'Think that we had better meet up,' Moana said minutes later. 'This is just a little bit nasty. In an hour at the tree?'
As the connection broke, Maqua called Harold again. 'Hello, my friend Harold. Something has come up on what I thought was going to be only a moderately interesting day. Call me again in the morning. Get well quickly. Bye.'
Harold quickly acknowledged the message and then felt the connection broken. He hopped off his bed and walked down the living stairs, looking for Bing, finding him minutes later sitting by the main doors.
'Hey, Bing, could you scratch between my wing joints, please? It's driving me mad!'
Bing, the large cat, frowned and grumbled under his breath and told Harold to sit in front of him.
Having scratched the same place numerous times before, he simply started and was then a little taken aback when Harold turned his head and fired a laser message from his right eye into Bing's. 'Bing. There is a problem up in the Haulers Territory. This is the conversation I had with Maqua a few minutes ago. I am not sure whether I was supposed to get this data or not. I would be surprised if she made a mistake though. A deliberate warning?'
Bing lasered back. 'Do you know that Maqua is an ancestor of this place? She planted the trees that we live in and is related to us and the Dines, plus she is the great-great-great-grandmother of the Patu whanau. She does not make mistakes. She gave this to you deliberately. OK, let's layer you up with some sunblock just to be on the safe side and go see the others.'
Minutes later they were walking towards the edge of the village.
As they waited for the others, Harold looked up through the trees as overhead the carrier Haast started to climb up through the atmosphere. He looked at Bing. 'So where are the others?'
'All moving, Harold. They will each go to a specific point where we can converse in private without our humans knowing that something is up. Give them a few more moments.'
From high above them they could hear a rumbling roar as Haast housed its massive turbofans, and its base rockets fired to push it up to its rendezvous with the Hauler waiting in orbit hundreds of kilometres outside the atmosphere.
'OK, Harold, they are all in position. Watch for my laser spotter and when I finish talking, fire that file exactly on that spot. Something else you can thank Maqua for: she set us up as guardians and also created the local and planetwide comms networks so the standard humans don't suspect that we are constantly on the lookout for them. Better that way, letting them think they control everything. Makes it easier for us and gives them contentment.'
Harold cocked his head at Bing. 'But what happens when one of the standards, or even the augmented, are rebuilt into an ACE? Would they not say something to the other standards?'
Bing shrugged in a very human fashion. 'Don't know why. Just the way of it, I suppose. The ACEs -either the totally created or the uploaded ones - are a fairly intelligent lot. Maybe they think it best that the standards don't know. OK, let me get on with this.'
Bing started the conversation using his laser. 'Howdy all. Have Harold here and he has been in conversation with Maqua. She dropped a weighty file on him and I think that you had better all see it. Looks like another incursion that that tosser left-field orbital, Angelito, decided to keep to himself. We really need to do something about that one, he is taking the Haulers Territory much too seriously. Here's the file.'
Harold fired the file at the spot on the huge tree. In the following minutes the conversation and discussion was carried out at the fastest speed they could manage and after only five minutes it ended with the decision that Tengu, as soon as he was ready, would be secretly sent north to go find out for them exactly what the threat was, as he was unknown to Angelito, or for that matter the standard humans.
As they strolled back towards their home tree, Harold frowned and asked Bing, 'What about the other Tengu, the one the Games Board has? Is he of use?'
Bing smiled. 'Of course he is, Harold, and so is the one you killed. They are both ready to fight. Why do you think they were all sent here in the first place? The one you nailed to the tree should be regrown within a matter of days now. Did you not think through the reason that we took his Soul Saver? And yeah, the one onboard the Games Board airship? He is one of ours as well.'
Harold gasped at the intrigue. 'But I was almost killed, Bing!' he spluttered. 'Was this a great big set-up? And I was the new one dropped in the middle to make a good-looking corpse?'
He started to feel quite angry until Bing stopped, patted him on his shoulder and said, soothingly, 'Hey, Harold! Don't take it wrong. We are created to do our jobs, we are given the sentience to ensure that what we do is mostly the right thing, and we are equipped to have an excellent life far beyond that of standard humans. We would not have let you die, Harold, but we had to make it look right. The three Tengu brought with them some very good tech that the Games Board would have prevented anyone else from bringing here.'
Harold still felt a bit pissed off. 'Why did you not warn me? Why not just treat me as a sentient? Would that have been too big a thing to expect?'
Bing grimaced and shrugged again. 'Yeah, but if you had known the plan, would you have played your part so well?'
Harold gave a short bark of laughter, then tripped Bing up, flattening the indignant cat on the ground and raking dust all over him. Just before he walked off, Harold grinned and said, 'There you go, Bing, you will have to lick yourself clean again!'
Basalt
Urchin Star System
Flint, Ngoc and Jim, with his companion Spike, halted just outside the closest entrance to the tunnels.
Flint used his comms laser and suggested, 'OK, we keep leapfrogging each other, on the way in and out. Me, Ngoc, then Jim.'
The weapons being carried on their propulsion pods all folded out as Flint moved cautiously into the tunnel up to the first bend and fixed a transponder to the rock wall. He stopped as Ngoc moved ahead of him to the next bend, twenty metres further on, and fixed another transponder. Then he stopped to cover Jim, with Spike still clinging onto his carapace, as they went quietly around another bend. They could see the cavern opening out and dimly perceived a huge 120-metre sphere of the Urchin predators floating in the centre of the space.
Jim used every piece of his passive sensing equipment, taken to its maximum power, to make out the individual two metre-wide discs of the creatures, all of which appeared to be moving very slowly inside a huge thin ball of transparent ice. He lasered the images back to his companions.
'I see a smaller cluster high above you both,' Flint said. 'Much smaller ones. A hatchery or nursery, maybe?'
Spike looked up the curved wall. He nodded his little head. 'How about we all move up one? Jim, quietly fly us up the wall, please.'
The red ovoid gently reached out with his arms and slowly pulled them up the wall, keeping his speed down until minutes later they were some tens of metres away from some smaller discs which were also clustered together like the bigger ones in a ball of ice, but were moving faster.
'They are rotating in and out,' Spike observed. 'Practising like the bigger ones? Oh, no, now I see what they are doing. If they're smaller, they lose body heat faster. Yes, that would be the answer.'
Ngoc lasered a warning. 'Careful, both of you. A few much bigger ones are coming across the wall towards you.'
'Seen. We are moving,' Jim replied.
He started creeping up the wall again and swung over a little to put them above the small predators as the large ones started to form a hollow sphere that eventually encompassed the smaller ones. As they watched, water vapour was ejected from between the individual creatures and ice crystals formed in the extreme cold that were rapidly seized and manipulated by the outer tentacles of the little creatures to slowly form an encapsulating sphere.
'Maybe the little ones were being trained?' Flint commented. 'Looks like our timing was a bit off. Opportunity lost as they are now protected.'
'I am seeing an increase in the speed o
f the central sphere,' Ngoc said. 'Also, there is another grouping moving from a much larger side tunnel. 'It appears that they are carrying large pieces of roughly round ice. My thinking is that they are fuelling, as they are pressing the balls of ice up against the main predator sphere. Could it be that they are in preparation for movement outside?'
Flint interrupted him. 'Could be, could be. If that is the case, we need to make this tissue-gathering a bit faster. I do not like this place. Too many other creatures and if they decide they don't like us we do not stand a chance against so many. I calculate there are at least 1650 individual predators in this space and there may be others. Come on, Spike, grab some tissue samples and let's go!'
Spike sent Flint a smiley face and told him to relax.
Ngoc flashed a quick private message to Flint. 'Start looking for a hiding place. Something is happening.'
Flint agreed, and the two mechanical spiders turned away from the tunnel entrances, moving apart, searching the walls for a cavity or large enough crack.
Flint found a crevice running across the chamber that he decided would fit them all. He flashed a message to the others, giving them the location, then crept into the deep crack himself and came face to face with a ferocious-looking arachnid-like creature half his size, staring out through a wall of ice. The creature seemed to be looking him over as he backed out of the crack, but showed no inclination to follow. As soon as he could see the others, he fired off laser messages. A minute later, Stephine said, 'That is something new to me, Flint. I wonder if it is a parasite of the predators? It would
be logical. Please check other crevices around you.'
Flint reluctantly agreed and started finding the creatures all around them, but none of them broke through the ice to follow him, so he started to relax a little. Looking for a small specimen, he eventually found one and, wondering if it was a gas surrounding the arachnids, slowly made a small hole with the hollow drill he extended from one of his mechanical hands. Just as he could feel the bit breaking through, his sensors detected a warmer sulphur-rich atmosphere.
As he withdrew the drill bit, the creature stirred and pushed itself so it was close to the hole, inserted a proboscis like appendage down through the hole and, starting at the outside, ejected a rapidly freezing fluid that sealed it closed. 'It then drew the proboscis back until the entire hole was sealed shut and appeared to go back into a sleeping state. Flint backed out of the crevice and relayed what had occurred. Looking towards the centre of the chamber, he could see that all the predators were now coming apart from the huge ball and forming hundreds of smaller ones. Of the nursery sphere, he could see nothing.
Just as he was about to comment, Ngoc announced, 'They are preparing to leave, Basalt. The spheres they are forming are only a few centimetres smaller than the circumference of the tunnels.'
'We are seeing nothing out here of any interest at all,' the major replied. 'Nothing. The only thing here is the Games Board frigate which is on the other side of this asteroid. OK, let's be cautious about this. Flint, get your crew to hang tight where they are. Remaining craf t form back on Basalt and let's stand off by a few kilometres. Stephine, go for active scanning. Light up the radars. Let's see if there is anything out here.'
Minutes later, Stephine suddenly yelled out, 'Incoming! Three small high-speed spheres coming over the top of the asteroid. They are the predators! And look, another group coming in from our six o'clock! I would say we have Urchins here!'
Flint did not need to send the message to his little band. They quickly pushed into the crevice with Jim settling down to watch and record as the balls of ice that had been brought into the chamber earlier were now seized by the predators and cracked apart. The pieces were gathered and taken inside the largest spheres, which then abruptly broke apart and quickly formed smaller ones.
Ten minutes later, the smaller predator spheres slid through the entrance tunnels to dissolve into individual creatures who hurled themselves into waiting slots on dozens of twenty-metre-circumference spheres. They all then orientated themselves and launched out through the tunnels, emptying the chamber in minutes.
Onboard Basalt, Stephine and Veg watched the predators emerge from the tunnels. They split into two groups with one racing over the curve of the asteroid towards the now-vigilant Games Board frigate and the other coming straight towards Basalt.
The major barked out orders. 'Everyone, stand by to engage! Patrick, assign targets. Once you have broken up the spheres, go after the individuals. We have no idea what we are really dealing with here, so take out everything! Upload Soul Savers if you have not done so already.'
Stephine urgently added, 'Major! Hold your orders. I am certain that they will move around us as there is definitely something on the other side of us and it is very big!'
'Shit, I hope you are right, Stephine. Everyone, continue tracking the predators. Ifthey get within 100 metres, hit them! Patrick, load an antimatter canister missile. Stephine, give him a coordinate. Patrick, as soon as you have that, fire. Let's light the bastard up!'
Seconds later, the missile was fired directly away from the asteroid. As it approached the area that Stephine suspected an Urchin to be, the missile broke into ten separate pieces and the timings on the antimatter containment fields started to rapidly decay.
'The predators are moving outwards from their flight path slightly,' Marko called out. 'Think that Stephine is right. They are going to go around us!'
Lily spoke urgently. 'Incoming distress call from the Games Board. They are under attack from at least ten adult Urchins!' 'Hot hull dock and hang on, everyone,' the major ordered. 'Patrick, take us to the Games Board position. Stephine and Veg, get ready to deploy. Glint, go give Harry a hand on the Albatross lander. Harry, as soon as Glint is onboard, get outside the hull and stand by to launch as soon as we get there. Quick as you can, Patrick; from the images we are being relayed from
the Games Board frigate, they are getting smacked hard.'
Glint launched out of his seat beside the major and bounded down the internal spiral staircase until he was at the Albatross hangar. He raced through the door which locked and sealed behind him, then into the rear entrance of the Albatross which started to close as soon as he hit the ramp. He ran up to the small flight deck of the lander and leapt into the seat beside Harry. Looking across the instruments, he could see that the air in the hangar was being rapidly pumped out and minutes later the outer curved hull door unlocked, opening out and down.
Harry grinned at the long, powerful but lithe hybrid-cross between a Jesus lizard and a fossa. 'Great to have you here, Glint. Hate fighting nasties on my own. I fly, you fight. OK.'
Glint's eyes twinkled as he grinned even wider. 'You're the boss, Harry! Nothing beats a good beating of Urchins and this time we get to see them eaten as well. Wonder what they taste like?'
The launch cradle that the lander was locked onto pushed them out of the hangar so they were sticking out through the great latticework exoskeleton of Basalt. Harry's fingers danced across his screens as Glint plugged himself directly into the weapons firing control board and readied the mortars, lasers, rotary cannons and linear accelerators. He looked across his own screens, then up to the windshield, noting where the others were and seeing that towards the stern of Basalt Stephine's and Veg's craf t, the sentient Blackjack, was also ready to launch.
They could all feel that Patrick was coming up to maximum thrust to get above the asteroid as quickly as possible.
Julie then gave a report. 'Antimatter canister missile has deployed. Using every sensor we have, we can see at least five fully adult Urchins. The lead one is reacting to the antimatter! 'It appears to be going for an envelopment. As soon as I see the edges, I shall detonate! Leading groups of predators are still a few kilometres out. Detonating!'
They saw on their screens the multiple searing detonations of total annihilation as the antimatter came in contact with the outer canister shells, rending the enfolding Urchin into pieces. A
n instant later Julie reported again. 'There are another five! They have dropped their camouflage systems. They are big! Moving apart from each other. Predators getting close.
Major, should I launch a camera drone to watch as the asteroid will occlude that battle in a few minutes?'
'Yes, by all means. Patrick, what are you learning from the Games Board?'
The smooth calm voice of Basalt's Augmented Intelligence replied. 'They have had most of their long-range and mid range defensive craf t and systems destroyed. They have disabled at least five Urchins, but it would appear that there are many more in that group. Within fifteen minutes I estimate they will be overwhelmed.'
'Right. Engage with long-range lasers and see how many cores you can cut out of them, Julie. Patrick, fire three more antimatter missiles at the rearmost ones. Let us create a little distraction in their ranks. Fly us over the top of the Games Board. All craft, as soon as we are within five kilometres of them, deploy. Patrick, assign targets.'
As the battle area came closer, Basalt's heavy lasers started to fire, but the cutting of a core from one of the Urchins took several minutes and as each was fired upon it would change its orientation and start to absorb the energy into its huge flowerlike, winged petals instead. Three had attached themselves to the stricken Games Board frigate and were tearing chunks of the hull away.
Marko saw that he and Lily had been assigned the ones already on the frigate. Looking up at his screens, he could see that the deploy point was getting close, so he started the pumps for the rocket engines and brought his weapons online, wishing that he had Glint or any of the other ACEs with him. He looked across to see Lily letting go from where the Hanger she was piloting had been locked onto Basalt. He touched the controls and the landing claws of the Skua he was in also let go and he poured on the power, moving ahead and away from Basalt.
'Lily. Go for a high-speed pass. Hopefully they will lift up so I can follow. On a slow-speed pass I can hit them hard.'
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