Afraid of the Dark

by Chris Hechtl

  “A fascinating creature. Unfortunately we don't have material from our own people, or samples so we have to go off what others have picked up off the net.”

  “Really?”

  “Its a drone or nurse,” Yan said, picking up her tablet and calling up the footage. She leaned over to watch. There was a brief scene of something centaur like taking care of eggs under a mushroom. A rather large mushroom. The mushroom was easily the size of a mature Californian redwood. Not a good sign.

  “The fascinating thing is that the eggs it is tending aren't even its eggs. It enacts a symbiotic relationship with other species. In exchange for protection and food it cares for the alien's young and farms.”

  “Really?” Jen asked surprised. “I've heard about something similar in Terran ecology but it is extremely rare.”

  “Symbiotic relationships? Oh you mean caring for another's young. Yes, well, we could assume that it is like the Terran CooCoo, but I don't think that's the case here. I think the original premise that it is some sort of nurse for other species is correct. That however brings up all sorts of questions.”

  They debated the intelligence of the aliens for a while. It got rather involved and eventually got the better of Jen and she had to retire. She was pale and annoyed at her body. She couldn't quite stop the tremors.

  Jayne scowled as she entered the lab. “You know it’s well past lunch?” she asked, annoyed. “And you don't have the energy reserves of a healthy adult. Jen you can't push your body. The chemo sucked a lot out of you last year. You know that.”

  Doctor Phillips and Yan stood, suddenly contrite. Jen opened her mouth to argue but sighed instead. “I'm just going to make her go eat and relax. I know she's excited,” Jayne said as she nodded to the two men. “Next time though make it a lunch discussion please.” Jayne steered her by the elbow, removing her from the discussion deftly. After she rested she admitted, when she woke, that she had needed it.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “We need a study,” Jen said at the next group session in the lab.

  “Study?” Nate asked. Doctor Phillips nodded.

  “What she means is a study group. We need to take a Gremlin and put it in a lab and test its intelligence,” he explained. “Put it through rigorous testing similar to intelligence testing of primates.”

  “Not just a Gremlin,” Jen said leaning forward, tablet in her lap. She had seen that done before. Yes it would be good to test one, but she knew better than to try to get Shane and the others to agree to it. No, for this they had to start small. They turned their attention to her. “We need to study all the aliens. Their life cycles, food intake, reproduction, maturation, fears, behaviors, intelligence, all of it.”

  “But how do we go about that? I mean...” Vanessa looked from one person to another.

  “Someone somewhere may be doing it now,” Phillips said slowly. “I was more concerned with the alien Gremlins. They have primate level intelligence from the reports and the video of that test you showed me. I remember it now,” he admitted. “At least that has been brooded about. I'd like to see for myself before taking someone's word for it. Not that they aren't right.” He glanced at Vanessa and Jen.

  “Tool use doc. Tool use is a definite sign of primate level intelligence. Problem solving? May I remind you of that video or the others?” Jen asked, cocking her head.

  He looked a little embarrassed but stubbornly held his ground. “Its one piece of evidence. We don't have laboratory proof.”

  “Sometimes field notes are the only thing to go on doc,” Nate said patiently. “I'd rather not have a Gremlin running around in this place.” He waved to indicate the mall. “Even a tame one. The damn things are built to kill. You can't say that about a chimp. Yes, they can be dangerous, but not at this level,” he said firmly. “These things cannot be trusted. They are too smart. They'd turn on us in a second if they could.”

  “He's right,” Jen said as the doctor's jaw clenched. “No way my husband or the others would go for it. But what we can do is possibly set up a series of buildings or corrals as test labs. Lock them down so the animals can't get out, and wire them with video and testing gear so we can remote observe twenty four seven,” she suggested.

  “Um... oh I was going to say that I didn't want to be out somewhere but that makes sense,” Vanessa said nodding. “Remote observing I mean,” she said clarifying herself.

  “It does,” Nate said glancing at the doctor.

  “You're talking about setting up a remote observation lab?” the doctor asked rubbing his chin.

  “We can start small doc, something harmless like an herbivore,” Nate urged. “Start with a young specimen or two and watch it grow and make notes on it.”

  “Not all herbivores are cute and cuddly Nate,” Jen said snorting. She'd heard about that incident with the Medusa puppy. Someone had gotten to it during the carnival and killed it. Doctor Phillips had been angry for a while about it. “Some apparently have poison sacks and spines,” she cautioned.

  “Exactly!” he said getting excited. “When do they get these in their life cycle??! If we feed one, a control let’s say, if we feed it a steady diet, and another a varied diet, which food groups does it prefer to eat? Are any poisonous to it? Is citrus really poisonous to them? How much? What's its calorie intake versus growth chart? How many calories do they really use and how many go into growth or reproduction? How much is expended in their waste? Can we compare the control and the experiments? How will they behave?”

  “I see where this is going,” the doctor said nodding. I even agree. Setting up with a simple animal and getting the procedures down is wiser than just jumping in with a predator or potential tool user,” he said. He turned to Jen. “But wasn't it you that pointed out we need data on the predators first? That we need to get data, any data and suppositions into the right hands as soon as possible?”

  “I've been wrong before,” she said smiling a little. “But in this case it is wise to start slow. I for one would like to know if they are hermaphrodites or not. Are they a binary sexual organism or what? And taking small steps is as you said, wise. We can narrow down the things we need to ask and work out the containment procedures.”

  “What do we do if the building is attacked?” Vanessa asked. They looked at her. “I mean from the outside.”

  “Good question,” Nate said nodding. “What do we do?”

  “If its at night and it gets through our defenses, not a lot I'm afraid,” Jen said with a grimace. “I don't suggest risking a life just to defend an experiment. Its termination could also add data though. If the video feed is up...” She paused to cough.

  “We can monitor the animal’s reactions and the predators hunting behavior. I see,” Nate said as Vanessa helped Jen get a glass of water.

  “Agreed,” the doctor said. “And we need not limit ourselves to one building as you said. We can set up a series of buildings to do this research. But where?” he asked.

  “For smaller buildings there is a medical complex down Fredrick near the apartments,” Nate said waving.

  “Won't work, single story,” Vanessa said, rubbing Jen's back and shoulders.

  “Why not?” Nate asked. “Its perfect!”

  “Too close,” Jen said weakly. “And Vanessa's right, they are only single story. Most of the animals mature to more than two meters tall. They could grow even larger.”

  “Ah, I ah, forgot that,” Nate said sheepishly. “I guess I got a little excited,” he admitted.

  “Perfectly alright given the nature of the discussion at hand,” the doctor said smoothly. “So a four or five meter tall space is necessary. That rules out any home or single story office.”

  “We'll ask Wayne,” Vanessa said taking a hold of the grips on Jen's chair. “I'll see him and Bob after I get Jen here to bed.”

  “I'm just tired,” Jen said. “We can continue,” she murmured.

  “Nonsense, tired? That's what a bed is for silly,” Vanessa said pushing her out an
d down the hall.

  “How the heck do we catch a young one?” Vanessa asked, leaning closer to Jen as she guided her. She didn't want to attract unwanted attention so she kept her voice low.

  “One problem at a time,” Jen said leaning against her and closing her eyes to slits. “One thing at a time,” she murmured.

  Chapter 44

  Shane nodded as he surveyed the works. Bob and his crew had worked wonders. Ross really knew his business. So did that architect guy Bob had brought on board. Together the trio had worked wonders.

  They had created layers of defenses and fields of fire, but also areas for planters and greenhouses.

  Planters and greenhouses were all over some of the parking lots and even out beyond the main perimeter, something he wasn't happy about. They had used power tools, construction vehicles and a lot of precious materials from stores to make them. He turned, studying the layout but not really fully understanding it. They had even put greenhouses on roof tops and in parking lots that weren't occupied by solar panels, vehicles or other equipment. It wasn't like they had the room there to stick them. He'd have to have Bob relocate the planters to other areas. No wait, Jen had said something about an experiment? He looked again at the planters. All of them were alive, some had lost their leaves but they were all thriving. Odd. The aliens hadn't fed on them. Why? He'd have to ask Jen when he had the time.

  Walt and Jesse wanted to create sheltered parking areas with the solar panels on the roofs. That would free up more roof space for more greenhouses while providing shade and cover for the vehicles and people in the lots. That was in the schedule, but they were still trying to figure out where to get the steel beams for it.

  Fruit trees from the stores and yards were planted wherever possible. Jen had the groups plant citrus trees out around the perimeter as well. He wasn't sure about the wisdom of that.

  There were a lot of work crews for the farms. Thousands. The farms were now eating up nearly as much manpower as the harvesters and Bob's construction crews. He hadn't been happy that the mall people were only working six hour shifts a day. That had pissed most of the militia off when it made the rounds. But Jayne had pointed out that they had a lot of people and not a whole lot of jobs. Keeping everyone busy with work was one of their mandates. He hadn't been happy, his boys and girls still weren't, but she was right. At least they were working for their meals. Well, sort of.

  Bob and his crews had added insulation in and on top of the roof and walls of each of the buildings to dampen heat loss. Reports of aliens attacking enclaves were gone over, and the intel team tried to puzzle out what went wrong and apply changes to the mall. The common thread though was that no one had put sufficient effort into the defenses.

  At night all exterior electronics were turned off. Shelters were built for the men and women who were out on guard duty. It was a scary duty that few could deal with. Being essentially outside, on the wall or on a roof with nowhere to retreat to if an alien came calling or if you had to go to the bathroom was terrifying for most. They had a high turnover rate there.

  An hour before dark the mall was chilled to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. This helped with keeping the heat signature down so predatory aliens wouldn’t swarm despite the lights.

  Some of the military and governments had tried to clear land to farm for more food but the fields were devastated. The alien plants infested everything and sucked the water out of the ground. Stretches of land were quickly stripped of nutrients and water. The animals moved in, and the aliens were voracious, you had to give the plant eaters credit for that. They tore at a lot of the plants, pruning them back. Unfortunately they grew incredibly fast as a result, and were like Terran elephants. They didn't care if the plant was an alien weed or Terran wheat. They ate it all and then moved on. If a farmer got in the way he was trampled or gored.

  And of course, where the herds went some of the predators followed. They were establishing migratory patterns he was sure. He'd asked Jen but she'd shrugged it off at the time.

  The soil was a problem, a major concern for some. If it was sucked dry of nutrients and water it turned into clay or dust. If it couldn't be replenished the alien plants would die off and the animals move on. There was a growing fear of another dust bowl and loss of top soil like what happened in the twenties.

  Reports were filtering in of the first recorded encounters with land sharks and worms. Retreat was the only thing anyone could do. Retreat to hard ground. Concrete, rock, or hard soil. He made a note to pass that on to the teams. The last thing he needed was for someone to go out into a field and be worm food.

  Speaking of food... Food was still hit or miss. Dave had lucked into a few delivery trucks with food in them again. The perishables were long since gone South, but the ones with non-perishables had added to their larder quite nicely. Still only a drop in the bucket though. Bucket hell, more like a really deep all-consuming well, he mused darkly. They were lucky to bring in enough to break even most days.

  They still hadn't got very far out of town but Jill had made radio contact with people in various places including the castle on the hilltop in Perris overlooking the 215. Communications had been swamped with calls from people asking about surviving friends and family. Jill sent them links to the net page. Unfortunately it was only up during the day so they still got calls.

  Reports had come in through Candace Morgan's network that a lot of communities had trouble policing their own people. Reports of thieves, bullies, rapists and even the occasional murder were hitting the air waves. It was sometimes too much for him. It was bad enough that the aliens were a threat, but to turn on their own?

  Fortunately the military was stepping in now that they were getting organized. They were stomping on any raiders fast. Punishment has to be swiftly handed out and could be brutally harsh.

  Fortunately they had had only two cases of rape here at the mall. It had been clear cut, and the rapist had admitted the deed. He'd tried to pass it off as temporary insanity brought on by the invasion but that hadn't won over the improvised jury judge Perez had set up.

  Since the rapist had been both caught in the act and on camera he was immediately tried and then castrated and dumped in a nest near dark, screaming. It had been brutally harsh, but it set an example for everyone. They didn't have the time or space to incarcerate anyone. Nor the food to waste on what amounted to scum. He also didn't want the bastard coming back to haunt him later. The bastard's trial and sentence had been covered by their local media to grind it into the population that such behavior would not be tolerated. Hopefully the message had got through.

  He was also hoping that no one would fall for a dick tease or piss a woman off enough for her to make a false accusation. He didn't need that problem. He sighed. He knew he was borrowing trouble and put the thought aside.

  They had heard about the occasional desperate battles by military groups and others. Unfortunately far too many, far, far too many were Thermopylae situations; right up there with the three hundred or the Alamo. Almost all were overwhelmed in hours, sometimes minutes. Some countries had again tried WMDs including nukes, to clear areas. That was a mixed blessing. Jen was right, the damn aliens practically basked in the radiation.

  It seemed like things were leveling off. Every time he told himself that though, things changed. Sometimes for the good, more often for the bad. At least here they had a handle on the aliens. Finally.

  However the aliens were laying eggs or giving birth at an incredibly fast rate. By Doctor Phillip's conservative estimates they needed to kill a thousand a day to keep up. But there was also a need to kill the egg layers too which was even harder to do now that many had reached the staggering sizes of adult maturation and just kept growing.

  The mall had the largest surviving human and animal population in the area. As other enclaves folded up under constant alien pressure or due to lack of resources the survivors found their way to the mall. That was putting increasing pressure on their resources, and therefore their r
esource collections. They were having to go further and further afield to find food. He made another note to Jen to find an alien that they or others could eat safely. So far there hadn't been a lot of research in that field.

  Technically it would be great. The aliens ate just about anything and grew incredibly fast. More than ninety percent of what they digested was used. Their waste was limited to Terran materials that for some reason they couldn't digest or had an excess amount of. Which meant their crap just didn't cut it as a fertilizer source.

  He sighed again and sat back. The mall was really turning into a fortress, but it wouldn't matter if the aliens ate them out of house and home. They needed more. They needed a miracle.

  The flag on top was a beacon, their own defiant lady liberty for all around to see. The crews at the mall set the example, with crews helping others, renewable energy, farming, and recycling. Also crews were out every day trying to restore utilities and restore some semblance of life for kids. That was the small bright spark in all this insanity. People were still trying to look out for the next generation. For now.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Torres nodded to them as they pulled up. She pointed to the things infesting the palm trees in the area. Shane climbed out and nodded to Tom.

  “What's up?” he asked.

  “We've been finding that alien fliers are hiding in palm trees and making nests in shadowy areas under overpasses, bridges and such. I've got work crews out cutting the trees down.”

  “Okay...”

  “What I think you should see is this. This kid got something on him. It fell out of a ceiling and well...” she waved helplessly.

  “Is he still alive?” he asked. He felt helpless. He wasn't sure why they called him in and not Niederman.

  “For now,” she said grimly.

  “Why isn't he with doc?” Bobby asked.

  “Bio-hazard. I'm not bringing that back to the base. It'll infect everyone that's there,” Torres said grimly, looking pale. “He wasn't the only one infected. The girl with him just exploded a little while ago.”