Story Seed - Exotic

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The translation was successful.

Tina and her team were back. 

Home.

She looked down at herself, thankful to see two arms, two legs.  The others did the same.

A small chime rang out, and the door to the translation chamber whooshed open. Jenkins peered in, looking owlish as he simply observed the team over the rims of his spectacles, perched at the end of his long pointed nose.  His thin hand darted to and fro across the notepad before him; though he did not look at it the notes were cleanly legible, and well organised.

Satisfied Tina finally rose from the cushion on the floor. "That was ..." she began, faltering almost immediately for lack of words to properly describe the experience.  The others echoed a similar level of awestricken inability to speak.

Jenkins nodded, more notes rising on the page. "Let's start at the beginning, shall we? What laws do you expect the recursion operated under?" His eyes darted between the people before him, golden brown rings seeking out answers.

"Exotic. That's certain." Toby said, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands.

Jenkins' left eye twitched, "Really?" A tinge of excitement colored his voice, "What was it?"

Tina answered immediately, "Fluidic. Some sort anyways. We were floating in some kind of semi-viscous ... something."

"We weren't humanoid either. Whatever creatures we became everything was different.  Orderly." Ken said, wringing his hands, "When we didn't start breaking the red things into blue things all hell broke loose."

Jenkins nodded thoughtfully, "Describe the red and blue things if you can." This started a prolonged argument about the complex shape of the objects and the work centric nature of the recursions inhabitants.

More questions followed; Jenkins was as thorough as he was apparently unflappable. After some time, and numerous pages of notes he finally seemed satisfied. "Unless you have anything more to detail, I believe I have everything I need for the initial analysis. I look forward to your field reports."

As her team broke out of the room and scattered Tina hung back with Jenkins, "What was that place? Where did you send us?"

Jenkins looked up from reviewing his notes, "Oh. Well, I believe, based on your descriptions, that the recursion was a living cell."  He said it so matter of factly that it took a moment to register for her. "In fact I think it is likely that you all took on the role of mitochondria. Truly a most fascinating experience I am sure. Curious that an entire recursion should take on such a structure, but who knows, perhaps even non-sapient life on this planet is capable of casting a shadow into the strange..."

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Summary - An exploration team returns from a uniquely strange recursion, unsure of their experiences there, or the very nature of the world.