Force of the Vortigaunts (( all dialog translated from Vortigese until ^^, << is mental ))

Bahhsan kept sensing something, just beyond the false veil. It was bright but infrequent enough that it only left a trace in the back of her mind when she turned to 'look' at it more fully. When she did at last happen to be prepared and opened her vortal eye to it, she was nearly blinded. Her eyes were blue anyway, normally only shown in others only when they were concentrating on vortal tasks; she was almost always seeing things that even other Vortiagunts did not. But she'd learned to squint or keep shut her own 'truly vortal' eyes to avoid being swept away in the Vortessence outside her body.

"I must find where this originated," she said, mostly to herself since there was no intelligent life near enough to hear her. She picked up her collection satchel and dusted it off before placing it over her shoulders, gripping it more snugly with her third hand than she intended to. Whatever it was that had blinked so brightly had her on edge.

She shook her legs a bit and began trotting through the tall grey-tufted reeds, along the trail she'd used to reach the pond where she had been collecting chumtoad tadpoles. The sodden ground turned to sticky clay, and finally to dusty road before she reached her destination. Not winded by any stretch, she'd had time to think about the flash. She'd seen it happen four times, only the last caught in its fullest by her vortal senses. It had not gotten closer nor farther, but it did seem to have moved.

"Tahndarr, Dararm, I need your assistance," she called with her hands cupped to add focus, "come to me!"

She set her collected tadpole jar near the enclosure she kept the adults in, but for the moment she would wait to begin preparing the little ones entry to their new breeding tank. Instead, she cleaned up a little and awaited her companions arrival. They came from the antlion nest tunnels nearby, both quite curious. The insistent background hum of her mind drew them together into flux shifting even before they'd cleared the low arch of her domed hut.

She shared with them her vision, knowing that it wouldn't have been merely herself having seen that bright vortal flash. Though neither of these Vortigaunts would have been able to home in on it on their own, but their skills in navigation would prove to be perfect for her needs.

"Let us find where and when it will blink next," she suggested, the reddish-orange skinned female waited for the other two to accept this request, but the moment they did, their minds were awash in her own memory. They saw her trek to and from the pond, up and into the hillside data repository, patching her hut, and finally returning to the pond - all four instances of the flash's presense in her mind, which had taken place over the course of some nines of days. The first time had been memorable, even if now-distant in timeframe. There was something about it that surprised Bahhsan, and each subsequent flash led her to a more sound conclusion. That conclusion she shared with the others, while they were connected.

Flux shifting in this manner was commonplace, their Vortigaunt hive minds were hardly unprepared for this, of course. But it wasn't the sudden change in perspective or subject that they were surprised by. It was the contents of that vision that brought both Tahndarr and Dararm to shake their heads clear and think again. The flash wasn't just a bright visual, it wasn't merely reflected light being caught in the corner of one eye, it was something much more - something Vortal, strong.

"Based on the time it took," Dararm began, and Tahndarr completed the thought, "it would be because of the turning of the World."

Suddenly understanding more fully, Bahhsan breathed in and thanked them, "of course, it is stationary and we are moving!" They replayed the events she'd provided, watching the large sun rise, the small sun follow it, late in this hot-dry season both of them would be up to form that wavering blob until the large eclipsed the little one, and their rainy season would begin. The suns would still be separate, before that flash would occur next. It would be at first morning's dawn in two-hands two-fingers time; it was Tahndarr's realization that the events were eight days apart.

"But what was it?" Tahndarr asked, finally out of the flux shifted mind mesh. They would converse in more conventional ways, with words and subtle telepathic nudges, about this. All evening, as the stars brightly flickered and the ever-present glow of the shattered moon lit the grasslands, and as the full dark brought the buzzing of antlions to the air, they pondered this, and wondered what they could discover when the next flash occurred. But this evening their mixed voice and telepathic communication had also brought in another of their kin, Kaggat the instructor, who had felt their discussion going on but waited politely to be permitted to join it.

He too agreed that this would be an event worth waiting for, and that they would meet once more closer to the next event both in time and space. They each went back to their normal daily routines, each growing slightly more excited and intrigued over each nightfall. It was overnight that they met up, at Bahhsan's hut once more.

"We should rest," Kaggat suggested, "I will rouse those still slumbering should it be felt before then."

The flash occurred 'on time' rather than before then, and the four Vortigaunts were waiting. Their unique form of hive-minded telepathy allowed them to locate one another even at tremendous distances, and between Dararm and the younger Tahndarr, both of them adept at scouting and exploration, they sorted out all of the external directions needed. They knew they did not need to be above ground, which was good. The morning would be warm, the full day much hotter than the one before it, and only Bahhsan might truly relish standing out under their brightly burning suns all day. So as a team they headed down under the hill where their small colony resided, into the Nectarium, where their power would be enhanced inherently by all the antlion larva surrounding them, and where the event would most likely manifest strongest. It was still dim outside, before first-morning, but it was also markedly less than dark within the tunnels and caverns in the Nectarium.

"Will we need to consume the extract?" Tahndarr asked, almost too-eager for the boost in her system. While Kaggat gave a chuckle at her youthful desire, Bahhsan pondered for a moment longer, and nodded. All around them, the hive's sticky strands and shining eggs glittered of their own accord, in their various shades of white and pale cyan, blue, and indigo. Only some Vortigaunt eyes would be able to detect the darker wavelengths, but all could easily see in the cavern from the dancing bioluminescence everywhere. As if the stars had come to settle on the rough-hewn walls.

Finally she replied, "I believe it will aid us, yes," and though there were four of them, not merely three, she reached for two of the eggs that rested in their antlion hive's sequestered chamber. It would normally have been quite dangerous to just take the larva, but recently their massive guardian had been run ragged and sat exhausted nearer the antlion queen. This colony was a herding community, they had many ways of controlling their antlions and making the collection of meat and larval extract easier.

The eggs would collapse under specific pressure points, but it would split into easily shared halves with other methods, and Dararm and Bahhsan both grasped theirs with deft fingers. Kaggat and Tahndarr waited their turns, as the others sipped deeply from half the egg. The soft shells held glowing blue-white goop, not yet formed larva. Waiting too long to use these eggs, or if the guardian was killed in its pursuit of duty, would sour the experience.

As each of them imbibed the extract, their vortal senses expanded, and at a touch each of them flux shifted into their collective, visibly turning blue and white themselves. Bahhsan's eyes matched her vortal countenance, now, as did the others as their red shaded eyes tuned to match. Even to an outsider, even to one without vortal input such as they had, would see the same vibrant blue colors meshing with their physical form.

It was while they were gathered there in the nectarium's quiet space, joined at the mind and essence, with their assorted packs and private gear collected at their hoofed feet, that the Vortessence opened and closed, a bright flash that they all more than saw. It was not only vortessence. It was not merely an event.

It was a portal, and it opened and closed around them. When any other Vortigaunt arrived to this spot (where they too had doubtless felt an extra-strong warble in the vortal veil) they would only see dusty foot tracks and a lingering sense that they'd just missed something important. It would not return to this very spot, if it returned - in eight days, it might show up on the other side of the pond, and from there, who knew? Only those who had vanished with it, for sure.

**

Disoriented but still strongly glowing and attuned to the vortessence, the team blinked and looked about. It was cool and very-slightly moist here, and not enclosed by a cavern's space. Their breathing did not echo on the walls, they were out in the open. But where? Vast nebulas and strange skies met their upward gaze, but also something else - along the horizon as well as above and below it, for they could easily see both, were chunks of rocky land. Some large and some very small, whether they were small or very far away they would only be able to tell if they visited them.

Tahndarr was the first to speak, "we are not home," her worry was echoed but softened by the others.

"We are still safe together," Dararm assured her, "this place is new, something to explore."

With that, Tahndarr did brighten up a bit. No longer physically mixed with the vortal presence, as the extract wore off, they blinked away any other remnants of the portal's effects.

"But did we bring that upon ourselves," Bahhsan asked in general, "or was it going to happen anyway?"

"Had we not been in the right place at the right time," Kaggat asserted, "it may have passed us by. We were right to be there."

Together they agreed, this was the way of things. There were ways for Vortikind to become lost in space-time, but they had one another, they had at least three, and that was all that mattered. They would be able to triangulate once more, even here in this very strange and very new place. They did also wonder, together and unspoken, whether that flash would occur again here, was this its origin point? Would they return home the same way they left it?

But for now, they could explore. Tahndarr impressed their arrival location, presumably where the portal might reopen, with a strong vortal beacon. Though normally she could put her hands on a spot and leave briefer 'messages', this time she sat for a fair few minutes to give them a visual spot. If it was eight days between flashes, perhaps they'd have to refresh this beacon, but for now they could all see it from virtually anywhere they could walk.

The place was strange - the ground was springy and nearly biological, meshed with what appeared to be cellular structure large enough to see with their large but physical eyes. It wasn't merely the physical presence here though that caught attention. There were animals and sounds, plant life that defied description. No sun to speak of, even after finding a place that seemed safe to bed down for a sleep and waking up later. The distant violet glow of that one nebula was paired with an orange one, and another greenish, but were they filled with stars? Or were they, as Bahhsan seemed to think, more macrocosms of material? This place they'd arrived seemed alive, after all.

It was also occasionally quite dangerous, as that living place had plants that attempted to stab at anything that came too near, and squishy lily-pad shaped objects on the ground that suddenly opened as a sphincter into a maw. The animals were varied, but still similar enough to those they knew at home: fliers and drifters, ground crawling ones, things that swam. And not every animal here was inherently deadly, though most of them were elusive.

"It is a good thing we kept our gear with us," Dararm commented, while gutting one of the strange creatures. A lot of the animal life here seemed to have similar configurations - legs of a varied quantity, different sensory clusters, but most had a gripping or ripping mouth on the underside, rather than forward facing as the Vorts were used to on the antlions and other such animals on their world. The low to the ground leaping creature had almost found its way to Tahndarr's head, which would surely have gone badly for her what with its sharp biting beak, and odd stretchy tendrils ready to bore into her skull. But it made for very good eating, they all decided!

They all felt strange callings here and there, vortal impulses that shouldn't have been coming from 'that rock formation' or 'this wall here with the humming'. To their senses, particularly to those who could more strongly commune empathically, this location was buzzing with life. Even the crystals, perhaps especially the crystals, spoke to them.

On her journey through a cave system, Bahhsan discovered a chamber filled with amber-yellow crystals. They cast a lovely light, and to her vortal 'ears' she heard them humming a similar frequency to her own. It was like a chorus, a forest of tall spires and short chunks. She picked out several large and small pieces of this amber crystal, and kept them on her person. They felt warm, comforting, enveloping her as well as the others in her mental reach with a sense of sureity. All felt at peace and at one with her, with their golden glow accenting her ability to heal or soothe.

Tahndarr had reached into a nook (or was it perhaps a vent? this cavern she explored was riddled with holes that reminded her of... lung sacs?) and snapped off a long and slender pair of green colored crystals, and almost instantly her 'darr', her glow, sharpened and brightened. Kaggat chuckled that she was 'turhdarr', no longer 'little' but 'big'. She kept her name, laughing but also still eager to try what she could with this crystal in hand.

Dararm's accidental tumble into a wide cave that had a terrifyingly large carcass in it led him to discover a 'kinship' with pale blue rocks, glowing with the same intensity as their vortal eyes. He alone dared to reach for them while they were still crackling with electrical energy - the same energy that had killed this great lumbering beast. It had fallen too, onto the spear-like points of some of the shards, but it had clearly been the electrical field that killed it. It had also killed the hundreds of tiny crab-like creatures below, spilled out from its large dangling sac. Dararm, like almost all Vortigaunts, could aim jolts of electrical energy from his three-fingered hands, but now... now they were enough to fry those larger and tastier adult crabs with one shot! He kept those crystals close!

Kaggat had always loved stones and crystals, he had a large collection of shiny or interestingly shaped rocks back on their homeworld. They also had their uses, not merely to look pretty of course. Some were flint to spark a flame, others clear obsidian suitable to slice through all but the hardest hide. At his side were a small collection of those stones, and one had shone brightly, deeply red in color. He realized that it was glowing more strongly here on this odd world, and wondered... had it been from space and fallen to its resting place? He'd never found another quite like it after all, not there and not even here. But he was interested in all the rest of them here on this unique place, each of these strange rock formations did sing, Bahhsan was right. He picked at a dark green one, from a different location and in a slightly different hue than that which Tahndarr found, and a gorgeous soft violet shade eminated from another. It was rare, he noticed, since most of the crystals he observed on his long circuit of this floating island were either amber or pale blue. And like the others, these things seemed to accent his innate vortal abilities, in his case he felt lighter and stronger with floating the items they carried, and in sensing the exact locations of his team. Even at greater distances, as they explored opposite ends of the place, he could gently ping their senses and share what he'd found.

They established a base camp near the portal spot. It was almost a smoothly walled tunnel, perhaps something had bore through the rock, though it was still mostly natural. Little pockets here and there created air vents, dips and rises on some walls may have been because of collapses or animal life impacting it. But it certainly did seem... almost crafted by hand. Though not a star-faring species, they knew of other races, and it was a sure thing that other species had been to this shattered and strange world, there were two places where other islands could be seen easily, and those islands held structures apart from the natural rocks. Perhaps the ones who made those structures would see their camp site, or visit it when they'd gone. So perhaps those who used the buildings or equipment would come across it? There was no visible activity in the entire time they were here, among those structures.

The Vorts, however, began making their artworks to show others the way they'd gone. Kaggat led this venture, as they attuned themselves to inscribing vortal energies onto their temporary shelter. As most of their species would, when creating these vortally-seen patterns and symbols, they started with who they were, what they did, where they were from. They showed their triune nature, accurately portraying the method they used to triangulate the portal's position on their homeworld - stars not-quite aligned, each showing the right spot to look. They showed their hunting and command of antlions, their community work was a source of pride for them all. A bit here and there of their conflict with invading creatures, rousting them away from their world. None of those on this team had been part of those efforts, they were long in the past for all but Kaggat, and he was no warrior.

Perhaps other people would be able to view these vortal imprints. They would last, Tahndarr's focal points were enhanced by the team's energies. Perhaps they would be understood, Bahhsan's knowledge of disparate ideas and entities would organize these images. Dararm offered energies to empart into their artwork - should the right vortal senses be available, they would hear the singing, the deep hum and the resonant chant, in addition to seeing the images along the walls. Those all culminated, with four voices raised in humming that almost threatened to shake the very walls, with an indication of the portal.

The portal opened sooner than they expected it to, but it wasn't early - it was that they had been so engrossed in imprinting their artwork on these walls, that they all but forgot how many days they had been there.

"Something has come," Bahhsan said, "we should be wary, but I do not sense aggression."

Dararm confirmed this with a nod, "it is true."

Kaggat glanced between them and the tunnel's entry point, "I shall approach, I feel ... a variety of lives among them, many views."

Tahndarr bounced a little, adding a chipper, "I can't wait, please let us see what has come?"

^^The chanting,^^ Ciizla breathed, ^^they're speaking the same tongue as that chanting we heard.^^

** Jedi page **

Name: Bahhsan, the pieces fall into place Species: Vortigaunt Rank: Leader Blade: Dual bladed Yellow Bond: Meinae	Name: Dararm, the reinforcements protect Species: Vortigaunt Rank: Defender Blade: Xenian Electric White-Blue Bond: Nohaa'eeya-lelth
Name: Kaggat, heading in all directions Species: Vortigaunt Rank: Instructor Blade: Purple, Crimson, Green Bond: Ahmun'azh Bond: Darr'turr	Name: Tahndarr, the little light Species: Vortigaunt Rank: Scout Blade: Teal Green Bond: Slaykirgog Bond: Agamemnon