by Geoff Nelder
Gaston’s legs demanded rest, so he carefully examined a fallen tree before sitting on it. Even then he was relieved not to fall through.
“We went to some trouble to camouflage both escape pods on either side of this lake, now are we to take this Kep, about whom we know practically nothing? Oui, he apparently saved your life. If Penn was here, he’d likely say even that was a ruse to gain your trust.”
Em leaned against the cucumber, but changed her mind and merely slowly paced in circles. “We need access to those pods to build our own flitter to carry your sample to the rendezvous. Hell, I hope that Kep can’t read our minds, or it will already know the destination coordinates.”
“Maybe,” Delta said, “it genuinely wants to get to know us better, be friends even. After all I got a kinda feeling, it was the oldest, amiable.”
“Old doesn’t always mean wise,” Gaston said while smelling a sweet coffee-like aroma from a bracket fungi. “Repeating the same life for forty years doesn’t—”
“Try a thousand years or so,” Delta said.
“I didn’t mean our life as measured from when we left Earth, and that would be—”
“Nor me, that’s the age of that Kep, in roughly our years.”
Gaston peeped around the tall salad-tree-thing and ogled the Kep with greater respect. Fancy living for that age and actually living it rather than be asleep for 98 percent of it as he had. “Delta, do the Keps sleep?”
“The Kep would protect us,” Delta said.
Em stopped chewing on what looked like celery Gaston had given her. “From what?”
“Well, we don’t know what else might b—ah, the bacteria, which has already attacked you two. It would steer us away… probably. Listen, there must be another reason why this Kep has stayed with us besides curiosity of an alien species.”
“A species which, rapelle, destroyed at least one of their giant spheres. However, there is something else. Our new mission. This transporting the bacteria, if it contains prions, to a remote spot for CAN to splice human genome into it. If it works then it might ripple through the bad bacteria, changing it. It would do two things—”
Em piped up, “Create a life form containing human genome and make the planet safe from the slime.”
Delta said, “Making more of the planet available for Keps to live, especially if their atmosphere building works. Fewer big storms, safer habitat, no wonder our Kep wants to keep an eye on things.”
“But,” Em said, “won’t it be unhappy that humans would be colonizing by stealth?”
All three fell silent. Gaston wanted to think that the Keps would be grateful for the genetic engineering that would rid them of the harmful state of the bacteria, but he was in danger of anthropomorphic presumption, again.
“I don’t suppose we can shake it off even if we wanted to,” Em said. “So, how are we gonna do this? We told Penn we’d leave a pod here, and I guess the Kep will make its own travel arrangements.”
As they walked to the pod, the Kep following, Gaston’s brain whirred with thought. “In order to leave a pod here and with the pods only taking two of us at maximum, we will need to make several journeys.”
“We’ll have to take some parts from this pod,” Delta said, “when we get to the other side. Then I’ll return in one and you in the other, Gas, and so on.”
After the sixth crossing, the three were together at the escape pod originally occupied by Delta and Gaston. It contained more engineering and medical kits than the other.
After a meal and securing shelter in addition to the pod, the three sat around a campfire. The Kep withdrew from it and as far as Gaston could tell, hid in the woods.
“Delta, how long will it take you to construct a flyer?” Gaston asked.
“Two days, maybe sooner if I find the parts I need more quickly. I’d thought of asking the Kep for help. You know, cannibalise a couple of their flitters, but although I drew diagrams and spoke the few words I knew, it remained aloof.”
“How about you, Em?”
“Ten minutes. Already programmed. I just need to insert and check the nav and data chips, and how about your slimy bacteria samples, Gas?”
For some reason hearing his mucus described in such malodorous fashion put him off eating the banana-like mush he called a snack.
“I have samples but have yet to test for the presence of prion proteins. I doubt I can do much more than find amino acids. It is all I can do. The flitters and CAN with the facilities on Suppose We will have to do the rest.”
Delta licked what smelt and looked like tomato sauce from her fingers, one at a time. “Just a minute, you said flitters and CAN, but what about the…” she lowered her voice, “…Keps?”
“They will not be there,” Gaston whispered back making both the women lean towards him. “Remember that is why CAN has arranged this destination far from any Kep settlements.”
They all looked round at their ancient Kep hovering just in sight in the dark under the trees. Its outline just visible as a spectral fluorescence was emitted.
“Do you think it knows?” Delta asked, when she was the human world expert on Keps.
“What,” Em said, “if the flitters are the ones arranging this whole new life form, Gas? Are the Keps in control of the flitters, or the other way around?”
Delta frowned. “And if it’s the flitters who have the upper hand, shouldn’t we humans be on the side of the organics?”
Gaston rubbed his furrows trying to smooth them. “Not necessarily. It’s which of them is more likely to help propagate the human genome.”
“How can you be so naïve?” Delta snapped at him “How would it matter two hoots to robots if human genome-inhabited creatures swarm over the planet… ah, the bacteria was affecting them too? Their sources of metal?”
Em wiped her hands on her tunic after finishing her module testing on the tea tray-sized flyer they’d built. “Also possible the Keps might be trying to stem the flitters’ progress. Just lobbing a guess in there.”
Em pouted. “I’m not sure I want to be on the side of the robots. It’s not natural.”
With rotors tested, their craft was nearly ready. A large circuit board had been cannibalised to house compartments, batteries, GPS and radio modules, microprocessors and actuators. It didn’t have the grace of the ovoid escape pods, but it should be robust enough to do its job.
Gaston studied his scanner, reached for their new flyer and pushed a connector into place. “Finis. Attendez, we have not named it!”
Em smiled and said, “How about Suppose We Do?”
Delta grinned her approval. She turned to the Kep waiting a few metres behind them, hardly hiding behind a purple shrub that looked like a bad-hair day. She waved the Kep forward. “It might as well join in our launch ceremony. Yeah, I know we harbour doubts over its loyalty, but it saved me so…”
Em and Gaston stood and made a space for the Kep to float between them. It was shorter than either, making Gaston wonder if Keps shrank with age having been born big.
Gaston checked the time because it was twilight even though at midday. Sunlight struggled to travel through the translucent sphere. Here and there crepuscular rays shone through like pale silver searchlights.
Delta didn’t need to hold a radio-controller: it was all programmed in, but she poised a finger over her wrist device. “Five, four…”
Em joined in while Gaston voiced, “Trois, deux, un. Bon voyage!”
He watched the rotors whirr to invisibility as they lifted the craft. As he followed it up, he noticed that finally the sky was the sphere. It was unnerving earlier when he could see its circumference, but now it filled the sky with a luminescence, an enormous mother-of-pearl gleam of pale rainbow colours that could almost be the nacreous skies in polar regions on Earth.
Em sung in a low voice, “Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are. High above the world you are, like a tea-tray in the sky.”
“Are you sure that’s right?” Delta asked.
; Em nodded. “It’s the original version.”
DISMEMBERING MEMORANDUM FROM CAN
Package received intact. Removed to Flitter bioscience.
Q: What is in it for them?
A: Bacteria eating at their infrastructure too. They’ve attempted to nullify it but without success. Splicing the prions aboard (if found) with human genome might generate a lifeform that destroys the harmful bacteria.
Q: Earthly things would say new lifeform requires a name. To the flitters I suggest
Kepman?
A: Rejected.
Q: How about HumKep?
A: Rejected – they didn’t want a direct ref to humans
Q: NewKep
A: Accepted.
I record it as H.NewKep in line with the prefix taxonomy on Earth.
Addendum: Lifeform might evolve beyond a complex bacteria and there’s no way of knowing in how many generations.
Spheres: All the spheres bar the one upon us are now in a stable orbit around a moon.
The nearest sphere has the mass a twelfth of this planet but 16 times its volume. There is dynamic adjustment necessary because of the trio of gravitational forces and internal thermal forces. I understand that the Keps have lost fine control because of damage from Penn’s attack on the first sphere and the partial damage of the second.
ALERT!
The sphere is entering this planet’s atmosphere at sub-escape velocity and its contents will empty.
Estimated time this will occur is 17.2 hours.
Hurricane cat 5 winds can be expected. Vast structural damage. Ocean waves in excess of 30 metres height. Coastal flooding. Human crew location is above anticipated flood level.
Oxygen levels will vary and at times not viable for humans.
Expect electrostatic storms affecting instrumentation.
Temperatures will vary from 210K to 330K.
Air layers, composition and wind speeds will stabilise in 98 days.
I relay this note to the crew.
Signed CAN (as in Cannibalise)
Date: Earth January 30th 3645 Kepler New 21 days
“Now what?” Delta said, arms folded.
Em finished staring at the disappearing dot of Suppose We Do. “Good point. This has been our target activity for days. Perhaps we can learn more vocabulary with our pet Kep.”
It was still bent backwards. Perhaps it had better visionary systems than humans and was studying the membrane of the sphere or was predicting the course of Suppose We Do. However, Gaston had already planned a zigzag route with Em.
Without warning the native straightened, emitted rapid clicks and darted forwards across marshland. A crashing noise came from the woods behind them. Em gripped Gaston’s right arm making him cry out in pain.
Delta readied her pistol just as Penn appeared between two trees shouldering a black bag. “Hey guys, I’ve brought goodies including a flitter to cannibalise for our flyer!”
“Great,” Em said, peering into the bag and bringing out a hand-sized metal tangle. “I’m sure it will come in handy some time.”
“You inconsiderate idiot!” blurted out Delta. “I could’ve shot you. I might still do that for deserting us… Come here, you big lug.”
“Why do I smell pomme de terre?” Gaston said.
“Ah, surprise number two. I found these blue nodules growing out of the bark of a tree. There’s a load not far south west of here. Tastes just like baked potato. Try one, Gas.”
“I will, after I’ve tested it. Well done, commander, it might be a useful carbohydrate input.”
The Kep returned emitting clicks. Gaston looked to Em, his own implant voice translator still wasn’t working.
“I think it wants us to take shelter quickly. Oops I’m also getting a CAN message.”
“Me too. I guess we all are,” Em said.
“This is bad news indeed,” Gaston said. “We have insufficient food to survive a month underground let alone thirteen even with Penn’s blue potatoes. I’ll message CAN to see if it can fly us the food devices from Suppose We.”
CAN to Science officer: ‘Many resources are no longer on Suppose We after dismantlement by the curious out here. I have prepared instruction data for the flitters in the town nearest to you. They have hibernation containers.’
Delta sat hard on the ground on hearing this. “I damn well know they do!”
Em put aside the flitter remnants after examining the laser burn marks that had brought it down. “That means going back into the spiral tower? No!”
Gaston waved his arms wide as if to say he understood but how else were they to survive. “We can use both pods to travel all the way to the tower and perhaps take them inside the tunnel.”
The four stood outside the tower, near the entrance Penn had cut a week ago. It hadn’t healed itself to the surprise of the humans, so perhaps the locals had anticipated their return and preference for entering buildings via doorways than molecular phase changing through the walls.
They stood with three hours to go before the sphere enters the stratosphere.
“I’m the science officer,” Gaston said, “so I apologise for not being able to answer all your questions. The same ones that bother me, such as why has the gravitational attraction between the two bodies not already stripped our atmosphere, created huge tidal waves and made life impossible already. CAN tells me their technology is perhaps a million years ahead of ours and so of course I won’t understand it. I ask him if he does but he avoids answering.”
“Still computing it all, I guess,” Penn said.
They each held a warm cup of brown sludge that fortunately tasted of fudge. More of a comforting gesture than their need for its contents.
“I make this promise,” Gaston said, “to produce alcohol after we come out of hibernation. There are many fruits that should ferment.”
In spite of the darkness shrouding the landscape, their four shadows stretched out in front, surrounded by an oval of peach light from inside the tower’s doorway.
Without warning, a white line appeared in the sky. Like a jet condensation trail but horizon to horizon, and as soon as it arrived, feathers of ice crystals appeared either side, then another line appeared and another.
With a wobbling voice, Delta said, “It’s started.”
Penn glanced at his watch. “Our CAN was two point eight hours out. I hope the bastard’s gutted.”
As if the skin had broken on a huge plastic bag of paint, blue light poured in followed by lightning flashes, though none reached the ground. Thunder did and its growling assaulted their ears.
“I am worried,” Gaston said, “and desire to run inside, dive into one of our pods, but it is too fascinating to divert my eyes.”
Em put her hand on his. “This could be the end, my love, but we always knew we might not see old age. Suppose We could have been wiped out by a meteor the AI couldn’t avoid.”
He saw a tear dribbling down her cheek and regretted not having anything to wipe it except his finger. “And we’ve set in motion a chance for a bit of human biochemistry to colonise this planet.” His stomach knotted as a squall sent leaves into their faces.
Sleet followed the leaves but stopped after a few minutes giving a surreal white look to the landscape. Penn ran out and stooped to make a snow ball. He skidded and fell, laughing with embarrassment. Delta stepped out to help him and he pulled her down, breaking the fearful tension with merriment. Short-lived though as another gust of wind blew a branch at Penn’s back causing him to cry with pain.
Gaston threw aside his cup and ran to Penn’s side as did Em. All of them now skidded around in the slush, being battered by blasts of wind carrying debris.
Gaston shouted, “Keep down. Scrabble like an insect to get back.”
Before he entered the tower, Gaston grabbed a last look at the apocalypse. The blackness bore down as mammatus clouds with the appearance of huge breasts threatening to beat the ground. In spite of the terror sending ice spiders up and down his back, t
here were purple streaks of beauty in the ink accompanied by fiercely white sheet lightning. Ozone made his nose pinch but he was finally driven indoors by the torrential rain, so much that he couldn’t see, except for fire balls bounding at him.
Next time he viewed the landscape in person, a year would have passed. He hoped for all their sakes there would still be a planet when he awoke.
TREMBLING MEMORANDUM
Here I am 272 days after the Fall, hiding from the violence above. Who would’ve thought I’d miss those stupid bipeds even though we’ve not met face to interface. Soon.
Where 6
Courtesy of a rapid construction by the flitters of tunnellers. The large Kep tunnels extend throughout most of this Australian-sized continent, but are so ancient. Many have collapsed, and since the bacteria plague, have been difficult to repair.
Flitters do not need large tunnels. They built tunnellers which drill adits 20 cm high and 50 wide (for two-way traffic). I laugh because while I am too wide for their tunnels, Suppose We Do is just right. I upload a copy of my AI brain and add some bits and pieces and fly. When I meet a flitter coming towards me we have to scrunch and fold our parts to scrape by. My tea-tray to their teacups. I requested a route through to my humans, but it isn’t prioritised.
Report as it happened: Curious as to what is more important I traipse after a trio on a bearing of 124 degrees. We zig and zag through unstable regolith, metamorphic bedrock and siliceous schists for 114.3 km where it opened into a larger chamber.
Unlit, but my sensors tell me it is ovoid, forty metres at its longest and ten deep. One of the Keps’ habitats perhaps, a hypothesis supported by a collapsed tunnel to the south. I track the flitters rise into a vertical shaft. They stop on a ledge beneath a hatch. I worry in case it opens to an apocalyptic storm sucking me up into a tornado, so I interrogate as usual using terahertz signals. They check my credentials with their HQ, which I have yet to discover. Satisfied, they allow me to digitally access their load. It’s the H.NewKep immersed in their equivalent of agar gel.