Afterburn

by S. L. Viehl

  Moleon came to a halt and stared, transfixed by the sight of them. “They are like the ice hills of Skart.”

  “You must visit my homeworld sometime,” Paal chided. “These are tiny compared to the sculptures I have created with my little friends.” Confidently he walked within a few feet of the mounds and stopped, holding his hands out and open. The tones he released were gentle and beguiling, a call from his artistic nature to that of the barax.

  The insects all over the mounds ceased working and looked down at the two intruders.

  “You may wish to be more polite now,” Moleon warned.

  Paal smiled before he launched into his tonal invitation. It was a very polite request for those members of the hive who wished to share to join him in an exchange of information. Once he had finished, he placed the N-jui translation pad on the ground and slowly backed away, still showing no aggression or fear.

  “The chemist truly believes they will be able to communicate with us through this device?” Moleon sounded skeptical.

  “It is used extensively among her species, and they have communicated with every life-form on their planet.” What a place the N-jui homeworld must be, he thought, and how difficult would it be to obtain a temporary visitor’s visa? He would have to inquire about it as soon as he talked his barax out of killing the colonists.

  The two males waited, and watched. The barax seemed to be communicating with each other, and went on with their private conversations for some minutes before two trundled over to the pad. They inspected the device thoroughly before climbing up onto the pad, which would read and translate their chemical messages into spoken language, and spoken language into chemicals they could taste.

  YOU WANT WHAT

  Paal was startled by the brevity of the barax’s first message, and the effort it took to speak to the insects instead of using tones. “I am Paal, a Hlagg sculptor. I have worked with many of your ancestors to sculpt and build great art. I request peace between our kind and some information.”

  BUILD YES PEACE YES INFORMATION YES

  “Is that an agreement?” Moleon asked.

  Paal nodded. “Insect syntax is a little hard to comprehend if you’re not used to it. We can translate the sounds they make, which express brief concepts just like that.” He turned to the barax. “We wish to know why you are building toward the colony of humanoids. We wish to know if you mean to do harm to us.”

  BUILD WONDER HARM NO BUILD WATER PIPE HARM YES

  “Water pipe.”

  “Irrigation and wastewater pipes. The recycling plant cleans and sterilizes the water before it pumps it out here, to irrigate the botanicals.” Moleon pointed to one of the nearby outlet pipes.

  “The barax aren’t building toward the colony at all. They’d going to seal off the pipe.” Paal turned to the waiting insects. “Why do you wish to harm the water pipes?”

  INFECTED HARM WATER PIPE STOP HARM CORE

  “The water isn’t hurting them, it’s harming the Core.” Paal looked out at the gnorra trees before asking the barax, “How is the water infected?”

  SMALLER ONES SLEEP PIPE WATER HARM CORE

  “Smaller ones would be something not as big as they are,” Paal reasoned out loud. “The smaller ones sleep—hibernate, perhaps?—in the pipe water. The smaller ones harm the Core. But who are the smaller ones?”

  Moleon eyed the outlet pipe. “I think we should take a sample of the water back for analysis.”

  “Good idea.” Paal turned to the insects. “Thank you for speaking with me and my friend. We will leave you in peace, and ask that you do the same for us.” He went to collect the translator device, but the barax weren’t finished speaking just yet.

  PEACE YES COME SEE SPEAK BUILD WONDER PAAL YES

  The sculptor grinned down at the pair. “Then I shall return and we will talk of building wonders together again, my friends.”

  Paal and Moleon took the water sample directly to the FreeClinic, where Liam Mayer sent it down to Pathology for a complete analysis. Hkyrim brought up the results to Mayer’s office personally.

  “You are supposed to be on medical leave, Doctor,” Liam said as he took the data pad from the Omorr.

  “I dislike being idle,” Hkyrim said. “Also, I asked my lab technicians to inform me if there were any substances brought in for pathogenic analysis. The water is contaminated with the same nanites present in the wrill specimen.”

  Liam consulted the pad. “We’ll have to put an alert to the entire colony. Luckily this isn’t being used as drinking water.”

  “No, but it is possible that the nanites may have been programmed to replicate and infect every source of water on the planet.”

  Liam nodded. “How did they get into the wastewater from the sea?”

  “Seawater is used to make the liquid atmosphere for the ’Zangian pilots’ ships,” Hkyrim said. “Once it has been used, it is drained from the strafers and piped through the recycling plant. It’s also possible that the ’Zangians are carrying nanites in their bloodstream.” He removed a photoscan from his jacket and held it out. “The nanites did not stop resequencing the DNA of my amputated hand.”

  Liam looked at the image, which showed a ’Zangian pectoral flipper inside a sealed tank. “That’s not your hand, Doctor.”

  “Not anymore.” Hkyrim glanced down at his bandaged stump. “I have more photoscans that show the transformation process from hand to flipper as it happened. Naturally the nanites wouldn’t resequence DNA that is already identical to that of their program, so it is likely that the ’Zangians will suffer no physical harm from their exposure.”

  Liam tossed down the datapad in disgust. “But why do this? Why infect a planet with nanites programmed to make everyone into duplicates of the native aquatics?”

  “Not complete duplicates, and not everyone,” T’Kaf said from the open doorway. “Only one aquatic species, with which Dr. Hkyrim unfortunately shares some DNA, an insignificant amount but just enough to fool the nanite program. I recommended that all the Omorr be evacuated from the planet, that is, if they wish to remain Omorr.”

  “Which species were these nanites created to change?” Liam asked.

  “The mogshrike, of course. I don’t understand how they migrated. The nanites were supposed to stay in the sea.”

  Hkyrim frowned. “You know who released the nanites into the seawater?”

  “Yes.” The chemist turned her calm countenance toward the Omorr. “I did.”

  “I’ve checked and rechecked the entire inlet,” Teresa assured Noel Argate. “Everything is up and running. Let’s release it.”

  “Maybe in the morning,” Noel said. He was at his desk and studying the results of the preliminary scans one of his men had made on the ’shrike. “I’ve got a ton of datawork to plow through.” He looked up. “Why don’t you go get some rest? You look wiped out.”

  Teresa started to tell him where he could shove his data, and then nodded and went off to her cabin.

  The Briggs had made it back to the coast in less than a day after capturing the baby ’shrike, but ever since they had docked, Noel Argate had adamantly refused to release their reluctant passenger. First he wanted to allow it to recover from the tranquilizer he had given it, and then he thought it prudent to scan and observe the creature for several hours. After that, all the containment equipment being used for it had to be checked and double-checked.

  “I’m just being thorough, Teresa,” Noel would say whenever she questioned him about it. “As you demanded I be.”

  Several times Teresa thought her old lover was stalling. Everything he said reminded her of how he had spoken to her when they were students: always with that upper-hand tinge of patronization she despised.

  Still, why would Noel go to all this trouble to capture a live ’shrike to observe its behavior, and then keep it penned up like a goldfish? She was just being paranoid.

  Jadaira and Onkar had left the inlet after seeing the Briggs safely to dock. Dair had muttered so
mething about going to see Shon Valtas, but Teresa had been too distracted over the ’shrike to pay much attention. Now all she wanted to do was get her baby out of the containment tank belowdecks and back into the sea, where it could feed and swim freely.

  Noel’s dragging things out was pissing her off, but he was also right. They couldn’t rush the process.

  “Dr. Selmar,” Ballie called from the corridor outside her cabin. “There are some people from the colony up on deck to see you.”

  Teresa had signaled Ana Hansen and her lab chief, T’Kaf, about their triumphant capture of the ’shrike, and was delighted to see the N-jui waiting for her up on deck. She knew Ana was tied up at the Peace Summit, but seeing Liam Mayer and an Omorr physician with T’Kaf made her frown.

  “T’Kaf, we did it! William, what are you doing away from the hospital?” She smiled at the Omorr as Mayer introduced him. “Did Ana tell you about our adventures on the high seas?”

  The Terran surgeon looked grim. “Teresa, is there somewhere we can talk?”

  “Here is fine.” She glanced at T’Kaf. “What, is the council having a snit fit already? Am I in trouble?”

  “The trouble started six months ago, Dr. Selmar,” the N-jui told her, “when I impregnated some of your bioengineered wrill with nanites.”

  Teresa must not have heard her correctly. “I beg your pardon?”

  “She said, she spiked your wrill.” Noel Argate came up on deck. Twenty of his MRD officers, each carrying sidearms, circled around the outside of the group. “T’Kaf, I’m very disappointed in you. You could have kept this quiet for one more day, and then no one would have ever known how naughty you were.”

  “This male,” T’Kaf told Teresa, “forced me to repeatedly give him aid. He has records pertaining to an unfortunate accident in which I was involved on N-jui.”

  “She blew up a laboratory,” Noel told Teresa. “Killed several people, and had her chemistry certifications and licensing stripped. Terrible thing, got her permanently barred from ever returning to her homeworld. Of course, a girl’s got to eat, so T’Kaf forged a new identity for herself. That’s the problem with counterfeiting IDs,” he told the N-Jui. “You never know who is going to be checking into them.”

  “You blackmailed her,” Terri said.

  Noel shrugged. “I couldn’t find anything on anyone else. Your crew members are remarkably well-behaved people.”

  “Captain Argate threatened to expose me,” T’Kaf said, “unless I followed his instructions. He brought the nanites here two cycles back and told me to release them into the sea. They were only supposed to infect the mogshrikes, and resequence their DNA.”

  “Which they did.”

  Hkyrim extended one of his arms, which Terri saw ended in a stump. “Just for your information, Captain, they have the same effect on Omorr.”

  “The nanites may also have affected Commander mu T’Resa’s physiology, as well as hormonal production and growth rates among some of the younger ’Zangian males,” the N-jui said to Teresa.

  “Oh, dear.” Noel grimaced. “Well, nothing’s perfect.”

  Teresa was struggling to grasp everything. “You released nanites into the open ocean to change the ’shrikes, and it did all this, too? Christ, Noel, why?”

  “We are invading the Hsktskt homeworld, which is going to be a water world when we’re done bombarding its polar caps,” Argate told her. “We know the lizards can live comfortably in water for extended periods of time, and suspect they’re clever enough to build temporary floating cities. We need aquatic soldiers who can fight them. Soldiers who can be trained to do what’s necessary.”

  “You mean, terrorize them and then eat them. Like the legend of the rogur.”

  Noel smiled happily. “We’ve tried it with a dozen other species, but none of them were large enough, or aggressive enough, to scare Hsktskt, much less eat them. The ’shrikes will do both.” He pointed to the deck. “Down there is my first foot soldier. Hey, I’ve thought of a name for your new baby, Terri. Adam.”

  Teresa turned to William Mayer, desperate now. “How many nanites? Were they self-replicating? Will they hurt the ’Zangians?”

  “I released several billion, Doctor,” T’Kaf said. “They are self-replicating and there is no way to count them now. They have no effect on ’Zangians.”

  “What about the ’Zangians Onkar found buried on the wrill island?” she demanded of Noel. “Did you butcher them, too?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He yawned. “I never killed any aquatics. I just redesign them from the inside out.”

  She drew back to keep herself from lunging at his throat. “You’re more of a monster than the ’shrikes are.”

  “What’s done is done, Terri.” Argate patted her shoulder. “The ’shrike goes back to MRD with me tomorrow on a shuttle. We’ll train it and bring it back to gather others like it; take them and train them. Within one year they’ll form our first aquatic infantry division. Within two years they’ll wipe out the Hsktskt and end this war.” He spread his hands. “Voila, the League worlds will be safe again, and I’ll be a general.”

  That she could ever have loved this man staggered her. Teresa shook her head as if to deny it.

  “Use of this type of nanotechnology is illegal, Captain,” Hkyrim said. “The League will be informed of your actions.”

  “Who do you think gave me the nanites, Doctor?” Noel asked the Omorr. He laughed at their expressions. “Come on, people, wake up. Wars are dirty. Do you know that the Hsktskt raided one of our SEAL facilities a year ago, and killed our best biologists? They took everything we had developed on alterforming, too. Now we’re finding Hsktskt agents who look just as sweet and innocent as Terri, here, blowing up intelligence compounds and assassinating generals. That’s why we don’t fight fair. We can’t. We only let you civilians think that we do.”

  “William?” Teresa gave the surgeon a desperate look.

  “We’ll petition the council to block Captain Argate’s departure, first thing in the morning,” Mayer promised her. He was watching Noel’s men, none of whom had drawn a weapon yet.

  “That’s it, then.” She felt almost as numb as she had when she lost Dairatha.

  “Be a good sport, Terri,” Noel advised her. “It’s something you should be used to by now, anyway, don’t you think?”

  T’Kaf came to Teresa. “I apologize for my part in this. It was wrong of me to conceal my past and deceive you into thinking I was suitable for employment. I have no defense for what I did; only to say that I was once young and careless.”

  Teresa looked at Noel. “So was I.”

  “I feel that I have done some good here. It pains me to think that this one mistake will again destroy my reputation.” She touched Teresa’s hand. “I hope you will speak well of me when I am gone. For now, there are things that must be done, no matter how unpleasant we find them.”

  Teresa did feel terribly betrayed, but she also understood that Noel was the reason the N-jui had become involved in this monstrosity. Another life in ruins, on top of ruins. “I’m sorry he used you like this.”

  “I have learned something here. I hope, with the exception of my actions on Captain Argate’s behalf, that I contributed something, too. If not before, then perhaps with what I do now.” The N-jui walked across the deck and seized Noel Argate, lifting him off his feet.

  “Put me down!” The Terran struggled wildly.

  The MRD officers took out their weapons and pointed them at T’Kaf.

  “Captain Argate, you once expressed curiosity and disgust about how some N-Jui females devour males after mating.” She cocked her head and stretched out her large, curved mandibles. “I must inform you that in fact all females are capable of devouring males, and that we do not necessarily have to mate with them first.”

  Noel Argate had just enough time to scream before the N-jui bit off his head and swallowed it. At almost the exact same moment, the MRD officers opened fire.

&nb
sp; “T’Kaf!” Teresa screamed.

  “No, Teresa.” Mayer caught her by the arms and held her back, out of firing range.

  The N-jui’s mandibles did not stop chewing until pulse fire riddled her entire body and all twenty officers had drained their sidearms’ power cells. Then, with the inherent dignified grace of her kind, she put down Argate’s body, spat out what remained of his head, curled up on the deck, and died in the echoing silence.

  Terri stared at T’Kaf, and then grabbed Mayer’s sleeve. “William, I have to talk to Jadaira. Right away.”

  Burn didn’t want to leave Liana alone with only an attendant, but their mating had left her exhausted, and he had promised Shon he would sit in on the latest security briefing at the URD.

  I won’t be long, just an hour or two.

  She curled against him, rubbing her cheek against his chest. Come inside when you return. I’ll feel safer if you sleep in here with me. Tomorrow we can tell them. . . . She drifted off.

  The attendant, an older female named Graleba, gave him a silent if somewhat disgruntled nod as he left the cavern.

  She’s Ylydii, I’m not, Burn thought as he swam over to the URD. It will probably take everyone some time to adjust to the idea.

  Shon wasn’t at the security briefing, which had ended early so that he could meet with Jadaira and Onkar about some emergency issue. Burn left the water and wandered through the URD until he found the three closeted in one of the conference rooms.

  “I come all the way over here to be briefed, and here you are, telling war stories.” He looked from Dair to Onkar to Shon. “All right, maybe not war stories.”

  “Someone has been killing and eating aquatics in large quantities,” Shon informed him. “Dair and Onkar found what was left of them buried on a wrill island. Among the victims are your two missing guards.”