Exodus: Tales of The Empire: Book 2: Beasts of the Frontier. (26 page)

*     *     *

“Leave the
remote in place, Master Sergeant,” ordered the Major.  “I think we’ve got it,
but I want to monitor this area, just in case.”

“What do you
want to do now, ma’am,” asked the Warrant Officer, bringing up a map of the
world.

“That might not
be the only one, Major,” said the Master Sergeant, pulling up a holo at his
station that showed all of the reported attacks with their time stamps.

“I don’t believe
it is, Tapuarii,” replied Jensen, shrugging her shoulders.  “But I also don’t 
think we have enough to pinpoint the other lairs at this time.”  The Major
looked back at her pilot.  “Get us back to the capital, post haste.  We’ll see
if the Governor and his staff have developed any new intelligence while we rest
and rearm.”

Zaya nodded and
turned back to her board, bringing the sub to the surface, then powering its
grabber units and raising it into the air for the swift flight back to the
capital.  Jensen thought about what they would need to do when they got back,
trying to locate the areas of operations for the other members of this
species.  Which didn’t mean they couldn’t enjoy some drinks and some decent
food before they had to go back out again.

*     *     *

The
Gatherer
cruised
into the shallows just fifty meters under the surface, almost an equal distance
from the bottom.  It was essentially the same bluish gray as the water, and
cover of night added to its invisibility.  It was on the hunt, on a mission to
hurt the newcomers as much as possible.  Which didn’t mean it was going to rush
into a situation that might cause it more damage than it did to the enemy. 
Slow and careful would be its mantra this evening.  Using its electron
propulsion to move at thirty knots, it slid like a ghost through the sea, its
own senses questing ahead.  It could feel the movements of schools of sea life,
the different motions of the larger air breathers the newcomers had brought
along with them.  It could feel none of the artificial emanations of the
newcomer’s tech, and only a few stray distant echoes from the natural sonar of
their sea creatures.

Through its
quantum connection with the other thirteen members of its species, it could see
that all were penetrating into the most populated areas of the newcomer
settlements.  Two were close to detection sources and were having to work their
way around them, but most had found unguarded paths through.

The
Gatherer
noted
that the water was growing lighter, the sign that day was approaching, and with
it the increased chance of detection.  The creature allowed itself to sink down
to the bottom, sliding its body back and forth to cover itself in sand.  There
it lay still, waiting for the day to pass and the night to come again so that
it could move on unseen.

Later that night
it would join with another of its kind, consolidating into a larger, more
powerful creature.  Other members would do the same, until there were only five
of the creatures, much better able to handle the damage they were sure to
sustain.

*     *     *

“It looks like
the one you killed might have been the only one,” said Colonel Neru M’tabasa,
the Chief of Planetary Police.  “It’s an exact chemical match for the samples
we’ve found at some of the other attacks, down to the quantum resonances of the
atoms..”

“I hope so,
Colonel,” said Major Jensen, a frown on her face.  “However, being as it seems
to be some kind of protoplasmic creature, and most probably reproduces by some
sort of fission, I wouldn’t get too hasty with conclusions like that.”

“So you think
there may be more than one of these things, but they all originated from the
one creature?” asked Governor Frieze.

“That’s what
Sergeant Billings believes,” said Jensen, nodding her head as she reached for
her wine glass.  “He’s my resident biology expert.”

“And the biology
faculty at our local university agrees with your sergeant,” said Colonel Suarez
with a grimace that showed how much she hated to admit that the Constabulary
might be correct.

“So we have no
way of telling how many of these things there are,” said the Governor after a
deep swallow of his drink.  “Not what I wanted to hear.”

“And I’m sorry
about that, sir,” said Jensen, putting her own glass back on the table half
empty.  “I really wanted to have better news for you.”

“You did bring
me some good news, Major Jensen.  After all, you did kill the thing that attack
Humbolt village.”

“We think we got
it, sir,” agreed Jensen, watching as the stewards brought in the meal.  She had
to admit that the people, at least the higher ups, of this world ate well.  She
was the only one of her team present for this meeting.  The rest were either
out on the town or hanging around the barracks for some more sedate
entertainment.

“Where do the
University people think this thing originally came from?” asked Jensen after
taking a bite of the baked fish. 
I could retire here
, she thought, the
taste of the fresh seafood still on her taste buds.  Great weather, beautiful
scenery.  What wasn’t there to like?  With the exception of an unknown number
of enormous predators hunting through the seas.

“We really have
no idea where it came from,” said Colonel M’tabasa, shaking his head, then
taking a fork full of a crab cake and blowing on it for a second.  “We just
know that it isn’t from here.  There’s no way two separate evolutionary lines
could develop like this, especially on a world where the stronger is preying on
the weaker.”  With that he put the crab in his mouth and chewed with an
expression of pleasure.

“I think we can
agree with that,” said the Governor.  “How the hell it got here?  I don’t know,
and all experts can give me is conjecture.  I would think it had to be
deposited here by some intelligence, though for the life of me I can’t figure
out why.”

“Unless it came
here on its own,” said Jensen, scowling.

“Like it flew
here in a ship?” asked M’tabasa, eyes wide.  “You don’t think this thing could
be intelligent, do you?”

“Of course not,”
chimed in the Governor quickly.

He knows the
law as well as I do
, thought Jensen, looking at the man. 
If it’s
intelligent by any measure of such, we have to make sure we don’t wipe out the
species.  Which doesn’t mean we can’t kill all of them but the single specimen,
since they seem to be asexual, and then capture it.  Like that would be easy
,
was the last thought as she coughed out a laugh.

“Something
funny, Major?” asked Frieze, a frown on his own face.

“Just the image
of a protoplasmic water dweller building a spaceship and flying it here, sir,”
she answered with a  straight face.  “I couldn’t imagine a more unlikely
scenario.”

“Nor could I,”
replied Colonel Suarez.  The leader of the planetary militia looked over at the
Governor with a smug expression on her face.  “Let the Major find all of these
things for us, and my people will go in and kill every last one of them.”

“And if they’re
intelligent?”

“I don’t think
that likely, Major,” said Suarez.  “As you said, they’re protoplasmic
creatures.  And according to the information you brought back, the sample, they
seem to be some kind of impossible single celled creature.  Though I’m not even
sure if the concept of cell has any meaning with this thing.  And who ever
heard of a blob of protoplasm with a damned brain?”

“Do you think
you can find the rest of them, Major?” asked Frieze, pointing his fork at
Jensen.

“Oh, we can find
them, given time,” she replied.  “Probably after they have made more attacks
and killed more people.”

“I hate to hear
that,” said Frieze.  “I understand, but I still hate to hear that there’s going
to be more people dead before we can stop these things.”

“Unless we move
all of our people inland on the larger islands,” said Suarez, looking around
the table.

“Even the
dolphins and the orcas?” asked M’tabasa.

“We can prepare
tanks for them,” replied Suarez.

“I think we’re
getting a little hasty here,” said the Governor, throwing is fork on his
plate.  “Let’s give the Major some more time to locate these things.  After
all, I don’t think they’re going to show up at our front door and make easy
targets of themselves.”

That would be
too damned easy
, thought Jensen, shaking her head in agreement. 
No,
they’re going to make themselves hard to find from now on.

“You have a call
from the University, sir,” came a voice over the intercom.  “Professor
Jameson.”

“That’s the
chief of the zoology department at the University,” said Frieze, looking over
at Jensen.  “His people took charge of the samples you brought back.”  He
looked back at the center of the table.  “Bring him up on holo.”

The image of a
tanned man of indeterminate age appeared in the holo projected at the center of
the table.  His features were Northern European, his tan the result of much
time out in the sun, which showed he wasn’t a lab rat.

“We have a
preliminary workup on one of the samples, Governor,” said the man, nodding
toward Frieze.

“What kind of
life form is it, Professor?” asked Frieze, leaning forward in his chair.

“I’m not even
sure that term fits, sir.”

Jensen felt the
hairs on her neck rise.  If the term life form didn’t fit, what did?

“It seems to be
made up of a combination of biological and mechanical matter.  Not really
nanotech, but micro-machines on a slightly larger scale, along with what I can
only term biological factories that produce a variety of substances, including
the most powerful molecular acid any of us have ever seen.”

“What about a
nervous system?” asked Jensen, pulling up the data the University had already
uploaded to the government net.  “Does it have a brain?”  That was the question
she was most interested in.  If it didn’t have a center of intelligence, it
couldn’t be intelligent, could it?

“It really
doesn’t need one, as far as we can tell.  Every one of the mechanical
components seems to incorporate some memory storage, and the entire network
transmits at the speed of electrical transmission.  The entire creature is a
nodal network, with memories reproduced tens of thousands of times.”

“Capabilities?”
asked the Major.

“Mostly unknown,
but most probably greater than any true life form could manifest.  Whatever we
could do with electromagnetism.  Frankly, I really couldn’t tell you, but the
speculation is frightening.”

“How could
something like this evolve?” asked the Governor, his face pale as he digested
the implications of what the professor was saying.

“I would say
that it was most unlikely that something like this evolved,” said Jameson.  “I
would say that it was most likely built.”

Jensen felt the
shiver of fear grow to almost panic. 
Who in the hell would have built
something like this, and what happened to them? 
Based on what happened to
most species that tampered with self-aware machines, which was the closest
thing she could think of when contemplating this information, their creation
probably destroyed them.

“I can’t stress
this enough, Governor,” said the Professor, his eyes narrowing.  “This thing
probably didn’t come from this Galaxy, and the only reason I could think of to
move on is because it used all of the resources it needs in whatever place it
came from.  This thing cannot be allowed to get off this planet.”

*     *     *

Chaim Gonzalez
looked up from the book he was reading as the sound of horses screaming in
panic came to his ears.

“What the hell
is going on with the animals?” asked Glori, his wife, sitting in her own chair,
working on a flat comp.

“I don’t know,”
answered Chaim, getting up from his chair and setting the book on the side
table.  “But I guess I should go check on them.”

“You want me to
come with you?”

“No,” he said,
shaking his head.  “They’re probably just spooked by their own shadows.  I‘ll
go out and settle them down, then I’ll be right back.”

Chaim hit the
panel that opened the door to the house, stepping out into the cool night air
of his private island.  At just over two hundred years of age, having made his
fortune as an executive vice president of one of the largest shipping companies
in the Empire, retirement looked good.  And when he found this planet through
his company’s database, it looked even better.  So he bought a small island,
six kilometers long by two at its widest.  It allowed him a dock for his yacht,
pastures for the horses his wife had wanted, and the goats that he thought
would provide healthy milk and cheese.  He ran a small fish farm, the animals
herded by the dolphin family that were his partners.

The air was
filled with the scent of flowering plants, and the sounds of the horses raising
hell, as if the devil himself were coming for them.  The goats were also crying
into the night.  And the normal night sounds of the island, the birds and bats,
were absent.

What the hell
,
he thought as he jogged over to the stables, opening the doors to the sight and
sound of the four beasts attacking the gates that held them in their individual
holding pens.  “What’s wrong, guys?” he asked, reaching a hand into one of the
stalls to rub it over the nose of the mare.

Suddenly, one of
the other horses kicked open its gate and ran out of the stable at a gallop.

“Dammit,” cursed
Chaim, vacillating for a moment between going to round up the horse or just
letting it free for the night. 
Not like it could get into too much trouble
on four square kilometers of island.

Chaim left the
stable, still trying to decide, and took a look at the ocean.  It looked like a
wave was coming in, then the wrongness of the image struck him.  The wave was
ten meters above the normal surface of the ocean, and moving too slowly for any
kind of rogue wave.  And it was coming straight for the beach.