Mars Needs Chickens!

by John Taloni

  “True,” said Peter. “And really, the Tyrannosaurus Rex specimens are making significant progress.” He nodded towards another fenced-in area, a rueful smile on his face.

  “Yes. It’s impressive that we were able to reverse-engineer them at all,” said Smita. “It would be even more impressive if they were more than five feet tall.” In the enclosure a mini Tyrannosaurus Rex made a “Raaaaaht” noise. It barely carried to Smita and Peter.

  “So very fierce and ferocious,” said Peter.

  “And then there’s the new attraction,” remarked Smita.

  “Do you think it will work?” Peter kicked at the dirt.

  “That’s what I’m here to expedite,” said Smita. She looked over to Katy and Hestia. “It’s almost as if she understood what Katy was saying. Would be nice if the other chickens were as cooperative as her.”

  At that moment, Katy and Hestia were walking around the Chocobo enclosure.

  “I’m glad you got a lot of room to run around in,” said Katy.

  “Cluck cluck,” responded Hestia, pecking her head forward.

  “They seem to have good food too.” Katy patted Hestia’s torso. “You’re not skin and bones like when I had to feed you scraps.”

  “Cluck que cluck,” replied Hestia.

  “But we definitely have to get you a better line of work.” Katy gestured at the Chocobo ride, where another child struggled into the saddle as the riding chicken flapped its wings in mild protest.

  “Cluck CLUCK!” Hestia flapped her wings vigorously for a moment. She lifted into the air for a brief moment but did not take off. She then bobbed forward and pecked towards something on the ground.

  #

  A hubbub arose at the entrance. Several children rushed through, into the attraction area.

  “Kaz! Restrain yourself!” A man’s voice rang out from the gate area. One of the boys skidded to a halt, the rest of the children stopping shortly after.

  Smita headed for the group. At the same time a tall, lean man strode towards them as well. They arrived at the same time.

  “Yoshi Tabata. Good to see you again.” Smita nodded at him. “You are earlier than we expected.”

  “Smita Namputiri. The pleasure is mine. I believe we last met during second round financing negotiations?”

  “Yes, although I’ve sat in on other meetings. With the lightspeed delay to Earth, I was not able to get involved in the financial discussion as much as I would have liked.” She waved around the theme park dome. “We are not quite as prepared as we want.”

  “But certainly you have some items to show. Nothing is ever as complete as we would like. Eventually we need to take action.”

  As they talked, other parents walked up and clustered with their children.

  “Smita, this is my son Kazumi Tabata,” said Yoshi. “You can call him Kaz, that is what everyone calls him.”

  “Hi,” said Kaz, sticking out his hand. Smita grasped it lightly and shook twice.

  “Yoshi, you may remember Peter Costello. And of course the famous Katy.”

  “So we have you to thank for our little chicken venture,” said Yoshi, shaking Katy’s hand.

  “Not so little,” said Peter, making the expected polite joke.

  Kaz tugged on his father’s sleeve. “Yes, yes, go ahead,” said Yoshi. Kaz and his group ran off towards the Chocobo ride.

  “It’s just like in Final Fantasy!” Kaz’s voice trailed off as he ran.

  “Mmmm. Not quite like Final Fantasy,” said Smita. “Our chickens are a little more...cantankerous. And they are only strong enough to hold children.”

  “To be honest I am more interested in the Tyrannosaurus Rex group,” said Yoshi. “A full sized specimen would generate enough profit to justify our whole investment. Strange that they are so small.”

  “It’s not for lack of growth serum,” said Peter. “We have it in all their water. Doesn’t seem to have much of an effect.”

  Yoshi turned, suddenly distracted. He walked towards the Chocobo line. “Kaz! KAZ! Wait your turn!” Kaz sulked and stepped back from the front of the line, where he had been trying to cut in.

  Katy walked up to Kaz, Hestia close behind. “What do you want?” Kaz stuck out his chin.

  “Why are you trying to cut?” asked Katy.

  “You Martians can do this any day, we traveled all the way from Earth,” said Kaz. “Besides, my dad usually gets me anything I want. Wish he’d make up his mind.”

  The line went down and eventually it was Kaz’s turn. He struggled into the harness, his mount - a six foot tall chicken - flapping and struggling as he got in.

  “Buck BUCK!” Hestia scratched at the ground with her feet while observing.

  “I know,” said Katy. “They don’t like it. But it helps the colony. It’s like their job. So we can afford more big chickens. Like you!” Katy reached up and patted Hestia on the side of her neck.

  The loader finished getting Kaz into the saddle and gave the chicken a swat on its backside. The chicken took off at a slow lope. After a few dozen steps it picked up its pace. Kaz thrust one fist into the air, but took it back down as the chicken slowed down again. It stopped and pecked at the ground for several seconds before taking off again.

  Several other kids got on giant chicken rides as Kaz went through the circuit. Eventually he came back around to the loading area and got off.

  “What do think, Kaz?” Yoshi Tabata addressed his son as he walked up. Several of the other children joined them.

  “It was okay.” Kaz fidgeted, scuffing one foot against the dusty ground. The action forced him into the air. He landed hard and waved his arms for balance.

  “The gravity takes a bit to get used to,” said Smita. “Of course, without the lower gravity the chickens couldn’t fly.”

  “They fly?” Kaz turned his head quickly and gave Smita an intense look.

  “When they want to,” said Paul. “Which...is not quite as frequently as we would like.”

  “As I have been trying to explain to your father, our latest attraction suffers because of that. Perhaps with a little more time.” Smita looked at Katy. “Although we could give a demonstration. If Hestia is up to it?”

  “Why her?” asked Kaz. “Dad, I wanna fly a chicken!”

  “Hestia is the only one who will reliably do it,” said Peter. “We call the attraction ‘Lord of the Rings Short Version.’”

  “Sure,” said Katy. “She likes that one.”

  The group made their way to a different area of the dome. An unused loading deck sat in an unlighted area. Smita tapped on her phone and several of the attraction employees joined her there.

  “Light it up please,” said Smita. “And get Mount Doom going.”

  Katy climbed the loading deck as a worker put a harness on Hestia. Katy easily got into the harness and pulled the straps tight.

  “Ready to do your duty?” Smita asked with a smile as she handed Katy a large gold-colored band.

  “For the Fellowship of the Ring!” Katy lifted the band to her head in a mock salute.

  Hestia took a running start and flapped into the air.

  “They are now passing over the Shire,” said Smita, as Hestia flew over a cardboard mockup of a Hobbit village. “Now Rivendell...next, the trees of Lothlorien and, well, you get the idea.”

  The course curved around and brought Hestia back towards the audience. “Now she is approaching Mount Doom.” Hestia climbed up a few dozen meters of altitude to cross over a plywood volcano, with paper mache sides. Orange lights gave bubbling water the appearance of lava.

  Hestia swooped down towards the “volcano” and Katy threw the band in. “Got it in one!” exclaimed Smita. “Center hit, too.”

  The chicken and rider came in for a soft landing. “Cluck CLUCK!” Hestia bobbed her head back and forth in wide swings.

  Katy unharnessed herself, stepped off and said “Ta dah!” Then she walked to Hestia and gave her a pat on the torso.

  “Hey, I wanna do
it too!” Kaz jumped toward Hestia in a swift motion.

  “Cluck cluck BUCKAW!” Hestia flapped backwards, away from Kaz. She stepped over towards Katy.

  “Uh, terribly sorry Mr. Tabata,” said Peter. “Hestia is Katy’s chicken. Or at least, she’s the only one that Hestia will allow to ride her.”

  “But dad! We paid! For all of this!” Kaz marched around in a tight circle.

  “Patience,” said Yoshi. “And it is the investors who paid. Even they do not own anybody.”

  “It’s a chicken, not an anybody!”

  “You will have respect.” Yoshi spoke in a soft voice.

  Kaz’s shoulders slumped. “Yes sir.”

  “Now, let us see what we can arrange. Could my son fly another chicken?”

  “We can try,” said Smita. “The others are unreliable.”

  “It will be a test,” replied Yoshi.

  “So long as expectations are kept reasonable,” Smita said.

  Kaz stepped up to the loading area. A worker helped him into a harness. The chicken took off slowly, then stopped at the Lothlorien section to peck at the ground. It then flew in arcs, eventually arriving at the Mount Doom area. Kaz aimed and threw. The ring bounced off the top of the volcano and then rattled in.

  Kaz dismounted and went back to his dad. His group of friends patted him on the shoulder as he went past.

  “Well, that stunk,” Kaz said as he arrived.

  “Yes, we aren’t quite ready.” Smita looked at Yoshi as he stared beyond her and Peter, gaze fixed at shoulder height.

  “What is going on with the chickens?”

  Smita and Peter turned. The giant chickens pecked at the ground vigorously. Nor were they alone. In the other exhibit, the Tyrannosaurus Rexes scratched at the ground with their feet. They sloshed their water container, spilling large amounts on the ground.

  “Something is disturbing them both,” said Smita.

  “Well, they are related,” muttered Peter.

  A black bump appeared near the water trough in the Tyrannosaurus Rex exhibit. It grew upwards, latching onto the side of the trough. The water drained into the growth. It then split into pieces and wriggled away.

  “Have you engineered anything that would act like that?”

  “No,” said Peter. “Not that I can think of. Although I’d need to get one to the lab to be sure.”

  The group stepped back, away from the growth. It scattered across the ground, separating into individual worms. The chickens went into a frenzy, pecking at them.

  A thin black line stretched towards the exit. On the other side of the entrance tunnel, a growth spurt of black tendrils shot up in the other dome. As they watched, it spread down the street.

  “I...there’s a portable analysis kit,” said Peter. “It’s in my lab. Not sure we’ll get past...whatever that is.”

  Smita motioned towards the park workers. They clustered around her.

  “Let’s keep ourselves and the guests away from the worms,” said Smita.

  “They do not appear dangerous,” noted Yoshi. “If anything, they seem to be desired eating for our animals.”

  “Kinda like earthworms. But more like a colony organism on a large scale.” Peter paced back and forth. “Katy, did you see anything - Katy? Katy?” Peter looked around. “KATY!”

  Peter pulled out his phone and dialed. “Katy! Where are you?” He shouted into the receiver.

  “Hi dad! I didn’t want to wait. It might just get worse.”

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m on my way to your lab. Hestia and I snuck out.”

  “Snuck out?”

  “It was really confusing.” The sound of rushing air made a hissing sound in Peter’s receiver. The sound of flapping wings appeared faintly. “Dad, these worm thingies are everywhere. They’re flowing along the plants and stuff. Weird flapping tentacles too.”

  “Oh my god! Stay safe!”

  “I’m gonna hang up, dad. Will let you know when I get to your lab.”

  The line went dead. Smita looked at Peter, her head tilted. “That girl is going to do whatever she wants. She should be fine.”

  Peter nodded. “Katy said the worms were all over. We need to give a colony-wide alarm.”

  “Already sent,” said Smita.

  Peter paced back and forth for the next ten minutes. The kids in the group remained mostly quiet, speaking up every minute or so. An hour ago they had been theme park attendees on a vacation. Now they were stuck in an odd, potentially dangerous situation.

  When Peter’s phone chimed, he pulled it out of his shirt pocket so quickly that it slipped out of his hand. He fumbled for it with several near-misses until he caught it at knee height.

  “Katy! How are you? Are you safe? What took so long?”

  “I’m fine, Dad. We landed on the roof. Hestia is kinda tired but doing okay. Now where’s this kit you talked about?”

  “It’s scattered all over the lab. I mean, I have things in mind, but I can’t remember where I last put them. Um, start with a sack, there should be a few in the kitchen area. Oh, where did I leave everything, I can’t recall!”

  Peter felt a hand grip his shoulder. He turned his head and saw Smita. She held her face placid and took measured, steady breaths. “Katy. Turn on the video call and show us the room.” Katy did so and waved the phone around in a slow arc. “Okay. The portable electron microscope is the four inch item on the table. See if it has a case. Good. Now put that in the bag. Next some specimen holders.” Smita went on through a list, guiding Katy to the items.

  Eventually Peter stopped her. “I think that’s enough. And anyway, we need to keep the weight down. We don’t want Hestia to have to land on the way back here.”

  Twenty minutes after that, a flutter of wings and loud clucking arrived at the entrance tunnel. Peter rushed over and arrived as Katy dismounted. He hugged her hard. “You’re safe! You’re safe.”

  “Yeah. Um. Dad. I wasn’t really in danger.” She patted his back. “Dad. You’re embarrassing me.”

  “Oh! Um. Sorry.” He took the bag from her. “Well, shall we see what’s going on?”

  Smita arrived. “Yes, as soon as possible.”

  “It’s weird, though,” said Katy. “The worm things were all over on the way out. On the way back they seemed a lot less. Like they were deflating.”

  Peter got to work analyzing the worms. As he did so, people started to trickle in from the main dome. The tourist dome had only the small version of the worms and was perceived to be safer. Smita went from group to group keeping people calm.

  After half an hour, Peter appeared at Smita’s side. “Say, could we have a chat?” Peter had an insincere smile pasted on his face to match his cheery exterior.

  “Certainly.” Smita came with Peter as he walked her back to the crude examination lab he’d set up.

  When they were away from the rest of the group, Peter turned to face Smita directly. “I have to ask. Have you been running any experiments beyond the ones I know about? Something really unusual?”

  “No...and what is this about, Peter?”

  “Most of what we know about this organism we have already observed. It’s a small wormlike creature in small concentrations. It can turn into a colony creature. I went to examine its DNA for more.”

  “And?” Smita’s face remained controlled.

  “And, it doesn’t have DNA.”

  “So that means it’s - “

  “Local. Look, did we build this dome on metal? What’s the base?”

  “We dug down to bedrock.” Smita pursed her lips. “Apparently not as foundational as we thought. Well! Life on Mars. Besides us, of course.”

  “Life we know little about,” said Peter. “We don’t know why it suddenly expanded into the main dome.”

  Peter went back to his mini-lab and continued work. About half an hour later the automatic sprinklers went on in the main dome. Suddenly the worm creature reacted, reaching into the air. Portions collapsed into a thicke
r, shorter creature near the sprinklers.

  “Water. It’s water!” Peter rushed to Smita. “The worms are seeking water. It only makes sense on a gradually drying world like Mars. The worms would seek water and expand where they found it. Cooperate as a species to get to it. They’re going towards the sprinkler as a source.”

  “Which is why they collapsed after the initial reach out,” said Smita.

  “We should be fine unless they find an open source of water.” Peter nodded, considering the idea. Then he and Smita both looked at each other in horror.

  “The fountain!” Both exclaimed simultaneously.

  “If it gets to the fountain in the central park, it will absorb all the water,” said Smita. “How big will it get?”

  “Not sure, but pretty big,” said Peter. “Probably not enough to endanger the dome. But if it gets from there into our water supply…” He made an explosion motion with his hands.

  “I’ll let the police know. You work on a solution.” Smita pulled out her phone and stepped away, into a more secluded portion of the tourist dome. She returned a few moments later.

  “The good news is, it also needs a source of food. Which we’ve been spreading around this dome in the form of chicken feed.” Peter waved a hand around, indicating the large area making up the chicken pen. “Then it found the water in the Tyrannosaurus Rex exhibit.”

  “We’re a source of food,” said Smita.

  “Not so much for this entity. At least so it seems. Maybe the shrubs, but it finds them hard to digest. Or so our experience would indicate.”

  “So our population…”

  “Should shelter in place,” said Peter.

  Peter took a jug of water and spread it around near the outside of the giant chicken enclosure. A group of worms headed towards it. They turned into a small colony creature: Short, thick, with an open top. Tentacles sprang from the top and waved around.

  “It’s seeking more water,” said Smita from behind Peter.