Mortal Protection Services Chapter 7: IV.S: S̸͔̳̓͋c̷̨̈́͋͝o̵̙̩̲̾̓ṷ̷̜͛̐ͅr̴̼̣̉g̷̰̭̞̒͊͘ę̷̛͈͕̾̈́

Read chapter 7 of Mortal Protection Services by B.T.Skull on NovelPedia.

IV.S: S̸͔̳̓͋c̷̨̈́͋͝o̵̙̩̲̾̓ṷ̷̜͛̐ͅr̴̼̣̉g̷̰̭̞̒͊͘ę̷̛͈͕̾̈́ "Jim, why is there a file for the Scourge in the MPS database. Is... Is the fucking Scourge under our protection too?" "Look, here's full access. Why don't you read the file yourself, Abstainer. Go use the Experiencer for all I care, that's how I got so good at humany stuff. I be-ed some of you. Anyhow, I've got another two dozen species to work out escape plans for in the next two hundred years, and a fresh batch of hyperspace grad students to induct to the MPS Primitive Machines Studies program today. I'm incredibly busy." "Thanks Jim..." "... I fuckin' will go use the Experiencer I ain't scared." Trapped. Hungry... so hungry. Trapped. Confined. Alone. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. A light? Food. Still hungry. Trapped. Alone. A light, food. A morsel, a piece of flesh? Food. Flesh is better food. Still hungry. Alone. Trapped. Hungry. A light. Food. I grow. A rumble. A violent shake, a new sudden light, too bright for food. Heat, so much heat I shrink. It burns, but my cage breaks, and from outside the cage I feel a new kind of food in all directions. I feel food in the air; absorbing it, devouring it, I grow. Still... always hungry. So very hungry. I devour this new food all around in the air, I expand. I evolve. There is flesh, there is wood, water, there is so much to eat, but always... always I am still hungry for more. As I eat the flesh, it starts to fight back, it drops little metal tubes that make hot blasts. Takes off pieces of me, but they leave more than enough food to grow back. It hurts at first, but tastes good in the end. I always grow back and then some. The metal tubes taste better if I catch them before they touch me. I can stop the hot blast, and still eat all the extra food that ends up in the air. Catching tubes almost makes me not feel hungry for just a moment, but I grow, and my hunger grows with me. I'm on a ball, I've covered most of it now, the last of the flesh is leaving on metal tubes. I caught a few and didn't let them leave, but some others got away. I want more of the flesh. I want to eat more, so I sit, and I think. It takes a long time, because I am so hungry. The only food I get now is from the ball of fire. I spin around it many times, thinking. Hungering. If only there was more flesh to eat. I could use it to be smarter. I only figured out being smart right at the end, as the last of the tasty flesh was leaving. What's this... a fresh tube from on high? Where did this come from? Delicious. More? More! Uh oh, that's more more than I can catch. Oh ow. Ow, ow ow ow. Wow, that really hurt. They cleared a spot to land and put down barriers that I climbed all over, but couldn't get inside... at first. They were smart, they went down and under with their barriers, and dug into the ball below. I reached all over. They knew I could pile on, but I don't think they thought I could squeeze as hard as I did, because before we had even spun a whole time around the ball of fire, I had cracked the barriers and ate the flesh inside. I got smart. I understood those old tubes they escaped with, kinda. I knew I could use the food still falling on me from the latest round of spicy, exploding tubes to make my own version of flying tubes. I put all the thinking parts that I could into the rockets, and shot myself into space. And I crashed back onto myself in failure. Space was harsh, and full of food at the same time, but I was not fully prepared. Adaptations. Evolutions. Adjustments were needed. Many spins later, many failures later, and I found I could sustain a certain mass in space, indefinitely. Many spins later and I had sent all that I could. The last of the food from the last tubes was fading, and so I loaded the last of my thinking parts into the final seed, and sent it off to another star. It would be ten thousand cycles before the first of us arrived, and we would be ever so hungry. Odd. I can still hear them, and they can hear me. They are me, but they a