by Jay Morris
A Binder-gun was a device that heated special alloy rods, fired them through various construction materials, where there would expand on either end so that the pieces where squeezed together. The gun was able to detect the strength of materials being bound and only provide sufficient force to overcome the shear strength rating of even the most puncture resistant laminates, thus piercing the material and placing the centroid of the rod in the center of the materials being bound, if the materials were thicker than the length of the rod then the centroid would be placed at the seam. A truly remarkable piece of technology. One he was curious to see the effect of on living tissue.
It had only been by coincidence some technicians saw smoke rising from a mountain not far from their established colonization site. A scout found that at least 20 of the monsters were hiding in a long, curvilinear structure that followed the shore line of a modest sized lake at the top of that mountain. It was unknown if the smoke was for weaponry, food preparation or warmth since the weather had turned cold.
He had been unable to get the Defender to crouch or even crawl just in case the Aggressives were to see them approach but luckily the trees were of sufficient height to prevent that. His Da-Nah stopped, there was one of their black fabricated trails in front of them and past that was some artificially shortened grasses and then more black trails next to the structure. The monsters were moving from chamber to chamber, probably planning a nefarious attack on his pod although they had not yet shown their aggressive nature, it was only a matter of time. He had seen the optical reports from the nearby attack sites and the horrible destruction of the peninsular attack. It was not Da-Nah but he wanted to watch the monsters die, choking on their disgusting red blood for their own barbaric actions.
Director 17 flashed to the others, confidence, then motioned for the attack to begin, the Defender lead the way, the Aggressives began to scream their war cries and they dispersed, probably to spread out his people but they had been warned to stay together. The Defender had nearly reached the cubicles when an aggressive appeared, a long and dangerous looking projectile weapon in his grasp. The acoustic effect was tremendous, he fired once, twice, three, four times into the chest of the Defender but it had only minimal effect. The director was excited but his reactions changed instantly when one of his technicians ran to attack the armed aggressive.
“Insistive-Urgent-Locative-Negation-Immediate, Comply-Technician 17-22
Insistive-Urgent-…”
He flashed immediate compliance but it was too late, before he could repeat his order the blast from the 3” magnum, 12 gauge shotgun tore the technician apart, it was as if he had swallowed the explosive because only bits of him remained, the aggressive tried to do something with the weapon but the Defenders massive fist smashed it into a puddle of shattered bone, mashed flesh and blood.
Director 17 flashed pain, he scented grief, and he staggered from the emotion. He looked around, the Defender was crushing cubical after cubical, the screams of the vile Aggressives, filled the air. He looked to his left and saw the idiot underlings chasing some of the Aggressives into the forest instead of into the trap. He flashed anger, but when he looked to the right he saw that his technicians had captured seven of the vile things. There were two last blasts from a smaller projectile weapon, but resistance ceased as the Defender brought one enormous foot down on the monster crushing it into the wreckage where it had been trapped.
He looked back at the worthless underlings futilely banging their light sticks into the ground. Useless. Their light emissions did more to hide the escaping aggressive than anything else. He would not make the same mistake again. He walked over to where his technicians surrounded the prisoners. He looked at them, they were making sounds that made no sense and some were flashing pink curiosity, and this infuriated him. They had a liquid, a venom perhaps, coming from their eyes. There were two females, four young and what he guessed to be an adolescent male. They came in various colors and shades, their speech was grinding upon him. There were not Da-Nah, they were an abomination.
“Insistive-Statement-Factual Indigenous-Life-Aggressive-Female-Young Terminate”
Director 17 said to the laser armed technician as he waved at the loudest of the screeching Aggressives. The technician flashed green swirls but obeyed, the ruby red laser silently severed the females head, and it thumped to the ground and rolled to the Director 17’s feet. It looked up at him, its eyes wide as if it were underling. That was when things went wrong, the adolescent male screamed and rose from the ground in a fury, and it used a fist to strike a beautiful and kind female technician whose name, “Ta-Ah-Za”, meant “star-song”.
Her jaw exploded and bone shards were driven into her brain, she would die in moments. The other Aggressives tried to escape and his frightened technicians reacted in the same way anyone would. They struck with whatever they had, the slaughter was incredible. The adolescent tackled another technician and broke his arm in three places but before it could throttle the technician a binding rod exploded from his forehead, as the rod attempted to bind the front and back of the monsters skull, its head was crushed with a sickening sound. One female tried to protect its young but was beaten to death for the effort. Its young quickly followed it to the last transformation, if that indeed was their fate.
The last female tried to run but the Defender caught it and the infant young it carried in both hands, then it crushed them together. Finally there was only one aggressive left, it stood there, trembling, it excreted waste, and produced venom from its eyes; at least it did not make that awful sound. It just stood there clutching a simulated female, one fourth its own size. It was a pale cream color with long, curly fur on its head that reached to its shoulders that reminded the Director of a hot mud pit oozing its foul contents on the ground. Its eyes were multihued green and blue which made no sense at all so the Director 17 held out its hand and a technician put the laser cutter in it. The Da-Nah encircled it, the tiny monster looked up at them one at a time, and its trembling lips made it appear as if it were afraid. At last it looked back at the Director who used the laser to cut her in half from the top of the head to the crotch. Each piece of it had one arm, one leg, and one eye. Each half held its own half of the doll.
The Director turned and saw the stupid underlings in a line, watching them. What useless and pointless beings they were, he could not believe the theory that in the long distant past of the Da-Nah pre-history, the Da-Nah and the underlings had a common ancestor, ridiculous.
Day 37, Continued, West Virginia Welcome Center
The afternoon was weird, Amy and Diane were arguing over some big secret, which everyone knew was Karen and my physical relationship or more accurately lack thereof. Carl and Tucker were looking over that SMAW rocket thing, trying to read the manual or whatever. Silent Bob was sitting between Lucy and Gina at a tea party while the two girls conducted an argument about if husbands should be allowed to speak at the table or not. If you have ever heard the word “frump” then you know what expression Bob was wearing. I thought about sneaking up to the roof to be with Karen but Amy had one eye fixed on me at all times, like I was a perv who liked getting naked in freezing weather on the roof of a rest stop.
That was when I realized the gray was missing, I went into the store room but he wasn’t there. I then checked both rest rooms, no joy. Finally I looked in the office where Carl slept, at first I didn’t see him, but I smelled a strange odor, like musty wood and lilacs. Then I saw him, he was on his knees facing the corner behind a big metal file cabinet whose push lock was missing. “Hey buddy?” I said, in response he covered his eyes with both hands and scooted into the corner even more. I tried to touch him but he flinched away, something was really wrong, I opened the door enough that I could see the others and still keep an eye on him. I called to Amy and Diane, I told them it was important, implying their discussion was not, by the way. Then I called to the three youngest, Silent Bob was most eager to help, and Lucy and Gina ran in along in with him.
We g
athered around him with Amy and the girls closest to him, Amy asked
“What’s wrong with him?”
“How would I know?”
I snapped immediately regretting my harsh tone.
“Mr. gray?” Lucy said and she gently touched his shoulder, in response the little guy seemed to shrink even more, his robes hiding nearly all of him by then.
“What is wrong Mr. gray?” Lucy asked.
Gina said “We won’t hurt you or be mad or anything”
Still he remained motionless, with his little three fingered hands covering his eyes. Diane whispered
“Did he have an accident?”
Amy gave her a frustrated look so Diane said
“Well there is a funky smell” apologetically.
Gina said “He smells the way he feels, now when he is happy he smells like Tang.”
“You have got to be kidding me.” Tuckers deep rumbling voice made all of us jump but most of all the gray.
Tucker and Weir had joined the rest of us out of curiosity I suppose. We explained the situation and to Amy and Lucy’s consternation he ordered everyone else out. A long ten minutes went by, Amy said she would give them five more then she was going in no matter what
“That old man had to say about it”
The five minutes were nearly up when the door opened and the gray came out, he approached us where we had gathered at the counter, he stood at attention with his head bowed and his hands in front of him palms up. A moment later Tucker came out, looking pale, and thin and tired, his limp was quite severe still. He walked by the alien and just as he passed him he patted him on the shoulder in a very gentle way and said,
“It wasn’t your fault, you and your people didn’t do this.”
He went over to the counter and said
“Why don’t you three go give our friend here a nice big glass of Tang.”
To Silent Bob and the girls, there was a “Yea!” and an “Oh boy!” then the three took the alien into the storage room for the tasty treat.
“He drew these” Tucker said rolling out several sheets of paper on to the counter.
“Before he went into that room, I think he was just scared at how we might react to them.”
We gathered around, gone were the stick figures and boxlike buildings, the art was not photo-realistic by any means but it was still very easy to make things out, the detail was impressive and disturbing. The pages in succession told the story of a merciless attack on a large group of survivors. The death of a little girl holding a doll on the last page was the worst. Amy pointed out the strange splotches of color coming from the ground at the feet of some grays as the chased some people into the woods.
“What is that?” she asked.
“I think the grays were surreptitiously helping those people to escape.” Tucker said.
“Wow, this was vicious” Diane said.
“It sure was” Tucker added. “Where was this?” Carl asked. Tucker flipped the last page over where it was clear Tucker had outlined most of the East Coast, there was a little gray circle, a red X, and some mushrooms drawn in pen in Florida. Tucker said
“This is us” pointing at the circle, “or at least I think it is”.
“This is the attack” he said pointing to the X. “That would put it somewhere around Blacksburg, I don’t know”.
Amy asked “What about these?” as she tapped the little blue mushrooms.
“I think”, Tucker paused, “I think those are nuclear strikes.”
Day 37, Continued, Storage Area, West Virginia Welcome Center
“Statement-Factual Ramifications-Data/Factual Quality/Quantity-Expected-Exceeded.”
“Query-Factual Quantity-Data-Exchange”
“Statement-Factual Data-Exchange-Quantity-Estimation (1.0)
“Statement-Factual Response-Astonishment.”
“Statement-Response-Agreed”
“Statement-Response-Agreed”
“Permissive-Query Estimation-Fear-Quotient (Da-Nah/Life Form Aggressive)”
“Statement-Estimation-Quantity (0.75)”
“Tuh-Ker”
“Statement-Tuh-Ker-Negative Estimation-Quantity-Affirmed”
“Query-Aid-Assistance-Ally-We Potential.”
“Quantity-Probability-Estimation (.50).”
The gray sat quietly, his face as impassive as ever, but he was happy, well, perhaps a joy born of relief. He had told the Indigenous-Life-Forms every detail possible of the Da-Nah attack and massacre of their distant siblings. They had once more exceeded his wildest estimations, they understood, they truly understood, it was mind boggling. He was communicating with aliens. He felt no fear in being with them and the fact the Da-Nah feared them more than the Indigenous feared the Da-Nah was reassuring, and it fanned the fire of hope among the underling. The largest male had sat with him, had made no move to attack, all it did was sit and wait until he could dredge up the courage to tell him of the massacre. Still it did not attack or hold the underling responsible. Now if the underling and the powerful indigenous life Aggressives could find the way to work together, then the underling would be underling no more. That and they had Ta-Ang.
Day 37, Continued, Command Area, Vehicle 1-3
The report given by Director 17 pertaining to his attack on the nest of monsters caused a great deal of excitement; at first. As the Director answered questions and filled in more details Director 1 began to feel more and more a sense of unease. He looked over to Director 20 who was trying to repress her flashes of concern, he didn’t blame her one bit. There was something he was missing he just could not identify it, it drove him nearly mad.
The other directors complimented and questioned and tried to take Director 17’s actions as the frame work for a new protocol. As the meeting went on he began to realize that Director 17s actions were hasty, unwarranted and foolish. His region had been quiet, but he was sure that with the escape of a significant number of monsters, in a very short period of time it no longer would be. He rubbed his head, the pain behind his eyes was returning. Before he could control himself he flashed irritation so vividly all conversation ceased.
“Insistive-Broadcast-(Director 1, All Directors) Composite :{
Protocols-Original-Unauthorized-Denied,
Actions-Defender-Offensive-Denied
Actions-Defender-Pod-Defense-Amenable};
Communication-Status-Continuation List-Directors-[2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 20]
List-Complement Communication-Status-Cease-Chronal (0.0)”
The other Directors logged off immediately but before he could say another word, Colonization Ship 9’s, Director 1 logged in, there was fire in the back ground and he was bleeding profusely, his flashes were not making sense from the shock and pain he was suffering. The signal was breaking up, and hard to understand.
“Insistive-Broadcast-**Ship 9**ector 1, Da-Nah-Any) Iterate**gressives Status-attack”
“Permissive-Communication-Status-Deffective-Resend-Required”
“***weap***hicle ***ist-Pods[1, 4, 7], Estim**Survival-Quant**0.0)”
“Permissive-Status-Update Communication-Quantity-Validity (0.33)”
“S**s-Quan***Defender-Destroyed(******aged-(1)”
Director 1 was about to ask for clarification when ship 9’s Director 1 changed the view to outside of his vehicle. The image was unsteady and was as badly broken up by interference as the previous communication was. The Director sat back in his seat, he was struck dumb by what he saw; two huge metal vehicles crawl across the screen, they appeared to be using some type of chain, or linked drive belt. They were loud and rapid fire projectiles were coming from a weapon manned by an aggressive, it was standing in a hatch located in an inverted oblate hemisphere. If a Da-Nah or underling were struck they seemed to blow apart in a cloud of blue and gray mist. There was also an enormous metal tube projecting from the hemisphere that the Director feared was a giant projectile weapon as well. A deafening roar, followed by flames from it quickly confirmed his worst fears.<
br />
A moment later the vehicle type 2 of the pod disintegrated after being struck by the giant projectile. The Pods Defender attacked, it bent the weapon upwards, the vehicle tried to run the Defender over, but the biotech was able to grasp the front of it and with tremendous effort flip the nearly 70 ton tank on its back.
Suddenly the second machine ground into sight, the Defender charged but the rapid fire weapon tore the Defenders left arm off, a moment later the main gun fired and the Defenders chest exploded, its severed head was sent flying into the air and the Defender’s corpse fell from sight. The gun began to turn towards the camera when the image shifted back to the wounded Director.
“Permissive-***”
Was all they heard and saw, a tremendous explosion and the screen went black. Director 1 put his face in his hands, what new horror had the monsters unleashed?
Day 38, West Virginia Welcome Center, 2AM
I was dreaming of blackberry pie, really I was, and milk so cold it was giving me an ice cream headache, and then I wasn’t. I was laying on a pallet made of three wool Army blankets and Karen was nudging me in the ribs with the toe of her combat boot.
“Shush, get up. We have to talk.” she whispered.
I looked up at her in the darkness, she was only visible as an outline but of course there was no denying her, not for me at least, not ever. So I got up and followed her into the office. She shut the door behind her and locked it.
“Where’s Weir?” I asked.
“Over watch,” she said. She lit an oil lamp on the filing cabinet next to the door. Weir had covered the windows with cardboard for “light discipline” so that was the only light at all.
She leaned against the door.
“I have to ask you a couple of questions.”
“Okay,” I said.
She didn’t move at all, but said,
“And I want you to think about them before you answer, and tell me the absolute truth.”
Her voice sounded ominous, worried, so I took her seriously,
