Old Acquaintances...

Hey Everyone!! :-)

Here's a little bit more of the third installment in the Petri Dish Chronicles! As always, the disclaimer is that this is a draft and, as such, it's unedited and likely full of errors and is subject to revision, revamping, and being completely scrapped and rewritten. But, with that in mind, I'm reasonably satisfied with the basics of it, at least at the moment, or I wouldn't have bothered posting it. Enjoy! :-)

Excerpt from the third Petri Dish book:
Petri turned to watch as the glow resolved itself into the elder Arcanum who had always acted as their leader and spokesperson with her. It was also the individual who had spent the greatest amount of time training her. She had the feeling the alien had her number, though she couldn’t say she felt the same about it.

“Greetings, child, we are grateful to you for accepting our invitation,” the alien's “voice" appeared in Petri's mind.

“You didn’t give me much choice,” observed Petri. “And I thought you said that I was no longer a child to you. Has that changed?”

“It has not. Our people no longer consider you a child, but I’m afraid I have not been able to readjust my thinking with regards to you, as yet. Perhaps, during our time together, now, I will be able to alter my understanding of you.”

“Meaning you don’t agree with the decision of the Collective?”

“I am yet undecided. I believe there is more room for growth in you, but that does not necessarily equate to the lack of maturity that is normally associated with children. You are like us, and yet you are not like us. The differences commingled with the similarities are difficult to discern and analyze. You are a…puzzle."

Petri snorted. “Well, I guess it's somewhat reassuring that the feeling is mutual.” She cocked her head to the side. “Why did you force me to come here? What do you want?”

“We did not force you. You were offered a set of alternatives and chose from among them. If you found the choices to be coercive, that was your decision and due only to your attachment to lesser beings.”

“As you knew it would be. You knew I wouldn’t be willing to be the reason you murdered innocent people. You knew threatening them the way that you did would bring me here.”

“I suspected such would be the case. There were others, however, who believed you would have progressed beyond such infantile obsessions.” Petri could hear the shrug in the alien’s voice. “As to why we wished your presence, there is a problem we require your assistance with.”

“What problem?” Petri asked, dropping the matter of their having threatened innocent lives to bring her there. She knew from experience pursuing it would lead nowhere. They truly did not regard anyone who was unable to psychically link with their Collective as a person.