Chapter XLV – Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, Part Two

  Barely had they begun to move when there was a rustling. A diminutive and bespectacled young woman emerged, a large bag slung over her shoulder. Tavian recognised her – though he had last seen her being dragged away by the vines into the undergrowth. Lai Leizu, Dr Zhao’s research assistant.

  “Chief,” she said. “They are growing restless. We should hurry.”

  “Thank you, Lai. Have the PSD at the ready should we require it,” replied Dr Zhao.

  “PSD?” asked Ostara.

  “Pseudo-Synaptic Disruptor,” replied Zhao. “The plants here… they have begun to evolve what appears to be a rudimentary nervous system. When they become excessively hostile, we have found that interrupting the electric signalling through the cellular apparatuses we have dubbed pseudo-synapses temporarily disables them.”

  “They’re becoming animals?” asked Jiwen.

  “They are still very much plants,” said Zhao, as they began to walk into the tangle, following Lai. “They continue to photosynthesise and acquire nutrients through their root system in the soil, yet they now supplement this through carnivory. And the drive to optimise for prey-acquisition has driven further evolutionary leaps – some of which emerge in a manner of weeks. If you observe many of the surface-level vines closely, you will notice they are actually covered in tiny, hair-like fibres. While naturally occurring carnivorous plants have similar adaptations to trigger the closing of an insect trap, these are far more sensitive, picking up on vibrations in the air to sense prey, even at a distance from the plant.”

  Tavian said nothing, but listened in, glancing about him as they progressed. Lai led them along a narrow path through that truly strange jungle. Narrow as it was, he constantly felt the foliage of the plants around them brushing against him as they proceeded. His mind kept darting back to the moment they had been attacked by the vines.

  “So, they listen?” he asked.

  “You could say that,” replied Zhao.

  “That’s how the vines actively target people,” said Jiwen.

  “It would appear so,” said Zhao.

  Tavian had heard many people speak of the vines since he had arrived on Luanyuan. Most spoke with voices filled with horror and revulsion. It was not like that with Zhao. There was something quite different in his voice: admiration. Excitement. Pride.

  “Are they… intelligent?” asked Ostara.

  “Intelligent? Not in any meaningful sense. They still only move and target prey on instinct,” replied Zhao.

  “When we were fighting them at Port Arthur…” began Jiwen, “It felt like they were… using tactics.”

  At this, Tavian saw Lai and Zhao exchange glances, before she turned back to the path ahead.

  “And what is it I’m sensing?” asked Ostara, her voice quiet, more as if she were talking to herself than any of them.

  “With time,” said Zhao, and now the pride was abundantly evident in his voice, “Anything is possible. This Chaotic Garden is the cradle of new innovations in life. Mutation is now proceeding with incredible rapidity.”

  He tapped Lai on the shoulder. “One moment,” he said, holding up a finger. Then he turned to the rest of them: “Look at this,” he said.

  He gently pushed aside a broad purple frond, beckoning for the others to follow him. Jiwen and Ostara went first.

  Tavian looked to Lai. “Is it safe to put her down?” he asked, indicating Mu.

  She just nodded.

  Gently he lay her down. “Keep watch,” he said to Harry and Nova.

  He followed Ostara and Jiwen, relishing the relief to his arms.

  They were standing near a large plant with fronds several metres across. These fronds appeared to have unfurled from a core, where smaller fronds were still growing, these were bunched up tightly. And at the centre of this cluster was some sort of pinkish-purple bud, covered in what looked like veins.

  “This one is not mature yet,” said Zhao, “But I think it will still do.”

  Gently he reached out and quickly tapped the side of the bud. It wriggled in place, then it opened. Inside, in a pool of sticky, viscous liquid, was what looked like the foetus of some sort of mammalian species. And as the bud opened a sound began. Like the crying of a baby.

  “We can only speculate,” said Zhao, “But we believe it is meant to either lure in predators or to trigger protective instincts – we’re not sure which. Either way, any creature that responds will get seized by the plant and then slowly digested.”

  Tavian shivered.

  “We should keep going,” said Zhao and strode past them, back to where the others waited.

  “But what prey is there?” asked Jiwen. “I don’t think we’ve ever encountered mammalian species around here.”

  Zhao smiled. “Well, the cry sounds distinctly like a human infant, does it not? And that is perhaps the one mammalian prey species that is still relatively abundant.”

  Tavian did not like the sound of that.

  “Not down here, though?” questioned Jiwen.

  “No,” said Zhao, “That’s true. Not down here. But we believe the evolution here is being guided by some of the more… novel techniques involved in our research.”

  “In the Chaotic Garden Project?” said Jiwen, a steely note entering his voice.

  “Well, yes,” said Zhao. “Tell me, convict, how is it you are aware of Chaotic Garden?”

  Jiwen seemed to consider his response. “I read about it,” he answered simply, “I suspect you have a leaker.”

  Zhao looked the convict over for a moment, but said nothing more on the matter. They reached the path where the others were waiting.

  “There a… baby over there?” asked Harry, his tone one of confusion and concern.

  “Not exactly,” said Tavian. He stretched his arms, cracked his neck, then bent to pick up Mu once more.

  They continued deeper in. All around them the jungle of the deep continued its ceaseless movement. Strange sounds filled Tavian’s ears; from what they came, he could barely imagine. The more he looked about, the more bizarre shapes and forms he observed, things beyond reason or description. His brain struggled to process what he was looking at.

  The floor of the Heavenly Pit was not flat, rather it sloped gently downwards, seemingly in the direction of the centre of the pit. And to Tavian it seemed these plants grew ever stranger, the further they went into this mutagenic cradle.

  Ostara walked close behind him. “The Starflow is Resonating with these plants,” she said, quietly. “All living things interact with it… but this is different. I can almost hear them speaking through the Starflow.”

  “Plants don’t typically speak,” said Tavian.

  “There are many things that plants don’t typically do,” said Ostara. He cast his eye around.

  Point taken.

  In the distance there came the sound of an explosion, echoing about the walls of the great pit.

  “What was that?” asked Harry.

  “They’ve reached the entrance to the passage,” said Nova.

  No one had to ask who ‘they’ were.

  “How far to the research station?” asked Ostara.

  “Not too much farther,” said Zhao.

  They came to a clearing and soon stood at the brink of a cliff. Below them, in the greater deep, water flowed quickly. Lai led them along the line of the cliff to a place where a small metal bridge spanned the gap.

  “The underground river system links many of the pits via a network of caves,” said Zhao as he led them across the bridge.

  “I always assumed subterranean watercourses created the pits,” said Jiwen.

  “Mostly accurate,” replied Zhao, but didn’t elaborate.

  “I have a question,” said Kal, who had been largely silent.

  “Of course,” said Zhao.

  “Why are you assisting us?”

  Zhao stopped and looked Kal’s way. “You would die if we didn’t.”

  “And that would trouble you?” asked Kal.

  Before anymore could be said, Lai, who was up ahead spoke. “I appear to have been snagged,” she said, quietly.

  Tavian saw a broad, rubbery, and diamond-shaped appendage in green and red had attached itself to her front.

  “Time for the PSD, I think,” said Zhao.

  Lai nodded and calmly reached into her bag. She withdrew a device similar in appearance to the one Zhao himself had used to open the door to the passage that led them here.

  A moment later Tavian had the sensation of suddenly awakening from an unplanned nap. He looked around in confusion, then in a panic fumbled with Mu’s form before he dropped her.

  “What was that?” he asked.

  Up ahead Lai was, with some effort, pulling the plant away from herself, long, glistening trails of some sticky substance dangling between her and it.

  “The PSD,” she said, vainly attempting to wipe her hands on her clothes – a course of action that only seemed to result in her hands sticking to the material. “It completely disrupts the neural-like activity of the plants, but it does also cause minor disorientation to animal brains when activated.”

  “Nice of you to warn us,” muttered Tavian. “I almost dropped Mu.”

  Neither Lai nor Zhao responded to his grumbling. At length Lai had separated her hands from the material of her clothes, and the group began moving again.

  Tavian noticed that the plants were now oddly still. However, as they continued, he saw that movement slowly, but surely resumed. With each passing moment the activity among the plants became more pronounced once again, until in not too much time, it appeared as it had before.

  Back to normal seems like the wrong expression, mused Tavian.

  “The underground rivers,” said Jiwen, who had moved to catch up with Zhao. “Do plants grow around them… in them?”

  “They do… we do not yet understand how deep they have penetrated, but they have certainly spread through the cave systems. Though the species in there have wholly given up on photosynthesis. Some trophic transfer appears to occur through phytophagy – that is to say the cave-growing species eat other plant species in order to obtain an energy source. We unofficially term these Nightblooms, as they extend from the caves into the broader pits at night to prey on other species, before retracting to the caverns. Deeper in, however, our probes have detected species that have no obvious connection to surface-level trophic webs. There is some indication that they might be drawing energy directly from the Starflow.”

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  “Directly from the Starflow… I never could have imagined,” murmured Jiwen.

  “We have sent probes deep into the cave network and we have found completely white plants growing into human shapes,” said Zhao. “We believe this is an outcome of their Starflow consumption – memories and thoughts can drift on the Starflow, and these are being incorporated into the growth patterns of the plants.”

  Tavian glanced back in the direction of the dark crevasse that led to the subterranean river. He shuddered.

  “Samples at extreme depth also reveal that the planetary crust is riddled with microscopic, algae-like non-photosynthesising plants. The accelerated evolution has produced a truly remarkable capacity for the plants to colonise every conceivable environmental niche. New species are constantly discovering ways to subsume even inorganic materials into their biomass, utilising every conceivable energy source.”

  Tavian was only partially paying attention to Zhao’s enthusiastic dissertations, his eyes instead continuously scanning their surrounds. Everywhere he looked, things waved and weaved and pulsated with life. Strange sounds, unlike anything he had ever heard before occasionally emanated from some unseen part of the pit.

  “We must be close now?” he queried their guides.

  “Yes, not far,” said Zhao.

  “Good, because my arms are going to die soon,” said Tavian.

  He adjusted his hold on Mu. Kal still showed no signs of struggling with Toghrul, who remained draped across his shoulder.

  Their progress now took them slowly uphill once more, away from the crevasse of the underground river.

  They had not gone far when Lai raised her hand for them to stop again.

  “The tunnel up ahead tends to have high concentrations of airborne spores. I recommend the use of breathing apparatuses.”

  She opened her bag and began handing out masks. Tavian took two, fitting one to Mu’s face before donning one himself. Once everyone was ready, they continued.

  They soon stood before another wall of the Heavenly Pit, though glancing about, he saw they had only traversed a chord of the giant circular pit, not its full diameter. There was a door in the cliffside, but it was ajar and cracked in many places, riddled with vines.

  “It can get loud in here,” said Zhao, as he led them in.

  When at first he stepped through, Tavian was unsure what had been meant by that. The tunnel was dark and sparsely lit, not dissimilar to that which had led them into the pit in the first instance, though in the little light available, Tavian could see this once was more overgrown. Soon after, though, he heard it: sobbing.

  “What is that?” he asked.

  “A quirk of the flora here,” replied Zhao. They continued a short distance, before he stopped and pointed to the side of the passage.

  Tavian looked the way he indicated and saw a plant that looked like a cabbage sprouting a coconut sized fruit. Yet the ‘fruit’ had an unsettling, fleshy colour to it, and small white protrusions emerging from it, sometimes in small groups. There were also many slits across it that opened and closed at irregular intervals.

  “Here,” said Zhao, bending down, and pushing back the ‘fruit’.

  Now Tavian realised what the white protrusions were: teeth. They were shaped exactly like human teeth. And when Zhao pushed back the fruit a larger slit was revealed. This one had lips. It was almost a fully formed human mouth. It was from here that the sobbing sound was coming.

  “We don’t know why they do this,” said Zhao, matter-of-factly, as he stood once more.

  The sobbing had become louder after he had touched the plant.

  “Sometimes they scream,” said Lai. “We should hurry,” she added, turning around to once more continue their journey.

  “We should,” agreed Nova. “They’re catching up.”

  This tunnel proved shorter than the previous one. Soon after they reached another door. Zhao opened it and they stepped through. He closed the door behind them.

  Lights flickered on.

  They stood in a sleek modern laboratory. It looked remarkably sterile. Jarringly so, after what they had just journeyed through.

  A sign on the wall labelled this as Chaotic Garden Project Advanced Observation Post 44.

  “Safe to remove these?” Tavian asked, indicating the breathing mask.

  Lai nodded.

  Tavian’s eyes took in their surrounds. Banks of monitors and consoles lined one wall. Several glass cases appeared to be incubating growing things. Opposite the wall of monitors was a wall entirely of frosted glass. Beyond it everything appeared to be white, though he could almost convince himself that dark shapes occasionally appeared and disappeared in there.

  “ARCs,” remarked Nova.

  He turned and saw her pointing at a bank of machines against the far wall.

  “Artificial Resonance Cores,” she clarified.

  He heard a groan behind him. He turned to see Ostara grimacing, her eyes squeezed shut. He delicately laid Mu down in a nearby chair and went over to her. Harry followed suit.

  “You alright?” asked Harry.

  “There’s something… wrong with this place,” said Ostara.

  “Wrong?” asked Harry.

  But Tavian felt it too. The Starflow felt more intense here. More intense than he’d felt it since they’d been at the crash site. More than that, though: there was something malevolent in the Starflow itself.

  He turned back to Zhao.

  “What is this place?” he asked.

  Zhao indicated the sign on the wall with his hand. “It is as it says.”

  “What have you been doing here?” he asked, more insistently.

  “They’re almost here,” said Nova.

  Kal laid down Toghrul. “Let’s cover history later. You have a way out?”

  “We can signal a ship,” said Lai. “There is a landing site not far from here.”

  “Do it,” said Kal. “We’re running out of time.”

  Lai looked at Zhao. He nodded.

  “Follow me, please,” said Lai to Nova and Kal. She led them into an adjacent room. After a moment’s pause, Jiwen followed.

  At Tavian’s side, Ostara took a deep breath. She put a hand to her forehead.

  “How far to the landing site? We should get going as soon as we’ve signalled the ship,” she said.

  “It’s not far,” said Zhao. “It is safer I think to wait here until the ship has almost arrived. Besides,” he added, “There’s someone else we need to wait for.”

  “Wait? Who? I don’t think we have time,” snapped Harry. “You never said anything about waiting.”

  Zhao smiled thinly, “Don’t worry. It won’t be long.”

  Before more could be said, Tavian heard noises: groaning – whimpering almost. It didn’t come from Ostara. He looked over at Mu. She was squirming about, her face contorted into a look of deep concern.

  “This is not a good place,” said Ostara.

  Something struck loudly against the frosted glass.

  Mu wandered along a hexagonal corridor. Many more corridors branched off this one, infinitely more. The floor was sticky: each time she took a step, long golden strands clung to her feet. The droning was constant.

  She felt like she was being watched.

  Watched by many eyes.

  Where am I going?

  She heard a child’s laughter, then quick steps as they ran away before Mu could catch more than a fleeting glance of them.

  The droning continued.

  More laughter – from a different direction this time. This time Mu saw more of her.

  Mei Xuelan.

  “I’m not yours!” she yelled out.

  Giggling was her only answer.

  A few notes of a violin sounded from a different direction.

  “I am no one’s!”

  She walked further until she came to a junction. The droning grew louder. The ground became stickier, making it harder to lift her feet. Indeed, even as she tried to keep walking along the corridor, she found each step found her sinking deeper into the syrupy quagmire. She looked down at her feet, moving futilely, propelling her nowhere. The substance that covered the floor was no longer golden. It was many colours.

  She felt an anger stir in her. She tried to run. But it was no use. No matter how fast she moved her legs, she could not leave that intersection of corridors.

  Mei Xuelan appeared before her.

  “There’s no point in running,” she said, her voice sweet and innocent. “Wherever you are, I already am.”

  From behind her came the sound of a violin. She looked back and saw it: a wooden puppet awkwardly staggering towards her.

  “I destroyed you,” she said.

  “The Orchestra is vast,” said the puppet in a voice that creaked like old wood. “There are always more.”

  “Remember your training.”

  She turned to one side. There stood her father and the gaunt man.

  “No!” she shouted. “I belong to no one.”

  When she turned back, Mei Xuelan was much closer to her, hands upheld in a cupped gesture, Eutric Blood spilling liberally over the sides.

  “Why fight?” asked the girl. “You want to be free of your burdens. Let me shoulder them. Let me shoulder all the burdens of the Cosmos.”

  Behind her a chitinous mass began to fill the hexagonal chamber. Bees began to swarm.

  She gazed into Mei Xuelan’s hands, seeing her reflection amongst the dancing colours of the Blood. Was it truly freedom she desired? Or peace?

  She felt the tiny legs of bees across her skin. More and more landed on her. Remember her training? Fight the Mimesis for the Empire’s sake? The Hive would unburden her. Maybe that was the true freedom.

  “It’d be insulting if you gave up that easily,” came a voice.

  She looked up. There stood a musician. Not a puppet. A man.

  Tavian.

  Behind him stood Ostara, clutching an arm that bled in many colours. She smiled warmly. Tavian grinned.

  “You’re right,” said Mu.

  “Of course, I am,” said Tavian.

  The bees began to sting her. She was aware it was happening, but she felt no pain. More gathered, more landed upon her.

  “Don’t make Xixi angry,” said Mei Xuelan.

  But Mu could move once more.

  And so, she moved quickly.

  She drew the sword and with a quick thrust plunged it through the face of Mei Xuelan.

  “I belong to nobody but myself.”

  Her surroundings dissolved into darkness yet again. Until she noticed the pinpricks of light.

  She looked around. She floated freely in the void of space, gazing down at a world of greenery and clouds.

  As she watched, though, an enormous dark hand reached out across the void till its spreading fingers cast a shadow across the whole of the planet.

  Once again, she heard buzzing.

  Time to fight, she told herself, closing her eyes to the spectacle.

  Consciousness returned.

  Lai led them along a corridor and into a small office, its walls lined with more consoles and monitors.  They stepped through and the door closed behind them.

  Nova felt her hand trembling. It kept doing that. She stilled it by grasping it with her other hand. She took a deep breath, pushing away the images that kept cycling through her mind. Pushing away the voices she was increasingly hearing.

  Just… just a little longer.

  “We can contact a ship from here?” asked Kal.

  “Yes,” said Lai, and walked over to a console.

  Nova cast her eyes across the consoles. Nothing visually distinguished these from those in the room they had first stepped into.

  “Couldn’t we have sent a message from back there?” she asked.

  Lai tapped a button on the console ahead of her, before looking Nova’s way. There was a click from the door behind Nova.

  “Those terminals aren’t networked,” replied Lai. “A… security measure.”

  Nova saw Kal was looking back at the door.

  “I see,” said Nova. She stepped toward Lai. “Could… could we send a message to our ship? We’ve been unable to contact them for a while.”

  Lai gazed at her a moment before replying. “I have called for a STOC. Once we are aboard, you can signal your vessel from there.”

  “We would rather do it now,” said Kal.

  Lai seemed to hesitate a moment, but then nodded and stepped aside. Kal walked over to the console and looked down at it.

  “How does this work?”

  Nova walked over to get a better look. Jiwen stood on Kal’s other side.

  It was a strange design. Not like any interface she had seen on an Imperial system before. Still, nothing she couldn’t work out.

  “Is it locked?” she asked Lai, not turning around.

  There was no reply.

  But there was a squelching sound.

  Ripping and squelching.

  Nova felt a wave of nausea and fear come over her as she slowly turned around.

  Something was tapping against the frosted glass.

  “What’s in there?” asked Tavian.

  “Experimental subjects,” replied Zhao.

  “Subjects… humans?”

  Zhao gave a little laugh. “Plants,” he said. “Just plants.”

  Harry was crouched down at Ostara’s side, his arm around her shoulder. She looked troubled in a way Tavian had never seen her before. She was usually the one source of perpetual calm.

  Mu stirred again. Tavian glanced her way.

  She still did not wake.

  “You are Resonants?” remarked Zhao, addressing the question to Tavian.

  “I am,” said Tavian. “So are Ostara and Mu.”

  “Good, good,” said Zhao.

  “Good?”

  “It’s probably why you managed to survive the Hive,” said Zhao. “The big fellow – Mr Nyx, was it? – is he a Resonant?”

  “No,” replied Harry, “But he’s the toughest one of the lot of us.”

  “And the girl?”

  “Nova? No.”

  “I see,” said Zhao.

  “Do you know what the Hive is?” asked Tavian.

  Zhao regarded him with a contemplative expression. “We know a little. It came to this world only when that ship crashed.”

  “You weren’t here when that happened, though,” said Tavian, “You only arrived at the same time as us.”

  “The Project has had researchers here on Luanyuan for a long time,” said Zhao.

  “Where are the other researchers?” asked Harry.

  “Well,” said Zhao, “That is what Miss Lai and myself were sent to find out.”

  “And?”

  Zhao clasped his hands together. He looked to the door the others had left via. Then back at the main entrance. After a few moments he nodded.

  “You want to see?” he asked.

  With a growing sense of unease, Tavian said, “Yes.”

  Zhao smiled thinly and walked over to a console.

  The glass ceased to be opaque.

  “Oh, Stars no,” said Harry.

  A tangle of waving vines revealed itself. They extended outwards from the far wall. There perhaps a dozen human shapes were arrayed, though counting them was difficult. They were bound by the vines and roots that wove in and out of their flesh. In places vines seemed to be in the act of merging two bodies into each other. Pieces of bodies that had been discarded by the vines lay about the ground in varying states of decay.

  But the bodies weren’t dead.

  Tavian could tell from the horrified look in their eyes. And from the quiet moaning they began to admit when the glass became transparent.

  As Tavian looked on, one figure reached out their arm, their fingers extending as small vines, their mouth opening wide in a desperate, pleading gesture.

  “What have we walked into?” muttered Tavian, taking a step back.

  Zhao looked at them. He began to laugh.

  “You will be great Players in the Orchestra,” he said. “With Resonants, we will be able to fight the Hive infestation on this world. Nizamabad is not for them. The Conductor has already claimed it.”

  “What are you?” asked Tavian.

  “Don’t you work for the Empire?” asked Harry.

  “I did once. Now, I am a humble servant of the Master of the Cosmic Music. Like those who came before me,” said Zhao, indicating the tangled horror beyond the glass, “But you will understand more once the Soloist arrives. Until then, I will hold you here.”

  With that there was a tearing sound. A split appeared, down the entire length of Zhao’s body. Before Tavian’s eyes, his body opened up and a wriggling mass of bloody vines emerged from within as organs slid out and fell to the floor with a wet splat.