A Trip To Triangulum | |
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Writer | Aaronbill3 |
Created on | October 16th 2022 |
Rating | TV-14 |
A Trip To Triangulum is a short story by Aaron set in Earth-1010's Former Future timeline. It was written as an accompaniment to their entry for CaT's 2022 Spooktober contest.
Story[]
"Good grief, Tennyson! You’re naked!” Azmuth exclaimed at the rotund, four-legged, bat-like creature not terribly taller than he was. It looked around itself as best it could.
“I am? This body doesn’t really feel like it has room for clothes. Plenty of fur, too, so it’s not like anything’s showing.” The pair of them stood in a featureless white room. Nothing to denote function, nothing to denote location, save for a large gash across the wider two walls- these were the doors. They were in an airlock of sorts, far far away from home.
“Tsk tsk, I knew this form might not work right the first time. Change back so I can fix it.”
“Alright… say where’s the dial?”
“On your back.”
“On my- how am I supposed to reach that??”
“You’re not. You’re supposed to use thought control.”
“Oh right.”
With a flash, the short quadrupedal mammal was replaced by a tall bipedal mammal. The twelve-year-old had tan skin and a messy mop of near-black hair broken by a wave of artificially white hair at the very back ends. This was his first time being in another galaxy, let alone another star system. His parents had always been protective of him and only once had he been off-world- to a theme park on Mars. For the son of an Omniversal hero, Kenny was remarkably poorly travelled.
He knelt to the ground and the Galvan jumped onto his wrist, twisting and turning the Omnimatrix dial in an unfollowable effort to fix something with its programming.
"So," Kenny started, "why am I here again?"
Azmuth sighed, "I told you before. You humans never listen! We're here to barter friendship with the Chirosytes."
"Yeah, obviously. You said that like a million times already! I meant 'why me?' Why not my dad?"
"You know, I always berated him for being stubborn and unwilling to learn the intricacies of the Omnimatrix. Unfortunately with other races experience and knowledge do not come alone- they bring with them confidence and arrogance. No, your father isn't suitable for this mission."
"...Paradox took him again, didn't he?"
"I've had this mission booked for years, and he just saunters on in and takes him on a whim!"
"Yeah, I figured."
“Alright that should do it." The Alien frogman jumped down. "This may take some getting used to, but remember this is just for tonight. Afterwards I’ll be taking this form away again, I can’t imagine what your father would say if he knew about it.”
“Who ever said my dad needed to know?”
“What your father doesn’t know could fill Primus.”
“What my dad doesn’t know could overload Primus.”
Azmuth chuckled.
Ken brought the Omnitrix to bear and opened the selection dial. It was preset to the new alien form. He slid his fingers along the faceplate out of curiosity, but this new form was the only face that appeared in the holographic display. He shrugged and pressed the dial down, transforming into the same bat-like form but this time held nearly two meters off of the floor. He stumbled slightly as he looked down, flapping his wings in a vain attempt to maintain balance.
"Woah, this is even more disorienting the second time." His voice was almost squeaky.
"What's wrong? Is the form incompatible with your mind?"
"No no... I've just never had an alien with one eye before."
"I thought Ben gave you Wildvine?"
"Wildvine has three eyes."
"No he doesn't."
"Yes he does, he has an eye on each shoulder."
"That simply isn't true, I lived alongside a colony of Florauna for many years."
"And between the two of us which one has actually been a Florauna before?"
"And speaking of being another species, how does the fleshsuit feel?"
"The what?"
Kenny looked down at what he was stood on, and realised he could not actually see his feet. They were buried deep inside a pulsating pink substance decorated with glistening blue veins and strips of pale white tendons. He was attached to rows upon rows of rippling raw muscle that flowed down into a humanoid shape.
Kenny screamed, removing himself from the strange external organism as quickly as he could and taking flight to the far side of the airlock.
"Tennyson wait!--" Azmuth panicked as the shambling mound of boneless muscles collapsed upon him. Kenny stared down at the mess for a moment before flashing back to his human form. The puddle of organics began to glow bright white, dissolving into tiny particles of energy that found their way back into the Omnitrix.
"Mr. Azmuth, are you alright?" He knelt down next to the Galvan, laying flat on his back and covered in a thin layer of slimy plasma.
"Agh... I find your human titles warm and affectionate in a way I am unable to communicate."
"Okay but are you alright?"
"Yes, Kenny, I'm fine. Age doesn't hit my kind like it does yours, and I'm sure Grey Matter has been through worse."
There was a clanging against one of the doors, and a voice came through from the other side.
"Is everything alright in there? What was that noise?"
"It's uh-" Kenny thought for a moment, "nothing. We're good." A moment well spent.
"The ambassadors are getting restless, are you two nearly ready?"
"We'll be out in a second, do not worry," Azmuth assured her. He turned back to his company, a hushed but impatient tone on his voice, "Turn back!"
"What the hell was that?!" Kenny whisper-shouted.
"That was your clothing!"
"Clothing?! That was a body! A corpse!"
"It's not a corpse! It's a purpose-generated Flesh Construct and you need to be able to walk around in it for the duration of these negotiations!"
"It's meat!"
"It's like riding a horse!"
"You've never ridden a horse!"
"Neither have you!" Kenny did not retort, Azmuth was right, "Now get back on that horse, we need to get going."
"Fine!"
Doing as he was told, Kenny once again assumed his new Chirosyte form sat atop the Flesh Construct. Carefully, the mound of flesh stumbled forwards step by step as he quickly became accustomed to walking through something else's body.
"I think I've learned something about this alien already."
"Yes?"
"I don't think it has a vomit reflex."
"Nonsense. Different species have different instinctual disgusts, this is commonplace among Chirosyte society."
"The rest are gonna be, uh, dressed like this?"
"Of course."
Kenny stopped in his tracks and turned, deadpan, to Azmuth. "I want to go home."
"Too late for that," he called out to the voice on the other side of the door, "We're ready!"
"That makes one of us." Kenny whispered under tense breath.
The wall split in two, each section sliding into the floor and ceiling opening out to a long, equally pristine, corridor. There stood a minty-white and green humanoid robot, seven foot tall and with the body shape of a slender human woman. Her head was wide, tall, and flat- almost like a huge mask- lined with four pairs of bright green eyes connected by intricate glowing shamrock wiring. Her head pulled back in surprise as she saw the pair.
"Ah, um," she paused, "forgive me but I was expecting a human?"
"Present," the Chirosyte answered.
The assistant hesitated, "Okay then, follow me."
"I think I'm getting the hang of walking like this," Kenny mentioned to the Galvan scientist.
"Strange," Azmuth commented as they passed further into the complex, "I hadn't expected to see a Technomimi Swarm so close to the Iffis system."
"What's one of those?" Kenny asked.
"I am." The lady answered, "We're here."
An important piece of context for the purpose of Azmuth's meetings in the Triangulum galaxy was that he was attempting to aid the Chirosytes in forming relations with the other species of their galaxy. See, the Chirosytes are regarded with near universal disgust. The Flesh Constructs- the cornerstone of their civilisation- as well as their greater power to manipulate flesh, are seen as abominable and attract the hatred of almost every race they attempt to contact. Azmuth, therefore, was to act as a middle-man to the other races such that he could levy his legendary status and the lack of Chirosytes present to earn them favour.
Unfortunately, the meeting with the Chirosytes to discuss the tactics he should use was pencilled in for next week. This week, he realised only too late, was Azmuth establishing his own relations with the Technomimi Core Council first.
A group that, as previously mentioned, despise the Chirosytes.
And Azmuth and Kenny were now stood before them, the latter in the form of a Chirosyte. Complete with Flesh Construct.
"Tennyson, when I say run..."
Major Events[]
- Ken Tennyson accompanies Azmuth to a peace meeting.
- Brawnworm is used for the first time.
Characters[]
- Azmuth
- Ken Tennyson
- Escort Assistant
- Technomimi Core Council
Aliens Used[]
- Brawnworm (x3, debut)