The Genetic Imerative

by P. Joseph Cherubino

  Rachel noticed Chase was staring at her.

  “What’s on your mind, General?” Rachel asked mildly. Her old friend was deep in thought.

  “Colonel Balanik, have you ever met any lizard people?” the General asked.

  He delivered the question with a serious face, but the question was out of character. Rachel decided it was a joke. Major Spivey noted the question also and cocked his head in the General’s direction. The Major also found the question strange.

  “Well, no. I can’t say that I have, General Breslin. I have encountered cold-blooded sentient beings, and I have encountered some with scales, but I wouldn’t say they qualified as ‘lizard people’ in the classical sense,” Rachel replied, humoring him.

  “Have you been watching science fiction movies lately, General?” Donna asked, obviously amused.

  They all noticed Ray had turned his head toward the General with that praying mantis-like motion. Ray also seemed interested in the question.

  “No,” the general replied, “I was just curious. I made a bet with Sergeant Nichols; that’s all,”

  The General shifted his gaze to something apparently interesting on the unfinished metal of the bulkhead.

  Rachel laughed and shook her head. She thought the man was developing a goofy sense of humor in his old age. They noticed that Ray had raised his hands to his throat and was making a grasping gesture with his four-fingered hands. He wanted his voice box. General Breslin patted him on the shoulder.

  “Sure thing, Ray,” Chase said, and reached up to press a call button on the wall above his head.

  A minute later, Staff Sergeant Roja opened the compartment door. Their compartment was lightly soundproofed, and the roar of flight from the cargo bay filled the little compartment.

  “How can I help you, General Breslin, Sir?” Sergeant Roja shouted.

  “The Ambassador would like his voice box. Please make that happen, Sergeant Roja,” Chase shouted back.

  The order took a few minutes. Ray could have carried his own translator internally that would synthesize a human voice from his native speech. Most of his vocalizations were above the frequency of human hearing range. Ray found that letting the humans keep his voice made them more comfortable.

  The voice box was a rectangular device mounted on a collar which Ray wore around his neck. The device would translate Ray’s voice into human speech. He had developed a simplified and selective lexicon from his native tongue that was associated with a very large vocabulary of human words programmed into the device. Communicating with the translator was very effective and comfortable for Ray because he could simply speak in a limited form of his own language. He was able to express fairly complex ideas through the translator. Ray would allow always a human to place the collar on him. He found it was psychologically comforting for humans to see Ray wearing the device. He learned early on that human cooperation required him to be as non-threatening as possible.

  Sergeant Rojas appeared again in the passenger compartment with a young female corporal who carried the collar. She was an Air Force soldier assigned to Major Spivey’s staff. Roja motioned her forward, and she approached Ray very slowly.

  “Corporal Liss,” Rachel said, “Is this your first experience with an exo?”

  The corporal nodded rapidly, so nervous she forgot military courtesy in her response. Rachel gave her a reassuring smile, “Just follow your training, Corporal. The Ambassador appreciates your service,” and with that, Ray nodded his head, then lifted his chin a bit to grant the Corporal better access to his neck.

  The Corporal swallowed hard and approached. She efficiently strapped on the collar and tightened it carefully. She activated a small slider switch on the bottom of the device and waited for its status light to turn from amber to green.

  “Is this comfortable, Ambassador?” she asked politely.

  Ray’s synthesized voice came back loud and clear. The device could change volume based on ambient noise as well as manual control. “Yes. This is fine. Thank you, Corporal Liss,” Ray said in his synthesized voice.

  He didn’t have lips. His mouth contained no tongue. From a distance, it seemed as if he had no mouth at all. Humans found this disconcerting. His people vocalized through structures in the throat similar to vocal cords. These structures produced ultrasonic waves that resonated in the mouth against a low palate covered with very thin skin. The dense bone of Ray’s skull beneath his small sinus cavity formed this palate that reflected sound against two taut flaps of skin stretched across a mouth opening. The mouth flaps could be manipulated by fine muscle fibers that ran through the skin from the skull and lower jaw almost to the center of each flap. Stretching and relaxing this skin allowed high-frequency vibrations to be modulated in order to form mathematical expressions analogous to words.

  The mouth skin could be opened to accept food and liquids, but the lower jaw bone was almost fused to the skull and had very little mobility. It had taken Ray many years to learn how to separate his mouth flaps into a very thin line that vaguely resembled a human smile. He found that doing this while nodding his head at a slight angle produced brain waves from humans indicating a reduction in fear and anxiety. He tried to make the gesture as much as possible.

  Ray formed his version of a smile and nodded his head. He noticed a distinct increase in the Corporal’s comfort. The Corporal smiled back and left. Ray waited for both the Sergeant and Corporal to leave and close the compartment door before he gave the collar a slight adjustment to make it more comfortable. He had also learned to tell white lies.

  “Sorry, Ray. We should have done that sooner,” General Breslin said.

  “Not at all, General. We are all in a great hurry,” Ray replied. His simulated voice sounded somewhat human, but more like a machine. Ray and the human engineers and linguists who together designed the device didn’t give too much effort to the sound itself. They were more interested in the translation algorithms. The voice was slightly on the male side of androgyny.

  “Well,” Rachel began, “Here we all are. We have about a four-hour flight ahead of us. We might as well get started. What’s going on, Ray?”

  It was hard to tell what Ray was thinking. His physical stillness and expressionless face did not give humans much to read. Waiting for Ray to respond to a question was sometimes an exercise in patience. A few minutes went by. Sometimes his answers were long and cryptic, other times they were short and to the point. What Ray said next made Rachel wish instead for a long and cryptic answer.

  “The Silicoids are sentient,” Ray said. Everyone froze. Major Spivey held his breath. Donna’s eyes were wide. Chase was squinting intensely and Rachel simply sat there looking shocked and numb.

  “How do you know this?” the General asked, all business.

  “Recent behavior in conflict demonstrates this. They now exhibit strategy and forethought. They also sent us a message,” Ray responded with uncharacteristic speed.

  “A message?” Donna asked. She was as bewildered as the rest.

  “Yes,” Ray replied, his head swiveling slowly in Donna’s direction as if by hydraulics. “It was difficult to translate. It was difficult to detect. The message came through the entanglement device.”

  Major Spivey shot forward in his jump seat. If he were not strapped in, he would have been on his feet. “How can that be? How was the message formatted? How did you detect it and how did you confirm it was from them?”

  “These are excellent questions,” Ray began like a college professor. “The answers will require more time to explain. This is one reason I have asked to meet with you.”

  “What does this mean?” Rachel asked.

  They were surprised to hear Ray answer, “Inconclusive. We do not know. This is a recent development that yielded fewer facts than questions.”

  “How recent?” Chase asked.

  “The message was received three Earth months ago. The same time that new behavior was observed.” Ray answered.

  “But how?” M
ajor Spivey demanded.

  “To return to your set of questions Major Spivey,” Ray replied, “the message was received at our end of the entanglement device. We know that your side of the device did not receive this message. The message itself was in my language. It was not encoded in a machine protocol. It would be your equivalent of an analog voice communication. It was detected as oscillation patterns in the entanglement media. Upon examination of these patterns, we discovered frequencies that matched our vocal range.”

  “But what did it say?” it was Donna who demanded an answer this time as she leaned forward against the jump seat straps.

  “The message was: ‘You hurt me.’” Ray stated.

  They all sat for a while. Nobody made eye contact. They all stared into some faraway place, trying to understand this development that, if true, changed fundamental assumptions.

  Major Spivey shook his head. “This makes no sense,” he said, “The Advocates have fought Silicoid entities for thousands of years. In all, this time, it has propagated very much like a fungus with an aggressive immune system. All of its reactions have been reflexive and instinctive. How could it suddenly develop self-awareness?”

  “We know that Silicoid life exists on a planetary scale. While we view it as a macro entity, it is likely that it views us as microbial life. It does not occur to humanoids to establish communication with microbes. It seems that the Silicoid now realizes that we are also sentient. This is our hypothesis.

  “Entities,” Major Spivey pointed out, “We view the Silicoids as multiple entities. You are referring to it as a single entity. Why are you now using the singular?”

  “Because,” Ray said, “this new development is strong evidence to support that the Silicoid is a single entity. We are currently exploring this hypothesis. Your previous analogy of the fungus is apt. We now believe that the Silicoid may be connected across space-time. The destructive infections that we see are merely blooms. The entity itself seems to exist within the fabric of space-time.”

  “Oh my God,” Major Spivey said, turning pale. He was not a religious man.

  “How do we fight this?” Chase asked, always the practical man.

  Ray thought for a moment. “This must be decided. The efforts of the Advocates so far have merely slowed the Silicoid advance. Without the Advocates, DNA-based life would have faded out long ago. But now that the Silicoid understands that its adversary is self-aware, it has developed tactics. It has changed. We must change with it.”

  Rachel brought up another important set of points. “We have word from our contacts on Homesphere that the Seed Mission is going forward. It appears that the Queen has assigned Dissidents to this mission. This looks like a desperate move to co-opt the Dissident position. Instead, it looks as if the Queen’s move has caused a greater rift.

  Our informant reports that one General Olthan is prepared to defy the Queen directly. This informant believes that Olthan will try to destroy this mission and replace it with her own. Olthan is commander of an Orbital Fleet. She commands millions of Advocates. So this development also represents a completely unforeseen development.”

  “Olthan’s move is not completely unforeseen, but it is very dangerous,” Ray replied.

  “What do you mean?” snapped Rachel.

  “We also have contact with elements within Homesphere,” Ray said, “These elements report that the Queen is willing to take this risk. She understands that her moves were likely to cause open revolt.”

  “Ray, why did you not tell us of your contacts with the Advocates?” the General asked, accusation in his voice.

  “Please forgive me, General. It was a condition of this contact that we not share this information. I tell you now because of this dire situation,” Ray replied.

  “OK. So we now have two fundamental shifts. We now have an enemy that defies our core assumptions about it, and our major defensive line against this enemy appears close to breaking. Where do we start?”

  Ray had a ready answer. “These developments now demand a direct human response. For the first time, it also demands a direct response from my people as well. This implies the application of population to the issue. Not only in force, but in, as you say “intellectual capital.” You would call this a war effort.

  We must first decide how to bring this information to the Program at large. Our sources within the Advocates believe that Olthan may take direct control of Earth. This would be an expedient strategy. She has also come to the conclusion that increased populations must be applied to the problem. The risk here is that a direct occupation of Earth would likely render this planet inviable.

  This Unit must present a case to the international community. The work of our meeting in the medium term is to build this case. How we present this information will shape the human response going forward.”

  “My God,” Major Spivey exclaimed again. He grew paler.

  “Off the top of my head,” General Breslin said, “this means full disclosure protocol. I don’t see any way around it. This means all Units: Russia, United Kingdom, European Union, China, Japan, The Vatican, Peru, Brazil, Iran, all now have to come on home. We have only just begun integration between all these Units. We barely have a consensus beyond secrecy as it is.

  What’s going to happen when world governments are exposed to the work of the Units? Now this rogue general wants to occupy Earth? This is far beyond the worst-case scenario.”

  General Breslin always did have a talent for incisive summation.

  Nobody in the tiny passenger compartment had an answer for this. They all sat weighed down by new and dreadful information. They were barely an hour into their flight, and the world was drastically changed. Donna and Ray sat staring at each other as the engine drone filled the space between them all. Eventually Donna cast eyes away into some unknown space. Major Spivey produced a small notepad and scribbled thoughts onto its pages while General Breslin closed his eyes and contemplated impossible strategies. Rachel closed her eyes and appeared to doze off. That was how they spent their four-hour-long flight.

  The pilot announced their landing a half hour before touchdown. Staff Sergeant Roja poked his head into the compartment and reported that they would have an airstrip to themselves. Two of the Unit’s silenced Blackhawks were already idling at the end of the airstrip.

  General Breslin issued orders. The incursion team would head back to Fort Meade and some of its personnel would slip back into their regular units while others would remain on task monitoring the disinformation campaign from this latest incursion. Another Unit section would escort Donna, Rachel Ray and the General to their station in Maryland. The farmhouse tucked away on federal land would become their command station for managing this new crisis. It was their doomsday station. Rachel would have everything they needed there.

  The plane touched down perfectly and taxied to a stop. A few minutes later, the ramp lowered with a hydraulic whine. Soldiers wasted no time leaving the plane, especially Penny. Sergeant Roja appeared again after the Humvees rolled carefully down the ramp and took up positions around the plane. Fully armed Unit soldiers in black fatigues stood flanking the ramp. Ray had already released the straps of his jump seat and was slowly moving to stand. The rest were on their feet heading into the cargo bay.

  Sergeant Roja and Corporal Liss helped Ray along into the white van idling in the hold while other soldiers released its tie-down straps.

  “Football inbound. Status flight?” Sergeant Roja keyed his radio and spoke.

  “We have eyes on. Waiting for clear,” came the response.

  That wasn’t a good sign. That meant that some unauthorized personnel on base had a clear view of their operation and was checking them out. Their activity was highly unusual, so soldiers would notice, whether instructed or not. The pause also meant that somebody, or several somebodies, were about to get chewed out and told to mind their own business. Roja waited patiently.

  “OK. Flight one. Clear. Safe to roll.”

  “Cop
y,” Roja said and pounded twice on the side of the van.

  It would be a short jog for the humans, but they couldn’t parade a slow-moving extraterrestrial across the tarmac, even in late evening no matter how many people were discouraged from watching. Ray would have to take the van while the rest jogged. The van slowly pulled out of the plane. Once all four wheels were on the tarmac, it accelerated rapidly and turned toward the waiting helicopters. The rest trotted down the ramp and followed.

  The copters were only thirty meters away. By the time the rest of the group reached them, Ray was already aboard. The soldiers were folding up the black canvass sheet they used to cover Ray as he boarded. Two fully armed Unit security soldiers already sat in the back of the Blackhawk while six others made a circle around both aircraft. Sergeant Roja checked in with the rest of his teams.

  “General Breslin, you are good to go!” Roja shouted over the engine noise.

  “Thank you Staff Sergeant Roja!” the General shouted back. “I will see you at the station!” And the General closed the Blackhawk door. They lifted off.

  The Blackhawks rose slowly above the tarmac as they checked in with the control tower. They had reached about a thousand feet before they were cleared to proceed. They headed quickly northeast and climbed to their planned altitude. The copilots opened a secure channel between the two aircraft.

  “Flight two, this is flight one.”

  “Copy.”

  “We are ready to go dark. Transponder check?”

  “Looks good over here. Transponder decoy is ready. Sync in count 5?”

  “That sounds good flight two. Standby by for pairing,” The copilot of flight one said, and flicked the switch that would pair the two transponders. Once paired, the transponder on flight two would become primary and shut down flight one’s transponder, then simulate a radar signal for the other helicopter. Flight two would appear as two aircraft flying in tight formation.