The titanium lance just missed them and crashed into the jungle’s edge. But it had vaporised part of the LZ and surrounds on its way. And as for the jungle; well, that was no longer a green and pleasant land.

  Above, at the LZ, the cats walked gingerly around. Some of the rock was still hot. The cave seemed to have gone, replaced by a square, blocky rock face. Which was strange, Feebee had expected at least an indent where the cave had been, not a clean rock face.

  ‘Drexari. That’s what they’re called. Drexari,’ said the QI excitedly, derailing Feebee’s train of thought.

  ‘What? The insects?’

  ‘Yes. It can only be them. They’re hostile, territorial and militaristic.’

  ‘Anything else… maybe something that could be useful? We were all nearly obliterated earlier.’

  ‘Ouch.’ The QI paused, ‘That was un-necessary.’

  ‘Well?’ asked Feebee, making no attempt to hide her impatience.

  ‘No. Well maybe. They are known to be active in this sector and tend to travel in isolated colonies.’

  ‘And does your enormous corpus tell you how big their colonies are?’

  ‘No.’ The QI hated it when she got a taste of her own sarcastic medicine.

  Some rocks bounced down the rock face and onto the LZ, dislodged by one of the marines. Alpha-3 who was up above the LZ, on the cliff, called down, “Sorry, just scouting around.”

  ‘Can he do that again?’ asked the QI.

  ‘Do what again?’

  ‘Kick some rocks down from up there.’

  ‘Is it important? We’ve got titanium rods dropping on us.’

  ‘Yes, it’s important.’

  Feebee called up to him, “Hey. Err, Alpha-3. Can you kick some more rocks down… once everyone’s out of the way.” Then Feebee added, “And what’s your name, I can’t keep calling you Alpha-3.”

  “Oliver Biscuit, but everyone calls me Bikky. Well, Alpha-2 does.”

  “Ok, Bikky. Please kick some rocks down.”

  So, with everyone away from the rock face, Bikky kicked a couple of rocks over the edge. They bounced off the rock wall on their way down, eventually shattering when they landed on the LZ.

  ‘Yep. Something’s off.’

  The QI replayed the rocks bouncing down the cliff face. Zooming in, they watched it together in Feebee’s overlays. Then again in slo-mo.

  The QI was right, there was no contact with the rock wall. Nothing broke off or was dislodged. The rocks just slid off of it as they fell.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Feebee walked slowly across to the wall where the cave would have been, reached out and touched it.

  The wall felt cold, almost sticky; not at all the cool, solid feel she’d expected.

  ‘Curious.’

  So, she pushed harder, and the wall gave way. Her hand actually disappeared into the wall which felt like jelly.

  “What the…!!!” She exclaimed, yanking her hand back. Pain lanced through her back, but the hand looked Ok. She flexed it, made a fist. ‘Hhmm. Still works, feels fine.’

  She pushed her hand into the wall again. This time the wall reacted to her; allowing her hand to glide in. No effort was required. She did it a couple of times. No ill effects, the hand continued to work.

  The cats, sitting in a semicircle, followed her hand in perfect unison as it went in and out of the wall, their heads perfectly synchronised.

  Something was tugging at her. Not physically, mentally. Calling to her. She tested the wall with her leg, it disappeared.

  ‘What could possibly go wrong?’

  ‘Well, lots of things actually,’ came the QI’s response as she pushed her head through.

  ‘Too late.’

  The QI loathed that impetuous human trait but couldn’t help admitting they got away with stuff more often than not.

  She felt the surface of the wall on her face. It felt as if she was breaching the surface of murky water. With the water running off her face and out of her eyes, she could see again.

  And as her eyes cleared, there before her was the cave as she remembered it. No blast damage inside, some empty crates off to the left, the fridges near them and most importantly, Hissy sitting in the corner where she’d been left. Still partially covered by the blanket.

  To those watching, it looked like Feebee had lost her head, in more ways than one. The calling became stronger, drawing her inside. She braced herself.

  ‘Ok. Here we go.’

  Feebee pushed her whole body forward and disappeared through the wall, into the cave.

  From ‘inside’, the cave wall was nothing but a shimmering shroud that hung across the entrance. Outside was clearly in view.

  The cats were going cat-shit crazy again, growling at the wall, concerned and confused.

  She could hear them howling through the cave’s shroud, “Where’d Feebee go.”

  “It’s Ok. I’m in here,” she called out.

  That did little to placate them. From their perspective, the solid rock wall that had just consumed her was now talking to them.

  Then, dozens of coloured motes started to flow out of the wall near Hissy. There were lots of reds, blues and purples but just a single green mote that slowly approached Feebee and attached itself to the centre of her chest.

  It pulsed in time with the beat of her heart. She let it be, feeling a warmth and nothing threatening from it.

  The rest of the motes surrounded her, like a swarm of bees following their queen. Then, as they landed on her, the motes slowly sank into her body, leaving small grey traces on her skin. She lit up with an inner light that burnt away the filigree marking on her skin.

  This time though, it felt different; more familiar. And familiar not because of one prior encounter, like a quick hello, but through a much deeper connection, almost personal. An inner warmth spread throughout her body. She felt stronger, fitter.

  And then they left her and were gone. They didn’t just blink out of existence. They followed the same path, an unseen channel. They became looping fractals, each slowing as it left, an endless repeating pattern behind, as if at the edge of time before glitching to who knows where.

  She gasped and suddenly felt very alone.

  Feebee wished her marines and the cats were in the cave with her. She wanted company and, as if on cue, the shroud lifted; the cave entrance cleared. Bikky immediately ran up to her and gave her a hug, which she returned. They quickly separated.

  ‘That was awkward,’ said the QI.

  ‘Shut up.’

  ‘Admit it, you liked it.’

  Feebee flushed. ‘I said, shut up.’

  Before the QI could say anything more Feebee said, ‘Don’t!’

  Then the cats bustled. She held out her hands to give them a stroke, but they rushed past and up to the fridges which they promptly opened, purring insanely loud as the cold air wafted over them. They started rummaging through the packs of ice cream, each pulling out their favourite flavour. Her disappointment showed.

  ‘Not everything’s about you.’

  ‘I thought I said shut up,’ but this time, the humour had returned.

  “Whatever possessed you to reach into the wall?” Bikky asked.

  The green mote chose that moment to emerge from her chest before glitching away like the others.

  “Possessed? An interesting choice of word, but apt.” She paused, thinking back. “Hhmm, possessed. I think at that moment I was quite possibly possessed.”

  ‘I’m getting a call. It’s Major Chen.’

  ‘Hhmm. Thought he was dead.’