Engines & Demons - The Undestined

Chapter 18ii

Dak followed her father down steps that followed the concave curve of the floor, and she realised that the room was like a vast hollow ball. Their footsteps echoed from the distant walls as he led her down to the floor of the chamber, which was flat and stretched away into the dark. The sound of dripping was loud now, and Dak could hear the constant lapping of water and realised that the floor ahead of her was one vast pool.

"Who is that?" asked a voice from the darkness above them. It was a sharp voice and came in strange clicks and scrapes.

"It is Engineer Tomova," said her father to the darkness. "And my daughter, Dakskansia. Hello, Sefolla Gerratik."

"Ah," said the voice. "Hello, Engineer Tomova."

Something descended from above; a large spindly shape with many long angular legs. It seemed to swing above them, changing its course a few times before landing on the curve of the chamber wall above them and picking its way down, its many limbs carefully caressing the space around it. It loomed above them, twice the height of her father, but Dak could still see no details, only a confusion of black limbs and a long curve of shiny carapace, which was either head, or body, or both.

"Daughter, this is Sefolla Gerratik of the Growers."

"Hello," said Dak.

"What is it that brings you down this far?" said Sefolla Gerratik in its strange clicking voice.

"I had a mind to pay yourself a visit and show my daughter your charge. Is all well?"

"All is well," replied the Grower, Sefolla Gerratik. "You can see."

The creature turned, and from somewhere about it there came a high, warbling whistle. The light in the chamber suddenly intensified. It was as though a hundred sleeping creatures had awoken and opened their eyes to reveal orbs of glowing green.

Dak gave a gasp of surprise, for above them, taking up the entirety of the upper dome of the chamber, was a mass of pale vegetation. Fine thread stems hung down and entwined one another to support long flower heads, whose thick fungus like petals had peeled themselves back to reveal the luminous green orbs whose light had suddenly dazzled the chamber.

Long tubular tendrils criss-crossed the space, and they swayed in the warm air, though there was no breeze to move them. In the very centre of the chamber, hanging above the round pool that the light had revealed, was a large swollen mass from which thicker tendrils curled and swayed. It was these that caused the dripping, as water fell constantly from their open ends, into the water below.

Dak was aware that her mouth was hanging open, so she closed it.

"What is it?" was all she could manage to say.

She turned to the figure of Sefolla Gerratik. Now that the chamber was brightly lit, she could see the creature properly for the first time. Its many legs supported a long curved body, from under which hung a collection of smaller limbs, each ending in clawed hands. The green light from the strange plant reflected from the surface of its carapace, from the front of which protruded a long conical appendage. It was lined with twin sets of large black orbs above and below, which she thought must be eyes. She could see no mouth; the head instead ended in two clumps of long finger-like tentacles.

"It is of the same family as the whitestep," came the strange clicking voice. Dak could see no mouth, but the sound seemed to come from somewhere high up on its body. "It is an ancient strain. Here it purifies the used water from the fortress."

"All the pipes we have followed on the way down lead to the waste reservoir in the chamber above," explained her father. "And the plant feeds on that."