Interlude

Ailek took a swig of marsh, waited for a moment to feel the fire begin to ebb from his limbs and walked towards the cage.  He walked past the other cages with the steely-eyed stoic chirops, the wide eyed huddled lemur-men, the softly whimpering humans, the three empty cages only to stop at the one that was most full.  Scurrying around, lighting up the cave in a purple panic were close to thirty cuttle babies of various sizes.  Ailek steadied himself with an outstretched arm at the gate. The last swig of marsh he had had, was not even close to the first of the day.  Some back part of his mind scolded him for escaping into his bottle like he had.  But with his duties it was his only choice.

He hoped the others would make their "breakthrough" soon, as he was as tired of their failures as the higher-ups were.  In the dim light of the caverns he was in, the purple strobing of the cuttle gave him a headache that seared through his skull like a knife heated to white hot.

"They're just cattle" he told himself as he undid the lock and looked for the slowest or easiest to catch.  He ignored the other cages full of eyes that stared at him.  He knew the cuttle were intelligent, they had scrawled pleas on the floor of their pen.  That had sent him into a marsh induced funk for days.

There was one cuttle outside the group that had been injured when it had been taken.  It seemed more a mercy to choose it, rather than one of the others.  Maybe by the time a new one was needed the others would have discovered what they needed to discover.

It made little effort to escape Ailek's net when he threw it over. Its purple cries no where near as bright as the others.  Ailek had no idea if it had siblings in the cage or if it was a stranger.  Perhaps, he thought, it would be best if it was a stranger.

A bell rang near the front his cavern. "Can't keep them waiting can we?"  He told his netted cargo.  Ailek worked hard to not make eye contact with any of the other occupants of the cavern but he could feel their enmity, their hatred boring into his back. 

He turned, quickly.  "Soon!" he shouted.  "This wasn't my idea, you hear me?  I didn't do this, they did!  I'm just trying to help!  I don't even like it here.  It smells!  The food is bad.  I just want go home too!"  The only response he got was a renewed whimpering from the human's cage.

Ailek walked as quickly down the cavern's corridors as his marsh-addled legs could take him.  The constant din of the world falls grew louder and louder as he approached the central chamber.  A green light that would grown in intensity beckoned him down the hall. 

Moments later, Ailek and the cuttle child entered a large semi-circular stone cavern.  Gas lamps lit the edges of the room in a flickering blue, but the main illumination came from a stone dais near one edge.  Runes and etches seemed to dance with their own green light that would brighten then fade like a breath being drawn in and out.  Each rune was too bright too look at, at its brightest.  The far edge of the room was a massive set of windows, secured with thick steel frames embedded into the rock.  On the other side of the glass and an relatively small airy void thundered the world falls.  Stepping up to the window, one could the dry edge of the continent that stretched off into the gloom, the water careening over the edge to form a ceiling.  Below stretched only darkness and whatever was at the base of the world falls.

Three other people were in the room when Ailek arrived, all dressed the same in long white lab coats with dark goggles shielding their eyes from the glare.  One of the technicians was looking nervously at a small bank of copper plated dials, the other two were securing ropes to an enormous cuttle that was already on the dais.  The two technicians used long poles with hooks and ropes at their ends to loop cables around the cuttle. 

The technician near the dials hit a button again, the bell sounding near the cages once more.
"Where is he?"
"I'm right here." Ailek slurred and sauntered into the cavern. 
"You're drunk again." the technician said.  The other two stopped what they were doing and stared at Ailek.
"What are you two doing?  We don't have much time left, we need to make the switch.  Hurry!"
The other two technicians redoubled their efforts and heaved the large cuttle off the dais.
"What are you waiting for Ailek, get read to swap!"

Without rushing, Ailek walked over to a cabinet and began securing the cuttle child to a pole and took position behind the other two technicians.

The pulsing light on the dais began to speed up as now half the large cuttle was off.  It seemed to try to move itself off as well but legs flailed uselessly.  The chitin on its belly made a squeaking scratching noise as it ground over the edge of the dais.

The pulse grew quicker, the dim never quite coming, the brightness growing.  Ailek took his pole and slid his cuttle onto the dais just as the last part of the larger cuttle left.  Almost instantly the light dimmed and stayed a dark evergreen.  The cuttle child began to twitch, its biolight voice turning from purple to nearly white as it cycled through its colors.  Ailek had to look away.  One didn't have to speak cuttle or know their lights to understand a scream.  He felt bile rising in his throat.

"Ailek what are you doing?  Finish it!  Do you need me to replace you?"
"Yes!" Ailek screamed in his mind.  "Let me go, release me!" but all he could manage was "No, hang on."  With one arm he used the pole to pin the cuttle to the center of the dais, with his other he managed to grab another and secure the cuttle to the center of the dais with steel cables.  There was no chance of the cuttle flailing itself off.

When he was finished he simply dropped the poles where he stood, turned and left the room leaving the other technicians to look at each other and wonder if his usefulness had finally come to an end.

Ailek began his mantra the minute he reached the doorway "for the greater good, its for the greater good, some must die so all can live, we will go..."

"Ailek, I would like a word with you.  Ailek, this specimen is sub-par.  Ailek are you listening to me?"  Shouted the main technician behind him.

Ailek let the words slough off him as he retreated deeper into his marsh haze.  Staggering he made his way back towards his room.  He had bought himself maybe a week with this specimen before he would have to do it all over again.

The lights from the giant cuttle in the cavern pointed toward the smaller, they turned from white, to purple to match the dull green of the runes, then they went out.