“Kalsa Warrior Nuvak, we need your assistance!”
The Vohra jumped up and down. Like most normal Vohra, her voice was monotonous, but Nuvak knew that she was excited. Her pheromones gave it away. Normally, Nuvak would be doing higher level duties in the nest, but occasionally, he would do the rounds. It helped him keep in touch with standard Vohra.
“What is it, Ganuk?”
Being a small nest, most Vohra there had their own, individual names. Nuvak was thankful for that, he was originally from a much larger nest and recognising individual standard Vohra by looks and pheromones then remembering their eight-digit codes was always incredibly tedious.
Ganuk led Nuvak down a passage way. She was in charge of a mining expansion area, in order to both increase their backup resources and also create more space for a new fungus farm. But as they descended, Nuvak noticed that everything was far damper than it should have been. That wasn’t good, if they had hit an underground stream or lake, they would have to move the whole expansion elsewhere.
“We found something!”
“Found what?”
“We are not sure!”
Nuvak sighed. They reached the main area, where most of the workers were gathered. Ganuk waved at a particularly small Vohra called Jenek, who led them down another, much narrower path. As they walked, Nuvak kept his eyes open, more watching for debris than anything else. The walls were incredibly wet, almost dripping with moisture, so a mudslide was not out of the question.
“So?”
“This!” Jenek pointed at something grey up ahead. At the end of the path was a pool of grey liquid, with a faint, yellow hint to it.
Nuvak bent down to inspect the liquid. It was rather warm. Not boiling, but definitely not something one could comfortably swim in.
“Do you know what it is?” Nuvak turned to Ganuk.
“No. We thought it was a new thing though! We don’t think it is poisonous. Is it?”
Jenek pulled out a small bottle. “We took a sample. Very careful. It is very gooey. But it cools down. Not fast, but it does.”
With a sigh, Nuvak took the bottle and examined it. Jenek was right, it cooled down. Into a solid lump. In this form, the curious substance looked a lot like some form of silicon. Like this, it was a lot more interesting, Nuvak thought they’d initially just found a lump of toxic matter or something, but this was clearly something different.
After a moment of thought, Nuvak opened the bottle and stuck his finger in to feel the substance.
“Kalsa Warrior Nuvak, what is it?”
Nuvak blinked. It felt rubbery. Almost like Vohran skin. Not quite as warm, this bottle had clearly settled down to room temperature, but the feeling was uncanny.
“Ganuk, feel it.”
Ganuk hesitated, but ultimately did what she was told. Like Nuvak, she was surprised at just how Vohra-like it was.
“Is it… a dead Vohra?”
“No…” Nuvak shook his head. “If it was, we would have found armour and skeletal mass.”
“Oh…”
“Alright, I will take this up to the labs, get a proper look, see what it is. I want you to open up the area, find out how much is here. Try not to touch it, just in case, but since none of the gas alarms have gone off, should be safe to work around.”
Ganuk and Jenek both nodded, then rushed back up the passage. Nuvak paused for a moment, felt the sample again, then smiled. Their nest could use something like this.