Of Men and Spiders

She was trapped in a world of fire and chaos. She had failed in her latest challenge, and the price of that failure would likely be her life. As She tumbled to the world below, She wrapped her Hands around herself in a final desperate attempt to survive the impending crash onto the jungle world below. The shaking grew worse as the ancient home was buckled and buffeted by unforgiving winds for the first time in many centuries. Then there was an impact, and the world grew dark.

-

She didn't know how long she lay in darkness, but as She finally clawed her way back to consciousness, She became aware of a few things. First, the ancient home that had taken many generations of She's ancestors to create was in ruins. Now it was only a pile of rubble.

Second, while She was alive, She was severely injured. Digging her way out of the ruins of her home could still be her death.

Third, many of her Hands no longer answered her calls. Once, She had controlled thousands of Hands. Now only a few functioned.

Finally, She was hungry. If She was going to take advantage of this second chance She'd been given, She must feed.

With a silent command, She sent what Eyes and Hands she could spare into this new primitive world to bring her food. She would need a significant amount of biological matter if She was going to rebuild her colony.

-

Alice was enjoying her vacation, mostly. The air was fresh, the water was clean, and the land was beautiful. She's never seen anything like it! The only problem was her family didn't seem as happy to be here as she was.

Her mom was usually so fun and happy. She'd smile and giggle all day, speaking to fairies only she could see. However, after landing on this planet, she got angry. She said it was because she couldn't get any medicine here. Apparently, she needed her medicine, too, because she got sick not long after that. Really sick. At first, she was sweating a lot, then she had a tummy ache that didn't seem to go away. Scott told her she needed to drink more water to replace what she was losing, and maybe get in the water to clean herself off, but all she really wanted to do was sleep all day. Or shout at Scott.

Scott was a bit better. When he went on walks with Alice, he seemed happy enough, or at least less angry than he was back home. He didn't have that same scowl he always had when Dad was around, and Dad wasn't here with them. He'd said he had to talk to some men and needed them to disappear for a while. Apparently, disappearing meant going camping, and Alice was okay with that.

At the moment, Alice was swimming while Scott sat on a nearby rock and "keeping an eye on her," by swimming, she meant she was wading around in the water, finding cool new plants and bugs to play with.

Looking over at her brother, Alice could see Scott smiling for once! That was the first time in a long time Alice could remember that she'd seen him smile like that, and it made her so happy she just had to go splash him!

-

Scott tried to keep from getting annoyed at his new damp situation. Then he got an idea and grinned maliciously. The smile must have given something of his plan away because Alice meeped and tried to dive underwater, but she wasn't nearly fast enough. Scott scooped her up before hurling her out into the slightly deeper water.

His sister surfaced and had the audacity to look annoyed with him. Scott merely splashed some more water on his sister. "You started it, munchkin! Don't start something if you're not prepared to see it through!"

Apparently, Alice's anger was just for show because she quickly switched back to a toothy grin as she held up her fist, which was now wrapped in the leather cord that held his medallion, his most prized possession. It was the only thing he had left from his father. His real father. Not the loser his drug-muddled mom called a husband these days.

Scott sputtered in indignation that was at least half real. "How'd you get that? Give that back!"

Alice smiled even wider. "If you want it, come and get it!" She dove further into the water, forcing Scott to swim after her.

Several minutes later, after plenty of roughhousing, swimming, and a final shout of victory, Scott was back on land, drying himself out on a rock as he examined his medallion, remembering better times. Alice crept up behind him and looked over his shoulder at his prize. "Tell me about your dad again."

Scott looked at his little sister with a half-exasperated grin. "Why do you want to listen to me talk about him? You've already heard all my stories!"

Alice collapsed her legs into a seat the way only the very young can and grinned. "Yeah, but talking about him always makes you happy!"

Scott felt his smile fall a little. "No, it doesn't. It makes me sad."

Alice tilted her head. "It makes you both, but more happy than sad. You're proud of him!"

Scott felt his eyes tear up a little, and his smile returned. "Well yeah, who wouldn't be? He was a hero! Did I ever tell you about when he fought off a dozen pirates who'd snuck aboard his ship?"

Alice beamed her toothy grin. "Yup, but tell it again anyway!"

Scott smiled. "Okay, it all started when some pirate heard him talking about his next delivery while he was at port. The pirate decided to rob him in space so that Dad couldn't call for help. So he snuck onboard the ship with a dozen of his men..."

As Scott told his story, Alice listened eagerly. She was most looking forward to the big fight at the end. Scott always got so animated when he reached that part. This was one of her favorite stories.

-

She watched her Hands work through the vision granted to her by her Eyes. Her Hands roamed far and wide in search of nutrients necessary to ensure She could flourish on this planet. One Hand came across a particularly bountiful specimen. It had died only recently and was still in excellent condition. It was wrapped in strange materials that She did not recognize.

In fact, the whole area was littered with strange and unrecognizable materials. She instructed a few other Hands to go to the site and retrieve samples of the odd materials. She didn't know if anything could be gained from them, but She did not become She by ignoring learning opportunities.

Most of her Hands had retrieved full loads and were on their way back, but one was still gathering materials when a couple of beasts stumbled into the clearing. They were clearly the same species as the dead specimen she'd found, but they appeared different in size, color, and other characteristics. Perhaps these were its offspring? Or were the genders of the species severely dimorphic or even trimorphic?

She supposed it didn't matter at the moment. There are likely countless other specimens on this planet to study. For now, She needed sustenance. She ordered her Hand to acquire the specimens for consumption.

-

Scott approached the campsite in disbelief. The whole thing was in ruins, as if it had been ransacked while they were gone. At first, he'd been furious. He could only think that their mom had finally snapped due to withdrawals and had given into a full-on psychotic fulled fit. But his anger turned to icy fear when a spider the size of a large dog crawled out of the underbrush, reaching toward him with what appeared to be some rather wicked-looking pincers.

Scott stood transfixed, his mind whirling so fast that he couldn't act on any thought before another ten started to take its place. He might have stood there frozen until death found him if not for an urgent tugging on his pant leg.

With horror, Scot remembered Alice was here with him, but this time instead of locking him in place, his fear pushed him into action. Turning around, he lifted her under his arm and took off running.

As he weaved through the trees, he could hear the skittering of the monster in close pursuit. Maybe if he'd been alone, he could have outrun the thing, but carrying Alice, there was no way he'd get away.

Looking around furiously, he noticed a tree with low branches. Scott didn't know if the monster could climb, but without time to plan, it was all he could think of.

Running to the tree, he hopped up, grabbed the branch, and hauled himself and Alice up. From there, he grabbed the next branch and repeated the process. Over and over, he climbed, putting as much distance between himself and the ground as he could. He only looked down once he'd made enough headway that he was confident the thing couldn't easily jump up to get them.

The monster circled the tree a few times as though trying to puzzle out what to do next. Then to Scott's horror, it began to climb. It wasn't as quick or efficient as Scott, but that didn't matter. It essentially had them cornered.

Alice tugged on his sleeve. She was crying. "What about Mommy? What happened to Mommy?"

Scott closed his eyes and fought back unwanted tears. She might have been a drugged-up loser these days, but she was his mom too. Once upon a time, she'd been a good mother, but from what he'd seen of the camp, there was no way she'd survived the attack.

When he opened his eyes again, Scott saw the monster had made it past the first branch and was steadily getting closer. He didn't have time to mourn. He and Alice would die if he didn't do something now.

Patting his pockets, he pulled out a folding knife from the time he'd briefly studied to be an explorer, scouting new planets. But that time had passed, and this knife was nowhere near enough to kill that monster.

Looking around for something else, he also saw a dead branch nearby. It looked ready to fall, and it wouldn't take much effort to break it loose. Looking back at his knife, he finally had a plan.

Reaching up, Scott tore the branch free and quickly stripped the twigs from the stem. He took out his medallion and used the leather cord to tie the knife to the stick. It wasn't great and would probably fall apart after a single attack, but it was all he had. He'd just have to make it count.

Alice had been watching the whole time he worked. She seemed numb with shock, which made sense, given...everything. Scott looked at her and forced eye contact. "Hey, munchkin. If this works, you and I might be on our own for a little while, and I'm going to need your help, so stay with me! If it doesn't...well... It'll work. It has to!"

Alice nodded, though her expression was empty. Scott wasn't sure how much of what he said got through, but when he looked down, he could see the monster still climbing, so he was out of time. Scott closed his eyes and took a deep breath. If he was going to act, it was now or never. So despite his fear, he forced his eyes open and pushed himself off the branch.

With a scream of primal rage and fear, he fell onto the spider, jamming his improvised spear into one of its eyes. As the boy and spider fell, he struggled to drive the spear deeper, feeling impacts on the branches as he and the spider tumbled and fell. Finally, they hit the ground, and Scott rolled away.

Standing back up, he still had the stick in hand, but the knife had broken loose and fallen beside the spider. Scott's heart sank when the spider pulled itself up to its legs. When the spider stepped toward him, he gripped the stick tightly, prepared to use it as a club in a final desperate attempt to survive.

Then unexpectantly, the spider froze. Scott wasn't sure what was happening, but they sat silently, staring at each other for over a minute. After enough time passed and Scott started to wonder if the spider was somehow dead on its feet, it started moving, waving its legs about in chaotic movements that might have been a threat display or maybe brain damage. Scott remained tensed, ready for action, then suddenly, the thing turned and walked away.

-

This changed things. These were not just more stupid animals. It was clear the way the larger one had combined metal and a stick. These were tool users.

For a dreadful moment, She wondered just how intelligent they were. She ordered her Hand to freeze and stretched her voice over the miles between them to try speaking with the beast. When that failed, she ordered her Hand to try physically representing basic principles like quantities and pattern recognition, but either the creature wasn't advanced enough to understand, or something else was getting in the way of their communication...

Still, these were at least clever beasts capable of more advanced problem-solving than most simple creatures. She could learn a lot from observing them. Right now, stranded on a strange planet, alone and diminished as she was, that knowledge could easily be worth more than temporary sustenance.

She ordered her Hand to leave them be and instead directed several of her Eyes to follow and observe these strange thinking beasts, hoping they might teach her something that would tip the scales of survival in her favor.

-

Scott didn't know what to think. This planet wasn't supposed to have any significant predators like that. Sure, some animals or plants might be dangerous to Alice on her own, but nothing that could be a threat to a sixteen-year-old with basic survival training like Scott...

But that didn't matter. Right now, Scott had to focus on survival. As much as he didn't want to return to their camp, for fear of more of those odd spider monsters, the spiders would be the least of their problems if they didn't get some basic supplies.

Sorting through the debris, it was clear that the campsite had been ransacked. Scott couldn't decide if it was a blessing or a curse that their mother was nowhere to be found. What was worse was that whatever had done this had done a disturbingly thorough job of cleaning out the place. Almost everything metal had been taken, that included anything from electronics to their pots and pans. The tents were torn to shreds, but Scott grabbed any sizeable strips of fabric he could find and used them as a makeshift backpack to store any other odds and ends that could be salvaged.

It was a moment of profound relief when he found their first aid supplies and a decent amount of dried and packaged food. It would last them a little over a week, maybe longer if he rationed it enough. It would run out eventually, but perhaps it would last long enough for them to adapt to their new living situation. Assuming the world wasn't crawling with those spider monsters...

After gathering everything they could find, Scott took the time to treat some of his abrasions. They weren't severe, but the last thing they needed out here was for him to be laid low by an infection just because he didn't take a small cut seriously enough.

As he worked, Alice hovered nearby, hugging her favorite stuffed rabbit tightly while staring with eyes that were clearly lost. She was in shock, and for now, that was fine. If they lived long enough, Scott could see to her mental and emotional well-being, but first, they had to live through today.

Everything complete, he shouldered his improvised pack. It was far from perfect, but they needed to move. He was not going to stay here after what had happened. Wherever they set up camp, he would ensure it was as far away from this location as he could safely get.

-

She watched the two specimens as they worked. The larger one had a purpose to its actions, though they made little sense to She. It seemed excited by the discovery of the container that had smelled of various toxins. Perhaps he would incorporate those chemicals into some kind of self-defense mechanism? It applied some substances to a break in his hide before wrapping it up. It's possible the chemicals may take time to absorb safely.

It again became excited at discovering the odd scentless packs she hadn't gathered yet. Those were originally going to be collected by the Hand she'd attacked them with, but She decided to let the specimens have them and watch and see what they'd do with them.

The other, smaller specimen simply stood around, not doing anything productive. It must be a drone of limited function, though She had no hint of what that function might be. It was too small to provide protection. Its ocular sensors seemed no more developed than the larger one. It didn't seem fit to act as a beast of burden or provide any additional input or assistance. Perhaps it was still in its larval stage?

Eventually, the larger of the two took the smaller one by its grasping appendage, and they started walking away. As they walked, She devised several hypotheses based on their actions. The larger specimen was probably female. She seemed to be the dominant one and appeared to be in charge of all decision-making, while the smaller one, possibly a male, seemed more limited due to a lack of development or perhaps greater specialization that wasn't yet apparent.

Also, the female seemed to have a heightened awareness of their situation, acting as both a primitive She and a Guard, while the male seemed oblivious to its surroundings, obviously entirely dependent on its She to survive. The obvious choice would be to cut the male off and begin anew elsewhere, but perhaps the female needed the male to mature to begin its new colony?

It was all too early to make any conjecture, though. Instead, She directed a few of her Eyes to follow and observe. If nothing else, She could learn more about this world She now found herself trapped in while studying these thinking animals.