The Black Clouds

by Steve Matthew Benner

  Both men looked into the lab. Alan was lying in the space between the chamber and box, not moving. The Cloud looked different. It seemed to have a new center section.

  Carol: “I think the sample just created a new nucleus, like the mother Cloud. Why do I get the feeling things just got worse?”

  Mike: “You’re more right than you know. Look at the sample box.”

  Both men could see cracks in the box walls, and that they were growing.

  Mike: “I think it’s going to get out, and there’s not much we can do about it unless we get into the lab very quickly.”

  Carol reached over to the intercom and pushed the button, “Jeff, I think you’d better hurry up. That thing’s about to break out of the sample box.”

  Jeff: “We’re almost done. It just has to cook a few more minutes. What was the explosion? It scared the crap out of us, we thought we’d blown ourselves up.”

  Carol: “It was the Cloud sample forming a nucleus. It knocked Alan out. At least that was a good thing, but the box is cracked and will not hold much longer.”

  Carol: “Mike, get one of the power sources and some wire, so we can wire the explosives up.”

  Mike: “Will do.”

  Carol: “Alan doesn’t seem to be moving. He may be dead. The electrical charge was massive, and he was right next to it.”

  Six minutes later, the four team members gathered outside the lab. Sheryl continued to work on getting the computers back and maybe access to the lab. Dr. Snowden was carrying something that looked like plumber’s putty. He went up to the door and put it where Mike had indicated earlier. Mike attached wire across a small syringe filled with black goo and inserted it into the putty as Jeff finished placing each one. He unrolled the wire from a drum down the corridor and around the corner, where he hooked it up to a power supply.

  Jeff: “I have no idea how much of this stuff to use. I filled the syringes with ammonium nitrate mixed with some oil and other things to make a primer. When the current goes through it, it should set off the plastic explosive.”

  Carol: “Seems to be a lot of ‘should’s’ in that last sentence. That doesn’t fill me with confidence.”

  Just then there was a loud crack from the lab as one of the walls of the sample box collapsed. The Cloud began to move slowly out of the opening. The collapsed wall was on the opposite side from the hole that Alan cut, so it didn’t enter the lab proper yet.

  Jeff: “We are out of time. Everybody back down the hall and around the corner. Tim, go tell Sheryl what we are doing and to keep her head down.”

  All four took off as ordered. Mike was at the power supply attaching the wires.

  Mike: “I’m ready.”

  Jeff: “Okay, everyone, cover your ears and open your mouth…do it.”

  Mike flipped the switch, and there is a very loud explosion. Smoke and debris shot down the hall, but only the smoke made it around the corner where they were standing. When they look around the corner, the door had disappeared along with a large part of the wall.

  Carol: “Think ya used enough dynamite there, Butch?”

  Mike and Jeff hurried down the hall to the opening. The Cloud had reached Alan’s body, and his skin began to blister. He suddenly sat up and started screaming as his skin and muscles seemed to melt away. Even as his skull became exposed he still screamed, presenting a horrible sight that neither of them would ever forget. As the screaming stopped, and Alan fell backward to be slowly turned into a blackened skeleton, the Cloud had reached the door opening and was already in the lab.

  Mike yelled, “F**k this,” and ran into the lab straight through the emerging Cloud and slammed his hands down on both the black and red buttons. The flush systems turned on instantly and the Cloud began to be sucked back into the containers and out of the facility. Mike yelled, as his skin began to blister. Jeff ran over to the sink and grabbed the water hose used to fill containers and sprayed Mike from head to toe with water. He kept spraying him, as Tim came in and went to help Mike.

  Jeff: “Get him to the infirmary quickly and treat him for acid burns.”

  Tim helped walk Mike to the infirmary, and Carol came over to assist. Jeff walked over to Dan on the floor and put two fingers to his neck. Dan’s skin was cool, and there was no pulse. He was gone. The flush system was still sucking air out of the facility, so Jeff walked over to the controls and shut it off. The Cloud was totally gone, and Jeff was worried that the system would suck all the air out of the facility since both boxes were open to the lab and the lab was open to the rest of the facility. The back fill air from compressed tanks began to equalize the pressure.

  He looked around the lab to find something large enough to cover the opening Alan had cut in the evac chamber. Finding a section of plasterboard of the right size, he applied silicone grease and used it to seal the opening. The opening made him nervous.

  Carol returned to the lab and joined Jeff seated at one of the counsels.

  Carol: “I assume that Dan is dead or you would have done something.”

  “You’re right. I think the blow to his head killed him instantly. His skull is crushed. How’s Mike?”

  “He’ll be okay. He may have a few acid-burn scars. That was quick thinking to spray him with water. It really kept the burns from getting worse. Tim is bandaging him now.”

  “I’ve been burned myself, so I knew what to do. I’m really glad he’s okay. We’ve already lost two people.”

  “What the hell’s going on out there?” Carol said as he looked up at the monitor linked to the cameras transmitting from outside the facility. There was the sample Cloud, very dark and flashing with bolts of electricity, surrounded by the main Cloud.

  Jeff: “I thought it would just melt into the mother Cloud.”

  “Well, it doesn’t look that way. It almost looks like they’re fighting, if that’s possible.”

  As they watched, the new Cloud, though much smaller than the main Cloud, seemed to be growing larger as it began absorbing its progenitor. There were flashes of electricity at every point at which the Clouds touched.

  Carol: “It looks like they’re fighting with electricity, and the mother Cloud is losing ground.”

  Returning from her office, Sheryl along with Tim joined the group in the lab and immediately began to stare at the monitor to which Jeff and Carol were glued.

  Jeff: “How’s Mike?”

  Tim: “He’s okay. He’s resting now. I gave him some painkillers and a sedative. What the hell’s going on out there?”

  Carol: “As far as we can tell, the sample Cloud we released is fighting the Cloud from which it was taken. And the mother Cloud seems to be losing.”

  Tim: “This is what I was talking about earlier. If my idea of assuming the Clouds are like amebae is correct, then they are individuals and would not just melt together when they come in contact. They would see the other as a competitor for food. I think that is what you are seeing right now; a fight for survival. We injected a living entity directly into another, and the sample Cloud has the advantage since most of the Clouds defenses are probably on its outside surface, not inside, plus it may have been supercharged. It’s like injecting a bacterium directly into a human body.”

  Jeff: “Well this is interesting. I wonder who’ll win?”

  Carol: “What does this mean when the Clouds in Europe and Asia meet each other?”

  Tim: “I think they’ll fight each other until one is dead or one backs off. Just like in nature.”

  Jeff: “We need to let our colleagues around the world know this.”

  Sheryl: “This may be a way to finally defeat these things. Use them to kill each other.”

  ~

  All four of them spent the next few hours teleconferencing with scientists and government officials from all over the world, while at the same time watching the battle above their lab. The overwhelming question from the scientific community was how can this be used to destroy the Clouds? Tim’s suggestion was that whenever two Clouds
came together, one would be destroyed. This would eventually lead to only one Cloud in the Euro-Asian landmass. It was obvious that they knew of each other’s presence and were being drawn together. The problem was that would mean that the Clouds would be free to destroy large parts of Europe and Asia as they moved toward each other. This was not very appealing to those located in their paths.

  Jeff kept them informed of the battle between the mother and daughter Clouds above him. The satellite photos and over-flights were providing information of what was happening to the Cloud from the outside. After about two hours, it became evident from these photos that the mother Cloud was shrinking. The battle was actually reducing its volume. Also, it was clear that the daughter Cloud was now on the defensive. Tim commented that the internal defenses of the mother were coming to bear on the invader.

  Mike joined them about this time. He had bandages on his arms and face, but he sounded in good spirits.

  Jeff: “You look like the invisible man.”

  Mike: “Thanks. Any skin exposed was burned, luckily not very badly. Thanks for the water bath. I think you saved my life.”

  Jeff: “Just returning the favor. If you hadn’t hit the buttons, none of us would be here.”

  Mike: “Any of you would have done the same thing. I just moved first.”

  Carol: “Hate to disappoint you, but there was no way I was going to run through that Cloud. You ought to get a medal.”

  Tim: “I agree. I couldn’t have done it.”

  Jeff: “I hate to ask you this, but if we work with you, could you put the evac and sample box back together?”

  Mike: “Of course, we only need a new wall for the sample box and a repair patch for the opening Alan cut and any cracks.”

  Jeff: “Speaking of which. We need to move his remains to the freezer, along with Dan’s before we begin repairs.”

  The remains were moved to the freezer, and Mike began working on the repairs with Tim and Carol helping. The teleconferences with the rest of the world continued, and Jeff stayed in the conversation. But eventually all five of them were too exhausted to function. The battle outside had reached a stalemate with the daughter holding her own against the mother, but Tim was sure that the former would eventually lose. Jeff said he would stay and listen to the teleconference and watch the battle; he told the rest of them to get some rest. Carol said he would be back in four hours to relieve him.

  ~

  The morning of Day 5, Carol was at the console when Jeff announced over the intercom that there would be a meeting in 15 minutes in the conference room. The teleconference had long since ended, and the mother-daughter battle had turned decidedly against the daughter.

  At the appointed time, Jeff began the meeting, “We need to discuss our next step. The world community is going to try what we did to create daughter Clouds that they could then use against the mother. We don’t know how this is going to work since we have a datum point of one. As you are already aware, the sample Cloud we released has been fighting its source and losing. I think sometime today it will be overcome. The good news is that the mother Cloud has been reduced by a third. It’s still several dozen square kilometers, so there’s not much we can do to it right now.”

  Tim: “Carol, Sheryl, and I’ve been studying Carol’s model of the entity, I think we’re beginning to understand why it’s shrinking. It uses chemical energy to create the currents that pulse through its entire volume; that’s what makes it alive. Cut off too small a part, and it dies, but cut off a big enough part, and it has enough chemical energy to create its own nucleus, kind of like cutting a worm in two. However, when it does this, the daughter Cloud becomes its own entity and struggles to survive just like its mother. When a Cloud’s attacked, it must convert more of its substance to electricity to combat the intruder. Thus it becomes smaller, like a person that exercises every day without eating. The Cloud above us has not moved very far since it got here and has pretty much depleted the area of sustenance. When we released the sample, the mother Cloud had to fight without being able to replenish itself. In other words, it’s using itself up.”

  Jeff: “I was thinking that may be the case. What we need to do is to lock it in place and hit it with another daughter Cloud, so it can’t move and has to keep consuming itself. Mike and I think that we can create a sample box in the lab, twice the size of what we have now, with an evac chamber around it, but we’re going to have to move almost everything out of there to make enough space. I want you, Tim, and Carol to work on doing that while Mike and I work on putting the chambers together. We need to work as fast as we can. Time’s very important. I think once the mother Cloud kills its daughter it’s going to go looking for food. Sheryl, I have another job for you.”

  Carol: “I have three questions. One, if we make a larger sample box, won’t the electrical explosion, which ruptured the last one, pretty much destroy everything around it?

  Mike: “I plan to install a Faraday cage inside the sample box and ground it so that the charge with be dissipated. There will be a lot of fireworks, but it’ll protect the box’s walls.”

  Carol: “Okay, my second question is that you’re not going to be able to fix the lab wall, which we blew out. Does that mean that should it get out again we’re dead?”

  Jeff: “Yes, last question?”

  Carol: “At least you’re honest. The last question is that it took at least a day for the larger sample to create the nucleus. Isn’t that going to take too long? I don’t think the daughter Cloud will last that long.”

  Mike: “I’ve already thought of that. I am putting two electrodes in the sample box that will be hooked up to several power supplies in series. I’m going to provide as much power to the sample as it’ll take. I’m hoping that this will speed up its nucleus creation. If so, it should reduce the time it’ll take considerably.”

  Jeff: “Sorry to cut this short, but we need to get to work. As soon as you two finish clearing out the lab, join Mike and me working on the chambers. We’ll need all the help we can get.”

  ~

  It was early evening before they finally got the two chambers completed,

  Mike: “I wouldn’t call this my best work, but I think it will hold,

  Carol: “It better or we’re dead.”

  Mike: “It was lucky we could use most of the old chambers or we would never have finished this as fast as we did.”

  Jeff: “Are all the systems hooked up? Is it ready to go?”

  Mike: “Yes, it is. I’ve tested all the systems and the integrity of the two chambers. I put the two buttons for flushing the evac and sample boxes in the corridor just outside the lab. There was not enough room in here, plus after last time, we know that maybe it’s better to have them further away.”

  Jeff: “I agree. I think we should go draw the sample, as soon as the daughter Cloud has been consumed by its mother. I don’t want to draw what’s left of her back in.”

  Carol: “I think our timing is about right. It looks like our sample monster is being destroyed.”

  All four looked at the exterior video and watched as the last of the daughter Cloud was consumed by the main Cloud.

  Jeff: “That’s it. Turn on the system.” All five of them walked into the corridor leading to the lab, and Mike went up to a makeshift counsel. He flipped a switch and the sound of machinery could be heard. The sample box began to fill with material drawn from the Cloud outside the lab. As last time, Jeff said to cut it off when it had reached about three-quarters full. The behavior of the sample was exactly the same only more so. It moved about the interior trying to escape but with no ability to impact its glass home. The Faraday cage gave the box the appearance of a chicken coup with metal crisscrossing the interior surface of the glass.

  Mike: “All the readings are about the same as last time, though it looks like the electrical charge is going up faster. I’m turning on the power supplies to begin feeding it more energy. I hope we don’t regret this.”

  Mike slowly turn
ed up the dial on the power supplies and watched the power inside the cage carefully, along with the other three participants. The electrical charge inside the box began to rise.

  Tim: “It looks like it’s working. The sample is using the additional power we’re supplying to create its nucleus. This shouldn’t take too long.”

  Mike reached the maximum on the power supplies. There was nothing that anyone could do but watch.

  Jeff: “Do you know how high the energy was when the nucleus was created on the last one?”

  Mike: “It knocked out the sensors last time, but it must have been around 10MeV.”

  Jeff: “At this rate, it should be around that number in an hour. We have to hope the main Cloud doesn’t move too far away by then. We have to get these two to fight while it is still weak.”

  Mike: “I think there is another power supply in Carol’s office. Should we hook that up also?”

  Carol: “It’s okay with me. I don’t think I’ll be doing any work in there.”

  Jeff: “Mike, do it. Any little bit helps. Sheryl, I have a task for you.” Jeff and Sheryl walked a ways down the hall speaking softly, then Sheryl left.

  Mike went to Carol’s lab where he set about getting the power supply disconnected and reconnected to the power supplies already sending power to the sample box.

  Fifty minutes after the sample was taken, there was a bright flash from the lab that temporarily blinded everyone. When they could see again, the sample Cloud had a clearly visible nucleus.

  Jeff: “Let’s send her back to her mommy. Looks like mother has moved off our facility exit, but she hasn’t gotten far.”

  Mike hit the flush button and the sample was sucked out of the chamber and back to the outside. All four watched as the new Cloud consolidated. The mother Cloud was seen to reverse course and move toward this new threat. Sheryl now joined the other team members.

  Carol: “Looks like the fight’s on. The mother Cloud must just response instinctively, which works in our favor.”

  Tim: “But won’t there always be a winner? Both Clouds are not going to be totally destroyed. I don’t see how this will end the threat. Won’t the survivor just move on to rebuild its strength in an area not stripped bare?”

  Jeff: “Well there is one thing I haven’t mentioned to you. I have had Sheryl working with the US Air Force, and they think they may have a way of dispersing the Cloud if it is small enough.” He hits a call button on the telephone.