GROUND / CH. 12: PERSONAL HISTORY

THE FOREST, NORTH OF THE CITY, GROUND

Half way to Lana's favourite viewpoint, she was getting bored at the speed they were going at.

[Would it be cruel of me to see how fast Kalak can run?] she asked Mick.

[I don't know what the normal behaviour is, Lana, when male person and female person here are testing out the other's suitability, health, dedication, and so on. But my lungs can breath quite a bit faster if you want more oxygen.]

[You mean you think I'd be 'showing off', as you put it?]

[Wouldn't you?] Mick asked.

[I just want to get there faster, and away from your persistent match making.]

[Why not ask him if he can comfortably go faster, then?] Mick suggested.

“Kalak, how is this speed?” Lana called.

“I heard a rumour you flew with a predator across the city,” he panted, “I begin to believe it.”

“For my niece's wedding. It wasn't a whole one, or all the way across the city.”

“You're not,” he gasped, “even breathing hard!”

“A second set of lungs is helpful,” Lana said. “I don't need to stop talking to keep on breathing. If you tire, I can go slower, I suppose. I have not changed my wings in several months. My muscle organisms are, I believe reaching peak efficiency, and my circulatory system can provide them with a constant flow of well-oxygenated blood.”

“You sound like that is rare.”

“You know that when you first change you are weakest. It is not just that you have expended a lot of energy in the change, but also your muscle organisms are not fully aligned. Some pull in the wrong direction, or they do not all pull at the same time. Your blood-vessel organisms cannot simply flow like muscle or bone organisms, they must retreat and shrink before they expand and branch. So to begin with they are delivering blood to the wrong region, and often they must grow new organisms.”

She saw him stop, and look at her in shock. “I didn't know that.”

“Is it so surprising?”

“I thought... blood is available everywhere in our bodies.”

“Of course it is, but it it not oxygenated everywhere.”

“No, It makes perfect sense, I just hadn't thought of it. You have studied biology?”

“Yes,” she said, and looked at him again, “How have you not heard?”

“Not heard what?”

“About my reasons for leaving the department of frontier biology?”

“Frontier biology? What's that?”

“Seeing what our organisms are really capable of. For example, did you know that our skin organisms can extract oxygen from water? Not much, but enough to keep us alive, if we do not thrash about. That was one of my early findings. It explains some of the strange stories of sailors who were lost from their ships and manage to return home even without growing gills. Academician Kalak, just what did you suspect me of?”

“I did not know. I still don't.”

“But you are suspicious.”

“You appeared, it seemed, from no-where. You have two heads, suddenly Lak calls you his sister, you fly where others walk, you show unnatural stamina in flight, unnatural strength too.”

“And you spend all of your spare time watching plays or reading silly books about aliens. You thought perhaps I was not from this planet? Why then are you coming with me?”

“I am too curious.”

“You said I appeared from nowhere. Where were you eight harvests ago?”

“Urm. In prison.”

“Prison?”

“I overreacted when someone moved my telescope.”

“And that got you sent to jail?”

“Yes.”

“How badly did you overreact?”

“If you were at the University nine harvests ago, you have probably heard of the case, academician. I now follow the One, my name has been changed, I would rather not dwell on who I was. And... and I wish to thank you for acknowledging the attack the other night, and for interrupting my change to war form.” Lana remembered the case.

[Did I hear you decide his name used to be Unf?] Mick asked.

[Yes. Two young students thought it would be funny to ruin his night's observations. It was not just any night, but a rare event, when the sister planet passed in front of a star. They ran away laughing, he caught up with them in war form. He cut their legs from under them, and then stamped their bodies together mixing their organisms with each other and with dirt.]

[That's not nice.]

[It was actually quite mild compared to what he might have done,] Lana thought, then asked “What do you think would have happened if I hadn't?”

“I hope the God we serve would have rebuked me or struck me dead, academician Lana, before I let rage overcome me. But if I had fully entered war form...”

“You would not have been conscious of anything but your rage. And the courts would not have been lenient this time, Kalak.”

[What is war form? I thought it was just another shape?] Mick asked.

[In war form, the skull grows spikes, outside and then inside. They strengthen our skull with internal rods of bone, so a predator cannot easily crush our skulls, but there is impairment of thought. Recovery takes some years. Also muscles react differently. More power, less control. You saw how Unth was, when he switched into it.] “I have no doubt you are correct,” Kalak said, “Now you know my shame.”

“I have not changed my name. My shame, my pain, is is linked to the fate of Unth, who I believe you will have met as he has done some cleaning work in the observatory.”

“I know Unth. And Lak told me of his experiment. He never told me who else was involved. That was in frontier biology?”

“Yes.”

“And Lak is your brother?”

“Yes. We had not spoken for years until recently. He did not approve of what I was trying to do.”

“What were you trying to do?”

“At that time? I had been researching multi-cellular organisms, how their brains work.”

“By... enveloping them?” Kalak asked, as another tirade from Lak against the biologists dropped into his memory.

“Yes. It takes a lot of skin organisms, but yes.”

“And then digesting their skin.”

“And muscles, yes. The abilities of our simple ancestors lie within us still.”

“I am sure that sends shivers up the spines of the predators. It does me.”

“It is not fast. We have better ways of consuming them now.”

“And the animals you enveloped did not fight?” Kalak asked.

“I tranquillized them. Most males think they cannot generate the necessary chemicals, but it is not so complicated.”

“And then you just got the data you needed as you dissolved them and then spat out the bones, like the slime creatures?”

“I am conscious. I was able to stop the process. Eventually, I hosted a half-grown predator long enough get a grip on its language, before Unth decided to ask me to host him. You know Una? Lak's wife?”

“I've met her.”

“She had been associated with the research until that point, part time, since she also had a podling to look after. She said it was a very bad idea for me to try to host Unth, and left, refusing to be associated with it. But Unth was the senior researcher, and I was proud from my success with the predators, and foolish, and didn't listen to her. Now I work to assess the risks of other people's research, and Unth hardly has a mind and cleans floors and tries to kill me if he sees me or catches my scent.”

A twig snapped in the undergrowth.

“But I think we should move on,” Lana said, “This is not the territory of any predator tribe, but there are some outcasts around.”

“I am too tired to change much,” Kalak said, somewhat scared.

“Save your energy. If a predator attacks us, it's dead. I just don't want the hassle of butchering it properly, or to leave it on the path here to attract others.”

“You are very confident,” Kalak said.

“They smell fear, but I am not afraid. And if you are not afraid then the intelligent ones live,” Lana said. She turned towards where the noise had come from and imitated the sound of a predator's snarl.

“What does that mean?”

“Leave or die.”

“You challenged it?” Kalak asked.

“No, it was not a challenge, it was the sound that a senior female makes to a junior.”

“But might not the junior retaliate?”

“I smelt hunger and uncertainty. It is not a confident senior female. If it wishes to live, it will leave. If it is too hungry, then we cannot do much except kill it. I will fly just beside you. If one does attack, drop to the ground and do not get in the way, OK? I have been practising mostly with my right hand but with my left also.”

“To do what?”

“You will see, if there is a foolish predator. Mick the alien does not want me hurt.”

[You're right about that.] Mick said. [You still don't want me to say anything?]

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

[No.]

[If it does come on the left, just turn, can you, like last time?]

[Yes.]

They kept on walking.

“You have an unusually acute sense of smell.”

“Compared to a male?”

“Compared to anyone I know.”

“My mother, grandmother and great grandmother all worked in frontier biology. I have inherited their organisms and their skills.”

“Ah.”

“I wonder, Kalak... You seem unusual, adventurous. These are not common traits. You are a unique individual, I think.”

“You make it that sound like an advantage.”

“Your parents mixed?”

“My parents... were religious extremists. They believed it a sign of pride to dictate the characteristics of podlings. Yes, I am a mixling.”

“And you rejected their faith?”

“Until I was in jail, yes.”

“How long were you there?”

“Four years.”

“And you have totally recovered from war form?”

“Does anyone totally recover? It comes over me easily, as you saw. I cannot blame war-form for obsessing about aliens, as you say, I've spent a lot of time reading fantasy books and watching silly plays. Before I started wondering if you were an alien, I... I wanted to thank you: you were kind when you gagged me, Academician Lana, frustrated with me, but still kind.”

“It is my hope, Academician Kalak, that this journey ends with both of us breathing, and neither of us heading towards prison or worse.”

“Calling the aliens is dangerous? Illegal?”

“All knowledge is dangerous, Academician, if misunderstood or misapplied. Look at Unth. Is it legal of me to have spoken to aliens? Is it legal of me to carry an alien tool? No one has told me it is not, but perhaps it is illegal for a reason I do not know. Will you attack me? Will you threaten my existence? Will you, learning a little more of what is in that sphere, seek to master it even though you have no way to do so, and so crack mountains? Are you that curious? If you were to become that curious, would it not be better for me to kill you before you did, since your curiosity might cover the world in unstable isotopes?”

“The sphere contains unstable isotopes?”

“No. I am told using unstable isotopes as a power source is dangerous and messy. This is more dangerous, but not as messy, unless the sphere is broken.”

“The suns, I believe,” Kalak said, “make Helium. I do not understand how this is, but I have observed that most suns have Hydrogen and yet the largest suns have none, or only a little, but have a lot of Helium.”

“You do not think, then that they give up energy from their collapse?”

“It is not enough.”

“Ah. I misinformed the aliens about what you astronomers thought. I am told you are right, that the difference in mass between four Hydrogens and Helium is the power of suns.”

“The power of suns is the energy contained in the sphere?” Kalak asked.

“No. It contains something which destroys mass.”

“That is impossible!”

“So is what I have just done.”

“What have you done?”

“Told you enough of my history and my studies that you could guess the truth, without you trying to kill me.”

“Why should I try to kill you?”

“For hosting Mick, here,” Lana said.

Kalak stopped walking, and stared. Mick turned to him and said, “Hi, I'm what's left of a multi-cellular organism. I needed a supply of oxygenated blood, Lana needed protein and so on, and here we are today. And as you can guess I'm not from round here. Take the speed of light, square it and multiply it by the difference in mass, and you get a stupidly big number in units that say energy. Assuming you've got a consistent set of units, anyway. Bang hydrogen together hard enough you get Helium which doesn't weigh quite as much, and that's the energy that powers stars. The sphere on the ship contains a certain stuff that when it gets in contact with normal atoms, reacts so you get nothing but stupid amounts of energy. Not stupid compared to the output of a star, of course, but stupid compared how much you want instantly released near any city or mountain you care about. Did you want me to shut up now, Lana?”

“I think so, yes.”

“Sorry, Lana. One more thing to say. You're right, Kalak, Lana is kind. That didn't stop her digesting my muscles and spitting out the bones, though, so be careful.”

“What do you mean by that, Mick?” Lana asked.

“You can be entirely ruthless when you see the need to be, beloved sister. I don't think you made a bad decision, but... maybe I am wrong. I see kind people as being in two groups, those who on seeing an injured herd creature would do all they do all they can to help it recover, even if they were quite sure that their care would be wasted, and the other group, who would kindly examine the beast and on determining that its injuries would not let it survive, makes sure that it does not suffer for long and the flesh does not go to waste. I see you in the second group.”

“Is that meant to be a criticism, or a compliment?” Lana asked.

“Neither, just an observation,” Mick said.

“And which group do you put yourself in?”

“The sort who is neither expert enough to know if an injured creature can recover nor persistent enough to look after one. The sort of person who would ask you for your advice, wield the knife if needed, and ask someone like Kana to care for it if you thought it would live.”

“But you would not ask me to care for it?” Lana asked.

“You would do an excellent job, and probably learn its language so you could have a conversations with it, but I think Kana would gain a great deal of pleasure in sitting up late into the night fussing over it, and go to visit it in the field after it had recovered. Not to mention persuade Lak to take light-pictures of it so she can put them on her wall beside her own sketches.”

Lana laughed, “I suppose you do know us quite well, don't you? Kalak, our little discussion has given you time to think, I hope.”

“What can I think? Must I think you have brought me here not to meet aliens but because you plan to threaten me?”

“No. But because this is my favourite spot. Aren't the views of the city beautiful?”

“It would be a good good place for an observatory,” Kalak said, looking at the expanse of sky. “Well, maybe over that way a bit.”

“That's just where it was,” Lana said.

“Pardon?”

“The observatory, before the wars. This is the edge of observatory hill.”

“But... but the location of the old observatory is a mystery.”

“Is it?” Lana asked. “No one ever told me that, sorry. My grandfather told me there was a lovely view from up here once and told me the name. Want to go and see them?”

“What do you mean by 'see them'?”

“The remains of the observatory. I spotted them when I was flying around up here last time.”

“May I ask, does Lak know this?”

“I'm not sure. I remember asking grandad where a good place to see the whole city was, and he said observatory hill, and pointed it out to me. It might have been before Lak was podded.”

“You are older than Lak?”

“Yes. I'm his disreputable thirty-five year old big sister.”

“I'm sorry. I'd assumed....”

“I was a flighty twenty-something?”

“You look rather good at flying to me. I never was a flyer.”

“Flying is not very energy efficient, but it is fast. And you are avoiding the subject.”

“Am I? I thought the question was whether I'd decide you were guilty of podling-withholding or of some other despicable crime.”

“If I separate from Mick with some of my organisms, he would be my podling, would he not?”

“In some senses, I suppose. But it is different. Podling-withholding is preventing a podling from leaving. Mick does not wish to leave, I presume?”

“I have no blood except Lana's. If she just spat me out, I would die, and I have no desire to die.”

“But you could leave with some of Lana's organisms.”

“Cripple Lana by taking half of her organisms with me? What thanks would that be?”

“Such a major budding would probably extend her life.” Kalak said.

“And when my immune system is regrown and tries to destroy the organisms Lana has given me? Then what?”

“It'll almost certainly fail,” Kalak said.

“Why do you say that?”

“Does a predator not fear the touch of a slime creature except at its mouth?”

“You have mentioned slime creatures before,” Mick said, “But I do not know what they are.”

“They are multi-organism collaborations,” Lana said. “Brainless, but hungry. The predators have enzymes that kill them on contact, but even a small slime-creature, just tens of organisms, that got into the wound of a predator would eventually consume it.”

“What would one do to you?”

“My organisms would recognise it as an invader and either expel it or consume it.”

“What would one do to my sister or her colleagues?”

“I don't know. Possibly the same as to a predator.”

“Next question, how quickly would one consume the predator?”

“Expect each organism will consume its own mass in maybe two hours, and then reproduce.”

“And the predator just goes somewhere to die when it gets a slime creature infection?”

“They might, if it's a big slime creature, or they can't get to it with their teeth. If they realise what's happening, they bite it out. The problem with that is that they then have a much bigger wound, ready for the next slime-creature they meet.”

“Last question,” Mick said, “Nothing you've said tells me I'm safe from one. Are there any around?”

“Not near here, no. And before you ask, not near the desert, either. But there are slime creatures in the grasslands. And another type in the sea. They can get quite big.”

“Quite big meaning how big?”

“Big enough that nothing bothers them, except us.”

“You?”

“Not as tasty as predator or young herd animal, but the sea ones are OK if you're hungry.”

“We can eat the land ones too, of course,” Kalak added, “But it's best to fry them in thin strips, otherwise there might be some organisms left alive.”

Mick heard Kalak decide not to keep secrets, and then he added “I learned that in the war.”

“You learned that in the war?” Lana said, staring at Kalak.

“I am quite old, young Lana. Quite old indeed. And rather forgetful about some things. Thank you for reminding me where the old observatory was.”

Lana said, “Back at the university, you said that your great grandfather was at the death-bed of the prophet.”

“I know, that was a lie, I'm afraid; it was me, before I first entered war form. War form alters so much, it's like I was another person. My parents were real extremists, you see; I was barely out of podling school, and they sent me to kill the prophet before he uttered any more prophesies. I heard that one, though, before he died. He knew I'd come to kill him, and he said it would be better for my soul if he just stopped breathing. And then he did, after saying his last prophesy.”

“Kalak, Lana has told me that it is rare for your people to live even sixty years.”

“Oh, it is,” Kalak agreed. “You want to know why I'm still alive? All I can attribute it to is that I've wanted to live. There's always been more to find out, new and interesting things to study, rare phenomena I've wanted to see. Too curious, I told you.”

“Your past experience of war-form is how you avoided killing the youths?” Lana asked.

“I suppose so. Yes, probably. I remember thinking that they just needed to be made an example of and learn a lesson, not that they should be killed. My father really did not like disrespect. He would have crushed their heads.”

“That is how war-form attacks normally end,” Lana agreed.

“You've made a study of that too?” Kalak asked.

“I have, yes. Unth enters war form when he smells me nearby. Well, he's done it twice.”

“You'd better stay well away from him then. Does he say anything as he changes?”

“Yes. He shouts, 'destroy her mind'.”

“Oh dear. Why isn't he getting jailed for attacking people? Who's protecting him?”

“Me,” Lana said.

“You think you are being kind? He will not recover.”

“You are an expert?”

“I was instructed how to enter war form, Lana. Spontaneous change is more dangerous. There is only one driving thought in war form, only one. If people enter war-form with a cry of 'destroy the threat' because a predator has entered the village and is chasing down the podlings, then the predator going away is not enough to satisfy. The attacking predator must be killed before the people in war-form can return to normal, normally the entire predator's pack. If one pack-member survives, then seeing the pack markings is enough to bring back the war form because the war-thought remains. The change is not Unth's decision any more, it's his war-thought and is etched into his bone-organisms.”

“I know that.”

“And I know he will not recover.” Kalak said.

“Surely, you cannot know that,” Lana insisted.

“I first entered war-form to stop the disrespect. That is my war-thought. Because of my training, because my war-thought was carefully chosen, I can choose how to stop the disrespect, I can let, for example, a kind University Safety officer stop others showing disrespect for me and tell me that me changing would be disrespect for university rules. That was very clever, by the way. But even then, I can't ignore disrespect. I cannot teach, because students tend towards disrespect and if there is disrespect, I change. I can know, kind one, that Unth will not recover, unless there is a miracle. I have had almost a hundred and fifty years of trying.”

“And my describing your colleagues as podlings was not disrespect?” Lana asked.

“I personally found it entirely accurate. Not to mention funny. Look after your friend, Mick the alien. She is a rare one.”

“Who will look after her when I am no longer joined to her?” Mick asked. Noticing the sound of cracking twigs, he reached for his rock-cutter. “That is my question.” A predator, probably the lone female from earlier, chose that moment to break cover. It was at it's lumbering top speed within a few bounds, but it had too much ground to cover to catch them by surprise. Its puzzlement at their failure to run did not last long, as the rock-cutter sliced through its legs long before it reached the half-way point. Mick adjusted the cutting depth control with his thumb and tried to cut off its head, but the angle was wrong and its thrashing meant the cutter removed first one side of the head, then the jaw and then the top of its head.

“Sorry for the mess, Lana, Kalak,” Mick said, “I intended that to be a clean cut.”

“What was that?” Kalak asked.

“A tool my people invented for making beautiful furniture out of rock. As you saw can make holes in other things too. Technically, it does not cut, it rips molecules into dust and gas.”

“And that was to be my fate?” Kalak asked.

“It depends,” Mick said, “If you'd tried to attack Lana, then I would have defended her with this, since I've nothing else to protect her with. If you'd tried to attack me, I think I'd persuaded her that injecting you with something to make you sleep was better than me burning away your organisms.”

“And if I say that I must report the existence of this... alien death-ray?”

“Why?” Lana asked.

“Because it is proof.”

“Proof of what?” Lana pressed further.

“That you wish us no harm.”

“I do not understand the logic,” Mick said.

“You have the ability to kill, but you do not. That is different to being harmless messengers.”

“I think, Kalak, that there are better proofs,” Lana said.

“Are there?”

“Yes. The little probe rescuing Jakav, for instance. Or the way that it melted a strip of sand to glass to try to keep the predators away. Those ought to be good proofs. The fact that you paid them no attention means that no single report is going to be believed, and I do not want you to face disrespect. Especially if I'm not there to keep the situation under control.”

“You are kind, once again, Lana?”

“I am greedy, Kalak.”

“Greedy?”

“Yes. I have had a good companion in Mick here. And maybe... I do not know, but maybe I will soon be separating from him. I find myself thinking that companionship is not such a bad thing in this uncertain life.”

“And you would think a worn out specimen such as myself would make a good companion?”

“You arouse my curiosity, Kalak.”

“Ah. Now that I understand. You arouse mine also, Lana.”

“But, for the moment, would you like to investigate the old observatory first, or shall we see if we can attract some alien attention?”

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