The Space Spoon novel Chapter 82

Most believe that going up the food chain has only advantages, but being a mere insect can have unexpected quirks. Evolution comes with limitations, and Tejeda knew all about them. He had tiny hooks and barbs on his legs that helped him grip the duct's inside walls.

He had to modify the original form of the body, making it unusually long for its size to be able to engulf his core. This was the smallest thing he had ever been.

From his new viewpoint, he didn't shrink. The world around him became so huge that additional details were apparent, much like when you magnify a photograph and start seeing its pixels. But, instead of pixels, there were even more intricacies, like a world inside a world.

The interior walls of the duct would have seemed level and smooth to a normal-sized person. Tejeda used every microscopic nook and cranny as a foothold for his multiple limbs. Climbing on the vertical axis was suddenly not that difficult.

He felt no fear, only curiosity. Climbing the walls became a game, an adventure that had him crawling and leaping from one foothold to the next.

The only downside was that the tunnel he crawled into seemed endless, which was to be expected, considering that even when he was wearing King Astin’s body, the ducts rose high to the ceiling at twenty times his height.

When he finally reached the upper level, beyond the ceiling, the world around him darkened. Their cage was isolated from the surface by a thick layer of sand above the roof. The golden granules pressed against the ducts, creating waves in their thin material. A strange sense of claustrophobia took hold of him, a new feeling he had never experienced before. Tejeda would have laughed if he could accomplish such a feat as an insect.

Time measurement proved to be impossible. After what seemed like an eternity in the dark, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel shone through.

At first, he couldn’t see a thing. The light blinded him to such a degree that he had to stop once he stood under the sun, his limbs in the sand, finally holding him on the horizontal axis.

A great expanse of sand stretching to the horizon greeted him, the sky clear and blue.

He whistled internally, watching the world around him as his eyes got used to the new brightness. The colors were quite different from what he remembered. The golden glow of the two suns had a grayish violet hue.

'Wow, I can see ultraviolets,' he thought. This was the moment for his signature smile, but this dodgy face couldn't handle it.

Staring at a sand grain as big as his eye, he pondered what he should do next. The land covered only 4% of the planet, so if there were any problems around here, the ocean would provide the solution.

Darkness followed for a long time until his receptors found traces of foreign DNA. Its features highly resembled a fish. Tejeda remained in the darkness, refusing to shift despite his impulses, waiting for a larger life form to consume this one.

Fortunately for him, he didn’t have to wait for long. He traveled from one aquatic creature to another faster than he thought. The ocean was thriving with life. Some resembled things he knew, while others were totally alien to him.

Tejeda became interested in a new strand of DNA during this unusual roulette inside the food chain. The Nubilae examined it and discovered a prestin mutation, a genetic protein that affects hearing sensitivity. All pointed to the development of echolocation. A fat-rich region in the lower jaw enabled detailed echolocation sensors. The presence of communication implied intelligent life.

He could shout his joy, but he didn’t have any form at the time being. Proceeding with the shift and taking hold of the body he was in, his purple goo intertwined with the fluids of this member of the unknown species who was unfortunate to eat our Nubilae.

Once he became the new owner of the body, all kinds of new information burst inside Tejeda’s mind. Unlike any other aquatic sentient beings, members of this species made scientific advances he had never seen before.

He wanted to whistle, but his mouth gave way to a sharp click that resonated through the water. Since sound waves travel four times faster underwater than in the air, Tejeda could not only tell the distance to an object but also its density. His smirk allowed water to get between his razor-sharp teeth. ‘This is going to be so much fun!’