Nothing much, just setting a mood.
And hopefully starting to write again.

And it's not 'polished'.

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He couldn’t say how it happened, and as they discussed it later, neither could anyone else. He wished he could speak with Janelle though, but she was still ‘resting’ as Royal called it, entrusted to his nano circuitry’s loving care. But he had no doubt of Royal’s commitment to her, and to her bloodline.

As far as he could remember they just had transferred, if that now was the right word? But not into a ‘space’. One moment in a black empty space, the next inside what most seemed to be a cavern? It was lighted by a weak glow, of a strange greenish tinge, seemingly coming from everywhere.

“Where are we, can you see if we still are inside the sphere?” He heard himself ask, knowing it had to be for the umptieth time. He felt himself coming on to them as a petulant child, but god damn, it wasn’t supposed to happen like this, was it?

“We are computing” was the answer he got.

“Yeah, but are we still on that planet, in it I mean?”

“I can’t say yet Jeff.” Came Royal’s answer. “The gravity is wrong, not by too much though. The atmosphere does not compute at all, it contain traces of unstable elements not existing in my periodic table. I can’t vouch for if it is breathable Jeff, it should be as the mix of nitrogen and oxygen is about the same, but I’m still evaluating the trace substances, and what impact they may have at longer time scales. In fact, I think we need a human evaluation here” Royal finished, almost sounding frustrated.

Jeff sat quiet for a while as the hidden request started to sink in, then he asked his Suit.

“Suit, what do you think, should I give it a try?”

“It would help Jeff.” Answered Suit. “We need to know what it might do, and the simplest way would be you. We will monitor, and test you, for its effects.”

Jeff just sat there, his frustration slowly ebbing away, but with an icy feeling of caution replacing it.

“I don’t know Suit, how dangerous is it?”

“Royal will handle it Jeff, none of the traces should have any effect on you. As far as we can compute they are all inert. And we don’t take any chances with you.”

“Ah well, it’s got to be better than doing nothing.” Jeff muttered as he rose from his chair

“Okay, lets do it.”

Three hours later he found himself quite a bit away. Suit being in constant contact with him, and with Royal cautioning him not to stray too far. It also seemed as Royal finally was done with purging whatever that had invaded Janelles mind. Jeff regretted asking what he had done with her though, as the explanation fast became incomprehensible, interlaced with small but glowing testaments to how he, Royal, most probably was the only one able to perform such delicate neural redirections.

“So, you tampered with her brain!”

“No, I just redirected.”

“Tampered!”

“Redirected Jeff, not that I expect peasants to understand the difference.” Royal as close to a sneer as Jeff ever had heard.

“Jeff.” That was Suit calling him, on their private channel. “Please..”

“He can’t temper with her, no decent Suit will with a human. He's only redirected those new neurological pathway’s that's been instilled, and a most delicate work it was indeed. It seems as her brain somehow had been encouraged into growing new connections. Royal is still trying to make sense of those, try to give him some credit for his work.”

“Okay, but he won’t mess with my brain.” Jeff muttered, slowly calming as he listened to Suit. That was the trouble with Royal he thought. He might have the best brain of them all, but his communicational skills, and empathy, seemed sadly lacking.

“I’m sorry Royal, I overreacted. I’m sure you did good work” Jeff grudgingly admitted as he turned back look, the cavern, stretching away for as long as he could see. The ceiling wasn’t that high above him though, only a few hundred meters. He knew the suits could be at him in an instant, but this was his first chance to stretch his legs in a long while, and he enjoyed it too much. Then there was this feeling of being the first to explore too, it just wasn’t the same inside a suit.

As he started his survey he suddenly got a weird feeling of being under surveillance. A nagging warm tingling centred right at his back, between his shoulder-blades, almost as if someone was using a magnifying glass on it. He had had this kind of premonitions before, and learnt the hard way the danger of ignoring them.

“Suit”

“Yes Jeff”

“Can you do a scan for life signs please.”

“Seen anything?”

“No, just a feeling.”

As he waited for Suits scan to finish he checked on his handgun. It was a old model, just a laser. It had two settings, one for using it as a crude hand tool, the other a concentrated ray of heat, able to penetrate most hides in the known universe. But this wasn’t a known universe he reminded himself as he set the mode on ‘beam’, careful not to make it too obvious if now anyone was watching.

“No Jeff, no heat signals, and no other signals of life either.” Came Suits answer.

“You sure?” Damn, there I go again, asking stupid questions Jeff though. Of course Suit was sure.

“I’m as sure as I can be, do you want me to come with you?”

Now Jeff felt foolish.

“Nah, it’s probably just nerves.” He admitted as he slowly turned around to his side, in vain trying to pinpoint the location of that unpleasant sensation. There was only the rock wall to be seen, craggy jagged pieces of a dark glowing red, somehow joining up to become the wall, stretching forever upwards into something that most reminded him of a fog.

“What’s that fog.” He asked excitedly.

“Where.”

“To my right, some hundred meters up the wall.”

“There’s no fog, wait, computing.” Suit said.

“But there is, I can see it, and it’s growing.”

“No fog that I can find Jeff, I'm having trouble locating you though. It’s probably some trick of the light.”

Suit could be right there, that green glow was really strange, it had an almost rippling effect as it played on the red rock face, creating subtle shadows that sometimes almost looked like they were alive. But he still could see that strange fog, or maybe it was a more like a cloud? But constantly sinking. And the ceiling that he had thought to be just some hundreds meters above him? Now it started to melt away, indivisible from the cloud itself.

He didn’t know how long he had stared on it, mesmerised at its sight, when he suddenly noticed someone calling.

“Jeff. Answer me, are you okay?”

“Huh.” He forced himself to look away from it.

“Yeah, I’m okay, but I would prefer if you came here. I’m turning back.” He said.

“Okay I’m moving.” Came suits voice over the intercom.

As Jeff started to walk back at a brisk pace, not that he was worried, well, not that much, he glanced over his shoulder to see if the cloud still was descending. But it was gone, as if it never had been there at all.

“Strange.”

Jeff stopped, had he heard that or was it just his imagination?

“So straange, can we play with it?” came another voice, almost as if begging.

Nope, someone was definitely speaking. He quickly turned around, his right hand resting on his gun, just to find himself looking at, nothing, just a craggy red plain stretching into nowhere.

“Suit, are you coming?”

“Yes.” Came the reply.

“Jeff, can you boost your transponder a little.”

“Why do you need the transponder? Can’t you see me?”

It sure was taking Suit an awful long time to come Jeff thought, starting to feel worried as he turned up his beacon, full blast.

“Can you see me now?”

“I don’t understand?” He heard Suit complain.

“I’m receiving you perfectly, but your beacon keeps dropping out, almost as if something was interfering with it?”

“Yeah, but you should be able to get a visual if you hovered.” Jeff pointed out.

“I am hovering, how far did you go?”

“I don’t know, some kilometres, let me see if I can spot you.”

Using his binoculars Jeff searched the sky. But Suit was nowhere to be found.

“Enough.” He heard the voice command, harsh and impatient.

“Man child, see me.”

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