Chapter 4 – Harpy Heaven



The Bio-Mech War: Hard Landing – episode 2 – Thio-Metachlorine

(6,062 words)

From the Homestead we climb directly into the Dragonfly. Alarms flash up front as rubbery orange skin presses to the windows and sharp green eyes peer inside. Except for the crush of bodies, it’s not exactly clear what’s wrong. Ivan scans his board, coding on the Ranger emergency channel, [Lieutenant Nofree, it’s Ivan. Native bird has ripped into fuel line. Request permission to fry chicken.]

[Permission granted, Rangers. Code Three and bolt the hatch. Good hunting.]

Thuy says out loud to us, “Code Three? Nofree expects danger to the Homestead from birds?”

Ivan unlocks the weapons locker, “No ordinary beak could puncture fuel line.”

Anacine retracts the ladder and seals the Homestead’s hatch. Whatever happens to us, the Homestead should be okay. By the time Anacine’s ready to open the door, Thuy, Crystal, and I have blasters armed with fire, grenades, tazer darts, and bullets. Bullets come in two calibers; .25 to take out a squirrel, or .38 for an elephant. Anything larger than an elephant should really get a grenade. We switch to coding that won’t get lost in the sounds of battle. Anacine says, [Righto?]

At port windows, green eyes stare hungrily over beaks. I say, [Cocky birds make me mad.]

Thuy points to a camera outside on the Homestead swiveling in our direction. [The running of the rats didn’t go so well. Colonists want to see how we do.]

Anacine says, [Where did our mechs go?]

Crystal says, [They hid in the mousery cages after the attack. I guess they were too ashamed to come back.]

Thuy says, [Retreat is a tactic used by all wise generals.]

Before the hatch slides open, Crystal codes, [Siff, sweep center left. Thuy, center right. I’ll watch the skies.]

Even before the door is fully open, beaks and talons rip at insulation strips on the inside of our door. We’ll need that if we go to orbit! As she slides the door, Anacine fires a revolver over our heads. Webbed bodies flap back like a swarm of bats giving us room to step out. Like an exploding volcano, our blasters fill the open sky with flame.

I must admit I was looking forward to the fight. I even worried that the birds would scatter before I got a chance for a little Earth-species revenge. When several burst into flame, others sail away with singed hides. My blood-lust fades, turning quickly to concern. As birds flap beyond the reach of my flame, I code, [They’re testing our range!]

Thuy’s flame falls short of another bird flapping in one spot like a butterfly. Others hide on the other side with the ship between us. I catch Crystal secretly glancing at the locked hatch of the Dragonfly. She says bravely, [Follow me around, mon. Let’s get the sitters into the air. They dissin’ us.]

Back-to-back in formation we make our way around the nose of the Dragonfly. We shoot at any bird in range, and many that aren’t. From his pilot chair inside, Ivan has time to wave. [I can hear ruckus through skin of Dragonfly. And walls are insulated for planetary reentry.]

Ivan’s not kidding. With adrenaline pounding in my ears, I can shut it out. Since the door first cracked open, the birds set up a squawking that would put seagulls to shame. Thuy gets a little wild, spraying a rainbow arc of fire. [Harpies to the left of me! Harpies to the right!]

I get Crystal’s attention, coding my concern, [That’s not Lao Tsu.]

[More like his crazy uncle, Hop Tsu. Anacine, we’re coming back.]

[Still gobs of birds out there, mate.]

[Scavengers, and they’re not afraid of people.]

Ivan says, [Crys, if you could do quick patch-and-solder on port side fuel tubing I’ll put voltage on outer skin. That should keep harpies off.]

Thuy and I stand guard while Crystal repairs the damage with quick jabs of a welding finger. If we charge the metal near leaking fuel there could be an explosion. Orange harpies stay too far back for flame so we switch to bullets. Hovering birds explode in shrouds of skin like punctured balloons. Fellow harpies fight over strips falling to the ground.

They finally get the message, flying back to the forest, or further back to hide in the Homestead’s superstructure. Even as we’re fighting I can’t help but see beauty in Jewel-3’s wet fields and tropical jungle. Snowy mountains fill the background under yellow-gray skies. Fifteen minutes later we’re back inside the Dragonfly surveying the bloody mess outside. Charred bodies of harpies litter the deck. Orange, blood-spattered skin sticks to windows.

Ivan says, “Charging outer skin to 1.5 volts.”

I say, “Why so low? That’s a pleasant tingle.”

“Colonists may need to charge all of Homestead to drive off Jewel-3 harpies. That’s too much energy. I’ll increase voltage until birds stay away.”

Over the Dragonfly’s radio, Lieutenant Nofree’s voice surprises us, “Good work, Rangers. Keep us informed of your experiment. The whole ship is watching.”

Crystal switches a monitor to the Homestead’s information channel. There we are in video replay. Thuy, Crystal, and I battle aliens like movie action-heroes. Thuy turns away, “One who is fascinated with himself is not clear sighted.”

Video of exotic new colony worlds was originally use to whip up public interest in the program, as well as disarm opposition to the dangers and enormous costs involved. Now with Deimos on its way towards Earth, there’s no shortage of volunteers. Even if all transfer stations being built on Earth were working full time, less than one tenth of one percent of the population could ship out in the next nine months.

While we wash harpy blood in the shower or lab sink, there’s a knock on the belly hatch. Still scrubbing between my fingers with a wet-nap I kick the locking bolt. Li’l Mike looks up from the ladder, saying meekly, “Could we come in?”

I say, “Not so proud now, are we?”

“Please,” Li’l Mike says.

Anacine pulls me back, “Come on in, mates. Are you okay?”

The mechs climb in carrying Salty’s steel carapace like a casket. Quint says, “Salty’s had a scare. Doc Blaitel said to bring her here and she should recover over time.”

Junior Rangers look at each other in confusion. Anacine squints, “A scare? How about a reboot?”

Quint shrugs as they carry Salty to Crystal’s bunk for a lie down. After surrounding her protectively, they jack cables into each others networking ports and fall silent. “Very strange,” Thuy mutters as we get on with our jobs.

Over the next hours we find that nine volts is enough to keep even the most persistent harpy away from the Dragonfly. We’ll use this to set a wire perimeter around the ship, as well as farmland to plant crops.

Lieutenant Nofree gathers Rangers in the main port. After group therapy, Salty seems to have recovered. Mechs are sent off on their own mission. Crystal and the other Beta Rangers will string electrical wire and set up a generator. Anacine and the Gamma Rangers will dig a plot and flood the field with water to flush salty soil. Thuy and the Delta Rangers will provide security. I’ll use my electronic gut to check native animals and plants for poison.

Before we can even consider colonization, a planet must provide a native source of food. We bring meat walls, crops, and farm animals but it’s too risky to rely on these alone. If our animals die or a disease wipes out the crops we need a backup. There’s no grocery delivery from Earth. From inside the Homestead the meadow looks as lush and beautiful as ever. This time we have no illusions. Dressed in body armor, Rangers and colonists carry blasters as well as equipment for their particular job. It’s like I told the Junior Rangers, one way or another humans will come out on top.

When the main hatch opens, we step out and gather in groups for Delta Rangers to escort. Thuy goes with me, my own personal bodyguard. Harpies squawking from the top of the Homestead would dive on us if Delta Top didn’t fire off a few warning bursts of flame. Red monkeys watch from the forest a hundred meters away. Nofree reminds us to watch for scorpions. It’s no surprise that our groups move very slowly out into the field.

Eyes on the top of my head, I pull blue, red, and purple leaves, pressing them to the gut. Metal teeth grind them into a paste that is analyzed for fats, proteins, carbohydrates, and toxic proteins. The data blinks on a readout and is stored in memory. While I work, Thuy does a slow spin looking for danger. “The air is harsh in my throat.”

“I don’t get it. Is that a Zen koan?”

“No, I mean the air is harsh in my throat.”

I drop a waxy purple leaf that holds no promise for humans or animals, “It does seem more polluted than it did on top of the Homestead.”

“The air could be cleaner higher up. Dust particulates settle.”

Anacine codes from her group near the forest, [Siff, get over here on the chop!]

[What’s wrong?]

[A colonist got pricked by a spiky snail.]

[So?]

[His finger is swelling. You should check the snail with your gut.]

By the time Thuy and I reach the colonist, a medical team with a stretcher runs from the Homestead. Laying on the ground, the big colonist’s nametag says, “Gary”. Another colonist cuts Gary’s sleeve revealing the arm swelling like a purple-yellow balloon. Under a plastic collection bag on the ground, Anacine holds a gray snail with white spikes. Thuy pulls his knife, “I should kill it first.”

“We may need it alive for medical. I think I can get the gut down onto a spike. That’s probably what got him.”

Thuy nods to Gary. He’s unconscious as he’s loaded onto a stretcher. “What happened?”

Anacine shrugs, “Barmy colonist. Thought he could pick it up.”

Still trapped under plastic I lower the gut over the snail and press down. A spike is sheared off and the gut goes to work. “Yikes,” I say, watching the readout. “A dozen enzymes harmful to humans.”

I call the Homestead, [Doc Blaitel, this is Siff. I have an analysis of the snail poison.]

[Roger, Siff. Send it along, and the snail if you have it. I’ll be in the lab.]

[Not the hospital?]

[Sorry, Siff. The patient’s already dead.]

It’s not like we’ve never lost a colonist. We’ve lost whole colonies before, but it’s always a shock. The vast majority of people coming to a new world are wealthy. They give up comfortable lives on Earth. They know they’ll have to work hard and there’s no backing out. They’re tough minded, strong willed, and optimistic. That’s why it’s so nice working with colonists, and so sad when one goes down.

We take the snail to the lab where Doc Blaitel empties it from the plastic bag onto a steel countertop. He watches it crawl several seconds and then smashes it with a beaker. Crystal jumps. “What kind of test is that?”

“Step one of a dissection, slow your subject down.” Doc Blaitel takes forceps and a scalpel, separating shell, tissues, and organs into piles.

While we’re watching the dissection, Lieutenant Nofree strides into the room, a compact bundle of energy. As he searches for words, his bald, scarred head colors orange and red, a colorimetric sign of trouble. “Anacine, to say I’m disappointed is an understatement.”

“Sir?”

“That dead colonist was in your care.”

“Along with Serena and Terra!”

“Do you think official Rangers have time to go chasing after colonists? We have a colony to build!”

Anacine looks like she’s going to cry. The other Junior Rangers fume silently. We get blamed for everything. Anything we say only gets us more work so we nod soberly as Lieutenant Nofree lectures us about our responsibility for colonist safety. Lieutenant Nofree finally stops spitting, leaving us with an inconsolable teammate.

Hours later we have Gary’s funeral. A cemetery is marked off north of the ship and christened “Boot Hill”. It’s out of sight of the Homestead so as not to disturb the colonists, and far enough from the trees so we’re not attacked by monkeys. Because of the danger only a few of Gary’s closest friends accompany the Rangers. It’s a strange funeral party rolling a cart over the grass while an honor guard shoots up trees on either side to keep away uninvited guests. We get Gary into the rocky soil. Captain Wallen says a few words before the ground starts to shake. Ivan codes darkly, [Jewel-3 rejects human flesh.]

Crystal nods agreement, [Dark spirits here, mon.]

The earthquake lasts only seconds. Captain Wallen resumes the service until people in back start to cough. Lieutenant Nofree’s eyes widen, “Gas! Tank, use your sniffer!”

Built into his Link nose, Delta Top has a chemical analyzer. “Chlorine. Must have been released during the earthquake.”

Now that we have a label, everyone coughs at the gas biting at noses and throats. Captain Wallen says needlessly, “Back to the Homestead.”

A yellow-green gas drifts along the ground behind us like fog. Jogging next to me, Thuy says, “No wonder the ground is salty. Chlorine gas must react with sodium in the rocks.”

The gas follows us out of the trees as we run across an open field to the ship. Crystal says, “Monkeys are still in the trees. Why doesn’t the gas get them?”

Ivan says, “Chlorine is denser than air. It’ll just keep flowing downhill like water.”

Close to the Homestead, we slow and look back. Crystal says, “Siff, use your eye, there to the left!”

“Monkeys?”

“Further left.”

I can barely make out a white shape in the shadows of the trees. Larger than a monkey, it hangs from a lower branch. On highest magnification it appears to have wings like an angel. I gulp and say nothing. Lieutenant Nofree would probably have me go back and check it for food.

If animals or colonists had been outside the ship, chlorine gas would have turned to hydrochloric acid inside their lungs. Chlorine is bad for metal as well, but the cloud rolling past the Homestead isn’t enough to do much damage. Rangers will search the cracked hills north for a source. Granules of sodium chloride on the ground will show us where it’s dangerous to put animals, plants, or people on a long-term basis.

Chemical analyzers show an overnight drop in airborne chlorine concentration but it never falls to zero. It smells like we’re living in a pool house. The earthquake must have opened a crack into some reservoir. We can’t wait forever so we put on hydrox masks and get back to work preparing the ground for crops.

Halfway between the Homestead and forest edge, colonists in earthmovers scrape out the top centimeters of stubby yellow weeds and salty sand. After we flood the field with water we’ll fill the plot with a layer of soil brought from Earth. With fertilizer provided by farm animals, our crops should thrive and send roots into native Jewel-3 dirt.

While farmers dig the field, Rangers work with colonists building a pipeway through a forest three hundred meters to the river. Anacine and Thuy guard colonists on the ground cutting a path through the trees. Crystal and I ride on the Dragonfly’s skids, shooting at monkeys in the trees. Strangely, harpies seemed to have disappeared.

After an hour’s work, the pipe extends into the forest with trees cut back to either side. At this rate we should reach the water by dinnertime, not a bad first day. We’re about to take a break to give Ivan a rest when Lieutenant Nofree calls through our jawbone radios, [Dragonfly, we have an emergency pickup at the farm plot.]

As the Dragonfly rises over treetops we see a cluster of workers on the east end of the field. Ivan codes, [Excuse me, Lieutenant. Homestead is hundred meters away, wouldn’t it be faster to walk?]

[Do as you’re told, Ranger. Colonists can’t walk, scorpions are crawling out of the mud.]

Riding outside on the Dragonfly’s skid, I put my blaster away in a locker and loosen straps. We can secure the wounded colonist on the skid and be back at the Homestead in minutes. As we land I can see it’s worse than I thought, two colonists lay unmoving on the ground. From the skid on the other side, Crystal codes, [Siff, look at the field.]

Earthmovers sit abandoned in the football field-sized plot with small black rocks sprinkled like pepper throughout. I code, [The rocks are moving.] It makes my skin crawl just thinking about it. [The scorpion that got our rat. It came out of the mud.]

[Mudpions.]

Ivan codes, [Knock it off you two and load colonists for transport.]

When we set down nearby, the other colonists don’t seem to be in much of a hurry. The man and woman are carried by arms and legs, white-haired heads hanging limp. Lieutenant Nofree codes, [These are for autopsies and then Boot Hill.]

Ivan codes, [How did it happen, Lieutenant?]

[They were working the field scraping out roots. The scorpions came in a wave. They can jump about twenty centimeters off the ground, higher than colonists’ boots.]

[What about field?]

[We’re going to flood it as planned. We’ve got to eat.]

As I help secure the mudpion victims onto skids, I read the nametags out loud, “Bev White and Daniel White, they were married.”

Crystal crosses herself, “So sad, mon. I hope they left grandkids on Earth to carry on the name. I would hate to pass on without leaving a legacy.”

“You mean DNA? DNA strands are just directions for building proteins. That’s all we leave our kids, a cookbook full of protein recipes. We don’t even write the book! All the recipes we get are given to us by our parents, and they got ‘em from our grandparents. No matter how good or bad we are, we have nothing to do with the genes we receive or pass on.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, smarty. We choose who we marry. That person will give our kids half their protein recipes.”

“Granted,” I say. “We can do one thing, marry a happy, beautiful, intelligent person. You’ll leave a legacy better than the one you got.”

“Speak for yourself, mon. My kids have nowhere to go but down. Maybe I could clone myself.”

“You gonna chop off its arms and legs?”

Crystal gets quiet and then shakes her head, “You don’t know when to quit, do you?”

“Sorry, Crys. Wait... what are you doing...”

With machine actuators too fast to dodge, Crystal grabs my wrist in a steel claw like handcuffs. She raises me off the ground, leaving me dangling by one arm. “Oww. That hurts!”

“Your pain will go away.”

“I said I was sorry.”

While Crystal tries to think of what to do with me, Thuy and Anacine return from the forest. I say, “Thuy, your mask!”

He says, “What did you do now?”

Crystal sets me down and Thuy shrugs. He sniffs deeply, “Chlorine’s gone.” He grips his blaster and looks at the trees, “Better watch for harpies now.”

Crystal says, “You think the mudpions came out after the chlorine was gone?”

I say, “Or the harpies. Put it into the general file. It may be a way to protect ourselves outside.”

Ivan says, “With chlorine gas?”

“We put chlorine in pools to kill algae and mosquitoes.”

“At small concentrations in water. You’re talking about deadly cloud.”

“In an emergency I could hold my breath a long time.”

Anacine says, “The Black Widow is taking Gamma and Beta teams to the river to install a pump. Anyone else want to come?”

I say, “I’ll go.”

Thuy nods and says, “How about a lift, Ivan?”

Ivan points through the trees, “It’s only three hundred meters. Doc Blaitel is waiting for these.”

Anacine says, “Come on, Ivan. The bodies will keep.”

“Hop on skids, I’ll do flyover. You can jump into water.”

It’s what we want to hear. What good is being a Junior Ranger if you can’t have a little fun? We scramble onto the skids. As Ivan lifts off we see colonists hiking back to the ship, far from the edges of the mudpion-infested field. A crew still works in the forest clearing trees for the pipeway and then we’re over untouched forest. From my side of the Dragonfly, Thuy points to dark shapes in the trees, “The monkeys gather.”

“You see any white angels?”

“Angels?”

“Never mind.” I could show him video from my eye but the shape is fuzzy.

The river is about sixty meters across and carries little debris. Using an infrared filter on my fake eye I measure the temperature and code to the others, [That’s pure snow melt.]

Crystal says, [Hey, Ivan, better put us on shore.]

[Not enough room to land along bank. You want to go back to Homestead?]

Beta Rangers are already on the near side wrestling with a pump the size of a refrigerator. Gamma Rangers stand waist deep in frigid water trying to fix a stand for the intake pipe. Bobbing in the water, Ping spots us. [Come swim, Anacine.]

[Coming sweetie, and don’t mind the cussing.] Anacine flies out into space and knifes through the surface. Her screams are filtered by the register.

Next to me, Thuy shouts, “Don’t think! React!” flinging himself off backwards.

[Cold?] I ask Thuy who whoops like a wounded seal.

Ivan growls, [If you’re going, get off now.]

Under the belly of the Dragonfly I catch Crystal’s eye from the other skid. She says, [On the count of three, okay, dog? One, two, three!]

We cradle our blasters and lean in opposite directions. As I fall into open space I see Crystal pull herself back onto the skid. [Ooh, sorry, Siff. Just remembered something I have to do.]

My screams are lost as vocal cords are paralyzed in an ice water bath. I guess I deserved that. Ping swirls around me chattering, [Siff play chase.]

[…not …yet …Ping.] I force my throat to squeeze out thick words like toothpaste. You would think a body would just go numb after a minute but this water is so cold, pain just keeps digging for bone.

Thuy wades stiff legged onto the bank. He chatters, [Freezing point depression, sediment in mountain runoff makes it colder than ice water.]

My infrared eye measurement told me that, minus eight degrees. At the time I didn’t believe it. […can’t… move…] I say, unable to kick frozen legs against the current.

As Ping nudges me towards shore, I say, [Crystal, you’re going to pay for this.] I hear her chuckling inside my head.

Anacine joins Gammas, pounding anchor piles into the riverbed near shore. Waist deep in water she must be in pain but she smiles and waves. Good old Anacine, a real trooper. Below the piles, water passing her turns from blue to brown in a spreading ‘v’. I frown and code to her, [Are your feet sinking in the mud?]

[No. Why?]

Higher up on the bank Thuy points, “Natives in the water!”

Anacine looks around. When she looks down her eyes go wide. It’s not mud, something chews on her leg. Anacine falls backwards revealing a hairless creature about the size of a beaver wrapped around her calf. She beats at it, coding, [Ping! Help!]

And then the water near the bank is full of carnivorous six-legged beavers. The Gammas, Terra, Serena, and Ping pull Anacine deeper into the water where they can fight. Terra and Serena kick at animals paddling closer with flat tails while Ping rakes teeth at the one on Anacine’s leg. Like hyenas, Jewel-3 beavers hunt in packs. Two planets in a row, maybe the universe is populated with water vermin.

Thuy codes, [Ivan, we need a pickup! Gammas are under attack!]

The Dragonfly had been gone long minutes, but over the water we hear the roar of her jets almost immediately. Beta Rangers fire blasters from shore at shapes in the water. Upstream a few of the creatures peer through trees. I shoot into the trunks to keep them back.

Ivan switches to rotor pulling out of a screaming dive. As he hovers, Crystal drops a rescue cage into the water. Dead beavers floating downstream discourage the rest. Attackers don’t pursue Gammas clambering onto the cage. As the cable pulls them up, Ping squeals, [Me too, Crystal. Ping out.]

[Alright, girl, don’t go round the twist. Serena, is the water clear?]

Gamma Top says, [All clear. Lower away.]

When the cage dips again, Gamma Top and First help Ping squirm onto the platform. As the cage rises with all Gammas, I code to Anacine, [What happened? Couldn’t you feel that thing on your leg?]

Teeth shivering, she codes, [Too cold. My legs were numb, the little sneaks.]

I pull Anacine onto the skid to wrap her leg. Blood pumps out the open wound. “They may have hit an artery.” My limbs feel suddenly weak with the sight.

“Just a flesh wound,” she says through clenched teeth.

As I wrap a bandage around her calf, the skin is unusually pale from lack of blood. “Just hang on,” I shout over the engine roar as the Dragonfly turns for home. For just a flash I see a large white shape lurking among the trees like some kind of eager undertaker.

Anacine’s bite wounds take thirty-one stitches to close. After three days she doesn’t even limp. Our garden isn’t doing as well. A pipeway extending from the river flushed our fields free of salt, but whenever winds blow from the north, chlorine gas turns the leaves brown. Native Jewel-3 plants must have something in their biochemistry for protection.

We’ll move the Homestead across the river to a rocky strip along the coast. When the winds blow, heavy chlorine gas molecules will sink into the river to be washed out to sea. It’s a move of only five hundred meters but we’ll take the entire ship. Monkeys and harpies in the forest make it too dangerous to commute to work each day, not to mention carnivorous beavers patrolling the river. We scout ahead in the Dragonfly, hovering over forest and the hard-fought pipeway we have to abandon. A troop of red monkeys sits in the shade underneath our pipes staring at the Homestead as engines hum to full power.

From around the Homestead a gritty cloud of dirt and salt fills the air. It pelts our windows two hundred meters up. As the Homestead sways on piston damped landing pads, a massive explosion blows out the number three engine. Fuel tanks feed a raging fire, incinerating trees and ripping holes into the ship. We have seconds to contemplate the disaster before the Dragonfly spins away in a shockwave of boiling air. Ivan fights for control, setting us roughly on the ground along the pipeway.

We scramble for body armor and emergency gear. When Crystal grabs the door handle, Ivan barks, “Nyet!”

The Homestead is out of sight, but reflects in an orange glare off the trees. Excited harpies cruise the forest gash, screeching and flexing talons in anticipation of an easy meal. Anacine cries, “We’ve got to help!”

Ivan lifts off again, rotates, and sends us through the trees. The Homestead is a wreck. Smoke pours out one side. People and farm animals lie still on the ground, or stagger blindly and fall. Charred bodies are everywhere. The Black Widow lands nearby and Rangers run to assist. When we jump out the hold, Lieutenant Nofree’s voice appears in our heads, [Junior Rangers, take blasters and secure the forest perimeter. We have enough trouble without those harpies.]

As we spread out to fill the air with bursts of flame, I code to our group, [What happened?]

Ivan says, [Chlorine gas must have eaten into tank or fuel lines.]

Anacine says, [How many casualties?]

Crystal says, [Early reports say at least three hundred.]

[That bad?!]

[It gets worse. Most of the farm animals were lost, and colonists have no way to get back to Earth. Like it or not, Jewel-3 just became home.]

I say, [At least Rangers still have the Dragonfly and Black Widow.]

[For now,] Ivan codes quietly.

Anacine codes, [What does that mean?]

Second-to-last to join the Junior Rangers, Anacine hasn’t heard the rumors. When neither colonists nor Rangers return from a mission, it’s not always clear what happened. Sometimes when the second black hole opens to the colony planet, nothing comes through but Ranger distress calls. We don’t like to talk about it. Colonists stuck on a bad planet don’t look favorably on the Rangers who brought them.

Thuy says, [We just better do an excellent job from now on. Colonists will be watching more than ever.]

Over the next three weeks we have to help colonists make the best of the situation. As bodies lay in rows across the field next to a smoking ship, their situation looks very bad indeed. Lieutenant Nofree codes, [Harpies have backed off. Junior Rangers, provide escort to Boot Hill and guard burial details.]

Ivan codes, [Should we bring Dragonfly?]

[As of now, the Dragonfly is grounded to save fuel. The Homestead has only one fuel tank left.]

[Understood.]

As we head by foot towards the Homestead, Anacine says out loud, “Nofree is aware the Homestead won’t fly again, right?”

Crystal nods, “The remaining fuel isn’t for them. It’s for the Dragonfly and Black Widow to get into orbit.”

We pass the field where rows of plants show brown spots on leaves. I say, “I’m not sure colonists can relocate now. It’s critical to find a way to keep chlorine out of the farm.”

Anacine says, “How about a ditch full of water? Chlorine would be absorbed as it passes over. We could re-route an irrigation ditch.”

“It would have to be pretty wide to get it all.”

Ivan says, “And with mudpions crawling out of muddy banks.”

As we reach the first row of bodies under sheets, Crystal points to one of the black mudpions scuttling underneath. She makes a sign, “Speak of the devil.”

Ivan says to colonists loading bodies onto flatbed trucks, “Don’t touch any native insects. Call one of us.”

He pushes back a sheet with his boot to reveal the six-legged mudpion raising a stinger dramatically. Ivan points his blaster hitting it with a dart. An electric pulse from the tazer cuts the mudpion in half. When the stinger stops twitching, white-faced colonists shake their heads. They move sheets with their boots before picking up bodies.

It’s a gruesome afternoon traveling back and forth from ship to Boot Hill. Earthmovers dig common graves for the fallen. Red monkeys watch from the trees. With so many colonists outside, we lose one more to a spiky snail shading under a plant. The colonist’s companion cries on Captain Wallen’s shoulder, “He was just sitting down for a rest… George… Poor, George!”

Captain Wallen looks helplessly at us and then passes the colonist to her friends. As she walks ashen-faced back to the ship, Captain Wallen codes, [Junior Rangers, get back to the Homestead for an emergency meeting, Code Five.]

We leave one at a time so as not to look suspicious. Thirty minutes later, Rangers, Junior Rangers, and mechs assemble behind closed doors in the Homestead’s conference room. Seeing only four of our mechs sitting against the wall, I code, [Li’l Mike, where’s Salty?]

[In the forest. She took a pounding when the ship exploded.]

I code privately to Doc Blaitel, [Doc, it’s Siff. I think there’s something wrong with Salty the mechs aren’t telling us.]

Doc Blaitel looks across the room to find my face, [I know all about it. Leave the mechs to me.]

[If she’s damaged, Salty may hurt a colonist with her tool hands.]

[I’m testing a new operating system.]

I get a creepy feeling. [You didn’t load Crystal’s sensorium model, did you?]

[With Deimons coming, we’ll try whatever it takes to survive. Just leave Salty alone.]

[Yes, sir,] I mutter, wondering if I should tell the Junior Rangers.

Captain Wallen clears her throat so I save it for later. She nods grimly and begins, “Well, team, we face a crisis we may not survive. Even at half-rations we’re down to a two week supply of food. Our farm isn’t growing and we haven’t yet found a native source of food.”

Captain Wallen nods to Doc Blaitel, who says, “Plants and animals from Earth build proteins out of twenty basic amino acids. These are linked together in precise order as specified by our DNA. As these strings of amino acids are formed in ribosomes, they fold into shapes to carry out the chemical reactions our cells need to survive. These are the globular proteins. Instead of twenty amino acids, Jewel-3 plants and animals use twenty-one. It’s that extra one that’s causing the problem. I call it thio-metachlorine, or TMC. In proteins that we eat, amino acids are broken down in the digestive system and transported to our cells for assembly. The Jewel-3 thio-metachlorine rides along with all the others. Inside our cells it’s getting built into our proteins.”

Siff says, “How could that be? Our DNA doesn’t specify for the TMC amino acid.”

“TMC is similar in reactivity to cysteine, so it’s being picked up by the transfer-RNA responsible for carrying cysteine to the ribosomes.”

Anacine says, “So when the DNA codes for a cysteine, it may get a cysteine or it may get TMC!”

“Cysteines along the string of amino acids form disulfide bridges that help hold the protein’s shape. If TMC is there instead of another cysteine there’s no disulfide bridge. The protein becomes too mushy to do its job.”

Ivan says, “Is there way to take TMC out of food?”

“We’d have to chemically break down every bit of tissue and add a chemical that grabbed onto TMC. Technically it’s possible, but not practical.”

Thuy says, “What about the stem-cell walls? We could dissolve native plants and filter TMC out of the nutrient baths feeding the walls.”

“We’re working on that, but a colony can’t survive on sbeef, sfish, spork, and chimken. They don’t grow fast enough. Our only hope is to find a plant or animal that doesn’t contain the TMC amino acid.”

I say, “What are the chances of that?”

“On this world, there must be a few plant or animals that don’t incorporate TMC into their tissues. Our likelihood of finding them is small. The mechs have analyzers to search the forests.”

Mechs sitting against the wall look determined, but no matter what happens, they won’t be poisoned by TMC. The Rangers are silent long moments until Lieutenant Nofree clears his throat, “On the plus side, there’s plenty of wood to burn, and Jewel-3 animals can be killed. If we find native food the colony should survive.”

Captain Wallen nods, “With three hundred dead and continued losses of two or three per day, many colonists will regret their decision to leave Earth. Even with Deimos, they’ll look for a way back, and the only way is in the Dragonfly or Black Widow.”

Anacine says, “Do you think they’d try to take our ships by force?”

“We must not allow them that option. Ivan, on the stated mission of searching for food, Junior Rangers will take the Dragonfly away for safekeeping. Don’t waste fuel and don’t risk the ship. The Black Widow will stay here to help the colony, but we’ll have at least one member of Delta team on board at all times. No matter what happens we can’t lose both ships.”

The Rangers nod understanding. As we’re about to leave, Lieutenant Nofree turns to the Junior Rangers, “I know it may seem hard but it’s not our job to sacrifice everything. Rangers should risk life and limb serving the colony, but on the twenty-eighth day we must go back. Colonists signed up for this ultimate risk. Although they may not have understood it at the time, they’re getting exactly what they paid for, a chance.”

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download