Reprieve - a short story

by S.S. Wilson

again. It was time. He formally opened the meeting. Dinosauria, fittingly, had been granted permission to make the opening remarks. The pod of their spokes-thing opened and the grey-green blob within descended on slime-strands to face the gathering.

  It was always mildly disturbing to see a Dinosauria rep in the flesh. While very few creatures on the Study bore any resemblance to the Participants who had created them, Dinosuria were perhaps the most unlike their formerly grand animals. Indeed they were unusual even among the diverse life forms of the Allied Intelligences. Dinosauria were hive-beings. An “individual” was actually a mass of thousands of tiny, independent gelatinous creatures, held together in a hard-shelled pod maintained by the outermost members. Upon reaching a certain population mass, the assemblage achieved a collective intelligence that in turn allowed them/it to communicate, work and build as a single unit. They/it even lacked the male/female distinction common on many worlds (and on the Study).

  The Coordinator’s neural leads came to life, tickling his pressure lobes. Simultaneously, similar devices went to work for each attendee, translating the Dinosauria representative’s remarks into sounds, signals, flashes of light, tactile rhythms, odors -- the many languages of the Allied Intelligences.

  The representative was eloquent, lacing its remarks with compelling and disturbing findings independently corroborated by the permanent moon-based staff. The hammered and re-hammered point: Mammals’ latest “tweak” to their work was wrecking havoc on the Study.

  To the chagrin of many, no one had paid much attention to Mammals’ creatures after the Mandated Adjustment. If anything, Participants had only continued to titter that Mammals seemed intent on simply trying to grow their life forms as large as Dinosauria’s once grand creatures. But along the way, Mammals had made an unnoticed change in one subset of their coterie, a fragile and clumsy bi-ped considered to have a very low chance for success. They had increased the relative size of its brain.

  On the face of it, this was of little interest. Most Participants had long ago adopted various forms of the brain as useful for coordinating their creatures’ bodily functions, but no one saw value in increasing its size beyond that needed to perform those basic tasks. Species survival was the goal. Requiring an organism to maintain an oversized brain was viewed as a waste of precious energy.

  And yet, without warning, this unlikely big-brained mammal had suddenly spread out from its home continent, and had done so in a time frame so brief it was barely comprehensible. Not in a Quarter Circuit, not in a twentieth Circuit, the creature had shot across the entire Study in something on the order of a hundredth of a Circuit.

  Having laid its groundwork, the Dinosauria rep launched into a description of the havoc to which he had earlier alluded. The Coordinator had, of course, steeped himself in this material prior to the meeting. Nevertheless, it was unnerving to hear it now poured forth so effectively, so emotionally.

  “The situation is urgent beyond anything we have faced in the entire life of the Study!” boomed the Dinosauria speaker. “The damage being done by this species is occurring at an almost incomprehensible rate, so rapidly that the moon staff has begun measuring it in terms of ‘micro-circuits,’ that is, the brief time required for the planet to pass once around its star.”

  Notes of amazement rustled through the translators. Most Participants did not even have terms for such an infinitesimal length of time.

  The Dinosauria rep pressed on, “Yes, the damage has been done in but a few thousand of these micro circuits. If I may emphasize, in less than 5 hundred-thousandths of a normal Circuit!” Even as members struggled to grasp that, Dinosauria answered the next obvious question, “How is Mammals’ Big Brain doing this? The species has invented its own rudimentary technology. It is contaminating the Study oceans, modifying the Study atmosphere, and increasingly covering Study land masses with enormous nests made of various complex materials. Along the way, species of every other Participant have been utterly wiped out. Even,” he paused for effect, “including one or two of Bacteria/Virus!”

  This was indeed amazing. Other than after the most extreme adjustments, no one could remember a whole family of Bacteria/Virus’ creatures being eliminated.

  The Dinosauria rep had built to a well-planned crescendo, “Finally, and not least, Big Brain is actively modifying other Study life forms through breeding and even direct genetic interference. They are now meddling in the very processes used by the Participants themselves!”

  Having presented an appropriately gloomy vision, Dinosauria requested to cede the floor to, not another Participant, but rather a representative of the Study’s permanent moon staff. The Coordinator had been forewarned of the request, and approved it without comment. The staff member’s bowl was slid into a position near his. He could not help noticing she had remarkably attractive dorsal dilators (moon staff was predominately of the Coordinator’s species).

  Without preamble, she made the staggering announcement that members of Mammals’ Big Brain had traveled to the moon itself. There were gasps/burps/pulses/flashes of astonishment from the assembled. The visits had happened so recently that some Participants had already been en route to this very meeting from their home worlds, and thus were now hearing of it for the first time.

  The moon-rep quickly offered assurances that steps had been taken to camouflage the meeting chamber and living quarters, and that the Big Brains had ceased coming to the moon after a few visits. But the event was no less alarming and instantly spawned a rash of worried discussion. If Big Brains were capable of crude space travel, might they not also have instruments that would detect the arrival of the Participants on the moon? Might they not have weapons? Might there not some sort of attack?

  The Coordinator called for order and, when he finally got it, explained that this was the reason Participants had been asked to approach from the side of the moon which, fortunately, remained turned away from Study. He encouraged the gathering to focus on the more pressing point.

  What were they to do?

  Dinosauria answered without hesitation. Surely it was obvious! To curtail Big Brain’s destruction of the Study, a Mandated Adjustment was needed immediately! One did not need a translator to sense the response. The cavernous chamber fairly bristled with support.

  But first, Mammals was, of course, invited to offer a defense. Their representative raised the center of his flat, circular body and extended his three microwave sensors as high as possible for dramatic effect. (Like Dinosauria, Mammals were in no way similar to their hirsute handiwork down on the Study.)

  His defense was surprisingly brief. “I remind the Participants that Dinosauria was allowed a full Circuit to expand and refine their creatures. That would be about two hundred million micro-circuits, to use the moon staff’s new unit. Surely it is grossly unfair to truncate our extremely successful Big Brain species in a minute fraction of that time.” Then he added quickly, “That said, we of the Mammals group are sensitive to the concerns of our fellow experimenters, and will graciously accept a lesser time. We suggest a Quarter Circuit.”

  The suggestion caused an angry outburst that the Mammal rep was, judging by the speed with which he retracted his sensors, clearly not expecting. Members clamored to be heard.

  The Coordinator, after again demanding calm in the chamber, spoke instead. He knew he spoke for the majority, but felt he could do so in a more impartial manner. He calmly countered to Mammals that, given the facts already presented, the Quarter Circuit requested was much too long. Big Brain might irreparably harm the Study in far less time.

  The Mammals rep re-raised his sensors, “We do not feel that any of Big Brain’s effects on the study are necessarily irreparable. We respectfully point out that, during the reign of Dinosauria’s large creatures, the Study endured long stagnation. In the current situation, even if Big Brain proves damaging, it will happen quickly and is, in any case, a valid outcome within Study guidelines. Is
not the creation of a life form that may essentially self-destruct via its own creative energy a most unusual and worthy discovery? Dear Participants, the Study had weathered many cataclysms, not least the Mandated Adjustment. Yet most of us were able to recover in some form. At worst, Big Brain’s effects will be merely another form of adjustment. I repeat, a Mandated Adjustment at this time is extreme, unwarranted, and unfair.”

  The Mammals rep then went further, rather tastelessly making a thinly veiled accusation that Bacteria/Virus had already attempted an unauthorized Adjustment on Big Brain. He presented evidence that, a fraction of a Circuit prior to this meeting, a strain of Bacteria/Virus’ brood had killed nearly half Big Brain’s population.

  All seven representatives of Bacteria/Virus instantly sprang from their web tunnels. The Coordinator recognized their speaker, who fumed, “We vehemently deny this accusation! It is well known that our life forms have routinely struck down certain weaker Study populations. These events are inevitable natural interactions, with no direct manipulation required or attempted on our part.”

  Mammals instantly protested. A rather unseemly shouting match ensued. The Coordinator had to temporarily