When I open my eyes, I find myself alone with just the pain of my leg and my fungicide burns. I’m in a mushroom forest—excuse me, forest—but where are Cleve and Cor? I push myself to seated and realize there’s no sign of the campfire, either. Last thing I knew, I was right next to it. And come to think of it, there are no robots. Is this even our campsite? I’m not sure; I never saw it in daylight. It’s a beautiful day now, though.
I climb to my feet. The best thing to do is seek higher ground in the hopes of figuring out where I am. At the top of the hillside, I get a gorgeous view. For a moment, it doesn’t matter that I’m alone and confused—I just marvel at the landscape spread out before me. As I turn, taking in all sides, the outlook grows grim. There’s a forest fire in the distance, on another hillside across the way. Black smoke billows up from the flames, which are spreading rapidly in this direction. I can feel the heat from it. It seems closer now than just a moment ago, close enough to threaten my safety.
But where am I? Has anyone passed this way? I have to still be near the network node, right? But that fire looks to be over where our cryopods were. And yet, it feels close. That’s at least two days’ walk away, maybe three. How can I see it from here? What is going on?
I look more closely at the vegetation around me. The flora is more like what was near our crash site than what was near the network node. The xenofungus briars are thicker here, the larger blue and green mushroom trees less pronounced. ¡Ay! This must be a dream. Or a hallucination. Or something not quite real. Cleve and Corazon would not have left me. And if I was caught by Morgan’s people, they would not have just dumped me in the wilderness. Plus, the way that fire is moving is just not realistic. It’s traveling downhill, for goodness sake.
So… something is happening at the cryopods. I know that’s what I’m seeing. Is it really a fire? I have no idea. That’s what it’s presenting as in my mind, at any rate. Is this what a lucid dream is like? I’ve heard of them but have never experienced one myself. It’s actually somewhat liberating. I’m not really in danger from the fire, so I might as well investigate it. It seems the focal point of this whole experience, and I cannot believe this is just random. There must be meaning in what I’m experiencing.
I start to head down my hill toward the one on fire. As I go, I try to connect to the flora in the area. The ones closer to the fire might be sensing something pertinent, and maybe I can get a read through them. For a moment, the vibrant world around me dims as my attention is focused on this new power within me. There’s a push and pull to it. I’m drawing from the environment, but if I don’t manage it with enough finesse, I pull from myself. This is a dangerous activity, even when I do get it to work right. It’s like taking a heavy casserole out of the oven. If you forget to put on oven mitts, you burn yourself, no question. Even if you do have some mitts on, they’re inevitably too thin and you still feel some of the heat. This is perhaps more of a forge. I’m not sure any mitts would be strong enough to protect me completely. The best I can do is uncomfortable twinges. I need to be mindful of what I attempt with this connection I have to the miasma and fungus of this planet.
I’m not there at the source of the trouble, but with twisted dream logic, I get a view of drilling equipment and large machines for clear-cutting forest. Cor did tell us that Morgan Industries was eying our crash site for potential mining. Maybe that has already started, and this whole experience is the biome crying out about it. Chiron has history with Nwabudike Morgan, and it is not a positive one. I can feel that; it permeates the landscape. He fears this place—how alien it is—and he will remake it into Earth as much as he can. He may have come here because he sensed opportunity and wealth, but what he found when he got here frightened him. I find this planet wondrous, but I can see how others might find it terrifying. I’m lucky that the two people I just showed purple sparkles to are not among them.
I turn, taking in the dreamscape in all directions. There’s a shimmerfly off in the distance, just like when I was passing out. Then I blink, and when I open my eyes again, I’m on the ground next to a campfire, looking up through shroom branches at a smoke-free sky.