The Gathering Storm Page 15

  “The same with your original ‘meat’ creatures?”

  “Yes, Director. When the Plague hit, in order for growth in the tanks and vats, we eventually produced sufficient non affected sperm and eggs of our meat creatures to start producing fresh meat. The results, though edible in the strictest sense, were very... disappointing. This led to the Great Voyage here.”

  “Now, Director, onto other matters. How did your recent arrivals turn out?”

  “Fine, Lordship. We now have over sixty-six hundred humans on base. And, I located Professor Fassbinder, that scientist I told you about.”

  “Excellent! I expect him on the platform when your new spaceplane flies. Hopefully, he can discover the secrets of those two saucers.” Lord Neptune slowly chewed on the sugar cane. “Did you also obtain that blonde female you were looking for?”

  Once again, he had no secrets from His Lordship.

  “Yes sir, I did. She will be one of our primary ‘faces’ representing our human government in our mass media. I hope she will assist us in convincing the majority of humans that we, and by extrapolation you, as the face of the Tschaaa, are not bogeymen. The days of widespread harvesting is over and that we have a chance to become junior partners in your interstellar civilization.”

  “Again, excellent. Of course, being sexually desirable to you helps also, yes?”

  Adam smiled. “You know me too well, Your Lordship.”

  Lord Neptune laughed. “Your species’ constant sexuality is a source of mirth and wonderment to us. It is a mystery to the Tschaaa that you obtained the level advancement that you did, with you having constant sexual relations, or at least desires of such.”

  “Well, some of our human scientists believe that competition among us for mates actually spurred us to do great things.”

  “Like war on your own kind, Director?”

  Adam sighed. “Unfortunately, some of our best advancements were sped along by warfare.”

  Lord Neptune’s two social tentacles went high up in the air, denoting surprise or incredulous belief. “But you killed many of your own young.”

  “Yes sir, that too.”

  His Lordship was still and silent. Then he spoke.“Hopefully, our patronage will affect your behavior for the better.”

  “We can only hope, sir.”

  “Well, enough of that. Come, Director. Look at what I have been doing.”

  Lord Neptune slid out of the hot tub, and began to slither along the walkway like the oversized cephalopod that he was. He did not waste energy by rising up on his eight arms, to walk almost crablike, that Tschaaa could do if they were in a hurry. As always, he reminded Adam of a large, many legged bearlike creature, due to his size and weight. Even slithering, the Tschaaa could move quite fast, and Adam had to walk quickly to keep up.

  The human and the alien were soon looking at a large bay where a Falcon was being worked on by Tschaaa grays.

  “I obtained this from Europe. The Tschaaa Lord there is too lazy to repair it. I took it off his hands, as you humans would phrase it. Unfortunately, many of my fellow Lords have little foresight, have lost much of their drive to plan, to create. Too many elder Tschaaa are content to stuff their stomachs with the very available meat, with little concern of how it was harvested, who provided it.”

  This was a complaint that Adam had heard on many occasions. Adam knew that if not for His Lordship, things would have been very different. The Tschaaa had no history of long term organized warfare among their species. They fought with other species on their home world for survival during their evolutionary climb up the development ladder. No other species had the level of intellectual development, so none had developed advanced tools or weapons. According to his Lordship, at some time lost in myth and history, the Tschaaa had evolved into an amphibious species, and expanded onto land. That had led to a great evolutionary change in diet, when the Tschaaa had discovered the species of meat primates.

  Something about the difference in this protein, compared to the fish and sea creatures the Tschaaa had eaten for millennia, led to a change in eating habits, and thus in culture. Soon, the dark meat primates were the main source of protein rich sustenance of the Tschaaa breeders and young. Despite their advanced development in all things organic and its uses, in all forms of biology and genetics, no Tschaaa scientist had ever bothered to see if the chemistry and the hormones in the primate meat may have had an effect on Tschaaa morphology and biology. Did the type of protein help give a boost to Tschaaa intellectual development? Adam thought it was fascinating that, just at the time the dark meat became available, the Tschaaa took a huge leap in evolutionary development. They became more organized, the size of Crèches increased, and they began to cooperate on a global scale. Adam believed it was a definite cause and effect scenario. The fact that Tschaaa intellect suffered during the time the primate meat was very limited in quantity and quality was another strong indication.

  “Come, my Director, I have some other developments to show you.”

  Adam followed him over to a table where a three foot object was covered by a tarp.

  “Please, have a look.” His Lordship said.

  Adam removed the tarp. Underneath was a slab-sided object that was clearly a shoulder fired weapon. Adam looked at an 8x10 piece of paper covered in plastic that was attached with a large rubber band to the weapon. He read the clearly human printing. The author had excellent calligraphy. The document stated that the shoulder weapon was a downsized version of the electromagnetic rail guns mounted on the deltas. With a loaded magazine of forty fifty grain long nail-shaped hardened steel projectiles with tiny pop out fins for stabilization, total weapon weight was just less than twenty pounds. The projectiles were fired at a velocity of sixteen hundred meters per second, give or take a few, which caused devastating effects to soft targets down range. Recharging of the electromagnetic battery could be accomplished with a recessed hand crank, a photoelectric cell (more efficient than human photoelectric cells), or by plugging a pull-out charging cord into a standard 110 outlet.

  “Please, Director, try it out on the piece of metal taken from one of your garbage dumpsters.”

  The target was some fifty meters away and already had been used for target practice, judging by the holes in it. The weapon had a pistol grip at the rear part, containing the magazine of .17 caliber ammunition. There was a large vertical handgrip set some six inches back from the apparent muzzle. Despite its bulk and weight, the basic super rifle was well balance and easy to manipulate. After following the directions to insure it was loaded and chambered, he mounted it to his cheek. A holographic sight was automatically projected in his line of sight. All he had to do was put the red dot on the center of the target and squeeze the trigger. He felt no recoil, just heard a supersonic crack from the high velocity round following a buzzing sound from the action. Even from fifty meters, Adam could see the near instantaneous impact flash. The hole produced was larger than the .17 caliber projectile. Adam looked down at the weapon.

  “A human designed this.”

  His Lordship signed amusement. “Once again, my Director, you demonstrate your superior intellect.”

  “Now, watch what was designed to use it.”

  Adam felt rather than heard the Tschaaa verbal command given in a frequency beyond his hearing range. From the shadows came a six and a half foot figure. The biped looked like a human soldier, combat uniform and all, wearing a gas mask. As it walked up and stopped some six feet from the Tschaaa Lord, Adam saw that the figure was not wearing a uniform. Rather, the organic skin was molded into the shape of human attire, gas masked face and all.

  Lord Neptune’s octopus camouflage abilities demonstrated themselves when his flesh began to automatically try to match the coloration of the approaching biped due to his excitement. “This soldier, as I call him, was developed at my behest by a human mated pair on Platform One. Another mated pair developed your shoulder weapon. The humans in space have produced great dividends for me. I am looki
ng for more when others are sent up in two months in your spaceplane.”

  His Lordship signed for the soldier to leave. “They have the mental capacity of about a five year old human. They are designed for basic problem solving, but specialized for following orders. In addition to combat, they can also perform more mundane everyday functions. They will supplement the limited supply of grays and cyborgs. So far, one hundred have been produced in the growth vats. Now, if I can just convince my unimaginative fellow Lords to use them, my satisfaction will be complete.”

  He motioned Adam to follow him to the Tschaaa equivalent of a lounge. As they moved, His Lordship continued.

  “I have also repaired five deltas, something no one else is doing. They are set up for ground launch using what humans call JATO rockets. Three are at Cape Canaveral, one here, one in the large Baja California Complex.”

  The Gulf of California had been literally closed off and connected from shore to shore in one huge complex, including a large breeding area and manufacturing section. Every other major port city up and down both former United States coasts and the Gulf of Mexico had some form of a Tschaaa complex. However, since the Marquesas Keys were His Lordship’s base of operations, it had the most developed equipment and facilities, despite the two mile average diameter.

  They arrived at the lounge, and His Lordship deftly obtained a drink for each of them from a refrigeration unit. His had a long tube, so that he could drink it with his mouth concealed by his face tentacles. Adam knew there were some teeth structures under there that made humans nervous. The Director’s drink was a bottle of Conch Brew. The Tschaaa Lord clinked his container against Adam’s bottle. “A toast to much more useful collaboration between Tschaaa and humans.”

  “I’ll drink to that,” was Adam’s reply.

  They each drank, the Tschaaa Lord reclining in the Tschaaa version of a lounge seat, Adam in a human chair.

  “Director, I have often wished, despite what we have accomplished, that I had the power to travel back in time, to before the Plague, where things were simpler.”

  “Well your Lordship, there is an ancient Chinese curse–‘may you live in interesting times’.”

  The Tschaaa Lord laughed, blowing bubbles thru his gill slits. “That fits the situation perfectly. In addition to dealing with stagnant elders, and the reduced ability of our tanks to produce viable grays and biped cyborg warriors due to worn out DNA, now I must deal with my own young Tschaaa demanding to go help the Asian Tschaaa Lord in his Japan ‘operations’.”

  Adam looked at him quizzically. “You mean, harvesting operations?”

  “No. Apparently, the young Tschaaa warriors are conducting what you humans term as ‘raids’ on the coasts of Japan, fighting with traditional blade weapons, as well as incursions by deltas, looking for aerial conflict. It provides thrilling experiences they claim they cannot have anywhere else.” Lord Neptune gave the Tschaaa equivalent of a sigh. “I guess it could be worse. Too many Tschaaa had been satisfied with sitting around, getting fat on the over-abundance of food. At least they wish to do something.

  “I have been given only limited resources for the production of replacement equipment. The new weapon I showed you, I can produce only one a day. I am repairing deltas in Baja California, after having produced only sixty new ones in the last six years. Using modified humans, we have created two hundred fifty successful new cyborgs since the invasion. Though superior in nature, these do not replace losses. The new soldiers, I can produce one a week after the initial production order. All because the stagnant Elders have no foresight.”

  The Tschaaa had no history or concept of long term wars or combat operations. Thus, the idea of a war production plan was unknown to them. It had taken Lord Neptune sixty years of wheedling, nagging, politicking, even actions nearing deception to produce the equipment for the initial invasion. This was managed with the reports from scouts and over sixty years of radio/television transmissions providing specific information on the threat humans could provide to any invader. The idea of real-time ‘replacement equipment’ was not a concept they had ever had to deal with. Things were used up, and then maybe a replacement was grown or produced, at a slow pace. Before the Plague, slow and steady won the race.

  Afterward, it was still a challenge to convince the older Tschaaa to adopt new ways of doing things. Even competition for position in society had been stratified one way for so long that there was only so much upward mobility. Despite all this inertia, His Lordship had created a revolution, a firestorm based on his will alone. He had designed and implemented the organized, long-term invasion and harvesting plan, replacing the disorganized raiding plan originally agreed upon. Everything now flowed from His Lordship’s concepts and ideas, no matter how slowly.

  “Now, my Director, I must inform you of two very important matters.” He took another sip from his drink. “Your amateur astronomers must have mentioned that our large Crèche ships are moving.”

  “Yes sir. Last week.” Adam also had some professional people, with security, working at the McDonald Observatory in West Texas, but he did not advertise that fact. It was an island in a sea off a Feral area.

  “Well, the mile-long Crèche Ships are moving to set up a dive into the gravity well of the sun to obtain a slingshot launch outside the solar system. This is to occur by the ten year mark in Earth years.”

  Adam fell silent for a moment. “So it is true. You plan to leave.”

  The Tschaaa Lord paused. “Only thirty percent of the Tschaaa, fifty percent of the grays and robocops, and one percent of the lizards are leaving. And, the ship of my Crèche will stay on the dark side of Earth’s moon.”

  Adam looked at him. “So the Tschaaa will be here for the long haul.”

  “Yes, Director Adam, Earth’s oceans have become our new home.”

  Adam sat silently for a full minute. He knew he must choose his words wisely. “This situation is going to cause a lot of fear when it gets out. Humankind has always kept a hope in the back of each person’s mind that the Earth would be under human control again, at least during the next lifetime. It was a light at the end of a tunnel.”

  Lord Neptune signed regret and compassion with his tentacles.

  “I hope that you can help convince the rest of humanity that it is in their interest to work with the Tschaaa, to be client species as our lizards, second only to the Tschaaa Lords in power and control.”

  He continued. “I have worked hard to put you in a position that, each day, Tschaaa become more beholden to what services and items that humans can provide, not just as Cattle. It has worked. In the next year, I will have either influence over or control of the Tschaaa dominated areas worldwide. All unrestrained harvesting that still exists in some areas will be gone very soon. Next week, I will begin providing you with the most advanced medical nanotechnology and organic medicine that will eventually increase human life spans by decades. I will turn over the rest of the near space communication grid, resulting in human life near to where it was six years ago. And more of you will have access to outer space.”

  Adam asked “What about the Feral and Rebel areas?”

  “If I have learned anything from the study of humankind, it is that you can adjust your belief systems and morality when the proverbial grass is greener on the other side. Though the concept of ‘lawns’ is very strange to me. Just look at Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and Communist China. People adjust when it is beneficial for them, especially if the alternative is much worse.”

  “But the Jews and the dissidents go to the camps and the gulags,” Adam stated.

  “Yes Director, as you have said yourself, the universe is not fair. We will need Cattle, dark meat. Your so-called people of color will continue to be sacrificed.”

  Adam drained his beer. He had always feared that it would come to this. That he would keep millions alive with hope, to have the reality of the situation slapped in their faces. For those that made excuses in their mind that if you waited long en
ough, things would change better for the Cattle, that dream just disappeared. There would now be a permanent class of Humans, and one of Cattle, same species, different life. The Protocol of Selective Survival in its ultimate form.

  “Well, Your Lordship, I guess I have my work set out for me. Hopefully you can support me in my attempts to control the situation. There will be some strong resistance from a certain percentage of humans, and there may be an attempt at organized armed conflict from the Rebels. I may need some help from your Crèche.”

  “Of course, Director. We will make this work, as we have with all our endeavors.” The Tschaaa Lord signed positive feelings and happiness with his social tentacles. “I have one lesser item of possible conflict. Please look at this picture.” He handed a photo to Adam. The creature on it looked like someone’s idea of a sci-fi nightmare. Six limbs, four of them long thin legs that branched several inches from the bottom into two long toe like structures each. The front two limbs were arms with large five clawed hands. Long hair like structures run up and down the arms. The face was basically two huge eyes above a large teeth filled mouth, with an extremely long tongue. The body was circular and resembled an Earthly crab’s domed shape.

  “What is this?” Adam asked.

  “It is a beast from our home world. We used to hunt it for sport. It is about five of your feet tall when its legs are extended, and is about one hundred twenty to one hundred forty pounds. The hairlike structures on the arms are very similar to your porcupine quills, and just as sharp. The closest name we could translate it to in Earth English would be ‘Eater’, as that what it does for most of its existence. Its stomach can stretch and extend some two feet below its body when full, at which time the Eater prefers to fall into a deep sleep like state so that it can completely digest the prey.