The warmth of the substrate enveloped me. If I could have shouted with joy, I would have. Riaami hadn’t lied. It was thick and clay-like, with a vegetal aftertaste. I could sense notes of grass and tree bark.
I used my sonar. There were a lot of people around me. Far too many. I wasn’t used to such close proximity anymore.
I moved away from the dock, only to sense someone charging straight at me before colliding with me deliberately.
« Well? » Riaami asked in the tactile-ultrasonic language we used in the Pools.
« I like it, » I replied.
« Het Simplat is a thousand times better—you’ll see. »
She could have swum off after that, going her own way. But she stayed close to me, and I didn’t try to move away.
Under our natural forms, touch, along with sonar, became the most important of all our senses. Unlike humans, or sexual creatures in general, physical contact was not a particular sign of intimacy for us. However, in some cases, it could symbolize mutual respect and trust.
« Game on! » Riaami suddenly exclaimed before darting away, disappearing into the mass of Yeerks swarming around us.
Game on? She wanted to play?
I tried to follow her, but there were far too many Yeerks around me. I couldn’t move more than a few inches without having to dodge someone.
Suddenly, a mass collided with me, sending me plummeting several inches in the depths of the pool. It vanished again before I could react.
The sinking game. Was that what she wanted to play? Oh, fine then!
I knew this game inside and out. I mastered it to perfection. My siblings on Tanxoga had long since stopped challenging me. They’d learned I’d always remain unbeatable!
Except for Sendish. He’d managed to beat me once. Just once. Since then, he’d kept trying, over and over…
The goal was simple: force your opponent to touch the bottom of the pool to win.
Riaami came charging at me again, colliding head-on to push me downward. She was using the same clumsy, unsubtle technique as my siblings.
I let her do it, sometimes dodging, sometimes pretending to struggle upward, just enough so she wouldn’t feel manipulated.
The bottom of the pool drew dangerously close, but that was exactly what I wanted. It was now only a few palps below me.
Her next attack would be decisive. I had to be ready and calculate my move carefully. The substrate here was thicker than on Tanxoga, offering more resistance. I’d need to move faster and use more force.
Riaami dived at me from behind. I veered aside, and she collided with my flank, sending me rolling onto my back in the sludge. She was carried forward by her own momentum and was now slightly below me, to my left.
I lunged at her. But instead of ramming into her head-on as she had done to me, I stretched my body out lengthwise, as I did when entering a host, and wrapped myself around her. Then I swam with all my might toward the bottom of the pool.
She struggled. But couldn’t break free.
« Game over! » I exclaimed.
I released her and swam away, rising half-way up in the pool.
Moments later, she joined me, swimming alongside me.
« You’re sneaky, » she said.
Once again, she pressed herself against me. We lay belly to belly, our bodies touching end to end.
They say that when they touch, some Yeerks can connect with each other in the same way they connect to the brains of their hosts. That the neurons making up their bodies can communicate, allowing them to share a unique, mind-to-mind link.
They say that’s what happens during the reproductive fusion. That’s what they say... Young Yeerks flee from such contact, terrified by the idea. Older Yeerks, however, tend to seek it out.
Riaami’s lower palps brushed lightly against mine, very gently, almost timidly.
I froze, shocked by her audacity. That was an intimate gesture.
« What do you want from me, Riaami? We can’t be friends! »
I pulled away and walked off, disappearing into the crowd of our fellow Yirks and heading straight for the reinfestation docks.
No, we couldn’t be friends. Not in this life, anyway. Not as long as she remained a convict sentenced to hard labor and I her jailer.
-- Visser Two, chapter 13
