Touchstone 1 - Stray

so to speak. We had a really interesting conversation about the origin of myths and the kind of stories people tell when they know what’s “out there” compared to when they don’t. I almost forgot to meet up with First Squad for the day’s mission, and had to dash off, but she emailed me a list of books to try.
    Bridges Rotation is only one space, although we had to walk through an awful lot of Tare’s near-space to get to its gate. Near-space is usually fairly clear, because the Setari spend such a lot of effort killing off everything in the surrounding spaces, but we’ve a couple of times encountered things on the way to the gates and today there was this swarm of razor-tipped rabbits (O.o) which First Squad chased down and killed on the way.
    The Bridges space itself was very strange. The bridges are all made of bone; the starkly curving ribs of giants. But the space is twisted, distorted, and perspective plays tricks with up and down and where things end and begin. A space designed by Escher, which I should have appreciated, but it made me dizzy, so I eventually had to concentrate just on the section of bridge in front of me.
    There were three types of Ionoth there. Quite large ones, about the size of a car, that had attached themselves to the underneath of the bridges and were very similar in colour. I suppose the idea is that they wait until something walks above them and then they close these massive filigree claw-things over the top. An odd kind of Venus fly-trap. Combat Sight made these immensely easy. Maze or Zee would spot them well ahead, and then Maze just pried them loose with Telekinesis and held them up so Lohn could shoot them with unenhanced Light beams.
    The rest of the time we chased about after long-legged, metallic storks with curving, sword-like beaks. They would run if they met us alone, collect in groups, and then try and rush us. The walls of light and columns of fire came in handy for them.
    And there were two dog-things, rather like afghan hounds, but with possum-type claws to grip the bridges as they raced along. They trailed a pearly rainbow light, and looked strange and dangerous. Since they were a new type, First Squad paused to observe and document them, waiting to see how they would react when they sighted us.
    They stopped, and sat down, heads angled toward each other as if they were talking. First Squad waited, and made no move to prevent them when the dogs loped off through one of the gates.
    I was glad First Squad doesn’t indiscriminately slaughter everything they encounter, but curious as well, and asked Zee about it over dinner. I’ve learned not to ask too many questions while in the spaces. First Squad will usually answer me, but I think they’d rather keep their attention on scanning for attacks.
    “Fortunately, the Castle Rotation was one of the first spaces we encountered,” Zee told me. “It’s an obvious lesson: some of the Ionoth can act as our allies, if only by lowering the number of our opponents. Combat Sight allows us to judge intention to a degree, and those two today sparked no reaction. Wary, but no more. If they attack unprovoked, they’ll be put on the kill on sight list, but not until then. In some of the spaces, if we tried to kill everything there, it would take us a week, and it only makes sense to focus on Ionoth which pose a tangible danger. Still, don’t–”
    “–pat cats,” I finished resignedly. “Has been seen again?”
    “Not yet. Hardly an ideal situation, having an Ionoth loose in KOTIS, no matter how useful. It is pushing us to develop newer and better scans. If you see it at all, contact one of us immediately.”
    I nodded, though I can’t say I’d particularly want to help get it captured. Tomorrow is Fifth Squad testing, worse luck. Not looking forward to it.
    Tuesday, February 26
    Fifth Squad
    Fifth Squad are fuckwits.
    Their captain is that Kajal guy with the voice, who was making an ass of himself to Zan. I was lucky, I think, that I’d had that warning about what he was like: smugly pleased with himself and the type who is really interested in proving himself better than everyone else, even for small things. I don’t know if his squad started out as unlikeable as he is, but he seems to have infected them pretty thoroughly. It’s a five guy, one girl team, but I can’t say that the girl, Elwes, is any nicer than the rest of them.
    They’re a generalist squad, so we met in Test Room One to start with. They