Su Yao's gloves disintegrated into honeycombed lace. The emerald symbiote devoured radiation in its tank, neural networks resembling city grids pulsing across mycotic flesh. When lightning-wood shavings touched the culture, the organism contracted into fetal form, vibrating Morse code.
"Brainwave mimicry." Ecologist Jiang Lin's data-stream eye flickered. "But two orders beyond us... reverse-domesticating observers."
The airlock rippled. Lin Zhan stormed in with crystalline scorpion carcasses. His dagger gleamed toward the symbiote: "Smells like Blue Rain."
"Seventh-gen specimen." Su's hologram showed mycelium carpet spreading beyond the dome. The symbiote suddenly mapped the Well's quantum structure.
Jiang's ocular alarms flared. Surveillance revealed desert-edge mycelium constructing hypergeometric rings, fluorescent sap mimicking Ye Shen's quantum pipelines.
"Found this in Sector SE." Lin tossed a warped plaque bearing twin eagles around DNA helix. Patrol teams reported "memory fractures... seeing ghosts."
The plaque emitted absolute-zero radiation. Su's touch triggered security footage: a lab-coated woman at Well's edge cradling symbiote-infant, twelve cores projecting wars behind her. "Dawn's Children awaken." Her voice glitched. "You're obsolete tombstones."
Wastes' Legacy
The desert monolith throbbed jade veins. Li Beichen's quantum eye revealed thousands of crystallized corpses inside - epoch-spanning uniforms preserved.
"Not catacombs..." Jiang's drones sparked against the surface. "...incubators."
Sand vehicles encircled them, pearl-armored redhead leading: "Defilers of Sacred Nursery." Nanotech chains immobilized the group. "We're Dawn's Children. You're pathogens."
Holograms swirled: "New Era's first symbiotes birthed Cocoons. We awaited purification."
Su raised the plaque. Resonant vibrations: "You harvest warrior DNA!"
"Not harvest... sow." The redhead activated a crystal corpse's jade eyes. "Toughest souls carry Dawn Seeds."
Lin's prosthetic failed. Spectral comrades emerged from sand - his desert legion reborn in monolith.
Quantum Nursery
The mycelium core's chill frosted Jiang's ocular. Through quantum walls, hexagonal pods glowed with humanoid chrysalises.
"Memory Forge." The redhead extracted Lin's lab-destruction memory from a pod. "Souls' agony fuels Seeds."
Su's scanner locked on her mother's hologram injecting infant-her. "How?!"
"All serums were nursery keys." The redhead shattered the pod, jade liquid forming key shapes. "Your mother... first Gardener."
Li's ocular pain revealed twelve jade stars - epochal Cocoon-Mothers from shamans to gene-splicers.
"You farm civilizations!" Jiang's kamikaze drones cracked the hive.
Nanoblade kissed Su's throat: "Cocoon-Mothers chose roothood. You'll bloom twin..."
Symbiotic Crossroads
The Mother Tree's sap narcotized with sweetness. Su fused with bark-grooves as Li's lightning proved futile. Jiang's model showed: "Mycelium network drains dome power!"
Lin's dagger-channeled memories revealed eternal agony loops: "This isn't salvation..."
The redhead'shalted by quantum vortex. Blooming pod revealed dual Sus - labcoat and mycelium-robed.
"Mom... made me key..." Labcoat-Su whispered.
Mycelium-Su tore reality: "True dawn needs no gardeners."
Collapsing Mother Tree birthed emerald rain. Li's hairpin-shield guarded Su through quantum storms. Jiang uploaded hive data. Lin's desert ghosts sealed civilization fissures.
Seventh Cocoon's shatter brought jade dawn. Oasis settlements repurposed twin-eagle sigils into entwined blossoms.
Jiang monitored mycological decomposition from new towers. Lin's monument wore Dawn's nanocloth, desert ghosts laughing in petrichor.
Su's lab housed the seventh Dawn Blossom. Moonlight-projected mother smiled as quantum clocks counted seven-year cycles.
Li's fully-crystallized eye became living portal. Blue moons revealed Su planting chrono-saplings in Well's cracks.
Beyond dome, a nano-armored youth cultivated new symbiotes. His jade-tinged goggles reflected Ye Shen's final glitch carved on lightning-wood: "Hide better this time."
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