Flagella

As soon as the three packets entered his cell space they became interactive with his system. In other words Jim could view their contents within his organelle menu. This was awesome and way cooler than he though it was going to be. So before they actually deployed and became organelles he could check them out and see what was going on.

Here is what he saw.

[Anatolia Language Pack (Full)

Review details

Build pack

]

[Cilia Pack (Basic)

Review details

Build pack

]

[Flagella Pack (Basic)

Review details

Build pack

]

It looked like he could review details for each package. Immediately his interest was captured.

'I wonder what the details are for the flagella!'

Again he was in a rare moment of focus and could 'see' a fuzzy something something interact with the system screen. The moment passed as quickly as it came and then all he could think about were the details that appeared for the flagella pack. Unfortunately these details were entirely opaque.

[Flagella Pack Details

#$%@! ____ !!

]

'What?!'

Quickly he navigated to each of the other two detail screens and saw much the same incomprehensible gibberish.

'What???'

Taking a deep breath Jim calmed down a bit. There had to be a reason for this. They won't have a way to check the details if you couldn't understand them in the first place.

Thinking about it some more he realized that it might be that he just didn't have the language or organelles to interpret the detail information. That had to be it. Maybe only the cells that created these packs had the code or ability to understand this language.

To him this wasn't the way to treat customers. He shouldn't have to be a technician to understand what it was that he was getting!

However, this was not the time to complain. He only had about fifteen minutes before the 15:00 hour meeting started.

With no choice he bit the bullet and opened each package. Building each organelle one after another he sat back metaphysically and let his senses watch the process.

First he was surprised at the high amount of biomass that was required to build each organelle. Paying 90 for the language pack, 205 for the cilia, and 178 for the flagella. But the question of why it took so much was answered quickly. He should have realized that most of the biomass went into building the structures that would support the building of each organelle.

Theoretically in the future he would have his own organelles and building structures to be able to produce these parts of his cells.

In the case of the cilia the structure that was built was relatively simple and small. It only had to build a small appendage so a large structure was not needed. However, hundreds of cilia had to be made in order to supply his entire membrane with enough wiggling little flange. 

Thinking that the flagella constructor would be the most interesting Jim was floored when he saw that the language pack module had no constructor. Instead what he thought was the constructor was actually the frame for the language pack itself. Around the frame a crystal grew in real time. That's all it was, a crystalline structure. 

'This must be some sort of receiver? Maybe it receives the communication somehow or amplifies the words spoke. But, that wouldn't make sense there also has to be a sender if I need to talk to anyone else! … I don't know.'

Even though there was so much more to build for the cilia Jim soon found that the cilia was built and deployed already. Even before the language crystal and the flagella were halfway complete the cilia were already all created. Of course the cilia had not migrated to the correct positions in the cell wall. It would take time for them to find the right place, work their way through, and then root down into the membrane. Each little cilia had a protein that walked or moved it to the correct location. How could these little proteins knew so much, they didn't have brains!

In the first place the flagella constructor was different. Both the cilia and the language crystal were build inside the cell. For the flagella the constructor built itself on the outside of the cell. Further the constructor used more than half of the biomass on it own. A long thick protrusion erected itself on what seemed to be an arbitrary section of the membrane. Once this was built the constructor produced proteins and carefully put them together. 

Excitement filled him as he couldn't wait to finally have a flagella. The possibility of freedom stirred his soul a little. From this point on he was never going to have to be subject to the whims of fate! he would always have a certain amount of control, even if very little.

Soon various cells started to arrive. Evidently Abigail had dropped him in the middle of the space that the orientation was going to happen in. These cells went through the area and humming seemed to clear up the substrate. A strange whirling sound permeated the environment.

Jim found out almost immediately that they were not actually humming. Rather whatever they were doing was being picked up by his new communications crystal and being broadcast directly into this soul.

On closer inspection they were vacuuming. This blew Jim's mind. It would have never occurred to him to vacuum the substrate. What they were really doing was straining the aqueous solution. Taking the liquid in and then shooting it out again. That was the 'sound' that these two cells were making. Somehow his communication crystal was picking up the vibrations created by their work and broadcasting it to him.

This was a new and novel way that his crystal worked. It seemed that it not only transmitted language, but also served more as an ear. Picking up and amplifying any noise in the area. 

'Pretty cool!'

Only taking a few moments to vacuum the whole area the cells moved quickly and carefully moved around Jim. He still couldn't move or rather he didn't dare try to move yet. Technically enough of his cilia was in place now and he could move if he absolutely had to. It was just that he didn't want to compromise the construction of his flagella. Now that he had a flagella he was going to take really good care of it.

For their part the cleaning cells didn't seem to mind his anxiety over the whole thing. Maybe this sort of thing had happened before and this was business as usual for them. He didn't know.

'Thank you!'

He tried to say thank you, and then flushed in embarrassment. They couldn't see his soul shamefully hanging his head, but he did try again this time trying to speak through the communication crystal.

{@#$}

Maybe trying to use the communication crystal without any instructions was not a good idea. For all his good intentions the closest cleaning cell wiggle farther out of the way at his outburst.

'They must think I am insane or something.'

Shrugging his shoulders he just continued on. The cleaning cells finished and left. Following which huge group of cells converged on the area immediately. Thousands of cells flooded over and around Jim.

It was incredible. So far whenever another cell had come close to him before it had been to attack. Now, it was different. These cells completely surrounded him. They didn't glam on like the white blood cells had, but they were not shy about touching and pushing up against him. It was a little bit shocking at first.

'Is this what PTSD is like?'

Post traumatic shock had been a real thing in his original life. Here his soul was going into a bit of a hyper aroused state thinking about how any of these cells could turn on him and attack at any point. 

'Calm down, Jim. You can't have PTSD already. You haven't been in a real war yet. Just chill.'

He said to himself, but the thought only seemed to make it worse.

'What can I think about that will calm me down!'

Stressing he suddenly thought about Cassandra and his whole world imploded all at once. Beautiful, wonderful Cassandra that always saves him in his worst moments. Suddenly he was able to focus and concentrate on what was going on around him. No longer being over whelmed with the unfortunate associations he had with being surrounded. 

As he relaxed he realized that his communication crystal was picking up a transmission. 

{...various war games and training simulations will be...}

He was missing the initiation speech!

And then his world caved in as another sound was enhanced by his crystal.

{Crunch!}

It was the sound of his flagella's constructor being bent over. The very thought that his flagella might be destroyed gutted his soul!