Amoeba

by Piers Anthony

  They did that, helping with digging, gathering, and organization of defensive units. “You saw how that orange crab ran off with the child,” Tod told the villagers. “There will be more of them, maybe larger, and they’ll try to haul away adults too. The fires should balk them, but some will get by, and those ones need to be chopped immediately.”

  As the day ended without an attack, they posted watches and settled down for the night. “We don’t know when they’ll attack,” Tod said. “Just that they will. We must be sure to know it the moment they do. Meanwhile, eat, rest, sleep. It may be a long siege, once it starts.”

  The villagers retired, and the team settled in the forest between the village and the distant pool. “I will post a magic alert,” Wizard said. “That’s cheap magic, and it will warn us in plenty of time to set up for combat.”

  “We have a small tent,” Tod told Wizard. “Maybe you should use it to sleep.”

  “That’s generous, but I have no need.” Wizard moved his hands in a weaving manner, and a small dome of light formed. He walked into it and lay down, and it covered him like a protective bubble, which it surely was.

  “Then if you girls wish to share the tent?”

  “We have been through this before,” Vanja said. “Strip and lie down.”

  “But we should be resting. We can’t be sure how long it will be, or when we can rest again.”

  “Well take it easy on you tonight,” Vanja said. “Once each. Then we’ll sleep. Good night, Bem.”

  “Good night,” Bem echoed.

  Tod stripped and lay down on his back. Vanja lay on top of him, put his hands on her bottom, kissed him, and soon evoked his ardor. She took him in, seeming to climax with him. Then she moved aside and Veee clasped him, not trying for sex, just kissing and holding him. To his surprise she soon nodded off to sleep, and so did he. It was further confirmation of their trust in each other.

  But later in the night Veee hauled him onto her and into her, and brought him to a gentle climax. Then she slept again, and he did. Vanja, beside them, slept through it, or seemed to. Evidently the two women had worked out their turns beforehand. It was very pleasant.

  Morning came, and all was quiet. Vanja transformed to bat and flew off to scout the enemy. She reported that the pool was quiet. Even the androids had disappeared. What were they up to?

  The day passed without incident. The village was ready for an attack and siege, but none came. Some people were starting to evince impatience. Had their routine been disrupted for nothing?

  They spent a second night waiting. This time Veee did Tod first, and Vanja took her turn hours later after he recovered potency. They were managing him carefully. But where were the androids?

  “I wonder whether we are being too conservative,” Tod said. “Maybe we should raid the pool now, rather than wait for it to act.”

  “I think that would not be wise,” Bem said. “The pool may be trying to provoke us to premature action.”

  “Just how smart is it?”

  “That is difficult to ascertain. It may be programmed to act randomly, so as to catch opposition off-guard. But it will surely act, and have fair impact when it does.”

  “I wonder.”

  Then the attack came. Not large androids, but small ones. Thousands of them. They swarmed out of the forest like an orange carpet.

  “Light the fire!” Tod cried.

  The men lit the fire barrier. But the bugs diverted around it and came on, down into the ditch, up over the rampart. They got on the people, stabbing them with their points. There were screams of pain and horror.

  Most of their prepared defenses were useless. The pool might not have a brain, but it had outsmarted them.

  “Stomp them,” Vanja suggested.

  “Stomp them!” Tod cried to the villagers. “With your hardest shoes. Squish them underfoot!”

  The men did, but there were far too many bugs to stop this way.

  “Burn them with torches,” Wizard suggested.

  “Burn them with torches!” Tod yelled.

  The villagers did, and the acrid smell of burning android flesh suffused the area. But still there were too many.

  “Hot water!” Veee said to Tod.

  “Hot water!” Tod cried. “Boiling if you have it. Pour it on them? Cook them!”

  Women had pots of heated cooking water. The men helped them haul these out, and pour the water on the advancing horde. The bugs collapsed and became inert. They were protoplasm, and could not retain their animation when overheated. Their small size meant that the heat penetrated quickly through their bodies. The water flowed out, catching them in a widening circle before cooling.

  It didn’t get them all, but now the android horde had been decimated, and stomping was more effective on the remainder. The tide was turning. The villagers were winning.

  The surviving bugs retreated. In moments they were gone, uncatchable in the rugged forest. But the battle had been won.

  “Thanks to you!” a villager told Tod. “You told us how!”

  Tod would have corrected him, because it had been the spot advice of the others that did it, but realized that they wanted to believe in a leader. “It isn’t over yet,” he warned them. “This was just the first battle.”

  That night Veee and Vanja nestled close against him from either side. “You were great!” Veee said, kissing his right ear. “Stunning,” Vanja agreed, nibbling without biting his left ear.

  “I was a figurehead. You know that.”

  Each put a leg over his thigh, pressed her breasts against his side, and kissed his neck. “Just keep it up,” Veee said, rubbing against him. “And hard,” Vanja said, catching hold of his member.

  “You think I’m good for only one thing,” he grumbled.

  “Mediocre, but improving,” Vanja said, laughing.

  This time they actually alternated penetrations, each taking him in and squeezing before quickly withdrawing, until he erupted into one of them. “I win!” Veee said.

  “But I was in Vanja,” Tod protested.

  Veee patted his shoulder. “The bet was who could dip you most often without getting caught.”

  They had been playing to avoid the climax, like musical chairs. “You girls are incorrigible.”

  “Well, we love you,” Vanja said. “At least I do a little, and she does a lot.”

  “And I think I love both of you, a little or a lot.”

  They melted against him.

  “Alarm!” Wizard called.

  All three scrambled out of the tent, naked, grabbing for knives. There, illuminated by Wizard’s magic shield, was a single android the size of a rhinoceros. It was barging toward the village.

  “Surprise attack,” Bem said. “Both in the timing and the organization. That is more sophisticated than what we encountered before.”

  “Villagers!” Tod shouted. “Big one attacking! Vacate!”

  There was a rustle as the villagers woke and scrambled. Soon they saw the monster. They tried to flee from it, but it outran them and spiked a man from behind. The man was carried along helplessly, if not already dead, surely doomed.

  “Oh, damn!” Tod swore.

  “The spikes can’t reach below,” Veee said. “If you get six people to attack the legs—”

  “The three of us, and three villagers,” Tod said. “Men, here to me! Do as I do!” He ran toward the monster android.

  Village men joined him, clearly frightened but desperate. The android paused, searching for new prey. It scuttled toward them.

  Tod dived under it and wrapped his arms about one of its trunk-like legs. Vanja followed, catching the leg beside him. Veee caught a third. Three village men caught on, and dived for the remaining legs, clinging tight. The android stood in place, not seeming to understand what was happening.

  “Carve!” Tod yelled, unlimbering his large knife. He stabbed at the rubbery flesh. It yielded reluctantly, but he kept at it, making slow progress.

  The android ran, hauling t
hem along on its sex legs without managing to dislodge them. They continued to carve, and before long the legs started coming off. The monster collapsed and the people scrambled clear of the stabbing upper limbs. They had incapacitated it, and would be able to destroy it at their leisure. It was another victory.

  But obviously the android threat had not been abated. They had won another battle, not the war.

  How were they going to save the villagers, themselves, and the Amoeba? It was Tod’s job to figure that out, but at this stage he wasn’t sure what to do.

  Chapter 6:

  Androids

  Tod left the villagers to reduce the android hulk, chopping at its limbs and body with axes and killing it with buckets of boiling water. This took time, and in the reprieve he called a council of war for the team.

  “I think the android pool has certain hard-wired reactions,” he said. “If one thing is balked, it tries the next on its list, until it finds what works. A single dog-sized bug was stopped, so it tried a swarm of insect sized bugs. When they were stopped, it tried a really massive one. We don’t know what it will try next, but I think we can’t leave the village until we know it is sufficiently protected. Then we’ll go after the pool itself. Are there any suggestions?”

  “You’re doing fine, lover,” Vanja said. “If you crave a spot diversion, I am at your service.” Her painted décolletage slid down to expose more white breast, though it was only a color change. Her body was always exposed, technically.

  “Thank you, vamp.” He did not want to admit that the change excited him despite his knowledge of its nature. She had the finest figure he had ever seen, and knew it. It never stopped tempting him, despite his thorough familiarity with it. “But what I really want from you at the moment is a plan to save the village, or to attack the android pool.”

  She inhaled deeply, making her breasts seem to swell out of their illusory harness. “That’s easy. Extend the wall around to enclose the village, and set big pots heating water at regular intervals, with people to tend them and watch for attacks. They should be able to hold off a siege, once that’s done.”

  “Veee, what’s wrong with that plan?” Tod asked, hoping she would see something he had missed.

  “Not enough water,” Veee said promptly. “They will need a copious supply, which has to be hauled in by the bucketful from the river a quarter mile away. The haulers will get impaled and carried away to make protoplasm.”

  She had come through, thanks to her ability to appreciate the essence of a situation. “And how do we deal with that, Bem?”

  “Either divert the river to intersect the village, or build the fortress beside or across the river.”

  “Which is better, Wizard?”

  “Easier to move the unbuilt fortress than the established river, which the androids could readily undivert if they thought of it.”

  “Do they have the wit to think of it, Bem?”

  “The pool is a creature of flow that just might understand the principle. Best not to risk it.”

  “Move the fortress it is,” Tod agreed. “Now we tell the natives.”

  They did. When a villager questioned the harder work, Tod answered with authority. They got to work.

  But Tod was unsatisfied. “The more time passes, and the stronger the androids get, the more I think it was a mistake to wait on the enemy. We should have gone after the pool at the outset.”

  “Bem and Vanja recommended against it,” Veee reminded him.

  “Yes, and I heeded their advice. But now we know that this pool is different, and probably worse, than what Bem saw or Vanja judged. I think we should raid the pool now. With luck we’ll take it out. If not, at least it will be a distraction while the villagers complete their construction.”

  “I agree,” Bem said. “What worked against the pool in my frame seems not to be working here.”

  “And I am no strategist,” Vanja said. “I should have kept my mouth shut.”

  “No, I want input from all of you,” Tod said. “Then I can make decisions based on the best team information. So now we’ll raid. I am not used to being a leader; I’m learning as I go. I think the pool won’t expect a sudden attack on it, when we’ve been purely defensive so far, so let’s take the most direct route. Our purpose is to get Wizard there so he can bomb the pool. Vanja, lead the way; you know the route.”

  “Follow me,” she said, and set off at a brisk walk.

  They followed. “You’re watching her behind,” Veee murmured.

  “You know I am. But I’ll watch yours too if you care to join her up front.” He patted her bottom. “Especially if you put on that little grass skirt.”

  She smiled, appreciating his appreciation, knowing it was genuine. “Some other time.”

  “Soon.”

  “Soon,” she agreed. He knew she liked being courted, rather than being forced and left.

  The route led into mountainous terrain, where the path became narrow. “I smell android,” Vanja called back. “Be alert.”

  “I am ready,” Wizard said. “However—”

  Then the androids pounced. They erupted out of the foliage front, rear, and to either side, half a dozen bear-sized orange crabs, and closed in with spikes stabbing. Vanja transformed and flew up and clear, but the others were caught. “Wizard!” Tod cried.

  Light flashed. Then Tod, Bem, and Veee sailed up after Vanja’s bat form, floating safely above the androids. But where was Wizard? He had disappeared.

  They floated back down the path. The androids, balked, followed, clicking their spikes. Then the floating became flying, and they zoomed ahead and lost the androids behind.

  They landed. Wizard reappeared. It seemed that he had made himself undetectable so that the androids could not locate him even when he was among them, and ran back down the path while guiding the floaters. “I have exhausted my power,” he said, and collapsed. He had warned them there were limits, which was why he normally used cheap magic, like illusion. He had done what he had to, but seriously depleted himself in the process.

  Tod took over. “I’ll carry him,” he said. “Keep moving so they don’t catch up.”

  “No, I will carry him,” Veee said. “You must be free to fight if they come.” She bent, heaved Wizard over her shoulder, and walked rapidly downhill.

  Tod watched her, amazed. She was solidly constructed, with muscular arms and legs, and had said she could carry well. Now he appreciated how literally she meant that. Wizard was a small man, a relatively light burden, but still this was impressive. “Thank you,” he said faintly.

  Vanja flew down to land on Tod’s shoulder. She was large for a bat, but still small compared to her human form; he had no trouble supporting her. She was facing back, so she could watch the path behind them and alert him the moment anything showed. That meant he could concentrate on moving forward as rapidly as feasible. Bem was gliding rapidly along, having no trouble keeping the pace.

  The androids did not catch up. Tod realized that they might not even have pursued the party, either because they didn’t realize it had landed, or because prey floating away was not what they were programmed for. Programmed responses had their limits, especially when encountering innovative moves.

  They returned to the village. Veee set Wizard down carefully in the little tent. “Bem?” she asked.

  Bem formed the blanket shape and spread itself over Wizard.

  Vanja took off and flew back, reconnoitering. Soon she returned, transformed, and reported that there was no pursuit; the androids had disappeared.

  “Thank you,” Tod said. “And thank you, Veee, for the carrying; that was impressive.”

  She shrugged. “The men of my tribe did not welcome it.”

  Tod took hold of her, enfolded her, and kissed her. “Maybe you are an acquired taste. I have acquired it.” He glanced at Vanja. “And I appreciate your qualities too. You really helped by alerting us.”

  “We all contribute in the manner the Amoeba must have intended,” she
said.

  “That is surely the case,” he agreed. “But it seems your original advice was good: I messed things up.”

  “None of us were expecting an ambush,” Veee said.

  “They saw us coming,” he said. “Or the pool’s program did. It must have had prior experience of that sort. I was thinking the androids were stupid, and they are, but the pool is savvy about this sort of thing. I should have anticipated that.” He took a deep breath. “Now Wizard is out of commission, so we can’t try to bomb the pool until he recovers. We’ll have to continue our defensive measures for a day or three, depending on how long he takes.”

  “But he did save us,” Veee said. “He is a valuable member of the team.”

  “He certainly is,” Tod agreed. “All of you are.”

  They returned to work helping the villagers build the fortress.

  Something odd happened. A pack of wolfkeys came through, causing the villagers to grab their weapons, but did not attack. Instead they ran on by as if pursued.

  “What would make those predators flee?” Tod asked, surprised.

  “Androids,” Vanja said succinctly.

  A wolf-sized android appeared. It too ignored the armed villagers and moved on in evident pursuit of the wolfkeys.

  “They are going after the easier prey first,” Veee said.

  “At least they are showing us some respect,” Vanja said.

  Then they heard the growling and howling.

  “Vanja,” Tod said.

  She transformed and took off. Soon she was back. “And the androids chased them into a trap,” she said. “We represent the back part of it; a larger band of androids is the front part, forming a semi-circle. Neat ploy.”

  “Using us to help complete their enclosure,” Tod said. “If that’s not intelligence, it’s a program to be respected and feared.”

  “The latter, I think,” Bem said.

  “But the difference between intelligence and a program,” Veee said, “is that we should be able to outsmart the program. Probably it developed to surround and capture prey, and we were here, so it used us, maybe without even realizing that we weren’t more androids in the larger scheme.”