was similarly scrambled, so they were able to continue. They passed through several, gaining proficiency.
Then they faded, out. "I can't heeear you!" Colene called, stepping onto the path behind them.
They heard her, and turned back. But they had accomplished a fair amount. The path was not broad enough for Burgess, but it made the traverse easier for the others. It was a feasible way to cross the puzzle Modes, in time.
Nona and Tom returned, and the hive consulted. "It is evident that we can cross," Darius said. "But it will be tedious—and what of the pursuit? Do we want to leave a clear path for Ddwng's men to follow?"
"We'll have to mess it up behind us," Colene said.
"But we need a way back to deliver the Chip."
"It is perhaps academic," Cat said. "When I deliver the Chip, they will know my route, and will be able to make new ones."
There was something devious in a mind, and Burgess was surprised to discover that it wasn't Colene's, but Darius' mind. But it was quickly suppressed. "True," Darius said. "If they find their way to this region, it may not matter."
"So let's widen the path Tom and Nona made, and start crossing Modes," Colene said. "The puzzle can't last forever."
Tom and Nona went back to the end of their path, while the others went to work broadening it. Burgess was unable to help with this, as the pieces were too large for his trunks, and he was able to follow only when the path had been broadened. So he maintained a rear guard, watching for any danger behind.
It took them several days to cross the puzzle Modes, but they came to enjoy working together on the challenge. Tom was a hard laborer, and quick to respond to Nona's cues, and she liked that. She was able to use a little magic to move pieces, but it was as easy to do it by hand. Seqiro's mind was still orienting on them, slowly closing on their specific presence. But so was the mind predator. Colene wasn't aware of it yet, but she would be when it found her.
They had to get into the vicinity of an anchor Mode. Any anchor Mode. Because that was Colene's only respite, once the predator caught up with her.
At last they made it through the puzzle—only to encounter another challenge. The following Modes were explosive. They resembled a war scene, but there was no fighting, indeed no large creatures—just continuing explosions.
They stood just beyond the boundary, contemplating the devastation. Every few minutes there was another blast, but without seeming cause. The surface of the lake detonated, spraying water in a sphere, and subsided. What was doing this?
"I will check ahead," Tom said.
br /> "Not alone, you won't," Nona said. "We don't know how much worse it may be in the following Modes."
"We don't want to risk any members of the party unnecessarily," Darius said. "We have not encountered actual danger so far, but it may be ahead."
Burgess could do a limited exploration, and return quickly, so they would have information. He was less subject to physical changes than the others were, because he could float over water or thick vegetation.
Cat caught his thought, in the growing ambiance of Seqiro's mind. "Burgess and I will make a quick check, while others study the local situation." Then, before a consensus against it could develop, Cat climbed onto Burgess, and Burgess jetted into the next Mode.
It was much the same, with explosions near and far in an otherwise placid scene. The third and fourth Modes were similar. They looped back before chance could produce an explosion in their immediate vicinity. In a moment the remainder of their party reappeared.
"Similar," Cat reported. "I think we had best cross these Modes rapidly, because the explosions seem to be random."
But Burgess was picking up on something else. He analyzed the material that passed through him on a continuing basis, in order to assimilate its nutritive elements. There was rich food here. Of course it couldn't do him much good, because whatever he imbibed was gone the moment he crossed a Mode boundary, unless he lingered long enough to assimilate it into his substance. Even that wasn't ideal, because the more substance he assimilated on the Virtual Mode, the less of an anchor Mode remained, fudging his identity. Too much, and he could lose his ability to cross the boundaries. That was true for all of them. So they did not want to take in more than they had to. Air and water they could not avoid, but anything more they tried to minimize. So the very richness of this food was dangerous in its fashion.
That was only part of it, however. The food consisted of microscopically small particles that were living entities. "Plankton," Cat said, interpreting the concept for the others. "Microscopic algae and protozoa, the foundation of life for many realms. The water and air here are suffused with tiny creatures, like the plankton of the seas of our home worlds."
Not the variety any of them had known before, however. There was something special about what was here. Burgess was taking in great numbers of these creatures, and ejecting greater numbers.
"What?" Cat asked, thinking it had misread.
Burgess focused on the ongoing process. He seemed to be ejecting twice as many creatures as he was taking in. This did not seem to make sense, yet it was so.
"Step on it before it reproduces," Colene said, smiling. Then she paused thoughtfully. "Could they be reproducing?"
There was the key. They were fissioning, dividing into parts. Each part was smaller than the original, but a fully functioning entity. Also—and this was odder yet—they seemed to be releasing energy as they fissioned.
"Nuclear fission!" Colene exclaimed. "Back home on Earth we make bombs that do that." To her the only real Earth was her origin world, though most of the Modes they passed through were similar. If they were not, the air and gravity would differ too much to permit the travelers to survive.
"That might explain the explosions," Cat said. "Clumps of plankton fissioning together. Perhaps if we can understand the system, we can navigate these Modes safely."
"That seems apt," Darius agreed.
"Maybe I can help," Nona said. "I feel my magic increasing. If I can make them familiars, I will better fathom their nature."
Burgess remembered the process. Nona could reach out with her magical mind and infuse the mind of some wild creature, taming it to her will. She could then perceive through its senses. This could be quite helpful on occasion, such as when she used the eyes of a flying bird to spy out the surrounding territory.
"Thank you," Nona murmured. She was indeed getting her magic back, for now she was understanding his thoughts without touching him.
"No, that's me," Colene said. "Seqiro is enhancing my ability, and I'm linking you. Nona's talent is magic, not mind reading. What she's recovered is only a tiny sliver of her full power."
"But let's see what I can do," Nona said. "I must first identify with you, making you a familiar. Then, through you, I'll see what I can do with the plankton." She took hold of two of Burgess' contact points and focused her mind. He felt her merging with him, identifying with him so that his senses became hers. It was pleasant, for she was a nice person, and she was doing this with his acquiescence.
As she took hold of his senses, she enhanced them. He was able to orient on the plankton passing through his system with increasing focus. Now he saw that it was not a conglomeration of mixed species, but a single type of creature, an amoeba of a type unknown on any of the worlds the members of their party had known. It leached energy from the environment and converted some of it to mass, growing larger. Some it stored in its tissue. But when it got crowded, it fissioned, dividing rapidly into two or more fragments with the release of the extra energy in a burst that flung the parts far away.
"Just like nuclear fission!" Colene said. "Only this is living fission."
"It must be a survival strategy," Darius said. "The new entities get hurled out to new territory to colonize."
"But what sets them off?" Colene asked.
Nona and Burgess explored further, and discovered the trigger: when the amoebae were crowded beyond a certain point, they fissioned. The crowding they got being sucked into Burgess set them off so that their number doubled and was rapidly ejected. This also accounted for the explosions: whenever the amoebae got too crowded, they fissioned, flinging their offspring out around the neighborhood. That guaranteed that they would constantly land in less-crowded places, where they could absorb more energy.
"So what we need is to avoid concentrations of amoebae, and we won't be caught in an explosion," Colene said. "We should be able to do that by going carefully. Meanwhile we can relax for the night."
They relaxed, eating and settling for the night in the last of the puzzle Modes, where there was no risk of explosion. The scrambled pieces around them turned dark around their path.
But in the morning there was trouble. Colene was breathing hard. "The mind monster," she gasped. "It's found me!"
That was apparent, for they shared her mind and felt the horror of it. The thing was drawing her into its dark center, seeking to digest her very being.
Pussy went to her and put her arms around the shuddering body. "I will shield you."
"You can't do it physically," Nona said. "It's her mind, her soul it's after."
"But she's helping," Colene said. "Pussy is shielding me some. The mind predator's not as bad now."
"Yes, I am helping," Pussy said. But now she too was hurting; Burgess could feel it. She was taking some of Colene's pain on herself, diluting it by sharing. But it would get worse, and in the end overwhelm them both.
"We have to get her to an anchor," Darius said urgently.
"We've been moving toward one," Nona said. "But we still have a fair way to go—many Modes to cross."
That was true, but there might be a way to enhance their progress. If they could harness the plankton creatures, Burgess might be able to move much more rapidly than normal, and carry them along.
"This might work," Cat said. "We would need to funnel more amoebae in to you, so that you could condense them faster and make them fission faster."
"I can do that," Nona said. "I can use my telekinesis to haul them in from the surrounding volume and squeeze them together." She focused, extending her recovering magic, catching the plankton. She herded it together, so that it formed a cloud around them.
"But we can't transport it across a Mode boundary," Darius said. "So it won't do us any continuing good."
"Does inertia carry across the boundaries?" Cat asked. "If so, could he catapult through several at a time?"
They paused. It was a new question. "Assuming that it does," Darius said, "How could our bodies withstand an explosive star
t?"
"I could make a stasis spell," Nona said. "That would hold everything inside its range in place."
"With your full magic, you could make a telekinetic shield," Darius agreed. "But do you have enough magic now?"
"I am not sure."
But Colene and Pussy were suffering the siege of the mind predator. They couldn't wait. "We'll have to try," Nona said. "I will do my best."
First she formed the cloud around Burgess, and he tried sucking it in and launching himself with the released energy of the plankton. He shot along the sideways extension of the Mode, and coasted to a stop some distance from the others. Then he returned far more slowly. That aspect worked.
Next they tried it with his normal power, and the others holding on to his carapace. Colene sat on his back, and Pussy joined her there. He moved only slowly, but carried them along; the stasis spell held them all in place.
Then they went for it. Nona fetched in the plankton for Burgess; then, as he sucked it in and concentrated it inside his body cavity, she invoked her stasis spell. The amoebae fissioned, and Burgess jetted out a powerful stream of them. He launched across the Mode boundary, carrying them along.
Inertia carried them through five or six Modes. Then Burgess stopped, Nona gathered in more plankton, he passed it through, and they launched through another group. It was working!
The mind predator did not relent. Instead its hold on Colene slowly intensified. But their increased rate of travel was not intended to leave it behind, but to bring them closer to an anchor Mode, where they could escape. The sooner they reached it, the faster there would be relief.
Suddenly they were out of the energy-fissioning Modes. They were in familiar-seeming Modes. "We are coming to Colene's anchor," Darius said, recognizing the type.
The power of the plankton was no longer available. The others let go of Burgess, but Colene continued to ride, being largely insensible of her surroundings. He felt the continuing horror in her mind, ameliorated only by Pussy's protective contact.
They hurried on, past houses and streets and people who stared at them briefly, until they crossed the next boundary. They didn't care about attracting attention; they had to keep moving, because the mind monster was still gaining on Colene's mind.