All the better.
He started off at a ground-eating lope, nets cast over a shoulder. At the edge of the fields, a dark wall of forest loomed high in his path. He plunged into the woodland without altering his pace. Though the tree boles were monstrous, the space between them was generous as well. Often, moss-wrapped rocks blocked his path, but he clambered over them easily.
He reached a fern-rimmed pond and stopped to listen again. A jabberwocky scream rent the air. The creature was very close. Chim had to decrease the sensitivity of his suit’s audio-pickups to spare his ears the abuse. He’s probably coming here for the water. This is where I can trap him.
Chim chose a tree with an overhanging branch that was large enough to support his not inconsiderable weight. Digging his fingers into the bark, kicking in footholds, he hauled himself quickly up. Once he reached the right limb, he ran out, getting in place just in time.
An iridescent-shelled beetle scuttled out from cover, chased by the fellow Chim had been expecting. Uglier than the vid stills had suggested, gangly, sinuous—little of the jabberwocky appeared to be of human origin, but Chim had to know for certain. He held the nets ready, waiting for the best opportunity to drop them.
Elissa’s voice sounded inside his helmet. “That’s odd. Even predators that aren’t hungry will chase down running prey. The jabberwocky is ignoring the beetle.”
“Maybe he doesn’t like the taste of bug.”
Chim flung two of the nets, and dropped with the third in hand. The creature screeched in fury, staggering under the mesh. Chim landed next to him and swung the last net around his feet, tangling them. The jabberwocky refused to fall, thrashing in mounting fury, straining at the mesh. The net screeched as well, tearing like soggy pasta. He shrugged free and slapped Chim with a knobby backhand that sent him sprawling.
Chim tucked, rolled, and came up with his feet under him. Jumping back the way he came, he crashed into the jabberwocky. They grappled in a macabre dance, turning, tumbling into the pond. Chim was glad his suit was sealed—breathing water lacked appeal.
The creature clawed at him, unhindered by immersion.
Elissa offered a comment, “This isn’t getting you anywhere. He’s nearly as strong as you are and maybe tougher.”
“What do you suggest?”
“Stop fighting. Maybe he will, too. You can try again later, using anesthesia.”
He stopped fighting, feigning death.
The creature dragged him ashore, lifted one of his metal clad arms, sniffed it, licked it, and gnawed a bit before giving up on having him for dinner. The creature shambled off and Chim sat up, dragging his hand through ferns to wipe off monster slobber.
“Gas might not be too good an idea,” he told Elissa. “Without understanding his biochemistry, we could kill him by accident. That’s what I’m trying to avoid.”
“Don’t worry about playing tag with the Jabberwocky. Just bring back those ferns you were wiping on. I can get DNA from saliva as well as blood.”
“In other words,” he said, “I have triumphed gloriously once more against impossible odds.”
“Yeah, Lover, something like that.”
Moving under the green-tinted canopy of the forest, Chim noticed the creature was roughly angling past the ship, toward the settlement. He lost the jabberwocky’s trail several times due to rocky outcrops, but picked it up again with little trouble. The creature wasn’t really trying to hide its movements, acting as if it had no predators to worry about.
“Chim, the Jabberwocky’s passing the ship, heading for the settlement. I’ve called ahead to warn them, though I’m sure they can hear him coming.”
“Have a drone meet me in the fields to get these samples so I can keep after the jabberwocky.”
“Affirmative, drone on the way.”
An oversized steel spider, the drone stalked over and received the samples. Afterwards, Chim’s suit churned up the dirt road; his legs pumping like pistons, thrusting him along at a speed no crawler or drone could match.
“Chim, I’ve been studying this thing’s behavior toward you in the forest.”
“Got some insights for me?”
“He’s a scavenger, not a predator.”
“You mean he likes his food dead and rotting?”
“Dead and gamy at least. He’s not a hunter. He didn’t chase that
beetle that got spooked out of cover at the pool. The jabberwocky fought you in self-defense. And did you notice how clean the woods are? There are no dead birds, butterflies, beetles, lizards, or whatnot lying around. No bones or carcasses. When he thought you were dead, he didn’t leave you in the pool to foul the water, but pulled you out. I think the jabberwocky serves as nature’s garbage man.”
“Okay, say you’re right. What does that do for us?”
“I don’t think he’s attacking the colonists. There’s something in the settlement that he wants—desperately.”
“Can’t be the graveyard. There are no more bodies there to eat.” Chim braked, sliding to a stop well short of the main gate. “There he is—trying to force his way past the screamers, but the hyper-sonics are keeping him at bay.”
“What do you want to do, Chim?”
“Get everybody behind locked doors, then kill the screamers, and let the creature in. I want to see where he goes and what he tries to do. Meanwhile, rush the forensics. I want to know if he’s entirely native, or partly human.”
“Okay. Hang tight. Constable Crown in being difficult.”
“Tell him to do what I say, or I’ll have this world proscribed to human settlement. Defiance of the Imperium will cost him dearly.”
There was a delay, then, “Message passed along. He’s complying—under protest.”
“Give him a complaint form and a broken, red crayon,” Chim muttered.
He heard a public address system inside the walls, warning all settlers to get indoors and stay there until further notice. Soon after, the screamers stopped. Chim knew this by the relaxation of the jabberwocky’s posture, and the ease with which he suddenly reached the gates.
The creature slashed at the wood, gibbering, “Gimmmeeee—gimmmeeee!” and then beat on the doors with intensifying fury. Had his body been designed for vertical jumping, he wouldn’t have had a problem; he could have clambered over the closed gate, but his new biology was against him.
Chim eased closer, taking care not to draw attention to himself. “All right, Elissa. Let him in.”
The doors opened. The beast leaped back a few steps, stopped, then went carefully forward. After seeing the way cleared, he entered the gate and began to suck voraciously on the wind.
“He’s tracking by scent,” Elissa said. “He seems to be headed for the bins.”
“But he ignored the food in the fields,” Chim said. “He must want something the colonists only have in storage.”
“That makes sense. Chim, I’m getting preliminary lab reports. You were right. There’s human DNA in the jabberwocky, fused with native amino acid and floral cellulite as well. The thing’s a cross-species hybrid, as much plant as animal. How much human intelligence and memory is left is anyone’s guess. I’m surprised such a patchwork organism is healthy.”
“Back at the gate, those sounds it made,” Chim said, “I think he was saying ‘give me.’”
“Maybe, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on it. Ah, he’s reached his goal.”
The jabberwocky followed the curved wall of a prefab silo, drawing his claws across the surface as he searched for an opening. He came upon recessed double doors and was defeated by a lock. He screeched abuse at the obstacle, and pounded on the doors.
“What do the colonists keep in there?” Chim asked.
“All of this region’s blue angel.”
“Blue angel?”
“A rare native fungus, Dr. Morse says it’s the source of a powerful hallucinogenic compound that may cure schizophrenia.”
Chim hazarded a guess, “Maybe, what’s left of Wynn inside the
jabberwocky is trying to self-medicate. Open the door. Let him in.”
“Are you sure?”
“Certainty is overrated. Humor me.”
The lock disengaged. The doors slid to their respective sides as Elissa activated a light source. The jabberwocky lunged inside. Chim stood in the doorway, watching the creature attack gargantuan chunks of fungus, each piece larger than its head. His gaping mouth spewed vine-like tendrils that bored into the mushroom.
“It’s strange to think of addicted dead,” Chim said.
“I’m routing a vid-feed of this to Dr. Morse. He’s fascinated by our discovery of the jabberwocky’s true nature,” Elissa said.
“What you mean,” Chim said, “is that Dr. Morse is glad the jabberwocky doesn’t represent a native sentiency. The colonists can stay and build their pharmaceutical paradise if they choose—unless some new intelligence shows up on their doorstep.”
The jabberwocky slumped, collapsing in stages to sprawl on the floor.
“Poke him with a stick,” Elissa suggested. “I think you killed him.”
Chim used his suit’s sensors to check the creature, finding signs of what he loosely termed life. “The self-medication seems to have worked. He’s asleep.”
“Dr. Morse wants to know if he can take possession of the specimen,” Elissa said. “He wants to cut him open and see what makes him tick.”
And we’ve been calling poor Wynn the monster.
“Tell Morse that the human in this collective being will be respected. I want the constable to get a crawler here, and drag the jabberwocky outside the gates. The colonists are to periodically feed him blue angel until the forest regenerates what was harvested this season. In the future, some blue angel is to be left in place for the creature to find. He will not be interfered with, or experimented upon. Be very firm about that.”
“Sure. Oh, that’s interesting.”
“What,” Chim asked.
The prince has been waving credit vouchers around—trying to strong-arm Dr. Morse into writing drug prescriptions—but he suddenly gave up and left.”
“Maybe he’s getting smart.”
“Yeah, like that could happen,” Elissa said.
Colonists swarmed in. They stared at Chim with the same curiosity they turned on the jabberwocky.
The guardsman left the silo. “Call Prince Morgan. Tell him things are wrapped up here and we’re leaving. He’s to meet me at the main gate.”
“I can’t do that, Chim. Ship cameras just track him crossing the fields. Apparently, the prince knows about the magic mushrooms and is going to get some.”
“It’s more likely he’ll get lost and starve. I’d better go find him.”
“I launched a hover-drone to keep tabs on him. Here’s his location.”
As Chim left the settlement, a blinking cursor appeared on the inner surface of his visor. The blip held a fixed position as he turned his head.
“That way,” Elissa said.
He ran, keeping the cursor centered before him. Beyond the fields, the forest claimed him, and he frequently had to take a winding course around obstacles.
“You’re almost there, Lover. Well, what do you know? He actually found one of those blue angels. Oh, no! Chim, hurry! The mushroom’s attacking him!”
Chim leaped, bounding off one tree trunk to another, pinball fashion, finally glancing off a granite outcrop to land on a carpet of moss beside the prince’s prone body. A fallen flashlight held Morgan in its beam. He sprawled in death; skin bloated and discolored, lying near baby mushrooms only a few inches tall. There were puncture wounds on Morgan’s torso, but little blood.
I’m too late.
Beyond the body was a two-foot mushroom—with five sets of eyes, baring fangs. Its support stalk separated, unfolding into multiple legs. It ran off, having drunk its fill.
Chim let it go. “Natural camouflage,” he said. “That’s no
mushroom. It’s a damn-big spider that mimics fungus to hide in plain sight. In regular lighting, I bet it’s the same blue as the blue angel.”
“It’s an angel, all right—an angel of death,” Elissa said. “Hey, what’s happening to the prince?”
“You’ve got access to my sensor data.” Chim stared at the dead man. “You tell me.” Thin wet streamers erupted from the soil, latching onto the body, sinking in along with matted leaves and surfaced roots.
Elissa’s voice was subdued over the comm channel. “The worms are jumping the gun a bit. Morgan’s not even in the ground yet.”
“Here come more diners.” Chim watched moths flutter down from the sky. Something like a spiny hedgehog also appeared. It began to gnaw on a booted foot, ignoring a millipede with a scorpion tail that passed close by. Several more species arrived. None of them seemed to be bothered by the other feeders—it was as if all natural animosities had been suspended for the duration of some collective task. Even the moss was joining in. Chim watched it liquefy around the body, fusing to skin and clothing. Then great tangles of roots wound over and bled sap over the spider wounds. Strangest of all, the creatures feeding on Morgan melted into him, sloughing off many of their distinctive features.
Suddenly, Chim understood. “A new jabberwocky is being made, Elissa. This is what happened to Wynn’s body in the graveyard. I’ve never seen anything like this. The forest is greater than the sum of its parts. The eco-system—as a whole—is what’s sentient. We’re going to have to literally make a treaty with the planet itself.”
“Is that going to be possible,” Elissa wondered. “The thoughts of a world must be incredibly slow, covering ages.”
“The Diplomatic Corp will eventually get the job done, even if discussions take generations. We don’t need to be part of that process.”
Chim’s thoughts danced freely: Prince Morgan was chained by an addiction even death hadn’t broken. The colonist scrambled after the source of that addiction to fulfill their heart’s desires. World after world, it was the same—you find something to live for, or to die from. Chim knew he was no different; he had Elissa. Without her, he’d only exist, nothing more than the tin suit he presented to the universe. Life offered many addictions—love was the one that fueled his strength.
“Chim, had enough communing with nature? Ready to come home?”
“Sure, on my way.”
Having struggled to his feet, the newborn jabberwocky stuffed his mouth, gnawing on the baby mushrooms, humming in pleasure as he rocked and quivered in chemical-spawned ecstasy. It made a disturbing sight.
“Ummmmm, good,” the jabberwocky gurgled.
Chim turned away, and headed for to the ship he loved.
INTERLUDE
“Didn’t you think,” an interrogator asked, “that Prince Morgan should have been protected from himself? You knew the demons that drove him. You allowed him to wander off to his death.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Chim remarked. “If a man wants to destroy himself, he will. If he hadn’t expired on New Avalon, he would have somewhere else. Since Morgan only took himself out—no one else—I don’t see where you have any cause for complaint.”
“He’s right, ruthlessly so,” a new voice parted the sea of guardsmen. “My son’s fate was always in his own hands.” It was the Emperor, braced by an armed escort.
Chim took note of the tall man’s bright scarlet robes. His eyes were steel hard and as gray as the short-cropped hair above his platinum headband. The symbol of office was set with rubies that flashed fire. Time had taken a severe toll on the monarch, but the force of his personality blazed strongly, filtered through flesh. He stopped in front of Chim.
The guardsman bowed respectfully, fist over his heart in formal salute.
Belatedly, Elissa copied the gesture.
“Let’s dispense with all that,” the Emperor said. “We’re all family here. Guardsmen are the true princes of the Imperium. You keep galactic civilization viable, so all I have to do is to preserve you—my servants—from corruption.�
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“Is that the problem?” Chim asked. “You think I’ve been corrupted by the power I wield?”
“Other guardsmen are content to serve in the pattern of those that came before. You seem to reinvent not just yourself, but Elissa as well, given opportunity. I wonder if you’re being driven by some hidden ambition that may prove dangerous in time.”
“That sounds like you have a problem with me too,” Elissa said. “I’m not property, no matter what the bean-counters may think. One of the many reasons I love Chim is that he respects my right to push my limits and extend my boundaries.
“Life is growth,” Chim said. “That which does not grow, dies. It’s true for individuals as well as societies.”
“Not all growth is good,” the Emperor said. “Cells can become cancerous. Then, the dangerous growth must be cut out to save the host organism. I know you understand the concept of healing with a knife.”
“If you require my life for your peace of mind,” Chim said, “ask for it. I will tear out my heart and lay it at your feet.”
“And if I ask you for her life?” The Emperor gestured toward Elissa.
“There are some things even a guardsman cannot do,” Chim said. “I can send her out to die for the Imperium, but I cannot kill her on a whim, even one of yours.”
“If you could,” the Emperor said, “I wouldn’t have you in my service. Remove the helmet, Chim. Let me look in your eyes.”
He did as requested.
“What the hell are we really doing here?” Elissa demanded, unable to contain herself any longer.
“There is more at stake than you can know,” the Emperor said. “Trust me when I say this examination is vital.”
“Fine,” Chim said. “Let’s get on with it. What else do you want to know about?”
“You recently provided transportation and security for several envoys to the Orion Summit. There was sabotage aboard your ship. You reported the Betelgeuse ambassador as a casualty. The Mintaka ambassador renounced her position and applied to you for refugee status aboard your ship. I want the whole story, all the details not in your report.”
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