Confederation -- 16

Chapter 16

A couple of weeks later, we were back in our home system. The Pug/Pug-bear system wasn't far away, and humanity had been lucky it had taken them so long to find us. It had been simple chance that they'd initially started their conquest of space in a direction that led them away from Earth and towards the Sunnys. They were so primitive and random in their behavior that they could easily have headed towards us.

The Sunny planets were strung out like a series of islands in a rough chain that ended about thirty light-years away. That final link on the chain was where the initial Earth invasion had originated. That was a long distance for them to travel at sub-light speeds, which was the only possibility when they started on their quest to conquer the Universe.

If the aliens had started from their system and headed directly to Earth, they would have arrived well over a century ago, and the result of the invasion would have been vastly different. Earth might no longer have humans as the dominant species.

The Pug-bears would have taken a more direct approach to their invasion. They'd destroyed several primitive civilizations in the past, so eighteenth—or nineteenth-century Earth would have posed no problem to them. They would have strafed the major cities with an armed shuttle and ruthlessly suppressed any resistance. As a result, we'd all be either slaves or dead.

I considered that I'd been fortunate to have discovered the transporter network. They'd been carefully setting up the infrastructure to disrupt our ability to govern ourselves with the intention of making it nearly impossible for us to respond to the planned attack with any coherence. Somehow, I'd managed to create enough havoc within their system that the attack plan failed. Of course, one could consider that their use of multiple EMPs had successfully destroyed our civilization, but they'd been kicked off Earth and mostly out of the solar system at the same time.

Their attacking force and primary base had been destroyed, and now we'd taken the fight to them, something that they were totally unprepared to meet. They were no longer as much of a threat.

They might have other FTL ships, and there were undoubtedly Pug-bears on the remaining Sunny planets, but that just reinforced my intention to help the Sunnys rid themselves of the occupation. It was urgent for us to get rid of all of the Pug-bears on their planets. Given enough time, they'd force the Sunnys to build more spaceships, and they would probably rebuild the space station in their home system. I felt a considerable amount of pressure to forestall that possibility.

This time, we had returned to Earth with five FTL ships. The one that we'd had to shoot in the Pug-bear's system had not been repairable. The anti-matter pulse had destroyed the entire rear end of the ship, including the FTL drive and the reactor. We carried some repair parts and had some extra Em-drives, but the reactor and FTL system required a fully functioning repair facility. I'd reluctantly dropped the damaged spaceship into the system's dim sun on the theory that it was better to destroy it than risk the possibility that it might be repaired and used against us later.

On the way in from the farther reaches of our solar system, we took the precaution of checking the various moons where the aliens had previously established bases. There were no ships in attendance at any of the destroyed bases, a fact that I viewed with mixed relief and regret. I was relieved that they hadn't shown up with reinforcements but regretful that we didn't have the chance to capture any additional ships.

At this point, I wasn't worried about any force they would bring against us. Their FTLs were not armed, as a matter of course, and my armed ships would make hash out of an unarmed vessel.

We had no spare weapons for the two newly captured ships, so they'd have to stay out of any potential conflict. They were being flown by a small crew of Sunnys with some Marines on each to assist. I'd insisted on the Marines being included on each ship. The Sunnys were generally interested in cooperating with us. Still, I didn't want to risk the possibility that they might decide to break for one of their home planets rather than continue to Earth with our tiny fleet. As it was, things went smoothly, and we arranged all five ships close to each other in the low Earth orbit we'd selected.

We brought the large shuttle down to Denver the second day after arriving. Some of the women wanted to be left on Earth. Space travel hadn't turned out to be what they'd expected. I hadn't been too surprised. It had been evident to Liz from the start that some of the women would not adjust well. We collected them from the other ships along with a few Marines who had also proven to be trouble-makers.

I intended to replace the two and recruit additional crew members to replace those killed. We didn't need as many recruits as I'd thought we might since some of the women who were staying had worked their way into the marine force. They weren't as strong as most of the men, but they could shoot just as accurately and were acquitting themselves well enough in hand-to-hand.

It had been around two months since we'd left. The voyage had taken us longer than I'd thought with the repairs and attacks and so on. As we flew down to the Denver area, it was apparent that the so-called Motherland Army was moving into position to attack. There were many plumes of smoke out to the east of the front range where they'd set homesteads and entire small towns on fire. I didn't know why they were so destructive, but that had always been the usual order of business for invading armies throughout human history – break things, loot, and kill people. It was disappointing to see. You'd think that with the alien attack, people would be more focused on preserving human life instead of turning on each other.

Jake met us on the stadium landing field. He usually let us come to his office, but I recognized that his choice of meeting place betrayed his anxiety. We greeted each other and walked into the tunnel to his office.

He started without paying attention to amenities, "I'm glad you're back. Those barbarians out there to the east have been causing us no end of trouble. I want you to delegate more shuttles to help us stand them off."

"We've been pretty successful on our errand. Among other things, we've now got several new shuttles. I'll start getting weapons mounted on them so we can provide air cover for you," I responded.

He sighed and said, "I'm sorry to dump my problems on you, Dec. I've been really worried. We don't have as many men as those invaders, and a large stream of refugees has been coming from the burned-out towns and farms. That's taking a lot of our resources and time. I need help."

"No problem," I answered. "We've got the resources, and we'll have the shuttles armed in a couple of days. I think most of them will have plasma guns, though. We don't have any more anti-matter cannon available. The ones we've mounted on the big ships are too large for the shuttles to carry, but the plasma-bolt guns will work well."

"What kind of effect will those have on land targets?" he asked.

That startled me. I'd left a shuttle armed with a plasma-bolt weapon in his control.

"What happened to the shuttle and pilots I left with you?" I asked.

He looked embarrassed as he answered, "The two Sunnys you left to fly the thing refused to fly it. They didn't want to be involved with killing, I guess. They locked it up, and we haven't been able to do a thing with it."

"Where are they now?" I asked.

He shrugged, "I didn't want to imprison them. They're too – I don't know – innocent, I guess. I let them go, and they are living somewhere near some lake up in the mountains. The shuttle is undamaged and ready to go if you can get me pilots with fewer scruples."

That explained the problem. Thinking about it, I realized that he had experience with anti-matter weapons, but although he'd seen the plasma bolts that the Pugs had shot at his forces, he hadn't realized what they were.

"I'm sorry about the two Sunnys. I thought they'd be more reliable, but they hate violence, and that must have been the deciding factor. To answer your question, plasma-bolt guns are the weapons that shoot that large ball of fire. You've seen what they can do," I answered.

He grinned, "Oh! Those things. Yeah, we hated those things. They burned through about anything in front of them, and the results were usually that the target would explode from the impact. Will the things have enough range when shot from the air?"

I said, "Yes, I'm pretty sure they can reach out far enough to give the enemy a real headache. We can mount them pretty easily, although the mount will be solid and without aiming capability. The shuttle pilot will have to point the entire shuttle at the target. The guns can shoot a burst every four or five seconds. They'll be similar to the one you haven't been able to use."

I didn't know how far the plasma bolt would travel in the atmosphere. In the vacuum of space, the thing seemed like it would keep going until it finally hit something, but I thought it would dissipate more quickly in the air. I left that unsaid. I figured that they'd be adequate for their intended purpose.

We moved on to other topics.

Jake said, "I sent for your pet scientist. He should be here any time now. I think he's got some good news for you. I hope so, anyway. He's been a pain in the ass for me, asking for us to catch Pug-bears about every other day. You know the damned things have become very scarce, what with everyone hunting them. We haven't found any for about a week now."

"Really? That's pretty good news. We don't need any of them on this planet; they're too dangerous, and they breed too quickly," I said.

"Yeah, but Ian's been going through them just as quickly. I think he dissects one a day, at least. Be sure to take him with you when you go out the next time. I'm tired of his demands," He shook his head in mock despair.

There was a slight commotion at the door, and Ian came in. He looked disheveled and even more like a mad scientist than usual. I stood and briefly shook his hand.

He greeted us and then helped himself to a glass of moonshine from a bottle Jake had on a sideboard. He sat down in a vacant chair, took a large gulp, and then, ignoring Jake, looked at me with a smile, "I've got your solution, Dec."

He paused for another sip and then sat, waiting for me to respond. I don't like playing games of that nature, and my response was a little acerbic.

"I hope you're not wasting my time, Ian. We've got to have an answer that will allow us to clean the damned creatures off of five planets," I held up my finger and added, "without killing or hurting the large population of Sunnys on each planet or damaging the local ecosystem very much."

He looked a little unhappy at that. "Well, I can't promise that the local ecosystems won't be impacted. I don't know anything about them, after all."

He brightened, "But I'm willing to come along if I can have the chance to study them."

I glanced at Jake to see that he had a big grin at hearing that. For a fact, Ian wasn't an easy person to deal with.

I said, "Look, Doc, you can come along and study all you want, but our main agenda is to get rid of the Pug-bears. That's all."

He considered. "I'll come anyway. It's too good a chance to miss. Imagine seeing alien life forms on their native planets. Yes, I definitely want to come."

"Okay, you're invited, but what do you have as a solution?" I couldn't wait any longer. My curiosity was killing me.

He grinned again, "I cut open the brain cases of a bunch of the creatures. The younger ones had healthier-looking symbionts."

He started discussing the amazing way the symbiont blended with the Pug-bear's brain, and it looked like he'd continue on that topic, but I stopped him rather rudely.

"Look, Ian, that's interesting but not to the point. What is causing the symbionts to fail to develop?" I asked harshly.

"Oh, yes. Well, it was apparent that they were being choked by something. The circulation systems in the young ones were clear, but the longer they'd been growing, the more clogged the circulation system became. In fact, the larger Pug-bears eventually lost their entire symbiont. It died from starvation, and in some, the whole symbiont was totally replaced by the competing organism. It's most remarkable," he concluded, taking another sip.

"Again, that's nice, but what is the attacking organism, and can we use it somehow?" I was getting impatient.

He continued, "It can be a problem for humans since it's a commonplace organism on Earth. It's yeast. Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, to be precise."

I looked puzzled, and he continued, "Er... Brewer's yeast to give it its common name. It usually doesn't bother people, although some are allergic to it. Candida Albicans is the organism that causes most of the pathology in humans."

Several questions occurred to me at once: "Where can we get this stuff? Is there enough to cover a planet? And how can we distribute it? Oh, and will it hurt the local ecology?"

He grinned at the first three questions and then shook his head negatively as I asked the fourth.

"It so happens that there is a large supply of Brewer's yeast here locally. The Coors brewing plant has a lot of it, as do the micro-breweries and health food stores scattered over the metro area. Now, most of them aren't operational any longer, but I've taken the liberty of having the Warlord's men scavenge as much of it as they could find. We have a few hundred pounds of it in our possession right now."

I started to speak, but he interrupted me, "And before you ask, I believe that will be enough to seed several planets. You can spray a liquid slurry of it over an extensive area. It will propagate rapidly if you mix it with water and nutrients, so you shouldn't run out, no matter how much you use. The only thing I can't vouch for is its impact on the planet's ecology. It may not survive long if there are stronger organisms that compete for its niche or eat it, or it may take over. I just can't say."

I considered, "Well, we've been drinking some beer, or rather the Marines have. They smuggled several cases on board."

I looked at Jake. He was still grinning. I continued, "What I mean is that the Sunnys found out about the beer and have taken a liking to the drink. The alcohol doesn't affect them the way it does us. They don't get inebriated, but they do like the taste, and none of them have shown any reaction to the yeast that they must have been exposed to, so maybe it won't hurt them if we spread it around."

Not to be distracted, Ian rather pompously began to lecture us on the various kinds of yeast and how common the strains are on Earth. Jake interrupted him with a question, "Look, Doc, that's fine, but will spraying the stuff on these planets get rid of the Pug-bears?"

Ian paused as he considered his answer and then said, "Well, it won't get rid of the Pug-bears per se, but it will reduce or even prevent them from acquiring intelligent status. The exposed individuals will lose their symbionts and be reduced to animal-level mentation. In my opinion, that should suffice. The local inhabitants, uh, Sunnys, I believe you call them, will be able to either hunt or capture the creatures since they won't be smart enough to avoid traps."

I could see that this would be a problem for the Sunnys. "The Sunnys are non-violent, so hunting is out of the question unless –" an idea occurred to me. "Maybe we can get Sim-tigers to do the hunting. The Sunnys will be able to set traps, though, so between the two, we should be able to gradually rid the planets of the pests. I think this will work."

We made arrangements to load the ships with the available yeast and some tanks to mix and grow the stuff. I figured I'd have to rig spray units on the shuttles, and Jake said he'd have his men look for that equipment.

In return, I agreed to start mounting weapons on shuttles immediately.