Verge: A Cosmic Collection

Polarity

Incepted-Consort Suvah Dat'Lenyaknar crouched atop a jagged ledge and focused her triple eye stalks toward the horizon. A mining excavator approached, rumbling destruction in its path. Its glaring lights surveyed the craters and dunes. Monstrous treads crushed boulders to gravel and scraped at the regolith for precious minerals.

Humans dared to trespass again.

Filthy life-eaters.

They came for her maat, but she wouldn't let them have it. Humans coveted the superconductive ore, which nourished Suvah with electrons. Maat was the reason they scavenged Lenyak's surface, and the reason they'd destroyed her people years ago. She was the last surviving Lenyaki, and she bore a vendetta—to protect what was hers. As an Incepted-Consort, she was an arbitrator sworn to preserve the Sacred Polarity.

She flexed her fourteen spindly fingers as the excavator rolled closer. Her electrophore-veined talons extended and snapped sparks. Humans were creatures of daylight, rarely venturing here, the Shadow Face of Lenyak. She'd make them turn back and punish them for disturbing her exile.

Secondary glider appendages unfolded from Suvah's shoulders. She'd grown and shaped them herself for easier travel out here in the barrens. Her sleek body had been camouflaged in solid black for a long time. With the rush of impending conflict, veined patterns of scarlet and gold flamed over her chromatic skin. Luminescence pulsed through the mane of mind-tendrils covering her slender head and neck, her innate bio-electricity fluctuating. She was fully charged and ready to fight.

The excavator entered a narrow ravine below. Hydraulic compressors hissed and whined. Dozens of scanner beams danced along the stony walls, prospecting for maat. A noxious plume of dust and exhaust blurred the stars.

Suvah winced at the stench and crouched low.

Closer, little thieves. You will learn not to cross an Incepted-Consort.

She waited, muscles tensed. When her prey was in range, she sprang from the precipice. Her glider membranes caught an uplift, and she angled the dive with a sharp flick of her finned tail. She plummeted through open darkness and landed on the broad, flat hull of the excavator. Her talons generated electric bolts across the steel as she slid to a halt.

Human toys were no match for the size and strength of a mature Lenyaki. The excavator wasn't the first of their machines to meet her wrath, and as long as the upstarts invaded, it wouldn't be the last. Communication turrets and receiver dishes crunched beneath her fists and tail. She ripped the largest antenna from its transmitter and hurled it over the edge. It struck the side of the ravine with a satisfying crash.

The excavator lurched to a stop with its emergency signal bleating. She didn't have much time, but she wanted to teach them a lesson. When humans were mute, blind, and stranded, they always retreated. They were superstitious beings, afraid of what lurked in the dark. It worked to Suvah's advantage every time.

She leaped to the front of the vehicle, where a domed bulkhead housed the central fuse column. A single swipe of her talons ripped the panel aside. The tangled breakers provided a delicious surge of electrons, while she shredded wires and circuitry with glee.

As she absorbed more power, she pushed her field into the excavator's system. An unusual energy source emanated from within the bowels of the vehicle. Familiar pulses of electric current seeped into her awareness. Many forgotten emotions emerged—longing, grief, desire.

Home.

This excavator contained Lenyaki bio-circuitry. She recognized the wavelength without a doubt.

Impossible.

Her Sisters were all gone. None remained to harvest or shape mind-tendrils but herself. Even Jiruu Dat'Lenyak-tineh, Liege of the Polarity, had been murdered in the Inquisitors' genocide.