Parasites Love Earth!, Page 7

  "There is nothing she can tell me," said Dunlop 4 dismissively.

  "Neil here has one of those... riders, as you call them, on his back. He used to be more talkative, but now doesn't say much at all."

  "Nothing to say? Has the Hive Mind has lost its voice?" Dunlop said derisively.

  His tone sparked something in Neil Truk, who sprang forward, near the force field barrier. "Hunter! I recognize your kind. Enjoy your false sense of security, Hunter. You may have one of us in temporary captivity, but dozens of my brethren have become hundreds and will soon become thousands. We will take you as easily as we did the other Dunlops."

  "He knows you," said Sam.

  "It is part of his genetic memory," said Dunlop.

  "Yes," said Truk. "I have a memory of all the Dunlops we have absorbed. I think there were... nine of them?"

  Sam turned to Dunlop. "There were nine of you?"

  "Let us not talk in front of this creature," said Dunlop.

  They went to a secure room.

  "How many of you are there. Were there?" Sam asked.

  "Nine," said Dunlop. "Ten, if you count the original Dunlop."

  "And how many of you were taken by this... creature?"

  "The original Dunlop. And also, Dunlops 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9," said Dunlop 4.

  "They were all taken over by this pancake creature?"

  "And others. This entity comes in many different forms," said Dunlop.

  "So how did you survive? How did you defeat them?"

  "Dunlop 2 was the last of us, besides myself," said Dunlop 4. "He ordered me to stay in orbit while he went down to see if he could rescue the original Dunlop."

  "The original Dunlop was alive at the same time as his clones?"

  Dunlop 4 nodded.

  "And after he went down, what happened?"

  "I waited two days as he instructed. Shortly before the deadline, he contacted me. He told me that he had rescued the original Dunlop, but his ship had been taken. He ordered me to come down and pick them up."

  "And what did you do?" Sam asked.

  "I destroyed the planet he was on," said Dunlop 4. "A planet with over three billion life forms. But none of them free. All of them enslaved... or altered."

  "Altered?" said Sam.

  "You will soon learn, I am afraid," said Dunlop. "We may defeat the other parasites, but the Hive Mind will be our greatest challenge."

  "What will happen if we cannot defeat the Hive Mind?"

  "Before I landed here I left a message with the Stellar Union, outlining the situation here. If I do not report back in a reasonable length of time, they will conclude that this planet has been infested. And then they will destroy it."

  Sam's mouth dropped open.

  "Trust me, you will find it infinitely preferable to the fate that the Hive Mind has in store for you. They will not simply conquer you, Sam; they will not simply enslave your mind. They will change the very essence of who you are, so much so that when they are done, you would no longer recognize who or what you are."

  Sam started to feel her heart beat rapidly. "You... haven't found a way to destroy this Hive Mind?"

  "If we could reach and destroy all the Hive Minds before they spread too far, perhaps we have a chance. But with each day that passes, our chances grow slimmer and slimmer. What the creature in the cell said was correct. We have weeks, or perhaps a few months at best. After that, your life form will simply be subjugated and altered."

  And then Dunlop 4 did something very unexpected; he reached out and hugged Sam. "I am very sorry. Perhaps I should not have told you. But I felt you deserved to know the truth."

  Sam pulled back. "Perhaps we will find a way to defeat this Hive Mind that you haven't thought of."

  "Our best minds in the Stellar Union have been researching their physiology for centuries and come up with very little. Sam, I am afraid that your society is light years behind ours. You would have to be a super-evolved genius to think of a possibility that we haven't considered," said Dunlop 4.

  ********

  Once upon a time, many hundreds of years ago, there was a man named Hemrissk on the planet Karis. As a dedicated scientist, he wanted to know everything there was about the universe. But he realized that he was limited not merely by the technology of his time, but by his own limited brain. The humanoid brain had evolved over millennia, enough to grasp abstractions and to engage in basic problem solving, but was not nearly well enough developed to comprehend even the basic questions about the nature of the universe, much less the answers.

  So Hemrissk set out to evolve. Using DNA collected from ancestors, he charted the physical and mental development of his species on a genetic level. Over many years he figured out how to accelerate that development using artificial means. Eventually, he devised machinery which would let him evolve someone to what their descendents would be millions of years in the future... in the space of a few minutes.

  Hemrissk tested the device on himself, first. He set the device to advance him what he thought was a modest 500,000 years in development. When he emerged from the machine of his own design, he found himself utterly changed. Everything in the universe was open to him. Questions emerged that he had never before considered. After a period of intense thought, he accelerated himself another 500,000 years into the future development of his species.

  Suddenly, he changed completely. He no longer related to his own species. Indeed, he barely resembled his original humanoid form. But he barely noticed; he was consumed with larger questions about the nature of the universe.

  He accelerated some of his colleagues, who felt the same way. They too started to explore the basic understanding of reality.

  But everyone else, the unaccelerated, felt threatened by Hemrissk and his followers. They attempted to eliminate Hemrissk and his followers, feeling that it was too dangerous to allow them to live. Or perhaps Hemrissk and his followers, feeling the same about the masses, simply decided to eliminate them first. Whatever the result, most life on Hemrissk's planet was annihilated.

  When the Stellar Union found out, they sought to arrest Hemrissk and his followers. They fled, scattering to different planets, offering others the secret of radical evolution While not a parasite in the formal sense, Hemrissk did not always ask first before accelerating beings. He changed them, altered them, creating strife wherever he went. The Stellar Union felt he was a threat and had to be stopped, and so sent the Hunters after him and his followers. Most were apprehended or destroyed; Hemrissk himself was one of the last to be apprehended, by Dunlop 3 himself.

  ********

  James Monroe was one of the leading scientists at the Oak Ridge Advanced Particle Research Facility, in Oak Ridge Tennessee. James always knew he wanted to be a scientist from the time he was a young boy. He studied intensely in school and went on to get advanced degrees in Physics and Microatomic Astronomy. He only slowed down his studies long enough to meet, seduce, and marry Julie Bendaford, who was working on her first Ph.D. in Chemistry and was also planning to get one in biology.

  They got married, but their career tracks soon diverged. Julie got pregnant while working on her second Ph.D. and with the birth of Brenda, decided that motherhood was much more interesting than physical science. Two more babies later, and Julie was a content household mother.

  Not James. James doubled down on his scientific research, spending long hours in the labs, researching, writing papers, and thinking about the big issues of galactic physics. He slowly started to forget important dates, like Julie's birthday, the kids's playdates, even their 10th wedding anniversary. James was too distracted by science. Even when he wasn't working in the office on weekends, he was often working at home. Even in those rare instances when Julie would persuade James to go out with her for dinner, or for a walk, his mind would be miles away.

  And so on a typical day in Oak Ridge, James was at his electric white board, working on a new explanation to explain the concepts of galactic expansion in light of the gravita
tional effects of dark matter. He had spent days trying to finish one equation, just sitting there staring at it.

  And then a stranger, a man he had never seen before, walked right by him, went up to the board, and, in a complex series of scribbles, completed the equation.

  "You, you there, what are you doing?" James said.

  "I finished your equation," said the man.

  "You couldn't possibly-" James looked at what he had written. And looked at it, and looked at it some more. Five minutes later, moving his mouth silently, he turned to the man, and looked at him for the first time. "It works."

  "Of course it works," said the man. "But it is not the real answer."

  "It isn't?"

  "What you call 'dark matter' is just your way of expressing your lack of knowledge about the true curvature of the universe," said the man. "Imagine the universe, curved like a bowl, with greater gravitational effects at the bottom of it."

  "That... that would explain everything," said James. He looked again at the man, who seemed entirely unremarkable. "Who... who are you?"

  "Someone who can reveal to you the secrets of the universe."

  ********

  It took only a relatively short time for Hemrissk to convince James that he was an alien from another planet. With one disastrous exception, mankind had never discovered intelligent life on other planets before now. But Hemrissk knew so much... and then Hemrissk explained how he knew what he knew.

  "The answer cannot be found in better technology, inherently, because better technology is produced by better minds. My mind is the product of a million years of accelerated evolution."

  "Accelerated evolution?"

  "Once I was like you. I too was a scientist striving to find my own answers to the universe. I then realized the answers were all within us. I devised a machine which could accelerate evolution. I accelerated myself."

  James said, "You...."

  "Are the result of an artificial acceleration of a million years of evolution."

  "But..."

  "I look like you," Hemrissk smiled. "But appearances can be deceiving."

  "What..."

  "Do I want? Colleagues. Colleagues to help me answer one of the biggest questions of all."

  "I'll-"

  "Be glad to help. No. You are no use to me as you are."

  "You-"

  "Want to accelerate you, yes."

  "Is-

  "It safe? Perfectly," said Hemrissk.

  "Why-"

  "Is it necessary?" Hemrissk asked. "Because even now you are too wedded to your current form, which, excuse me for saying so, is entirely primitive. To be honest, from my lofty evolutionary perch, you are merely a half step above the animals. You spend an inordinate amount of time every day consuming plant life, and flesh of other animals."

  "You don't?"

  Hemrissk shook his head. "And you spend almost as much time excreting the processed plant life and animals as you do consuming them. You spend time thinking about reproduction, and genetic relations. Your mind tires quickly. Nearly a third of every day is spent unconscious."

  "You don't sleep?"

  Hemrissk smiled. "Properly designed minds have no need of it. Sections of brains get rest while other sections take up the slack. That's the luxury of having the computational power of a million year accelerated brain."

  "I-"

  "You're afraid. It's new. It's different. I know," said Hemrissk. "That's why I'm going to help. I'm going to make the decision for you."

  And he reached out, and held James's head in his hands.

  Suddenly, the palms of Hemrissk's hands were no longer flesh. They were some kind of metal, some kind of machinery, and in the center of each palm was a blazing light, one that was warm to the touch. James yelled out and his eyes went wide as he felt a surge of energy course through his brain.

  And then everything went black.

  ********

  "How do you feel?"

  James struggled to focus. He saw Hemrissk holding him steady.

  "What.. I... I don't know...."

  "Why don't you go and write the next line of that equation I just finished for you."

  "What? I... I would have to study it..."

  "No. Just do it. Go on," Hemrissk prodded him.

  James went to the electronic whiteboard. He stared at the equation. Suddenly, the rest came rushing to him. Of course! It was so simple!

  He started writing at a feverish pace, taking up the space of two versions of whiteboards. Hemrissk let him keep going until he stopped.

  "This... this is incredible," said James, looking at what he wrote.

  "Yes, it is," said Hemrissk. "And I have only given you the first treatment. You have only been accelerated 500,000 years up your evolutionary chain."

  "Only 500,000 years?" James gave a laugh. "What is your ultimate goal?"

  "Why, to discover the origins of the universe, of course."

  ********

  It quickly became clear that they would need a team of scientists. Hemrissk already had a few ideas who he wanted to select, though James persuaded him to add a name or two to his list. Each scientist was introduced, one by one, to Hemrissk, given an example of his abilities, and then James gave an example of the abilities which Hemrissk had given him. Each scientist had varying degrees of hesitation, but after Hemrissk took the initiative and accelerated each one, they were all quite pleased with the results.

  All except one. Emmett Tyson, a reknown astrophysicist. He listened quietly to Hemrissk and James and was impressed, but after Hemrissk accelerated him, he was aghast.

  "What have you done to me?" he said.

  "We have increased your thinking powers by a factor of ten," said Hemrissk.

  "But I did not consent to this!" said Tyson. "You simply went ahead and did it!"

  "To... to show you, Emmett..."

  "Change me back!"

  James looked at Hemrissk. "Can you?" The question had never occurred to him.

  "There is no going back," said Hemrissk. "I think you just need a further example of the benefits of evolutionary acceleration." And he reached out and took Tyson's face in his hands again.

  "No!" Tyson screamed, but he was caught in the grip of Hemrissk's hands, which had now turned to machinery and bright lights again.

  Hemrissk spent several minutes accelerating Tyson, whose eyes were bulging. Having seen the process done on others, James knew it only took several minutes. But this time Hemrissk was taking longer. After ten minutes had passed, and Tyson looked about to pass out, James asked, "Why is it taking so long?"

  "Silence," Hemrissk commanded.

  And then, two minutes later, Tyson gave a wordless scream, and he stopped breathing. Hemrissk released him, and he fell to the ground.

  James reached down to examine him.

  "He is dead," said Hemrissk dismissively.

  "Dead?" said James.

  "He was unable to handle the full acceleration. That happens, sometimes," said Hemrissk.

  "You... killed him?"

  "No," said Hemrissk. "It is regretful," he added, as an afterthought.

  "A man lies here dead, and you call it a regret?" said James.

  "You have to understand, from my perspective, he is simply one of many. A great many. We could choose from thousands of others to find a replacement we need." Hemrissk saw the look of horror on James' face. "Perhaps another 200,000 years of evolution will give you more of a perspective on things." And he grabbed James' face with his hands and started to accelerate him further.

  ********

  Julie noticed that James was even more distracted than usual. He started working even longer hours. When he did come home, he didn't seem interested in eating. And then they had their 20 year anniversary coming up on Saturday. She knew she would have to keep reminding him every day. He had promised to take her ballroom dancing.

  Of course, he spent most of Saturday working. He even resisted going to the dance.

  "But why,
James?"

  "We are only performing this function to commemorate the anniversary of our animalistic bonding."

  "Our animalistic bonding? Is that was you call our wedding anniversary?"

  "Yes. Why is that necessary?"

  "Why is that necessary?" She repeated. "Don't you love me, James?"

  James blinked several times, trying to process the question. His need to eat and sleep had been radically reduced, and so had his sexual urges and attractions. He remembered being attracted to Julia, but didn't really feel it.

  "Shut up and put your suit on!" she said.

  James complied. Mathematically, he determined that compliance would lead to a smoother running household ,and give him more time for his studies in the future.

  Julie put on a beautiful blue dress, and James wore his suit (his only suit). When they went dancing, James' movements were perfectly synchronized.

  "James... I've never seen you dance this well," Julie marveled.

  James's face was blank. His mind was a million miles away. Julie felt like she was dancing alone.

  After three dances she gave up. She drove them home. But when she pulled James up to the bedroom, she received another surprise.

  James was getting undressed for bed.

  "What about me, James?" said Julie. She had purposefully lingered after taking off her dance dress, clad only in her bra and panties. Her breasts were a bit runny, after 40 years, but still large and attractive, and she wore sexy red panties which James one time, a long time ago, had said were quite sexy.

  James looked at her. "What about you?"

  "James, it's our anniversary!" said Julie.

  "You wish to copulate?"

  "James!"

  "All right. Come here, and I will fertilize your genitals, female," said James.

  "Female?" said Julie, getting an odd look on her face. Was James trying to turn her on?

  She went over to him, and James started to kiss her. Repeatedly. Mechanically. Julie tried not to notice. She kissed him back. One thing led to another, and soon he was on top of her, rubbing, touching, kissing. It was nice, but seemed to go on for a long time. Too long.