Ariadne Part 2

A set of tentacles fell from the deck of the bio-ship and grabbed the boat. Alan watched with fascinated anxiety as the tentacles lifted Ariadne's boat a few feet and shoved it into a large "mouth." The "mouth" fortunately opened into a chamber with a small pool of water, rather than teeth or a throat. A ramp led from the edge of the pool to the deck and open sky.

Ariadne laughed as Alan's eyes darted around the room. The chamber was wood and bone, like the hull.

"Um, hello?" Alan felt unsure if he was supposed to treat this ship as a literal person or if there was a culture clash. "Are you, um, Mrs. Black?"

"Call her Jill." A Crawler rose from the pool and moved onto the dock.

"Hi, Dad!" Ariadne extended her hand, and one of the Crawler's tendril touched her fingers. Alan became worried about the etiquette.

"It's good to see you." The Crawler sounded pleased. "You would be Alan?"

"Yes, sir." Alan nodded.

"Call me Larry. Agent Series: Black #522 is my father." The Crawler's human-like lips smiled at Alan.

"You didn't even go by that before you met Mom." Ariadne accused the Crawler with a smile. "Neither did Grandma E."

“Um,” Alan said, gesturing at the dock, “permission to board?”

"Duh." Larry laughed and turned his head back to Ariadne. "How's your little clusterfuck working out?"

"Oh, it's a shitshow." Ariadne got off the boat with a jump. "Chloe found the weapon I hid to keep Christian busy. Nobody's had any sex, and the viewership numbers are awful."

“Well, we’ve got an understudy prepared.” Larry seemed to shrug, a bobbing motion that was odd without shoulders.

"Who did you even find?" Ariadne sounded resigned. "Please tell me it wasn't Nola."

"Oh, of course not." Larry shuddered with body language that could have been disgust or humor. "Fucking drama queens in middle management wouldn’t shut up, so I pulled a jailbreak for Tess.”

"What?" Ariadne stiffened.

"Who else could do it? She's still family, even if you broke the engagement." Larry said lightly.

Alan decided that asking for clarification would _not _help, given the shape of the conversation.

"C'mon, girls!" A voice rang out from a speaker on the wall. "We've got less than five minutes."

"Coming, Mom!" Ariadne abandoned Alan and Larry in the chamber as she jogged up the ramp.

"You're in luck, kid." Larry kept still at the base of the ramp. "Jill rarely shows skin to strangers."

Alan kept quiet and started to follow Ariadne. At the top of the ramp, a dome rose from the deck, and an open arch showed a woman lying in a new pool of water. Flowers and lily pads filled the pool, and vines were braided into her hair.

Alan felt the presence of Larry come up behind him as he stood in the arch. The Crawler brushed past Alan's legs, and the woman in the pool waved at Alan. The woman was striking, with proportions of a porn star or fertility goddess. Pure black hair and a dark Caucasian complexion made Alan wonder if she might literally be a Greek goddess, or an inspiration for one.

"It's nice to meet you, Alan." The woman waved. "Don't be a stranger, my eyes are just as scandalous as my nipples, according to my own mother."

Ariadne made a puff of annoyance. "Mom, he's Severed. Ali didn't even raise him as a Witness."

"Oh, you're right." The vines and flowers moved to cover Jill's chest, and Alan let out a sigh of relief he regretted instantly.

"Don't tease Ari's intended, Jill." Larry entered the pool next to his wife. "You promised you'd behave."

"The Uninitiated are so easy to fluster, babe." Jill laughed and started to cough.

"Oh, right." Suddenly, Alan found Larry's tail pushed into his face.

"Agent, you've got a new friend!" Ariadne spoke up. Alan briefly thought that Larry was pooping in his face, but then he noticed a pair of bright blue eyes in the center of the brown tube.

"Ogre!" An excited chirp came from the creature's nose. The sound was far too deep for a ferret-sized Crawler's size. Alan felt a weight around his neck as the child exited the opening and jumped onto Alan.

Small teeth caught the edge of his collar, tugging experimentally. Not biting—testing.

"Hello, what's your name?" Alan asked.

"I'm still deciding on my name." The juvenile Crawler spoke. Alan felt the weight shift as the Crawler moved to the top of his head.

Jill inhaled sharply.

A tendril extended from Larry and disappeared beneath the surface of the pool, just long enough for Alan to look away—and then look back.

When the tendril withdrew, it cradled something small and slick in its palm. A bean of pink and red flesh twitched weakly and let out a thin, reedy hiss.

Ariadne lifted the juvenile Crawler from Alan’s head and held her up, grinning.

“Early,” Jill muttered, not sounding worried.

Larry swung the tendril toward his own body. The bean vanished into a slit along his underside, and the opening sealed smoothly behind it.

A moment later, Larry lowered the tendril into the pool and rinsed it, working calmly and methodically.

"Um..." Alan tried to keep up with what had just happened, and failed.

"I told you I was human, didn't I?" Ariadne sounded sad as she petted the Crawler in her hands. "Now you've met two of my sisters, as well as my parents. It would be a miscarriage for a baseline fetus, but not for one of us. An incubator or pouch can hold one of our children for eighteen months."

"Dad needs more pouches!" The nameless Crawler complained, her voice and accent having changed from the deep one she'd used earlier to a British accent without warning.

"No, agent. You need to explore Atlas." Ariadne retorted. "Alan, do you mind swapping my form for a while? I want to show her the hotel."

"Um, sure." Alan nodded. Ariadne deposited her sister back on Alan's head and removed her dress. Alan noticed it lacked underwear, which he had missed before. The practicality was obvious, given that a Crawler would have needed more time to undress. Alan reached out and touched Ariadne's shoulder, willing her to change. A burst of pink light deposited a Crawler, eerily identical to Larry, onto the deck.

Ariadne started her way to the boat, and Alan started to follow her.

"Wait." Jill raised a hand. "Let the agents have some time to themselves. Baselines like us can have a chat while we wait for them to come back."

Alan's eyes swept over the bone and wood ship, the vines in Jill's hair that he suspected were part of her body, and he shrugged. "Sure, we're both ogres, I guess."

"Ogress." Jill corrected gently. Larry rocketed out of the pool after his daughters, and Alan sat down on a nearby chair. He was already exhausted.