CHAPTER XIII
The Talking Claw
As the final creature passed, it suddenly stopped and turned towards the on-looking humans with its red glowing eyes!
"What the hell!" exclaimed Jack.
"Is it attacking?" Mary asked.
"It is surprised," said Talking Owl. "It listens to something, and I can sense its chattering."
It was Ed's turn to be surprised. "I can sense something in the lab also chattering! It's communicating with something in the lab!"
"The Bear Claw!" exclaimed Doc as he rushed into the lab, followed by Ed and White Cloud.
There they found young Frank Grey Wolf, alternately staring in astonishment at both the Bear Claw monitor and at his laptop screen. The cameras watching the Bear Claw showed two wires attached to it on either side of a large scale on the clawed finger.
"What's happening, Frank?" White Cloud asked his grinning cousin.
"Some really wild stuff!" the boy responded. "A minute ago I poked the scale with a copper wire and it stuck on to it."
"What do you mean?" Doc asked.
"The wire became firmly attached like it was welded on," Frank said, "right there where I poked it between the scales. The other end of the wire is attached to this little old-timey volt/amp meter, which began to jitter around like it's doing now."
The amp-meter needle was visibly vibrating. "Some kind of high frequency signal," said White Cloud.
"Right," agreed Frank. "Have you guys got an oscilloscope? At first I thought I might be picking up my own computer's USB signal passing through the scale, but it jitters like that even when I disconnect The USB."
"What USB?" Ed asked.
"The one that I attached to the other side of the scale," Frank said. "It stuck on just like the copper wire did. I was going to see if the low voltage and amperage direct current available from the USB would pass through the scale and maybe suggest hidden carbon nanotubes, or not pass through the diamond scale at all, suggesting no nanotubes. Very crude but you have to start somewhere." The boy glanced at a second device that was attached to a wire that led from the Bear Claw box and from there to the laptop. "The Bear Claw is drawing only a couple of hundred milliamps at five volts from the laptop. What do you suppose it's doing with that?"
"So the Bear Claw is plugged into your laptop?" Ed asked.
"Essentially," Frank admitted. "I intended to merely use the USB as a low voltage source for the conductivity experiment, but besides the voltage line there are of course the two serial data lines and a ground line that are also part of the USB interface. The Bear Claw must have tapped into them all, because my laptop thinks the Bear Claw is some sort of USB device and has been looking for the right drivers to communicate with it. Pretty nifty, right?"
"It's probably related to the radio communications that Running Bear talked about," said Doc.
Jack came rushing in from outside. "The good news is, four Stone-Coats have gone on down the trail, possibly in search of more trees." Indeed, their distant receding footfalls could still dimly be heard even inside the lab. "The bad news is: Hairless Bear or his identical twin stands right outside of this lab, transfixed by whatever the hell is going on in here. One more giant step and this place is history."
"I haven't heard any gunshots," Ed noted.
"John and Talking Owl have managed to restrain Chief Mike's warriors so far," said Jack, "but there are a dozen of them out there now led by Red Hawk, ready to fire up Hairless Bear if he gets destructive. Right now the thing just stands there glancing at us occasionally but mostly just staring at the lab, like it's transfixed by something inside, presumably the Bear Claw."
"It walked right by here earlier without giving the lab a glance," Doc noted.
"It couldn't sense the Bear Claw then," said White Cloud. "The Claw was hidden inside its grounded steel box, which served as an impenetrable Faraday cage as far as electronic signals are concerned. Now young Frank has provided the Claw both a copper wire antenna and a power source. Look at the images; you can see that dark strands of black material have formed inside the Claw where the two wires connect to it."
"You're right," agreed Doc. "Those dark strands of graphite or whatever weren't there before! The Claw has rewired itself to accommodate the interfaces that Frank provided!"
"Guys! Look at this!" Frank exclaimed.
On the laptop screen two words had appeared on an otherwise black screen: 'PROVIDE INPUT' it said.
"Is that the laptop or the Claw asking?" Ed asked.
"It has to be the Claw talking, or even Hairless Bear," said Frank. "If those things are super computers like we suspect them to be, they must have figured out how to communicate with us computer style!"
"I don't understand how!" said Doc.
"Figure out how they did it later," said Jack. "Right now what do we reply assuming it's them?"
"Type in something soothing and friendly, White Cloud," suggested Ed.
White Cloud took Frank's place at the laptop keyboard and typed 'WE SEEK PEACE' and hit the enter key.
"WE SEEK FOOD FOR SURVIVAL," came the immediate reply.
"How do they know English already?" Doc asked. "This doesn't make any sense!"
"So ask it," suggested Ed.
"HOW DO YOU KNOW OUR LANGUAGE?" White Cloud typed.
"SKY SIGNALS," was the brief reply.
"Humans have produced radio and TV signals for nearly a century, and digitized signals in recent years," said Frank. "Maybe they tapped into those!"
"That could explain how they've been able to communicate with us so well so quickly," said Doc. "Is this laptop also connected to the Lodge Wi-Fi?"
"For sure," said Frank. "I set up a Wi-Fi for this lab, same as in the Great Lodge. The Lodge and lab Wi-Fi get a feed from a satellite dish in the village via Ethernet. The Stone-Coats could be hooked up to the internet right now, directly through the Wi-Fi or through the laptop."
"YOU SOFT, WATER FILLED WARM CREATURES COVER OUR WORLD IN THIS WARM TIME," it noted. "YOU ARE MANY."
"OVER SEVEN BILLION," White Cloud responded.
"WE COLD ONES WAKE NOW AND NEED CERTAIN MATERIALS TO SURVIVE."
"WE FEAR YOU WILL EAT US," typed White Cloud.
"YOU WARM ONES ARE SMALL TO EAT," was the reply. "YOU ARE TOO FAST TO CATCH FOR ENOUGH FOOD, AND YOU CAN MAKE FIRE TO STOP US AGAIN. WE CAN NOT LET YOU STOP US AGAIN: WE MUST FEED NOW."
"YOU HAVE EATEN US IN THE PAST," typed White Cloud. "WE WILL STOP YOU AGAIN WITH FIRE IF YOU ATTACK US OR OUR HOMES."
"YOU AND YOUR HOMES CONTAIN FOOD WE NEED, AND WE MUST FEED."
"Human bodies like all living things contain at least three dozen different essential elements," noted Doc, "including many also used in computers. Maybe that's what they mean."
"Maybe if we feed them trees they won't eat us," Ed suggested.
"WHAT DO YOU NEED TO EAT?" White Cloud typed. "PERHAPS WE COULD PROVIDE FOOD TO YOU IF YOU AGREE NOT TO ATTACK US AND OUR HOMES."
This time there was no immediate response.
"I do not trust them," said Mouse, who along with John Running Bear and Talking Owl had come inside and crowded behind White Cloud. "We cannot read their thoughts. They could easily deceive us."
"True; we don't know them," added Running Bear. "We don't know how they think or what they might plan. We can't count on their human nature or competently judge their intensions or predict their actions."
"And we don't know what they know or don't know," added Doc. "We're really working blind here."
"What can our Stone-Coat talkers sense?" Mouse asked.
"We sense only their broad feelings and not their concrete thoughts," said Ed. "Right now I sense hunger and eagerness."
"As do I," echoed Talking Owl. "Perhaps if we had more time we could do better."
"Why don't they answer us?" asked Mary.
"Maybe they're thinking things over like we are," said Ed.
"WHAT YOU SUGGEST MAY BE ACCEPTABLE," came the Stone-Coat answer at last. "W
E ASSESS THAT YOU MAY BE CAPABLE OF GATHERING FOOD FOR US EFFICIENTLY FOR OUR BENEFIT."
"FIRST WE NEED TO KNOW YOUR LONG TERM INTENTIONS," typed White Cloud.
"WE SEEK OUR SURVIVAL FOREVER," it replied. "THAT IS THE LONG TERM INTENSION OF ALL LIFE-FORMS."
"AND WHAT ABOUT THE SURVIVAL OF OUR LIFE FORMS?" asked White Cloud. "IS THERE ROOM ON THIS WORLD FOR BOTH HUMANS AND STONE-COATS?"
"WE THRIVE IN COLD TIMES; YOU THRIVE IN WARM TIMES WHILE WE SLEEP. ACCOMMODATION MAY BE POSSIBLE AND BENEFICIAL TO US. WE WILL DEFINE AND TELL YOU OUR NEEDS AND GATHER ONLY NEARBY TREES FOR NOW."
The sound of monstrously heavy footfalls came from outside. As the sound receded a Tribesman entered the lab and informed everyone that Hairless Bear had walked down the path to join the other Stone-Coats.
"The agreement sounds good to me," remarked Ed.
"Much better than being squashed like bugs," added Mary.
"Pretty open ended and undefined though," said Running Bear.
"Yes, we need to stay alert," agreed Talking Owl. "My bird friends say that the Stone-Coats are returning again."
The five giants soon walked past the lab and up the mountainside, dragging great trees. A contingent of a hundred Tribe warriors followed behind them, led by Red Hawk.
"Where are Chief Talking Bear and the other warriors?" White Cloud asked, when they drew near.
"The village is in chaos," Red Hawk explained. "Singing Moon claims that by not attacking Hairless Bear immediately her own husband is a failed leader. At the same time she is calling for the Tribe to contact the United States Government for their military intervention to destroy the Stone-Coats."
"But she was the one that said that the Stone-Coats are dead!" Ed noted.
"And now that tactic has failed, so she is trying to take advantage of their existence to gain power," said Running Bear. "She is relentless in her scheming. At a time when your Tribe needs unity, she continues to divide."
"Always she has been the rebellious one," said Mouse, who had just emerged from the lab to join them. "As a child she was crushed when telepathy never emerged in her. Since then she has schemed for power. She will not listen to me. She has not done so for many years."
"I should go to the village and speak with her," said Talking Owl.
"It is too late." said Mouse. "I have what Ed would call the good news and the bad news." She handed a printed sheet of paper to White Cloud. "As the Stone-Coats walked past they sent this list of their food needs Via the Bear Claw and Frank printed them out."
"It is a list of substances and associated tonnage," said White cloud, as he glanced over the list. "We will need to study the list, but my initial impression is that it will prove very difficult to provide them everything that they want."
"But it is a huge positive step just to have such a list." said Talking Owl. "It could allow us to advance our peaceful relationship with the Stone-Coats. I assume that was the good news?"
"There is more good news," said Mouse. "I have been in mind-to-mind contact with Talking Bear. He has told me that things have settled down and the warriors are ready to back him as needed."
"That is indeed good news!" said White Cloud.
"And what of my Mother?" Talking Owl asked?
"That's the bad news," said Mouse. "When it became clear that her position was not winnable, she disappeared. We used wolves to trail her. A short while later it was discovered that one of the Tribe snowmobiles is missing, along with her nephew Big Otter, who happens to be an expert snowmobile driver. There is only one conclusion to be reached."
"The new snowdrifts on the road aren't fully plowed yet and cars and trucks can't use it. She must be using the snowmobile to leave the Reservation," said White Cloud.
****