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Kinverse: Volume Three

ROOKIE MISTAKES

A short horror story by Moros, aka KinverseWriter

Legal Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise herein mentioned. No copyright infringement is intended. All characters and events in this story are entirely fictional. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental. This work of fiction contains disturbing content.

Reader discretion is advised.

Description:

A pious and hard-working young man is promoted to the job of his dreams: working directly for and with the Grand Matriarch, leader of his people in law and spirit. Her deeds are as legendary as her age and fortitude, but the passing of time has not been kind to her. In her advanced age she has become reclusive and sinister rumors abound from her political enemies, and this lowly janitor is about to learn the truth.

Never meet your heroes.

Categories:

Horror.

Disclaimers:

This story contains disturbing themes.

---

A/N:

This is a teaser set significantly into the future of the Kinverse, some time before or during Book 3, which will have a focus on horrifying situations such as this one.

For those reading this as the one-shot that it is:

-The hav'ner (also known as 'the Kin') are an alien species with high sexual dimorphism and multiple subspecies. They grow as they age or overeat, normally succumbing to complications related to their size and nutritional intake difficulties. However, with life support and especially with cybernetics it is theoretically possible for one to grow to rather extreme size.

-The Kin are covered in carapace plates and scales. Their carapaces are brown but darken as they age. Male Kin are bipedal with a hunched posture, but females are quadrupedal.

-The Smallkin are a subspecies of Kin. They are 50% to 33% smaller on average as they can't grow as efficiently and their larger brains take up more nutrients.

---

It feels almost as if all my life has led to this moment.

Attendant to the Grand Matriarch herself! I can hardly believe that my devotion to the Grand Matriarchate has finally been rewarded in full and I can't wait to finally meet her in person!

The taller hav'ner guards and attendants surround me in their locker room--our locker room!--as we suit up for our shift. From their larger lockers the guards don ceremonial but functional armor and the other attendants dress in their suits.

"Stop gawking and hurry up rookie, you're not a janitor any more," my supervisor chastises. I turn and salute as we study each other. He's a taller and older Smallkin than I; perhaps of the first generation. His face's black carapace is all that's visible of him under his uniform.

"Yes sir! Sorry sir!" I bark as I swiftly work to don my own. The entire suit is made of dull brown leather and I struggle with the straps and loops. He grabs me and helps ensure everything is tight and form-fitting, leaving only my own mask left off.

"And don't bother with the fancy posturing, we don't do that here. I don't know what you think you know about this job rookie," he explains, "but your suit is the most important part of the job. It may be sweltering but it's all that stands between you and some of the dangers of our duties."

I stop reaching for my mask and turn to face him. His eyes are serious and it's like he's looking past me.

"What do you mean, sir?" I ask.

He glances around the room. The others are all filing out, having finished suiting up. "There are things that the public don't and shouldn't know about the Grand Matriarch. Secrets that must never leave her quarters. Do you understand?"

I nod. 'Never meet your heroes,' they say, but she's the Grand Matriarch! The biggest, the strongest, and the first of all hav'ner! Surely it can't be too bad, right?

"Good. You will see and hear things about her. Most of it is accurate. Assume these rumors to be true but don't gossip, just listen and follow orders." He goes over my suit's latches and loops once more. "Always check your suit's seals and your mask's filters."

I blink. "Is her scentspeech dangerous or something?"

He shakes his head. "No. No, you'll understand why eventually. Let's go."

I quickly grab my mask and shove it on my head as we go. The hook-beaked respirator covers me completely all the way down to my neck, where I quickly latch it on.

I catch up to and fall in line with my supervisor. We enter out into one of the many grand hallways sized for a being of her proportions and turn down it toward the center of the palace and all of hav'ner civilization: the room of the Grand Matriarch.

We pass paintings of landscapes and large statues of people, animals, and objects before finally coming up to the colossal door. One by one our shift files in through a service door set within the colossal gates, and my far shorter height compared to the men and women ahead of me stops me from getting any peek within until the very last moment.

The door is shut behind us by a guard. Before I can look around my superior I'm stunned into the floor by yelling.

"ATTENDANTS!" she yells down to us. "YOU ARE LATE AND I AM IN PAIN!"

The others scramble to their positions as the previous shift flees just as fast for the door. I would have been left rooted in their way if not for my supervisor grabbing me by the shoulder and pulling me along with him to a control pedestal with a transparent monitor.

"We're here! We're here! What's the problem, Grand Matriarch?" he asks up to her.

She is truly massive in a way that pictures and videos cannot do justice. She makes even the imposing guards doing their best to become one with the walls look like mere children. Scars and advanced prosthetics add a ruthless beauty to her form: three of her four eyes have been torn out and replaced with beady white lights, her legs wouldn't be out of place on extremely fancy construction machines, one of her back scythe-limbs has been replaced with a glorious plasma cannon, and her carapace is a deep, deep black. While my supervisor may be old, she is positively ancient.

Two artificial horns jut out from the back of her head broadcasting her vitals and systems information and receiving sensory data for her prosthetics and brain implants. Looking closer I can tell that many of what appear to be her carapace plates have merely been painted a glossy black to match the rest of her polished carapace, instead being replacements as well. I know that beneath all of that metal and carapace lay even more cybernetics, all powered by a miniature fusion reactor implanted in her chest.

"IT ACHES! IT ACHES! JUST FIX IT, MINIONS!"

Her voice comes synthesized from a box and speaker on her breast. She is resting on her side atop a massive foam cushion, one hand rubbing vainly at her belly and the other tightened into a fist. She roars wordlessly into the roof and the building shakes.

My supervisor quickly logs into the pedestal with what must be his credentials and begins navigating through options. I watch in a mix of shocked silence and awe as he... activates something that administers her a painkiller with her implants in a dosage that wouldn't just kill me, it would double my blood pressure!

Her eyes blink open and closed and her roaring abates. She lays back down and her rising and falling chest calms.

"Is that better, Grand Matriarch?" he asks. Her sole organic eye has become half-lidded and she lays her head down beside her.

"Better... better..." she moans. "But I can still feel it. Fix it so that I may sleep."

My supervisor curses, barely audible through his muffling mask. His eyes search the room and I follow them, both of us finding all others' locked on...

...Me.

I gulp. Something is wrong and they know something that I don't.

He turns to me and takes me by the shoulders. "Rookie, if you can get through today everything else will be a breeze. I'll be on the radio with you the entire time, but you're going to be on your own for... for this." The goggles of his mask never once lower to look me in the eyes.

"For what?" I ask, worry and a hint of fear rising.

He lets out a long and slow breath through his filters.

"For going inside. I think she has an obstruction lodged somewhere inside of her upper digestive tract and I need you to go inside to investigate and clear it."

I feel a rush of vertigo and dizziness at the prospect of entering the belly of another creature, let alone the Grand Matriarch. I'm only prevented from falling over by my supervisor's steadying hands.

"You... can't be serious, sir?" I ask, looking between him and her. "Why do I have to do it? It's my first day, I haven't even started training yet!" I whine.

Only now do his eyes meet mine through our glass lenses. After a long moment he speaks up.

"Because... I need to manage things out here. I'll be with you on a radio the entire time, I can talk you through it."

I look around the room at the others cowering and feel their implicit words: you're the new guy, you have to do it.

Hazing.

Suddenly, the reason behind our suits clicks into place. But why all of us need them eludes me.

I take a few deep breaths to steady myself and come to terms with the reality of my new duty. I signed up for this. This is my job. I'm a janitor and always will be one, and my Grand Matriarch needs me.

---

Onto my back goes a heavy air supply tank with a tube clicked into my mask. A tether from a panel in the wall is hooked into a belt affixed to the air tank's harness. The Grand Matriarch is where she's always been, staring vacantly into space atop her cushion; I've heard rumors that her cybernetics allow her to watch videos and read files. My supervisor presses a button on the pedestal and a soft tune rises from nothing until it fills the room. Her eyes focus as she snaps from her daze and they lock onto us, her neck popping as she stretches it.

"What is it?" she asks as she yawns, gaping wide and sucking in air. I fail to suppress a shudder going through me when I can't help but stare.

"Grand Matriarch," my supervisor begins, "we need to do another investigation. The attendant beside me will be entering to fix your aches."

What remains of her lips pull wide in a smile and a bit of drool leaks from a gap in the metal replacing half of her face.

"Be quick about it little minion. I am tired, deal with this and let me sleep."

She lowers her head back down, all four eyes both organic and artificial locked on my form. With an ungentle prod I stumble forward and without thought continue walking.

"I've always loved this part..." she speaks with a hint of what is clearly sadistic glee. "If only all medicine was so enjoyable."

My heart beats hard in my chest. Don't meet your heroes, I think to myself. They always disappoint you.

I arrive at her bared lips and she lowers her jaw open. Her teeth are immaculate, though there is a large rent in her tarnished half's gum lime. Her truly massive tongue bridges over them to give me a path down to her softly breathing gullet. I stand frozen in fear.

"The faster you get it over with the sooner it's over," my supervisor reminds me. "Just step in and let it happen. She'll do the rest."

I try to step forward, but my legs fail to move. An annoyed huff washes over me and her tongue shifts. Before I can process the movement it's wrapped around me, pulling me in and squeezing tight! Her lips seal around my waist as I yell in surprise and fear! Before I can get my bearings more air rushes past me as she flicks me up into the air...

...I feel weightless for a moment as I near the ceiling, spun about to face back down to the floor...

...only to find her massive jaws cracked open once more, the ends of her lips pulled up taut in a smile.

I can't help but scream as I plummet straight down. Her tongue breaks my fall but my momentum keeps me going. I tumble down and impact her waiting throat, sliding down into her gargantuan gullet. My descent slows momentarily but I'm so much smaller than her that her muscles barely need to stretch to accommodate me. I feel a pressure from one side in particular following me down and a rumbling chuckle rises from her belly.

My body is locked as I pass through a gaped sphincter; her crop. I'm swiftly through another and both feel and hear not only her heartbeat, but the hum of her reactor. The pressure abates on my body as I'm ejected roughly into darkness, plopping down on rumbling flesh.

For long moments I remain frozen in fear, the entire world shut out and my senses shut down. My own breathing is deafening in my sweltering suit and all I can feel is the chafing ill-fit of my undersuit.

"Rookie. Rookie, come in," my radio chimes. "Rookie. If you lost the radio on your way down, it's over here. Come get it before it gets damaged."

The new sound pierces through the breathing, the humming, the gurgling, and once more brings me to reality. I feel around for it on my harness and the flashlight beside it before frantically reaching back to grasp the tether on my back. I pull it as hard as I can and I find only slack.

"Rookie. Come in. I can't help you if we can't talk. Pick up the radio."

I pull and pull and pull and pull getting only more slack, fearing a bitten off end--until finally it goes taut, a pile of cabling bundled at my feet. Taking more deep breaths I fight to calm my racing heart, and reach for the radio.

I press down the button but stand at a loss for words after my experience. All I can think to do is grasp my flashlight and flick it on with my thick, wet gloves. It slips from my grip to the meat below with a soft splash, causing me to drop and fumble the radio as I panic and search for my only source of light in this personal hell.

"Rookie, don't hold the button down like that. You can't hear me if you do. Now say something."

My hand finally clasps around more than squishy flesh and with the other I'm finally able to flick it on. The entire chamber lights up and I instantly regret my life choices. All around me is the pulsing, writhing, and shifting walls of my once-idol's guts. I stand in the center at its lowest point, in the middle of a tiny pool of bubbling liquid. I dance around in surprise and jump to safe 'ground,' only succeeding in creating another depression.

From amidst the bubbling I spot the radio. I grab it with my free hand and bring it up to my mask, slime and all.

"Sorry! I'm here!" I call. "I'm... alive!"

I release the button so that he can respond. My world rumbles and shakes as the Grand Matriarch shifts and I lose my balance, tumbling to the floor. My gloves smoke as acids meet them and I'm suddenly given a true appreciation for the thick uniform. The shaking finally stops as she finishes whatever movements she was making.

"Are you still okay in there after that?"

I gather my breath, sucking in lungfuls from my limited supply. The thought reminds me of my job and I prepare myself to finish what's been started.

"I am," I tell the radio. "What do I need to do here?"

"Look around. See if you can find anything out of the ordinary. Bruises, cuts, foreign objects, that sort of thing."

I wipe gastric juices from my lenses and study my surroundings with the light. Her stomach is longer than it is wide, with one end having a large sealed sphincter--the entrance--and the other covered in multiple smaller ones in a column. Behind me is bare stomach lining and ahead is a series of folds in the flesh; what I remember from biology class to be distension folds. She's on her side, so that must be her belly.

"I don't see anything."

A long silence passes before I get a response.

"Check her folds for foreign objects. You know basic hav'ner biology, right?"

I do. Smallkin don't really have them, but most other subspecies do. Distension folds are normally held tight by belly muscles but can allow for more food to be kept in the stomach at once when they distend out. Foreign objects have a habit of getting stuck in them...

I trudge forward through the murk to the one closest to her front, pondering how I'm going to do this. Experimentally I shove my hand, then arm, into the meat and it gives way. I reach up and around as deep as I can, but she's so large that I'll have to climb inside. I force my way in, now surrounded by enclosing stomach flesh, and feel around with my arms and legs.

I try as hard as I can to keep my breathing level and even--I'm not claustrophobic but this situation is horrifying beyond belief from the sounds, to the feelings, and the two timers I'm on; every moment spent in here is another where I'm running down my oxygen and slathering myself in digestive juices. I don't want to have to rely on the respirator alone and I'd rather not melt.

My hand reaches the end and I search around. There's nothing but meat.

I sidle my way out and emerge back into the main chamber, looking down the wall. Hidden in the natural folds of the stomach there are more than I can count without wasting my time, so I don't even bother and just slip into the next one.

"How's it going in there?" my supervisor asks. "I'm still here if you need to talk."

I latch onto his voice. I've lost track of how long I've been in here and any stimulation other than the sounds of sloshing and gurgling is paradise.

"Nothing yet," I tell him. Eager for the conversation, a question easily comes to mind. "Sir, have you done this before?"

Silence. More squelching. More feeling around in the endless meat. The walls squeeze in and I go stock-still, and thankfully they release.

"...Yes," he finally responds. "Four times I did retrieval. It never got easier."

I continue feeling around for anything, anything at all. Anything to break up the monotony of flesh. I reach the end of this flap and leave for the next.

"Is this normal?" I ask.

He's prompt this time. "Somewhat. She doesn't usually react this badly and it often clears itself up without needing intervention."

Two down, too many to go. I pray that She of the Moon grant me luck; that I finish this soon.

"Don't panic, but you may want to hurry up."

I take a sharp breath. 'Don't panic' he says. If he's done it four times why didn't he do it this time too?

I almost miss it when I feel it. Reaching to find it again I tug a bit and pull only to feel it snagging, whatever it is. I edge myself closer and shine the light down. An errant bone is lodged in the gap, the twin wounds slightly bleeding. I stretch out the fold and pull it loose, finding an entire femur from what was probably an animal she ate whole.

She of the Moon knows her avatar is large enough... all of this fuss for such a relatively tiny wound.

Pleased with my perseverance and ready to leave I begin to slip back through the gap, flashlight in one hand and bone in the other. Eager to make way I shove the flap wide and begin to trek out... and then it hits me.

My only warning is a sucking and schlorping before a weight lands on my back from above, bringing me down in a heap with the meat closing back in eager to reclaim me. I fight and fumble with the mass and finally get out from under it, slip the bone into my hand with the flashlight, and pull up the object.

Light shines on dull metal as I struggle slippery and one-handed to get a good look at it. It's some sort of rounded cylinder and it's far heavier than it should be, as if it's attached to something. I let it squelch back down and pull aside the flesh.

The corroded mask of an attendant stares back at me.

I shriek and fall back flailing! The walls spasm and I death-grip the bone and my light as they squeeze me into the castoff garment! I shove off but I feel myself pinned in the end of the flap, the uniform pressed against me. Any attempt to keep calm is shattered as I scramble around enveloped in endless flesh.

"What are you doing in there? And what's taking so long? You're going to provoke a reaction!"

Squeeze. Her belly muscles tighten as much as they can and my tank is driven into my back. She finally relents and I scramble forward the right direction this time before stumbling over the uniform. I slip past it before remembering why I'm here, and grab at a sleeve to try and haul the suit out. It comes out deceptively easily and I throw myself back into the open stomach with a squishy plap. Confused, I take a look at my hand.

In it is one arm of the suit. The elbow must have corroded enough and it tore when I pulled. I hold it up for closer inspection, and an arm drops out of onto my lap.

Once more I shriek and scramble backwards, this time ending up in a significantly larger pool of gastric juices than there was before. My whole back is submerged and I can feel a slight stinging sensation spreading from my neckline! I fight to right myself and climb out, succeeding only in slipping and coating myself further in acids. I finally climb free, the hand abandoned.

I look back to the flap. The rest of the arm is peeking out from the crease.

"Rookie, are you still okay? Please tell me you double-checked your seals!"

I didn't. I put my mask on after he double-checked me. It's just a slight stinging for now, but the seal is broken and I can't take any more tumbles like that.

"I'm fine. I found the... foreign body," I spit.

Tamping my fear and panic I go for the rest of the corpse. Thankfully the thick leather pulls double-duty in keeping it in one piece and it comes free with ease, slick with juices as it is. The entire thing is badly corroded and sunken in places, one leg missing at the pelvis. With a shudder I toss the femur aside.

"Bag it up and prepare for extraction. It's almost over, rookie."

I grab and unfold from my back what amounts to a large leather duffel bag; only now do I realize what it is. I do my best to avoid seeing within the mask's vacant stare but catch a glimpse and stop trying to bag it. With morbid curiosity I undo the corroding seals and pull the mask free.

The head lolls back onto the stomach floor. There's nothing left of the eyes, but the skull is... more or less in one piece. The only reason I don't immediately lose my dinner is my experience as a janitor, though this is easily the worst sight I've ever seen.

Only now do I notice the stench that's crept in. My seals are degrading, just as this poor bastard's probably did. I don't know their name, I don't know how they got in here, and they're corroded so badly I doubt I could tell if it's a he or a she.

My thoughts go back to that sadistic look she gave, the gleam in her solitary eye, and her words. 'I've always loved this part,' she'd said. How often has this happened? How many people have died in our Grand Matriarch?

'There are things that the public don't and shouldn't know about the Grand Matriarch. Secrets that must never leave her quarters.'

'You will see and hear things about her. Most of it is accurate. Assume these rumors to be true but don't gossip, just listen and follow orders.'

He knew. He knew. This was normal.

I shut my eyes and start blindly packing the corroded and decaying corpse into the bag. I think back to all those nights cleaning up after parties. It's just some trash bags going in another trash bag. It's not a body. You're not inside the belly of a monster that rules your nation and your people.

You're going to be okay.

I repeat that to myself over and over again and focus on shoving this poor fucker in the bodybag.

I zip it up and reach for my radio.

"I'm ready for extraction."

Silence but for squelching, gurgling, humming, and slow, steady heartbeats.

Beneath it all I can barely hear something as it grows louder.

Music.

The world shakes. Down becomes sideways and I roll down the floor-turned-wall of her stomach, the bag landing on me in the even bigger pool of juices and acids. The air is knocked from my lungs again and I drop the flashlight into the murk. Liquid seeps into my suit as I fight the bag and shove it off to float in the pool. I blindly crawl for the shore and flop onto it, gasping for breaths.

The radio beeps. The music plays through it.

"Rousing measures have failed. If she's in a bad mood she won't cooperate. We can't extract you until morning."

She's asleep. She's asleep. And I'm trapped inside of her.

My heart drops and I feel a cold void in the pit of my own belly. Morning is hours away. If I don't run out of air, the acids will get me.

I reach for my radio.

"You knew," I accuse him. "You knew this would happen."

Silence.

"I asked you why you couldn't do it. This is why, isn't it?"

More silence.

"You fucking knew!"

Nothing.

"I'm stuck in here you bastard, you sent me to my death!"

Still nothing... until something. It crackles.

"...This is part of the job, rookie. We serve her first above our own lives, even if she's... not what the world wants to believe."

"You knew..." I murmur. He doesn't respond.

I wind up my arm and throw the radio across the organ and slump back against the squishy wall. It slaps against the other side.

After a moment of reflection and realization I bolt upright. I feel for the walls and skirt the edges, worried of falling into the no doubt growing pool. When I get to the other end I crawl on my hands and knees and feel around...

I perk up in hope when I feel something hard, but it's only the hand again. I toss it away and it splashes in the darkness.

I search for an untold amount of time, the only senses I have the regular beats, omnipresent hum, and irregular gurgling--along with the pain. The acids are pooling in my boots and every step sends pain screaming through me.

Finally my hand closes on something other than stomach and I grip hard with determination. I just need to make it to morning.

Inspiration hits me. Clipping the radio back onto my soggy belt, I feel for my tether and pull. Guiding myself back along the wall I pull out the slack until it finally tightens. I follow my lifeline and eventually find where it disappears into the wall: the entrance.

I try to shove my fingers in but there's barely any give. I massage the muscle and work it, slowly gaining progress until I can finally get an arm inside. The tingling has grown worse, but it's still blessed sensation. With one arm in I continue massaging it free, ever fearful that it will clamp down and doom me. But, I work my other hand in, and then my elbow... and I pull myself forward back into her gullet.

My fears are realized as her belly rumbles and her stomach kneads empty air. I slip loose and slide, hearing my feet splashing into liquid. I arduously climb back out with the aid of the tether and continue my work, massaging and kneading. I work my fingers in again, and then my hand, and then my arm, and once more I dare to hope I can survive. The pain is excruciating but my nerves have become to numb to it, either from me getting used to it... or their having melted.

I hook my hands in and pull, this time slower and gentler. I desperately wriggle forward along the tube and come to another sphincter. This one comes open easier and I fall forward into her crop with relief.

I'm safe... but I'll have to stay here for the night. I can't risk her throat swallowing me back down.

---

Light shines in from the opened curtains in the massive room. A button is pressed and soft music rises.

The Grand Matriarch's eyes blink open and she yawns. She glances around and spots me, but before I can get a word in her eyes dart to the catering cart being brought before her stacked high with her breakfast.

She rolls from her back and swipes the cart as she goes before upending it into her maw. All watch on in horror as she gulps down pastries, cakes, and other such offerings baked by the kitchens. She bites down and the tether snaps. I glare at the caterer and he flees for the door.

My once-silent radio comes back to life with shouts, screams, and curses. He survived after all... and now he won't. It's one thing to interrupt her during her sleep, it's another to try and get her to cough up a meal.

"Grand Matriarch..." I start.

She swallows another mouthful and turns her gluttonous gaze to me.

"What, attendant?"

"You still have the investigator inside of you..."

She eyes the broken cable.

"No I don't. Now let me sleep."

With a heavy sigh I mute my radio and reach for my tablet, pulling up one of many incident form templates for my report.

---

Symptom(s): 'Ache,' and 'Just fix it, minions.'

Diagnosis: Obstruction (yes, again)

Actions taken: Painkiller administered, resulting drowsiness complicated by Grand Matriarch's already tired state. Rookie dispatched inside for investigation.

Result: Rookie identified cause of ache, positive I.D. as obstruction. Obstruction cause unknown but have private hypotheses. Grand Matriarch fell asleep before retrieval process. Second retrieval attempt failed due to unforeseen factors.

Notes: 'Promote' whoever was on catering transport to personal attendant. Don't send attendants inside when the Grand Matriarch is tired if she's on painkillers. Don't be lazy fucks, leave the food outside during retrievals.