NanoSymbionts

by Joseph Philbrook

  As you know the one named Jake is an apprentice to a questor of the ‘Cosmic Sailors Guild’. As such, he has at least most of the resources of a questor at his disposal. Jake has kindly offered to use the considerable resources of his ship to repair some of the damages. He needs only your permission. With this ship he could do in just a few days, much of what will otherwise take us several years to accomplish. It would however require that he be free to maneuver his ship as an aircraft and to deploy high energy technology. My request therefore is that you grant him temporary permission to do so on our behalf.”

  Commander Burlson sighed and briefly rubbed his temples.

  “The tribunal will consider your request prime Miller,” the commander replied. “Though I point out that it does pose a significant procedural problem for us. However considering Jake's recent actions on our behalf at Luna base, I myself am inclined to grant this request. However I must confer privately with the other members of the tribunal before I can so rule. This may take a few days. But in the mean time, if my fellow commanders do not object, I see no reason why Jake can't be permitted to overfly the area with his ship. In order to map out the exact details of what he is willing to do for us. Then we can decide based on a more precise knowledge of what we are authorizing.”

  ***

  Thanks to the combination of the advanced medical technology from David's medical lab. Along with two of the best nano-med packets Hillside's own technology could provide, Sue survived. What's more, with the neuro-map that Slowlane's medical records maintained on all primes, they were able to overlay and repair most of the brain damage. Which had been beyond the nano-med's time sensitive ability to undo. Sam took great solace, if little pleasure from this. The neuro-map couldn't restore lost memories of events that occurred after the last recording. Unfortunately this included some of what happened on the recent trail ride. In particular she didn't remember getting so close to Sam.

  She remembered nothing of their overnight conversation. She believed Sam when he tried to tell her, he knew things that she wouldn't have told him if she hadn't begun to have such feelings but the links to the feelings themselves were gone. Worse, she couldn't look at Jake, Jess, or even Sam anymore, without reliving the nightmare of the screams of her trail crew who hadn't been close enough to the rock shelter. As well as the frightened look in Nelly's eyes when the dear old, loyal and impossibly smart, mare had fairly pushed her into the inner cave. Or the never ending horse screams that were accompanied by the smell of burning flesh as Nelly was cooked alive.

  It was hard for Sam to realize that the kindest thing he could do for Sue, was to never make her see his face again. Jake made the mistake of trying to tell Sam how sorry he was that he hadn't been there when the damage was still fresh enough that his personal nanites might have made a difference.

  “Shut the fuck up you bastard!” Sam screamed at him. “You can't know what this feels like. I wish you did. But you can't. So don't you dare talk to me!”

  After that Jake wisely left Sam to deal with his sorrow on his own. So he left Sam and Jess on David's estate, while he surveyed the regional damage. The affected area was extensive. In fact, since some of the power satellites were too far away to cleanly focus their beams on David's estate, the poorly focused beams had affected some fairly distant, high altitude areas. Jake hovered over one such area and surveyed the damage done to the cleft on the hill. Where he had slept under the canopy of a daggerthorn tree.

  Jake was particularly saddened by the extent of the damage to the trees from which he'd felt something reminiscent of sentience. Most of the multi-trunked tree cluster had been incinerated. There was only one small corner of the cleft in the hill where the rocky walls had shielded it from the direct thermal radiation that had scorched the very ground. There, there was a single remaining scorched trunk. Most of it's branches were severely damaged. There were just a few lower branches on one side of the one remaining trunk system with any remaining needles. Most of which were scorched. Then Jake remembered the cute little squirrel that had swapped him an acorn for a few peanuts. It made him even sadder to think of the horribly painful death the little critter must have suffered.

  He decided to send a few nano-pods to find out if there was anything he could do for the daggerthorn tree. Jake wasn't sure if daggerthorn trees invested enough energy in their root systems for spontaneous regrowth or not. Judging from the above ground damage however, the chances of it surviving unaided long enough to do so were slim. It wasn't strictly necessary for Jake to land nor even to open the hatch, just to send a few nano-pods on their reconnaissance mission but he felt like it was the right thing to do.

  Even as Jake stepped down onto the scorched ground, he received a preliminary report from his nano-pods that there were three small mammalian life forms underneath one of the few bottom branches with any needles left. Their life signs were fading fast however. When Jake investigated. he found a kind of nest in what used to be one of the least accessible branch clusters of the daggerthorn trees.

  In it there were two badly burned adult squirrels partially covering three small young squirrels with their bodies, in such a way as to suggest that they had tried to use their own bodies to shield their offspring from the heat. In this they were only partially successful. Only one of the three juveniles was still breathing. Jake decided to improve their chances by using some of his nanites for nano-meds.

  Even as he did so, Jake got a detailed report from the nano-pods that he had sent into the tissues of the daggerthorn to assess the extent of it's internal damage. What he saw, looked like the daggerthorn had used it's ability to pump water through it's roots and trunks to keep the branches over the stricken squirrels moist enough that rapid evaporation had slightly cooled the nest. What was even more surprising was that it seemed this had been done to the point where the trunk had evidently suffered more extensive damage than it otherwise would have. Because so much of the moisture that could have provided it with protection from the blistering heat had been redirected to the squirrel's nest.

  Now though, the daggerthorn's ability to pump water through it's trunk system had been severely compromised. Jake's nanites were not designed to serve as horticultural nano-meds but it was well within Jake's current abilities to wrap the damaged trunk and several branches with a web like micro pumping system. Then strategically splice it's micro-tubing into the tree in several places. That might keep the daggerthorn alive long enough for it's own natural healing process to repair or replace the damaged sections.

  Jake carefully programmed a couple pounds of generic nano-material from the ships stores to do most of the job. The control module itself required less than a milligram of his own nanites. When he had done all he could, Jake turned to leave but he was stopped short by an intensely emotional wave of psychic energy emanating from both the daggerthorn's root system and one of the squirrels. The psychic waves consisted of a measure of both gratitude and frustration but by far the strongest sensation was of bewilderment.

  Jake was now absolutely certain that the squirrel and the daggerthorn had in fact formed a symbiotic relationship. He was also sure that the symbionts wanted to know why he was trying to help them. There was also something that he couldn't quite figure out until the rapidly healing squirrel crawled over to a small crevice in the base of the cleft wall and dug out a single charred, but quite recognizable acorn. Then Jake understood and he quickly returned to his ship and extracted every single nut that remained in the galley supplies. As he considered if it would be enough, Jake realized that the moment he had decided to retrieve the nuts, the waves of psychic energy had stopped resisting his return to the ship. While Jake mused on the meaning of that, he decided to also extract all the remaining breakfast cereals as well. This he decided would be enough to tide the squirrels over until more natural foodstuffs could be discreetly arranged.

  A couple days before their departure from Slowlane, Jake finally managed to have a truly private conversation with prime Miller
. David didn't question Jake's reasons for insisting that the matter be kept in the strictest confidence.

  “Well my friend,” David said. “If I'm to keep both your theory of a nearly sentient symbionce and the importance you place on the well being of that particular daggerthorn and squirrel, out of the minds of our ecological primes. While also accelerating the replenishment of their environmental needs. I'm going to have to take a more active role in managing the regional restoration program than I had intended. And...” David hesitated for a moment. “Though I hate to ask, I'm going to need a few specialized resources that I simply can't get from Slowlane without raising too many eyebrows. Would it be possible for you to entrust me with a few hundred pounds of guild nano-material and a manufacturing grade control system?”

  “A few ‘hundred’ pounds you say,” Jake replied somewhat skeptically. “That's more than I've got on board. Besides the guild would consider that a very serious violation. But, what I could do, is set you up with a bit of licensed Hillside technology in the form of a portable non-guild nano-manufacturing tool. That, given enough energy and the right raw materials, should be able to build the stuff you need. But be aware that it will only be licensed for your personal use. Let anyone else touch it and it will self destruct. Will that do?”

  “Hillside?” David queried. “If Hillside's nanotech is half as good as it's aerospace technologies are reputed to be, then it should do nicely.”

  Jake just smiled.

  Chapter 31 Security And Other Lost Causes

  Cindy was enjoying herself. The new command interface was a joy to use. The current external nano-control center was actually composed of high end nano-morphic material that could be reformed into almost anything it's mass would allow. Currently it was segregated into 4 pieces of realistic looking gold like ‘jewelry’. There were two large gold wrist bands and a heavy golden chain around her neck and finally, suspended on a deceptively flimsy looking chain the color of platinum, there hung between her breast a large cut red crystal that could easily be mistaken for a million dollar ruby.

  She was also wearing one of the nano-leather creations Sam had made for her. This one was light brown. With several series of slightly darker brown spots in a pattern that resembled the spots on a leopard. The outfit had three default configurations. In the most modest configuration, each of the leopard like spots were outlined with a dotted line like series of perforations. Where the individual perforations were so fine it was hard to see any of her skin through them. There would be two shoulder straps. Each with a modestly wide front section that cupped one of her breasts. After which it continued down to merge into the top edge of a knee length wrap around skirt.

  In the Standard configuration one of the shoulder straps would disappear, completely exposing one of her breasts. Additionally the length of it's skirt segment would only make it halfway to her knees.

  Then there was it's most racy configuration where the center of each spot became a large perforation through which some of her skin could easily be seen and the skirt became so short that it barely extended an inch and a half below her crotch.

  The outfit also included matching leather boots. The height of which, in each configuration, extended two thirds of the way between her ankles and the bottom edge of that configuration's skirt.

  When she stepped out of the transit pod access chamber at the Micronic's R & D building, Cindy reconfigured her leather from the racy pattern to the standard one. She wondered how long it would take the straight laced security personnel to hassle her for the exposed breast.

  She hadn't taken three steps before she knew something was wrong. She wasn't sure what but the building didn't feel right. She thought for a moment about stepping back into the pod system and sending help from Hillside but she was worried about Sandra. So instead she reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out a small cylinder which quickly expanded into a fair resemblance of a ‘Sisterhood’ combat staff. Then she decided not to trust the elevator. So she headed for the stairs. She needed to climb 3 flights and pass through a concealed security door just to get to the lowest official basement level. Then she needed to climb another 14 to get to the floor Sandra had said she'd be working on.

  She had only climbed 6 of those when she sensed that something was rapidly and silently coming up behind her. Suddenly Cindy spun on her heals and struck with her staff. She had almost waited too long. Her blow just barely deflected the charging whiffer beast. It bounced off the wall and came back at her but this time she saw it coming and shoved one end of her staff down it's throat. This wasn't quite enough to stop it however. It grabbed her staff and pulled itself closer in an effort to reach her neck with it's hairy hands. The far end of the staff burst through the beasts scrotum, but it kept pulling itself closer.

  At this point Cindy fired a massive electrical charge from the power stored in her wrist bands through her staff and into the whiffer's body. Even as it burst into flames Cindy felt another threat coming from above her. She began to turn around to face the new threat and just barely out of the corner of her eye, she saw the second whiffer beast in mid jump from the stairs above. It knocked her down to the landing below her as it wrapped it's hands in a vice like grip around her throat. She realized that if this whiffer's nanites were anything like the one that had attacked her in the woods behind Hillside, then her nano-systems would soon be overrun by the ones defending the beast. She hoped that she still had time to send at least one command into her external command system. Which resulted in the release of all the energy stored in the ruby-like gem between her tits in the form of a wide angle particle beam that incinerated the whiffer and blew a hole through the side of the staircase.

  When Cindy got there, Sandra's lab resembled her old VR pod lab the day Jake had an adverse reaction to a VR simulation. That is to say it looked like a war zone. A strange figure in some kind of body armor was in the middle of placing Sandra's unconscious form into a glowing translucent sphere which suddenly became opaque as soon as he removed his hands. Then the armored man produced a sonic disruptor and fired it at the spot Cindy had just vacated.

  Fortunately she had already activated full auto-boost mode while fighting the whiffers. Then the extreme effort she had put into running up the rest of the stairs had resulted in a general strength boost. Cindy could also feel the effects of the elixir Kernislarn had given her when she became an honorary Sister of Rebirth. It's effects were accelerating her synaptic reactions four times faster than her normal best. She also had her Sisterhood training and a bag full of nanotech weapons to draw on.

  Nonetheless she only just barely stayed one jump ahead of the armored man as he fired blast after blast in rapid succession from a high intensity sonic disruptor at her. Each shot just barely missing her. As she dodged his sonic blasts, Cindy also threw a few gadgets from her bag at her adversary. Each of which were defeated in some way or other by the intruder's high tech armor. Even the concussion grenade had been subdued by an automatically deployed defense screen his armor emitted just in time. His armor seemed equipped to handle anything she could throw at him.

  In desperation Cindy commanded her interface to reprogram every scrap of nanomorphic material she had left on her, from her nano-leather outfit to her external command module itself. It's last command function was to reform all the nanomorphic material into one self consuming directional charge. That consisted of a directional burst of corrosive nanomorphic material, energized by the combined power of every last scrap of energy remaining in every single one of her systems.

  Unfortunately, to deploy the shaped charge she had to stand still long enough so that even as her corrosive charge exploded at her adversary, she took the brunt of one of his sonic disruptor blasts. When Cindy came to, Al was leaning over her and a half dozen tough looking characters she didn't know, two wearing Hillside security uniforms and the rest wearing Micronic security uniforms, who were milling around what was left of Sandra's lab.

  Al's brother Adam was holding some
oversized gadget against the opaque glowing sphere while somebody in a Micronic lab coat fussed with it's controls. Then Cindy noticed that a massive chunk of the building was missing. Her blast had been pointed a little to one side of the building center. The gaping hole in the lab wall extended clean through to the other side of the building. The hole extended at least two floors upwards and another two downwards. She vaguely realized that she was stark naked with a splitting headache, then everything went dark again.

  ***

  The fringe effect flight back to the portal intake point seemed to take forever. Sam spent almost the whole time just sitting and crying. Which in turn saddened his friends almost beyond their own ability to cope. Until at last they returned to normal space and Jake maneuvered the shuttle until they were in an unstable solar orbit that would match velocity with the earths crust. Then as Jess began to encode the portal request signal, Sam finally broke his silence.

  “Please forgive me for taking this out on you two,” he said. “Especially you Jake. I know it wasn't really your fault... I'm going to try to pretend that everything's OK when we get to Hillside. It won't be but I don't want to explain it to my friends down there. So please don't tell anybody about it. Please?”

  “We won't say a word about it Sam,” Jake promised.

  He almost wished he hadn't upgraded the normally flamboyant young man from a kitchen worker to a member of his core team. If he hadn't brought the young man off planet his heart wouldn't have been so wounded.

  “But you do know,” Jess added. “Some of them good people down there will know something is wrong. No mater how good you paint your face.”

  The short redheaded mechanic was concerned about his friend. Who to be sure was an expert makeup artist but nobody who really knew him would fail to notice his sadness.