Chapter Text
On a day like any other, Beatrix LeBeau wakes up. She rolls out of bed, does her morning stretches, grabs her Vacpack, and leaves to get to work.
Tending to the slimes, watering the drones, ensuring the crops are all still growing properly, and tending to minor infestations. The work is mildly tedious, but she still finds great joy in it.
She consulted the range exchange. No pending requests from her friends, so she's free to wander. A spring in her step, she set off from the Ranch. She took in the fresh, clean air, like she so often did - it never really got old - as she sprinted through the Dry Reef, taking a running leap as she jumped to a high ledge. She ran past tube after hollowed tube of coral, not a care in the world, as she came to the bridge to the Moss Blanket. She took a leap, aiming to take her usual shortcut...
...but swiftly realised her error. With all her careless sprinting, she had depleted her pack's charge too far to make the leap with what she had. Worse, she only realised this a good way into the leap, too far for her to get back with her remaining battery. The only thing below her as she fell was the Great Slime Sea, vast and blue, slowly rising up to meet her. She quickly checked her Vacpack. Thankfully, she wasn't carrying anything too valuable - a couple of Cuberries, some Rock plorts she had picked up along the way, and her almost-full water tank. Everything else was safely at the ranch, so she wouldn't be losing too much to the rescue system. She closed her eyes and waited for the telltale sharp yanking.
But it never came.
She impacted the surface of the Slime Sea, and her eyes shot open. She was surrounded by blues and greens, the gap in the surface where she fell closing before her eyes. Desperately, she reached out with her arm, barely breaching the surface before it closed up and swallowed her. The sunlight slowly began to fade as Beatrix drifted deeper into the depths. She tried to scream, but her voice rang hollow in the space. Breathable air slowly vanished as she panicked, thrashing, desperately trying anything she could think of to get out of this mess, but it was no use.
The Sea pressed in deeper on her. She could feel it against her clothes, against her skin, her face. It was gentle at first, but slowly she could feel a rising coldness. Starting from her limbs, but slowly rising through the rest of her. Slowly, she realised she couldn't move them anymore, couldn't feel them. She tried to move, but her vision was fading. Her strength was gone.
She felt the slime cover her face, her mouth, and as she ran out of her last breath and tried instinctually to gasp for more, she felt it start filling her lungs. She felt panic rise, before slowly, a feeling of acceptance washed over what was left of her.
And then she couldn't feel anything at all.
(1) Unread Starmail!
Subject: Rescue System Maintenance
From: The 7Zee Corporation
Ranchers:
This is a notice that, today, the Rancher Rescue System is being temporarily deactivated for maintenance. We strongly advise all ranchers to not leave the comfort of their ranches for the day, avoid unnecessary risk, and perform any necessary explorations tomorrow.
In the event you are in need of rescue, we will be unable to assist you until tomorrow, at which point a rescue drone will attend at earliest opportunity. Any incurred losses by this delay are not our responsibility.
The 7Zee Corporation: Ensuring rancher safety by providing helpful advice, in lieu of advised help - one repaired rescue drone at a time.
- The 7Zee Corporation
The next morning, Mochi Miles contacted Beatrix via the range exchange. She knew her regular routine, and was expecting her reply within the morning hours. So when the request went unanswered, instead of the usual impatience, a strange unease came over her. Beatrix never left a request unread. She had known her long enough to know that checking the exchange was part of her regular routine, so when she didn't even read it, that meant she was simply out wandering. That wasn't particularly remarkable - exploring was something Beatrix did a lot of. Still, a pit was forming in Mochi's stomach. So she sent off a quick starmail, and tried to put it out of her mind.
By evening, neither the starmail nor the exchange request had been answered. Mochi Miles went to bed uneasy.
The next morning, Viktor Humphries contacted Beatrix via the range exchange. Expecting a swift response, he left it to her until his work was done. That afternoon, he was shocked to see it had gone unread. Certainly, that was a mistake. Perhaps she was simply out. But the strange feeling in his gut wouldn't go away, so that evening, with a silent prayer that she would forgive him for the intrusion, he hacked into her terminal. Not only was his request indeed unopened, but there was a second unread request too, from one Mochi Miles.
Now, Viktor certainly knew of MilesTech. Though most of his creations were his own, there were a handful of products that he did make use of. But seeing that Beatrix was friendly with the CEO's daughter was a mild shock. The real shock was that this older request was from yesterday. For Beatrix to leave a message unread for so long, she must certainly be busy. But given that they were "friends", certainly she would have found the time, correct?
A realisation came. She hadn't checked on the slimes she was keeping in his lab, either. There had been no recorded teleport triggers for several days, and she was well overdue for her next visit. Thankfully the place was self-sustaining enough to not require constant supervision, but they were getting antsy without her.
Viktor, after pausing to think, opened up Starmail, and began to pen a message to Mochi Miles. He needed more information.
The next morning, Ogden Ortiz contacted Beatrix via the range exchange. However, he didn't get to wait long before an error returned - her queue was apparently full. That was concerning - he knew Beatrix was reasonably popular, but he didn't expect her to leave requests unanswered, she seemed a more diligent type than that. Thinking back, he also hadn't really heard from her regarding the slimes she was caring for at his retreat. This was odd for her; he knew that she loved this place, and she had made that clear on several occasions. The slimes were probably fine, but her being missing for so long was bound to leave them antsy. Though mildly worried, he assumed that she simply had other things she was busy with, and put his concerns aside for the time being.
Until, a few hours later, he received a starmail. The sender was one Viktor Humphries - whose name rang a bell, though he couldn't quite recall how - inquiring about the exchange request he had sent to Beatrix. As the story went, both Viktor and an unnamed associate of his were also friends of the lass in question, and they hadn't heard from her either. While he was curious how they knew he had asked, his reply starmail simply contained his affirmations that no, he'd not seen hide nor hair of her since her last correspondence several days ago, and to please keep him updated. Feeling rather unwell, he stood from his computer and moved to the kitchen.
Though his wife might end up upset, he had a feeling he might need some good kookadoba pie in the future.
Mochi Miles was stressed.
It had been five days since Beatrix had seemingly vanished off the face of the planet. As a temporary measure, she had relocated back to the place she had lent her, just to keep an eye out for Viktor and Ogden in case she miraculously showed up again.
She had been to Beatrix's ranch, too, of course. Inspecting the place, watering her drones, standard maintenance stuff. Her father would probably be shocked to hear of her doing anything approaching manual labour, but she didn't care. This wasn't about him. This was about keeping her mind off of the situation.
She had to admit, it felt strange being on the other end of the exchange machine. She'd only been here before once or twice, really, and both times with Beatrix there with her. Now, here alone... the place felt empty. Sure, the slimes were all reasonably happy, but something about the noises they made told her they knew something was off, too. Call it rancher's intuition - though she was, to be fair, a pretty piss-poor rancher, both in comparison and in general.
She shook her head, and went back to tending to the slimes on her own property. She didn't dare touch any of the drones' settings, they were about all that was keeping this place running, so the most she did was vac up dropped things and put them in their proper places, aside from playing with the slimes to keep them stimulated.
She was so wrapped up in her distraction that she barely noticed the strange blue drone drifting towards her, a familiar face on the front.
"Miss Miles, I believe that I have found something of interest."
Viktor's voice snapped her back to the unfortunate reality. Brown eyes met green goggles as she stared through.
"...what?"
"I have found something. Please, come to Beatrix's ranch."
In an instant, she was on her feet and moving towards the warp pad. On the other side, she was met with a different blue drone, yet again with Viktor's face plastered across its own. She followed it - him, really - out of the Grotto and out into the ranch proper. She had been there the day before, of course, and it had been exactly the same - alive, but somehow dead. But Viktor was leading her towards the entrance.
She continued walking before an abrupt, tinny 'Stop' came from the drone. It span around to look at her.
"Tell me, what can you see on the ground before you?"
She looked down. After days of wind, it was hard to distinguish, but she could still tell what it was.
"It's a bootprint."
Viktor nodded, both in person and the drone. "Yes. Specifically, this bootprint is of the specific model of Dash Boots that Beatrix wears. If you notice," he said, as he remotely shone a light against the ground, "these boot prints lead away from the ranch. Only away."
Now it was Mochi's turn to nod, trying not to think too hard about the implications. "Right. And I'm guessing these bootprints match the timeframe in which she was last seen?"
"Correct."
The image on the drone's face changed from Viktor's currently dour expression to a floating camera perspective, trailing down along unfamiliar routes, all along the way highlighting the path Beatrix seemed to have taken. The path ultimately led up to a wooden bridge over the Slime Sea. Viktor's voice rang through.
"The trail ended here. No point on any other side of the bridge showed prints as recent as these. Past this point... it is as though she has vanished."
Viktor didn't need to spell out the implications for her. She could feel her mind spinning, desperately trying to come up with a scenario in which the worst did not happen. But in her gut she knew.
The two remained there in silence for a minute, simply standing in contemplation.
"Ah- excuse me?"
Ogden watched the lady and the drone spin to look at him as he made his presence known. He had arrived a few short minutes ago, having been temporarily held up keeping an eye on the oven, and then wasting a few more wandering in perhaps the wrong direction, searching for the main area of Beatrix's ranch. When he had arrived, he saw the two simply standing there (well, the drone wasn't standing, but- you understand), heads down, staring at nothing in particular.
Now, though, both were looking at him. The lady - somewhat familiar, he was sure they had met before sometime - was startled. The man whose camera feed was being displayed through the drone, however, seemed entirely nonplussed. After all, Viktor was the one who had asked him here.
"Good, you received my starmail. Apologies if you may have gotten lost, I only have one drone operating on this ranch."
"No, no, it's no problem. What have you found?"
The lady spoke up. "Bootprints. Hers. According to him," she gestures to Viktor on the drone, "about five days old."
He could feel the tension in her voice. Her body language was uncomfortable, antsy, like she was trying desperately to contain herself. And he could understand why - if the last bootprint leaving the ranch was five days ago, that would imply she hadn't come back yet. The thought made him uneasy, too.
"I assume there's more to it?" he asks, already dreading the answer. Both others nod, and the screen of the drone changes to display a map - a top-down view of the local area, Ogden realises.
"The prints lead out across this region, coming to this small island before vanishing right before this bridge. There are no other prints - anywhere."
An unusually stormy expression comes across his face. There were very few possibilities going off of a description like that, and none of them were good. "Have you checked her house?"
Both froze, realising that no, they had not. All three looked towards the hemisphere that made up Beatrix's one-room abode, before slowly making their way towards it. While they went, the lady came up to Odgen's side, looking pensive.
"Hey, this may sound weird, but do I know you from somewhere?"
His eyebrows go up, and he feels his mood lighten ever so slightly. "I was thinking the same thing, actually." He extends his hand to shake. "Ogden Ortiz."
A look of recognition came across her. "Mochi Miles. I remember now, I saw you when I got dragged to some of my dad's functions as a kid."
Miles... Tatsuya Miles? Right, of course, he remembered the man's daughter now. So many years ago, too, back when he was still in the corporate game. The memory ought to have made him uncomfortable, but for some reason it didn't. Evidently, both were surprised that they recognised each other, but the odd reunion was put aside as they reached the door. Mochi placed her hand on the handle, took a deep breath, and opened it.
The inside of the house wasn't quite as colourful as the outside. While the outside had a strong palette, bright reds and silvers, the inside was rather minimalist - white walls, sparsely decorated aside from decorative shelves packed with trinkets. An unmade bed, with a plush pink slime sitting atop it. A small worktop, with a strange model of drone sitting atop it - akin to Viktor's, but notably different - half disassembled, schematics scattered across the surface and a few on the floor. A conservative computer desk, flanked by a reddish office chair, adorned with a black computer tower and simple monitor, currently dark.
Evidently, it wasn't quite what any of them had envisioned. No wonder she spent so much time out and about, Ogden thought privately, if this is what she was coming back to. It felt lonely.
Of course, the most notable absence from the room was Beatrix - she wasn't in here, nor were there any notes cluing them in as to where she had vanished to - though, it's not as though she would have been expecting any company.
Looking at his companions, Viktor's face was impassive, while Mochi's was etched with sadness. None of them had really expected to find her here, but the truth still hurt all the same.
As he and Mochi stood in the entryway, staring out at the empty room, Viktor's drone began to drift towards the computer. It was only once the monitor lit up that Ogden looked over, though. He walked over, standing by, and glancing at the drone with a wordless question.
"I'm checking her computer for anything of importance."
The computer was, unsurprisingly, not password protected (after all, who but Beatrix would have access to it?), but the desktop was rather as barren as the room. There was a selection of musical programs, a stock drawing tool, the file registry and... her Starmail, with five unread messages.
Mochi, who had been staring at the half-disassembled blue drone across the room, seemed to have come to and realised that they were at Beatrix's computer. Squeezing herself in on the other side of the drone, all three of them watched as Viktor opened the program. The five unread messages were as follows: one from Viktor, one day ago, questioning her whereabouts again; one from Ogden, two days ago, gently asking if she hadn't checked the range exchange in a while; another from Viktor, three days ago, asking when she would be coming by to attend to her slimes; one from Mochi, four days ago, asking why her exchange request had gone unanswered (in her usual abrasive manner)...
And one from the 7Zee Corporation, five days ago, early in the morning. The subject was "Rescue System Maintenance".
Time seemed to stop, for but a moment. Then, they opened the starmail, and their blood ran cold.
The day Beatrix had vanished off the face of the Far, Far Range, the proprietary 7Zee rescue drones were down for maintenance.
All three of them could do nothing but stand and stare, as the truth slowly began to sink in.
The trio left the ranch silently that afternoon, having tended to all they needed to.
On the sixth day, Mochi Miles came by to water the drones again, her usual attitude gone.
On the seventh day, nothing.
On the eighth day, nothing.
On the eighth night, long after everyone had returned to their fitful, uneasy rests, there was a sound. A soft, gelatinous sound. It was almost like the sound that a slime made as it moved, making contact with its more solid environment, but at the same time somehow different - almost heavier. It was paired with the harsh, sharp tink of rock against rock, ringing out against the quiet of the night. It grew closer, then closer still.
And then a large, blue, and decidedly inhuman hand came up and over the side of the cliff, rock-like spines digging into the surface as something came crawling out of the depths.