The Juggernaut — Chapter 10

Published in

Universe Factory

49 min readMay 1, 2020

Alien Conference Centre

Cheap fusion power, atomic batteries and nanites had made surface transport obsolete. The conference attendees travelled from the city to the conference centre which was in the mountains several hundred kilometres away in underground maglev transport capsules that ran through sealed cylindrical airless tunnels tunnelled through the bedrock by construction nanites. The trip began and ended within minutes, the passengers in each spherical transport pod only peripherally aware of the accelerations involved, as the pod rotated to keep ‘down’ beneath the occupants’ hooves.

The conference centre had been newly built in a remote mountain valley in order to host the conference. Construction had commenced not long after the exploration ship had made contact with its homeworld after coming within transmission range and reporting that a discovery had been made, and after a brief design phase, hundreds of tons of nanites had been delivered and had begun work. Now, around a month after the discovery had been made, the facility was ready. It had a large covered amphitheatre, a number of smaller amphitheatres, as well as numerous conference rooms, catering facilities, and in the branches of the sessile organisms that — since they shared no common heritage with any living thing on earth — could be called trees only due to their morphological and ecological similarities, dwelling pods had been hung to accommodate the conference attendees.

The entire ship’s crew had been delivered to the transit terminal, had disembarked their mag-tube pods and had been conveyed to their accommodation by real animal-drawn transport, a detail intended to convey a feeling of relaxation and homeyness, a detail appreciated by much of the crew, but which was lost upon the four adolescents, who were uncomfortable at having to spend so much time together under the observation of their elders.

The climb up to the dwelling pods was new to the shipboard adolescents, as that detail had not been possible in the restricted volume of the exploration ship, though the pods’ contents were quite familiar.

After a night in the new accommodation, the conference attendees made their way down from their dwelling pods and ambled along the path beside the huge trumpeter beasts, who were in the midst of their mating season, the males displaying their fitness to mate with long, loud, low-pitched mating calls. The males panted to oxygenate their blood before filling their lungs, their twin lung cavities expanding and making them look rather like dumbells on legs before they began to call, “VVVVAAAAAaaaaaAAAAAAaaaaaAAAAAaaaaa…!” twin sounding cavities each producing a fixed tone of around 25Hz, but each differing slightly from the other so that the interference between the two notes produced a beat frequency of around 2Hz that resonated in the attendees’ lung cavities, ensuring an early start to the day.

As one trumpeter beast began his call, the other adult males, not to be outdone, each added their own twin voices to the din, trying to attract the attention of any females who might be coming into heat, “VVAAAAAaaaaaAAAAAaaaaaAAAAAaaaaa…!”

“VVVAAAAAaaaaaAAAAAaaaaaAAAAAaaaaa…!” That beast, on the outskirts of the rutting field, seemed especially loud, though his youth meant that he was actually not as loud as the older males near the centre of the field, it just seemed so since he was closer.

The four adolescents, emerging from their respective pods, [Child-of-Mechengone] emerging with [Child-of Artist] and its infants, could not escape the mating calls of the towering trumpeter beasts. They could see the beasts in the field just beyond the trees, their dangling mouths continuing to crop at the low sessile ground-covering ‘plant’ organisms of the field even as they called to attract a female, grazing from side to side as the beasts ambled forward at a slow crawling pace on their four powerful legs.

<Noisy beasts, aren’t they?> [Child-of-Artist] asked rhetorically as the five came together, before copulating with [Child-of-Sigintone], [Childtwo-of-Hullmonitorthree] and [Childtwo-of-Resourcemanagerone] by way of greeting.

<Very noisy,> [Child-of-Sigintone] agreed.

As [Childtwo-of-Hullmonitorthree] and [childtwo-of-Resourcemanagerone] were flashing their own agreement to [Child-of-Artist]’s observation as they began to make their way along the path to the conference centre, they were surprised at the unheralded arrival of Captain [Prudence-in-Adversity] as it descended from its own accommodation pod with the ease of someone who had lived most of their life amongst such dwellings, and not awkwardly as the adolescents who had only ever seen such things in recordings.

<I’m sorry for startling you,> the Captain apologised as the five adolescents jumped in surprise. <But who could hear anything over all this racket?>

The captain copulated with each of the five adolescents briefly, before the five of them continued on toward the conference centre.

<Whose idea was it to build the conference centre so close to a trumpeter beast mating ground?> [Childtwo-of-Resourcemanagerone] asked.

<Oh, that would have been [Ancient One],> the Captain replied. <It thought that as the ‘beasts begin their calls at dawn, it would be a perfect, all-natural wake-up call.>

[Child-of-Sigintone] asked.

<This near so many trumpeter beasts?> the captain asked rhetorically. <Don’t be ridiculous. Any predators will be staying well out of the way so that they don’t start a stampede.>

Just then, the ‘trees’ began to creak and sway as a huge female trumpeter beast made her way between them, seeming to slip between them with ease despite the farrago of sharp-pointed horns on the front of her towering, almost spherical lung case. She slowed, her single head, encompassing both feeding and sensory duties, swung up from its examination of the vegetation in front of it to peer curiously at the group of people, venturing near the six smaller beings who had halted to allow her past, sniffing at them to confirm what its two eyes had seen. The two-odd-metre-long horns that protruded from the lung case twitched before she resumed her former pace toward the mating field, no longer interested in the tiny, unthreatening people, the thump of her footfalls barely distinguishable over the continuing male calls.

As the female entered the mating field, the males, who had all been calling continuously for some time, noticed the female enter, and one by one ceased their calls, “…aaaaaAAAAAaaaaaAAAAAeeehhhrrrrrr…”

Then, each male breathed deeply again, each inflating and deflating his lungs to flush out metabolic wastes and oxygenate their blood, before beginning his call once more, “VVVAAAAAaaaaaAAAAAaaaaaAAAAAaaaaa…”

<Female Trumpeter Beasts are quite picky, I’ve heard,> the Captain commented while they continued on their way. <They prefer the male who can generate the longest, loudest call at the correct frequencies… up to a point. Provided that the tones are just right, they can’t distinguish between the volume of sounds over about 110dB… so the more experienced males prolong their call by generating a volume that is right at 110dB at the female’s auditory apparatus.>

Out in the mating grounds, two huge trumpeter males were standing side-by-side, each trying to push the other off-balance, all while each continued to generate their mating call, their scuffling at the ground scraping up clouds of dust.

The atrium of the conference centre was filled with people, sensory heads high in the air, looking around at the statues of the newly-discovered humans, or copulating with acquaintances, new and old. [Child-of-Artist] looked more closely at the statue closest to it, and was surprised to see that it depicted a human male copulating with a human female, the male standing behind the female, holding the female’s hair in one hand while the other held one of the female’s breasts. [Child-of-Artist] looked further, and saw that there were many more statues, all in full colour and quite realistic in appearance, all of humans copulating in various different ways, mostly males copulating with females, but also males and females copulating with other members of the same gender, as well as a couple of statues depicting adult male humans copulating with juvenile male and female humans, and one depicting an adult female copulating with a juvenile male. While static, the statues even felt soft, warm and natural — as far as anyone could guess or deduce that a human might feel.

<Why are there so many statues of humans copulating?> [Child-of-Artist] asked the Captain.

the Captain replied.-

[Child-of-Artist] was oddly disturbed by the statues, but struggled to say why. <I’m not sure that they are appropriate to put here…> it began, then paused, flashing and flickering in uncertainty. <Of course, it goes without saying that this is indeed a place where we will be doing a lot of copulating… but…>

<What’s wrong?> the Captain asked.

<I’ve looked at the documentaries from which these statues must have been derived…> it paused again.

<Go on,> the captain encouraged.

The captain’s skin flickered in a pattern indicating thoughtfulness. <You might be correct,> it replied. <Still, there are no humans here, and few people other than yourself would give the matter any consideration at all… just yet anyway. Perhaps you could put yourself on the roster to speak about why you feel this way.>

The main amphitheatre was encircled by a great many more human statues, but this time the statues were standing upright in a neutral position, almost shoulder-to-shoulder. The statues represented humans of most of the races, both genders and many different ages, but unlike the atrium statues, these were clothed, many in western-style clothing, but some in Bollywood outfits, a few in the attire of other regions, and some in costumes that could now only be — or had only ever been — seen in movies. The stage was also encircled by human statues, also representing a similar variety of races, genders and ages, though while these were also standing in a neutral position, they were nude.

After the attendees had all taken their seats, sensory heads raised and feeding heads peeking out from beneath them, the first person stepped onto the stage, their image being magnified for the benefit of those up the back of the amphitheatre in an image that hovered above the stage, so that all could see what the speaker had to say.

<Attention, everyone,> the speaker began, clattering its upper hooves in the air for emphasis. <Many of you may not recognise me. I am [Keen Researcher Hungry Blue], chancellor of [the Largestnation state university]. I regret that I cannot copulate with you all right now, but look forward to doing so as the opportunity arises. Now, I am pretty sure that you all may have surmised that the purpose of this conference is to discuss the recent discovery of a sentient, civilised alien species on 114/282/92.4D G2V/P3.>

Above the enlarged image of the speaker, a holographic image of the planet of interest appeared, rotating slowly.

<So, to recap, about twenty years ago, a warp-drive exploration vessel, [Third-Exploration-Ship], was sent out to conduct a long-range study of the more distant planetary systems in our stellar neighbourhood, with a view to looking for signs of alien life, alongside conducting a search for potential colony worlds and harvestable resources, and returned only days ago with exciting news. So, since we can all see where we have come from, I will now call upon [Third-Exploration-Ship]’s Captain, [Prudence-in-Adversity].>

The captain descended to the amphitheatre floor, where it copulated briefly with the university chancellor before it began to speak. <On Planetary 288 of the year of the dying ithgnarl, [Third-Exploration-Ship]’s sensors detected unusually strong radio-frequency emissions from the G2V solar system at 114/282/92.4D, and closer investigation on Planetary 290 revealed that P3 — a liquid water planet with a surface gravity about 106% that of our own — was the source of electromagnetic emissions far in excess of those considered natural. We halted [Third-Exploration-Ship] in the outer debris belt, and sent in probe drones to gather more data, and on Planetary 295, the probes began to return, and we were able to submit their data to the quantum processing engine, though it was immediately apparent from the optical imagery they collected at close range that the environment had been heavily modified by processes that have generated non-natural topography. On Planetary 296, after a considerable effort, the quantum processing engines succeeded in deriving a decryption algorithm for one of the more common transmission types, and we began to receive dimensionally-reduced sequential-optical-analogue audio-enhanced data streams — which means effectively flat-video transmissions with audio. Since it appears that the three separate colour channels encoded in the video stream rely upon knowledge of the particular colour of the locals’ optical pigments, the quantum engines had to rely upon certain assumptions based upon observation of the star, the planet and the electromagnetic wavelengths reflected and absorbed by various materials in order to translate the locals’ pigment channels into our own, though the original video had a narrower colour gamut to our own, and fewer encodable colours than our own four optical pigments allow us to perceive, and some assumptions have been made in the translation of the video streams. From measurement of the planetary gravitic field, and data that we obtained from other local sources, we have been able to apply a scale to the beings and objects that the videos depict, though this has been complicated by factors that will be discussed further at a later time.

<Once we had deciphered the first video stream, we made it available to [Third-Exploration-Ship]’s crew, with the instruction that they should be exceptionally wary of jumping to any conclusions based upon that miniscule portion of the vast flood of transmissions that we intercepted. It is fortunate that we were forewarned against coming to unwarranted conclusions, as the video stream we initially deciphered was quite distressing, depicting — to all appearances — the local sentient species as being incredibly violent and xenophobic. However, upon deciphering and analysing further video streams, we discovered that these initial video streams that we naturally assumed were documentaries were in fact… fiction. ‘Fiction’, a term that we had to invent — or at least steal — in order to describe a document that is deliberately false or unreal, and is known to be so to its intended audience, produced in order to entertain, quite possibly where reality would be unacceptable. We discovered a documentary which described the process by which a work of video fiction was made, and only with this discovery did we think to go back and analyse the previous streams for unreality.

<Thank you, Captain [Prudence-in-Adversity],> the University Chancellor began to speak again as the captain retired from the stage. <Let me now introduce the person who has led the analysis of the data collected by [Third-Exploration-Ship], [Third-Exploration-Ship’s Biomedone].>

[Biomedone] descended to the stage and also copulated briefly with the Chancellor. <My task, once data began to arrive from the alien world we discovered, was to interpret the data and gain an understanding of the biochemistry and physiology of the occupants of that world. This proved to be a relatively simple task, given that the sentient aliens were found to transmit not only video, but audio and data in many other formats, in great volumes such that the processing engines needed only a little time to correlate and translate a great deal of it. These aliens, these ‘Humans’,> [Biomedone] displayed the word ‘Humans’ on its skin in Latin characters, a direct imitation of the symbols the humans themselves used, then translated the static word into a new dynamic chromaglyph, invented to name the humans in a more easily displayed form, <appear to communicate chiefly via sonic emanations, but also produce static images and data structures in order to store knowledge, an independently invented example of writing. Via processing-engine correlation, we were able to translate enough of the multitude of documents that the humans send to one another in order to take advantage of their own self-knowledge. They have described their units of measure in terms of physical properties that we are able to enumerate for ourselves, and hence translate easily and accurately. From that, we were able to produce accurate scale images of the humans and their products. [Third-Exploration-Ship]’s [Artist] has taken advantage of the masses of reliable data in order to produce the scale statues of the humans that you see around us.>

[Artist] rose from its seat to acknowledge [Biomedone], descending to the stage. <Thank you, [Biomedone]. However, these are not mere statues of humans, they are actually automata that will reproduce the motions and sounds that we have interpreted from the recordings we captured.> It pulled a personal computing tablet from its feeding head cavity, activated it, and tapped in a series of quick commands. As it deactivated the tablet once more, the human statues began to move. Most of the human figures in the conference amphitheatre merely began to breathe, shift their weight from foot to foot and look around, while changing the position of their hands and arms on occasion, uttering only the occasional cough, but from the reception hall, the sounds of humans copulating echoed through the hall and into the amphitheatre.

<Thank you, [Artist],> [Biomedone] flashed. <To summarise what we know of the humans, they are a species that uses Oxygen as a metabolic oxidiser and uses water as a solvent — much as ourselves — however, they are sexually dimorphic non-hermaphrodites that gestate entirely internally within the bodies of the female gender, a process that involves a considerable investment of energy and resources, especially on the part of the females. Indeed, they seem to invest more energy even in copulation, with sessions running from a minimum of several minutes to an hour or more. They are endothermic homeotherms — again much as ourselves — though with a body temperature a little lower than our own, 37°C rather than our own 41°C. Analysis of their documents as well as their video recordings leads us to believe that their senses of sight and hearing are inferior to our own. They are trichromats, rather than quadrochromats, and their auditory range is from 20Hz to 20kHz, rather than our own 10Hz to 28kHz. The bulkiness of their limbs is explained by the fact that their musculature is pull-only rather than push-pull, meaning that for each axis of movement that a joint is capable of, they require two muscles, not one. Their documentation shows that despite this, they have a physical strength similar to our own. However, they have an advantage over us in that they have a highly efficient iron-based oxygen-carrying circulatory pigment, much like that used by the members of our own world’s Ferrohaeme Phylum of animals that allows them to have lower blood pressures and longer circulation times than our cobalt-based pigment allows us. They also have an excellent cooling system, allowing them to lose heat through their entire skin area, at the cost of losing water, yet this allows them to have the ability to outrun many other, larger animals — probably including us — despite their bipedal gait and lower maximum speed than their prey, again, including us. Like us, they have a widely-varied omnivorous diet, though given the differences in our respective biochemistries, our food would at best be only minimally edible by them, if it did not prove to be toxic, and the same would apply to us with regard to their food, in the absence of help from our nanites.

<Given the differences in their biochemistries in comparison to our own, it is likely that no zoonosis would be possible in either direction — The mere fact that our biochemistries use right-handed stereo-isomers of sugars and amino acids while their planetary biochemistry uses left-handed stereoisomers should eliminate any possibility that any of their world’s organisms would find our bodies to be a hospitable environment. Then, when we consider the planetary gravity, the partial pressures of the atmospheric gases, and the solar radiation influx, it is entirely possible that both they and we could survive exposure to each-others biomes for extended periods of time, without needing protective apparatus.

<We have a great deal more data and conclusions to share about the Humans’ physiology,> [Biomedone] continued. <However, I will not waste the time of those of you who are interested in other aspects of this discovery, so I will be available for relevant workshops for the duration of this conference.>

As [Biomedone] retired from the stage, Chancellor [Keen Researcher Hungry Blue] stepped up once again after briefly consulting its personal computing tablet. <Thank you, [Biomedone]. Now, we have [Ancient One] to speak to us about the humans’ military capabilities and disposition.>

The old soldier descended to the stage, and after copulating with the Chancellor, began to speak. <As one of the few people still living who has ever engaged in combat with other people, before general-purpose nanites made us mere organic soldiers obsolete, I have been tasked with assessing the Humans’ military capabilities and their likely response to the revelation of our presence, should the consensus of this conference be that we make contact with them.

There was a questioning clatter of hooves from the audience, that interrupted [Ancient One].

<Yes?> [Ancient One] directed the question toward the direction of the clatter.

The person who had clattered stood so that it could be seen from the stage. it identified itself. <May I ask, how were «text references» obtained?>

<So, these transmissions were in the open? Not carried via some physical medium?>

<Not at present, but I’ll be sure to click my hooves if there is,> [Justified Interrupter] replied. <Now, what were you going to say about human militaries? Something about inaccuracies?>

<Yes… We have text references which state how humans fought certain battles, yet while the visual equivalent documentaries appear to address the political situation fairly accurately, as far as we can tell, but the depictions of some of the battles appear to be grossly different from the textual records. This appears to affect the depiction of battles more than one or two human lifetimes in the past.

<Then there is the problem of fictional works. Many of these appear to combine real technologies with fictional, and this complicates matters… how do we identify which technologies we observe on the film are real, and which are fictional? Of course, some are implausible or impossible, but of those which are neither implausible nor impossible — how can we tell? The answer is, of course, cross-referencing with the uploaded references, for the most part, but we must also surmise that the humans’ latest military technology will be secret, and will not be available for general reference.

<How do we know that humans have secrets from one-another?> [Ancient One] forestalled [Justified Interrupter]’s interrupting hoof-clatter. <Quite simply, the video as well as the text documents tell us. There are innumerable references to private knowledge, and many exchanges between humans which amount to: «I know, but I won’t tell you». How do we know what the humans are even saying to one-another?> it forestalled [Justified Interrupter] once more, that person once more lowering its hoof, unclattered. <That is quite simple — they taught us. Some of the video transmissions we intercepted appear to be educational in nature, intended for very young humans, and in themselves they have provided us with correlation between objects and concepts, the audible representation of the same, and the written equivalent, as well as the correlation between written symbols and particular sounds. With the assistance of processing engines, we are now able to understand human vocalisations. However, while I expect that a person could learn to communicate with a human in written language, we do not possess the necessary physiological apparatus to reproduce human spoken language, and neither do we — with the possible exception of the very young — possess the necessary neural plasticity to learn to understand human spoken language without processing engine assistance.

<So, should the decision be made to make contact with humans, we will be able to communicate with them via electronic apparatus, with computational assistance, and if necessary, via reproduction of human written language and crude pictographs upon our skin, and will be able to interpret human vocal language with computational assistance. Perhaps if any people here have infants, experiments could be made to see if they could develop the capability to understand human spoken language.

<So, now that I have established that we can understand their language to a degree, and that the possibility for personal communication between members of our species exists, I can discuss the likely reaction of humans to our arrival and presence, and their capability of a military response.

<The humans’ documents clearly show that they are interested in making contact with other intelligent tool-using species from other worlds. The humans’ documents and video media also show that there may be a considerable degree of caution exercised on their part in any first-contact scenario, or our presence may trigger an acquisitive response, though I believe that the latter would be more likely if people were to make limited contact with humans, in the absence of any visible protective technology. It would appear that the nature of the response to our presence would depend heavily upon our approach to making first contact. While we could simply land and announce our presence, the predicted response of some nations may be to capture us or to monopolise contact with us. It may be more sensible to make contact from space, announcing our presence to all humans with the necessary RF receivers, and then making the humans leave their gravity well and come to us.

<However, analysis of the humans’ space-travel capability suggests — with some degree of uncertainty — that they appear limited to chemical propellant reaction drives, and that only a minority of human polities possess the capability to deploy them. There is a considerable amount of discrepancy between data sources. It has been necessary to distinguish between documentaries, blatant works of fiction, and fictional documentaries, which has not been an easy task. While it is apparently obvious to humans what is fact and what is fiction, it is not always so obvious to us. Some works of fiction appear to depict realistic space travel, yet the text references — of which we regrettably do not possess a complete set — appear in some cases to refer to such technology to be in development or to be speculative. Our knowing that if such depictions are indeed human speculation, they are accurate speculation hinders our ability to distinguish them from reality.

<So, to come to the final point of my presentation, we have come to a speculative conclusion as to humans’ military capabilities. That they possess military capabilities is not in doubt. Their documentaries all indicate that — like ourselves — they have a long history of armed conflict between themselves, on both personal and national levels. However, their documentaries almost all suggest that the automation of their weapon systems is limited. It would appear that the reality of even the most technically advanced human military is that humans are required to carry or operate their weapons, and that automation extends to larger munitions, and is intended to reduce their dispersion from their intended targets. Almost all human depictions of fully automated weapon systems show that they apparently do not possess the reaction speed that we have come to realise that realistic automated weapon systems would inherently possess, suggesting strongly that such are speculative fiction rather than reality.

<My own judgement is that human military capabilities are similar to those possessed by ourselves during my own long-ago childhood and adolescence, before the ubiquity of fully automated weapon systems made merely organic soldiers, such as myself, thankfully obsolete. That technological gap should be sufficient that, without an unreasonable amount of preparation, we should be able to defend ourselves against human weapon systems should they be deployed against us. Should it become necessary to engage human militaries in combat, our independent combat automata would most likely prevail easily at an individual level. However, human militaries apparently attract a large volume of personnel and national budgets, and should combat occur, the sheer size of human militaries may allow them to prevail despite the individual superiority of our own weapons, unless we prepare a great quantities of combat automata beforehand. No matter how advanced our automata are, relative to human militaries, given a sufficient numerical advantage opposing them, their defences can be saturated, and once hit… they are not made from — or even armoured with — neutronium, and so a human projectile of sufficient size will be able to penetrate their armour and cause sufficient damage to mission-kill them. Unless humans deploy their atomic weapons against our automata, any damage would be repairable by their nanite complement.

<On the subject of atomic weapons, analysis shows that some human weapons may have a higher yield than any we have ever constructed, and that they appear to have stockpiles of the weapons that far exceed in number any that we ever accumulated. A contributing factor to this may be that humans appear to be significantly more resistant to the effects of radiation than ourselves. This appears to be a peculiarity of their life cycle. As you all no doubt know, in our own life cycle, our birthing trees are diploid, and we ourselves are haploid, while humans appear to be diploid, while the haploid part of their life cycle appears to be limited to singe-celled gametes that are for the most part never directly exposed to the environment outside human bodies, unless they are being emitted frivolously. Analysis of their documents show that an acute dose of ionising radiation required to kill a human is on the order of five times that required to kill a person — an LD50 of around five Gray as opposed to one Gray for ourselves, but our birthing trees can tolerate acute doses of up to seven Gray with 50 percent mortality, and study of the recovered human documents show that humans are not the most radiation-resistant species on their world either — the records suggest that some species native to the humans’ world are able to tolerate hundreds or even thousands of Gray, and a few microorganism species are able to tolerate tens of thousands of Gray. Humans also appear to be far more able to recover from the effects of non-lethal doses of radiation than ourselves — a few humans have been known to accumulate lifetime doses of radiation of 50 Gray or more without a noticeably reduced lifespan, ten times or more of that required to kill half the humans who receive a single acute dose, whereas no person has been known to survive long-term with a cumulative dose of radiation greater than 5 Gray.

<However, this is not to say that humans are likely to throw atomic weapons around frivolously. It appears that while humans have stockpiled vast quantities of the weapons, only a few have been detonated in open air, only two in combat, and the possession of these stockpiles acts as a deterrent against the further use of these weapons, in that their use by one polity will attract their use by their opposition, in mutually assured destruction.>

[Justified Interrupter] interrupted again with a clatter of its hooves. <What about an Hermit’s Juggernaut?> it asked when [Ancient One] leaned its sensory head its way.

<Ah… yes, of course,> [Justified Interrupter]’s acknowledgement was textured with embarrassment, and it returned to its seat, pulling its feeding head into its body in a gesture that further emphasised its embarrassment.

Alien Leaders’ Retreat

The ongoing conference which was to determine the people’s collective response to the discovery of the Humans was of sufficient importance that leaders of many nations, both upon the people’s homeworld and from some nearby interstellar colonies, had assembled upon the homeworld to hold their own private conference in order to speculate upon the outcome of the public conference. The leaders’ conference centre was set in the peak of a snow-capped mountain, hidden from view by metres of rock and ice, save where sealed windows pierced through the snow and ice to give its inhabitants a view over the desolate whiteness of the snowy mountain range.

<It’s almost enough to make you shiver just looking at all that horrible snow,> [Sweeper of the Dust of Years], leader of one of the homeworld’s larger, richer, more advanced nations flickered on its skin to the other leaders assembled in the facility’s large lounge-cum-conference hall.

<This site was certainly well-chosen, [Sweeper],> [Mind in the Darkness] complimented the younger leader.

<You know, I’ve heard that the humans travel to places such as this… deliberately, in order to slide down the frozen water,> [Unaccountably Stubborn] interjected.

<You mean, they wear respirators and insulation and slog up mountains just so they can slide down some frozen water?> [Sweeper of the Dust of Years] was surprised.

<Well, they do wear insulation, but I believe that they wear insulation almost all the time anyway, but they don’t use respirators, apparently not unless the mountain is much higher than this one,> [Unaccountably Stubborn] flashed.

<No respirators?> [Sweeper] was surprised. <There’s hardly any oxygen up here at all!>

<Well… no, I don’t think so, but then I think that I read something about their being able to breathe at these altitudes, but not inhabiting these altitudes because they’re carnivorous, and there’s nothing up here to eat but fibrous autotrophs, and precious few of them whichever way you want to take a bite at them.>

<So, humans just slide down mountains? It seems a bit risky,> [Sweeper] returned to the original topic. <Maybe even insane.>

<They don’t just slide down mountains,> [Unaccountably Stubborn] replied. <Apparently there’s some equipment required, as well as some skill in using that equipment.>

<They’re a tool-using species,> [Mind in the Darkness] added. <One more advanced than the Builder Viessels which became extinct at the end of the last glaciation, before we took over from them as the dominant tool-using species. It doesn’t make sense that collectively humans would be technically so competent, yet take insane risks. That some individuals may do so, I have no doubt, but as a species? I think not. That there is some equipment involved also suggests that the opportunity to improve the equipment has arisen, which hardly suggests that the activity would be suicidal.>

[Often Blue with Determination], another of the assembled leaders, flashed in agreement. <Fools tend not to prosper, and the humans seem not to be fools for the most part.>

<Since we’re all here — or have sent regrets — perhaps we could get down to business,> [Igniter of the Flame] suggested pointedly.

<Precious little,> [Always Sceptical] quipped sourly. <If you ask me, it would be a waste of time and resources to even try to make contact with them. Better that we send [Third-Exploration-Ship] to scout for potential colony worlds than go anywhere near the humans again. They have nothing that we cannot reproduce.>

<In purely materialistic terms, that is true,> [Mind in the Darkness] agreed. <However, you fail to consider that while we can duplicate or better almost any technological goods that the humans may possess — with some exceptions that you seem to have overlooked, [Always Sceptical] — we cannot duplicate their knowledge of their own history, and neither can we duplicate their works of art.>

<Why would we need to?> [Always Sceptical] asked. <We have survived perfectly well as a species for the eighty thousand years since the last ice age without either.>

<And that attitude, fellow leaders, is why the [Westlake Confederacy] is suffering from a brain-drain,> [Sweeper] sniped. <Why, despite offering considerably more compensation to those able and willing to teach at the highest levels, so few take up that offer.>

Before [Always Sceptical] could respond, its skin flickering in patterns of annoyance, [Mind in the Darkness] clattered its hooves reproachfully, <May I remind you all that we all agreed to suspend discussion of matters of contention other than those directly concerning the Humans,> it interjected.

<Thank you, [Mind in the Darkness],> [Always Sceptical] replied.

<To answer your earlier question,> [Unaccountably Stubborn] flashed. <My child also reported that we have intercepted library data transmissions containing Human history in considerable detail. Were you aware that Humans transitioned from muscle-powered combat to firearms in the last four-hundred years? That they began industrialisation around two hundred years ago? That they invented semiconductor gates less than a hundred years ago, and have had processing-engine-guided munitions for around fifty years? That they surpass us in the creation of processing-engine-generated images, and did so around twenty-five years ago? That their recorded history goes back at most five thousand years? Consider our own development… our recorded history goes back fifteen thousand years, we began using firearms two thousand years ago, industrialised a thousand years ago, invented semiconductor gates six hundred years ago, began using processing-engine-guided munitions three hundred and fifty years ago, and only began using general-purpose nanites a hundred and sixty years ago…>

[Always Sceptical] said. <What does this have to do with Human artwork or histories?>

<Perhaps what I just said doesn’t have anything to do with those things, or perhaps it does,> [Unaccountably Stubborn] replied. <However, you should consider that even if we do not make contact with the Humans, we can project from the rate of their advancements, that in around a hundred and fifty to two-hundred years, well within the lifespans of most of us, they will be making first contact with us in their own warp-drive vessels, and in two hundred and fifty years they will surpass us.>

There was a a long moment in which the other assembled leaders’ skins went pale and quiescent with thoughtfulness.

[Sweeper of the Dust of Years] was the first to speak after that long moment. <What is it about the humans that allows them to progress so rapidly… or is there something about us that makes us slow?> it asked.

<That’s just one of the questions that is being discussed at the conference,> [Unaccountably Stubborn] answered. <The answer seems to be a combination of a number of factors… one being that the Humans’ shorter lifespans gives them a greater sense of urgency, and a lesser sense of the consequences of their haste, the other being that they are more… imaginative than us. Their literature doesn’t just report the happenings of the past or provide instruction… it also attempts to predict the future, analyses the potential course of events given differing starting points, and while some of that speculation is based upon assumptions that we know are wrong, some of their assumptions are correct.>

<Have any projections been made as to the course of events should we contact the humans?> [Mind in the Darkness] asked.

<In general terms, yes,> [Unaccountably Stubborn] replied. <The encounter could go one of several ways. The most desirable outcome would be establishment of trade relations, where we gain access to the Human knowledge-base and market, quite probably in exchange for reciprocal access. However, the outcome may be less desirable if the humans react negatively to contact. That could range from an unwillingness to negotiate, to outright hostility.>

[Mind in the Darkness] corrected.

<Oh… As I understand it, the projection is that maintaining contact with the humans will give us the opportunity to maintain a technological advantage over them for somewhat longer than if we make contact with them and then withdraw, or much longer than if we do not make contact at all.>

<Our exploration ships are unarmed, are they not?> [Morning Speaker] spoke for the first time.

[Unaccountably Stubborn] replied. <Until now, there has been nothing that they might need to kill. However, arming them would simply be a matter of having their nanites reconfigure them.>

<Of course, though that would take time during which the ships would be vulnerable, would it not?> [Morning Speaker] asked.

<Wouldn’t approaching them with weapons provoke them into rash action, or deter them from making contact at all?> [Balancer of Foes] asked.

<Analysis of their histories suggests not,> [Unaccountably Stubborn] replied. <On the contrary, it appears more likely that our making a show of strength will encourage them to make more rational and considered choices.>

Alien Conference Centre

The conference had gone on for months. Every detail about the humans had been analysed in detail and discussed at length by amateurs and experts alike, though when it came to an alien species, no-one could truly be considered to be an expert. However, even the most heated debates came to an end, with a consensus reached, or the debaters agreeing to disagree. All that remained now was for the formal determination of the experts and authorities to be announced, though those who had been present had little doubt as to the determination that would be made.

Not everyone was satisfied with the conference’s proceedings. [Child of Artist] was one of those who was not satisfied.

<I still don’t understand why, after I explained that humans regard copulation as a private act that is not appropriate to engage in in a public place, that these inappropriate artworks have not been moved,> [Child of Artist] complained to the newly-named [First Xenologist], formerly known as [Biomedone], as they and many of their other shipmates made their way to the main amphitheatre.

It was Captain [Prudence-in-Adversity] who answered, however. <It makes no difference that the majority of the delegates whom you addressed agreed with you, the fact of the matter is that there are no humans here to object, and [Event-Planner-One] has been too busy to take care of a matter that is of such little importance when compared with the other matters with which it must deal.>

<Has it never heard of the concept of delegation?> [Child-of-Artist] complained.

<Apparently not, given its observed haste over the duration of the conference,> the captain answered, apparently somewhat preoccupied as it looked around with its feeding head, craning it over the walking people to look down on them.

<Is something wrong?> [Child-of-Artist] asked.

[Child-of-Artist] answered.

<Nor I,> [Child-of-Mechengone] answered from beside its friend.

<What of [Childtwo-of-Resourcemanagerone] and [Child-of-Sigintone]?> the captain asked vaguely.

[Child-of-Mechengone] replied.

[Child-of-Artist] added. <We didn’t talk though, nor did we even copulate.>

<Well, excuse me while I stop and ask it,> the captain said, stopping and waiting for [Childtwo-of-Resourcemanagerone].

When the captain and [Childtwo-of-Resourcemanagerone] met, they copulated, perhaps even more perfunctorily than usual, before the captain asked about [childtwo-of-Hullmonitorthree] and received a similar negative reply from the youngster.

The captain hustled ahead and found [Child-of-Sigintone], with whom it also copulated briefly before asking it about [childtwo-of-Hullmonitorthree].

[Child-of-Sigintone] replied.

<Nothing else? No mention of where it went?> the captain asked.

<I’m sorry, I didn’t see them discuss anything else,> [Child-of-Sigintone] replied. <Why do you ask, though? None of us are really your responsibility any more.>

<Perhaps not officially,> the captain replied. <But I like to keep in touch with all my shipmates, even after our voyages.>

Once everyone had taken their places in the main amphitheatre, [Keen Researcher Hungry Blue] stepped out onto the dais and clattered its hooves for attention. <Greetings everyone, and welcome to the concluding address of this conference,> it flashed. <Now, before anyone else can point out the obvious, study and discussion of the Human data is not yet complete, and is unlikely to be completed any time soon. However, the purpose of this conference, that being to consider our response as a species to the discovery of the humans, has been achieved, and it is the purpose of this address to announce that response.

<So, the Human data has been considered, and despite the many gaps and ambiguities, enough has been learned about the Humans for the nations sponsoring our missions of exploration to determine their response.

<The finding of the council of the participating leaders of the nations of the populated worlds is, by a majority of twenty-two to one, to make contact with the humans at the earliest opportunity. Fourteen of the twenty-three participating nations have agreed to provide funding sufficient to facilitate contact with the humans.

<Funding having been obtained, it is the determination of the exploration council to task [Third-Exploration-Ship] to this mission, and to appoint [Prudence-in-Adversity] to the position of Captain once more, with such subordinate crew members as the captain sees fit to recruit, with instructions to resupply and refit as necessary and depart at the earliest opportunity for Earth, there to make contact with the humans in the manner that seems most appropriate, giving heed to any relevant findings of this conference.

<Captain [Prudence-In-Adversity], would you care to address the assembly?> [Keen Researcher Hungry Blue] gave way to the captain.

The captain mounted the dais. it said. <I call upon the former crew of [Third-Exploration-Ship] to apply to continue their service on board. In the event that some former crew members may choose not to renew their service, I will also consider applications from other suitably qualified individuals.>

Deep Space

Almost all of the ship’s former crew had applied to return to the ship, with a few exceptions. [childtwo-of-Hullmonitorthree] did not appear at all, and no-one, including its parent, [Hullmonitorthree], could account for its whereabouts. [Child-of-Mechengone], [Childtwo-of-Resourcemanagerone] and [Child-of-Sigintone] all applied separately, without consulting with one-another, none of the adolescents feeling comfortable on the homeworld despite the fact that boarding the exploration vessel for its return to Earth would be taking them closer to discovery of their wrongdoings. [Child-of-Artist] became [Artisttwo]. [Biomedtwo] became [Biomedone] when the former [Biomedone]/[First Xenologist] took the position of [Xenologistone]. [AncientOne] remained [Commandtwo] but also took the new position of [Militaryone], and was joined by a newcomer, the surprisingly young-looking old person, [Glimmer of Youth] in the position of [Militarytwo]. The ship’s company was also joined by [Mind in the Darkness], formerly leader of one of the homeworld’s nations, who had stepped down from that position to take the post of [Diplomatone], with another newcomer, [Wise Glimmerings] as [Diplomattwo], as well as a few others who served as the diplomats’ staff.

The ship was refitted somewhat to allow for its new purpose as a diplomatic vessel, though the refit was relatively minor, involving nothing much more than the reconfiguration of some living quarters and workspaces so that they would function as the diplomats’ offices and quarters, as well as reserving a section of the ship for the use of any human diplomats who may be invited on board. The ship’s drives also received an upgrade in order to bring them up to the current state of the art design, and the ship’s command interfaces were optimised, returning to a more text-based design.

The ship’s viesselids who had survived the cull of their den-mates had all survived the ship being laid-up in orbit for the duration of the conference. The ship had retained a skeleton crew, mostly the gardeners who tended the ship’s garden, and the viesselids had quickly learned to scavenge from the scraps and leavings of those crew members, remaining almost completely unnoticed by the crew. However, that ‘almost’ wasn’t complete, and the few crew members had heard the occasional unexplained sounds that had become somewhat unnerving, though their searches had turned up nothing of interest.

With the new influx of crew, a new family of viesselids was obtained from groundside and installed in the garden’s viesselid den. The new viesselids were watched carefully by the gardeners as they tentatively explored their new environment. The old viesselids were aware of the arrival of the new viesselids and also the gardeners’ increased surveillance, having become accustomed to the gardeners’ movements and recognising their increased vigilance, and stayed clear.

Eventually the ship departed, boosting away from the homeworld using its diametrical drives before reconfiguring them and entering warp drive. Despite the improvements to the ship’s warp drive, it would still take over a year to reach the Sol system as the Humans called it, and that wasn’t including the time that it would take to travel from their warp exit point to Earth.

When the ship’s gardeners finally relaxed their surveillance enough that the original viesselids were no longer concerned that they would be noticed immediately, they made a cautious investigation of the garden. Even though the original viesselid group sent a young male, over the year and more that they had spent in the ship in orbit after having left their original den, their epigenetic changes had progressed yet further, and the young male, the smallest viesselid in its family, was still bigger — and much smarter — than any normal ground-side viesselid the people had ever seen.

The young male scout crept confidently through the garden. It had observed the gardeners departing, and from long observation from the ventilation ducts, it had noticed that for all that the people and viesselids were natural enemies, the gardeners actually seemed to be encouraging the new viesselids. In hindsight, it made sense… the viesselid’s former den was constructed so that the people could open it at any time they wanted, so if the viesselids’ presence had been unwelcome, they could have been exterminated at any time. The purpose the people had for the viesselids escaped the scout and his family at present, but they were fairly certain that they would eventually find an answer.

The young male stopped near the den’s entrance, careful to stay upwind of it, and puffed out its neck fur, listening intently. It heard the ultrasonic chirps that the new viesselids used to communicate with each other, as simple to it now as the vocalisation of infants. It mentally scoffed at the extreme caution that the new viesselids showed — they had not yet deduced that the gardeners permitted their existence, and would not charge instantly to exterminate them should they be noticed. It waited patiently and silently as the scouts emerged, followed eventually by the alpha male, bigger than the scouts, indeed almost as big as the old group’s scout. He was easily identifiable by the way he spoke and was spoken to.

The scout put the plan into operation immediately, before the new viesselids outside could be joined by the females, in case the alpha female or some of the beta females might choose to interfere. It leaped silently from the branch where it had lain hidden, and fell upon the new alpha. Naturally, a fight ensued, but the scout had prepared by doing something that was unthinkable for normal viesselids — it had practised. Almost as soon as the old viesselids had noticed that the people had brought new viesselids, the old viesselids had concluded that it may be necessary to take over the new family group, which would involve challenging the alpha male, and perhaps also the alpha female. So, the old viesselids had practised combat with each other, honing their skills while deliberately refraining from inflicting injury at the last moment, judging by what they knew of their own anatomy whether each blow or bite that had not been completed would have been effective, and how much so.

The new viesselids’ alpha was outmassed and outclassed. It had been the victor in several actual fights for dominance, but its skills were as nothing to a viesselid who had fought literally hundreds of times. Ordinary viesselids couldn’t afford to fight again and again, as the injuries they took would leave them unable to defend themselves, and so they relied more upon bluff and reputation. The alpha was bowled over by the newcomer, and wriggled away, then turned to make a threat display, but the newcomer, a huge male who rippled with muscle, didn’t make his own threat display. Instead, he calmly darted forward, feinted, knocked aside the alpha’s snapping jaws with his forearm, while he went for the kill with his own razor-sharp fangs, slicing though the alpha’s exposed neck right down to the bone, red blood spraying across the ground-cover. The alpha died almost before he realised that he had been fatally bitten, his last emotion being amazement that the newcomer was so skilled and ruthless.

The scout screamed ultrasonically in victory, claiming the position of the new family’s alpha. The other male scouts, having seen how swiftly their alpha had been defeated, submitted immediately. The scout was actually slightly disappointed; it had been looking forward to a good fight, and so far it hadn’t had one. Once it had determined that none of the newcomer scouts were going to attack, it put the next part of the plan into action — it began to eat the alpha’s corpse, despite its instinctive distaste for the task. The newcomer scouts were as shocked as they could possibly be by this; while viesselids frequently fought one another and even killed one another for dominance… or to rid the den of another male’s offspring, cannibalism was unheard-of except in the most dire of circumstances, which these were not, since the garden was a paradise, even if it was a somewhat odd one.

Once it had finished eating the former alpha, bones and all, and had licked up every droplet of blood that it could find, the scout was feeling very full, and also rather ill. Its feeling of illness was psychosomatic, but fortunately there was a remedy. It made its way to the small decorative stream that ran through the garden, crept beneath the cover of some foliage at its bank, and regurgitated its unwelcome meal into the water, where the water dwellers would happily make short work of consuming the evidence.

Explaining himself to the fearful and puzzled newcomer scouts was an exercise in futility, they were like kits who understood less than a quarter of what they heard.

The scout returned to the den immediately afterwards; this at least was expected by the newcomer scouts. He sincerely hoped that the people weren’t able to easily identify individual viesselids, or this could be his last act, but that was a risk that the old family had considered, and his death in the jaws of the people would still give them vital information.

The alpha female and her daughters immediately went on the defensive as soon as he entered the den — evidently the alpha female had young kits — he could smell them — and feared and expected him to try to kill them as was customary in such circumstances. The scout had to admit that it was a tempting thought, especially as it meant that he’d get to copulate with her all the sooner, but in his altered epigenetic state, that thought wasn’t as compelling as he had thought it might have been… he knew that every viesselid was needed, even the youngest kits, and somehow even the alpha female, who should have been the epitome of feminine viesselid beauty, seemed somehow… immature, as if she was barely old enough to mate.

The alpha female of the newcomers was terrified. She had heard the dreadfully rapid fight just outside. Fights between males took many minutes in her experience, and the fact that this fight had been won in seconds spoke volumes about just how strong the victor was, he apparently wasn’t even injured slightly, and he was a huge, hulking, hyper-masculine creature, rippling with muscle, bigger than any male she had ever seen. When the victor looked toward her naked, wriggling kits, she feared the worst, but her greatest surprise was that his body language showed nothing but indifference toward the defenceless kits, and not the slightest sign of hostility. She knew that while she still had kits that needed feeding, she wouldn’t come into heat, and the victor ought to want that more than anything. However, he seemed somehow apprehensive… not of her, but that their marvellous den was somehow unsafe.

The scout tried to explain himself, “This den not safe” he squeaked ultrasonically.

“Safe?” the alpha female replied, puzzled. “Safe here!”

“Not safe here,” he tried again.

“Not?” the female replied questioningly.

It was like talking to kits… “Danger here,” he said.

“Safe here,” the female disagreed. “Danger outside.”

“Danger outside,” the scout agreed. “Danger, danger, danger here! People eat us!” he added.

“Danger here?” she asked, uncertain now.

“Den trap,” he said. “People eat us. I escape,” he said.

It took a little while for the alpha female to process this sequence, and a little longer to formulate a reply. “Where go?” she asked. “Den here. Where den outside?” she pushed the limits of her linguistic abilities.

“Dig den. Go den,” he said.

“Dig?” she asked. “Dig hard. Find easy.”

“Find harder,” he disagreed. “Go look, no diggers. Dig den, escape. Look den, eaten. Stay, eaten.”

“No diggers?” the female asked, puzzled. “Where diggers? Look diggers?” That there were no diggers was almost inconcievable. Evidently she had thought that if they hadn’t been seen, it was just because the viesselids hadn’t found them yet.

“All-things people bring,” he said. “Bring us, bring leaf-eaters, bring plants, bring dirt. No diggers.”

“People bring us, we escape” she said. “Bring all things?”

“All things,” the scout confirmed. “I see. Bring plants, bring dirt, bring you. Not bring diggers.”

“No diggers?” she asked, then struggled with what she wanted to say next. “Land need diggers.”

“Diggers or people,” the scout said.

“Or?” she didn’t understand.

“Land need diggers. People do digger things. Land need people. No diggers. Land need diggers or people,” he said.

She thought for a long time, and he waited patiently as the thoughts trickled slowly through her tiny mind. “Land need people. People danger. Land danger. Den danger. Dig den long-time. People eat us,” she concluded fatalistically.

Something occurred to the scout then that none of his family had thought of either. “Too many of us, people eat us, we escape, not too many of us. Too many people, we eat baby people, not too many people.”

This was too much for the alpha female to follow. “People things,” she dismissed his statement.

He tried again. “Lots of us, den small, people eat us. Den big now, people not eat us. We dig.”

She considered that for a long while. “Dig now, split family, people not eat us?”

Finally, progress! “People not eat us,” he agreed. “We scout, find place, then dig.”

The scout/new alpha male left the den once more. The alpha female reflected to herself that he was energetic, bold and decisive. Maybe too much so.

Once the ship was under way to Earth, the crew once more found themselves with little to do, as the ship’s nanites did most of the work. [First Xenologist] took the opportunity to begin a project that it had planned before the ship had arrived at the homeworld, that being the dissection of the anomalous viesselids that it had captured when the remainder had been culled. To that end, it set a holocamera to record, and removed a frozen viesselid from the containerful that it had frozen at the time, many months ago, then while it thawed, went about the lab to collect the tools that it would need. [First Xenologist] was somewhat surprised that when the frozen viesselid had thawed, it showed signs of life. It gave the viesselid a lethal injection before it considered the literature it had collected on the subject of viesselids and their ferrohaeme kin. Its brief study confirmed that it may have just made a new discovery: that viesselids were capable of hibernation at temperatures sufficiently low to allow their bodies to freeze solid. Considering that people who had discovered the intact bodies of greater — or builder — viessels frozen in glaciers hadn’t recorded that the creatures had sprung back to life on being thawed, and considering that those viessels had been frozen for tens of thousands of years, obviously there was a limit as to how long they could stay frozen and revive upon thawing, assuming that viessels were also capable of hibernation. However, given the anatomical similarities that other researchers had noted between viessels and viesselids, it seemed likely that it was an ability that they had shared.

[First Xenologist] began the dissection of the big male that it had selected. It didn’t find anything particularly out of the ordinary within most of the creature’s body except perhaps that it was — aside from being dead — the picture of good health, though that was hardly surprising given the nanites that infested everything and everyone in the ship; they would naturally act to keep whatever macroscopic living thing that they found themselves within healthy. It considered for a moment that the nanites may have caused the changes, so it set up a nanite transceiver probe. Their host being deceased, most of the nanites had also self-destructed, but a few remained to act as a data store, and [First Xenologist] initiated a diagnostic download. It would take some time, even at the high data transmission rates involved, to transmit the hundreds of terabytes of data, and analysing that data would take yet longer.

While it waited for the download to complete, it continued its dissection. One feature of interest was that the viesselid’s brain, located between its first and second pair of limbs, had increased in size by a considerable amount, pushing apart the overlapping protective bony plates considerably, though in consideration, there was still leeway for a good deal of further expansion. The brain itself, aside from being larger, was also far more convoluted. It was probably a biological universal that when many cells had to communicate with many other cells, the processing cells would organise themselves into an outer layer, with the communicating structures between them. Despite their great differences and very distant common ancestry, the viesselids and the people shared this independently-evolved trait, as did the humans. Given that fact, when more processing cells were required, each of those groups’ brains became more convoluted, increasing the volume of the surface layer. Since the people’s brains, as well as those of the humans, remained structurally the same throughout their lives, save for growth, there was no reason to believe that viesselids would be any different… but this viesselid’s brain had gone from the usual ‘moderately convoluted’ to ‘highly convoluted’, quite possibly in its own lifetime, given that this viesselid looked to be almost old enough to have been amongst one of the first kits born on the ship. In fact, this viesselid looked rather less like a viesselid…

[First Xenologist] stopped its train of thought before it leaped to conclusions that may be false, and placed comm calls to a number of other crew members.

A couple of hours later, [First Xenologist] welcomed a number of other people into its laboratory. There was [Biomedone] (who had formerly been its subordinate, [Biomedtwo]), [Ancient one], Captain [Prudence in Adversity], and the diplomat [Mind in the Darkness], who had written a paper on the subject of builder viessels many years ago, before it had become involved in politics.

The visitors each looked with interest at the magnified holographic projection of the dissected viesselid while they waited for [First Xenologist] to finish copulating with each of the others.

<Thank you all for coming at such short notice,> [First Xenologist] said, once the customary courtesies had been concluded. it gestured toward the dissected creature.

<Wherever did you get such a well-preserved juvenile builder viessel?> [Mind in the Darkness] asked. <It must have cost you quite a bit of credit.>

The captain flashed, <I’m sure that builder viessels are fascinating to those who have made a study of them, but I’m afraid that I can’t claim to be one who has done so. Perhaps you could share your discovery first, and then those of us who have something to contribute can discuss it for as long as necessary.>

<Very well, people,> [First Xenologist] flashed. <This isn’t a builder viessel, it is a viesselid collected from this ship just before we returned from our previous voyage.>

There was a pause while [Biomedone], [Ancient One] and [Mind in the Darkness] peered even more intently at the dissected creature, looking at both the holo and directly at the creature.

<I’m sure that this is a matter that should interest me,> the captain said. <However, I fail to see the significance.>

<Might I explain, [First Xenologist]?> [Mind in the Darkness] asked.

<Please do, since you appear to have deduced the significance of what you’re seeing,> [First Xenologist] replied.

<Thank you. Now, assuming that this is indeed a shipboard viesselid, and not a well-preserved builder viessel that our friend is using to perpetrate a fraud upon us, it has far-reaching implications.

<First, let me explain what we know about builder viessels,> [Mind in the Darkness] continued. <Builder viessels are thought to have originated during the era of glaciation that ended eighty thousand years ago. There were in fact twelve separate glaciations, each lasting between five to eleven thousand years, separated by warmer intervals of three to seven thousand years. The earliest recorded builder viessels date back to the third glaciation of that era.

<Builder viessels are named so because they were an intelligent, tool-using species. They made knapped flint tools, and combined them with wood and bone, they practised weaving, built houses, and a few thousand years before they became extinct, we have evidence that they learned to control fire, and we have found one instance of a crude ceramic kiln. All this before our ancestors first started experimenting with banging rocks together.

<What is most remarkable about the builder viessels was that they accomplished all that, while having a maximum body mass of around one kilogram. It is believed that the anatomical feature that allowed them to accomplish all that was a relatively large and extremely convoluted brain.

<That brings me to this specimen,> [Mind in the Darkness] gestured to the dissected viesselid. <People have recovered many deceased greater — or builder — viessels, including some which were thought to have been juveniles, which were physically smaller, with smaller, less convoluted brains than those considered to be adults. Those so-called juvenile greater viessels looked remarkably like this creature right here.

<So, if this creature was a mere viesselid, and somehow became… this, it means that viesselids and greater viessels may be one and the same species, and that some unknown factors are responsible for their post-adult development into what we thought of as greater viessels. Factors that are absent from our homeworld, but are present at least in part on this vessel,> [Mind in the Darkness] concluded.

<I… see…,> the captain flashed slowly. the captain said. <Something about the viesselids that is worrying me now…>

The captain clattered its hooves in satisfaction at remembering. <That’s it! Of course, that means that we may have viesselids loose in the ship… or are they builder viessels now?>

<That remains to be seen,> [Mind in the Darkness] said. <Of course, if they are indeed greater viessels now, we can’t just exterminate them. I don’t suppose that you captured any more of those viesselids and kept them alive, [First Xenologist]?>

<Well… yes and no…,> [First Xenologist] replied.

<So, no, then. That’s a pity…>

<Actually, that could be a yes,> [First Xenologist] interrupted. <Did I mention that I made another discovery?> It triggered a replay of the recording it had made, and scrolled it forward to the appropriate time. <You’ll notice here we have spontaneous resumption of breathing and movement after thawing? Of course, I didn’t realise at the time that the creature was significantly different to typical viesselids, so I euthanised it. However, I have several more in the freezer.>

<You have more! Alive!?> [Mind in the Darkness] flashed emphatically in excitement. <Quick! Bring them out, and let’s see if they’ll revive too!>

<Well… I’m not sure if they’ll revive too, or if they’ll be unaffected by being frozen.>

<It would seem logical that if they revive at all, they must have evolved to do so,> [Biomedone] interjected. <It’s not as if you can freeze a person solid without major cellular damage. Freeze any person and thaw them, and all you’ll have is a cadaver.>

As [First Xenologist] turned toward the freezer, it stopped and flashed, <Oh, I also have a nanite data dump that the processing engines are analysing. There are many terabytes of it, though, so it will take a while.>

<Well, that will be interesting when the analysis is done,> [Mind in the Darkness] said. <But right now, let’s set up a cage and thaw out those viesselids.>

The Juggernaut — Chapter 10

Written by Monty Wild