trans_9 | "This is Siaynoq." She said. "All that remains of the Tyrant's greatest ritual." [OPEN]

Sheeana doesn't like to train in the sensorium. There's something about the guarantee of safety, the artificiality of the sorroundings...It dulls her edge. Her reactions are a fraction of a second too slow.

Instead she's brought her little maker to the park with her. Purple grass. Strange, crystalline trees. Bags of multicolored sand lie in a heap a few meters away, where she's dragged them from the nearby playground.

The sandworm is barely seven feet long on its diet of scraps and sickly from the humid environment. Even still, it rears back and snaps at her with impressive speed on the purple grass. Sheeana dodges back and twists side to side. Each snap of the tripartite jaws closes just a few inches from her. She is a literal blur of motion, dancing evasively then vaulting over it like a naked ancient Greek on a vase.

There is something to this scene of a boy wrestling with his dog. It can be seen on the Dune waif's little crook of a smile.

She draws her crysknife. The bone-white blade is the tooth of an adult maker, and she tells her charge so: "Someday you'll have teeth this big too."

She feints playfully at it, careful to keep her arm from getting caught in it mouth with its rows of little daggers and blazing internal fire.

She doesn't realize she's not alone at first.

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[Is fine!]

What a strange way of getting around. Is he using suspensors? She thinks and sniffs. She gets...nothing. Absolutely no human pheremones, no sweat, none of the chemical cacaphony associated with a person. Her face is a pleasant mask but internally she is on her guard.

"How do you do? I am Sheeana."

"Brainiac 5," he says. There's a pause and he reluctantly adds, "the second one."

His attention shifts to the worm for a moment and he continues speaking. "I noticed you and your... pet as I was passing by. What is it?"

"And who is the first?" A leading question. Is/was will reveal much, if he deigns to correct her.

"This is Shai Halud, the great sandworm of my home planet. This one's still an infant, but adults have been measured at kilometres long."

Brainy blinks in surprise and tilts his head curiously. "You haven't met my counterpart?" he asks. "We both come from different dimensions, but our appearances are similar enough. Most others I have met so far have met him already, which was why I mentioned it."

The sandworm gets another curious look, and this time Brainy's eyes light up as he scans it in order to learn more. "It came here with you?"

"I haven't spent much time in engineering." Her glance appraises him. Her senses open to things normally overlooked, consciously shifting through the 'background noise' normally filtered out of human perception. "And yes, this one came with me. I knew him back on Chapterhouse, I think..." There it is, something subtly wirring where the sussuration of breathing should be. It's...Thinking machine! Without her years of training, her face would have betrayed shock.

"Chapterhouse?" Brainy asks, not really paying attention to the scrutiny he was under. No doubt it was just natural curiosity about another unusual life form, much like what motivated him to kneel down by the sandworm and reach a hand towards it slowly. "Does he have a name?"

"Home for the past couple years." The sandworm secreted agitation, though it did not show it. Only her nose could pick up the subtle chemical sharpness. What is it? What does the worm sense about him?

She listened again. That subtle whirring...Thinking machine! Had she not been trained against it, her face would have registered alarm. "I call this one Tyrant." She said, still seemingly smiling. But behind her total blue eyes, gears were spinning, murders considered.

"I see," Brainy answers, though it's clear he's not really paying much attention to Sheena for the time being. The worm didn't seem to object overly to his closeness, so he reached a little further in order to position his hand over it. A panel in his forearm slid back at the same time a pale green light focused on the sandworm, and Brainy tapped at some buttons to initiate a more detailed scan as well as record what he learned.

"Is there any reason you call him that?" he asked absently as he worked.

"A joke. A relative of mine was called that..." Something happened within the worm. It reared on its hind segments, tripartite mouth opening to expose rows of little knives. Its little roar was half squeal, a growl that rose abruptly at the end quickly out of human hearing.

"Stop!" I understand how you feel. But we must bide our time. The worm obeyed, no longer looking as if it were going to lunge at him, but it was far from quiescent. "I'm sorry...it seems being scanned distresses him." Her smile was all sweetness but her interior state was closer to the worm a few moments ago.

Brainy frowns, but withdraws his hand, the limb changing back to its normal appearance. "It shouldn't cause any discomfort, but I can stop. I have enough data to look over for the time being."

He stands up and turns to face Sheena again. Maybe just a little too late, it occurs to him that he should have asked first. "You don't mind, do you?" It obvious the question is just him being polite, the idea that the answer would be anything other than 'no' hasn't even crossed his mind.

"This is Siaynoq." She said. "All that remains of the Tyrant's greatest ritual." [OPEN]

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