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Then a bolt of blue-white energy arced overhead. It struck the branch and nearly knocked her over the edge.
    “This way!” Trace yelled over the resulting shrieks of the creatures. He stood on the opposite fork, waving his gun.
    Impani wasn’t sure if she was angry with him for being there or with herself for feeling relieved that he was there. With the coil of moss over her shoulder, she leaped. He caught her before she plowed over the other side.
    “They’re like antibodies.” He fired again at the blackened limb. Bark flew as if exploding. “That ought to keep them busy for a while.”
    The branch lurched beneath their feet. As one, the eyeless faces turned toward them.
    “Or not,” Trace said.
    Her head swam with her footing. “Is this tree sentient?”
    “It’s certainly aware of itself. And of us.”
    The creatures grouped together. They seeped along the bark. Trace took a step backward. With his gun, he motioned to the branches above. The tree was filled with green organisms. Hundreds of them.
    Impani’s heart pounded in her throat. “If the tree is intelligent, we might be able to communicate, to explain that we mean no harm.” Immediately, she pictured her hooks ripping the bark. She looked down at the scorch marks left by Trace’s gun.
    “Run,” he said. “I’ll hold them off.”
    She opened her mouth to disagree. They were not there to butcher the locals, and whether the tree was sentient or not, it was just trying to defend itself. But a sudden shriek pierced her ears. A creature swooped at them as if from midair. Trace fired. It exploded with the same force as the bark.
    “Run!” he yelled.
    And Impani ran. Trace continued to shoot. She didn’t look back. She felt sick. This was a slaughter. How could fright overrun her values so easily? Then a creature struck her shoulder, and she clubbed it away with her fists.
    Darkness crowded her vision. Her stomach wrenched. The ring was coming. The void swirled to claim her. She knew she was running, could feel her arms and legs pump, but the tree limbs were gone. Nausea burned the back of her throat.
    Then agony hit as if it were a physical barrier. She flattened against it. Her body elongated. Stretching. Ripping. Her eyes bulged until she thought they would burst, but she was powerless to close them.
    Somewhere she heard a scream, terrified and pitiful, rising in pitch. Part of her mind took census, a mental patting of her pockets to find her passkey, and she realized she wasn’t the one who was screaming.
    It was Trace.

Chapter 7
     
     
    I mpani appeared on a new planet, materializing a meter above ground and falling with a thud. She rolled onto her back, dazed, and looked up at a bright orange sky. For a moment, she imagined she could still hear the keening wails of the tree organisms. Then she realized the sounds were real.
    She leaped to her feet.
    Trace thrashed on the ground, covered in green creatures. She rushed to pull one from his face. Her fingers sank into its mushy flesh.
    He heaved a deep breath then yelled, “Get them off me! Get them off me!”
    She reached for another. Its body popped like a pustule, coating her gloves in viscous slime.
    “They’re dead,” she told him. “Liquefying.”
    He sat quickly. “My eyes. They spat at me.”
    “Can you see?”
    “Ugh. They burn.”
    “Let me wash your face.”
    She knelt beside him, dampened her fingers from her flask, and wiped his eyes. His skin was blotchy. Deep lines marred the creases of his lids.
    “Let’s make a pact,” she said. “Neither of us will remove our masks for the duration of this trip.”
    “Deal.” He winced and looked down at the green sludge in his lap. “What a mess.”
    “Apparently, they can’t live without their tree.”
    “But how could I have brought them with me? They’re from another world.”
    “I have a souvenir, too.” Impani held out her moss rope. “This must be why the techs make us take a decon shower after every