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In the art of cultivating living things, it is a sound premise that propagating cut samples is more efficient than assembling specimens of the same kind from scratch.

Thus, old skin-stitch prepared to perform the most weighted gamble of its long list of recent exploits.

Scant cloud cover provided its only shelter. Conserving energy, the vehicle it piloted was neatly folded into a smooth resting shape upon a small disc. Not quite symmetrical- A third limb had been grafted to its side for the occasion. 

The disc itself whirred motionless on six near-silent wings, their beats misaligned just enough to camouflage the sound between wind distortion. Fortuitously gentle breezes kept the clouds motionless. The day was warm, azure. Not too far east, Alefprians would be enjoying the sea that glittered below. They wouldn't be the only ones. 

First one, then the other, two titanic shapes descended into view, trailing wisps of the cumuli they passed through. Only cues remained to tell what they once were. Glowing domes on the back of Father Dominus. Folds where his arms were being fused into his tail. Mother Suprema was, as always, faster. A once sinuous form had filled into smoothly curved bulk, and flicking fins hardened into wings that left contrail ribbons as they passed.

Heartworm observed.

For hours the Diaphanes played at hunting in the water, far-wandering streaks of colour. It counted twenty-six adults between three packs. Another generation of safety and there would be two hundred. Enough to explode into the thousands once the change-eaters were unleashed on Galbar's elemental spirits. [color=f6989d][i]Not long from now.[/i][/color]

As it was, the sorority did not stray more than two miles out from the shadow of the Arks. A few body lengths of the Arks themselves, in other words. Even now they were still growing. Jvan had likely seen to assigning them a crew as they matured, and the change-eaters would have risen to the role of piloting them eventually as their mental architecture changed. Two things Heartworm would soon confirm for itself.

It wondered if the diaphanes knew what was happening to their Mother and Father. From the depths of their artificial minds, love had flourished for the daughters. No doubt the circuit that ferried them down from Lex to play had been maintained at all costs while the rest of the infrastructure required for consciousness crumbled and metamorphosed along with everything else. No doubt it would be the last fragment of sentience to be digested. It would not have been difficult to hide the significance of the procedures to the change-eaters, even as they slowly came to pilot what had once been a conscious being. All too easy to project anthropomorphism onto a vehicle, or a home.

Then again, automated defense systems were no less dangerous.

The molten-iron light of Mother Suprema's forward engines signalled the packs to finish the djinn they were toying with and return. Father Dominus, never the favoured ship, was already ascending. 

Heartworm chose its moment and leapt from the disc with a blast of smoke, its tentacles flung out like shredded tail feathers behind it. Father Dominus immediately started to bank, curving aside from the perceived threat, which doggedly levered its advantage. At Heartworm's side, its new limb stretched to full length, unsheathing a slotted scythe that did not fit into the reality around it.

At the end of its dive the blade met skin. Heartworm skimmed the surface of the Ark, letting sparks fly as it stripped a thin ribbon of surface tissue from the Father's hide. The sample ended on a hook at the base of scythe and whipped behind it. The avatar broke its remaining momentum on the ship's back and rolled on to the base of a fin where it knew an airlock waited.

Its weapon could only do so much. Scratching the Ark did not amount to piercing it. Even if it wanted to, the Emaciator would be wasting absurd energy to try and infiltrate it by force. Conveniently, Jvan had secured the ships from everything but itself. Heartworm left Father Dominus in seconds, trailing an interior tissue sample, and severed limbs of two of its guileless crew. It had been particularly lucky today.

Mother Suprema could have ascended by now were it not protecting a sisterhood that had yet to return. Inky tails of light streaked the air towards it, their elemental prey abandoned to survive. Heartworm took its chances and leapt for the closest pack. Shrieks later, a spined feather joined the other ornaments spiked onto its sampling knife.

The pursuit given by the change-eaters drove it off course and Heartworm did not dare fight them. Mother Suprema obligingly ploughed between the escaping and pursuing parties; It could feel the heat of the Ark's prow. A pulse from jets that had blessedly yet to overheat left Heartworm latched onto Suprema's side with its blade.

Perhaps the Diaphanes had finally boarded. As the avatar worked to carve out another strip of tissue from the Ark's enormous outer hide, it tipped and dove into the glittering ocean, faster than anything but the Leviathan itself had a right to move in water. Fighting a tremendous current, Heartworm dragged at its skin until the strip separated, and let go. As the Ark moved on and edged him ever closer to the boiling light of its engines, the Avatar hacked wildly into the space before it.

Fortune smiled on its efforts, and Heartworm exploded into the Submaterium of Mirus followed by tonnes of sizzling water.

[colour=red]"Were we successful?"[/colour]

Behind it, someone had forced shut the temporary portal, and was lighting the tunnel floor with a hearth-like glow. Heartworm recovered its balance as best it could, and displayed the scythe onto which six ribbons of tissue were hooked.

[colour=red]"Excellent. We may begin as soon as you are ready."[/colour] The God of Chance nodded, and spared a green-and-blue gaze to the flooded tunnel's architecture as he waited.

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