NOVEL NEXT 50. Maddison’s goodbye
Maddison was experiencing many things, primarily fear, confusion and excitement. In front of her, there were thousands of Astrodelphii, the creature speaking all around Earth, the direct and indirect cause of many events both good and disastrous.
Caelicetus finished his speech silence permitted the area, only polluted by the sound of his blood falling. Then the girl felt her mind expand.
Voices, emotions, images, places, and more all filtered through her mind, soon she felt her mind be touched by something beyond her comprehension and two voices spoke simultaneously.
[Welcome on Caelum and in the Hive Mind, Maddison. Now, I'm going to be clear, as harsh, hypocritical, and unfair as it sounds, you will be going back to Earth in the foreseeable future, but exceptions can be made. It's related to your general safety. As smart as you are, I presume you can anticipate what will happen.], Caelicetus said, as much as he wanted he could not do much to change this.
Maddison nodded, it was a bit too big. And she was going to ask something when one curious Astrodelphis calf floated in front of her, then another one and two curious and overly excited voices spoke in her mind.
[Who are you? What are you? Do you want to play!? Where are your parents?]
Feeling her increasing distress the space whale isolated Maddison from the two calves and strings of information flowed in her brain.
[I will teleport you to Earth, to say goodbye to your parents, or I can teleport both of them here. Would you like the first or second options? To speak you must project your thoughts to me.]
A pending silence, Caelicetus waited for an answer, not glimpsing into her mind to have it. It was 'her' choice, after all. Though he supposes she will choose the second.
[I-I… I want… I want to say goodbye to them. Would they think I'm a monster?], her voice trembled as she realized the physical change she just underwent and the implication.
She still looked like Maddison, same face, and size, but her hair was a tint of blue, her right eye was permanently the same color as one of Caelicetus' eyes, her teeth sharper, and most of her skin beside her face has become translucent, her glowing blue muscle visible through her skin.
At least she looked human, in shape, which she partially was.
'Hmm… That's surprising.', Caelicetus remarked, well it was not a final goodbye, more like a vacation camp kind of goodbye.
[You don't qualify to be a monster, it is by their actions someone can be considered as one, not by their mere physicality. I won't deny that your change of species will shock your parents.], he said, she was a victim of circumstance and his own questionable choice.
Maddison nodded with a heavy heart, she knew thanks to the whale why she was like this but she couldn't for everything feel any negative emotion towards him. And she also knew why, but couldn't do anything but accept it.
It was brainwashing, no, something even deeper, something akin to fanatical worshiping mixed with absolute loyalty and obedience, as simple as that. It was done in such a way that it felt perfectly natural.
It wasn't the space whale's intention for that to be the case, it wasn't him who made the blueprint of the Astrodelphii, but that was him who recklessly used it on a planetary scale on every cetacean held in captivity.
Astrocetus could be compared to farmers, architects, builders, and more but benevolent, or even good. No, they were not. It was not black and white, evil destructive space hydra and good peaceful space whale. It couldn't be farther from the truth.
Causing catastrophe that would make the asteroid that gave the coup de grâce to the dinosaurs like it was a speck of dust. Just as a farmer would use pesticide, or species such as ladybug to get rid of vermin, but the garden for them were planets.
His words about her not being a monster were very impactful because he was one. In body, mind, and spirit. This was an undeniable fact, but it was also the characteristic of a creature beyond mortal comprehension.
A god for all intent and purpose in her mind and the general consensus of the hive mind and a bit more than a third of humanity.
'Right… How silly. Of course, I'm not one. I don't deserve to be considered one.', she corrected herself, feeling her going cleared a full-blown smile showing her pointy teeth snake his way onto her face.
Caelicetus mentally sighed, this was not how a preteen having her life turned upside down, species force fully changed should react and feel but here they were.
[I'm ready.], she said telepathically, space folded and half a minute later she was back on Earth, in the living room of her mother.
"She disappeared! I do-don't know how!?", Emma yelled through her smartphone to her ex-husband Mark, she didn't look at the absolute mess that won on her face.
"Mom calm down, I'm here.", she said awkwardly, only now noticing that she was at least half a meter taller.
Emma's body froze, the angry, and worried voice of Mark was the only one they could hear. Her head slowly, and mechanically turned in Maddison's direction.
"Maddy?", Emma said in a trembling voice and without much thought and hugged Maddison like she was going to disappear again. The half-alien girl hugged her back only Caelicetus stopping it from turning to the worse.
She was not only taller but stronger and if he didn't reduce her strength she would have folded her mom in half, effectively paralyzing her or straight up killing her.
She now could bend stainless steel like it was modeling clay. A hug from her can be quite deadly.
"Wh-what happened to you?", the woman said, in an in-between terror and distress. Her eyes fixated on the face of her daughter, getting paler as she saw the translucent skin of the arms.
"I evolved thanks to Caeli. Though… I'm sorry but I must say, my goodbye Mom. I don't want to be dissected and put you in danger.", Maddison responded jovially, a strange glint in her more human eye. Almost too jovially.
'Caeli? Seriously… a pet name, but that is a breath of fresh air from the usual Your Divine Majesty and other such fanatical nonsense.'
'Wh-what…', was the only thing the human mother could think before space folded and Maddison was teleported into a little village in the middle of Alaska.
"Good morning Dad! Sorry for the confusion and distress I caused you hehe.", Maddison said and hugged her Dad who could only babble nonsense in incomprehension about what was ongoing.
[And another one saved… Control your strength, will you? These are just fragile humans… think of them as… hmm butterflies, extremely delicate butterflies.], Caelicetus joked that earned him a 'Sowrrrryyy!' from her which he answered with a chuckle.
Erik snapped back to reality, and she gave him the same explanation, forcefully stopping any attempt from him to make her listen to him.
Suddenly the Russel family was teleported to the Moon, Maddison gazing upon Earth with familiarity from the memory shared by the hive mind. Both of the adults stared at their home planet, brains refusing to work.
Maddison's entire body language changed, body straightening in weird angles, and she said in a horrifying voice as if she was possessed. Instantly the air got colder and heavier, becoming almost unbreathable. The humans' hair stood on end, their heartbeats dramatically increased, and their bodies froze with primal terror.
"Do not worry human Emma Russel and human Erik Russel. Your daughter, or should I say to be more astute, our, will not be harmed in any way shape, or form, she is my responsibility, unless, of course, I were to die. In this case, this will be the last of your worries before this universe gets devoured.", she said, or more like he, as it was Caelicetus who spoke through her.
And both were teleported back to their house with no explanation whatsoever.