by Moulton, CD
Nonsense! She was somewhere in or near the labs! She could figure how the thing would think better than he could!
Tab headed back to the outside and around to the side entrance to the labs. He was going to have to face that thing now, but with caution. Slow and careful. He checked the layout map on the wall of the entrance office as he passed, making an internal photograph of it. He stopped with his hand on the lock to the growth room. He knew where he would find Volich.
After checking around the rooms there on the fringe of the lab area he went back outside and to the utility supply sheds. As he suspected when he reviewed that map there was extensive damage to various things stored there. The feed tanks were standing at empty and the lighting circuits were set on timers that would cut in in about two more hours. The intensity and wavelength indicators were both set far to the extreme right. He didn't know what Volich planned so he left it alone. Volich alone knew this was done because Volich had done it. Why?
Make a note: Volich was laying on a small cot by the main generator station. Tab thought she was dead at first when he could read no vital signs from a few meters away, but then saw she was just drugged into a deep coma.
Of course! That was how she was able not to be taken over by the fungoid!
Tab picked her up and carefully carried her out and back behind the hill, placed her on the floater, climbed aboard and headed back to TR. The fungus would have to wait until he knew more before he faced it. He would also need some time to place some weapon that would be effective against it.
Kit was already back when Tab arrived and had taken a probe reading of Givzoo and Nortich. Tab almost exploded at that kind of use of the probe, then thought about it. He had to agree this was the best hope they had and didn't need to be told the two would have accepted the probe without hesitation. You have to do what you have to do.
The two robots linked, exchanged information with TR, then separated.
"TR, see what you can do to bring Volich out of this coma," Tab suggested. "We'll have to get together with the three of them to determine what they've accomplished and what they still feel they can do."
"Yo!" TR replied.
Givzoo and Nortich were somewhat lethargic and were still confused while Volich had an enormously painful headache. Tab asked TR to do something about the pain, which it did through an electrical device.
"Does that stop any of the pain?" Tab asked, looking at the electrodes placed against the sides of her head.
"It's a total blessing!" Volich replied. "I don't feel anything at all, but pain was all I could feel so that suits me fine!"
"I have to ask all of you some questions, but first I want to know why you set those lights like that and on a timer," Tab said to Volich.
"Timer? Set the lights?" Givzoo asked.
"I set intensity at maximum and the wavelength to its shortest after seeing to it the food supply would run out about the time when they came on," Volich answered.
"Of course!" Nortich cried. "That will burn it! It will try to spore immediately! If the UV intensity is high enough it'll sterilize most of the spores. I suppose we'll have to take out all the cautions now. We have to destroy that thing one way or another.
"I seem to remember those students laying around. Zantoo was working with them and he's not here. I assume.... I ask what has happened to them?"
"I'm afraid they're all dead," Kit replied. "I'm sorry."
"I was so afraid of that," Volich said, "but I couldn't do anything. I wanted to try to drug them. That thing can't reach a comatose mind."
"It appears it killed them by removing critical parts of their central nervous systems," TR explained. "It had been experimenting with Givzoo and Nortich, which was what we noticed. They noticed themselves that they weren't acting normally. That's why they got out of there. They were hypnotized to not notice the dead students or Zantoo, which was partially successful. In addition the drugs saved you because the fungoid couldn't locate you unless your mind was active."
"Who was that?" Givzoo asked.
"Oh. Givzoo, meet TRD Sixty, my ship," Tab replied. "It's intelligent and is a partner in the agency. I think most people know that now."
"I've heard of you!" Nortich exclaimed. "Now I make the connection. You're Tabori DeSixtee and this is your ship, TR. Yes. That explains a lot. Emperor Maita depends on you for many things.
"We did notice things wrong with each other. We were hypnotized then. Perhaps we still are controlled so I for one would appreciate it if you would use the mind probe to determine to exactly what extent we're still under the influence of that thing!"
"Yes! Definitely!" Givzoo cried. "Volich, too! That thing is cunning as all hell!"
"We did that while you were unconscious," Kit admitted. "It was a point where the empire's at risk. I was sure you would demand it and time is of the essence, to be trite about it."
"There's no point in not telling them about all of it," TR said. "There are vials of spores from the original gathering hidden on your bodies and you've swallowed some of the spores, too. We've microwaved the vials and have given you a purgative and antifungal agent. You were given posthypnotic orders to spread the spores on other worlds. You wouldn't have known you'd done that. Volich's drug overdose protected her from use in any such subterfuge.
"The timers should be going off right now. I'll read Maita's spy devices there. I'm sure the fungoid will release control of the servos that are – were – disrupting them."
TR projected a picture on the main screen. It had to turn the intensity down as it was so bright in the labs the cameras couldn't handle it. The fungi were coloring quickly to a dark brown, then toward black. They watched them shrivel.
"How high did you turn those things?" Givzoo asked Volich.
"As far as they would go," she replied.
"Well!" Nortich spat. "I hope that thing knows pain! This is our revenge for Zantoo and those students, you damned monster! Die, damn you! Die!
"Those ultra-violets at that intensity will set the place on fire in no time."
"Yes!" Givzoo cried. "We still have the main sterilizing elements hooked up. We left them in place so we could sterilize the place when this one spored. I forgot they were there."
"I imagine the fungoid made you forget," Kit suggested. "It did too good a job. It didn't make you forget how to turn the things on."
"Well, we want to investigate what's left so I've sent a floater to turn the things off now," TR announced. "Let's see what we can salvage from this mess. It's too bad we can't use ultra-violet on all of Grandish."
"Nothing's ever that easy, I'm afraid," Tab replied. "Not for us, it isn't!"
Not That Easy
The fungus was indeed dead. Cooked by the high intensity ultra-violet lights installed when the lab was built. They were designed to sterilize the rooms before the fungus was planted.
"There isn't any chance spores were produced," Givzoo said. "There weren't any of the spore-bearing structures grown yet. There were perhaps some small buds along the edges, but it was too soon."
"Another six days and it would have been complete disaster here," Nortich agreed. "It could have produced spores and could have grown the memory into them. Another two days and it could have produced simple spores that would have grown, but wouldn't have had more than a few instinctual mental abilities."
"Where are the bodies?" Volich asked. "I'll wish to give the death rites to Zantoo. I want to arrange whatever's proper for the students."
"I've removed the bodies and have arranged for the death rites of the Feach, Mord and the two Sampth," TR replied. "I was going to ask that one of you give final rites to Zantoo. I know your people use burial. Do you think he should be buried here or on some other place?"
"We aren't a religious people," Nortich said. "Our rites are those of respect for the memory of a good person. Zantoo was a good person. We'll perform the rites here. I think it would be fitting that Zantoo be buried on the hill to the east under the large tree."
>
The others agreed fully. Volich went out to make the arrangements and to direct the floaters in the proper preparation of the peaceful grave site while Givzoo and Nortich went through the labs to be sure other projects weren't harmed. Tab and Kit went through the entire growth area carefully, but they found little of consequence. They all met a bit later to discuss where they could go from that point.
"We're working on a possible control," Givzoo reported. "I got the idea from Tab's reports from the swamps. I was working on some genetic injection into a bacterium that seems ubiquitous in those areas, but which doesn't appear at all where the fungus grows. I'm afraid it's been a bit disappointing so far, but the answer is there somewhere."
"I really think maybe we'd better rerun all of those experiments," Volich suggested. "I've read some of the reports and haven't seen the results described in them. Quite to the contrary. I've watched you throw away some perfectly good cultures – that's what made me suspicious about what was happening. I told Nortich about the fact she was dumping valuable research and she got a blank look for a few seconds, then continued as though she couldn't hear me. That evening she didn't remember my being in the culture room.
"I've done a little experimentation on my own and know that betacortiferomide amaliphene hydrochloride, while being a dangerous and addictive tranquilizer, also stops the fungus from reaching a mind. It couldn't control rodents injected with the stuff, but they fall asleep quickly. I began injecting myself and using a stimulant at the same time. I know that's damned dangerous, but I felt I must do something. I am almost surely an addict by this time, though I feel no need right now. I was able to do the things I thought must be done.
"For your information, the moder and the fuses or whatever you call them are all under the cowling around the TTH coils. I figured the enormous energy already in use there would make them undetectable to the fungoid. The last day I felt the fungoid was slowly overcoming my resistance so I took a massive dose, sabotaged the food supply, set the timer on the lights and took yet another dose. I laid on the cot. I would either awaken under control of the fungoid, would die from the overdose or the thing would be killed."
"I detoxified you," TR said. "You were severely addicted to the tranquilizer. That dose pushed you into a true coma, which saved your life. The fungoid couldn't locate you closely enough to start removing parts of your nervous system."
They had the computers transfer all the data collected to TR, then Givzoo and Nortich spent several hours describing what they were trying to do and what they must know to TR.
"A lot of what you've input is gibberish at best," TR said. "I can follow the thread. There's a lot of automatic.... Videos! It's on the video records! I can run through the whole program."
"IF the fungoid hasn't done whatever it did to those spy devices Maita had in there!" Kit added, coming into the room as TR described what it intended to do.
"It did," TR replied, "but I know at exactly what point because the background scanner suddenly stopped. We have three quarters or more of it we can depend on.
"Nortich, you were trying the injection method into the Parawandrea strain of fungus. It was very successful, but you dumped it. That was before the timer stopped so maybe you remember what was wrong?"
"I do," Volich, who had come in a few minutes before said. "The stuff grows too widely so would interfere with too many other kinds of life on Grandish. There was a second injection into Filamentosa radicans Grandishii that seemed to show a lot of promise, but you dumped that. You said it was worse than the Parawandrea strain. That was later so we should do that one over again."
Tab came back into the room, listened to the talk for a few minutes, then motioned for Kit to come out.
"Problems?" Kit asked.
"I've been roaming around the entire area looking at the experiments," Tab replied. "I've seen a couple of things that look promising. TR's linked so we can decide if there's been any real success."
They went to a nearby area that had logs and stumps placed in what should have been a perfect location, but the small fungi weren't there.
"TR?" Tab asked.
"They're using the gall fungus, not the spores from the one on Grandish, for control. This was the Parawandrea strain. It doesn't restrict itself to the rotting wood so won't work," TR reported. "This is an injection of the T two eleven BGr-A nine strain. It was the first complete success, but it's still a form of Parawandrea."
They went to another area.
"G four nine BGr-C two strain. Parawandrea," TR reported.
Next was another Parawandrea strain.
"It seems they really are concentrating on using a form of Parawandrea," Kit remarked.
"At first," TR replied. "They had to start somewhere and it did look promising. It DOES kill off the fungoid. It's just that it kills too many other things."
They went to another spot.
"Strange. There's no record of this one," TR said. "Tab, you noted this one. There doesn't seem to be any records of anything in this.... Tab! Go to that one over there! I don't like the looks of those growths!"
There was another large section not very far away where what looked like the young plantlets on Grandish were growing in great numbers. As they approached Tab let the psy part of his mind be receptive. He felt the repulsion more than thirty meters away from the growths.
"They were experimenting with the real thing!" Kit cried. "This is the fungoid!"
"Check probe records, TR," Tab said shortly. There was a pause, then, "This was suppressed with tremendous power, but the probe gets everything," TR reported. "This is recent. Nortich remembers on a low level that Zantoo, who was working most directly with the fungoid, took three vials of the spores taken from the Grandish project. The memory was covered. I'd say we're going to find at least two more of these areas.
"I'm sending out floaters to search the whole damned planet! Take samples of whatever killed the thing off back there. We'll put some of it in this area and in any others where we find the thing. We have to stop this before it can get a stronghold here!"
A floater came in fast with equipment on it. Tab and Kit took samples from the area they had visited before. They found a small colony of a fungus that wasn't like anything on their reports growing there.
"Get Givzoo out here, TR," Tab ordered. "We have to know something about this fungus here. He'll be able to identify it."
"You've got Givzoo, Volich and Nortich on their way out there on a fast floater," TR replied. "There are going to be gaps in the memories of all of them, but one of them should know what that thing is."
The robots waited a few minutes, then the three scientists came to them to check the fungoid and the control.
"I don't know what it is," Volich said simply, then went to examine the fungoid.
"It's Hydrocyanus tabori Grandishii, one of the things from your swamp," Givzoo said.
"But it's been engineered!" Nortich cried. "It doesn't ... can't thrive in these dry conditions. It also requires high level acidification. There's no such thing here!"
"But no one was working with H. tabori!" Givzoo protested. "How could it have been engineered? Who could have done it?"
"Zantoo did it," TR reported. "At least I think that's the information I have."
"How ridiculous!" Nortich declared, staring into the atomic microscope. "Zantoo didn't have the knowledge to make that kind of thing! This is amazing! I can't.... TR, give me magnification of the LT one four six seven chain in sector A four."
She studied the specimen for a few minutes, then waved for Givzoo to have a look.
"Great stinking hooprollers!" Givzoo cried. "That's easily the finest graft I've ever seen! None of us are nearly capable of this kind of work! None of us! Maybe Keen Fleschker on University! I can't believe it! We can't do this! We can't do it!"
"Somebody rather obviously DID do it!" Nortich said. "TR, the video records. Trace them back from when Zantoo took the finished product to bring it out here."
&nb
sp; The screen popped up on the floater. "I'll have to untangle what I can believe in this mess," TR said. "It's mostly right about the time the interference started ... this is immediately before. You'd know what Zantoo was doing. I don't."
They watched Zantoo working with some of the more delicate equipment, setting it up for use.
"I've taken this out to run in ordered sequence," TR lectured. "Note how Zantoo is acting ... there! And there! Is that odd?"
Zantoo had the equipment ready, then stopped to stare at the light fixture above him for a moment. He went to the chamber, stopped and stared at the fixture again.
"His eyes! He's hypnotized!" Nortich cried. "But that would mean the fungoid was directing the whole thing. It doesn't make any sense! Why would the fungoid develop the very thing that would destroy it? This doesn't make any sense!"
"Not from our point of view," Kit argued. "What we know about the fungoid may make it logical to such a plant. It knew we were working on methods to control or destroy it. It can't run so must make a defense that will work internally. We also know that it has a directed immune system. It can control its own immune reactions.
"It picked your minds, saw the direction your research was taking and would take and decided to get a step ahead of you. It would allow you to develop whatever you wanted, but would already have its spores programmed to thwart it. It was successful in overcoming something in that patch over there, but failed here."
"But it had Zantoo spreading its spores AND the control group?" Givzoo asked. "That seems suicidal."
"Oh, no!" TR put in. "It could produce literally billions of spores so what was a few million? All it had to do was to have one successful immune reaction among all of them – and those controlled – and it had won. The one that learned to fight the control agent would communicate what it did and the immunity could then be programmed into all the billions of spores to be produced in the future."
"AHHA!" Tab cried suddenly. "Now it begins to make sense! Now I see why the thing felt trapped and defeated. I know why it attacked us! It was a reaction to despair! It was this patch right here! It COULD NOT produce anything to fight this one!"
