"Well, hello there." I said smiling as I looked down at the small liquid-like blob with two small antennas sticking from its body, that pointed directly at me, as if it looked me in the face with them. The thing was a fist-sized and looked like a snail without its shell or a slug, but entirely transparent. As if the slug was made out of mucus or slime.
I've never seen or read about a creature like this, but there was no doubt that it was not just some dirt, mold, fungi or whatever you may find on the floor. And it was definitely alive. This thing definitely moved, shaking its jelly-like body in a strange pattern. It seemed to try to take a form of glob but couldn't hold it long and started to spill on the floor, taking the natural form of a liquid, before repeating the process.
Its body was entirely transparent jelly with no bones or innards; the only thing I noticed within its liquid body were small bubbles, like in a glass of soda, as if it slowly boiled inside or produced gasses.
"You are the first living being who I met here." I said, activating my gloves and face mask in a half-face mode. A black material rose from my collar, covering my jaw bone to the ear and hiding my face up to the nose. Similar thing happened to my hands, cowering my whole wrists, turning into gloves. I hesitated for a second and decided to raise the mask's transparency, turning it translucent, before sitting down on my hunches.
It did not seem dangerous, but I didn't want to risk it. The liquids inside it seem corrosive in nature and may be even toxic, or poisonous, or venomous, or… I ran out of words to describe my worry.
"What are you little fella?" I said, slowly stretching my hand toward it in an attempt to touch it with my index finger.
I don't know why, ok? It's just in men's nature to poke or touch a fully looking thing, like a kid. And this thing looked like a big glob of snot. Totally something you would want to touch as a man.
However, it seemed to be wary of me too and recoiled back a little from my finger, pointing its antennas at my finger as if studying it for a few moments before it stretched out another small sprout from its jelly body and touched my finger with it as if… greeting me?
Too cute! This thing was too cute. It's decided, I am taking it with me!
"What do you say? Want to be my friend? Want me to get you out of this hole?" I said. But the thing just kept on studying me without any change. No way it was sentient enough to understand me.
"Right. You can't speak or understand. But I'll still ask little fella. Do you know where the feeder is?" I said with a smile. Obviously it did not answer.
"Feed. To eat. Nyam, nyam, you know?" I said in a joke pointing at my mouth as if putting something in it and chewing, then rubbing my tummy.
And this time jelly did something strange. It turned its antennae in another direction. Away from me. As if…pointing… straight up.
"No way…" I said in shock as something clicked in my mind. I pointed my flashlight to the ceiling.
"Oh you've got to be... Ffffuck!" I said in frustration. "Of course! How could I not think about it?"
"There, several dozen meters above me and right in the middle of the ceiling was something looking like a big device. And I had no doubt it was exactly what I was looking for. Only I needed to go up instead of down.
"Oh maaaan." I said with disappointment.
"But, you could understand me right? You are a smart little fella, aren't you?" The thing did not reply, turning his antennas toward me and studying me intently.
"Thanks to you, I've found what I was looking for. Thank you." I said to the slime-like thing with a smile, and it shook its body strangely as if nodding at me.
That's it! This guy is my new best pal! I am taking him! Definitely taking him
"What do you say? Want to be my second-best friend. You, me and Keith. We will be a gang from now on!" And funny as you might think it, the little fella shook in a nodding manner once again. It may have been just my imagination talking me into something that wasn't there, but it was all I needed from him as a confirmation. Yeah, you noticed how I started referring to him as a 'he'. My new bro here was a person. An individual. You can't demean him by calling him 'it', you'll have a problem with me if you do.
I removed my gloves and touched him with my bare hands. He was a bit cold as a liquid, but did not feel slick or sticky as I thought he might be. Like a fruit that had juicy flesh bound by a skin, this fella seemed to be covered by a durable, elastic layer that held his mucus like liquids inside him.
Seeing as nothing happened to my skin from touching him I scooped him into both my palms, picking him from the floor.
"Let's get out of here the…" I started to say but a third sprout that he used to touch me in a greeting manner, turned somewhere away from me, as if pointing me somewhere.
"There?" I asked in wonder. This is silly. How can this slime-like little thing be smart enough to point? Animals or any other creatures usually don't understand the concept of pointing and only look at the edge of the finger with which you point as if you show them the finger. They can't draw an invisible line from point A to point B in their minds. But this fella can?
I walked in the direction where he pointed me, carefully watching his actions and became more and more convinced that he really did point, as his antennas adjusted their trajectory as I walked.
When we came to the center of the wide field I finally found something that he pointed at. It was a smooth, polished stone just a bit smaller than the creature in my hands. When we were near it, the slime started to shake in waves as if in excitement, showing me that we were in the right place.
"What's this?" I asked, picking up the stone and presenting it to my new friend. He immediately shuffled over my palms, half covering that stone with his slimy body and shook again in his excited manner. Small bubbles started to rise inside more intensely for a moment before it calmed down and looked back at me with its antennas.
"I see. Your important thing. Is this all your luggage then?" I asked with a smile. I've read about some animal that keeps a favorite stone to help it crack nuts. It's an important object to them, and they would guard it with their lives only ever allowing their owner, the one who feeds and protects its children, to touch it. I think that animal was named otter or something like that.
The little fella did not say anything but changed his gaze up, as if looking to the exit of this empty field with longing.
"Ready to go, Otty?" I said and this time he had a reaction looking back at me, in what I thought of as an expression of wonder.
"Yeah. Did not know what to call you. What do you think of, Otty?" I asked. "Sounds cute as you are."
And just for a second I think I saw something like a nod from it. Again. It all may just be my imagination. How can it understand me if it lived here its entire life. If it was a creature brought from another universe, when the Demonic race came here, there is no way this fella ever heard our language, and would not be able to understand even if he could discern the patterns of speech.
"I'll think of it as a 'yes'." I said and walked back toward the stairs in anticipation of a good 'ol climb back up promising me a total exhaustion. All because of my stupidity to not think of pointing the damn light up.
"At least I met my new best friend." I said with a sigh, giving Otty a weak smile.
"I bet you can't wait. Must have been lonely, sitting in this pit all alone for centuries." I kept talking more for my own satisfaction. Otty wasn't a talkative guy and could do without my blabbering.
How do I know it lived here for centuries instead of just falling here yesterday? You see, the stone in its possession is none other than a piece of 4GM solid structure, from which the entire Star Devourer is made off including the enclosure. And the stone is totally rounded and smooth, as if a simple stone worn by the sea. An indestructible stone with corroded edges. Can you imagine?
When I saw the small bubbles rise inside it, when it smothered the stone, I had no doubt that this small fella was somehow digesting it. Very slowly. Barely perceptible but digesting it nonetheless. It most likely took centuries for it to just smoothen the stone's edges, but it was still an achievement greater than my entire civilization could manage.
Once I saw this stone, it became apparent just how long this fella was here. Remember when I said this enclosure's floor looked unnaturally clean, when I looked from above? It wasn't just clean. It was polished. This little fella lived off dust and small particles that slowly floated down. Cleaning the floor of every speck over and over, in an attempt to survive without being fed for centuries, he corroded the upper layer of material with its licking, smoothening all roughness until it was polished almost into a mirror. Seeing how small his corrosive effect on this surface was, it must have taken him centuries upon centuries to do it.
My pal here struggled to survive for centuries, hoping someone would save him. Even if I die of exhaustion climbing up, I will get him out of here.
The climb was long. Not as hard and nerve wracking as decent, but still physically challenging for a starving man. But I had a cheerleader sticking its head out of the pocket on my chest that I made my coat create just for Otty. Benefits of advanced technology, the clothes material is fluid-like and can be changed and restructured at will.
If you wonder about my coat, then it's kind of a fashion thing rather than the needed piece of clothes.
The astro-suit I wear is standard clothing for everyone in space. Everyone wears some variation of it. But although it looks fantastic with its tight-fitting on women's curves, pushing up their asses and making their butt look bubbly, fit and springy, it is totally not what I like to see on men or present to others myself. So it is kind of manfashion to wear a coat, although it has no good functionality.
There are those bulletproof, and invisibility cloaks too. But mine isn't one. It's just a flexible material cloth with a glass-like screen on the shoulder blades to let through the light from my power generator on the back. The coat covers my spinner, hiding it from people's eyes, but lets the light exit. I may say that. Spinner is what we call the old rotating power generators like mine. I may have said it's back in trend to some degree, but it may be so in the hands of the wealthy people, when it looks new, clean and encrusted with shiny things. Mine is scratched, rusted and looks like a piece of junk, picked from trash and reanimated with my own effort, which it actually is. So, it only brings embarrassment when people see it.
I climbed the last step and collapsed with my back on the floor of the edging, staring into the ceiling as I wheezed in heavy breaths.
"I'll be alright." I said to Ottu, who stared me in the face with his antennas peeking out of my pocket. "Just need a bit of rest." I said, feeling some kind of vibration through the clothes as it shook its slimy body.
"I know I look pathetic, but I am not in that bad of shape, actually. I just haven't eaten anything in days and my body feels very weak. If I was in my prime, I'd run these stairs up and down, without even breaking a sweat." I said breathing heavily. It's not like Otty could convey his words. As I said, I held this dialogue purely for my own inner satisfaction.
"Alright enough, chit-chat. You seem to be a chatterbox, Otty. But we have a job to do if we want to eat any time soon." I said and started to rise from the floor.
My ghost assistant has drawn an approximate map to get to the device on the ceiling. The structure is indestructible so it's impossible to fix anything on it. If it had held there with loose 4GM in the past, it should have fallen down when particles dispersed. But this thing held there. And my best explanation is that there is a through hole in the ceiling through which the device is pushed through from the floor above. So if I get to the room directly above me, I will have direct access to that huge feeder.
"Let's go, Otty," I said. "I'll make you the best burger you ever tried."