Endangered Species

A standalone sci-fi short story.

Image by By Prof. Gordon T. Taylor, Stony Brook University - corp2365, NOAA Corps Collection, Public Domain.

The genesis of this story came from a prompt by

Scoot

(“Write about the sea”). The sea comes into my stories quite a lot, I think; something that comes from living on an island. But this one went through a series of tangential leaps and meanderings until it became something a bit different. I hope you enjoy it!

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Long Selectron, Phase π/2

Glory be! I cannot but repeat again, glory be! The lab is all a-froth and a-ferment. It has been many, many oscillations since Olla Astacorum X produced any worthwhile results, but we have just received news of a successful netting. The first since the OA-X3 disaster. This should assuage the naysayers. There is still life in this old sector!

Long Selectron, Phase π

The specimens, now designated OA-X4, have been delivered. They fill me with a quivering and a pulsing, a sweet sweet music. Sonatas and symphonies of wonder, flutes of frequencies. The joy of discovery, of sucking down beauty until my brane is tight as a drum and leaking little bits of energy into the vacuum. Four spatially distinct aggregations or colonies, each containing trillions of life forms. We have yet to catalogue them. But the profusion! The bubbles within bubbles within bubbles, the teeming, seething mass of them!!! Never in my wildest dreams or most outré visions did I envisage anything like this.

I’m profoundly grateful for the new instruments. Without them, we could hardly detect or manipulate such a complexity of outmatter at sufficient resolution. They are almost transparent to our unaided senses. I see only a delicate, fragile shimmer when I look at them directly. Our fingers pass through them as if through the foam of the Great Ocean. Thankfully (for us) the life forms all seem strictly three-dimensional. They also seem completely unaware of our examination, which suggests limited or zero inmatter component, reminiscent of the silitype entities discovered by my esteemed parent, to whom respect and honour, at Squalus Barbatus II in the negative tenth oscillation.

Short Smuon, Phase 0

First-pass reading of the specimens is complete. Preliminary results indicate two, possibly more, distinct forms of hydrotype!!! The vast majority of life forms in each colony are simple-basic entities, of the kind of structure we’ve discovered on a candelabra’s worth of worlds around the cosmos — but in this case there are literally thousands of varieties. Thousands!!!

Each colony also hosts a single compex-basic entity, some six orders of magnitude greater in spatial extent. We have yet to determine the relation between the simple-basics and the complex-basic. The complex-basic could be a superstructure engineered by the simple-basics to meet their nutritional and propulsional needs, rather like our light-hubs. On the other hand, there’s the intriguing possiblity that the complex-basics harness the simple-basics like portable livestock, something like the Musician Laudemus explored so controversially in their Fantasia on Life in All Its Fullnesses. Or perhaps it is a symbiosis more wondrous and exotic than we have yet discovered in this universe of wonders, which would exceed my understanding but not my expectations in the light of the Creator’s wisdom and power. Glory be!

Short Smuon, Phase π/4

I have assigned cataloguing of the simple-basic life forms to the Apprentices. It is clear now that each colony’s centre of organisation resides in the complex-basics. I am slowly reading the creatures’ organisational plan. This is running approximately half a phase behind schedule due to the outmatter microscope repeatedly jamming, due to the very high outmatter concentration in the specimens. However, it allows me to exercise patience, which I do my best to pass on to the Apprentices.

Despite the difficulties I have acquired a rough understanding of the creatures’ structure and physiological requirements. They are indeed spatially strictly three-dimensional. Forward entropy only. 100% outmatter, foam coefficient 0.93. There is some sort of non-physical dimension but our reading is confused, blurred. It may be rudimentary, or vestigial. The existence of true rationality is unclear.

Based on what we have learned of their physiology and what our colleagues at Olla Astacorum are observing of their kin, those that did not enter the netting area, we are constructing a suitable habitat for the specimens. A rigorous search of the archives has shown that this complex-basic form of hydrotype, in colony with other life-forms, is unknown to science. This makes the OA-X4 specimens Priority 1 for conservation and stewardship. My sails swell anew with the joy of satisfying my purpose!

Our colleagues have also determined, based on the vessel at Olla Astacorum and the traces of its passage in that sector, the probable nest star of the colony-creatures. A small party has been sent to explore and evaluate. Prior surveys of that subsector, conducted in cycle negative five, did not detect life, suggesting that this is a small and fragile population which could be at significant risk. As we do for all rare and endangered species, we will do our utmost to keep them safe, starting with these precious specimens.

Short Smuon, Phase π/2

The habitat is complete. We have been unable to fully read the complex-basics’ intelligence centres, but have garnered enough to make their cells comfortable and pleasant, I believe. We have initiated resumption of their entropy flow.

Short Smuon, Phase 3π/2

The Apprentices have successfully bred several varieties of the simple-basic creatures, harvested from the colonies and handled in closed outmatter vesicles. They reproduce much as we do, albeit in a lower dimension, so it was simply a case of providing the right environmental conditions.

Their intricacy continues to delight even the most junior of us. Even my Bud, which is still some two phases from separation, is infused with this tingling and sparkling, like we’re echoing the bubbling and singing of the Great Ocean itself.

Meanwhile, the four complex-basics have fully awakened and seem to be adapting to their new accommodations. Some physiological functions which were opaque to us are now becoming clearer, highlighting the importance of research with live rather than suspended creatures.

It seems that the complex-basics include at least two distinct reprotypes. Our sample includes three of one type (designated wave) and one of a second type (designated corpuscle). I suspect this will mean extended tinkering when we get to the stage of the breeding programme.

Long Smuon, Phase 0

I have never before observed such creatures. I may never again have such an opportunity this side of the Consummation. I spend countless pulses watching them, getting to know them. I wish there was a way to communicate, for despite what some of the others are saying I am becoming more convinced of their essential rationality, although their soul-dimension remains obscure to us.

Sadly, their method of communication seems to involve manipulation of pressure waves within the outmatter of their respiration fluid, and is exceedingly difficult for us to detect. Some of my colleagues are pursuing linguistic analysis of their spatial structure movements, but this could take dozens of oscillations and we are concerned about the creatures’ rate of entropic decay. Their life cycle seems considerably longer than that of the simple-basics they partner with, but (based on measurement of their core code) significantly shorter than other species we’ve worked with and of course far shorter than our own.

Long Smuon, Phase π/4

I have requested acceleration of the breeding programme. I am concerned about the specimens’ behaviour. They all oscillate in a pattern of activity and rest. Wave-1 spends much of its active time repetitively propelling itself from one side of the habitat to the other. Wave-2 moves very little. Wave-3 frequently approaches the others and seems to be attempting to herd them or stir them in some way. Corpuscle-1 interacts little with the Wave-types and takes little of the nutrition provided. We are monitoring closely for signs of aggression or discomfort.

Long Smuon, Phase π/2

The specimens’ uptake of nutrition has improved, after some adjustment of the consituents. Manipulation of the outmatter at this level continues challenging, but I count this a success!

Long Smuon, Phase 3π/2

The breeding programme has been approved. We are fairly confident that one Wave and one Corpuscle are needed for reproduction. Other parameters are so far unclear, but we will attempt placing each Wave with the Corpuscle for one phase each in turn and observing the results. The non-mating Waves will be placed in a separate cell. Longer term, if this strategy is unsuccesful, we will ask the Nest Evaluation party to obtain another few samples. We do not wish to net any more of the creatures from the vessel at Olla Astacorum (rather, that was at Olla Astacorum — I’ve been told the vessel has departed that world and is now in transit), as that would go beyond the prescribed sampling limit.

Long Stau, Phase 0

Wave-1 and Corpuscle-1 have not reproduced. Much of their mating phase was spent as spatially distant from each other as the habitat allowed. We continue to study their physiological requirements and to adjust both habitats to better suit their needs. Wave-2 and Corpuscle-1 are now being tried.

Short Selectron, Phase 0

I believe we are making progress, as Wave-2 and Corpuscle-1 spent more time interacting than Wave-1 and Corpuscle-1. However, no mingling of core code (which we have determined is the probable mechanism of reproduction) took place.

Long Selectron, Phase π

Glory be! We are almost as frothy as this time last oscillation when we first got the news from Olla Astacorum! The apprentices are already celebrating, and I will join them shortly. Wave-3 and Corpuscle-1 have mated.

Long Selectron, Phase π/4

Wave-3 and Corpuscle-1 have now made several mating attempts, but there are as yet no signs of successful reproduction. We are closely observing their behaviour patterns. The mating events have taken place approximately every 1/64th of a phase, and are followed by a time of spatial separation. After the first attempt, Wave-3 spent an extended period at one edge of the habitat and refused nutrition for nearly 1/132 phase. However, the times of separation seem to be reducing with every attempt.

We have also come to realise that there are certain physiological conditions for Corpuscle-1 if successful code mingling is to occur. Some of my colleagues have suggested foam manipulation within the Corpuscle’s spatial domain to accelerate the process, but I have urged caution. We still know so little about this species. Undue haste would be a mistake. I keep having to remind the Apprentices of what happened with OA-X3.

Long Selectron, Phase π/2

Glory be! We have successful reproduction! The new life-form was detected within Corpuscle-1 a fraction of a phase after their seventh mating attempt. Corpuscle-1 and the new creature (designated Corpuscle-2) are being monitored carefully and nutrition adjusted for the additional demands on its physiology.

The only thing that gives me pause is that I am still uncertain as to the happiness of the creatures. If we discover them in the end to be truly rational yet unhappy under our care, have we done right? Yet how could we neglect our responsibility to steward such a rare, beautiful and endangered species?

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Lieutenant David Jang sat on the spongy sky-blue floor facing the moss-green candyfloss wall. He was crying. his shoulders shook as he sobbed, his arms wrapped tight around his legs. His beard, grown long and streaked with grey, tickled his knees, and his hair fell in sticky strings down his sweat-salted back. He was naked. They hadn’t had clothes since the day of the landing party at Mundus Oceanicus. The fabric of their safety suits, like the silver water and the sulphurous craggy beach where they’d stopped to take samples, had simply dematerialised into the void that sat like an eyelid between the planet and wherever they were now.

“Don’t cry, Dave,” said Science Officer Stella Franklin, as gently as she could. She crossed the room to where he sat, and squeezed his shoulder. Her hand was warm and solid. He flinched, then looked up in half apology.

“It’s not your fault,” he said hoarsely. “It’s not your fault.” He stretched out his forearm and ran the fingers of his other hand over the names tattooed one after the other in curling script, each less faded than the one before. Melinda. Jonathan. Joshua. Jasper. James. “Do you think God forgives adultery when you’re probably never going to see your wife and kids again anyway?”

There was a prickling in the air, a smell of ozone, and their meal formed on the rubbery table in the centre of the room.

“I don’t know,” said Stella, walking to the table and sniffing the soft brown clumps in the bowls. “I don’t know if I believe in all that, you know? But I do wish to all the gods and all the saints we’d never gone to that planet. And I’m still holding out, you know?”

“For what?” David got up slowly.

She shrugged. “Getting home someday, I guess. Don’t give up, Lieutenant, know what I mean?”

“I hope Nate and Uri are OK,” he said.

They had had the conversation many times, and Stella didn’t reply immediately. She took a nibble of the brown substance.

“Come on, Dave, let’s eat. They, whoever they are, might let us go someday. We have to be ready.” She scooped up a bigger clump of the stuff. “I’m starving. Come on. The food’s getting better, you know. Tastes a bit like chocolate today.”

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