The dryads met us in a large, circular lobby with a domed glass roof. Over the roof water rippled and dappled reflections bounced off the walls and the dryads. They looked out of place in the ultra-clean and sterile glass, metal, and white walled environment of the underground hospital.
These rooms were all underneath the lake I’d run by, I realized.
Four dryads stared at me, and I realized I wasn’t paying attention. “Sorry?”
“Are you okay, Kadie?” the nearest dryad asked.
I looked closer, and realized it was Crosshatches… no, that was my nickname for him. It was Crossleaf. I recognized the carvings on his skin. “It’s a lot all happening at once, you know?”
“But you are unhurt?” Crossleaf asked.
“Yeah.” I frowned. “Did you know Mimir was a part of the All Tree, not just an animal?”
Crossleaf rustled. I couldn’t say what that meant. Was he laughing? Or was it like shaking your head no? “The All Tree consulted with us, yes.”
“Oh.”
“Enough meandering,” another dryad cut in. It waved its hands and video appeared in the air in front of it. “Last night someone stole from us.”
I watched two figures in black pull themselves up rope. Catburglar-like, they moved over large, vine-covered, round treehouses.
One of them snuck inside a window, then handed their partner a large box.
Just as quickly, they slid away.
“What’d they take?” I asked as the video faded in the air between us all.
“A factory,” the dryad said.
Hughes looked alarmed. “If they have a factory they can make anything. Anything. Including weapons. We don’t have any means of self-defense against that. This is really bad. The town’s going to need a factory as well.”
“We cannot give you a factory,” the dryad told Mayor Hughes. “It is forbidden for now.”
“We need to be able to defend ourselves.”
The argument developed. Hughes kept arguing with the dryads, and they kept refusing. They wouldn’t give us a factory. They surely wouldn’t make weapons with theirs for us either.
Suddenly Yggdrasil’s presence on the All Tree had become very, very scary.
“I told you all they were liars,” I suddenly shouted at the dryads.
Everyone turned to look at me. That was me again, moving quicker than thought.
I kept on talking. “They should never have come aboard. I don’t understand why you all let them up.”
Crossleaf raised a thin hand. “It is a fair complaint. Not all are worthy. That is why we do not hand out factories until the All Tree gives permission.”
“The All Tree is damaged,” Hughes said. “You’ve heard the random sounds. That can’t be normal.”
“Yes, this is true,” Crossleaf said. “And that is why we called you here.”
Hughes looked confused. “I thought it was the factory…”
“That was just to warn you. There are instructions for what happens when the All Tree is attacked in any way at systems level. It should be able to fight the attack off. But if there is any doubt, contingency plans go into effect while it is fighting. It is a contingency the Tree is well prepared for, but that has consequences for all of us living inside:
“The All Tree’s navigation system is right now in the process of activation. It’s a separate system, deep inside the Tree. At the next stop, it will eject all clades into orbit around the planet.”
My throat dried. I had a mental picture of the giant, fin shaped clades floating around a planet for hundreds of years, whoever lived inside of them trapped and doomed never to see the worlds they came from ever again.
Would the All Tree’s near-magical systems keep on working?
“That seems very drastic,” Mayor Hughes said, stunned.
“Yes. But it is necessary to guarantee our survival. You have not lived here long, you do not understand. One wishes your species had spent more time understanding these things before acting,” another dryad continued. “Either way, you all need to decide which clade you want to live in now. Or whether you wish to try your luck on the planet that comes next.”
Crossleaf looked at me. “Ehalla is not a world for those like us. It’s a gas giant, everything floats, and the peoples in it breathe noxious gases.”
And I couldn’t stay here. Not with the camp at the top of the hill having a factory.
But could I live with aliens for the rest of my life?
And there were many in the clades. All I’d seen were the didycts and the dryads. How could I make a choice on short notice?
“The dryads are leaving this clade,” Crossleaf said. “We feel humans are dangerous to us, and are therefore, sadly, not welcome where we are going… with few exceptions. If Kadie wishes to come to Clade Wildwood, he is welcome.”
I stared at the dryads, a little bit stunned.
But they didn’t stay to chat. They all turned and left the room.
Both the mayor and I watched them leave, both thinking to ourselves and saying nothing.
The didyct doctor swept into the room in a blur of motion and that fishy smell. “Mimir is recuperating faster than I expected,” he said. “The avatar has awakened and wishes to speak with you, Kadie. I would stay further, but I have to return to my clade, and my people, in case the All Tree does go into survival mode. I’ve been asked to tell you that humans are likewise not welcome in the main didyct clade.”
“We’re not like them,” I snapped. “We didn’t do this, it was them up on the hill. You can’t judge all of us just because of what they did.”
The didyct waved the tentacles underneath it around. “That is a fair complaint. I have worked with your kind in this sickbay, I feel differently. The others, they have not met your kind. All they know is that humans attacked and disabled the All Tree. They do not want any of you in their clade. It reminds us all very much of the hydrogen breathers.”
“The what?” Hughes asked, before I could do it.
“Their clade is sealed off. They unleashed a nanotechnology plague of some sort, forcing the All Tree to shut their clade off from all of ours. That was a hundred years ago. Sometimes the All Tree sends probes in, but they can’t get back safely. Some peoples are just too destructive. Maybe you are one of them. Maybe just some of you are, which is often the case with aliens. Either way, this is distressing to all, and I am sorry. Good luck to you.”
And the didyct breezed out, just like that, conversation over.
I’d thought getting up to the All Tree would leave me safer than staying on Earth.
But now I had the feeling the All Tree had not been the safer choice.
Not a bit.