Afraid of the Dark

by Chris Hechtl

  “If it doesn't, my report to the science advisory panel and the president should,” the chairwoman said with a nod.

  “And our reports to our respective governments as well,” the Chinese interpreter said after a moment. He bowed to the camera. Jen felt her cheeks blush a little. “You have done the world a great service in this madam.”

  “Th...thank you,” she stuttered and bowed her head briefly. “About the aliens' vision system. Doctor Phillips has some requests about brain scan comparisons. We've got a limited sample pool here. He's attempting to identify what part of the brain is for what sense and to what amount it is used, compared to the rest of the brain, for that purpose. We've identified sections of the Felhounds brain that use smell and hearing including ultrasonic hearing. Has anyone done any comparisons on that?”

  “Um...”

  “I'm curious because of the ultrasonic angle,” Jen said smiling a little. “I'd like to know how widespread this sense is. Is it in many of the predators or just this genus? How widespread and how effective is it? Can we counter it or disrupt it to disorient the animals?” she asked.

  The Colonel looked up from reading his notes and blinked. Suddenly he was intent. He no longer had any reservations about being here and not running his MASH unit. Jen sat back to watch the attending scientists debate the subject in earnest.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Rick came in to check on her and she tiredly smiled at him. “Bad?” he asked.

  “Just tired,” she said laying her head back. He checked her vitals and then nodded. Her pulse was fine. Respiration was okay. She did have obvious signs of fatigue though. “Hungry?” he asked.

  “A little,” she said as he went behind her and unlocked her wheelchair. She smiled up at him as he started to push her to the door. “Those meetings can be as exhausting as chasing the kids sometimes.”

  “I bet,” he said chuckling. “Just like handling kids too.”

  “Just about,” she said, remembering some of the tantrums a few of the so called experts had been throwing. She'd watched some of Doctor Phillip's discussions with the symposium earlier in the week. They had broken for lunch now but only for an hour. She wasn't sure she could handle the afternoon shift.

  “Anything from doc?” she asked.

  “Um...” Rick slowed their progress as he looked down at her. “Doc... I'm not sure. Doctor Niederman is at the clinic right now. I haven't heard anything.”

  “No, I meant Doctor Phillips,” she said amused.

  “Oh! Oh him!” Rick said speeding up again. “Nothing, sorry. He's like that though. You of all people should know. He'll be stuck in his lab for god knows how long going over the tests and re-running them.”

  “Probably,” Jen said tiredly. If even one more scientist pouted she was ready to throw the towel in. Talk about children!

  “I can see if one of the others is available ma'am if you want. I'm not sure you should go through another of those. You look about done in, if you don't mind my saying.”

  “I know,” she sighed. “But I feel so exhilarated too. The concepts we've been working on. The ideas...”

  “Are important, I know ma'am. But so is your health. You're fragile.”

  She looked up at him and smiled. “I'm not china you know.”

  His chest rumbled as he chuckled. “Seems that way sometimes. Speaking of childish should I pop a wheelie here down the main drag? Your son suggested it this morning.”

  “Don't you dare,” she said giggling a little. She rearranged herself in the chair a bit and nodded politely to the groups of people they passed. She smiled slightly to Jerrica Newman, one of her better students. The girl nodded in reply, but looked concerned. Her hand stroked the afghan in her lap as Jen resolved to put on a serene face for the masses.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Eddy Newman came back to his bunk and rubbed the small of his back. Jerrica was there, sitting on the bunk, working with her tablet.

  “Gees, you wouldn't believe the day I've had,” he said, rolling his shoulders.

  “Rough?”

  “You could say that,” he said. “They sicked me on some sort of electric gun project. Gauss rifle I think they called it. It shoots nails if you can believe it. Glorified nail gun.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah.” He rolled his shoulders. “Problem is the energy needs some place to go for the recovery. Some genius didn't remember that bit and the induction coils overheated and exploded.”

  Jerrica looked up in concern. “Was anyone hurt? You're okay?”

  “Sure, fine. I wasn't anywhere near the thing. It was on a test stand.”

  “Oh.”

  “So um... What are they going to do? Rebuild?”

  “I don't know. From what I heard, no, not now. It was using the new Lithium batteries but could only shoot for a while, and the rounds didn't penetrate the alien armor.”

  “So, it's a dud?”

  “For now. They were talking about trying to upscale the thing. But no way someone can carry that thing around.” He shook his head as he hauled his sweaty shirt off and then grabbed a towel. “I'm going to hit the shower. Did you eat?”

  “Yeah, I caught a bite,” she said quietly.

  “Something bothering you?” he asked.

  She frowned, biting her lip a bit. Finally she looked away. “It's... Jen.”

  “Jen? Girl at school?”

  “Jen, the lady O'Neill. She's... sick.”

  “Oh. I know,” he said roughly, unsure what to say. Suddenly he felt awkward. “Honey, they are doing what they can for her. Just making her comfortable helps.”

  “Yeah I know,” she said. She shook her head. “I feel so helpless though. I want to get it right,” she said, voice roughening as tears fell on her laptop. “For her. She's so sweet,” she said, brushing her tears away with her thumb.

  Her father sat next to her and wrapped his arm around her. He hugged her, and she rested her head against her shoulder for a moment, breathing slowly as she regained her composure.

  “Sometimes, life just sucks. But we'll all keep rooting for her. Don't give up hope just yet,” he said roughly.

  “That's what she'd say,” Jerrica chuckled.

  “I know. I've heard her talk on the PA a few times. Shane too. They are good people. If you can, be there for her kids. But don't smother them.”

  “I won't dad.”

  “Good girl,” he said, ruffling her hair. She smiled a wane smile then wrinkled her nose. He caught the look and smiled, getting to his feet. “Yeah, it's sweat and other stuff. Good stuff.”

  “If you say so,” she said, making certain she breathed through her mouth. He snorted softly and then left. As he headed to the showers he nodded to Shane in passing.

  “Keep it together man,” he said.

  “Trying to,” Shane said, continuing on his way.

  “Keep it together,” Eddy repeated softly, this time under his breath. “We're all counting on you.”

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Jen nodded politely to Doc and Yan as she pulled her wheelchair up closer to the desk. “What's on the agenda today?” she asked roughly, then smiled politely as Yan handed her a glass of ice water. “Why, thank you,” she said taking a sip and then setting it down.

  “We're supposed to discuss the pods and delivery system,” Yan said quietly to her as Doc continued to study his notes. Doc was still a bit behind the times, insisting on using paper whenever possible. Paper however was getting increasingly hard to find. Yan was also making it clear to the doctor that scanning his hand writing was impossible. They had to input his chicken scratch by hand... which meant someone who could read it. That took time and patience. They now had a medical transcriber on staff but it was still tedious.

  The screens on the wall went from a test pattern to the images of the symposium members. Doc nodded politely to the chairwoman who nodded back. “I'm glad we are all here today,” she said smiling.

  “We don't have a
lot of time,” the Colonel said gruffly. “I've got about twenty minutes of satellite coverage so let's get this show on the road shall we?”

  “Indeed,” the Canadian scientist said with a nod. “I too have limited coverage.” His satellite signal was degraded. “I believe today's topic is exploring the pods and the delivery mechanism? This... um organic ship?” he asked looking down at a tablet or paper in front of him but off camera.

  “I'd like to suggest a thorough check to see if anyone picked up a surviving pod. We have seen footage of the landing but it is from video surveillance cameras and the footage is...” the doctor wrinkled his nose. “Less than ideal.”

  “That is normal,” the White House chairwoman said with a nod. “Why do we wish to explore this?”

  “Yes, isn't it a waste of time?” the Colonel demanded.

  Jen hid a sigh as she glanced at Yan. When no one else said anything she tapped her finger in front of her. All eyes cut to her. “Actually Colonel, I believe by exploring the pods and the vessel they came in, the entire delivery system as it were, we can determine how many animals came in the vessel and make a rough estimate of how they landed. By studying the landing mechanism we can determine how many may have survived.” Jen had to pause to cough, turning her head.

  “From that data we can get a rough estimate of a starting population for our databases,” the Canadian said picking up for Jen as she went into a coughing fit. She nodded weakly as Yan rubbed her back.

  “But isn't it like locking a barn door after the horses got out? I mean...”

  “I think we all know what you mean Colonel. But as our esteemed colleagues pointed out, by getting this data we can determine not only where the aliens safely landed, but in what rough numbers and then if we can get a determination on their growth rate and time to sexual maturity we can plot out how fast each generation will expand.”

  “Which will be terrifyingly short,” the Chinese doctor said through his translator. The others nodded grimly. The Colonel still didn't look convinced however.

  “By looking at it from a fresh perspective we may also see something we missed earlier. Such as the guiding force. How did they guide that vessel? How did they build it? What allowed them to survive re-entry? Is there some sort of intelligence we haven't seen involved?”

  “Heaven forbid,” a new French scientist said.

  “I believe we can help with the questions on the pods,” a scientist said from the Antarctic. She held up an image. After a moment her image changed to the image she had been holding up. “Most of the pods that landed here splattered on the ice, rocks, or into the water. But we managed to pick up a few that had a soft landing and froze before hatching. From the look of it the pods are made up of a spongy outer layer that cushions impact.” The first image was of the pod. It was an ovoid, green against the stark white landscape. They could see a trail behind it, obviously where it had impacted and then skated across the ice and snow.

  There was a close up of the pod in the next image. They could see the green outer layer was actually a sponge like material. It was thick, about ten centimeters thick at least. Like a sea sponge.

  “But that doesn't explain the re-entry temperatures or the landing. I...” a French scientist said.

  “Nor is that the only design. I've seen a design that was like a Maple seed pod. A single wing that spun by auto rotation to slow its landing,” another scientist interjected.

  “Yes but we have no samples of this. And I was curious about the landing mechanisms,” the French scientist said testily.

  “I was getting to that Francesca. We also found a tissue that was attached to the pod. By the look of it is some sort of organic streamer or possibly a parachute.” A slide of a pair of people holding up a streamer behind the pod was shown. The tissue chute was translucent; they could see the shape of the legs of the people through the chute they were holding up.

  “Why haven't we seen this information in the net?” a Brazilian scientist asked sounding testy.

  “Because we found this just before dark, after we closed discussions for the day yesterday,” the Antarctic scientist said with a hint of exasperation in her voice. “The crew that found it reported in only this morning. I was getting to that.”

  “A biological system from the beginning?” Doctor Phillips mused, rubbing his chin and looking distant. He tapped his finger tips on his bottom lip. “I wonder...”

  “I bet the pods had a burn away shell to survive re-entry temperatures. Then this ribbon chute deployed to slow it before landing. The spongy outer layer acted as a cushion for final impact. I wonder if the heat of re-entry was supposed to wake the hibernating eggs inside? I don't know if we'll ever know...”

  “But if that is so, why did many of the pods smear themselves all over the planet?” a scientist Jen didn't recognize asked. Every day new scientists were coming online. It was hard for her to keep track of who was who.

  “Possibly various reasons. Chute failure is one. Turbulence is another. Improper re-entry angle. Hitting a solid object. Even water is as hard as concrete if you hit it at the right velocity and the right or in this case wrong angle. Many of the pods came in on varying angles,” a NASA scientist said. He replaced the video of himself with a video animation of the re-entry.

  “At T minus five hours the vessel broke up. We now believe the outer layer of what we thought was ice was either a dust coating or protection against radiation and cosmic rays. Not a stealth or camouflage layer as originally believed, although it did serve those purposes.”

  “If this was an entirely biological construct that would be a good way to ward off radiation,” a Russian scientist said with a nod. “We found some traces of lead and Arenediazonium salts in the fragments of shells we have recovered. Arenediazonium salts are natural containers of Iodine and therefore Potassium Iodine.”

  “Natural means to combat radiation sickness. That may explain why some of the water aliens like to consume Kelp. It is rich in the stuff. If their biology is comparable to our own, they may be immune to radiation. The jury is still out on that subject.”

  “It is something to keep in mind though. Thank you, Yuri for pointing it out,” the chairwoman said.

  “I'll tell my crew to check the samples for those substances,” the Antarctic scientist said with a nod. “If they are there in concentrated layers it will explain a part of their radiation protection. I wasn't sure that there was sufficient ice to protect them.”

  “The inner layer possibly. The outer layers...” Doctor Phillips shrugged. “The outer layers may have been killed by constant or repeated exposure to solar events. That would explain why some crashed as well.”

  “But not why they were eaten or broke down.”

  “No but bacteria plays a role there. Also in Terran animals, many eat the placenta and organic traces after birth. It is after all a concentrated form of protein, one just lying there. That could explain that,” Jen mused.

  “Ah, I had wondered about that,” A scientist murmured. A few glanced her way but others were watching the movie. The animation showed the alien vessel break up into a shot gun pattern. Some of it sprayed directly onto the planet, others fell into orbit. Some looked like they hit the moon or went off into space.

  “We can't get a hard and fast count of numbers, we were saturated. Some of the debris hit satellites and the orbital debris as well and went off course.”

  “So some missed?”

  “We don't know that for sure. This is a computer model of what we think happened based on our data at the time.”

  “In other words you have no idea.”

  “Not at this time we don't. I'd like to think that if any went off into deep space...” he shrugged. “Tracking that has survived and is still online is keeping an eye out. But at the time they had other things on their minds. Staying alive,” he said bluntly.

  “We all did.”

  “So this was definitely planned though,” the Colonel said slowly. “Carefully thought out a
nd executed. Some sort of system steered this vessel or whatever it was to us.”

  “Yeah think?” a guy muttered. The Colonel glared but Jen sighed.

  “We believe so Colonel.”

  “Alright, were does this all lead? What about this guiding force? Is it somehow in charge of the aliens?”

  “We'll have to figure that out Colonel.”

  “Right now we are at the formulate questions stage Colonel. It’s the scientific process. We have to determine what to ask before we know what we're looking at and can process it properly.”

  “But...”

  “Colonel it means we're a colony. We've been seeded,” Jen said tiredly. “And like any natural life form we don't have the natural defenses to fight off an invasive species. Not on this level. We're talking an entire biome here Colonel. An entire ecosystem. Right down to bacteria.”

  “Bacteria?” the Colonel asked blinking.

  “Doctor Niederman reported the first cases of alien bacterial infections this morning,” Jen said.

  “He did?” Doctor Phillips said stunned. Jen looked at him and nodded. She took a sip of water as people talked to each other.

  The chairwoman let the debate go for a minute as she too took a sip of water and made some notes and then when it started to die down she gently tapped her gavel. “We have five minutes left. Those that can remain in contact with other groups please break down into study groups and present your findings to the group over the net or at the next meeting,” she said. A few heads nodded. “I'd like to see a volume estimate with a cross comparison of what we know impacted with what was tracked and what each pod's size was. We'll take all three sets and average them out for a base comparison model.”

  A few of the scientists looked a little uneasy about that idea. Jen snorted softly to herself. Many were of the type that didn't take anything for granted unless they had it repeated in triplicate and sometimes not even then.

  “I can get the data to the net in an hour,” the Antarctic scientist said with a nod. “The team is still out bringing the sample in as we speak.”