The Silken Thread

“Are you sure they’re not poisonous?”

     The voice-generated software of the A.I. program imbedded inside Sev’s pre-frontal cortex responded within quantum nanosecond time to his thought and cooed, ‘Calculated to 99.9% accuracy, as always…’

     Sev blinked back the response, switched the A.I.’s communication thought from standard galactic to shortverse, slapped his chest to activate the force-suit, and dropped through the escape hatch of his scout ship.

     Three kilometers of freefall and he landed on the surface of the hostile planet forming a small crater, his suit absorbing the impact. Chafing inside the ridiculous outfit the ship manifester had produced for who knows what reason, he caressed the leather bag at his hip holding modern tech concealed from the backward inhabitants of this unexplored planet.

     Spiders.

     He hated spiders.

     But, if they weren’t poisonous, stepping on them should be no problem. The thought of them crushing beneath his boot caused the hairs on the back of his neck to reach for the stars.

     The A.I., or as Sev affectionately nicknamed it, Leech-Scum, breathed into his brain, ‘Detecthighlevsadre…’

     “Shut up, Leech! Thinking ‘bout your spit-for-brains spider report. Hate those creepy monsters with their demonic eyes and furry legs. Did I tell you I’m allergic? Don’t answer that. One put me in the med ward for a week, had to rebuild my entire digestive track. Can’t believe I still work for Special Patrol, this government sad-excuse-for-an-agency should have been scrapped years ago…”

     Sev stopped, frozen, his facial display lit up like fireworks, infrared blobs blazing across his visual field. Amplified sounds rattled his cranium. He switched from using his regular voice and accessed his thought recognition protocol to communicate with his A.I.

     ‘Are these natives? I thought they were humanoid? Why am I wearing this silly outfit?’

     Leech stammered, ‘Eryesnatvplusspider…’

     Sev reached for his pack, his fingers caressing the leather and his accelerated heartbeat throbbing in his fingertips. The piles of boulders hid any form from his line of sight, but the infrared blobs on his display crawled closer. He could sense by the hesitation embedded in Leech’s response he would soon regret this current assignment.

     A spider the size of a rodeo bull hopped up on amphetamines and steroids exploded through an opening in the nearby stack of boulders and slapped its tree branch leg across Sev’s face. His forcefield faceguard absorbed the damage but the impact sent him flying. He crashed and rolled across the ground fifty meters away. His arms flailed as he scratched at the shrubbery to regain his footing.

     Ten more spiders slammed through the forest of rocks and stampeded in his direction.

     “Leech!” he echoed across the formidable landscape, “Why didn’t you tell me the natives ARE the spiders and they are big enough to eat me!”

     Leech stammered again, ‘Didntasksizedefnotpoisn…’

     As Sev ran at full sprint, jumping across fallen logs, dodging boulders and trying not to trip over the tufts of steel grass, he reached inside his satchel, his fingers caressing his optic-sword.

     A tree leg slammed into his back and pinned him to the ground. The strained humming of the forcefield blared as it struggled to deflect the energy and keep him breathing. His chest pushed so hard into the ground, a deepening hole formed as his hand fumbled to grasp his sword.

     He couldn’t move. He couldn’t breathe. The stampede of nuclear-mutated spiders threatened to catch up with the leading captor.

     Leech offered, ‘Theyrnotpoison…’

     “Shut up! They can bite my head off! The only consolation I have is they will eat you too when they devour my brains!”

     Leech kicked into nanospeed. It took control and activated the forcefield bump, sending an electric pulse through the outside of his forcefield, dislodging the spider stump-leg for a slight moment. In one fluid motion, Sev grabbed the handle of his sword, activated the optic-blade, sliced through the leather satchel and flipped the glowing blade up into a black bowling ball eye of the closest spider. It stumbled over its eight legs backward and Sev wasted no time, slashing like a drunk madman, shortening limbs, slicing off feelers and dislodging eyes with frenetic ferocity.

     The other spiders retreated, except for the original captor, fallen dead, leaking florescent blue slime in multiple directions.

     Sev flicked the optic-blade away and tried to return the handle to the satchel, but it fell to the ground. All his weaponry lay in a pile nearby.

     His hand wouldn’t stop shaking.

     “I swear by all the moons of the known universe if your stupid, digital, fake soul had a face I would punch it.”

     Leech stammered, ‘releasdadrenprevntslogthnk…’

     Sev ignored his corrupt A.I. and wiped away some of the blue sticky goo from his forcefield plate. He reached down, picked up his spectrum scanner, and pointed it at the spider corpse.

     Sev grunted. “Well, well, well. These ugly, unwanted step-children of the Hades monster himself are swimming in dark Ultraranianite. You knew that didn’t you, Leech?” Sev switched Leech’s speech back to standard.

     Leech growled, mimicking Sev’s own speech patterns. ‘Yeah, well, I have my directives and you have yours.’

     Sev kicked at his pile of tech, located his glove-collector, dropped his hand inside and reached out with it toward a severed spider limb. As he picked it up, his stomach churned, and a little bit of bile burned his throat.

     “I hate spiders.”

     Leech, a quantum nanosecond later, attempted to respond.

     “If you say they are not poisonous one more time, I swear when we get back I will plunge my head inside the ship’s nuclear reactor.”

     Leech switched digital code. ‘Lucky Seven, captain sir, have I ever told you how heroic, charming and wise you are?’

     Sev threw the severed Spider’s leg under his arm and trotted in the direction of his rendezvous sight. “What is up with you Leech, did someone reprogram your survival instinct protocol?”

     Leech coughed up phlegm into Sev’s mind. “That information is classified.”

     Sev snorted, pretending the spider leg beneath his armpit was a six-pack of beer. “You may as well have said yes. Doesn’t it bother you, Leech, your survival is tied up with my own? That my momentary mistake will cost you your life?”

     Leech remained silent. A first.

     Sev smiled. He had finally figured it out. He understood why Leech lied. Sure, Sev was terrified of spiders. But, Leech was terrified of EVERYTHING.

     And in the blink of an array of the arachnid’s eyes, the severed spider limb didn’t bother him at all.

The End