TRANSCRIPT 🔗
WEBVTT
1
00:00:04.009 --> 00:00:08.529
Welcome, weirdos. I'm Darren Marlar. You've stepped into the horror
2
00:00:08.589 --> 00:00:13.390
fiction side of Weird Darkness. And it happens to be midnight.
3
00:00:14.529 --> 00:00:25.239
In the macabre. From space, the planet Viridian resembled a
4
00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:30.039
great green moss-covered tennis ball. the spaceship had arrowed even
5
00:00:30.100 --> 00:00:32.640
closer to the lush jungle that was the surface of
6
00:00:32.679 --> 00:00:36.600
the 7,000-mile sphere, there was still no visible break in
7
00:00:36.619 --> 00:00:39.799
the green cloak of the planet. Even when they dipped
8
00:00:39.920 --> 00:00:43.689
almost below their margin of safety— spaceships were poorly built
9
00:00:43.740 --> 00:00:46.840
for extended flight within the atmosphere— it took nearly a
10
00:00:46.909 --> 00:00:50.570
complete circuit of the planet before a triangle of emptiness
11
00:00:50.590 --> 00:00:53.469
was spotted. It was in the midst of the tangled
12
00:00:53.549 --> 00:00:59.509
canopy of treetops, themselves interwoven inextricably with coarse-leaved ropey vines
13
00:00:59.869 --> 00:01:04.670
that sprawled and coiled about the upthrust branches like underfed anacondas.
14
00:01:06.030 --> 00:01:08.930
Into the center of this triangle, the ship was lowered
15
00:01:09.030 --> 00:01:12.430
on sputtering blue pillars of crackling energy to come to
16
00:01:12.469 --> 00:01:17.780
rest on the soft, loamy earth. A bare instant after set-down,
17
00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:21.579
crewmen exploded from the airlock and dashed into the jungle
18
00:01:21.620 --> 00:01:26.310
shadows with high-pressure tanks of gushing spume. Their job was
19
00:01:26.349 --> 00:01:29.969
to coat, cool, and throttle the hungry fires trickling in
20
00:01:30.010 --> 00:01:34.659
bright orange fingers through the heat-blackened grasses. Higher in the trees,
21
00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:38.200
a few vines smoldered fitfully where the fires had brushed them,
22
00:01:38.739 --> 00:01:41.980
then hissed into smoky wet ash as their own glutinous
23
00:01:42.079 --> 00:01:45.829
sap smothered the urgent embers. But the fire was going out.
24
00:01:47.010 --> 00:01:52.269
Under control, sir, reported a returning crewman. Lieutenant Jerry Norquist
25
00:01:52.329 --> 00:01:55.010
emerged into the green gloaming that cloaked the base of
26
00:01:55.049 --> 00:01:58.670
the ship with a net of harlequin diamonds. Jerry nodded
27
00:01:58.780 --> 00:02:02.400
abstractly as the other crewmen laid a lightweight form-fitting couch
28
00:02:02.560 --> 00:02:06.099
alongside the tail fins near the airlock. On this couch,
29
00:02:06.459 --> 00:02:11.139
Jerry reclined. Remaining crew members turned their firefighting gear over
30
00:02:11.159 --> 00:02:14.599
to companions and stood guard in a rough semi-circle, with
31
00:02:14.639 --> 00:02:17.259
loaded rifles, their backs to the figure on the couch,
32
00:02:17.719 --> 00:02:20.780
facing the jungle and whatever predatory dangers it might hold.
33
00:02:22.229 --> 00:02:25.389
Ensign Bob Ryder, the technician who had the much softer
34
00:02:25.409 --> 00:02:29.560
job of simply controlling and coordinating any information relayed by Jerry,
35
00:02:30.090 --> 00:02:34.020
leaned out through the open circle in the hull. All set, sir,
36
00:02:34.520 --> 00:02:38.300
said the tech. Jerry nodded and settled a heavily wired
37
00:02:38.340 --> 00:02:41.120
helmet onto his head, while Bob made a hookup between
38
00:02:41.139 --> 00:02:43.599
the helmet and the power outlet that was concealed under
39
00:02:43.639 --> 00:02:46.740
a flap of metal on the tail fin. Helmet secured,
40
00:02:47.259 --> 00:02:49.599
Jerry lay back upon the couch and closed his eyes.
41
00:02:50.689 --> 00:02:56.090
Anytime you're ready, Henson. Bob hurried back inside, found the
42
00:02:56.110 --> 00:02:59.129
panel he sought among the jumble of high-powered machinery there,
43
00:02:59.610 --> 00:03:02.259
and placed a spool of microtape on a spindle inside it.
44
00:03:03.189 --> 00:03:05.710
He shut the panel and thumbed the button that started
45
00:03:05.770 --> 00:03:09.610
an impulse radiating from the tape into the jungle. The
46
00:03:09.669 --> 00:03:12.629
impulse had been detected and taped by a robo-rocket which
47
00:03:12.689 --> 00:03:16.060
had circled the planet for months before their arrival. It
48
00:03:16.099 --> 00:03:18.759
was one of the two Viridian species whose types were
49
00:03:18.819 --> 00:03:21.990
as yet uncatalogued by the Space Corps, in its vast
50
00:03:22.060 --> 00:03:26.550
files of alien life. Jerry's job as a space zoologist
51
00:03:26.830 --> 00:03:30.189
was to complete those files, planet by planet, throughout the
52
00:03:30.210 --> 00:03:34.530
spreading wave of the slowly colonized universe. Bob made sure
53
00:03:34.569 --> 00:03:37.169
the tape was functioning. Then he clicked the switch that
54
00:03:37.210 --> 00:03:40.370
would stimulate the contact center in Jerry's brain and release
55
00:03:40.409 --> 00:03:42.770
his mind into that of the taped alien for an
56
00:03:42.849 --> 00:03:47.550
immutable forty minutes. Outside the ship, recumbent in the warm
57
00:03:47.629 --> 00:03:52.050
green-gold shadows, Jerry's consciousness was dwarfed for an instant by
58
00:03:52.090 --> 00:03:55.030
a white lightning flash of energy, and then his body
59
00:03:55.069 --> 00:03:59.349
went limp as his mind sprang with thought speed into contact.
60
00:04:00.849 --> 00:04:03.340
Jerry opened his eyes to a dizzying view of the
61
00:04:03.400 --> 00:04:07.400
dull brown jungle floor. He blinked a moment, then looked
62
00:04:07.460 --> 00:04:11.280
toward his feet. He saw two sets of thin, knobby
63
00:04:11.539 --> 00:04:15.710
Vs extending forward and partly around the tiny limb he
64
00:04:15.750 --> 00:04:19.009
stood upon, their chitinous surface shiny with the wetness of
65
00:04:19.040 -->
Load full transcript
00:04:22.740
the jungle air. Slowly working his jaws, he heard the
66
00:04:22.779 --> 00:04:27.199
extremely gentle click as they came together. The endoskeleton must
67
00:04:27.279 --> 00:04:31.240
exist all over his host's body. After making certain it
68
00:04:31.279 --> 00:04:34.290
would not disturb his balance on the limb, he attempted
69
00:04:34.370 --> 00:04:37.709
bringing whatever on the alien passed for hands before his face.
70
00:04:38.810 --> 00:04:43.540
Sometimes aliens had no hands, nor any comparable organisms. Then,
71
00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:47.339
Jerry would have to soft-pedal the mental nagging of being amputated,
72
00:04:47.800 --> 00:04:51.980
an unavoidable carryover from his subconscious, wrong feeling about armlessness.
73
00:04:53.060 --> 00:04:56.980
But this time, the effort moved up multi-jointed limbs, spindly
74
00:04:57.040 --> 00:05:01.000
as a cat's whiskers, terminating in a perpetually coiling, soft
75
00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:04.800
prehensile tip. He tried feeling along his torso to determine
76
00:05:04.819 --> 00:05:09.189
its size and shape, but the worm-like tips were tactilely insensitive.
77
00:05:10.250 --> 00:05:13.170
Hoping to deduce his shape from his shadow, he inched
78
00:05:13.290 --> 00:05:17.250
sideways along the limb on those inadequate-looking two-pronged feet toward
79
00:05:17.290 --> 00:05:21.009
a blob of yellow sunlight nearer the trunk. The silhouette
80
00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:25.180
on the branch showed him a stubby, cigar-shaped torso.' I
81
00:05:25.220 --> 00:05:30.000
seem to be a semi-tentacled, no-hop grasshopper,' he mused to himself,
82
00:05:30.699 --> 00:05:34.639
vainly trying to turn his head on his neck.' Head, thorax,
83
00:05:34.750 --> 00:05:39.000
and abdomen all one piece.' He tried flexing what would
84
00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:41.399
be in a man the region of his shoulder blades.
85
00:05:42.060 --> 00:05:44.959
He was rewarded by the appearance of long, narrow wings,
86
00:05:45.540 --> 00:05:48.160
two sets of them, like a dragonfly's, from beneath two
87
00:05:48.259 --> 00:05:52.569
flaps of chitin on his back. He tried an experimental flapping.
88
00:05:53.610 --> 00:05:56.730
The pair of wings, white and stiff like starched tissue paper,
89
00:05:57.089 --> 00:06:00.850
not venous as in earth insects, dissolved in a buzzing
90
00:06:00.930 --> 00:06:03.689
blur of motion. The limb fell away from under his
91
00:06:03.750 --> 00:06:06.620
tiny V-shaped feet. and then he was up above the
92
00:06:06.660 --> 00:06:10.350
blinding green blanket of jungle treetops, his shadow pacing his
93
00:06:10.379 --> 00:06:13.949
forward movement along the close-packed quilt of wide leaves below.
94
00:06:14.889 --> 00:06:17.949
I'd better be careful, thought Jerry. There may be avian
95
00:06:18.009 --> 00:06:21.490
life here that consider my species the pièce de résistance
96
00:06:21.569 --> 00:06:25.910
of the pteroid set. Slowing his rapid wingbeat, he let
97
00:06:25.949 --> 00:06:30.000
himself drop down toward the nearest mattress-sized leaf. He folded
98
00:06:30.040 --> 00:06:32.819
his outthrust feet in midair and dropped the last few
99
00:06:32.899 --> 00:06:36.709
inches to a cushiony rest. A slight shimmer of dizziness
100
00:06:36.980 --> 00:06:40.560
gripped his mind. Perhaps the skull of this creature was
101
00:06:40.620 --> 00:06:43.819
ill-equipped to ward off the hot rays of the tropic sunlight.
102
00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:47.439
Lest his brain be fried in its own casing, Jerry
103
00:06:47.540 --> 00:06:49.959
scuttled along the velvet top of the leaf and ducked
104
00:06:50.040 --> 00:06:54.019
quickly beneath its nearest overlapping companion. The wave of vertigo
105
00:06:54.100 --> 00:06:58.800
passed quickly. There, in the deep shadow. Under the canopy
106
00:06:58.839 --> 00:07:01.180
of leaves, Jerry crawled back to a limb near the
107
00:07:01.220 --> 00:07:04.029
top of the tree. A few feet from where he stood,
108
00:07:04.509 --> 00:07:08.680
something moved. Jerry turned that way. Another creature of the
109
00:07:08.740 --> 00:07:11.680
same species was balancing lightly on a green limb of
110
00:07:11.779 --> 00:07:15.839
wire thickness, its gaze fixed steadily toward the jungle flooring,
111
00:07:16.339 --> 00:07:19.060
as Jerry's own had been on entering the alien body.
112
00:07:19.819 --> 00:07:25.350
Watching out for predators? Or for victims? He could, he knew,
113
00:07:25.449 --> 00:07:28.370
pull his consciousness back enough to let the creature's own
114
00:07:28.449 --> 00:07:32.709
consciousness carry it through its daily cycle of eating, avoiding destruction,
115
00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:36.470
and the manifold business of being an ambient creature. But
116
00:07:36.529 --> 00:07:38.930
he decided to keep control. It would be easier to
117
00:07:38.990 --> 00:07:42.329
figure out his host's ecological status in the planet's natural
118
00:07:42.379 --> 00:07:45.160
life balance by observing the other one for a while.
119
00:07:46.379 --> 00:07:49.360
Jerry always felt more comfortable when he was in full control.
120
00:07:50.139 --> 00:07:52.699
You never knew when an alien might stupidly step into
121
00:07:52.740 --> 00:07:57.850
a fatality that any intelligent mind could easily have avoided. Idly,
122
00:07:58.110 --> 00:08:00.370
as he watched his fellow creature down near the inner
123
00:08:00.430 --> 00:08:03.110
part of the branch, he wondered how much more time
124
00:08:03.149 --> 00:08:06.949
he would be in contact. Subjectively, he'd seemed to be
125
00:08:06.980 --> 00:08:10.579
inhosted for about ten minutes, but one of the drawbacks
126
00:08:10.620 --> 00:08:13.959
of contact was the subjugation of personal time sense to
127
00:08:13.980 --> 00:08:17.259
that of the host. Depending on the species he inhosted,
128
00:08:17.779 --> 00:08:21.620
the 40-minute contact period could be an eternity or the
129
00:08:21.660 --> 00:08:25.339
blink of
an eye. Nothing further seemed to be occurring.
130
00:08:26.519 --> 00:08:29.540
Jury reluctantly withdrew some of his control from the insect
131
00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:33.539
mind to see what would happen. Immediately, it inched forward,
132
00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:35.600
until it was in the same position it had been
133
00:08:35.679 --> 00:08:39.529
in when Jerry made contact. V-shaped feet forward and slightly
134
00:08:39.590 --> 00:08:43.210
around the narrow branch, eyes fixed upon the brownish jungle floor,
135
00:08:43.710 --> 00:08:48.070
body motionless with folded wings. For a while, Jerry tried
136
00:08:48.509 --> 00:08:52.750
listening to its mind, but received no readable thoughts, only
137
00:08:52.789 --> 00:08:58.659
a sense of imminence, of patience, of waiting. It didn't
138
00:08:58.779 --> 00:09:02.480
take long for Jerry to grow bored with this near-mindless outlook.
139
00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:07.269
He reassumed full control. Guiding the fragile feet carefully along
140
00:09:07.309 --> 00:09:09.629
the branch, he made his way to his fellow watcher
141
00:09:09.830 --> 00:09:13.909
and tried out the creature's communication system. His mind strove
142
00:09:13.990 --> 00:09:16.909
to activate something on the order of a larynx. The
143
00:09:16.970 --> 00:09:21.570
insect's nervous system received this impulse, changed in interspecies translation
144
00:09:21.929 --> 00:09:24.429
as a broad request for getting a message to its fellow.
145
00:09:25.299 --> 00:09:29.360
Its body responded by lifting the multi-jointed arms forward. It
146
00:09:29.419 --> 00:09:32.289
clapped the hard inner surfaces of the wrists together so
147
00:09:32.330 --> 00:09:35.750
fast that they blurred into invisibility, as the wings had done.
148
00:09:36.490 --> 00:09:40.490
A thin, ratchety sound came forth from that hard shell contact.
149
00:09:41.450 --> 00:09:44.549
The other insect looked up in annoyance, then returned its
150
00:09:44.590 --> 00:09:50.059
gaze to the ground again. Oral conversation thus obviated, Jerry
151
00:09:50.100 --> 00:09:54.779
tried for physical attention-getting. He reached out a vermiform, four-limbed
152
00:09:54.840 --> 00:09:58.549
tip and tugged urgently at the other insect's nearest hind leg.
153
00:09:59.210 --> 00:10:02.620
An angry movement came out of the unmistakable pantomimic message,
154
00:10:03.019 --> 00:10:06.740
For Pete's sake, get off my back, I'm busy. The
155
00:10:06.779 --> 00:10:09.539
other insect spread its thin double wings and went buzzing
156
00:10:09.659 --> 00:10:12.399
off a few trees away, then settled on a limb
157
00:10:12.440 --> 00:10:16.519
there and took up its earthward vigil once more. Well,
158
00:10:16.559 --> 00:10:19.769
they're not gregarious, that's for sure, said Jerry to himself,
159
00:10:20.480 --> 00:10:22.500
I wish I knew what the hell we were waiting for.
160
00:10:24.059 --> 00:10:26.580
He decided he was sick of ground-watching and turned his
161
00:10:26.620 --> 00:10:30.679
attention to his immediate vicinity. His gaze wandered along all
162
00:10:30.700 --> 00:10:33.899
the twists, juts, and thrusts of branch and vine beneath
163
00:10:33.950 --> 00:10:37.750
the sun-blocking leaves, and all at once he realized he
164
00:10:37.789 --> 00:10:41.009
was staring at another of his kind, so still had
165
00:10:41.049 --> 00:10:43.929
its dull green-brown body been that he'd taken it for
166
00:10:43.970 --> 00:10:47.610
a ripple of bark along a branch. Carefully, he looked
167
00:10:47.669 --> 00:10:51.639
further on. Beyond the small figure, he soon located another
168
00:10:51.700 --> 00:10:55.080
like it, and then another. Within a short space of time,
169
00:10:55.139 --> 00:10:58.200
he had found three dozen of the insects sitting silently
170
00:10:58.259 --> 00:11:01.919
around him in a spherical area barely ten feet in diameter.
171
00:11:03.159 --> 00:11:06.419
Oddly disconcerted, he once more spread his stiff white wings
172
00:11:06.490 --> 00:11:10.029
and fluttered away through the treetops, careful to avoid coming
173
00:11:10.110 --> 00:11:13.610
out in direct sunlight this time. He flew until a
174
00:11:13.649 --> 00:11:17.029
resurgence of giddiness told him that he was overstraining his
175
00:11:17.110 --> 00:11:20.860
creature's stamina. He dropped onto a limb and looked about
176
00:11:20.980 --> 00:11:24.220
once more. Within a very short time, he had spotted
177
00:11:24.440 --> 00:11:28.120
dozens more of the grasshopper things. All were the same,
178
00:11:28.340 --> 00:11:34.639
sitting in camouflaged silence, steadily eyeing the ground. Damn, thought Jerry.
179
00:11:35.139 --> 00:11:39.379
They don't seem interested in eating, mating, or fighting. All
180
00:11:39.399 --> 00:11:44.169
they want to do is sit. Sit and wait. But
181
00:11:44.389 --> 00:11:48.210
what are they waiting for? There was, of course, the
182
00:11:48.250 --> 00:11:51.629
possibility that he'd caught them in an off period. If
183
00:11:51.649 --> 00:11:54.769
the species were nocturnal, then he wouldn't get any action
184
00:11:54.809 --> 00:11:59.409
from them till after sunset. That, he realized gloomily, meant
185
00:11:59.529 --> 00:12:03.340
a re-contact later on. One way or another, he would
186
00:12:03.379 --> 00:12:07.080
have to determine the functions, capabilities, and menace, if any,
187
00:12:07.120 --> 00:12:10.059
of the species with regard to the influx of colonists
188
00:12:10.399 --> 00:12:12.940
who would come to Viridian only if his report pronounced
189
00:12:12.980 --> 00:12:18.200
it safe. Once again, he let the insect's mind take over. Again,
190
00:12:18.600 --> 00:12:23.639
that overpowering feeling of imminence. He was irritated. He couldn't
191
00:12:23.679 --> 00:12:26.639
just be looking forward to nightfall. There were too many
192
00:12:26.700 --> 00:12:30.820
things tied in with the imminence feeling, the necessity for quiet,
193
00:12:31.000 -->
00:12:35.379
for motionlessness, for careful watching. The more he thought on it,
194
00:12:35.639 --> 00:12:37.899
the more he had the distinct intuition that it would
195
00:12:37.980 --> 00:12:41.840
sit and stare at the soft, mulch-covered jungle floor, be
196
00:12:41.879 --> 00:12:47.159
it bright daylight or blackest gloom, waiting and waiting and waiting.
197
00:12:48.360 --> 00:12:53.750
and suddenly the slight feel of imminence became almost unbearable apprehension.
198
00:12:54.610 --> 00:12:57.750
The change in intensity was due to a soft, cautious,
199
00:12:58.210 --> 00:13:02.659
shuffling sound from down in the green-gold twilight. Something was
200
00:13:02.759 --> 00:13:06.279
coming through the jungle, something that moved on careful feet
201
00:13:06.440 --> 00:13:11.039
along the springy, moist brown surface below the trees. Far below,
202
00:13:11.460 --> 00:13:14.700
A shadow detached itself slowly from the deeper shadows of
203
00:13:14.720 --> 00:13:17.200
the trees, and a form began to emerge in the
204
00:13:17.240 --> 00:13:22.850
wand-filtered sunlight. It. An all-encompassing lance of silent white lightning.
205
00:13:23.870 --> 00:13:28.190
Contact was over. Jerry sat up on the couch, angry.
206
00:13:28.690 --> 00:13:30.789
He pulled the helmet off his head as Bob Ryder
207
00:13:30.850 --> 00:13:34.970
leaned out the airlock once more. How'd it go, sir? Lousy.
208
00:13:35.389 --> 00:13:38.700
I'll have to re-establish. Didn't have time to learn it sufficiently.
209
00:13:39.960 --> 00:13:42.759
A slight expression of disappointment on the tech's face made
210
00:13:42.799 --> 00:13:45.799
him add, Don't tell me you have the other tape
211
00:13:45.850 --> 00:13:50.210
in place already. Sorry, Bob said. You usually do a
212
00:13:50.250 --> 00:13:56.090
complete learning in one contact. Oh. Jerry shrugged and reached
213
00:13:56.110 --> 00:13:59.409
for the helmet again. Never mind, I'll take on the
214
00:13:59.490 --> 00:14:02.610
second alien, long as it's already set up. I may
215
00:14:02.649 --> 00:14:05.070
just have hit the first one in an off period.
216
00:14:05.649 --> 00:14:07.889
The delay in recontact may be just what I need
217
00:14:07.909 --> 00:14:11.480
to catch it in action. Setting the helmet snugly on
218
00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:13.740
his head once more, he leaned back onto the couch
219
00:14:13.919 --> 00:14:16.940
and waited. He heard the tech's feet clanking along the
220
00:14:16.980 --> 00:14:20.019
metal plates inside the ship, then the soft clang of
221
00:14:20.070 --> 00:14:24.509
an opening door in the power room, and whiteness, writhing
222
00:14:24.570 --> 00:14:28.309
electrical whiteness and cold silence. And he was in contact.
223
00:14:29.710 --> 00:14:34.750
Darkness and musky warmth. Then a slot of light appeared.
224
00:14:35.450 --> 00:14:38.970
A thin, fuzzy line of yellow striped with spiky green.
225
00:14:40.029 --> 00:14:43.049
Jerry had time in the brief flicker to
observe thick,
226
00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:47.879
bear-like forelimbs holding up a squarish trapdoor fastened with cross-twigs
227
00:14:47.919 --> 00:14:51.740
for support. Then the powerful forepaws let the door drop
228
00:14:51.799 --> 00:14:55.539
back into place, and it was dark again. He had
229
00:14:55.639 --> 00:14:59.779
not liked those forepaws. Though thick as and pawed like
230
00:14:59.820 --> 00:15:03.240
a bear's, they were devoid of hair. They had skin
231
00:15:03.399 --> 00:15:07.269
thin as a caterpillar's, mottled pink with sick-looking areas of
232
00:15:07.370 --> 00:15:10.850
deathly white. Skin like that would be a pushover to
233
00:15:10.909 --> 00:15:15.049
actinic rays for any lung exposure. Probably the thing lived
234
00:15:15.269 --> 00:15:19.580
underground here, almost permanently. His eyes had detected a rude
235
00:15:19.639 --> 00:15:23.220
assortment of thick, wooden limbs curving in and out at
236
00:15:23.320 --> 00:15:26.240
regular intervals in the vertical wall of soil that was
237
00:15:26.299 --> 00:15:29.980
the end of this tunnel just below the trapdoor. Tree roots,
238
00:15:30.679 --> 00:15:35.139
but formed by some odd natural quirk into a utile ladder.
239
00:15:36.279 --> 00:15:39.570
But why had the thing peered out? then dropped the
240
00:15:39.590 --> 00:15:42.629
door to wait. Did every species on this planet hang
241
00:15:42.649 --> 00:15:47.629
around expectantly and nothing else? And what was the waiting for?
242
00:15:49.009 --> 00:15:51.529
Then he felt the urge within the creature, the urge
243
00:15:51.570 --> 00:15:55.769
to scurry up that ladder into the light. But there was, simultaneously,
244
00:15:55.870 --> 00:15:58.830
a counter-urge in the thing, telling it to please wait
245
00:15:58.929 --> 00:16:03.720
a little longer. Jerry recognized the urge by quick anthropomorphosis.
246
00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:07.480
It was the goofy urge, the crazy urge, like one
247
00:16:07.529 --> 00:16:10.480
gets on the brinks of awesome heights or on subway
248
00:16:10.539 --> 00:16:15.120
platforms as the train roars in, the impulsive urge to self-destruction,
249
00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:20.240
so swiftly frightening and so swiftly suppressed. Yet, it had
250
00:16:20.299 --> 00:16:22.879
lifted and dropped that lid too briefly to have seen
251
00:16:22.940 --> 00:16:27.970
anything outside. Could it be listening for something? Carefully, he
252
00:16:28.049 --> 00:16:32.029
relinquished his control of the beast, fraction by fraction, to
253
00:16:32.070 --> 00:16:35.009
see what it would do. It rose on tiptoe at
254
00:16:35.149 --> 00:16:38.870
once and again lifted that earthen door. It squinted at
255
00:16:38.909 --> 00:16:42.940
the profusion of green-yellow sunlight that stung its eyes. Then
256
00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:46.159
it rose on powerful hind limbs and clambered just high
257
00:16:46.200 --> 00:16:49.139
enough on that ladder to see over the grassy rim
258
00:16:49.179 --> 00:16:52.659
of the trapdoor hole. Jerry then heard the soft shuffling
259
00:16:52.720 --> 00:16:56.529
sound that had re-alerted it and saw the source. Out
260
00:16:56.570 --> 00:16:59.909
of the matted brown jungle flooring beneath the towering trees...
261
00:17:00.169 --> 00:17:02.889
Another of the bear things was moving forward from an
262
00:17:03.009 --> 00:17:07.079
open turf door, emitting low, whimpering snorts as it inched
263
00:17:07.140 --> 00:17:11.319
along through the dappling yellow sunlight. Obviously, it was following
264
00:17:11.359 --> 00:17:14.960
that manic destruction impulse that he'd just felt and managed
265
00:17:15.079 --> 00:17:18.380
to suppress. It must have been almost a hundred degrees
266
00:17:18.480 --> 00:17:22.200
out there, and the damned thing was shivering. Here and there,
267
00:17:22.299 --> 00:17:26.799
Jerry noticed suddenly other half-opened trap doors were framing other
268
00:17:27.039 --> 00:17:31.000
bear things' heads. the air was taut with electric tension,
269
00:17:31.480 --> 00:17:34.809
the tension of a slow trigger squeeze that moves millimeter
270
00:17:34.849 --> 00:17:39.230
by millimeter toward the instant explosion. The soft shuffling sounds
271
00:17:39.269 --> 00:17:42.529
of the animal's movement jogged Jerry's memory then, and he
272
00:17:42.589 --> 00:17:44.690
knew it for the sound he had heard when inhosted
273
00:17:44.750 --> 00:17:48.069
in the grasshopper thing. Was a bear thing what they'd
274
00:17:48.089 --> 00:17:51.500
been waiting in the trees so silently for? And what
275
00:17:51.559 --> 00:17:55.279
would be the culmination of that vigil? Then the bear
276
00:17:55.339 --> 00:17:58.450
thing he was in contact with hitched itself up another
277
00:17:58.670 --> 00:18:01.950
root rung. Jerry saw the thing toward which the quaking
278
00:18:02.009 --> 00:18:05.450
creature was headed, in a hunched crawl, its whimpers more
279
00:18:05.630 --> 00:18:09.289
anguished by the moment. Pendant in the green gloaming about
280
00:18:09.390 --> 00:18:12.650
four feet above the spongy brown jungle floor hung a
281
00:18:12.769 --> 00:18:16.029
thick yellow-gray gourd at the tip of a long vine.
282
00:18:16.769 --> 00:18:20.369
Its sides glittered stickily with condensed moisture that mingled with
283
00:18:20.390 --> 00:18:23.529
the effluvium of the gourd itself. The odor was both
284
00:18:23.750 --> 00:18:27.779
noisome and compelling. powerful as a bushel of rotting roses.
285
00:18:28.400 --> 00:18:31.380
It sickened as it lured, teased the nostrils as it
286
00:18:31.460 --> 00:18:36.700
cloyed within the lungs. To this dangling obscenity, the bear-fang moved.
287
00:18:37.289 --> 00:18:40.309
Its eyes were no longer afraid, but glazed and dulled
288
00:18:40.369 --> 00:18:43.650
by the strength of that musky lure. Its movements were
289
00:18:43.710 --> 00:18:48.089
fluid and trance-like. It arose on sturdy hind limbs and
290
00:18:48.210 --> 00:18:50.880
struck at
the gourd with a gentle paw, sending it
291
00:18:51.019 --> 00:18:54.420
jouncing to one side on its long green hive. As
292
00:18:54.460 --> 00:18:56.910
it bobbed back, The creature struck it off in the
293
00:18:56.950 --> 00:19:01.309
opposite direction with a sharper blow. Jerry watched in fascination.
294
00:19:01.890 --> 00:19:06.829
The gourd swung faster. The mottled pink-white alien creature swayed
295
00:19:06.869 --> 00:19:09.900
and wove its forelimbs and thick body in a ritual
296
00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.180
dance matching the tempo of the arcing gourd. Then Jerry
297
00:19:14.240 --> 00:19:17.480
noted that the vine was unlike earth vines which parasitically
298
00:19:17.539 --> 00:19:21.349
employ treetops as their unwilling trellises. It is a limp
299
00:19:21.450 --> 00:19:24.950
extension of the tip of a tree branch itself. So
300
00:19:25.019 --> 00:19:27.799
were all the other vines in that green matting overhead.
301
00:19:28.839 --> 00:19:31.480
A ripping sound yanked his gaze back to the dazed
302
00:19:31.539 --> 00:19:35.519
creature and the gourd again. A ragged tear had riven
303
00:19:35.559 --> 00:19:38.339
the side of the gourd. Tiny coils of green were
304
00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:41.509
dribbled out in batches, like watch springs spilled from a
305
00:19:41.529 --> 00:19:44.490
paper bag. They struck with a bounce and wriggle on
306
00:19:44.509 --> 00:19:48.450
the resilient brown mulch. And then, as they straightened themselves,
307
00:19:48.630 --> 00:19:51.789
Jerry knew them for what they were. Miniature versions of
308
00:19:51.809 --> 00:19:55.519
the grasshopper things, shaped precisely like the adults, but only
309
00:19:55.559 --> 00:19:58.740
a third as large. The bear things movements had gone
310
00:19:58.779 --> 00:20:02.720
from graceful fluidity to frenzy now. A loud whistle of
311
00:20:02.819 --> 00:20:05.440
fright escaped it as the last of the twitching green
312
00:20:05.500 --> 00:20:08.900
things flopped from its vegetable cocoon, whirred white wings to
313
00:20:08.940 --> 00:20:12.160
dry them, and flew off. And the lumbering creature had
314
00:20:12.279 --> 00:20:15.890
reason for its fright. The instant the last coil of
315
00:20:16.009 --> 00:20:19.170
wiggly green life was a vanishing blur in the green shadows,
316
00:20:19.809 --> 00:20:22.829
a cloud of darker green descended upon the pink form
317
00:20:22.869 --> 00:20:26.369
of the beast from the trees. The grasshopper things were
318
00:20:26.410 --> 00:20:30.519
waiting no longer. Thousands swarmed on the writhing form until
319
00:20:30.539 --> 00:20:34.279
the bear-thing was a lumpy, green parody of itself. As
320
00:20:34.359 --> 00:20:37.500
quickly as the cloud had plunged and clustered, it fell away.
321
00:20:37.960 --> 00:20:41.410
The earth was teeming with the flip-flopping forms of dying insects,
322
00:20:41.710 --> 00:20:44.990
with white wings going dark brown and curling like cellophane
323
00:20:45.009 --> 00:20:48.789
in open flame. The bear-thing itself was no longer recognizable,
324
00:20:49.089 --> 00:20:52.769
its flesh a myriad egg-like white lumps. It swayed in
325
00:20:52.950 --> 00:20:56.910
agony for a moment, then toppled. Instantly, the other creatures,
326
00:20:57.170 --> 00:20:59.829
his host with them, were racing forward to the site
327
00:20:59.869 --> 00:21:03.410
of the encounter. Jerry felt his host's long, gummy tongue
328
00:21:03.529 --> 00:21:06.210
flick out and snare one, just one, of the dead
329
00:21:06.309 --> 00:21:09.930
adult insects. It was ingested whole by a deft backflip
330
00:21:09.970 --> 00:21:13.029
of tongue to gullet. As his host turned tail and
331
00:21:13.089 --> 00:21:16.000
scurried for the tunnel once more, Jerry swiftly took control
332
00:21:16.059 --> 00:21:19.940
again and halted it to observe any further developments. Each
333
00:21:19.980 --> 00:21:23.359
of the other things, after a one insect gulp, was
334
00:21:23.420 --> 00:21:27.430
just vanishing back underground. The turf tops were dropping neatly
335
00:21:27.470 --> 00:21:31.519
into almost undetectable place hiding the tunnels. The sunlight nipped
336
00:21:31.559 --> 00:21:34.359
at his pale flesh, but Jerry held off from a
337
00:21:34.420 --> 00:21:38.720
return to the underground sanctuary, still watching that lump-covered corpse
338
00:21:38.940 --> 00:21:43.549
on the earth. Then, the vine, its burden gone, began
339
00:21:43.589 --> 00:21:46.109
to drip a thick ichor from its ragged end upon
340
00:21:46.130 --> 00:21:49.369
the dead animal beneath it. And as the ichor touched
341
00:21:49.430 --> 00:21:53.210
upon a white lump, the lump would swell, wriggle, and
342
00:21:53.269 --> 00:21:57.470
change color. Jerry watched with awe as the color became
343
00:21:57.509 --> 00:22:00.390
a mottled pink, and the surface of the lumps cracked
344
00:22:00.450 --> 00:22:04.130
and shriveled away, and tiny forms plopped out onto the ground.
345
00:22:04.910 --> 00:22:09.779
Miniature bear things, tiny throats emitting eager mouse squeaks of hunger.
346
00:22:10.480 --> 00:22:12.519
They rushed upon the body in which they'd been so
347
00:22:12.680 --> 00:22:18.720
violently incubated and swiftly, systematically devoured it, blood, bone, and sinew.
348
00:22:19.569 --> 00:22:21.730
and when not even a memory of the dead beast
349
00:22:21.789 --> 00:22:25.130
was left upon the soil, the tiny pink-white things began
350
00:22:25.170 --> 00:22:28.490
to burrow downward into the ground. Soon there was nothing
351
00:22:28.579 --> 00:22:31.220
left in the area but a dried fragment of vine,
352
00:22:31.720 --> 00:22:35.380
a few loose mounds of soil, and a vast silence.
353
00:22:36.759 --> 00:22:40.259
I'll be a monkey's uncle, said Jerry, forgetting in his
354
00:22:40.299 --> 00:22:43.339
excitement that this phrase was nearly a concise parody of
355
00:22:43.359 --> 00:22:47.059
the space zoologist's final oath of duty, and
kiddingly used
356
00:22:47.180 --> 00:22:50.029
as such by the older members of the group. the
357
00:22:50.069 --> 00:22:55.589
whole damned planet was symbiotic. After witnessing those alien life-death rites,
358
00:22:56.150 --> 00:22:58.289
it didn't take him long to figure out the screwball
359
00:22:58.329 --> 00:23:03.009
connections between the species. Insects, once born of vine gourds
360
00:23:03.109 --> 00:23:06.769
and fully grown, then propagated their species by a strange means,
361
00:23:07.329 --> 00:23:11.569
laying bear eggs in a bear thing and dying. And dying,
362
00:23:11.890 --> 00:23:14.750
eaten by the surviving bears, they turned to seeds, which,
363
00:23:14.970 --> 00:23:17.569
left in the tunnels by the bear things as droppings,
364
00:23:18.140 --> 00:23:22.160
in turn took root and became trees. And the trees,
365
00:23:22.460 --> 00:23:25.559
under the onslaught of another bear thing on a dangling pod,
366
00:23:25.980 --> 00:23:30.049
would produce new insects, then drip its ichor to fertilize
367
00:23:30.089 --> 00:23:33.769
the eggs in the newly dead bear thing. Cherry found
368
00:23:33.809 --> 00:23:37.549
this mind-tangling as he attempted a better pinpointing of the
369
00:23:37.589 --> 00:23:42.769
planet-animal-insect relationship. A dead adult insect, plus a trip through
370
00:23:42.789 --> 00:23:46.960
a bear thing's elementary canal, produced a tree, A tree
371
00:23:47.109 --> 00:23:50.529
pod with the swatting stimulus of a bear thing's paws
372
00:23:51.009 --> 00:23:54.990
gave birth to new insects, and insect eggs in animal
373
00:23:55.049 --> 00:23:59.859
flesh stimulated by the tree ichor gestated swiftly into young animals.
374
00:24:01.039 --> 00:24:05.920
That meant, simply, that insect plus bear equals tree, tree
375
00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:10.890
plus bear equals insect, and insect plus tree equals bear.
376
00:24:11.950 --> 00:24:16.250
with three systems, each relied on the non-inclusive member for
377
00:24:16.269 --> 00:24:20.450
the breeding ground. Insect plus ichor produced small animals in
378
00:24:20.470 --> 00:24:24.839
the animal flesh. Dead insect plus bear produced tree in
379
00:24:24.859 --> 00:24:28.099
the tree flesh, if one considered dead tree leaves and
380
00:24:28.180 --> 00:24:31.539
bark and such as the makeup of the soil. Bear
381
00:24:31.619 --> 00:24:36.549
swats plus tree produced insects. Damn, said Jerry to himself,
382
00:24:37.349 --> 00:24:40.690
but not in the insect flesh. The thing won't round off.
383
00:24:42.099 --> 00:24:45.059
He tried again, thinking hard. In effect, the trees were
384
00:24:45.099 --> 00:24:48.359
parents to the insects, insects parents to the bears, and
385
00:24:48.440 --> 00:24:52.349
the bears parents to the trees. Though, in another sense,
386
00:24:52.529 --> 00:24:57.210
bear flesh gave birth to new bears, digesting insects gave birth,
387
00:24:57.450 --> 00:25:01.190
through the tree medium, to new insects, and trees,
through
388
00:25:01.210 --> 00:25:06.119
the insect medium, gave birth to new trees. Jerry's head
389
00:25:06.380 --> 00:25:09.759
spun pleasantly as he tried vainly to solve the confusion.
390
00:25:10.710 --> 00:25:13.829
Men of science, he realized, would spend decades trying to
391
00:25:13.910 --> 00:25:17.849
figure out which species were responsible for which. It made
392
00:25:17.869 --> 00:25:21.720
the ancient chicken or egg question beneath consideration. And a
393
00:25:21.759 --> 00:25:24.339
lot of die-hard evolutionists were going to be bedded down
394
00:25:24.380 --> 00:25:28.460
with severe migraines when his report went into circulation. A
395
00:25:28.519 --> 00:25:33.869
dazzle of silent lightning and contact was over. Ready with
396
00:25:33.910 --> 00:25:37.460
that first tape again? Bob Ryder said as Jerry removed
397
00:25:37.519 --> 00:25:40.309
the contact helmet and brushed his snow-white hair back from
398
00:25:40.349 --> 00:25:43.549
his tanned, youthful face. Or do you want a breather first?
399
00:25:44.990 --> 00:25:47.990
Jerry shook his head. I won't need to recontact that
400
00:25:48.029 --> 00:25:51.349
other species, Ensign. I got his life relationships from the
401
00:25:51.369 --> 00:25:57.059
second contact. Really, sir? said Bob. That's pretty unusual, isn't it?
402
00:25:57.920 --> 00:26:02.180
The whole damn planet's unusual, said Jerry. rising from his
403
00:26:02.220 --> 00:26:05.829
supine position and stretching luxuriously in the warm jungle air.
404
00:26:06.730 --> 00:26:08.990
You'll see what I mean when you process the second tape.
405
00:26:10.569 --> 00:26:13.230
Bob decided that Jerry, running pretty true to form for
406
00:26:13.269 --> 00:26:17.410
a space zoologist, wasn't in a particularly talkative mood, so
407
00:26:17.430 --> 00:26:20.210
he had to satisfy himself with waiting for the transcription
408
00:26:20.250 --> 00:26:24.019
of the contact to get the details. Later that day,
409
00:26:24.299 --> 00:26:27.779
an hour after takeoff, with Viridian already vanished behind them
410
00:26:27.880 --> 00:26:30.759
as the great ship plowed through hyperspace toward Earth and home,
411
00:26:31.279 --> 00:26:34.150
Bob finished reading the report. Then he went down the
412
00:26:34.190 --> 00:26:37.809
passageway to the ward room for coffee. Jerry was seated
413
00:26:37.849 --> 00:26:41.769
there already. Bob, quickly filling a mug from the polished percolator,
414
00:26:42.230 --> 00:26:44.569
slid into a seat across the table from his superior
415
00:26:44.910 --> 00:26:47.259
and asked the question that had been bugging him since
416
00:26:47.380 --> 00:26:52.099
seeing the report.' Sir, on that second contact, has it
417
00:26:52.160 --> 00:26:55.140
occurred to you that you'd relinquished control to the host
418
00:26:55.220 --> 00:26:57.680
before you saw that other creature move out and start
419
00:26:57.759 --> 00:27:01.940
swatting the gourd thing?' You mean, was I taking
a
420
00:27:01.960 --> 00:27:04.269
chance on being destroyed and the host of the creature
421
00:27:04.549 --> 00:27:06.730
that I was contacting gave in to the urge to
422
00:27:06.769 --> 00:27:11.069
do the swatting? Yes, sir, said Bob. I mean, you
423
00:27:11.109 --> 00:27:14.369
know you can take control any time if things get dangerous,
424
00:27:14.430 --> 00:27:18.849
but wasn't that cutting it kind of thin? Jerry shook
425
00:27:18.890 --> 00:27:22.890
his head and sipped his coffee. Wrong urge, Ensign. You'll
426
00:27:22.930 --> 00:27:25.980
note I recognized it as the goofy urge, the impulse
427
00:27:26.019 --> 00:27:29.539
to die followed instantly by a violent surge of self-preservation.
428
00:27:30.299 --> 00:27:32.940
It wasn't the death wish at all. Myself and the
429
00:27:32.980 --> 00:27:35.500
creatures who remained safely at the tunnel mouths had a
430
00:27:35.599 --> 00:27:37.960
milder form of what was affecting the creature that did
431
00:27:38.019 --> 00:27:42.039
start swatting the gourd. Then what was the difference, sir?
432
00:27:42.660 --> 00:27:45.970
Why did that one particular creature get the full self-destruction
433
00:27:46.170 --> 00:27:50.309
urge and no other? Jerry wrinkled his face in thought.
434
00:27:51.549 --> 00:27:54.170
I wish I didn't suspect the answer to that, Ensign.
435
00:27:55.049 --> 00:27:57.380
The only thing I hope it isn't is the thing
436
00:27:57.500 --> 00:28:02.519
I have the strongest inkling it is. rotation. Something in
437
00:28:02.539 --> 00:28:05.160
their biology has set them up in a certain order
438
00:28:05.359 --> 00:28:10.799
for destruction. That rite I saw performed was so un-animal,
439
00:28:10.880 --> 00:28:15.289
so formalized. Bob's eyes widened as he caught the inference.'
440
00:28:15.940 --> 00:28:18.980
You think they have an inbuilt protocol? That if one
441
00:28:19.039 --> 00:28:23.880
particular creature missed its cue, somehow the designated subsequent creature
442
00:28:23.940 --> 00:28:29.220
would simply wait forever, never jumping its turn?'' That' s what
443
00:28:29.269 --> 00:28:33.789
I mean,' nodded Jerry. I hope I'm wrong. But the
444
00:28:33.849 --> 00:28:37.509
right creature made it, said Bob, blinking. We can't have
445
00:28:37.569 --> 00:28:41.700
upset the ecology, can we? Things develop fast on Viridian,
446
00:28:42.259 --> 00:28:45.900
mused Jerry. If I figure the time relationship between their
447
00:28:46.099 --> 00:28:49.859
egg-hatching rate and growth rate, those trees must mature in
448
00:28:49.900 --> 00:28:54.130
growth in about a month, and we managed to shrivel
449
00:28:54.170 --> 00:28:57.289
a half-dozen vines with our rocket fires when we landed.
450
00:28:57.990 --> 00:29:01.710
and probably that many again when we blasted off. We
451
00:29:01.730 --> 00:29:05.049
dropped CO2 bombs after we cleared the trees, offered the
452
00:29:05.089 --> 00:29:09.720
tech uneasily. The fire was out in seconds. That wouldn't
453
00:29:09.759 --> 00:29:13.500
help an already shriveled vine, though, now would it? sighed Jerry.
454
00:29:14.240 --> 00:29:17.539
And if my hunch about protocol is correct, the life
455
00:29:17.579 --> 00:29:23.619
cycle would interrupt, gasped the tech. We'll see, said Jerry.
456
00:29:24.690 --> 00:29:27.140
It'll take us a month to get back, and there'll
457
00:29:27.160 --> 00:29:29.779
be another six months before the first wave of engineers
458
00:29:29.859 --> 00:29:34.369
is sent to begin the homesteads and industry sites. We'll see, Ensign.
459
00:29:36.490 --> 00:29:38.950
It took two months for the engineers to go out
460
00:29:39.289 --> 00:29:43.180
and return. They hadn't landed. A few orbits about the
461
00:29:43.220 --> 00:29:46.519
planet had shown them nothing but a vast, dead ball
462
00:29:46.559 --> 00:29:51.549
of dust and rotted vegetation, totally unfit for human habitation.
463
00:29:52.650 --> 00:29:55.569
They brought back photographs taken of the dead planet that
464
00:29:55.650 --> 00:29:58.250
no longer deserved the name it had rated in life.
465
00:29:59.730 --> 00:30:04.150
But Jerry Norquist, space zoologist, made it a special point
466
00:30:04.410 --> 00:30:21.819
to avoid looking at any of them. Thanks for joining me.
467
00:30:22.339 --> 00:30:28.759
Find more horror fiction at WeirdDarkness.com slash midnight. I'm Darren Marlar.
468
00:30:29.490 --> 00:30:32.900
And I hope you'll join me again soon. At midnight.
469
00:30:33.910 --> 00:30:34.630
In the macabre.