Mother of Insects

 

Even though it's obvious that this weird laughter was only because of Liz's Sunu accent.

Lin Xi still couldn't help feeling terrified- the swollen and deformed mixed-race Sunu woman on the ceiling laughed like he'd never seen before, like a frightening ghost in a horror novel.

At that moment, he thought of Talan... Talan might've been secretly killed by the Ando couple.

This idea was ridiculous, but Lin Xi just couldn't control his chaotic thoughts.

"I went to test Captain Talan..."

Fortunately, Shizuo Ando quickly explained, dispelling the terrible guess in Lin Xi's mind.

"His headaches are very serious. This is an old problem of his, he's been relying on medicine for maintenance. With Helios' accident, his reserve has long been depleted, so he's been occupied for a while... I mean, at least until Dr. Bryce figures out a way to formulate some alternative medicine, he probably won't spare much thought about the statue of the Star God sealed in the warehouse."

He paused, turning his head and glancing at Lin Xi.

Perhaps it was because Lin Xi's expression was a bit too obvious, he seemed to have guessed what he was thinking, he added: "The medicine Captain Talan needs is a special Sunu product. Before this, he came to Liz to ask her if she still had any in stock. We gave him everything we could, but it seems that he ran out of that soon enough..."

"Still..."

Lin Xi wanted to say something more, but quickly noticed Dr. Ando giving him a look behind Liz's back.

He frowned, and followed Ando's hint, after a perfunctory conversation that even he himself didn't remember, he acted very calm and left this cramped, dim and foul-smelling cabin.

As soon as he walked out of that cabin, Lin Xi couldn't help taking a deep breath. He had never considered the always mildly stale air of Helios to be so fresh and charming.

Soon, Ando followed him out after turning off all the lights in the room.

Under the bright lights of the corridor, Ando looked even more haggard and thinner than in mere moments. It was as if this man would be reduced to powder in front of him with just a gust of wind.

He opened his eyes wide and stared blankly at Lin Xi, the look in Ando's eyes made Lin Xi's scalp tingle.

"I know what you're going to say Dr. Lin Xi, and I also know that what I did was wrong." Before Lin Xi had time to speak, he spoke first, "But there was nothing I could do... Dr. Lin Xi, you're a good man, you saw Liz with your own eyes. She probably won't make it through a day without that statue. She would die, and so would the children."

"I don't think a statue can do that. It has an otherworldly aura, yes, I admit that the sculpture looks a bit magical- although I would prefer to describe it as weird. But based on what I just saw, I think Liz needs Bryce's treatment, not a sculpture. Especially a sculpture that had never been approved for private use. Professor Ando, ​​you should remember that once those Sunu relics got aboard Helios, it they've become the property of the government, your behavior—"

"You don't understand..."

Dr. Ando looked at Lin Xi blankly, his lips moved, and his voice sounded so miserable and desperate.

"I don't understand? No, I think you're the one who can't comprehend the reality. I think you should talk to Alisa, Taran may be a jerk, but Alisa's different, she'll help you."

"You don't understand... Dr. Lin Xi, and I hope you never understand..."

Ando kept repeating this sentence.

With each word he spoke, he looked more and more desperate.

Despair, panic.

Ando seemed completely cornered.

"That's not an ordinary statue, it's a statue of the Star God, it's different for the Sunu... please, Dr. Lin Xi, don't tell anyone, don't take this statue... you— Look, I could've refused your entry in the cabin, I could've kept everything a secret. But Liz made a decision, she knows you're good person, someone recognized by the Citadel, so we have nothing to hide from you. Believe me, as soon as Liz and the children are safe, I'll send the sculpture back as quickly as I can, and no one will ever know."

It was a long, rambling plea, filled with hopelessness and pain.

Thinking about it afterwards, Lin Xi felt that he must've been infected by the insanity of Shizuo Ando, ​​or maybe he just wanted to escape from the strange situation. He didn't have time to think too much about it.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have nodded in such a strange way, agreeing to Shizuo Ando's plea— he would pretend that he didn't know anything, letting the Ando couple temporarily keep the Sunu fossil sculpture in their cabin up until Liz gives birth.

This was a stupid decision.

But Lin Xi couldn't refuse Shizuo Ando like that, he was never good at dealing with such people.

Adding Liz's condition to that, oh my god, think of that woman stuck to the ceiling with her own slime.

Who on earth could shake his head at the pleas of such a poor couple?

Lin Xi desperately justified his actions.

"They're octuplets... I'll be having eight lively and lovely children soon... you'll like them, Dr. Lin Xi."

Full of thoughts, walking absent-mindedly on the way to the clinic, Lin Xi suddenly remembered their parting, those words that the ecstatic Shizuo Ando muttered in his ear.

For no reason, Lin Xi shivered.

Maybe he's wrong.

Lin Xi thought to himself suspiciously.

Maybe he shouldn't have helped keep the statue, as Ando had begged.

As Alisa used to say— he had a good intuition.

"Huh..."

Lin Xi let out a long sigh.

Fear, shock, pity, sympathy, disgust, regret...

Until now, his heart was still churning with complicated emotions.

So Lin Xi decided to talk to Bryce.

Although Lin Xi is ever always afraid of the man's nagging, when encountering such things, Lin Xi knows that Bryce was the man who would make the right choice.

Just when Lin Xi relaxed a little, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"..."

Lin Xi turned his head and stared at back with wide eyes.

Something was staring at him— eager, intent, ecstatic.

That gaze almost cut open his body, eating his body, his internal organs, and even his soul clean.

It's just that in reality, the corridor behind Lin Xi was empty. Only the spaceship's various pipelines buried behind the metal walls were there, and they make a soft hum, so subtle it's almost inaudible.

 

"Who?"

Lin Xi asked.

He wished his voice didn't tremble so much.

"I saw you."

After a few seconds of silence, he continued.

But in fact he didn't see anything.

Minutes passed (though it could've been only seconds), and the hallway behind him stayed motionless.

However, the air filter seemed to have encountered a small problem. The fan got stuck in the duct and made a small knocking sound.

Lin Xi trembled slightly in terror.

Then when he came back to his senses, he found that everything had returned to normal.

It was still the same empty corridor and the same humming machinery, but that chilling peeping was finally gone.

Lin Xi was panting, dully observing everything around him.

He was confused and tired, like he had just woken up from a dark nightmare.

Only the cold sweat on his palms and his still unsteady heartbeat reminded him that he's indeed been frightened by some invisible horror just now.

Of course, it's more likely that this is because of some kind of panic attack.

It's always easy for people to get weird ailments during space travel. Talan for example, his profession of being a jerk had to be put on hold because of the headaches.

But now, Lin Xi has even more reason to go to the clinic and talk to Bryce.

Lin Xi sorted out his thoughts restlessly, quickening his pace towards the clinic.

Of course he wouldn't know that at the same moment on the other side of the spaceship, inside the cabin of the Ando couple he had just left, a conversation was unfolding around him.

"I like him."

The person who spoke was Liz. After Lin Xi left, she didn't need to hide anything about herself, and because of this, her voice sounded even weirder— like the whistling sound of some kind of insect rubbing its wings.

Ando Shizuo curled himself up in another corner away from Liz, he wrapped his arms around his knees, and buried his head deeply in the crook of his arms.

After hearing Liz's whisper, he trembled heavily.

"Dr. Lin Xi's a good man."

Ando replied stiffly.

"Yes, he's indeed a good man... he has a very good smell, he must be favored by the Star God... that smell, it makes me so very comfortable and satisfied..."

"I didn't smell anything. Liz, he's really a good man."

Ando opened his eyes in pain in the darkness, he kept whispering.

But what came from the other side was a wet, sticky friction sound, Ando knew that it was Liz moving.

Liz seemed to be laughing, but at the same time, it sounded like crying.

"I know, dear, I know everything... but, I'm really hungry... the children are also very hungry... there's no nutrition to be had in this fossil, it's just dead slough shed from Him... wuuuu... the kids are going crazy with hunger..."

Then there was the sound of chewing.

Click click click click click click

Dr. Ando didn't move, he didn't even dare imagine the scene so close to him.

Although he knew very well in his heart that what Liz was chewing at this time was none other than the fossil sculpture.

"I have to eat something nutritious, you know... to hatch our babies... honey... I can smell it... that man is different, he smells... really delicious..."

Amongst the maddening chewing sound, Liz whispered clearly to Shizuo Ando's ears.

...

In Lin Xi's room, the egg case, which was leisurely floating in the nutrient solution, suddenly twitched violently.

All it's tentacles tightened, and then furiously pulled towards the inner walls of the device.

And the worm egg that had been hastily named "No. 1" slowly stretched its body - it was almost about to burst from the egg shell that wrapped it, but it froze there.

Those bright red, the size of a needle tip wrapped in a translucent film, flickered rapidly.

"Zizi..."

This extremely subtle sound, centered on the small, inconspicuous egg case, spread out like ripples.