by Chris Hechtl
“Is it quite large?” a scientist asked.
“About two meters in diameter. Rough oval shape,” she said, replacing her video image with a still image of a pod on snow. “Fortunately that area had just had a storm and had several meters of fresh powder for it to land in. I believe the snow and cold kept the pod from maturing.”
“So you will take steps to prevent it from warming up and thawing?” a scientist in Japan asked.
The Antarctic scientist grunted as her video image returned. She bobbed a nod. “I'd like your help in that regard. You've worked with the Woolly Mammoth studies?” she asked.
“I have. I've visited the caves and taken samples for study. It is a tough project. We could of course ship the sample here...” he suggested.
“Not an option at this time. Sorry,” the chairwoman said with a moue. “We don't have the resources and it isn't safe at this time.”
“Which is why we're doing this virtually,” a scientist said with a grunt. He looked away and then back with a bleak expression. “I'm being told I need to shut down. Its night time here and there is concern that the satellite transmitter is putting out too much heat. I bid you adieu ladies and gentlemen,” he said immediately reaching forward and punching a button to cut his transmission.
“Well,” the chairwoman said; eyes wide in surprise. I ah...”
“I suggest we break for a brief period and break down into local study groups,” the Colonel said grudgingly. The chairwoman nodded. One by one and then in a cascading pattern the symposium broke down as signals were cut or lost. Finally they were left with the West coast members. Of which there were only four others.
“I've got an e-mail about working on the guiding mechanism. Which is most likely some sort of biological system given that we haven't found any technological sources with the aliens. How are we going to get anywhere beyond suppositions without any data?”
“We're not. I've got one on the breakdown of the pods. What is in each? Are they different? What's the ratio between plants and animals?” a scientist said in Oregon. He shook his head. “Which we can't determine. I think Doctor Haig in Antarctica is better suited for this question. She has samples after all. Or will shortly.”
“Forward her your e-mail then. But we can work on it with what data we have. She can use it as a comparison.”
“Not all pods may have contained the entire ecosystem,” Jen mused. “They couldn't after all. I remember seeing the Hellcats were quite large, about the size of a house cat when they first hatched or were birthed,” she said.
“I too remember this,” Yan said nodding.
“Which makes me wonder about the different pods. Were they grouped somehow? By species? Or by relation? What about predators versus herbivores? Plants? Or were they grouped by region?”
“And that brings up the question of the guidance mechanism again,” Yan said with a nod. “If they were guided by a regional programming, desert animals to desert climates for example, then how was that determined by the guiding intelligence?”
“Or was the guiding intelligence a decentralized hive?” Doctor Phillips mused. They looked at him. He was staring far away. “Ants, maybe?”
“Possible doc,” Yan said with a nod. “A hive intelligence wouldn't need a fully sentient... hmmm...”
“Exactly. Were they all intelligent or the sum of their parts sentient? Or just smart enough to do what they did based on animal behavior? How can we determine answers to any of these questions without...?”
“We can keep piling questions up doc,” Jen said with a shrug. “But we need to write them down. Perhaps we'll get answers, but knowing what questions to ask is where we start.”
“True,” he said with a nod. They looked over to the door as Rick opened it. “Problem?” he asked.
“Just checking,” Rick said nodding. He was looking over to Jen. He checked her IV. Her bag was near empty. “Doc said you'd need a refill,” he said.
“By all means,” she said sitting back and sighing softly. She closed her eyes for a brief moment as Rick changed the bag and then checked her tubing over.
“We can do this later if you want Jen,” Yan said sounding concerned. She opened her eyes and smiled gently.
“I don't have anywhere else to be at the moment. So let's do what we can,” she said waving her fingers.
“If you're sure you're up to it,” Doctor Phillips said dubiously. Rick shrugged and patted her shoulder. She reached up and patted his fingers with her own hand and smiled.
“I'm sure,” she said turning to look at doc. “Let's see...”
...*...*...*...*...
Shane went into the lab with the other team leaders and paused as he watched Doctor Phillips sign off.
“How is the, ah, what is it? Symposium? Seminar? How's it going?”
Doctor Phillips looked up and nodded to them. Yan bowed a little. “We're wrapping up for the day. After what happened, we're not allowed to transmit at night.”
“That's common sense doc,” Hernandez said. “Gabriel said that the electronics put out a lot of heat.”
“I know, but it’s annoying,” the doctor said scowling.
“But it does let us do some work instead of spending the day wrangling the same concepts doctor,” Yan said smiling a little. Doctor Phillips looked his way and smiled a tight lipped smile as he nodded grudgingly.
“Why did they shut it down?”
“Apparently scientists um...” Phillips looked at Yan. Yan looked bleak. “They died,” Phillips said.
“They did?”
“They ran their transmitters all day and night for several days and couldn't dump the heat. Eventually it heated the area around it. So much that they were swarmed.”
“Oh,” Hernandez said with a grimace. There was an awkward silence as they digested the implications of that.
“How is Jen doing?” Yan asked, looking at Shane.
“She's okay,” Shane sighed. “Resting I think.” He felt uncomfortable talking about her. She was tired all the time now, and the doctors were now gently talking about making final plans. Not good signs, but not unexpected either.
“What was on the agenda today? Did you ever get that armor question resolved?”
“We've determined that the first and second generation is different.”
“No shit doc, what I'm wondering is why?” Hernandez said, turning to roll his eyes at Shane. Shane snorted and set his rifle down on the table nearby. Hernandez hooked a stool with a foot and pulled it over to sit on it.
“It’s the armor. See, the others, the first generation, they came here with their own materials already in place. But these...” Doctor Phillips pulled out a sample from a small freezer and held up a piece of a Hellcat shoulder. It was obviously from a young one, if it had been an adult he wouldn't have been able to heft it. Even so it was probably fifty pounds of decaying flesh. Shane grimaced at the squishing sound, rank smell, and blue dripping goo.
“These new ones are on our soil now. They are apparently lacking in the nutrients needed to make the thick carbon armor.” Most of the aliens who were killed left only a shell. They'd seen a few here and there. From experience they knew the armor wasn't foolproof. They could get through it with an RPG heat round or failing that an attack from below or the lower flanks where the skin was thinnest.
“It’s not in their diet you mean,” Shane said, thinking about what he'd picked up from Jen with a pang. She'd tuckered herself out quite a bit sitting in for Phillips over the past week.
“Yeah, us,” the biologist said with a grimace. He pointed to a photo tacked to the wall. They squinted at it. It looked like a sponge.
“The voids we believe are caused by a lack of material. Which makes them less dense.”
“Exactly. Which means these are easier to kill. They just have rhino thick skin over the vitals. Not super dense plate,” Shane mused.
“Still a bitch to get through,” Nate said with a grimace. “But at least it doesn't have those fu
nny carbon and fullerene chains in it. We still haven't identified all of it. We know the muscles and tendons have interwoven clusters of nanotubes but we're still stumped on the composition of the armor. It can not only prevent penetration, some of it can reflect the incoming kinetic energy.”
“I know. A fifty cal can kill them in the right place. Or an RPG. Hernandez and Jolie killed a few with head shots. Now I'm wondering how they did it.”
“The shot may have penetrated where the plates don't quite overlap. Then ricocheted around under the armor. We don't know,” Nate said shrugging. “Shooting at their backs is just a waste of ammunition.”
“If its small cal of course,” Hernandez said with a grimace.
“Yes, but if you can get them on the underside with a heavy enough round then there is a chance for a clean kill. Also they are a lot more sensitive to concussive force than the first generation,” Doctor Phillips said.
“Um, say that again?” Hernandez blinked. He'd been trying to follow along but they'd lost him once or twice.
“Kinetic impact,” the biologist said, not looking up from his notes. He adjusted his glasses. “Hydrostatic forces.”
“Um...” the soldier said in confusion. “Still not following.”
Shane dusted his hands off then wiped them on his pants. Jen would hate him for that. Bitch to get the stains out. He felt another lost feeling. She was so fragile now. Frail and tired all the time. He felt so helpless too. “He means an explosion,” he said gruffly, getting his head back into the game.
“Oh yes that, but also to put it bluntly,” he took his fist and smacked it into the skin of the critter. It dented. “See? Hit it with a blunt object like a bat or a club or a car and it will cause injury. The kinetic force has a greater chance of going through the body to do soft tissue damage inducing internal bleeding. If it is of sufficient force the resulting shock wave could liquefy their internal organs.”
“Ah.”
“What I'm wondering is if this dietary deficiency will lead to something more. Will it become a fatal weakness? Is it just whatever that makes them bullet proof or something else?” the doctor muttered, rubbing his chin.
“The other question for me is if it’s just if they eat a purely Terran diet. If they eat a mixed diet of their own biota...” Nate suggested.
Doctor Phillips stared at Nate for a moment and then nodded eagerly. “Yes, yes! Can the aliens pick up what they are missing, like those long chain carbon molecules or that... yes! Can the alien plants give them what they lack and then pass it to the predators through their prey? Can the plants synthesize it? Or is it synthesized over time? Is this an adaptation? Or is it something missing in our soil all together?” he mused. The others looked at each other amused. When the doc started to absently walk to the door and bumped into the wall Nate guided him to the door. Hernandez snorted softly watching them.
“One thing, the aliens are faster. The second gen.”
“That's because of the lack of thick armor,” Shane mused. Hernandez looked at him. “Think of a tank. They have to haul around a lot of armor. Strip off the weight...”
“And it’s going to move faster. And without the armor it can articulate more. But still, some of them are still invulnerable to weapons fire.”
“At least at range,” Shane said. “I bet a fifty cal or one of the other heavy rounds could let them know they've been kissed. The diamond tipped rounds definitely. I'll have to get on Kyle to get a good solid production line going for them soon.”
“True,” the doctor said with a nod. He was still off in his own little world.
“My kind of seminar doc, thanks,” Shane said, recognizing the signs. Phillips was off in la-la land. Hernandez popped the piece of armored hide back into the freezer.
“Come on doc, we need to eat,” Nate said trying hard not to roll his eyes at the set expression on Phillips face. The guy was determined to solve every riddle the aliens put forward.
Shane smiled a little as Yan and Nate guided the older doctor out the door. They waited until the doc left and then the soldier glanced at Shane. “Anyone tell him you beat one or two to death with a bat and an ax, the first night and day?”
“You heard about that?” Shane asked amused.
“Dude, everyone did,” the soldier said amused. “And of course they still pop when we light them on fire. Wonder how long it'll take him to confirm that,” he said in disgust.
“It was only an herbivore. And a baby.”
“Still it kind of puts a dent in his theory.”
Shane gave him an amused look. “Funny. Think that one up all on your lonesome?”
“No, I had to hammer on it with Torres for a little while.” Shane groaned as Mateo grinned at him.
“All right, all right, so he's a little behind the times. Give the man some slack and let's get to work.”
...*...*...*...*...
“We need something, a weapon, anything to get through the alien's hide. Any ideas on that?” the Colonel asked.
Jen took a sip of tea and grimaced. It was helping with the nausea, but not her caffeine craving. She cocked her head as the discussion bore little fruit. She'd heard about the Gauss rifle failure. They were talking about trying again, but it was still up in the air. The lack of penetration was a major issue.
“Here's what we know,” the Colonel said. “Any caliber less than a .357 is useless. A .45 or a fifty cal is the minimum we need to get through the hide. A round hitting the back armor plate is useless. Why is that?”
“Reactive armor Colonel,” Jen said without thought. The others paused and looked at her.
The Colonel sat back and sighed. “Explain.”
“You didn't get the memo Colonel?” she asked. He shook his head. “Okay, what we've been able to discover here coupled with what the Japanese have discovered is that the aliens have a layered armor system in the plates protecting their vital organs.”
“Okay...”
“You know what reactive armor is right?”
“I've had some experience with an Abrams ma'am,” he said dryly.
“Not quite that. What we have here is a triple layer composite. We think.”
“You think?”
“I'm not a material scientist here Colonel, so bear with me. We're learning as we go, all of us. We've been able to identify the three, but there may be more. And we're not sure about the exact chemical composition.”
“Can't your lab...”
Jen had to laugh at that. She started coughing though and held up a hand as she turned her head away and covered her mouth. When she recovered she sighed. The others had fallen silent. She grimaced. “Sorry, sorry. I, we have a lab here. It’s a blood lab. We're in a mall folks. We're making do with what we've got. I'm assuming many of you are doing much the same.”
There were a few who nodded. The Colonel grunted. “Continue,” he said after a moment. She knew he didn't like hearing excuses.
“Right,” she said with a nod. “The outermost layer is a form of kinetic reactive crystalline structure that we haven't encountered before. When something hits it, it turns hard like diamond at the moment of impact. The doctor would like to get a look at it under an electron microscope but we haven't got it.” She shrugged irritated.
“The second layer is what we believe to be a fullerene matrix. It’s incredibly thin, but tough and durable. The final layer is a ceramic similar to their bones with a thin layer of something similar to Kevlar that attaches the plates to the tissues underneath.”
“And you say they have this over their vitals?” the Colonel asked. “No wonder we're not getting through.”
“Oh even the skin over non vital areas is tough Colonel. Something equivalent to rhino hide.”
“Lovely. I guess NATO standard rounds are out.”
She nodded. “Yes. Unfortunately most hunting rifles are practically useless too. Many hand guns too. You have to get extremely lucky to injure an alien with one, let alone kill one. And an injured animal is e
ven more dangerous than a whole one.”
“That is true,” the Colonel said. “Any ideas?”
“Cop killers are our magic bullet of choice but we don't have many armor piercing rounds. The uranium in the tips is hard to come by.”
“Ouch,” a woman said. “Uranium. Isn't that radioactive?” she asked. The Colonel shook his head.
“My husband suggested you put some people on tipping rounds with artificial diamond or sapphire. Or an organic poison. I'm not sure about the poison idea, we'd have to experiment. The diamond idea is working here but it is a pain to make in quantity.” She shook her head. “Even with all the jewelry stores we have here.”
“True,” a scientist nodded. “We have no idea if a paralytic, I'm assuming that is what you'd use, would work. If it even got through the outer hide to begin with.”
“Or a neural, but again, we're not sure if it would work. Also we don't have access to any exotic poisons here,” Jen said. She shrugged.
“We do,” the Japanese representative said. “I can look into a few ideas. The puffer fish comes to mind.”
“Snake venom too. Also certain types of sea creatures,” another scientist added.
“Which will be hard to come by with the aliens in the oceans,” another said.
“Let’s keep this positive,” the Colonel said. He gave Jen a long appreciative look. “Tipped rounds...”
“We'll have to replace the copper with something harder. Titanium or something,” she shrugged. She wasn't a material scientist she reminded herself firmly. She couldn't do everything herself, this was a team effort. “The lead core too. It is too soft to get through and doesn't have enough mass.”
“You said diamond tipped?”
Jen nodded. “It’s been tried. Gauss rounds failed as well. I can ask Shane for the results.”
“Please do,” he said with a nod.
“We've found some success with HEAT rounds.”
“HEAT?”
“Delayed High Explosive Anti Tank rounds. A primitive plasma round really. A Monroe effector.”
“Oh.”
“You have them?” the Colonel asked, now surprised. Jen smiled. “Oh.”