Mother of Insects

 

"Dr. Lin Xi..."

A pale face slowly emerged from the darkness.

Lin Xi had to admit that he was taken aback, he almost punched the ghostly face directly. And after a while, he realized that the face belonged to Shizuo Ando.

"Professor Ando? Is that really you? What's wrong with you?"

Lin Xi blurted out.

Compared to the last time he saw Shizuo Ando, ​​even though they just passed each other in the hallway, he now looked ten years older- or even worse.

Shizuo Ando now looked like a skeleton wrapped in limp skin: sunken cheeks, chapped lips, only a pair of shining eyes, exuding an abnormal spirit.

"Did something happen?"

Lin Xi felt an inexplicable shudder, he looked at Shizuo Ando, adding uneasily.

It took a long time for Ando to focus on Lin Xi, his reaction seemed particularly slow.

"Me? I... I'm fine..."

He whispered.

It's just that his extremely weak tone made his words less convincing.

"I'm just a little tired, you know, Liz has been... she's been having a difficult time before this, and I need to be by her side to take care of her. It's difficult to even rest well during this period... that's also normal, right?"

No, that's not normal at all.

Lin Xi cursed in his heart.

"But you... you don't look too good, God, how long have you not slept? Maybe you should go and see Bryce?" Lin Xi pretended to be calm and advised Ando, ​​"Is Liz okay? Does she need some extra help?"

While talking, Lin Xi looked over Ando's hunched body and into the cabin.

It's a pity he didn't see anything.

Whether it was the darkness inside or the stench emanating from the room, it filled Lin Xi with an ominous feeling.

He felt his heart grow heavy.

"Ah, Liz... she just needs some peace and quiet, we don't want to bother Dr. Bryce," Shizuo Ando's eyes darted around, after thinking for a moment, he murmured to Lin Xi, "the most difficult time has passed, now she's stabilized."

Lin Xi frowned at his evasive attitude.

Especially considering that Ando spoke a bit sluggishly and seemed to be in a very bad state of mind. The more Lin Xi thought about it, the more crept out he felt.

The more Shizuo Ando emphasized that everything was fine with Liz, the wilder his speculations became. That's right, Shizuo Ando was indeed a good husband, at least in the eyes of the outside world. But who could guarantee that what someone shows to the outside world is what's actually happening? Especially considering- Liz is was in such a special state, incredibly weak from the pregnancy, with no power to resist.

Lin Xi vaguely remembered that ever since she became pregnant, few people on the ship had seen her.

Some dark memories slowly surfaced from the deepest part of Lin Xi's psyche, and he had to grit his teeth to control his emotions.

Fortunately, as soon as Ando finished speaking, a hoarse and strange voice came from the depths of the dark cabin, dispelling Lin Xi's chaotic thoughts.

"Darling, who is it?"

Although the voice was breathless, it could still be recognized as Liz's.

Lin Xi breathed a sigh of relief, but his heart didn't feel lighter at all.

"It's Dr. Lin Xi, he's very concerned about your condition."

Ando turned his head and softly whispered to the darkness of the room.

"Oh my, Dr. Lin... why not let him in for a cup of tea?"

Liz spoke enthusiastically from inside, sounding a little more energetic than before.

"I'm sorry, look at my manners, I forgot to let you in."

Ando's eyes darted, and he spoke dryly.

Lin Xi's nerves were tense. He carefully observed Shizuo Ando, and of course, didn't miss the unnatural expression on his face then.

Shizuo Ando didn't want him to enter the dark cabin, but Lin Xi couldn't get rid of his uneasiness and doubts, so he walked along like he didn't noticed Ando's stiffness. Taking Liz's invitation, he strode directly into the cabin where the Ando couple lived.

As soon as he stepped past the door, that strange smell became more and more intense.

Lin Xi was almost grateful for the darkness, otherwise Ando and his wife would've seen his distorted face. Lin Xi spent all of his willpower to stop himself from retching.

The temperature inside was very high, abnormally high, and it smelled like rotten blood, a sweet and greasy stench, with a fishy aftertaste.

"It's really dark here, is the lighting system broken?"

Lin Xi inquired cautiously.

He heard the sound of Ando walking into the room with him, and then the hatch closed slowly behind him. The friction of the old spaceship's hatch sliding was usually nothing, but at that moment it sounded like funeral music. His heart felt like it wanted to leap out of his chest.

Lin Xi almost ran for the door, after the hatch was closed, the room became even darker.

The only source of light was the emergency light on the wall, an ethereal little light like a firefly, unable to illuminate even a space the size of a fist.

Lin Xi unconsciously opened his eyes wide, trying to find Liz inside the cabin.

This bloody smell made him more and more worried about Liz's condition.

"No... I just... can't stand too bright lights."

Liz quickly answered Lin Xi, and it didn't sound very forced. But Lin Xi felt himself getting more and more nervous. Because he discovered that Liz's voice was coming from a corner.

And in the corner, there were two faint reflections, just above the ceiling.

Both his reason and intuition told Lin Xi that something was wrong, he subconsciously took a few more steps in Liz's direction, he then tripped over something in the dark.

"Hmm-"

Lin Xi let out a muffled snort.

"Are you alright?"

Shizuo Ando asked nervously.

"I'm really sorry, I should've lead the way... this is really..."

Lin Xi didn't have time to pay attention to Ando's repeated apologies.

His mind was completely focused on what tripped him up.

It was a large mass, so large that it shouldn't have appeared in a daily living space like a cabin.

And its texture is also very subtle, the rough surface felt extremely hard- but not the hardness of steel, plastic or glass. And almost everything in the spacecraft were made of these materials.

 

Lin Xi supported himself and slowly got up from the ground. His eyes were completely useless in this environment. He could only try to identify what was in front of him through touch.

There were many fine and complicated lines on the surface of that thing, some parts had quite round lines, while others were extremely sharp.

The touch of it always gave Lin Xi a vague sense of familiarity, but probably because he was too nervous, he couldn't remember where this feeling came from.

"Turn on the night-light, my dear, or it would be very rude to our guest."

Just when Lin Xi was puzzling it over, Liz quietly spoke from the corner.

"But..."

Ando seemed very reluctant.

"It doesn't matter," Liz said. Immediately afterwards, Lin Xi sensed her turn in his direction, "Dr. Lin Xi, I'm sorry for letting you had to see us at such a time. It's just that I'm..."

Liz's tone became a little weird: "I hope you're psychologically prepared to face my current situation. Turn on the light, my dear, Dr. Lin Xi isn't some superficial and ignorant buffon. I don't think he'd mind my appearance too much."

Under Liz's urging, Ando Shizuo seemed to have made up his mind and turned on the night light.

The light of the night light was definitely not bright, after all, it was originally designed with half-awake crew members in mind, but this kind of light was enough for the cabin at this time.

Warm light spread out in the room, illuminating everything.

And the moment he saw everything in front of him clearly, Lin Xi finally understood why the Ando couple seemed so reluctant to turn on the light before.

For a moment, he just stood there, staring dumbfounded at everything in front of him, his mind blank.

That scene was too nonsensical, it seemed so extraordinarily grotesque and magical, like a part of Lin Xi's nightmare than reality.

He saw Liz.

Liz is alive.

No domestic violence, no harm, no murder.

But...

But he couldn't understand her current situation.

The mixed-race Sunu woman was as thin and haggard as he had seen her in the medical room before, but her abdomen had expanded countless times from then. All of her already thin hair fell off, and some tentacles-like things burrowed out from under her scalp instead of the hairs, they formed a flesh-colored grid-like thing that was tightly attached to the upper wall. Some translucent mucus were secreted from those tentacles, wrapped around Liz, helping her firmly fix her deformed body to the corner of the ceiling.

In that corner, it was wet from the ceiling to the floor, the whole thing was covered with slime that had slipped from Liz's body, the unbreathable stench was also emanating from her body.

The two reflections that Lin Xi saw in the dark were not some mechanical device as he thought, but Liz's eyes.

"Oh my God."

Lin Xi swallowed a mouthful of saliva, staring blankly at Liz, the only thing he could say was this.

Liz opened her dark eyes wide, she grinned, revealing a terrifying smile.

"It's kind of ugly, I should've scared you, right?" the woman whispered.

"There is no need to hide anything, I know, in fact, I also feel like I'm a bit ugly like this- but who made me have Sunu blood? Sometimes you just can't change your origin."

 

"Sunu planet's women undergo some physical changes while pregnant..."

At some point, Shizuo Ando came to Lin Xi's side, explaining to Lin Xi hoarsely.

"So its like... like that..."

Lin Xi felt like he had finally regained his ability to speak.

Although he still didn't calm down.

"I never thought that..."

Lin Xi spoke stiffly, although he himself didn't know what he was talking about.

He unconsciously took two steps back, only to almost trip over the same thing again.

But this time, he only needed to tilt his head to clearly see what it was.

A ferocious insect face dotted with fangs, compound eyes, and strange bone plates was aimed directly at him.

"Oh- Oh God-"

Lin Xi really screamed this time.

He jumped straight away, his knees went weak.

"D- Don't be scared, it's just a sculpture!"

Ando Shizuo shouted in fear as he followed him.

Lin Xi retreated to the very edge of the cabin. He pressed his back tightly against the metal wall, his face pale.

Ando's words seemed to come from a distant horizon.

"Sculpture?"

It took Lin Xi a long time to register the simple words.

Then he took even longer to recognize the true identity of the thing.

"... For God's sake, what did you do?"

Lin Xi felt that he had exhausted all his strength, shouting angrily at Ando.

But in fact, he just slightly pursed his lips and murmured this with difficulty.

The sense of familiarity that arose when he was rubbing that thing in the dark before finally had an answer, because the thing in the center of the room was nothing but that extremely troublesome Sunu fossil statue!

It's just that Lin Xi only saw it twice before, it was in a gel-wrapped state then, and even though it hardened after the gel dried, it was only by a little bit. Now, the statue was without the protection of the sealing gel, and the entire shell had been completely hardened.

It was originally a sculpture carved by Sunu's artists, but now it had completely turned into a hideous and terrifying bug shell.

From the mouthparts to compound eyes, as well as its complex physiological structure, everything was lifelike.

Even though Lin Xi knew that this was just its natural appearance after getting separated from the gel layer, he still couldn't look directly at it.

Fear is sometimes beyond the control of the will.

Especially thinking that just a few minutes ago, he was still touching the bare surface of this huge bug sculpture with his hands, Lin Xi felt his scalp numb.

Under such a strong stimulation, even Liz's distended belly looked gelled to the ceiling.

After all, Liz has alien blood in her body, and aliens sometimes have weird habits.

And bugs- bugs are bugs.

An insect so huge it's like a creature from a nightmare.

Of course, after calming down (which took Lin Xi a lot of effort), Lin Xi started asking Shizuo Ando exactly what was going on. After all, even though he was scared out of his wits, he was still sure of one thing- that fossil sculpture should've been in a sealed container in the warehouse on the ground floor at this time, not inside a crew member's living quarters.

"Because... that's the sacred object of the Sunu people..."

Facing Lin Xi's questioning, Ando stammered for a long time before giving a particularly vague answer.

"Shizuo did it for me."

In contrast, Liz, who was obviously in a strange state, appeared calmer.

After listening to her explanation, Lin Xi managed to understand the ins and outs of the matter.

In fact, as Ando said many times before, Liz's physical condition had become quite bad since she became pregnant. Before those little lives were born in her womb, neither Ando nor Liz thought that the clash between Sunu and human blood would be so intense.

Pure blooded Sunu women only needed three months to finish gestation, and they usually eat like crazy before birth until they turn themselves into fat-filled swollen meat balls. It makes it easier for them to carry their unborn children for the next three months.

But in terms of physique, Liz was more inclined towards humans. She had no way to eat herself until she was three times her original size like a Sunu, and the special closed environment of the spaceship didn't allow her to do so. But the fetus in her womb obviously inherited the greedy and vicious Sunu characteristics. They began killing the emaciated Liz while still in the womb.

The babies were healthy, and surprisingly alive (especially considering that their mother was drained half of her blood). But the healthier they grew, the weaker Liz became.

Even without Bryce's diagnosis, the Ando couple could clearly feel that before those children even had time to be born, Liz would probably die of direct exhaustion due to malnutrition first.

"Dr. Bryce has been trying to convince us to kill these children. He's a good man, but we don't want to lose them... With my special constitution, this might be the only offspring between me and Shizuo, their existence is a miracle." Liz lowered her terrifying head and gazed softly at her abdomen, "But I have to admit that my condition is so bad that I've almost lost them several time. And at that time, I dreamed of my father... Then I remembered. If I were still in Sunu, my maids would've probably taken me to get blessed in the temple of the Great Star God. This would've blessed me with a smooth delivery."

Liz explained.

There was a hint of illusory admiration in her tone of voice.

"The power of the Star God will help us overcome all difficulties. I know this, I can feel it. Because whenever I think of it, I hear its call."

While Liz was talking, her eyes stayed on the terrifying statue obsessively. A while ago, Lin Xi felt that apart from her terrifying appearance, she was still quiet sound in mind. But at this time, Lin Xi felt a little uncertain about his judgment.

Because the fanaticism and obsession displayed by Liz didn't seem to be still rational in the slightest.

Also, Lin Xi remembered that Liz's father was someone with exceptionally noble blood, something something priest of a temple before he completely lost his mind... and according to the report of a human researcher stationed in Sunu, when those Sunu people first came to madness, the clergy were the most affected.

"So I figured out a way to steal this statue from the warehouse, oh, Dr. Lin, I can swear to you, as soon as the baby's born, I'll send the sculpture back to the warehouse. I just... there's no way..."

Liz stared at the statue in a frenzy, this has probably happened more then once or twice, because after she started babbling some vague prayers, Shizuo Ando quickly took over the conversation.

"I really don't know what to say."

Lin Xi looked at the couple, dumbfounded.

"If Talan knows..."

According to Lin Xi's knowledge of Talan, if that paranoid captain finds out that his beloved sculpture was taken into the ship's cabins by researchers... Lin Xi couldn't even imagine what would happen.

+

"Talan won't be a problem."

Liz suddenly turned her head and answered, she stared at Lin Xi, giggling.

_____

PastTimer: Updates are being moved to Friday again, exams are coming soon and everything else on top of it. I wasn't able to update last time so I'll try to compensate maybe this Saturday