Planet-Eater 87 (Patreon)

Hehe. Maybe it isn’t too late to be friends with her? Unless she’s an evil space wizard, of course. Gosh, I have no idea how to ask her that… The more I look at her, the less likely it feels. Sure, she’s green, but aliens come in all kinds of colours. Being green doesn’t need to make her a witch. It could just make her green. And she’s so young, too! I mean, sure, I was only in my early 20s when I came here, but she hardly looks any older than me! That’s young in my book.

Humming to myself, I half-glide towards the pillar of light. It’s actually approaching really quickly, which is kind of scary. And when I look down, my shadow passes like a net over the mountains, huge and all-encompassing. I have no idea how to judge my size, but I can tell how close I am to the ground based on how big my shadow is becoming. Very nice.

Soon, the pillar of light is coming close, and my shadow is turning bigger, and bigger, and bigger. Yeah, if I keep gliding, I’ll probably end up crashing in a bad way. So, with the ground rapidly approaching, I think it’s time to go in for a proper landing.

Okay, I’ll be touching down soon, so ready yourselves! I’ll make sure to cushion you very well, so you should survive. Last time I did this with a guy he came out of it unscathed. Miraculous!

Not answering me, the angry voice in my head instead starts mumbling something about the Force being with us, which frankly sounds really ominous. Is it here in the atmosphere with us? Spooky!

Good luck in there!

Saying so, I begin by loosely wrapping my tentacles around the shuttle, creating a soft layer. The rest of the first main body’s tentacles will not be wrapped tightly around it, but rather in springy layers. As for the rest of my bodies, I’ll be using them directly to absorb shock. See, my theory is, if I stretch them out in front of me when we crash, I can let them crumble slowly to absorb the shock! Dang, this is going to go so well.

Humming to myself, I begin the operation. The pillar of light approaches. I tense up my tentacles, placing some around the shuttle and others in a sharp, spear-like formation ahead of me. Let’s see, where would be good to aim for? Aiming straight at the temple would be bad, so a nearby mountain range would probably work better. Let’s se… Oh, there’s a suitable one!

Fanning out some of my tentacles like wings, I aim for the range, a homing needle of tentacles heralding my arrival.

As soon as I take this shape, the slowness I had accrued is lost as our descent picks up immense speed. Within only a few seconds, I feel myself break through some immaterial barrier, the shock reverberating through my tentacles. But it’s okay. I just need to ready myself, watch where the shadow is going, and—

I smash into a mountain. Or, rather, I smash through a mountain. The whole thing shatters into an avalanche of dust and rubble, and even though I tried to absorb as much shock as possible with my soft, squishy tentacles, I still find myself, tangled up like a dropped ball of yarn, in what seems to be a crater. A crater where moments ago had been a mountain. Hmm.

…Well, no use dwelling on it! Let’s see how my passengers are doing… 

I carefully unwrap my tentacles from the shuttle to reveal a fairly dented, slightly crushed pod, the approximate shape of a kicked soda can. Oh. Uh…

I hold it up to my main eye. Hello in there? Everyone okay…?

A few of the consoles are broken, straight up split in half. The robot lady is on the floor, an arm and a leg ripped off, her remaining limbs wheeling like the arms of a toy locomotive lifted off the track. The guy in the overalls is next to her, not moving, his leg twisted at a really bad angle. On the other end of the cockpit, the boy sits slumped over the chair, eyes rolled back and jaw wide open. The chair the girl was sitting on has been ripped straight off its hinges and she’s nowhere to be seen. 

Oh, and there’s also a guy hanging out of the vents in the ceiling. When he meets my gaze, he scurries back into them, closing the grate behind him. As I try to recover from what I just saw, the old guy starts writhing around on the floor, his mouth wide open but silent. I’d wager he’s screaming, but I can’t hear it. 

I’m… not sure what to do. Can I help them? Is there anything I can do? I’m too big to reach in and I can’t say it’ll be okay. Did—did I mess up? Could I have done a better job cushioning the fall? I really don’t…

The green girl staggers into view. She’s clutching her arm and limping but she still makes the time to go over to the old guy, kneeling down next to him and trying to hold him down, probably to keep him from making it worse. She’s shouting something at the young guy, but he can’t hear her. She shouts something else at him, leans down to the old guy, and takes his hand. 

‘I wish my sister was here’

The words ring out clearly. I don’t think she meant to say them to me. They simply… slipped out. 

She puts her hand on his leg. I’m not sure how, but I can tell that she’s trying to fix it. She’s trying to make it better, somehow. But it isn’t working. Her face is getting darker and no matter how much she shouts at the younger boy, he won’t wake up. The movements of the robot lady keep going, around and around, defunctive machinery trying to right itself, trying to fix itself, limbs clang-clang-clanging against the floor. And nothing she tries is working. There’s nothing she can do. There’s only—

The young boy is flung across the room. 

One second he was in the chair, and then next, he had arced through the air and crashed headfirst into the wall on the other side, sliding down as motionless as before. Not even a twitch. Nobody grabbed him. There were no wires connected to him.

The whole thing elicited nothing from her but a visible twitch when he banged into the wall. Aside from that, she remained motionless, head buried in her hands. 

I heave myself up, trying my best not to jostle the shuttle too much. Still, with nothing to brace herself against, she goes rolling, sending a string of what I think are curses rattling through my brain.

Sorry, I mutter back to her.

She doesn’t respond. 

The temple is close, I tell her. I’ll get us there really fast and then you can… You…

Nothing. Sheer silence. 

I grit my teeth and start walking. Thousands upon thousands of tentacles move me with shambling slowness over the ground. I stand taller than any mountain. My highest point slices through a thick layer of clouds. I can see over the clouds to follow the light. But if I look way down low, letting my lower eyes tell me where I’m going, I can see animals scrambling to run away from me, microscopic in size. Chasms that used to tower above me have become mere cracks in the floor. The ice can’t bear my weight and crumbles beneath me, but the seas aren’t deep enough to hinder me whatsoever. I simply stride above them. 

If I don’t look at the animals I crush beneath me, it’s like they don’t even exist. 

I glance down at the shuttle. 

How’s the oxygen in there? We’re almost there, but…

…Again, no response. If I peek in, I can see her making some sort of makeshift tourniquet for the old guy, but that’s about it. That should mean it’s okay.

I do a quick check-in for my other body. 

There is dessert on my plate. It’s shaped like a happy fish. It smiles at me.

…Oh, God, why must you torment me so? You know I can’t eat the fish! If I do, I’ll freak out the green lady, and she’s already mad at me for good reason! Because I missed up big-time! And, yeah, sure, she did a little wizard-y stuff, maybe, but her friends are hurt and it’s all my fault so—

A hand falls on my shoulder. Typin’s concerned face leans into my vision. “Mort?” he asks, gently. “Is everything alright?”

Something blubbers up and—and, yeah, now I’m starting to cry. Of course I am. Because I don’t have time to be consoled! Heck, I don’t deserve to be consoled, either! “L—later,” I tell him through the tears and the mucus. “We’ll take it—hicc—later.”

He frowns, glances away, and then pats me on the shoulder. “Alright. Don’t push yourself. I won’t go anywhere.”

I wipe my face. That’s all I needed to hear. Pulling myself up, I let myself return to my other body.

There it is. The jedi temple. Very close, now. 

We’re almost there, I tell her. Can you hold out? 

There are no words from her side, nothing in either the affirmative or the negative, but I can tell that she’ll make it. She’s hurrying around the cockpit, trying to take care of everyone. Wherever I go is irrelevant, in that sense.

…I guess, technically speaking, she doesn’t have to be an evil space wizard. Sure, she did fling a guy across the ship, but if I remember correctly, the sith-guys could do that, too. So she might not be an evil space wizard, but rather a good space wizard! And that would be awesome. Space wizardry sounds really cool, and knowing one would be epic. 

Frankly, the best way of telling whether she’s a good or evil space wizard will all depend on how she reacts to the jedi temple. Maybe she’ll be happy, maybe she’ll be sad… Either way, it will probably tell me which way she swings. Or so I hope. If not, I’ll have to ask her! Which I don’t want to do! Because if she’s evil, she’ll probably zap me to smithereens!!

A full-body shudder rattles through my body at the mere thought. Well, thankfully, that’s not very likely, so—

‘NO WEIRD MOVING’

O—oh, I’m, uh… Sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. B—but, if you’re listening, then we’re almost there! Less than a minute away, I’d say!

‘OK’

…Yes! Right. Right…

I try to move more carefully. One tentacle in front of the next. Ten thousand tentacles in front of the others… Left, right, left right…

What looks like a lego house enters my view. Where is…? Oh, there’s the pillar of light! And since the tiny mound next to the pillar is the mountain, that means the lego house, small enough to house maybe a single beetle, is the jedi temple.

…Ah. 

It’s a bit… smaller than I remembered it being… 

Compared to my current size, I’d say it goes up to maybe my ankle at most? Not that I have an ankle. B—but that’s irrelevant! We’re here now, which means I’ve done all I could. 

Trying my best to not move it too much, I set the shuttle down on the ground, very gently, as close to the temple as I can. And then I take a few steps back, so that the temple won’t be in my shadow, but will instead be lit by the setting suns. There. Now, it will be okay. Now…

Through the window, I can see her eyes widening at the sight of the temple. And from her mind, only a single word slips, as gently as a dropped knife.

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