CHAPTER 18
WORMS THREATEN
Mark Helmins shook his head in incomprehension and handed the report to the Dr. Ed Dreshman, who sat to the right of him at a round conference table. Preparing for the harvest was an immense effort. Helmins had an intense headache, and this interruption by the young geologist who now sat nervously in front of his desk wasn’t helping. If this man didn’t have a reputation for incredible brilliance, he wouldn’t have been granted an audience and his report would have been funneled through normal channels. Within a few days he and Dreshman would have gotten the report anyway.
At times like this, Helmins wished that and his top men were fitted with COM implants. It would go against the senseless edicts that required low technology on new worlds, but he and the Corporation could have gotten past that. Instead, he had opted against it. This was a small human community that lacked the fast-paced back-stabbing, competitive bullshit of an Earth assignment. Usually. COM implants and other technologies weren’t needed; or so he had thought. Right now they would have come in handy.
“Get to the point, Doctor Lexter. We’ve been recording seismic activity since we landed on Aves. What’s so interesting about these recent read-outs?” He dropped the report on the table in front of Lexter. It was printed on paper, a substance they had in abundance on Aves, but had been out of fashion for many decades, given the near extinction of trees on Earth. Synthetic paper could be produced, of course, but it was almost as expensive as synthetic body parts. Printed paper was still however, an excellent means of conveying information that you didn’t want to be hacked and spread all over the data net. Its use was largely a security measure.
“Yes sir, of course." The young man fumbled through the report to a graph that showed seismic activity levels over the last four years. “Aves seismic activity has always been low, by Earth standards, but has been gradually increasing over the last three years, particularly in mid-summer. We felt that we would need longer term data to work out exactly what’s happening.”
“Tell me something I don’t know; don’t lecture me on basics,” Helmins insisted. “I've read and approved every Aves science report that exists.”
“Yes sir. The latest seismic activity correlates positively with brown-patch formation, as I reported yesterday. We are certain now that instead of normal Earth-like geologic activity we have mostly been recording worm movement.”
“Also predictable, given what we’ve recently learned about the worms. And?”
“The areas of disturbance are expanding.”
“Also to be expected, which is why we are moving up the harvest. We’ll get the crops in before the damn worms do.”
“Yes, but what this latest data suggests is a rapid expansion in their activities that goes far beyond the crop zones. I thought you should know.”
“You mean beyond the fields themselves?”
“Yes.”
Helmins shook his head in denial. “I think you exaggerate the situation. All incidents over the last three summers have been in crop areas.”
“A temporary situation. If I am correctly interpreting the geological evidence, the worms are spreading too quickly to be contained within the field areas. I believe that the worms are the obvious explanation for a nearly total lack of sedimentary stratification on Aves.”
“Yes, of course,” Helmins agreed. “Many of us made that connection days ago when the worms were discovered. Worm activity over millions of years accounts for the thick soil layer on Ave.”
The young man shook his head. “But I just realized the full significance today. We have been unable to find any stratification at all, no differences between ten meters down and a thousand meters down. For everywhere except the highest mountains the same situation applies. Don’t you see what that implies?”
“Lots of monster worms for many millions of years, long before the Earth-like life got here.”
“Yes, but it implies far more. Until approximately ten thousand Earth- years ago, over almost the entire land mass of Aves, the entire soil layer was completely stirred up regularly from top to bottom over a very short cycle period, geologically speaking. Probably over a single year, or at most over a very few years. It’s a catastrophic phenomenon, not a constant or gradual one.”
Helmins again shook his head. "Catastrophic? That's the same impossible crap that Frank Lambert came up with, though he didn’t know the cause."
"And in my view we have to a high degree of certainty confirmed his findings. Lambert deduced that some unknown catastrophic agent had to be involved, an agent that he felt was now returning in successive summers, due to something that we colonists must have done, and that the event was increasing in intensity exponentially. The fact that the reoccurrence of this phenomenon coincides with our arrival on Aves simply can’t be coincidental. After all, it has been roughly ten thousand years since the last previous catastrophic episode."
"And we have all maintained his theory to be nonsense,” protested Helmins. “The past geological record has to be due to some massive, natural mechanisms that we have nothing to do with, since we just got here. Glaciations perhaps. We can’t be triggering a geological catastrophe; we haven’t changed this planet that much."
"But we haven’t found a geological mechanism to explain the rapid, catastrophic mixing of soil. Now I hypothesize that the agent is biological."
Helmins’ jaw dropped. “The worms? Throughout the entire land mass? All the soil of Aves disrupted by them, top to bottom for thousands of meters in depth, in a single year? Is that what you are suggesting?”
“Yes, that’s it exactly.”
“That’s crazy. I could see them destroying a lot of crops, but you’re talking about even more. You’re saying that it will happen even here? In Spaceport City?”
“Everywhere except the mountains. Spaceport City certainly. There are now seismic indications that the worms are already below parts of this city. Everything is at risk; all towns, all forested areas planet-wide, even the spaceport itself. In my view, that’s what the seismic data suggests, and it’s the only hypothesis that fits with the lack of stratification observed.”
“That’s crazy. Thousands of meters of soil cycled planet-wide by those things in a single year?”
“That is indeed the worst case scenario, but it’s the only one that matches all the data.”
Helmins turned to Dr. Ed Dreshman, who had been sitting to the side quietly listening to the entire exchange. “Any thoughts, Ed?”
“It all fits together with the alien hypothesis, I believe. Roughly ten thousand years ago aliens reworked the entire ecology of Aves to their liking, creating forests and birds and so-forth and suppressing the native worm cycles. But they didn’t totally do away with life below the surface of Aves. In reduced numbers stunted worms continued to live on, waiting for temperatures and food availability to be adequate. Now we’ve enabled the worms to re-establish themselves. They’ll eat their way through everything, including us and everything we’ve built here.”
Helmins shook his head. “Not the landing field, surely. The landing field is essentially a five-meter thick slab of fused quartz. No living creature could break through that!”
“We still don’t know how big those things get,” noted Lextor. “The worms that attacked today were even bigger than the ones that hit near New Saint Louis yesterday, and it’s still only late mid-summer. If last year is any guide, the phenomenon will increase rapidly and won't peek for several weeks. Except that this year the phenomenon is orders of magnitude greater in amplitude than it was last year. Judging from the exponential rate of growth exhibited, this year will probably be the cataclysmic year.”
Helmins shook his head in denial. “But why would they come here to the town or to the landing field? There isn’t any crop for them to eat here. Surely such massive creatures require sustenance on a huge scale.”
Lextor shrugged. “I’m a geologist, not a soil biologist, but don’t earthworms eat microscopic life in the soil? May
be surface growth is mere icing on their cake, or maybe they need to surface periodically for other reasons, such as mating, once they are fully mature. But their main food source is obvious. We are sitting on thousands of meters of soil that is several percent living material. Thousands of years ago, native mushroom-like fungi thrived throughout the soil to great depths. They carried energy to those depths. We have recently found that the fungus is not extinct, but has still been gradually enriching the sub-soil for all these years. A huge worm bloom is long overdue. Roughly half the organic material near the surface is of Earth origin, I understand, and the other half is indigenous. Judging from their behavior, the worms thrive on both. In the areas we've farmed we've decreased the biomass by reducing the forest, but we've increased soil temperatures beyond some tipping point that triggers worm activity.”
Helmins wracked his brain for reasons why this couldn’t be happening. “But you are implying that the worms eat their way through the entire soil layer. Because of lower gravity, soil here is much less compacted than is Earth soil, but I still find it impossible to comprehend how any living thing could plow through soil thousands of meters deep.”
Lextor shrugged. “Like the Earth-like life here on Aves the worms are made of stronger materials. The biologists are working on such questions, but right now the biological science that explains exactly how they do it is of secondary importance. We’ve seen them do it, so we know that they can. Our geological data has already identified the magnitude of the problem and predicted the limit of its progression. Our data shows that there are worms throughout the soil, from top to bottom, and they are rapidly growing and spreading, now that surface temperatures have finally reached the point for them to swarm. Maybe it's similar to cicada or locust swarming on Earth.”
“If you’re right, when do you think we can expect them to attack the rest of the crops and the city?”
“There isn’t enough data to estimate accurately, but the data shows alarming growth. Within days, perhaps. Within two weeks, certainly.”
“I agree,” added Dreshman. “The data is clear.”
Helmins sat back in his chair, at last defeated. He had to accept the situation, he had no choice. “Shit. We need at least two weeks to get most of the crops in, even if we start in only a couple of days. We’re already started chemically accelerating maturation for an early harvest, but harvesting this early this will mean 10% crop-loss and a non-organic product designation. That’s billions of credits lost off the top, and from what you’re telling me that’s a best case scenario that we probably can’t meet.”
“We can only do the best we can, sir,” noted the young geologist. Dreshman nodded in agreement.
Helmins smiled for a moment, and shook Lextor’s hand. “Good job.” It made no sense to burden Lextor with all this, the big picture was his own burden. This harvest had to succeed or the Aves colonization effort and his career would be demolished. “I’ve called another meeting of the full science council and security for this evening. We are going to discuss worm control strategies for use in the fields. How to protect workers and that sort of thing. Some of the farm crew is sitting in. Perhaps you should attend also.”
“Do you want me to present my findings to them?” Lextor asked.
“Has anyone else seen this data?”
“No, only the two of you, myself, and George, my technician.”
“Good. Don’t even come then. I don’t want to start a panic, so don’t disclose this data to anyone else yet. Understand?”
“Yes sir.”
“The last thing we need is a panic.”
“Of course.”
“We have to be able to track these things accurately, and predict attacks. That’s your highest priority now. The harvest has to be successful. We can disclose everything after the harvest.”
“We’re on it. Of course more attacks will have to take place for us to collect the requisite data to accurately predict additional attacks.”
“Requisite data? Within a couple of days the whole farm workforce will start harvesting, working double shifts during the cooler hours. I’m afraid there will soon be more data on attacks than you need.”
“I fear so also, sir. Yet as you say, the harvest must go on. There is nothing else we can do, is there?”
“No, there isn’t. Get back to work then, Lexter.”
“Yes sir,” the young geologist said, as he exited the room.
Dreshman stood and also slowly exited the room. He and a select handful of other scientists focused on the alien issue but had accomplished very little. Except for the unmistakable fact of Earth origins and genetic re-design for the Earth-like Aves inhabitants, no evidence of aliens had been found on Aves. Now there was further indirect evidence to consider. Were the giant birds established here to combat the giant worms? Giant birds to eat giant worms? That seemed too much a cliché to be true. Maybe the aliens had a sense of humor.
A short time later, at the request of Helmins, a third guest visited him. Instead of wearing a Corporation orange, green, or red outfit designed for the heat and humidity of Aves, this tall, thin, angular man wore only black, from his boots to his wide-brimmed hat. How the Brethren could stand dressing this way all year in the heat and humidity of Aves, Helmins couldn’t fathom. On the other hand, the color of their clothes apparently appealed to the grackles. The blackbirds refused to talk directly with anyone else.
“Brother Martin, thank you for coming.”
“Always my pleasure, Doctor.” They shook hands.
“Have you contacted our feathered friends?”
“Yes, at long last, through God’s grace. They’ve been rather busy, but I spoke with their leader this morning.”
“The lead grackle? That one that the Port staff calls Blackie?”
“No, Blackie wasn't available. I spoke with his leader. A crow. Quite an impressive fellow, and a true believer.”
“A crow? I’ve been on Aves for three-and-a-half Aves-years I don’t believe I’ve ever even seen a crow.”
“They’re rather shy, but I gather that they’re pretty much the top rung when it comes to Aves bird society. This crow claims that he controls all the blackbirds on the planet, including crows and grackles.”
“All of them? That is impressive. Do the crows agree with our grackle treaty?”
“Of course. It turns out that the grackles are mere middle men, so to speak. We’ve actually been dealing with the crows all along.”
“Really? Why have the crows stayed in the background?”
“Like I say, they’re rather shy, and cautious as well. My notion is that they didn’t trust us at the start. Remember, we were eating quite a few birds at the time.”
“We can figure out bird psychology later. What did he tell you about the worms?”
“That they were as surprised by the worm attacks as we were. They have legends of these things, centuries old stories sung from generation to generation, but they’ve not seen worms of this size for many generations of bird verbal history.”
“And you believe him?”
“They never lied to us before, that I can tell, and I have no reason to disbelieve them now.”
“No reason? They’re supposed to be our partners. This is their world, so they must have known of the threat. Why didn’t they warn us about this earlier?”
“Warn us of their ancient legends? Perhaps it would be like us warning them about the boogie-man. But no, the real answer lies in their lack of the true religion until now. Through the Brethren have they learned of both God and Satan, such that now they are able to know that which is of Satan. The worms from hell are devil spawn, of course.”
Helmins sighed. He had found from previous discussions with Brethren members that it was better not to get into any useless discussions of religious matters with them. “Will there be yet more attacks?”
“They think so, but details on how the worms operate have been lost over the centuries.”
“Great. Will his bir
ds again attack the worms when they surface?”
“Some of my followers witnessed their frenzied attacks on the worms. The birds seem compelled by God to attack the worms on sight. Hundreds of these birds of God have died fighting those monster worms of Satan.”
“No doubt saving human lives in the process.”
“Some of your men say that saving humans is incidental, that all birds simply seem compelled to attack the monster worms on sight, through some quirk of bird biology or psychology. But nothing is accidental in the World, all is but part of a divine plan. Like us, these birds were sent by God. That is also why these birds contacted the Brethren, of course; even their primitive souls could sense our special link with God, as they must to some degree be linked to God also. We and the birds have a destiny on this planet, a destiny chosen by God that won’t be denied. The birds are compelled, yes, but they are compelled by God.”
Or by another mystery of bird psychology that can be put aside for now, Helmins thought but didn't bother to voice. He didn’t understand his black cloaked human allies any better than he understood his feathered allies, but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered now except the only thing that had ever mattered: getting the crop in. “Did you tell the crow of our plan to pick the crops early?”
“Yes. He seemed pleased. He said he would himself lead a great flock of blackbirds to watch over our workers. Within two days he promised to provide more than ten crows and grackles for every human, praise the Lord.”
“Excellent. These crows are rather large birds, I take it.”
“Yes, much larger than grackles. The leader must mass well over a thousand kilos. They should be even more effective against the worms than the grackles are.”
“Good. That will provide some measure of safety, at least. Did the crow say anything else of note?”
“Yes, two things. First, that in response to your request the blackbirds are already searching for our missing Sheriff and biologist.”
“Good. Frankly, we can’t afford the manpower to do it ourselves. Not that we’re in any hurry to find that pair of trouble makers.” Actually with the harvest being accelerated he wanted Deborg to join his science staff as soon as possible. She would provide some political cover when the Star Corporation went public about bird sentience. She had surprised him so far. He had expected her to abandon Weltman within days of meeting that worthless drunkard. Subsequently he had certainly expected her to eagerly accept the offer that George Keto had conveyed to her. Instead she refused it. The woman was unpredictable and possibly in league with that trouble-maker Captain Jack. He should have had the Space Directorate send one of the Corporation operatives that secretly worked in the Directorate to Aves, instead of a junior scientist that was assumed to be malleable.
“Second, at dawn in two days the crow leader wants to meet with you, myself, the Governor, and all Aves humans that can be made available, in the large field just north of town,” the Brethren leader continued.
“The crow wants to meet with all humans? Why?”
“He knows very well that I only lead the Brethren. I got the feeling that he wants to meet his human counterparts in person, as well as present himself and his followers to the human public at large. I gather that it’s good politics for him among his own followers as well.”
“Very well; I had been thinking of holding some sort of get together soon to kick-off the harvest anyway.” Also, at last he would be able deal directly with the blackbird leadership without having to go through Brother Martin. He didn't fully trust religious zealots. “We’ll have most of our security forces with us though. I hope he’ll understand that.”
“He will. In fact, he made a point of inviting as many humans as possible, including those with weapons. He thinks it will improve human/bird relations for us all to see the bird leader and the human leaders cooperating together.”
“It might at that. Very well. Fully sentient birds will come as quite a shock to some, but that cat is soon fully out of the bag anyway. As long as we can keep it from leaking to Earth for a couple more weeks we should be fine. We’ll make a public ceremony of it, and use the meeting to kick off the harvest. But it will have to be a short meeting. We all have a lot of work to do. How many birds will come?”
Brother Martin smiled. "The crow will bring enough followers to convince humans that he speaks for them all, I suppose. Hundreds, perhaps thousands."
Only after Brother Martin had left him did another question occur to Helmins. An odd and disturbing one. When they got here, what would so many blackbirds eat?
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