Dangerous Offspring

‘They bring in material from other places to build with,’ said the Vermiform. ‘There is nothing left for them to use on my entire planet.’

As we grew accustomed to the distance, we began to distinguish them: tiny specks scurrying over the plain, around the lakes and along the summits. It was like looking down into an enormous ant’s nest. I stared, forgetting this was a whole world, and imagined the mountains as tiny undulations in the soil and the Insects the size of ants, busy among them. There were single Insects, groups of a few or crowds of several thousands, questing over the grit from which everything organic had been leached. They swarmed in and out of their hooded tu

The Paperlands bulged up in one or two places and paper bridges emerged, rose up and vanished at their apex. In other places the continuous surface of the roofs sank into deep pits with enormous tu

‘We could have defeated them,’ the Vermiform choired. ‘We were wi

‘They’re tough,’ I said.

‘They become so, over many worlds, yes. We turned the battle when lack of air started to slow them down. We gained ground. We forced them back to their original tu

‘Their young?’ I asked.

‘Once the Insects started to breed in their millions. Their growing larvae are far more ravenous than adults. They scooped up mandiblesfull of worms and ate the city.’

Cyan shrieked, ‘Look out! There’s one coming!’

Twirling ante

The tentacles snaked around the Insect, forced its mandibles wide-then its serrated mouthparts. The Insect ducked its head and tried to back off, but a third stream of worms began to pour into its mouth, keeping the mandibles open all the time. Worms streamed up from the ground and vanished down its throat.

The rest of the Vermiform still pooled at our feet waited. For a couple of seconds, nothing happened. Then the Insect exploded. Its carapace burst open and flew apart. Its i

‘Ugh,’ said Cyan.

I said to her, ‘Keep watching for more Insects.’

Cyan said, ‘I hate this place. I want to go. I want to see the cave.’

‘The market was destroyed.’

‘No. This is my dream and I say it wasn’t. Take me back; there are too many bugs here.’

‘Why do you think I dropped you in the air?’ the Vermiform said bitterly.

It was easier to speak to the worm-woman than the amorphous bunch of a

‘It drowned billions of us.’ She pointed down to the lake. ‘The Somatopolis was dry before that, very hot and arid. That is how we like it; in fact we brought you here during the night because otherwise the sun would roast you. The waterspout surged from an Insect tu

The worm-woman indicated the pools. ‘Freshwater lakes formed deep among us. We recoiled from the water and erroneously left it open to the air. And the Insects began to breed. We tried to stop them. We kept fighting but, as our numbers diminished, we found it harder to cover the ground. Generations after generations of larvae decimated us, so we sought shelter under the surface. From there we Shifted to find a new world to colonise…as many worlds as possible from the construction of the Insect’s nest.’

The Vermiform woman dissolved into a snake and slithered to rejoin the main mass. ‘We hope the Gabbleratchet might destroy some Insects,’ it added. ‘Brace yourselves. We will try to shake it once and for all by retracing our steps.’

We looked around for the Gabbleratchet, in the cloudless sky, against the rounds of the moons, among the peaks of the Paperlands and directly down to the lake.

I thought I saw something moving in it! I blinked and stared. Something was swimming in its murky abyss. It became darker and clearer as it rose close to the surface. It moved with a quick straight jet, then turned head over tail along its length and disappeared into the depths.

‘What the fuck? What was that?’

A flash of green on the sheer rock face below us. The Gabbleratchet hurtled straight out of it. Empty white pelvic girdles and scooping paws reflected in the lake.

Cyan screamed. The Gabbleratchet turned; it knew where we were.

‘Now!’ The Vermiform lifted us off our feet, through-

– Ple

– Infusoria Swamp-

– Sauria-

– Precambria-

– Epsilon Market-

– Somewhere dark…?

Somewhere dark! Cyan cried, ‘Are you there?’

‘I’m here, I’m here!’ I felt for her hand. I opened my eyes wide, just to be sure, but there was not one shred of light. Then, seemingly in a vast remoteness I saw a faint glow, a thin vertical white beam seemed to…walk past us. It stopped, turned around and began to hurry back again with the motion of a human being, though it was nothing but a single line.

‘Where are we?’ I demanded. ‘You said we were going back to the Fourlands!’

‘Stupid creature! This is your world. We want to hide for a while in case the Gabbleratchet comes.’

‘But…’

The Vermiform said, ‘This is Rayne’s room. That is Rayne.’

I think the Vermiform was pointing but I couldn’t see anything.

‘She is pacing back and forth. She’s anxious; in fact, she’s panicking. Can’t you feel it?’

Curiously enough, I could. The intense emotions were radiating from the white ray and putting me on edge. ‘But what’s happened to her? That’s just a thin line!’

‘Hush. If we see the Gabbleratchet’s sparks, we will have to leave fast. This is the Fourlands, the fifth to the eighth dimensions. You occupy those as well as the ones you’re familiar with, seeing as you’ve evolved in a world with ten. You can’t see them with your usual senses, but you do operate in them. We are amazed that you never consciously realise it.’

Close by, Cyan shouted, ‘It’s talking crap! Tell it so, Jant.’

‘Hey, it’s interesting.’

The Vermiform harped on: ‘Emotions impress on the fifth dimension, which is why you can sometimes sense a strong emotion or see an image of the person who suffered it, in the same place years later. What other examples can we give? Acupuncture works on the part of you that operates in the sixth dimension, so you’ll never be able to understand how it works with the senses you have. And the seventh, if only you knew of that one-’