by Ken Pence
The Ylee hated the human because of his damage – he would never be accepted in Ylee society if they were to escape this place. He hated humans but this answered so many questions that had plagued the Ylee for millennia. He could not help himself. “So a short time will pass outside and we will be long dead.”
“No. With your help – we will escape this place. I suggest you have your workers continue gathering lamlee,” Tod suggested. “You have lights?”
“It will not help me. I am disfigured because of your actions,” said the Ylee.
“We have the medical knowledge to regrow limbs with no scarring or loss of function. It is painful as the nerves regenerate but you can medicate for that. One of those with me lost parts of his anatomy and he is now fully restored.”
The damaged Ylee paused, changed color to a bluish green in this light. He then turned to the other Ylee and ordered them to turn on lights and continue gathering. “The lamlee turn into small devices that exchange the soil in adjacent sites – next to where the first lamlee are produced.”
“Ah,” Tod said. “Do you people grow food on land?”
“We have had some experiments in doing so but it is so different than growing food in the ocean. It is difficult.”
“You eat other small creatures in the ocean. You harvest them too?”
“Yes. We hunt different species for food. What do this have to do with our situation?”
“What happens when you eat all of one species in one place? Do you move to another place and eat all the of the next species?”
“Of course not. It would extinguish our food sources in no time. We raise some species in fenced areas,” said the Ylee. “We harvest only a portion.”
“Do you have to clean out these caged areas or do you keep raising these creatures in their own waste?”
“No…of course not. No creature can live in its own waste for long,” said the Ylee.
“Ah,” Tod said and waited to see if squirmy got it yet.
“Ah. The next stage is to let the worms have a fresh area to ingest the materials they need. The lamlee is their waste. Some of it turns into automated farmers. They then produce more lamlee. We have been doing our harvesting before some of the lamlee turn to the next stage and harvesting at the same spot. No wonder our volume has decreased,” he said with his skin flashing through different colors.
“I suggest you ask your people to look for areas where the lamlee have already been converted to the next stage. What are other stages?”
“The next stage is strange and we have never understood its function but there are more stages and the lamlee soon begin to diversify.”
“Please go ahead,” Tod said.
“The lamlee go through a transformation to quasi-biological forms that look and work like bacteria or spores. These begin to transform into different simple life forms dependent on the environment on the planet. They require some form of energy; heat or light, and water…especially water. They are undistinguishable from cellular life at this point.”
“What happens to the enclosure?” Tod asked.
“Oh. Those disintegrate into the soil. We have found traces of enclosures on many young planets. We find them occasionally but it is astronomically rare.”
“This has always puzzled me. Why do you call them lamlee?” Tod asked.
The Ylee started quivering in an odd way. “The first one to find them had a nickname – lamlee. It is slang in Ylee meaning bodily waste. We made a joke.”
Tod started laughing. Lamlee means shit – well that is really what it happens to be, he thought. “Do you know much about the dimensional pulse weapon? How was it first discovered?” Tod asked.
“A portion. The first Ylee to find an enclosure found it acting like this one, but staying enclosed for long periods less frequently. They determined it was malfunctioning. They found the power supply and generation mechanism but triggered a pulse that disabled the external field. It destroyed their ship in orbit. Luckily another ship arrived a short number of periods later. The scientist on the surface experimented for years until he could duplicate the effect and we used it against other races and later the Allung.”
The Breakout and Break In
Tod went back to Lee Post and John Brattor. “Any luck? I know what these enclosures are for now,” he said.
“You better tell me before I pull off a piece of Lee and beat you with it,” John said.
“Never mind, Ensign Brattor. I will pull off an arm and beat him with it myself,” Lee said.
Tod realized Lee was acting more and more human. “First I want to transfer my whole conversation with the Ylee to your Dexs,” he said and did so. “Now. These things are terraforming stations – I suspect to create life wherever they land. Maybe life seeds might be a better analogy. Oh – Lee – you are full of shit.”
“Excuse me,” Lee said waiting for the quip that was sure to follow.
“Worm waste. Biologically engineered worms ingest a special diet and produce lamlee. When enough accumulate they transform into transporters or bots that give fresh materials. The lamlee then turn into bacteria that evolve into one celled life that evolve into whatever – life adapted to that planet.”
“Why in an enclosure?” John asked.
“To do it in a time frame faster than normal,” Lee said. “Much – much faster than your human enclosures. I think that is why they use the dimensional aspect here. They would not be governed by normal space time.”
“Why is this one malfunctioning then?” Tod asked.
“I suspect it is more sophisticated than that…I doubt it is a malfunction,” Lee said.
“Then what is the reason these ever shut off?” John asked.
“It may be to let in gases – more oxygen when too much is used internally or to spread spores and bacteria – could be to receive radiation to cause mutations. I imagine this is pretty sophisticated. I imagine it will be a long time before humans could bioengineer living worms or program the lamlee as they progress. I have no idea who produce these life seeds,” Lee said.
“All this is moot if we can’t turn off this field. Can you do anything about that without killing us all and those outside?” Tod asked.
“No. I could beat it but it is extremely sturdy. I did hit it – hit it hard. Nothing. No external switches. No fields that I can detect. No blemishes on the surface – smooth. I cannot get it open. I have nothing really to blast it with. I have tried my field on it – no effect. Frustrating is too tame a word,” Lee said.
“Look. Lamlee only respond to telepathy. Remember Omega Sagittarii III. Use that skill you have. Use contact and think to shut it off. It may use telepathy,” Tod said.
Lee Post placed both hands on the alien mechanism and visualized the enclosure shutting down. He tried thousands of visualizations.
“Nothing,” he said. “You have that implant. Try it. Can’t hurt. I don’t want to live eons in here with a bunch of fossilized human and Ylee bones.”
“Thank you for that image. Here goes,” Tod said and concentrated on activating and using his implant. Nothing. He decided to picture the center of the device as a warm ball of energy and cutting down the glow until the field dropped.
“What was that,” Desire said over his Dex. “The instruments showed the field down there just blinked. Did you see it there? It was over in a few nanoseconds.”
“We saw it. Will brief you when we get back. Lots of news,” Tod said. Tod walked over to the Ylee. “I regret injuring you. We will do better working as partners. Do you think that is possible? Will you accept my apology? I am glad we did not have to die together.”
“It is possible I was mistaken. Regrowth information would help. Also tell me how you turned off the field,” the Ylee said.
“It turns off using telepathy from a biological being,” Tod said.
“What is that?” asked the Ylee. “I do not know the word.”
“It is mind control if you have contact. Lamlee respond to thought. Your people used to m
ake surrogates for servants by touching large volumes of lamlee and thinking about what you need. You have to physically contact lamlee when you use them in electronics.”
“You are reasonably sophisticated if you understand that much,” said the Ylee.
“You know my name from the planet but I never learned your name. How will I get you the medical information?” Tod asked.
“My full name is not easily pronounceable but my close associates call me by a short name – Sitsitsrr. It is Ylee slang for always angry. My friends know me well.”
“Thank you for the information. We can share more information if we can sign a treaty as allies. Do you mind if we take a sample of a dead and a live worm and some soil?”
“What will you trade for that?” asked Sitsitsrr.
“Here is list of the chemicals in the soil that the worms ingest and expel as lamlee. It also lists the volume of each in the soil. It may help you if you change your harvest.”
“Take your samples,” Sitsitsrr said.
Tod turned to John Brattor. “Get to it Ensign. We need to get back to Commodore Williams. Our information may change some things.”
***
From the Journal of Susan Kama Siriluk
Our coated ships had returned from KW Sagittarii with extraordinary good news. Rett and Shiv had had no luck getting through the alien enclosure. We still had no clue where the Makers, the ones that built the enclosures, were located or even if they still existed.
My husband sequestered himself with Tod, Desiree, Lee Post, and John to go over what happened.
I got the synopsis right after the meeting.
The Ylee had tried to get us but we faked them out. They tried to use a dimensional pulse weapon on our ships and because they were coated – it didn’t work on us. We went with them to the malfunctioning Enclosure to harvest lamlee – except it wasn’t malfunctioning. It was letting in air and releasing bacteria. Then we find out the Ylee found an Enclosure, millennia ago and that started the rise of their empire. The Ylee then accidentally made a surrogate Ylee and started using them as servants.
Then Tod found out the Ylee ran out of new lamlee and had to start disassembling the surrogates they had made. The Ylee Empire declined and then recently they found the enclosure near KW Sagittarii. They had learned from Tod how the Enclosure worked. The Ylee were possible allies now – wow – Tod had actually made progress getting the Ylee to work with us. Tod had said these enclosures had been sent as life seeds to start life on barren worlds. The enclosures were designed to speed up the process and could only be turned on or off mentally through telepathy. Tod had turned off the enclosure he was in because he had an implant chip like mine after our experience of coercion at Omega Sagittarii III.
We traveled down to the enclosure.
***
Tod stood before the huge enclosure. Rett and Shiv had had no luck dropping it. In fact – they had had no luck getting any response from it at all. Tod walked to about where he had found the control unit inside. “Here’s what we did on the inside,” he said.
Tod placed his hands against the side of the enclosure and they were not damaged. Desiree thought he would have lost them like they would on an enclosure on Earth. This enclosure was different. Tod pictured the glowing orb of energy inside and having it grow smaller until the field dropped. He stood back a moment as he absorbed the import of controlling enclosures. He had the progeny and Octi’s people go within the enclosure to record the processes and stages.
The processes within the enclosure fascinated John Brattor. He enlisted the aid of Ling Tanaka who happened to be an exobiologist – among other skills. The watched as the lamlee produced small transport mechanisms to move the worms to fresh soil, watched them further progress to the bacteria and spore stages. The biological life produced was indistinguishable from live bacteria and they recorded it all. They gently recovered almost a ton of lamlee without killing the worms though they retrieved several samples to compare.
Lee Post, Rett, and Desiree then progressed to examining the power plant for the enclosure. Tod joined them.
“I got nothing when I tried to mentally interact with this before,” Lee Post said. “It may take a biological being.”
“I want to find out where these beings are from that created these enclosures. They have a sophisticated program running here for millennia even with time acceleration. Desiree – I want you to try to do what I did.”
“It is already off,” she said.
“No…no…I want you to picture contacting the creatures that made this setup. Touch it and picture in your mind the data you need to understand the purpose of these enclosures. Where are the instigators?” he said.
“Okay. I’ll try. Hands like this?” she asked as she put her hands on the side of the device. “Oh my…” she said with a sharp intake of breath. “Tod. You need to do the same thing…really darling…just do what you told me to do”
Tod moved up and did the same thing. This was totally different from his other time at the Enclosure near KW Sagittarii. He felt a surge of information. “Lee. You and Rett try this too. I want to see if we are only able to contact this database because of our implants.”
Lee Post didn’t hesitate an instant and did as he was requested. He jerked back after a few seconds. “I got some information – I did see it but it was vague. We will compare in a few minutes.”
Rett moved up and tried it. He waited a few moments but seemed frustrated. “Nothing.”
Tod rounded them up. “Let’s get back to the shuttle where we can compare notes. Some of this is slipping. It wasn’t clear. Maybe we can conflate our information.”
***
The walk back to the shuttle was quiet. They seemed lost in their thoughts as indeed they were. They got inside and pulled up a table. Tod started. “Desiree. Go through what you got first.”
“I’m still processing this information. I got a lot but it doesn’t mean much yet. I can see other locations that must be other enclosures near here. There are only a few. I also have a lot of biological knowledge that I can tap into but I’m not sure what it means. Lee?”
“I got the biological portion too. I feel I understand it but don’t know how to apply it. When I think of the worm samples we collected I see – somewhat – how to do it. Desiree. Think of the worms,” Lee said.
“Oh yes. I see the steps needed to take a species and increase its size and breed it to become larger. Oh…then I see the chemical makeup that needs to be available to make lamlee. Oh. I see where we should collect material. The overflow goes to one area and is meant to be collected there,” Desiree said.
“Ah yes. I see that and I also see the rest of the process…and I see the details of the enclosure creation,” Tod said.
“You think you could build a field like their enclosures?” Lee asked.
“No, but I see a location where we can get more information,” Tod said. “Seems you have to access two enclosures before you get that information but it is a general kind of information like a commercial.”
“A commercial?” Desiree said.
“Yes – kind of…” Tod said. “I think we ought to go to another enclosure and try it. I see one other one nearby.”
***
Commodore Williams was fascinated by the information. “So you think its that experimental implant from after Omega Sagittarii III.”
Tod clarified, “Desiree and I had an implant designed that stimulated a portion of our brain to transmit. We had an implant to block coercion in addition to the field modifications.”
“So you think these enclosures work with mental control?” Andrew asked.
“Not really. I think we can turn them on or off or speed up or slow down production inside. I also know the location of another nearby,” Tod said.
“I did not get the information on how to speed up or slow down production,” Lee Post said.
“Me either,” said Desiree. “…But I did get the locations of nearby enclosur
es.”
“I did not get the location information but have specific details on the processes within,” Lee Post said.
“I think we ought to try to go to the nearby enclosure and drop off colonists too if its viable. They can try here but this planet is still pretty raw. “Let’s try this new location. Tod. You think you can pinpoint it from the mental images?”
“Think so, Commodore.”
“Okay. I’ll take the Antares and the planetoid. How many other ships do you think we should take Commander Lee? I want a strong contingent here if Ylee show up and claim the whole planet. I’m not sure medical information on how to regrow tentacles will give us enough leverage. I don’t want a war with the Ylee. We didn’t come out here for that,” Andrew said.
“I think the planetoid and another battleship and two destroyers ought to be enough,” Commander Lee said.
“Tod, can we make more of those implants here?” Andrew asked.
“We don’t have the equipment here to make them but we might be able to make them with lamlee. Commander Lee. You should see if you could make a more powerful mental connection. You could not mentally turn off the first enclosure we were trapped in but you could get some information this last time,” Tod said. “Commander Rett. Are you willing to try a lamlee implant?”
“Yes, Commander Schroeder,” said Rett.
***
The implants were inserted into the Andrew, Susan, John, Leilei, Steve, Joel, Ling, and Rett. Shiv even got one and they went back to try turning the enclosure on and off. They were able to cut it on and off and received as much information as Desiree. They prepared to go to the nearby enclosure from the mental images they received.
***
From the Journal of Desiree Bardeen
We transitioned to the coordinates we had gotten from the mental images. It was uncanny how accurate the images were. We emerged near a green planet and we were on seventy-three light years from Mu Sagittarii. The sun was a yellow dwarf. The enclosure was huge and had been here for a long time. There was a huge surplus of lamlee – untouched for millennia. There was enough lamlee to coat the planetoid with tons left over. All of us with implants tapped into the database at the enclosure. Tod got even more information than we did. We got together to compare information again.
