Page 66 of Monstrous Baby
The creature sprouted four short legs rather similar to mine. They literally pushed out of its shark body, lifting its belly off the ground like a crocodile. It moved with surprising agility over the rough terrain. For the moment, it headed away from us, though I wasn’t sure what its target might be.
:Recommended attack pattern?:Axxol asked.:Lohr? Hello? Earth to XLT?:
Shaking out of my fascinated stare, I replied,:A megalodon-crocodylomorph species has never been documented. Not even DSC could perfect such a splice.:
:Tell me where the fuck its heart is so we can fucking kill it!:
I dropped diagrams of known megalodon and crocodilian anatomy on the grid.:It’s inter-dimensional so it may not have a similar circulatory system as a DSC counterpart.:
:Meaning what exactly?:Rizan asked as he passed closer to the giant beast. It seemed unbothered by his passing, though perhaps its eyesight was as ineffective as mine. It hauled its long, heavy body across damp ground to the lead Balaenoptera’s carcass. I’d thought it a massive beast—until it was dwarfed by the KORE.
:It can control and pass through the space-time continuum like our jump technology, though it does so naturally.:Snryxreplied.:Which would support Lohr’s assumption that it may not have standard biological systems.:
:It has gills,:Axxol said.:If it can fucking breathe, it must have a heart.:
“Oh my god.” The surviving human male said into a phone clutched against his ear. “Ready all nuclear weapons. We’re going to have to throw everything we’ve got at it.”
I’d forgotten the general was even present.:Someone needs to tell him that deploying a thermonuclear weapon at the KORE is an ineffective defensive strategy which will very likely only madden the beast. It may even feed it and make it larger.:
:It eats nuclear missiles?:Natalie asked.:Are you sure?:
:I found a fragmented research log from a century ago where DSC reportedly employed a variety of technological strategies against a KORE-infested planet known on Earth as K2-18b, including a fusion bomb large enough to destroy the last landmass above sea level with no apparent effect against the creatures themselves. Though less than one standard year later, they noted the KORE population had become so large that the planet’s sea could no longer support its life despite nearly covering the entire surface. The following year, there was no trace of KORE to be found remaining on the planet.:
:Focus,:Axxol growled.:Someone eat the human and shut him up too.:
:He didn’t directly hurt me,:Natalie said.:Maybe we can use him instead.:
:As bait?:Rizan asked hopefully.:I disconnected the call. He was contacting a submarine in the bay, not a ship. I disabled their navigational and communication systems. They’re not going anywhere or shooting anything.:
:Bait won’t be needed,:I replied.:It isn’t here for us or even the humans.:
:Why the fuck is it here, then?:Axxol demanded.
The KORE locked its long crocodilian snout on the whale carcass’ tail and started to drag it back the way it’d come.
:It’s hungry, Daddy,:Akylla said.:Me too.:
Kroktl’s raptor let out several short barking coughs.:You’re always hungry, baby girl.:
Without even acknowledging our existence, the KORE dragged its food back over the rocks like it was as light as one of Rizan’s feathers. Retracting its crocodilian legs, it floated off the edge of the cliff as the water began to sink back to normal sea level.
:What the fuck,:Axxol grumbled as if disappointed we didn’t have to fight off the massive KORE.:Don’t tell me Balaenoptera are its primary food source.:
:Well, actually, we don’t know for sure what the KORE’s diet consists of,:I admitted.:However, the incomplete study I found from K2-18b suggests it prefers magnesium-rich silicate. Since Balaenoptera ingest sea plankton commonly found in asteroid belts, which often contain such silicate, I hypothesize the KORE was compelled here by the large pod it sensed in the area, knowing its skeletal structure would be laced with high amounts of MgSiO3.:
Axxol heaved out a disgusted sigh.:I’m sorry I even asked.:
“Hello?” General Waverley yelled into his phone. “Seawolf, can you hear me now? Stand down, I say again, stand down!”
Rizan circled overhead in a slow spiral.:What I want to know is when this gets made into a movie, do we call it a crocoshark or a sharkodile?:
29
NATALIE
Looking around at our war room—aka the lovely large living room Rizan had painstakingly furnished with large, heavy-duty couches sturdy enough for even the heaviest dyni to lounge with me—I heaved out a sigh. “I suppose we have to move now.”
I was wrapped in my favorite robe—thankfully dry and undamaged despite hanging on the hook of the master bathroom’s door. Tucked against Kroktl’s side, his big arm locked around my shoulders, I stroked my fingers through Akylla’s shoulder-length brown hair. Curled up beside me with her head in my lap, she looked to be a child of approximately ten or eleven years old, despite only being born mere weeks ago.
