Biological Invaders

I found this old story that I wrote in 2000. Enjoy reading!

 

Biological Invaders

 

 

It was a signal from outer space. After months of studying its statistical properties, we concluded with excitement that it had to origin from an intelligent life form. Nervously, we waited another month for the computer to translate the signal. Finally, the translation was complete, and we gathered in a small room to listen to the conversation.

 

“Observation point reached!” Where were they?

 

“Star S08/15a… there you are.” Short pause.

 

“There, we have nine, no eight planets. But, which…”

 

“Number 3.”

 

“We have the recording of the species’ population over the last 500 thousand orbits of the planet.”

 

“Good. Put the diagrams on screen 5.”

 

“The screen describes the surface of our planet, number 3. On the top, a display shows the number of orbits since the beginning of our recording. The red areas mark the distribution of the potentially aggressive species that we found.”

 

“One red dot appeared and disappeared again.”

 

“200,000 orbits ago, you see that the red slowly expands. 100,000 orbits ago, it was still constraint to a local region only 5% of the planet’s surface.”

 

“Now, it is spreading.” Another pause.

 

“Oh no! It exploded!”

 

"The planet is infected!”

 

“Why is it not all over the place? The red area has a strange pattern. Where are these white areas coming from?”

 

“We checked that. Most of these areas are completely covered in water, 71% of the planet's surface.”

 

“Water? Hmm.”

 

“Which state?”

 

“Mostly liquid.”

 

“The species seems to avoid it, or it cannot survive in an area with too much water.”

 

“We should mark these areas for the presentation.”

 

“Can we have a closer look at the last 2,000 orbits.”

 

“Sure. One moment.” There was silence. Finally, another voice said, “exponential growth! The population more than quadrupled in the last 100 orbits.”

 

“Indeed. This is serious!”

 

“Other species will disappear!”

 

“Right. The number of species declined. The charts are ready…”

 

“We have to restore the ecological balance.”

 

“But how?”

 

“Wait! 20,000 orbits ago, something interesting happened. The red dots disappeared from great parts of the northern hemisphere.”

 

“Hmm. Solid water.”

 

“Right!”

 

“That's it! We freeze the whole planet.”

 

“Stupid!”

 

“No. No. No.”

 

“Impossible! We cannot afford such an impact to the environment. Probably, whole populations of various species might be erased by such a means.”

 

“We need to classify the invader.”

 

“Choose status of planet,” a computer voice said. “One: no life. Two: developing self-reproducing units. Three: intact, no single species is dominating. Four: infected. Five: overturned. Six: Dead.” Some clicks.

 

The computer voice continued, “Choose status of invader. One: isolated. Two: agricultural threat. Three: health threat. Four: tourist.”

 

“What happened to Rusty Rye?”

 

“The planet is dead.”

 

“It was similar to this one. Rusty Rye took over most regions. Exponential growth. Other plants disappeared. The planet looked pretty much red. So, the Delta team planted wild umbrella. This plant can survive among Rusty Rye and takes away the sunshine with its shield.”

 

“Did it work?”

 

“The umbrella overturned the rye. But it got out of control claiming all of the sunshine for itself.”

 

“Hmm.”

 

“Well, besides the dangers of introducing a natural enemy, so far, we don't know enough about this... how the heck is it called?”

 

“The administration is working on the catalogue number.”

 

“Can we have a closer look at these red areas? Is it uniformly distributed?”

 

“No. Have a look! There are a few large spots, many small ones, and a mass of tiny ones.”

 

“In most cases, the large spots grew at a higher rate than the small ones, sometimes swallowing smaller ones. Some of the small dots even disappeared.”

 

“That reminds me of something. Of…”

 

“These species tend to stick to each other.”

 

“Hmm. The accumulation is clearer marked than in the Rusty Rye case. It can't be sexual reproduction alone.”

 

“Water droplets.”

 

“What?”

 

“It is mobile.”

 

“And it secretes a chemical.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Prove? I want a prove!”

 

“Look! I traced some single species, and in one case, I got one which jumped all over the planet.”

 

“The planet?”

 

“It could still be a seed hitchhiking around.”

 

“The chemical? We might not be able to figure that one out from the distance.”

 

“We are not allowed to get any closer. Every possible impact to the foreign environment has to be omitted.”

 

“But, before the Delta team is coming…”

 

“Sure, but now our job is to observe and work out an advice for how to cope with the invader.”

 

“I have got one.”

 

“What?”

 

"We build a trap.”

 

“A trap?”

 

“Gold.”

 

“Gold?”

 

“We inject gold onto the surface in high concentration and, then, use the fact that they accumulate.”

 

“It is attracted to gold?”

 

“I've never heard of a species eating such an inert substance. No, that doesn't make any sense.”

 

The transmission stopped for a while. We looked at each other in disbelief. Then, it continued.

 

“What? It left the planet?”

 

“Yes. Encapsulated in an aluminum vessel.”

 

“This is serious!”

 

“So, we should freeze the planet before it is too late.”

 

“Stop that!”

 

“Don't worry. So far, it just diffused into the very near neighborhood of the planet. It is far away from infecting other ecological systems. I think, it cannot survive long enough in these vessels.”

 

“Well, we encountered some…”

 

There was a sound of an explosion. Then, a computer voice said, “Processes received the termination signal.” A loud sigh. The transmission ended.