Chapter 39

The tentacle swam to a beautiful creature, the Nolae. The delicate lines of her face suggested female as did the bosoms. Her complexion was the color of a teal sea. She wore a skirt made of reedy curlicues and a matching halter top. Her long legs ended in flippers. Silver adornments accentuated her face where ears should have been. Bracelets wound up her arms. They blinked then slithered. Okay, not bracelets.

Talos tried to paddle backward, but the tide crashed him right into her and her living bracelets. The bioluminescent strands resembled jellyfish that puffed out when jostled. They stung as badly as a frizzer. The hurt sunk too deep for Talos to groan. Helplessly, he drifted past the alien woman.

The tentacle, who had led him here, attached itself to her head. Others squiggled there, living hair. Her eyes were the color of starlight and their radiance bathed over Talos.

He’d never felt more naked. One of her tentacles wrapped around his wrist to keep him from drifting.

Bubbles flowed out of her mouth, forming images in the oily sea. The images rubbed against Talos’s head then slipped inside his skull. The images became words he understood.

“The Seuks made a terrible mistake,” she said.

“The Sphericals? I won’t argue.”

“Worse than the Sphericals.”

“Worse?” He couldn’t imagine what could be worse. “My people is about to be erased from existence, a ruin like the Seuk world.”

“The world you were on wasn’t their homeworld. They had run there in hopes of being disassociated from the Sphericals forever.”

“Where did they go? Is the Seuks dead?”

“They scattered. The Sphericals chased them, bringing war to worlds that didn’t yet know other life existed in the universe.”

A shiver traveled down Talos’s spine. “The Backworlds isn’t ready.”

“More ready than most.” She had a tail. It swished and they traveled through the sea to an orb of tentacles. “The Seuks believe you can help them.”

“We’ll do what we can to stop the Sphericals.” What would she ask of him? He reached for the Carry On pin no longer on his lapel.

“I’ll leave the formal invitation for the Seuks to extend.” She wiggled into the sphere of tentacles, tugging Talos with her. The tentacles closed off the sea and the lady alien dissolved into pustules that puffed up.

Talos scratched his head. “I don’t understand any of this.” A tentacle barged into his mouth and slithered down his throat. When he was thoroughly covered inside and out, the tentacles burst him out of the sea and through the skies. They raced him through the sun then out into the voids where there were no stars, no gases, no dust. A planet traveled alone. Dim and bleak, it offered not a sliver of hope.

The tentacles landed then squeezed themselves and Talos through a narrow opening into a vast cavern. He sped through darkness so complete he had no sense of anything. He felt the tentacles let go. He sat on something cold and hard. A small pyramid the size of a lantern sparked and slowly brightened.

He sat in an enormous room, much like a library. Only, the tables held scientific equipment and the shelves, specimen jars. If he had known how to leave, Talos would have that instant.