Super Bug

by Mike Player

Part 1 appears in this issue

conclusion

“Why do you not seek shelter?” The Other demanded of Breem. Behind them the Hewmann structures stood gargantuan, like rotten teeth to the sky.

“Did your precious nanochip tell you to come back for me?” Breem asked. “That I would give your hiding away?”

The Other folded themself in shame.

“We know of Hewmann history,” Breem said. “We know what killed them. The Hewmanns on Titan were abandoned to starve while the Hewmanns on Earth were destroyed by a Super Bug. Logic dictates—”

“There is not time!” The Other exclaimed. “The chip has instructed us what we must do.”

“There are options your chip does not—”

“Look...” The Other pointed its top cilia to the sky above them. The two Titans arched and gazed upward through cilia eyes. Fifty small balloons colored in dark red and blue moving in powered formation emerged from the clouds. The small craft descended in unison along the shore.

“Go!” shouted The Other.

“It is too late,” Breem whispered.

Together they watched as the invaders filled the sky.

The Earth bacterioids landed their balloons surrounding the two Titans.

The Very Large Bacteria swooped suddenly to the beach and loomed monstrously large before them, colors shimmering in purple and onyx. Breem and The Other’s membranes flinched. The damned thing cast a shadow and was three times their size.

Surrounded by the multitude and their strange tethered balloons, Breem reached deep inside themself and used the confidence they projected when talking with the Sand Fish. “From Earth?” Breem asked.

“You speak!” The Very Large Bacteria expressed amusement by wiggling its cilia. There came a murmur from the crowd behind.

“We still require the methane to lubricate our bodies,” Breem said. “However, the Hewmanns and their nano machines changed us.”

“Brother!” the VLB extended its cilia. There was no mistaking the condescending tone. “We are perhaps related...”

“I don’t think so,” The Other said.

“You killed the Hewmanns of Earth.” Breem’s voice quavered. “All of them. The Hewmanns of Titan received that information and then their supplies ran out. The knowledge passed to us in our nano devices. You are the so-called ‘Super Bug’ to which the Hewmanns had no resistance.”

“That was many thousands of years ago,” the VLB said. “We have evolved. We have extended our individual life spans by 20,000 times.”

Breem found it hard to speak what came next. “You have run out of food,” they said, “or you would not have come to Titan. After you devoured all of the Hewmanns, you devoured the remaining animals and plants on Earth, even the fish.”

“You are right,” the VLB said. “We came to survive. We are hungry. Where are the others of your kind?”

The thick wind of Titan gusted and fluttered the cilia on all the membranes present during a tremulous silence.

Making every effort to appear unflappable, Breem offered, “You can fly through space. Why not go to Europa or Luyten B?”

“You harvested the Hewmann’s knowledge well.” The Very Large Bacteria projected their voice for all the army to hear. “The waters of Europa are too deeply buried for us to colonize and feed on the fish and great whale jellies that live there. The radiation is lethal, and we have been burned alive trying to dig through. Here on Titan, you are protected by your atmosphere, and we are already adapted for flight. Luyten B is indeed a place we must go, but do you not agree that Titan for us, is low-hanging fruit?”

The Other grew pale.

“Do you know why I am The Very Large Bacteria?”

Breem strained to take in the sight of the giant standing before him. “Because you are indeed quite large?”

The VLB fidgeted at the uncommon insolence. “No, It is because I am selected as the Great One. My Others are harvested, and I accumulate the experience to lead. With leadership comes wealth and fame. I am the most famous Very Large Bacteria ever to have lived on planet Earth!”

Breem thought of their own “Other” and of their ability to outlive multiple splittings. “It must be the nano machines,” Breem wondered. “The chips must have adapted to protect the host’s health, to keep the propeller gene, to repair the hosts.”

“Again, I say: Brother!” the VLB bellowed for the benefit of the multitude as much as for Breem.

“We welcome you!” Breem shouted in a shaky voice unused to public speaking.

The Other whispered, “We must not welcome them. They aim to devour us.”

“We cannot resist them,” Breem whispered back. “Relay to the others to stay hidden until I give the word to come out.”

There was skepticism in The Other’s cilia, but they did not argue.

“There is a feast here that you may not know of. The secret of Titan! I will show you now!” Breem shouted. “Follow me!”

The Very Large Bacteria grew dark lime-colored with curiosity. “You interest me,” they said.

At Breem’s direction the VLB, the thousands of Earth bacterioids, and Breem’s Other undulated with them to the shore.

“The odor of this moon is sweet, especially along the seashore,” the VLB said. “Like rotten eggs. I find it enchanting.”

“We have much here that is delightful for you.” Hurrying the final yards, fighting the urge to run like mad, Breem announced, “We have food from the sea for you to devour. Behold!”

Kraken Mare hardly moved. The cold dark surface might have been solid if the bacterioids didn’t know otherwise.

“What lie is this?” bellowed the Very Large Bacteria. “There is no record of lifeforms above bacteria on Titan.” They waved their cilia with skepticism. “You risk my anger—”

The VLB faced the Titans while the throng of Earth bacterioids crowded closer.

“The Hewmanns died before they discovered the Land Fish,” Breem blurted. “The Land Fish only emerge once in many years to breed here on the shore. They live in the water lakes beneath Titan’s crust just below Kraken Mare. You are in luck.”

“How can they breathe the methane?” the VLB demanded to know.

“They filter it through their gills. They are evolved to do so. They breed on our shore and then return to their underground lakes to feed.”

The Very Large Bacteria waved their cilia with interest. “You live in harmony with them? Symbiotic relationship?”

“Yes, their food source is in the water lakes. Not here. We scrub the micro-nutrients off their skin. Before the Hewmanns, that is how we ate. When the Hewmanns died, we fed on the Hewmanns. Now, the Hewmanns are long gone, and that is how we eat again.”

The Very Large Bacteria shimmered with thought.

Sensing hesitation, Breem added, “There are many thousands of Sand Fish. If you devoured one, it would take you several years. They are an endless food supply.”

“We shall see,” The Very Large Bacteria said. “My sensors tell me there are untold numbers of you Titan bacterioids hiding underground... near here...”

Breem shivered. They could feel the menace of the thousands of invading Earth bacterioids packed around them.

“You do not know my expedition’s capabilities, my friend,” the VLB continued. “On Earth we had access to far more Hewmann technology than you here on Titan. I also command huge numbers who await my verdict of this moon and its potential for food. They will launch themselves on the laser hither at my slightest whim to overpower every last one of you.”

Breem and their Other shrank back as the thousands surrounding them swarmed the short trail to the Hewmann basecamp. A loud buzz of nanochip vocalizations filled the air.

“Bring me methane!” The Very Large Bacteria commanded. “I want to sample liquid methane. And bring me skewers of frozen ethane.”

“They’re an extremophile,” The Other whispered to Breem. “All of the Earth bacterioids are extremophiles. Something awful happened to the Earth biome. They are able to drink anything.”

“I worry about what they are able to eat.” With dread, Breem checked the horizon of Kraken Mare for the bubbles of the Sand Fish.

The Other nudged them. The Very Large Bacteria had remained where they stood, their cilia fluttering in strange combinations and their color changing from gray to dark tan and golden orange. A sapphire glow the size of a pinprick flickered from near the center of the VLB.

“As if it’s receiving a signal,” thought Breem.

The VLB extended all of its cilia in all directions. “Bring them!”

The Titans trembled and watched as a small procession of Earth bacterioids brought the larger Earth lieutenants L14 and L15 restrained by strings to the clearing on the beach and before the VLB.

“I have received information from our chips that you have plotted to murder me and decode my nano machine,” the VLB thundered.

“You and the Circle of Nine withhold the power of the Hewmann nano machine. You keep us in chains,” shouted L15.

“Oppressor!” shouted L14.

A glutinous opening in the center of the Very Large Bacteria yawned pink and wide. Drippings of ammonia solution to keep the VLB warm in Titan’s frigid air fell slowly from the VLB’s center.

L14 and L15 shrank in fear. “We are not afraid to die!” shouted L14. “Rise up, fellow soldiers!”

Breem and The Other watched with horror as the VLB sucked the two lieutenants inside its body. Churnings and misshapen swellings filled the VLB. Shrieks discharged from the struggle until all was still.

“It is only a matter of time for them to try and ingest all of us,” Breem whispered.

“You have called to the Sand Fish to help us?” The Other asked.

Breem observed their Other with appreciation. Sensitive intuition in their species had not died. “You’re damn right I have. I told them all about the Earth laser beam. What other lifeform but bacteria could travel that way? I predicted the impact of the Earth laser this day and I swam out to tell the Sand Fish. They agreed to help us. I am watching the sea now for the bubbles and the waves.”

“As I have been,” The Other said.

Breem contracted their sight cilia to bring The Other more sharply into focus. “We are still from the One,” they said warmly.

The Other began to shake. Their cilia waved and pointed to the horizon. “The Sand Fish!”

Breem observed bubbles bursting on the surface of Kraken Mare. First small, then very large. Huge flat surfaces the color of ash rose slowly from the liquid methane. More bubbles fired from blow holes in the Sand Fish hides. The Sand Fish dwarfed the bacterioids.

“They advance!” The Other shouted to the Very Large Bacteria. “To the shore! To the shore!”

The frozen beach covered over with Sand Fish bodies moving slowly from the liquid in the dim light.

“Bacterioids from Earth!” shouted The Very Large Bacteria. “To the sea! We will feast on fish today. Our first fish in centuries.”

The multitude from Earth rushed out from the Hewmann base and the surrounding beach. They scrambled atop the backs of the Sand Fish.

The Sand Fish glowed. First a faint luminescent yellow, growing brighter to a dull orange.

And then came the spits of toxic pain. The cries from the Earth bacterioids tore the sea air. Breem witnessed the struggle from their position at the sea’s edge. The Earth bacterioids writhed and contorted as burning orange acid sprayed from the backs of the Sand Fish and ate through the invaders’ bodies. The thick Titan air conveyed the crackle of burning membranes. Death cries peppered the wind.

The Very Large Bacteria, covered in burns, struggled to rise from the back of the largest sand fish. They achieved tortured flight and descended in broken circles toward Breem. “You are murdering us!”

Breem recoiled as the VLB came to an unsteady landing not far from them. Glowing yellow and orange, and their membrane dissolving, The Very Large Bacteria staggered on dying cilia. “You knew! You knew the fish kill!” they gasped.

“They kill to survive, as must we all.” Breem deliberately forced themself to witness the VLB collapse and shrivel into a dying smoking husk.

“You knew...” the monstrous Earth bacterioid mewed. Their nanochip blinked blue and then red before winking off forever.

Breem felt the chill of a life lost. “We all must protect ourselves in this world.”

“The Sand Fish possess intelligence,” The Other muttered with surprise.

“In their way. They communicate using ancient sounds you do not hear with your nanochip distraction. I can signal them from the lake. They are my friends, and they did not hesitate to help us.”

“Because of you,” The Other said, “who knows now what we are capable of without the nanochips.” The Other stuck membranes with Breem so hard they both had to use their cilia to stay balanced. “My love,” The Other whispered and then for the benefit of the broadcast waves in their nanochip. “We are Titans!”

Sensing the victory, the multitude of Titan bacterioids crawled from their burrows and collected around Breem and The Other. Several of the Sand Fish scuttled closer leaving the singed remains of the Earth invaders to fall away from their backs as dust.

“We are Titans,” the hoard exclaimed.

“No one will dare to invade us again,” Breem shouted. “With the space laser knowledge, someday we can explore the solar system! To learn, not to conquer. Without the nanochips. We can unify all the bacterial civilizations in the galaxy. For peace. Not like the Hewmanns! Like Titans!”

“You are the true Super Bug, my love.” The Other ended their embrace and detached from Breem with a pop.

“We are,” Breem answered and then laughed with raw joy.

“Super Bug!” chanted the hoard. They lifted Breem with their cilia above their bodies, and carried them to the sea to bathe luxuriously together beneath the cold sun.