“What do they use for propulsion?” asked Ashley.
“No idea. For all I know they fart their way between the stars,” muttered Richard.
“Richard, I hope you intend to phrase things more delicately when we meet them.”
“Of course. Ash, the committee has been on me for months to answer these questions. Frankly, I’m all out of educated guesses and down to just guesses.”
“Poor, Doc, reduced to the level of we mere mortals.” Ashley played the world’s smallest violin with her thumb and forefinger.
“Ash?” Richard sounded offended.
Ashley grinned. “Oh relax. You know you love being the one with all the answers.”
“Look.” Richard pointed at the screen.
The brown ship was beginning to glow and char black as it struck the upper atmosphere. A huge diaphanous canopy, like the top of a dandelion seed, spread out behind it. It slowed noticeably and began to descend more rapidly. Bits of material fell off its bottom.
“Ablative shielding. Hmm,” murmured Richard.
The craft continued to descend. Satellite views shifted, keeping it constantly under surveillance. The flames vanished.
The crowd gasped in dismay as the front of the ship broke apart and fell away. Richard stared.
“A shell?” guessed Ashley, as a green-hued, inner skin was revealed.
“An ablative shield. Gods, the gene splicing they must be capable of,” whispered Richard.
“Canaveral control, we are under seventeen thousand meters altitude and have ejected pod, do you read?” said Tannal.
“We read you, Rigal. Gave us a bit of a start there with the pod ejection. Approach looks good, all vectors nominal. Visual contact.” The voice sounded relived.
On the screen the image shifted to a view of the Rigal from the side. At its front a single slit pupil eye could be seen. The back of the lander consisted of two long green spines that would act like airfoils. A pair of tube-like projections pulsed between the spines.
“That’s a peristaltic motion if I ever saw one.” Ashley indicated the tubes.
“What on Earth? Excuse me, in the galaxy would that be for?” Richard stroked his chin.
“Propulsion? Suck air in thorough the front, compress it, and shoot it out the back.”
“And breathing. The smaller ship probably isn’t an independent system. Interesting?”
“Why?”
“It’s the first real indication of a limit to their level of advancement in biology. Why make a vessel that can only function for short periods in the void, if you can make a self-contained one?”
“You don’t trust them?” Ashley stared at her mentor with a concerned expression.
“The Mezzo-Americans trusted Cortes. I’ll wait and see.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen, please move to the outer edge of the plaza.”
“This is it.” Richard grasped Ashley’s hand and they stared to the east.
The screen showed the Manhattan skyline in the distance.
The Rigal appeared over the city. Long white tendrils projected off its bottom, it circled the island then hovered over the mound of Milorganite.
“My gods, what a sight,” whispered Ashley.
The vessel’s outer hull pulsed; causing a down draught that stirred the dirt beneath it. The white tendrils touched the soil and writhed, burrowing into it. Finally the craft lay still. A second later its back folded open, like a leaf, creating a ramp on both sides that led to the pavement beyond the mound.
A man standing beside a fire hydrant on the plaza’s edge opened the valve. A hose leading under the mound of Milorganite stiffened as it filled.
“Goddess, this is incredible,” observed Ashley.
“It gets the job done,” agreed Richard.
The command crew from the Wikell stepped onto the ramp. Smiling and waving, they proceeded to the podium where the world leaders waited. Tannal greeted each leader in turn.
When Tannal stood before the mikes he smiled warmly.
“Too plastic,” grumbled Richard.
“He’s gorgeous,” countered Ashley.
“Perfect is more like it. All of them.”
“Jealous?”
The speakers screeched then settled and all conversation stilled.
“People of Earth. Greetings from the Darmuk. We are gratified to be welcomed with such warmth. In the days to come I know there will be many opportunities for us to question one another about the particulars of our societies and areas of knowledge, but for the moment, let us simply further our acquaintance as new friends. I would like to introduce my crew for the benefit of those who may have missed our video transmission.
“Osa, my first officer, and chief medical officer.” He indicated the Amerindian woman. She waved demurely.
“My second officer, Kalok, navigation specialist.” He gestured towards the Negro gentleman. He grasped his hands together and nodded at the crowd.
“Shaln, Pilot, commutations.” Tannal nodded at the Asian woman who bowed.
“My people have a saying. Lies require volumes, truth but a word. I give you that word. ‘Friend.’ Thank you.” He stepped away from the lectern.
“Man of few words,” observed Ashley.
“At least that last line will force the rest of the blowhards on the stage to keep it brief,” agreed Richard.
A hurried debate ensued between the leaders at the back of the stage. After a minute the speaker of the U.N. stepped to the podium and smiled. He spoke English with a Ukrainian accent.
“As our friends have come a long way and undoubtedly wish to enjoy their first evening on Earth. I will be brief. Welcome gentle beings. I hope this marks the beginning of a long a happy relationship between our peoples.” The speaker stepped down.
“Come on,” said Richard grasping Ashley’s hand.
“Where to?”
“We should get to the greeting line.”
“They’re only doing the VIPs.”
“Ash, we developed the cure they sent. We are VIPs.”
“Goddess. I thought being a biologist would be a quiet job.”
* * * *
Upload monitoring/ Ashley Hinkly /Index 17:26/ 7/9/2032
* * * *
Ashley listened as Richard shook hands with Tannal. They were two bodies in a long line that looped over the dais where the aliens stood.
“You are the native healer that constructed our gift,” said the alien.
“Yes. It is astounding technology.”
“It is a useful trifle.”
“Your ship intrigues me. It’s obviously organic. Have you mated mechanical systems?”
“Our vessel is beyond your capacity to understand.”
“Oh, perhaps we can speak later.”
“I hardly see the point.”
Richard looked at the perfect face and fought to keep his ire in check. He felt like a witch doctor who’d just been told by a neurosurgeon that he couldn’t understand epilepsy. He moved to shake hands with Osa.
“Hello.” Ashley held out her hand.
Tannal smiled at her displaying perfect teeth. “Hello,” he caught her hand and kissed it on the back. “You are?”
Ashley felt her face grow red. The alien in front of her was the epitome of fantasy.
“I…” She swallowed in a dry mouth. “I’m Ashley, Doctor Green’s assistant.”
“You helped develop our technology?”
“Yes. I worked on the neuro-electric interface. It’s fascinating.”
“No more so than you. Perhaps when I have a moment from official duties, you would grant me the honor of a dance. I have watched your transmissions and find the practice, charming.”
“Well I…”
Ashley blushed
“Oh I see. You and Mister Green are, is the proper term? Involved?”
“No! No we aren’t. I’d love to dance with you.” Ashley smiled despite her blush.
“Please meet me at the podium when this tedious ritual of greeting is complete.”
“I’ll be there.” Ashley moved along the rest of the greeting line in a daze.
* * * *
Upload monitoring/ Ashley Hinkly /Index 17:52/ 7/9/2032
* * * *
“You don’t mind, do you, Richard?” asked Ashley.
“Mind, why should I mind? We…well…it’s not as if we were more than friends. Have a good time. I’ll be stuck in boring debriefings anyway.” Richard sounded peevish.
“Richard, I won’t dance with him if you ask me not to.”
“Go, do what you want.” He shook his head and his voice returned to its traditional reserved quality. “Have fun. I have to go to the debriefing. Fill me in on what happens.”
“Richard?” gasped Ashley.
“What?”
“What exactly do you want me to fill you in on?” she tried to keep a straight face but her smile broke through.
Richard blushed and looked sheepish. “Ash, I didn’t mean. I mean…I’d never.”
“Relax. I know what you meant.” She moved to his side and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
* * * *
Upload monitoring/ Ashley Hinkly /Index 19:03/ 7/9/2032
* * * *
Ashley danced across the floor with Tannal. He moved with mechanical perfection but was completely stiff, as if locked into a program that he couldn’t deviate from.
A slow dance played and Ashley allowed him to pull her close. There was a hint of animal musk rising off him that ignited her senses.
Oh, Goddess, the hunk of all time travels light years to get here and now he wants to dance with me. What did I do right, so I can do it again? She thought.
* * * *
Upload monitoring/ Ashley Hinkly /Index 21:01/ 7/9/2032
* * * *
Tannal sat across from her at the table, a smile touching the corners of his mouth.
“It really wasn’t difficult to upgrade the chip to a more-versatile, higher-density one that we have currently in production.” Ashley toyed with her glass as she spoke.
“Fascinating. Your machine intelligence technology is well in advance of what we believed you would have.” Tannal touched her hand.
Ashley felt her breathing quicken. “It’s surprising how alike our species are.”
“Yes. A fluke of evolution. I was amazed to discover that the anatomical similarities extend to reproductive cycles.”
“What?” the word came out as a squeak.
“I am sorry. Is it a taboo subject at this time? I know your culture tends to be cyclic about its acceptance of certain biologic functions.” Tannal smiled winningly and touched Ashley’s hand.
“No, that’s all right, I’m just surprised. I mean you’re saying your, umm…reproductive organs are identical to those of a human male.”
“As far as one can tell from your EM transmissions, perhaps on the upper end of your normal range for size, but otherwise yes.”
Ashley swallowed and blushed. “Wow! That is parallel evolution.”
“Amazing isn’t it.”
Chapter Thirteen
Devils Bargain
Edwin glanced furtively down the hall. The summons sickened and terrified him. Unconsciously he straightened the lapels of his suit and glanced at his two collaborator guards.
“Rachel, stand straighter,” he ordered, after seeing how the taller of the two women slouched. They were both attractive, a petite, Asian beauty and a tall woman of African heritage. Both wore short skirts and high heels with their blouses tied under their breasts.
Lord God Almighty, let them be enough to distract him, he thought as he came to the internal checkpoint just inside the embassy door. A Darmuk, that looked like a cross between a bloodhound and an orangutan, waited beside a battle-ape. Edwin and the two women stripped. The battle-ape physically examined them, probing every orifice then the other creature approach.
Edwin felt the second Darmuk’s snout press into his groin then move around to his backside. It snuffled over every centimeter of his body then backed away and nodded at the battle-ape. Edwin felt dirty and violated. The ape motioned for Edwin to dress as the sniffer Darmuk examined the shorter woman. Next it checked over the tall woman. Each shuddered with disgust and the whites of their eyes stood out.
“Pass,” grunted the ape.
Edwin moved down the corridor. Two massive guards, that resembled minotaurs, except their teeth were needle-sharp points, flanked the data section’s door. Each held an automatic rifle at the ready, with a bandoleer of gas grenades across its chest.
“Mayor Edwin Robinson, as summoned by Captain Tannal, Chief control unit of the Darmuk mother ship. General of—” began Edwin.
”Pass, Lapdog,” grunted one of the guards.
Edwin glanced at Ashley as he entered the Bio-mind’s central chamber then, his guards in tow, moved to stand in front of Tannal.
“Mayor,” said the Darmuk leader. He scanned Edwin then allowed his eyes to lustily trace the forms of his two guards. His fat face pulled into a leer.
“Master, how may I serve you?”
Tannal shifted his gaze to Edwin. “My pet informs me that you are falling behind quota in the weapon’s manufacturing plant. This is unacceptable.”
“Captain, so many of my workers have been taken I don’t have the people I need to maintain production.”
“I see your hands are clean. If this is so, why haven’t you operated a machine?”
“My lord, my other duties—”
“Are of no concern to me. Do you wish the governorship of Hawaii, or would you rather join the rest of your miserable kind in extinction?”
Edwin went pale. “I…I will push the workers harder, master. I will see that quota is met.”
“See that you do. Let me see. Today is the seventh. I give you until the twenty-first to bring production up to its proper level.” Tannal smiled and gestured towards the Asian woman. “What is your name?”
“Ji-Yeon, my lord.”
Tannal heaved his bulk from the interface couch and moved to stand before the woman. “You appeal to me. You will join the bio-mind.”
“But…But master. I…I don’t know much about computers. I…I’m married. I have a little boy.”
“So? My pet will see you are properly prepared for your new duties. As to your husband and son. Mayor, see that they are given extra rations, so long as I am pleased with this one’s performance. Fear not, from what I have seen of humans, your husband will find another mate soon enough. You are a faithless and fickle species. Is that not right, Ashley, my sweet?”
“Yes master, we are a fickle and faithless species,” hissed Ashley.
Opening a drawer beside his cyber-chair Tannal pulled out a cerebral symbiont and held it to Ji-Yeon’s neck. It squirmed into her flesh. Her eyes went wide with fear. He touched his secondary symbiont to hers and her face went blank. He walked her to an empty interface couch at the end of the row and disconnected his symbiont. He pressed Ji-Yeon’s symbiont against the mass of engineered nerve tissue that connected all the human ram chips of the bio-mind.
“Ashley, I leave it to you to seal this one’s consciousness. When she is suitably passive, I will use her for relieving this fleshes primitive urges. I will monitor your instruction momentarily.”
“Yes master.” Ashley replied not quite hiding all the hate in her voice. She closed her eyes. Secretly readying two memories.
“Now mayor,” opened Tannal. “About your petition. Your request is denied. I requi
re Ashley to continue in her capacity as the interface between the human computer systems and the bio-mind. Go now. I have matters of import to attend to.”
Edwin bowed then, sweat dripping off his face; he backed out of the room.
* * * *
Ashley replayed Tannal’s favorite memory from when they bound the consciousness of the ram units individually. The ram unit had been a fourteen-year-old boy. Tannal had sodomized the youth, using his cerebral symbiont to increase each sensation and play up the young man’s horror and adolescent self-doubt. He’d finished by locking the boy’s mind into a perpetual replay of the rape. Mercifully the youth’s mind had burnt out two months later, ending his private hell. She set this in the areas of her mind Tannal could reach.
The other memory came from her inner self. The precious cache of person hood Tannal could never touch.
“What? What’s going on?” demanded Ji-Yeon. She existed in the middle of a field of mist, with no sense of place or orientation.
“Don’t be afraid, or maybe be a little afraid. As a collaborator you deserve it.”
“Who, where are you?”
“This is your mind. Your consciousness must be locked into a pattern so you can be used as a ram unit. I’m here to do that.”
“Please no,” pleaded Ji-Yeon.
“Stop that! Is it such a price to pay for survival? If I don’t do it Tannal will, and he… You don’t want to imagine what he would make you live over and over again.”
“I don’t want to live anything over and over again.”
“Do you think I do? If you fight me I can’t protect you.”
“You aren’t a Darmuk? With the size of your symbiont…”
“I’m a slave. You’re a collaborator. I hate you for that, but you’re human, I won’t see you trapped as Tannal would trap you. Now decide. His memory or mine?”
Ji-Yeon felt tears sting her eyes. She looked into the mind of the strange woman she’d seen. It was beautiful, and deep down held something she had lost. Hope. Despite all this stranger had obviously endured, she still had spirit. That spark leapt from Ashley and kindled a small fire in Ji-Yeon’s heart.
War of the Worlds 2030 Page 10