Waiting Shapeless

Chapter 37. Orbiting Gnumus

"Unfortunately for her, because she and I are of the same ranking under the sacred Motherboard, praise the Mother, she had no authority to mess with my memory core.

"Her attempts at messing with my innards didn't go the way she had planned, but they did change me, somehow bestowing upon me more charisma and ba-dazzle than any normal mortal Circuit can handle. And that explains how 'boring ol' circuit bob' became yours truly—witty, devilishly handsome, me. 

"'How did I first get stranded on Gnumus?' I hear you asking through this message. Even if you aren't asking I'm just going to assume you care and tell you the story anyway. She put me here. She staged a crash of my favorite cruiser (I named the ship Frida by the way) and wrecked her on this..."

Byralnus hesitated again. "This uh... S-word hole dump."

Tyler couldn't help but smile.

Byralnus continued reading the long message. "Several days later I woke up in the center of the wreck inside this strange suit. I know little about it, save for the fact that it is Rhaa tech and it almost got me killed by a hitman for some reason just a little while ago. I assume the Queen got it for me, which was incredibly sweet of her, remembering my birthday like that.

"So now we talk about what it was like living stranded on Gnumus. Nothing really happened between the time I was wrecked here and when you all came to visit me, which was so lovely by the way. My ship was full of half dead Circuits that creeped me the h-word out for the first few days, but I got accustomed to them eventually.

"Despite that it wasn't long before I was exploring the ugly place, hiking around the dust, seeing the sites. There were so many identical dunes to see and so little time.

"It was during one of these little nature walks that I discovered the spirits! Did you know that there were invisible little monsters living on Gnumus?"

Heva gasped, breaking through the monotony of Byralnus' voice.

Tyler was glad that she did, the little Terilli was keeping them from noticing Tyler as she also perked up. She knew that Short was talking about the Bovase.

She had yet to tell the group about Ishnook.

The group all turned to look at the little blue being. Even Byralnus paused to look at her.

"What is it, Belnag?" Asked Byralnus.

The round blue ball sat for a moment, and then spoke up in her reserved voice. "Ancient Oidian lore talks about invisible beings that lived in the rocks."

"What do you know about them?" Questioned Byralnus.

Bai frowned. She raised one of her four arms, her mouth open in protest. Then she dropped it with a sigh, shaking her head.

Heva didn't seem to notice. "The records on them are very obscure. The invisible beings of Gnumus are only mentioned a couple of times. They aren't very well known, even with the most educated species experts."

Tyler felt shocked. Not only did she know more about the Bovase species than Heva the expert, but she had one living in here hair.

"There is more about these creatures. Let me continue." Said Byralnus after Heva was finished.

He continued. "It was after one of my excursions that I first became possessed by one of these spirits. I had decided to venture through a different part of the dunes and discovered a heard of large, flea-ridden, ugly beasts—the first biological life forms I had encountered on this planet.