Michael Siemsen - Exigency

She pushed off her insolent child, Minnie landing on the burrow floor, where she continued retching. There was no stopping it at this point. Her stomach seemed intent on a full evac. Mama rolled upright, scooped both hands under Minnie’s knees—along with layers of now-tainted nest floor—and hurled the load outside.

Minnie landed first on face and shoulder before her feet hurdled overhead—back twisting—and her whole body crashed down facing up, knocking the wind from her. She lay there a beat, catching her breath and offering her gut a chance to orient itself before it decided whether to pick up where it left off.

What was Mama doing? Was she coming? Was this Minnie’s chance to escape? Had she been disowned for her disobedience?

A good, solid breath filled her lungs and her stomach felt relatively still. She tilted her chin up to observe the burrow entrance, but a dark shroud consumed her entire head and dragged her away.

She found herself back in the burrow, face smothered in the fold between Mama’s seated belly and leg. Minnie’s arms scrabbled and groped and she pulled her knees in to try and push herself free. She couldn’t tell what Mama was doing up there, but every little movement compressed Minnie’s skull to a terrifying degree. Finally, Mama stopped moving and Minnie stopped fighting. Though her nose was squished and pinched shut, the Hynka’s skin crease formed a little channel in front of Minnie’s mouth, and she was finally able to inhale another full breath. Though she’d be held fast until Mama decided otherwise.

A hard poke at her ankle bone. Surely a claw tip. It slid up her bare leg, tugging the shorts upward a little before the claw rose away. What next? Not knowing was even more maddening. A pinch of her thigh—two claws, one in front, one in back. Her environment shirt and tank brushed up, exposing her waist and back. Hot breath sniffed her skin. Prodding at her waist.

Her air channel thinned to nothing and Minnie held the half-lungful of air.

Now the head—a painful pair of mallet taps on the side of her skull. Swirls around her scalp. The claw lifted away. Tugging at a few locks of hair. A sudden jerk and thin clumps were torn from her head. Minnie moaned and whimpered her final exhale into the wall of flesh.

But Mama leaned back a little, and Minnie caught a rush of cool air, her head finally freed from its confines.

She had to do something. Take control of her own fate.

She accessed Ish’s language DB and dropped it into Livetrans. The input prompt flashed ready. What to say? Stop it? That was dumb. She needed to make an instant impact. Scare her, if possible. Back in the catalogue Minnie searched for Hynka lore and superstition.

Come on… who’s your personal boogeyman?

Mama flapped Minnie’s ear.

Hwahxo: Universal; Death. (specific to Greaters, see Sssuhke: Lesser Death Sssuhke: Universal; Death (specific to Lessers, see Hwahxo: Greater Death ), a blessing on a clan, surges through Greaters, empowering, frees Lessers for rebirth. A quick glance at Ish’s goddess of choice and it was back to the drawing board. No mythology. She wished she’d spent a bit more time nosing into Ish’s research back on the station. Now, especially, with Mama endeavoring to pinch Minnie’s ear between thumb and finger claws too dull to succeed. She gave up, instead hunching over to sniff it. Gusts of breath sent static into Minnie’s ear canal and she cocked her head out of the line of fire. Mama whispered, “Ohswe.” LIVETRANS: No move. Oh, hey there, Livetrans! Minnie kept her head still, as requested, but rolled her eyes left, spotting Mama’s snout—close and moving closer, mouth opening. A drip of hot saliva. A pair of lengthy incisors scooped slowly behind Minnie’s ear, and then the mouth began shutting, the opposite row of teeth pressing into the ridges and caves inside the ear, clamping down, pressing tighter, pinching. Minnie shut her eyes and held her breath. This was it. The beginning of the end. Just when she thought the first tooth would pierce flesh and spill blood—the bite stopped. Minnie exhaled. Mama rested a hand on Minnie’s shoulder and began slowly sitting up, half a dozen teeth still firmly rooted in the ear. She wasn’t letting go. A ring of burning flesh. Panic struck, and Minnie moved her head up with it as far as she could, but at the end of her reach the skin began pulling once again—unrelenting. Searing, unbearable pain at the sudden pop of the first tear, behind the ear, and the rest of the ring quickly followed, ripping away effortlessly as Minnie screamed. )

Shroosh: Southwestern goddess; a shapeshifter; source of seasonal flooding. Metaphoric: “Come/go/went… like Shroosh” (quickly and with irresistible force, as in an invasion)

Sssuhke: Universal; Death (specific to Lessers, see Hwahxo: Greater Death), a blessing on a clan, surges through Greaters, empowering, frees Lessers for rebirth.

A quick glance at Ish’s goddess of choice and it was back to the drawing board. No mythology.

She wished she’d spent a bit more time nosing into Ish’s research back on the station. Now, especially, with Mama endeavoring to pinch Minnie’s ear between thumb and finger claws too dull to succeed. She gave up, instead hunching over to sniff it. Gusts of breath sent static into Minnie’s ear canal and she cocked her head out of the line of fire.

Mama whispered, “Ohswe.”

LIVETRANS: No move.

Oh, hey there, Livetrans!

Minnie kept her head still, as requested, but rolled her eyes left, spotting Mama’s snout—close and moving closer, mouth opening. A drip of hot saliva.

A pair of lengthy incisors scooped slowly behind Minnie’s ear, and then the mouth began shutting, the opposite row of teeth pressing into the ridges and caves inside the ear, clamping down, pressing tighter, pinching.

Minnie shut her eyes and held her breath. This was it. The beginning of the end. Just when she thought the first tooth would pierce flesh and spill blood—the bite stopped. Minnie exhaled. Mama rested a hand on Minnie’s shoulder and began slowly sitting up, half a dozen teeth still firmly rooted in the ear. She wasn’t letting go.

A ring of burning flesh.

Panic struck, and Minnie moved her head up with it as far as she could, but at the end of her reach the skin began pulling once again—unrelenting.

Searing, unbearable pain at the sudden pop of the first tear, behind the ear, and the rest of the ring quickly followed, ripping away effortlessly as Minnie screamed.

259 hours since evac. 10 Earth days. 13 Epsy days.

Aether stood beside Zisa and Pablo, all three’s focus locked on Eeahso as tentacles curled and frolicked, smearing her skin with the fresh batches of petroleum jelly and glycerol.

Zisa averted her eyes. “I feel like I’m watching something I shouldn’t.”

Pablo laughed. “With you there. It’s like porn for mermen.”

“Quiet guys,” Aether said, and sent Livetrans to Eeahso. “How does it feel? Are you able to compare the two sides?”

“Good,” Eeahso said—her eyes hidden, arms sliding over her head, one after the other, as if greasing back hair. “All good!”

Zisa sighed and pointed a hand at Eeahso. “He’s mixing them together with all the squirming! There’s no way we can do an A-B test this way.”

“She,” Pablo corrected. “And she had them separate for a while there. We’d at least see any allergic reactions, right?”

“There’s no way I can say for sure. Not at this point. We need at least a week with the final recipe. Plus, only the PJ has UV protectant right now. I need to synthesize another base to bond it with the glycerol, cook a batch, test.” She turned to Aether. “You also said you wanted a native fragrance in there.”