Grantville Gazette, Volume 64

by Bjorn Hasseler

  ****

  O'Sullivan wasn't happy about sending men to the surface for bug collecting. The scout ship that was sent down grabbed a dozen specimens, and managed to come back intact. Dan's expertise was the closest thing the station had to an entomologist. He analyzed the pollinated fluid the insects stored in a sac while I watched over his shoulder.

  "What's the verdict?" I asked.

  "It's alien nectar, with one small difference. Each insect has a trace element of metal compounds in it. The dragonfly has iron. The green butterfly, copper. Each species carries something different."

  "Any other differences?"

  "None that I can see, but this may be outside my field of expertise." He motioned at the magnified display of the nectar.

  I leaned toward the screen and frowned. The superimposed red fluid had a hexagonal block structure. Slivers of silver were skewered into some of the blocks.

  "Find anything I should be made aware of?" Dan asked.

  "If you were an alien species that came across a book and you broke down its molecular structure in hopes of finding an answer to its purpose, what would you find?"

  He leaned back into his chair and rubbed his chin. "Organic cells from the paper with traces of chemical compounds used to make the ink."

  "Exactly."

  "You're still going with your theory that the Tulips are individual entities?"

  "I'm still not convinced they're intelligent but I'm sure we're not dealing with a single mind."

  Dan threw up his hands then punched up a vid of the scan of the jungle floor. "Look at all the activity. You could power a twenty-first-century city with what we're seeing here. If this isn't a brain at work, what is it?"

  "If you did a similar scan of Earth a thousand years ago, you might conclude the same thing from its electrical grid."

  "But it'd be obvious that you were seeing an advanced society at work."

  I pointed at the Tulip in the other room. "Not to everyone and likely not to this species. I've learned over the years that our point of perception is unique in the universe. The same goes for all the rest of the intelligences we've come across. This life form is the most alien I've ever dealt with. I've been studying them for almost a month and still not sure how they sense the world around them, but I am sure they do sense it."

  Dan crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "I agree. They're the most alien creatures I've ever come across myself. Doesn't mean they aren't able to see us as intelligent counterparts. They've adapted to every tactic we tried against them, and did it on the fly. That alone supports my contention that they're a single mind. They've identified us as a threat. Intelligent beings do that, and an intelligent being would recognize intelligence when it sees it."

  "They're plants," I countered. "That makes them unique. All through the galaxy plants are used as raw material. From their perspective, we're the raw material. I can't even fathom what they would consider to be a society, or even guess if they could grasp the concept of a society. They probably have no idea what we are, but are hoping we keep coming back. We are what they need."

  Dan frowned. "Well, in the words of the general, 'can you talk to it?'"

  I grinned thinly at him. "Rule one for First Contact Diplomats: All sentient species love to gossip. Eavesdropping is what we specialize in. All it takes is finding the right type of cup and a thin wall to press it against. If they're individuals, they gossip. I just got to find out how." I walked over to a jar holding a red dragonfly. "Let's see what happens when we release this guy into the next room."

  I opened the jar and ushered the dragonfly into the interrogation bay. The Tulip immediately reacted. Its enormous maw turned toward the insect. It lifted a limb. A red flower bloomed in the crux of a leaf. The dragonfly landed and fed. Twenty seconds later, it took flight again. The red flower retreated into the Tulip's limb.

  Figuring out how to retrieve the dragonfly proved to be our biggest problem. No one wanted to go into the interrogation bay to get it. When it flew near the quarantined access door, a lowly aide was sent in with a net.

  What we found in its fluid caught us all by surprise. Traces of a dozen different elements, all of which were found inside the interrogation bay. A scanned inspection was made of the bay. Fine scarring was found on every panel, surface, and crevice. The Tulip left its mark on anything it could reach, even the pot in which it was planted.

  "Looking for an escape?" Dan joked.

  I shook my head. "I think it was tasting its surroundings."

  "Now what?" he asked.

  I set my hand in my chin. I really didn't know. Then it hit me.

  "We take the dragonfly back to the surface and deliver its message."

  ****

  General O'Sullivan was not thrilled with the idea. The way he saw it, we were hand-delivering secret documents directly to the enemy.

  "What's it going to tell 'em?" I asked. "Help. I'm being held captive aboard a spaceship?"

  The scout ship released the dragonfly near a cluster of Tulips while we watched from orbit. One immediately opened a red flower. It sat and swayed, as if contemplating what it absorbed. A moment later, it lashed out a vine and captured the dragonfly.

  "That was new," remarked Dan.

  The Tulip then opened a half-dozen flowers. Insects swarmed them. They flew to other Tulips. They repeated the original Tulip's blooming. Clouds of insects fanned out, as if they were spreading the word. The first Tulip reopened its red flower. Our dragonfly flew from the Tulip's grip and fed off it. It then launched.

  "Don't let that get away!" I screamed at the pilot of the scout ship. The dragonfly darted. The cluster of Tulips all closed their flowers. It took a few minutes, but our men finally managed to recapture it. I couldn't wait until they brought it back up it to the station.

  ****

  General O'Sullivan wanted us to dissect the dragonfly. I preferred to leave it be. We struck a compromise and extracted the fluid. It had traces of iron salts in it but appeared to be no different than the previous sample.

  "What's it say?" the general asked.

  "Gibberish, now that we disturbed it. We shouldn't have messed with it."

  He glared at me. "Then put it back in the bug."

  "It's alphabet soup now." I swished the fluid in the test tube. I was so close to breaking this enigma but worried I wouldn't get any closer than this. I already considered re-injecting the nectar back into the fly but knew whatever message it held was likely lost. Confusion would likely be the result when our Tulip extracted it. That gave me an idea.

  I set the tube on its perch and placed it on the floor of the buffered quarantined connector. I closed our side and opened the door into the bay. The Tulip lifted its maw and turned it toward the tube. It snaked a vine across the floor, found the tube and dipped its tip into the nectar. Its maw opened wide, revealing orange overlapping petals within. It pulled the tube in and sucked up the nectar. It closed its maw tight and whipped its vine, smashing the tube on the far wall.

  "That didn't go well," said Dan.

  "Oh, it went better than I hoped," I replied. "Our friend recognized something was out of the norm. I am convinced it is more than a simple flower now."

  "Intelligent?" asked Dan.

  I shrugged but added, "I am leaning that way."

  "But can you talk to it?" asked the General.

  I shook my head. "I still don't know, but I know how I might find out."

  ****

  My request for man-shaped figurines of carbon, filled with proportional amounts of the basic compounds found in all of us, did not go over well with the engineering department.

  "He wants us to make dolls for him now?" I overheard the chief engineer yell while walking by his department. "What does he think we are? An arts and crafts store?"

  I detoured to the general's office to impress upon him the importance of the figurines. He assured me that they would be a top priority, promising a dozen would be at my office in an hour. A box of a dozen was
delivered at my doorstep fifty-eight minutes later.

  Dan took one of the six-inch-tall men out and examined it. "Bearing gifts?" he said.

  "You betcha."

  I set one of the men in the quarantined connector and opened the buffer once I was safely outside. The Tulip slithered a vine out, finding the figurine. It ran its tip over it and swayed.

  "Curious," Dan said. "Now what?"

  I answered by putting on a spacesuit. Dan eyed me as if I had lost it.

  "You can't be serious."

  I grabbed a figurine and jammed a sliver of copper in one of its hands.

  "About time I earned my pay."

  I stepped into the connector and took a deep breath, reminding myself that I did dumber things in the past.

  Yes, but you were drunk, myself answered back.

  I waited for the doors to do their job and stepped into the bay. I set the figurine before the Tulip and took a step back.

  The Tulip was aware of my presence. It turned its maw to face me, slithering a vine cautiously toward the figurine on the floor.

  "Careful," said Dan in my headset. "They're quick. Your suit will protect you, for a while. And remember, I'm the only one in here and it might take a few minutes before help will arrive to get you out."

  I watched as a second and third vine sprouted from opposite branches, hating Dan for reminding me that I was completely on my own if the worst happened. The Tulip's vines unfurled as they touched the floor, coiling next to its pot. I eyed them as if they were vipers ready to strike.

  "I'll be okay," I said, wishing my voice didn't crack with fear.

  Sweat rolled off my brow and down the ridge of my nose as the probing vine crawled over the figurine. The Tulip went rigid when it touched the sliver of copper. The vine curled around the figurine. I reached down and snatched the doll. It coiled around the figurine tighter and tugged but I refused to let go.

  "Not so fast, big boy," I said to it as I pulled the figurine toward me.

  "Look out!" Dan's voice shouted in my helmet.

  The other two vines unfurled and rushed toward me at my flanks. I stomped on the one on my right, pinning it to the floor under my heavy boot. The other vine grasped my wrist and constricted.

  "Help is on the way," said Dan.

  "Good," I replied. I grabbed the vine holding the figurine and yanked. The lower half of the figurine broke and shattered on the floor. I still held the end with the copper. "But tell them to stay out there until I get this worked out."

  The vine under my foot thrashed. I leaned more weight on it. With my free hand I grabbed the vine that held my wrist and snapped it. I jumped back as the third vine lashed out at me. I retreated toward the wall where the smashed test tube rested.

  "Mann, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

  I glanced at the window to my office. General O'Sullivan glared at me from the other side of the glass with four soldiers standing behind him.

  "Reaching an understanding with our friend."

  The Tulip's maw was partially opened and faced me. Pointing at me like a radar tower tracking its target. Vines swept the floor, searching for my feet. I backed away, carefully, lifting a foot to avoid a probing vine.

  I reached the wall. I crouched and felt on the ground, keeping an eye on the vines while searching for the busted tube. I found it just as vine touched the tip of my boot. The three vines converged. I held out the broken tube, touching its smooth side to a vine.

  A vine wrapped around my arm while the other probed at the tube. The maw to the Tulip opened wide when it tasted the traces of nectar inside.

  "Come on," I said as I shook the tube. "Prove to me you can reason."

  The Tulip swayed. Its maw opened and closed. It still held my arm in an iron grip but kept itself at bay.

  "Hold on," said General O'Sullivan. "We're coming in."

  "Don't," I said, not believing my own ears when I did. "Just give it one more minute."

  I froze. Sweat clouded my vision. If the Tulip could feel my heartbeat, it would likely know that I was filled with panic. It wrapped another loop around my arm with its vine, then withdrew the other two back into its branches. A moment later, a red flower bloomed from one of the branches.

  "Get a dragonfly," I whispered through clenched teeth into my headset.

  It took half a minute for the crew to release an insect into the room. It found the flower and fed. The dragonfly launched and fluttered into the connector, disappearing out of my field of vision. Two minutes felt like an hour. Finally, Dan's voice announced the results into my headset.

  "It has copper in it."

  I touched the vine gripping my arm with the sliver of copper. The vine unraveled from my arm and snatched it away. I watched it melt into the vines fabric. Then the Tulip opened another flower, this one a vibrant blue.

  "That one attracts a green bee," said Dan. "Give me a second."

  I edged along the wall. The Tulip's maw tracked me but held its vine at bay. I entered the connector just as Dan set a bee free. He handed me a net and shut the door. I watched the bee land on the flower. It took longer to feed than the dragonfly. It launched in flight. I snatched it out of the air as it flew near the door. I punched the button closing the door to the bay. The door behind me opened. I stepped out and handed the net to Dan.

  I peeled out of the suit. General O'Sullivan stood opposite of me with his arms crossed, glaring at me with his hard eyes.

  "That was the most foolish thing I have ever witnessed. Do you have any idea what would have happened if that thing got inside your suit?"

  "Yes, sir," I said. "You would have gotten your answer on whether I could talk to it or not."

  Dan waved me over. He had the fluid extracted from the bee and fed it into the analyzer. He leaned toward the screen and turned it to show me.

  "It's tin."

  I turned to General O'Sullivan and smiled. I was relieved and filled with pride. "We have made contact."

  ****

  I downed my third shot and went back to nursing my fourth beer when a man who once had a metal arm sat next to me.

  "You're back," I said to Dan. "Your arm looks great. How was Altair?"

  He flexed his cloned arm for me. "It was wonderful. I feel like a new man. How are the negotiations coming along?"

  I lifted my beer. "Been a tough two months but we finally have an agreement. The Tulips are clearing two areas on opposite sides of the planet for us. Costing us a bundle in metal but fortunately this system is loaded with asteroids rich in it."

  The bartender set a beer in front of Dan. Dan raised it in a toast.

  "Congratulations. You've made big news back there. I even ran into friends of yours in the Corps. They say Earth has plans for you."

  I sat up. The bureaucrats rarely acknowledged anything outside Earth's atmosphere.

  "Your friends sent their congratulations," said Dan. "And wanted me to give you a gift. I left it on your desk."

  I sat my beer down and made a beeline to my office, my buzzed brain imagining my wish of a reassignment to Earth was about to be granted.

  I opened my door and saw an Earth tulip in a vase on my desk. A gold necklace with a locket was draped around its stem. I opened the locket and cringed when I read what my 'friends' from my old office had inscribed in it.

  NEED MORE BLING.

  ****