Space Wizards

16. She

Melock materialized on the bridge of a 71EEB8 cruiser. Every surface of the massive control center was pristine white. Hundreds of identical clones in matching green robes stood at color pulsating workstations. The blackness of space that filled the deck's huge panoramic window was continually interrupted by a pulsating neutron star. Three clones looked down from an elevated central platform; one with slightly more feminine features. 

"You're a persistent little trickster, aren't you?" she said. 

"Good day, Madam," said Melock. 

"If you'd please join us, we don't enjoy shouting," she said gesturing to a spiral staircase. 

Melock climbed up to the command level and took in the enormity of the vessel. Out the window, the front of the craft stretched more than a kilometer. Its massive metal surface was like looking out over an ice sheet that ended in a night sky. 

"What a fantastic craft you have here," said Melock to the three clones.

The female clone stepped to the middle and her two brothers took up relative positions at her sides. Small blue bee-like insects crawled about on their silvery skin. Melock watched them buzz about in symbiosis with the clones.  

"Thank you. We have much work to do here. Why, if I may ask, is it important that you speak with me? When any one of us is capable of answering your questions."

Melock smiled, ran his hand down his mustache, and wiggled his toes on the glossy white deck. 

"I heard about you from Toebee." 

A nearly imperceptible smirk curled in the corner of her stoic lips and a softness came over her pupilless eyes.

"How is our dear sister?" 

"The Mystic of the Planet of the Dead is quite well." 

Seriousness returned to her face. 

"You've been there?" 

"Oh my, yes."

"Do you know its coordinates? Its galactic orbit trajectory?" 

"Not exactly." 

"Please understand, a percentage of our people, a very small percentage but a sizable number nonetheless, simply falter in the conquest of immortality. They grow weary of existence and seek out this fabled world on a kind of euthanization quest. They crash their ships, are infected by a neurotoxin fungal spore, lose their wills, and are in the simplest terms, consumed by the planet. Are you familiar with ophiocordycep type fungi?" 

"Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, the zombie fungus, a parasitic form that preys on arthropods. It gets control of their bodies and forces them to climb to the highest point they can reach, then consumes their insides, growing until it bursts out of their head and rains down spores infecting others and continuing the cycle," said Melock. 

"A similar thing happens to clones that journey to the dead planet, but they suffer from a blood-born infection that drives them to spread it and eventually kills them. Did you encounter any clones on the planet?"  

"Only Toebee. Our scans showed no signs of life other than the bioluminescent fungal bloom."

"It glows?" said one of the other clones aloud. 

"A soft purple light," said Melock. 

The three clones gave quick glances to one another then they looked again at Melock. One held out a small device. 

"May we scan you? It is harmless." 

"By all means," said Melock holding out his arms. 

The clone passed a thin beam of light across his body from the knot on his head to the tips of his toes. The device beeped and the three clones fell momentarily lost in thought.