Planet-Eater 81 (Patreon)

“Shut up, shut the FRAG UP!”

“Oh, leave it to Byrea, great idea! She can talk to big kriffin’ space monsters! Thrusters gone, oxygen running out, but I’m sure the leviathan can help. Oh, stars preserve, I’m going to die out here, aren’t I? Why didn’t I finish flight academy? Get a cushy job shooting down rebels, far away from asteroid fields and whatever that thing is,” Ylric said, pacing up and down the tiny cockpit while pulling at what little remained of his hair. “I honestly wouldn’t have minded dying to the imperials, at least then I’d get to decompose in some kind of earthy substance, but out in space? As food to a kraffing—”

The shuttle rocked violently again. The tentacles wound around their fragile escape pod tightened and shifted, each one the thickness of a wroshyr tree. Byrea had never seen this kind of beast before. That shouldn’t have been possible. She’d spent every day and night of her youngling years reading the bestiary in the archives, putting each cool monster to mind because one day she was sure she’d befriend every single one. Talking to beasts was her forte, after all.

Or so she’d thought. 

“IF YOU DON’T SHUT UP THIS STANDARD MOMENT I AM GOING TO FORCE STRANGLE YOU,” she said with composure, letting her mind replay the times she had been on the receiving end of such a manoeuvre. It hurt. It hurt a lot, but Yoric was about to make himself deserving of it if he didn’t let her focus on keeping them alive.

“Shut up?” Yoric repeated, like an idiot. “Seriously? That’s what you want me to do? Thanks, but I want to go to my grave with my last words spoken, so—”

“Oh, hush now,” xMR-5 said, her smoothly synthesized voice slicing through all his bravado as her dull copper hand slipped onto his shoulder. “Byrea is trying her best, sweetie.”

At her words, Yoric visibly deflated, instantly looking like a child where he stood in his mismatched uniform and too-big cap. “Um, okay…”

‘Wow that voice sure is gone that must mean it’s all okay now’

That voice. That stupid voice. 

“You,” she said, pointing a big finger at Yoric, “quiet.” 

And then, before he could fight it, she strode up to the window, planting her gloved hands against it. Half of the window was covered by a massive tentacle, covered in glowing blue dots. But if she looked beyond it, she could see what they were actually in the grips of. 

A web of tentacles splintered the open space beyond them. Like the tendrils of a shatterpoint, purple tentacles spread out, all centred on a single massive point crowned by a jaw large enough to swallow a capital whole. The creature was in fact so large that she could not see the ends of the tentacles. They simply continued, endlessly, before fading into darkness, replaced by glimmering dots. The only thing that pointed to any sort of mind connecting the tentacles were the pink eyes running along the tentacles, each one sorely focused on the asteroids intermittently caught by the tentacles. Some of the asteroids were large enough to be considered satellites, thousands of ties larger than their ship. And yet, they were eaten all the same—in a single bite.

She put a hand to her head, focusing her mind into a sharp point, and forcing that point to approach the creature. In the blankness that was the Force, she could feel the creature only as a very dim point, much the same as other beasts. That was why she had made them use the last fuel to approach it. If it was a beast, she was confident she could control it. But this one…

‘Oh gosh what the heck is that thing’

‘OBEY ME’ she sent out. 

‘The voice is back oh shoot I’m hallucinating oh no okay I’m just going to ignore that because I’m sure it’s nothing but there’s something in my hand why is there a little… what is this’

The hull of their ship groaned as the tentacles tightened, and suddenly the perspective outside the window began to blur, stars streaking at the sheer speed of their movement, forcing Byrea to grab a hold of the railing to avoid falling over. Behind her, a string of curses escaped Ruckle’s lips as he clearly failed to find a similar support. 

‘STOP’ she tried to command, but it did nothing as the creature brought them closer and closer to the main mouth, the mouth big enough to swallow a star destroyer whole. ‘STOP STOP STOP STOP’ she desperately sent out, only being met by sheer deafness as the voice in her head muttered about nothing.

Gritting her teeth, it took everything she had not to fall over. This was worse than flight training. This was worse than being flung around by the cocky padawans showing her how the Force works. This was, actually, the worst. Even when the violent ride ended, it did so with such abruptness that she couldn’t keep hold of her railing and instead went tumbling over the deck—a very brief distance that ended with her smacking bum-first into the wall, soon followed by Yoric doing the exact same thing, right on top of her. 

Outside, the stars were suddenly replaced by a massive pink eye. 

‘Huh. It’s empty.’

Panic gripped her heart with violence and she flew from the floor with such hurry that Yoric was torn from her with the force, sending him tumbling even further away. She didn’t have time to congratulate herself, though, since their survival now depended on her, and her alone.

Planting herself before the window, she stretched out her hands, ignored the voice in her head cooing ‘OH! A HUMAN!!’ and promptly commanded, ‘OBEY!’

The eye outside the window blinked. 

‘...Hello?’

Byrea blinked back at it. 

…Why wasn’t it obeying? Her training was sound! She was the best beast-tamer in her whole class! So why wasn’t it listening to her? Sure, its thoughts were a little complex, but not more so than a divewing. 

She took a deep breath. Clearly, this was a matter of her focus. Stress had a tendency of dulling her connection with the Force. All she had to do was breathe in, and out, and then…

‘Is that you in there making the voice in my head? Hello? Are you okay? Why are you out here? Are you lost? If so, I’m unfortunately not much help but otherwise if you’re in any trouble I’d love to be of assistance because your ship looks a little uhhh okay nothing wrong with it or anything and I’m not trying to like insult you but it looks a little um… shitty’

She felt her eyelid twitch.

‘SHUT UP OUR SHIP IS GREAT AND BESIDES YOU’RE THE ONE WHO MESSED IT UP’

The humongous eye beyond the window jolted back, as though startled by the sheer ferocity of her voice. 

‘D—did I? I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to—’

‘YEAH EXACTLY SO LET GO OF US ALREADY YOU OVERSIZED SQUID’

The eye blinked a few times, turned away, and then the tentacles that covered the window slowly receded.

‘I’m so sorry to have bothered you it really wasn’t my intention I tend to grab stuff without thinking so—’

‘YOU ALMOST ATE US!!’

The massive leviathan twitched at the accusation.

‘R—really sorry it won’t happen again’

‘GOOD’

The eyes of the creature shifted back and forth. Byrea, leaning on the railing, tried to relax her breathing. Released from the massive creature’s grip, their pod had begun floating more freely, making the endless stars outside the window bob up and down, back and forth.

‘Um’

She took a deep breath. Making no effort to keep the venom out of her thoughts, she sent out, ‘WHAT IS IT’

‘Aren’t you going to, I don’t know… fly away?’

She felt her body freeze in place, her grip on the railing becoming white-knuckled.

‘I mean, this is a pretty dangerous place, you know? Plenty of asteroids coming and going, and then there’s me, like… It’s just not a good place to be. If you want to, I think I could guide you out of the asteroid field? M—maybe?’

And then what? Byrea thought to herself. Their thrusters were dead. They’d spent every drop of fuel getting here, all based on some hokey hunch she’d gotten that that’s where the Force wanted them to go. Ridiculous. Might as well have flown face-first into imperial center. At least then they could’ve died quickly. 

‘No? Is that not…? Aw, gee, I don’t… Wait, shoot, Fern is trying to talk to me, h—hang on, I’ll be right back’

And then she watched as the thousands of eyes dotting the creature all lost both life and focus, no longer being honed in on them, but rather on nothing and everything. The tentacles went limp as well, ceasing their endless shovelling of asteroids. And for a moment, everything was still.