Metamorphosis Alpha 2

by Craig Martelle

  That all changed when analysis lander probes indicated Psyche contained large amounts of gold, iridium, silver, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhenium, rhodium, and ruthenium. The asteroid’s value was estimated to be more than seven times the total precious metals on earth. The gold rush was on.

  The controlling government entities claimed the asteroid for their citizens and mining companies awarded contracts would pay royalties for each metric ton of raw minerals mined.

  The six largest private companies in the world formed the JAXX Consortium, signed agreements with the world’s largest law firm which governments created to hammer out and handle the royalty transaction for their citizens. The rich got richer, the poor, not so much.

  Opportunities presented by Psyche’s water and oxygen were overlooked by the hastily thrown together alliances of Earth. Once the ores began shipping back to Earth, JAXX paid the royalties right on time, and the governments purchased various ingots of metal at agreed upon prices, very favorable prices.

  In less than two years the Earth’s economies all but collapsed because of the sudden influx of metals. Governments tried switching their currency to a precious metal standard, but even their values fell through the bottom. The governments could no longer continue buying their agreed minimum quotas. In fact, they could not afford to allow more of Psyche’s innards to reach Earth.

  JAXX never missed a royalty payment on ore mined. JAXX too easily agreed to not forcing governments to buy any more ingots with the stipulation that future purchases would be at market prices. JAXX did, however, continue to sell and expand their business with Earth’s autonomous colonies on Mars, Europa, Ceres, Pluto, Titan, Ganymede, Io, and Calypso. JAXX didn’t even seem to mind when Earth’s governments nationalized their facilities in one fell swoop.

  This global nationalization of industry was the beginning of The Corporation. But JAXX didn’t seem to care. After all, the major equipment in these facilities was decades old and no longer competitive. JAXX’s new equipment by passed earth facilities and arrived directly on Psyche then, later, manufactured the equipment was on the asteroid itself.

  Though royalties were paid on every ton mined, JAXX maintained an ever-growing inventory of metals taken from Psyche. Coincidentally, Earth’s breach of contract occurred at the same time JAXX opened some enormous manufacturing plants located in the tunnels and caverns dug out of Psyche. Shipping finished goods to colonies and Earth was their plan all along. Psyche’s water and oxygen allowed the manufacturing to be competitive.

  Once the Earth governments fully understood the depth and danger of their economic situation they expanded their legal alliance and began looking at ways to put people to work using the overabundance of materials stacked in warehouses and cargo yards all over the globe. One way was to unite all nations in the construction of the largest thing ever made by man – the Starship Warden. It would take generations to complete in orbit, but the economies began to improve slowly after the first shipment of construction materials reached the orbiting factory.

  Manufacturing anything the size and complexity of the Warden was more than monumental. Manufacturing it in space would be impossible without hundreds, then thousands of utility robots capable of quick reconfiguration to perform any one of thousands of tasks.

  JAXX’s first retail product to be sold and shipped to the entities building sections of the Warden was the JAXX N5. JAXX developed this robot for mining and construction on Psyche. No other robot manufacturer produced anything with the success, durability and reliability record of the JAXX N5. Robots designed with universal appendages able to employ multiple power tools, utility robots did not require oxygen, food, water or sleep. Its only needs were solar harvested power and occasional maintenance and updates.

  If robots felt pride they would say, the JAXX N5 built the Warden and with the robots shouldering the majority of the work, they seemed to make it look easy as A – B — C.

  Many types of bots served aboard the Warden during testing and after launch. The vast majority, in sleep mode, waited to be called to duty in the distant future. Their self-diagnosing maintenance routine kept them charged and ready for the call, whenever it might come.

  ***

  Several small colored lights flashed to life as Escargo J9’s servos began whirring softly. It disconnected itself and settled to the deck. It’s mag skids buzzed, and Escargo J9 rose until the skids hovered six inches above the metal decking.

  The JAXX N5 - J9 robots were among the largest bots aboard the Warden. J9’s moved freight, cargo, into and out of storage bays. This cargo bot’s designation indicated its duty station as ‘E’ deck, ‘s’ bay.

  It moved with unflinching purpose toward a crew hibernation chamber.

  Its movement seemed graceful, dance-like, as it drifted over the deck. Built for strength not speed, the J9’s could easily handle various shaped containers weighing as much as six thousand pounds. Anything weighing more, vehicles, pallets and such, were placed on dray shuttles for transportation between the Warden and planet surface.

  J9s consisted of sensors mounted at various elevations, servos, two pairs of arms each ending in articulated hands tipped with multi-tooled fingers. The arms are capable of three-hundred and sixty-degree rotation employed from any position occupied by the base and skids. Between the skids, were two pairs of flat lifting rails. One pair of rails faced forward the other aft. Each pair could be lowered, extended, run under containers to lift into a position for carrying.

  This Escargo reached its destination and transmitted an array of information to the Warden’s Primary AI.

  A few seconds later it received instructions to slowly move closer to an anomaly designated with a red circle on the robot’s display. It was not necessary to instruct caution as J9s would not touch anything not included in the protocol or authorized instructions.

  It stopped two feet from the anomaly which now moved away slowly using slug-like undulations.

  Following new instructions, it reached out a finger and deployed a three-inch blade. It positioned the blade over a section of the anomaly and calculated its movement. In motions too fast to see, the knife made three precisely placed and angled penetrations.

  A second finger, tweezer-like tool extended, hovered a fraction of a second then dipped and extracted a three-sided pyramid shaped piece of gelatinous tissue. A peculiar mixture of liquid and vapor rose from the anomaly’s area where the plug was removed.

  Without turning its position, the J9 made its way back to the corridor and to a scanning station which opened in the wall ready to receive the tissue.

  The Warden’s Primary AI’s biological sub matrix paused for five seconds before determining the quickly evaporating piece of flesh originated as human but contained extremely high levels of chemicals capable of generating intensely hot fires. The submatrix provided no recommendation for neutralizing the anomaly. The Warden’s main AI, Ward, processed this lack of recommendation as a reason to terminate if necessary. Ward determined to attempt communication before termination.

  J9 moved to the deck’s toolroom. Two other J9s were already there as another piece of robotics scanned them, removed their top right and left arms then replaced the arms with thicker appendages without hands, instead ending in two stubby tubes. Their lower arms were removed altogether and replaced with a ring of power packs.

  J9 took his place on the pad next to one of the other robots. It’s the hands on its lower arms were replaced with two small microwave dishes. Each was about nine inches in diameter and affixed to a telescoping, articulated rod.

  The three robots moved full speed toward the anomaly in the crew chamber.

  They arrived just as the creature mounted another hibernation pedestal and ignited it from left to right. A yellowish glow appeared through the translucent creature.

  Following precise digitalized instructions, J9 slowly approached the anomaly which now seemed to be pulsing slowly on the exposed crewman under it.

  The other ro
bots flanked the beast and together with J9 formed a triangle each a few feet distance from the translucent, dishwater colored thing. J9 moved in closer extending and lowering its newly mounted sensors. The other two pointed their stubby tubes at the thing’s center mass.

  J9 held the dishes six inches above the slow pulse of the creature feeding.

  The sensors provided Ward with confirmation the thing draining crewmen was crewman Lawrence Astrides Smith demonstrating mutation gone wild. Ward, directed J9 to extend the right dish and hover it three inches from Lawrence’s center, a slightly humped ridge, opaquer than the rest of the body.

  He instructed J9 to place the extended dish on the hump. As it touched, Ward began a series of transmissions, codes to activate responses stored in Lawrence’s DNA as part of the CAS-9 process.

  ***

  Something touched the top of Law’s body. His senses registered no danger until a second later some rays pulsed through his body. The polluting intruder wanted something. Law had no idea what, but he was angry at all the energy he exerted getting small bites of nourishment, and in no mood for interference of any kind. He reshaped his mass and his four enamel plated orifices rose up through his body and peeked out from under J9’s dish.

  Rather than attack the dish itself, the sphincters rotated slightly and projected a bluish-white stream at J9’s main structure. The robots based automatically began reversing but not until after all the parts of the J9 above the skids was a glowing red piece of dripping metallic sculpture.

  The other two robots fired instantly.

  The first shot a beam of ruby red into the creature.

  The response was the anomaly’s body parted like the Red Sea of legend, allowing the beam to pass through. Then flesh flowed back together. A fraction of a second later the redirected set of sphincters gushed their blue light, hitting the robot above the skid ramp. The intensity of the heat nearly liquefied the lower half. The top part of the robot sagged down into the rest of its melting mass.

  The last of the interlopers exploded projectiles from the tubes it aimed at the Law’s hump.

  The quartet of sphincters made faster work of that one than the others.

  Metallic fragments entered the thing’s body from the final robot’s blast. It paused to digest them.

  ***

  “Travis. Travis. I need you.” Wards voice urged the sleeping form pressed tightly against the deck. “Wake up, son,” the voice encouraged.

  Travis ascended slowly to consciousness. He often heard Ward’s voice in dreams, but Travis knew it was no dream this time.

  Ward was his friend, and he knew Ward was worried about something.

  “Hello, Ward,” Travis replied. “Did I sleep long?”

  Ward skipped the pleasantries. “Travis, there is a problem. I need your help.”

  Travis never knew Ward to be so serious.

  Before he could reply, images and narration flooded his mind.

  “It’s one of the crew.” Ward narrated as the image of translucent grayish blob attached itself to the pedestal in a hibernation chamber before inching its way up until its amorphous mass reached and paused on the top of the crewmember’s body.

  “Lawrence Astrides Smith,” Ward said. “His CAS-9.919 programmed mutation malfunctioned. He has become what he ought not to be.”

  The center of the creature’s mass glowed briefly. A few seconds later it lowered itself down the opposite side of the hibernation pedestal and slowly moved along the deck toward the next one. Travis saw a smoking, blackened cavity in the crew member’s torso.

  “What is he doing? He’s hurting our friends!” Travis exclaimed.

  “He is killing them,” Ward said softly. “Three security bots became slag heaps trying to stop him.”

  “He killed security bots?” Travis said, not understanding how any of the harmonious lifeforms aboard the Warden could be so rude.

  “We have to stop him, Travis,” Ward said. Lawrence has killed twenty crew members already.

  “What can I do?” Travis asked earnestly.

  “I will guide you to the chamber he occupies. Go now.” Ward said.

  Travis instantly knew where he needed to go and the route that would get him there. Travis released his grip on the deck and shoved himself toward the selected corridor.

  Normally, Travis preferred to stay attached to the deck, walls, ceiling, any part of the ship. Floating untethered caused him growing concern. His lack of connection to the Warden made him afraid and uncertain.

  He stopped at the entrance to the corridor and extended an appendage to anchor to the wall.

  “Hurry,” Ward said instantly. “Lawrence is moving to another crewman.”

  Travis moved fast. He steeled himself to out of contact with the Warden. He hurled his weightless form through the empty corridor. He desperately wanted to touch a surface and reconnect with the Warden, but he knew there was no time. Lawrence was killing crew members. One-by-one, that thing was killing his family. He did not yet know how, but he would stop it.

  ***

  Law felt better. Processing the chemicals absorbed from the creatures on the many tables suppressed his hunger – a little, enough so he could begin establishing reservoirs of chemicals necessary to perform his function.

  His function? Law suffered a disturbing and annoying state of confusion. Something, from some unknown outside source, wanted him to stop moving and allow that something, whatever it was, to connect to him. This conflicted mightily with his natural desire, more an all-encompassing lust. An erupting compulsion to absorb ingredients from, then incinerate everything his marvelous, unique in all the universe, sphincters came upon. Even after incinerating the three invaders something continued to communicate with him.

  Law topped the next mound in his path. The suction cups forming concentric circles on his underside released moved, then rebalanced and regripped. Law allowed the gastric pressure to build, tightened a group of muscles then enjoyed the release of pressure as gas hissed from the sphincters, and white-heat opened another pod to access a few bits of food.

  He hoped soon to find a stockpile of food. Enough so he could begin to grow. Law had no idea the limits of his potential size – and power. He knew growing was a mandate.

  ***

  Travis entered the crew chamber from the opposite side. He sensed across the great space of rows and rows of crew pods. So vast, he could not sense the dangerous presence. Travis did not need to sense it to know it was killing his family. Ward told him the monster was here and so, in Travis’s mind no question existed of its murderous presence.

  Travis launched himself, floating above the pods toward the cavernous room’s center. As always, the confusion, fear, and feeling of dread that came from the loss of physical connection to the Warden’s structure attacked his psyche. Knowing the urgency of this mission, Travis forced himself to concentrate. As he drifted forward, he thought of welding, the only thing he loved besides Ward.

  As the acrid smell of burnt plastic, metal and flesh assailed his olfactory system, Travis touched the ceiling to slow and correct course toward the smell’s point of origin. Very quickly, he recognized the invader. A huge, grayish translucent slug-like creature. It looked as if an enormous puddle of thick, oozing oatmeal slid slowly down from the top of one pod and inched toward the next. The thing’s advanced edge raised its underside exposing numerous rows of suckers and began its way upward even before the final portion of the creature descended from the previous pod.

  Travis examined the area. He saw an undamaged pod in the center of the circle of burned out husks of nearly a hundred pods.

  Travis stabilized his connection to the ceiling and Ward instantly was in his thoughts.

  “Travis,” Ward said, “I don’t think it is aware of your presence, you will have the element of surprise.”

  Travis usually liked surprises, but Ward did not make this sound like a good one.

  “Lawrence Smith is very large, so we can’t simply overpower h
im,” Ward said as if thinking out loud.

  Travis liked it when Ward used the word we.

  Travis again focused on the slab of ooze near him. He estimated it weighed between two and a half to three times his weight.

  “I could drop down on him. If I flattened and spread out as much as possible, I could cover him then seal this outside to the deck.” Travis thought this might work, so long as the monster did not see him coming and spread wider than Travis could.

  Ward paused as if thinking about Travis’s idea. “That might work, but then Lawrence Astrides Smith emits flames from under or topside. It might heat the deck enough to melt your plasteel.”

  Travis was not so much ashamed of his plan as embarrassed that Ward did not trust his sealant to stand up to the test.

  Flexibility is the key. Here’s what I think we should do.

  ***

  Travis watched the shallow pulsing thing that was Lawrence Astrides Smith. He realized it was breathing. The air entered through intake vents positioned evenly around around the perimeter of the creature’s flesh. The vents inhaled in unison. Watching closely, Travis followed a swell of air moving toward the beast’s center humped area.

  Though Travis knew it was not necessary, he communicated the arrival of two J9’s to Ward and waited for a response.

  Ward replied, “Okay. Get ready.”

  One robot circled to the other side of the slowly moving creature. As it moved toward the mass of mucous, the creature’s body convulsed, and the fire-shooting sphincters emerged out of the flesh on the hump on its back.

  The robot paused, then backed away.

  The enameled orifices twitched to adjust the range.

  The maneuver was instantaneous and synchronized when Ward gave the command.

  The J9 across from Travis and the other robot slid forward and fired a burst of flaming liquid.

  The robot next to Travis, lifting rails extended eight feet forward, it allowed the rails to touch the deck barely. The robot moved toward the creature’s bulk. The lift rails, separated by a meter and a half distance between them slid beneath the tissue and raised upward.