NJ70

NJ 70

June 25 2005

More about that Dragon fly coming up.

But first - greyside stuff. *smile* Let's see. We're all doing pretty well. It's been, what? How many months
now? About five. It's slow going but not to me. To Johnathon. He's still kinda weak, but the doctors all seem
extremely pleased with his progress.

The most exertive thing we're doing is walking. That's a lot of effort in itself. And he goes to physical
therapy three times a week, still. He hates it but keeps the emotions to himself. You see, it hurts. With his
extra dense muscles, it's twice as much work to get them stimulated and working properly again.

He has progressed but he doesn't see it. Fleur and I just smile at one another and keep our mouths shut. We
can see the progress.

And he's gaining weight again, too. Finally.

Food is boring to him so he forgets to eat. That and his digestive system had to be brought up to speed very
slowly after all those months not actually ingesting anything.

My poor sweetie.

Back to the adventure. :)

We were hovering in front of the Dragonfly. And he really is the length of a football field. HUGE.

He introduced himself and both SueMac and Theta introduced themselves. When he heard that we were
headed to Helianthus he smiled.

Yes. Smiled. I hope that Johnathon can get that across.

In any case his booming voice carried quite well past the sound of his rotor wings. "I am for Helianthus after
I pick up goods from Station 6. If you would like, I would be happy to take you the rest of the way. It is a
good wing away for those of your size."

All the while he was saying this I felt like he was examining me. His eyes were…odd. Several of them
looked like glass bubbles that were rosey in color. Very pretty but a bit disturbing. They'd turn but I could
not tell how they focused. I swore I could see something behind the huge lenses. *shudder*

We were all grateful for the offer and Theta especially. He knew the distance was pretty far considering
how far below we'd been in the canopy.

"What ARE you?" he asked.

Theta explained that we were "oomans."

He stared at us a long moment and then told us both "good hunting."

Fleur seriously eyed him. "Ya won't eat us would you?" she asked the great creature who's eyes now
swiveled in her direction. She flinched.

The big bugs name was, get this, Canobus pronounced more like Cannibus. Hmmm. I wonder if he's stoned
a great deal of the time. *giggle*

He hovered while we hopped on board.

Inside his head.

Yes, you read right.

Inside...his...head.

Fleur about flipped.

Me, I just kind of stepped inside and then would not move another foot.

I believed that he could get us there more quickly so I went with it. I had no idea we'd be riding inside the
head of the huge creature.

I honestly don't know if I'd repeat the experience. You see, it was safe enough in his head but, well, it
looked squishy and well...

...it made noises for goodness sake! Squishy gurgly burpy noises!!!

Ick ick ick. I was frozen in place. All I could think to say after just glancing around and deciding to look
toward the front where his "face" was, "Great. Just Great. Now all I need to see is a brain."

Fleur gently tapped me on the shoulder and pointed. "Uh, lookie."

I very slowly turned.

Yup.

There was a brain sitting on top of a stalklike get up growing from the "floor." I did NOT scream. I may
have whimpered.

"Well, isn't that special," I sarcastically told Fleur. (Cyeateans do NOT understand sarcasm.) They
honestly take you seriously about everything you say.

In any case, we stood there, in his head. Listening to the, um, gurgles, looking at a brain in which Fleur
leaned over to me and whispered, "It's awfully small, isn't it?

I may have elbowed her. I may not have. I don't remember. I just remember the brain. And then…there's
the eyes.

Part of the eyes are like HUGE portholes that you can look out of. It was really awesome to stand near the
curved lens and watch the world outside flying by.

And stare out the window, I did. I was trying to ignore the sounds.

I must have shown my discomfort because SueMac asked after me. "Are you in some distress, Danny?
Your face...you are frowning."

I tried to shake it off but before I could answer God spoke.

No, not god. I'm being sarcastic. The Dragon fly spoke and his voice reverberated through our bones. "IS
THERE SOME PROBLEM?" he asked. I'm sure he was speaking softly. For him. I had to put my hands
over my ears.

Fleur and I just said we were find, just not used to flying in the head of insects. Well, Fleur was a bit more
sarcastic. This is where the sarcasm didn't work. SueMac thought she was serious and tried to reassure her
of the safety, etc of doing so in a Dragon Fly.

I was elbowing Fleur at the time.

He then told us we could sit and I looked around, like, "right. Where?"

From inside his own head formed four chair like thingies. I didn't really want to sit on 'em, that's for sure.
But they looked dry. I touched one with the tip of a finger. It felt like velvet. Okay.

"I WAS WONDERING IF I MIGHT ASK A FAVOR OF YOU ALL, WHILE YOU ARE WITHIN ME?"

I was distracted. I just nodded while Theta answered. "Of course, great one. What do you need?"

"WITHIN ME ARE PARASITIC SEEDS THAT CAUSE ME SOME DISCOMFORT. THEY HIDE
WITHIN THE FOLIAGE I INGEST AND ONCE THEY PASS INTO ME, THEY CHOOSE THE
UNPLEASANT PATH OF TAKING MY JUICES WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. PLEASE, COULD YOU
DISPOSE OF THEM FOR ME? THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO FREE MYSELF OF THEM.

I looked up. I had heard what he said, but didn't quite understand. "Let me get this straight, you have
parasitic seeds stuck in here that you want us to pluck cause they're drinking your blood?

"CORRECT."

Fleur leaned over to whisper something to me. Before she could open her mouth…

"Do NOT say it, Fleur!"

She put up her hands into claw-like appendages and made that silly sucking face again. "Mmmmm tick
seeds."

"Aaaaah! I HATE ticks!!!!"

She began giggling and ran away from me.

I looked around for something to throw. There was a little loose nodule of something on the "floor" that I
had accidently kicked earlier and had rolled away. Like some plantlike ball. I picked it up and tossed it at
her with a vengence.

"YES! THANK YOU! THAT IS ONE OF THEM. IF YOU WOULD PLUCK THEM FROM ME AND
DISPOSE OF THEM BY TAPPING THE ORIFICE AT THE REAR RIGHT, IT WILL OPEN AND YOU
MAY TOSS IT FROM ME. I WOULD BE MOST GRATEFUL.'

I stared at my hand. The hand that had picked up the thing.

I really wanted to hurl.

I really really really hate ticks.

"UNLESS YOU FIND YOURSELF NEEDING SOMETHING TO EAT, YOU MAY DISPOSE OF ALL
THAT YOU FIND."

That stopped me and Fleur started snorting up a storm. That's just special. They're edible.

"Eat them? They're EDIBLE?"

"OF COURSE. I AM TOLD THAT THEY ARE OFTEN CONSIDERED QUITE FLAVORFUL.'

Fleur again snuck over behind me and whispered at me. "The key words here being flavor full." She
snorted and ran away.

All I could do is stare at her and then...then I looked around. The little polyp thingies were everywhere. It
made me itchy looking at the number he had inside of him. Gross.

"Latex. I really need some latex gloves for this," I complained as I walked over to a sort of cluster of them
on the floor. I gently kicked one. It rolled over. Ick. There was a tiny wound on the floor where it had been
attached. Lucky for me I didn't have to nudge it too hard to make it let go.

But my grossed out level was just about maxed out. Eyes. Brains. And ticks. All three of my gross outs in
one nice neat (not so neat) place.

"Y'know," I said while kicking and rolling tickplantballs toward the disposal area where SueMac picked
them up, tapped the orifice and it opened up. She tossed them out the window, basically. I tried REAL hard
not NOT think of what that orifice might really be.

Really hard.

Anyway, I continued, "If you get these things often, why don't you hire someone to take care of 'em
whenever you come topside? If they're considered, um, edible, maybe someone at the station would do it.
Collect 'em, I mean." I shuddered inside. Ew. Really.

Ew.

There was silence from everyone for a moment.

"I HAD NEVER CONSIDERED REQUESTING HELP FROM THOSE AT THE STATIONS. THEY
ARE A NEW ADDITION TO OUR LIVES SO THE CONCEPT HAD NOT CROSSED MY MIND."

Fleur looked at the brain thingie. "No much there to cross..."

"I DO NOT UNDERSTAND YOU, OOMAN FLEUR. ARE YOU REFERRING TO MY (blankety blank
blank - I can't remember the title he gave it.) THAT IS NOT MY MIND NOR MY BRAIN. IT IS A
GLAND USED TO TRANSMIT AND RECEIVE MESSAGES FROM MY MATE, WHO NO LONGER
HAS WINGS AND CAN NO LONGER ACCOMPANY ME ON MY LONG FLIGHTS."

"Ahh. I understand. Still, it has a bit of a resemblance to a human brain. But is much larger, of course." (It
was about the size of a Volkswagen Bug.)

"SIZE IS TRULY RELATIVE. I THINK I SHALL ENDEAVOR TO REQUEST AID WITH MY
PARASITE PROBLEM. YOUR SUGGESTION IS A GOOD ONE, OOMAN DANNY. MY THANKS."

I just nodded. I was still kickin' round bug thingies. There were lots of 'em. I mean, lots of 'em. Some of
them hid in crevices or cracks. I'd not touch those but I'd point them out to Theta or SueMac in a hot
second.

Fleur got into it, too. She started by kicking one and then squatted and looked at it a long minute as if
examining it. Then she picked it up. I didn't watch after that. I just continued playing plant parasite soccer.
Fun fun fun!...

Not.

Next: The Way Station