Evolution/Ecology: ßehemoth is the only organism known to have truly terrestrial origins, predating the Martian Panspermia event by approximately 800 million years. The existence of a secondary strain geared especially to the eukaryotic intracellular environment is reminiscent of the Precambrian serial endosymbiosis which gave rise to mitochondria and other modern subcellular organelles. Free-living ßehemoth expends significant metabolic energy maintaining homeostasis in stressful hydrothermal environments. Intracellularly, infectious ßehemoth produces an ATP surplus which can be utilized by the host cell. This results in abnormal growth and giantism amongst certain deepwater fish; it confers increases in stamina and strength to infected humans in the short term, although these benefits are massively outweighed by disruption of short-chain sulfur-containing proteins and consequent deficiency syndromes (see below).
Notable Histological & Genetic Features: No phospholipid membranes: body wall consists of accreted mineralized sulfur/phosphate compounds. Genetic template based upon Pyranosal RNA (Fig.2); also used for catalysis of metabolic reactions. Resistant to g-radiation (1 megarad not effective). The ßehemoth genome contains Blachford genes analagous to the metamutators of Pseudomonas; these allow it to dynamically increase mutation rate in response to environmental change, and are probably responsible for its ability to fool steroid receptors on the host cell membrane.
Modes of Attack: Freed from the rigors of the hydrothermal environment, free-living ßehemoth assimilates several inorganic nutrients 26–84 % more efficiently than its closest terrestrial competitors (Table 1). This is especially problematic when dealing with sulfur. In a free-living state, ßehemoth is theoretically capable of bottlenecking even that extremely common element; this is the primary ecological threat. ßehemoth is, however, more comfortable within the bodies of homeothermic vertebrates, which provide warm, stable, and nutrient-rich environments reminiscent of the primordial soup. ßehemoth enters the cell via receptor-mediated endocytosis; once inside it breaks down the phagosomal membrane prior to lysis, using a 532-amino listeriolysin analog. ßehemoth then competes with the host cell for nutrients. Host death can occur from any of a several dozen proximal causes including renal/hepatic failure, erythromytosis, CNS disorders, blood poisoning, and opportunistic infections.
Vertebrate hosts serve as reservoirs which periodically reinoculate the nanobe into the external environment, increasing the chance of self-sustaining outbreaks.
Diagnostics: Methionine labeling is effective in culture. Free-living ßehemoth in concentrations of greater than 1.35 billion/cc exert detectable effects on soil pH, conductivity, porphyrin counts, and chlorophylls A and B (Table 2); the extent of these effects varies with baseline conditions. ßehemoth can be infered in asymptomatic patients by the presence of d-cysteine and d-cystine in the blood (unsuccessful attempts to cleave bound sulfur sometimes stereoisomerizes the molecule).
Present Status: See Figure 3. 4,800km2sterilized at last report. 426,000km2 under immediate threat.
Ecological Trajectory: If current trends continue, present models suggest long-term competitive exclusion of all competing life forms between 62°N and S latitude, due to monopolization and transformation of nutrient base. Ultimate fate of polar components unknown at this time. Sensitivity analysis generates 95 % confidence limits of 50 to 94 years for EL90.
Recommendations: Continue ongoing efforts to alter present trajectory. Allocate Fallback Options budget as follows:
1. Orbitaclass="underline" 25%
2. Cheyenne: 5%
3. M.A. Ridge: 50%
4. Metamorph: 20%
Anemone
She'd become a scavenger in her own home.
Sou-Hon Perreault virtually lived in her office now. It held everything of importance: a window on the world. A purpose. A sanctuary.
She still had to eat, though, and use the toilet. Once or twice a day she'd venture from her cave and see to life's necessities. Most of the time she didn't have to deal with Martin; his contracts took him into the field more often than not.
But now—oh God, why now of all times? — he was in the living room when she came back.
He was digging around in the aquarium, his back turned. She almost got past.
"The male died," he said.
"What?"
He turned to face her. A damselfish, pale and stiff, weighted the dip net in his hand. One milky eye stared blindly through the mesh.
"He looks like he's been dead for a while," Martin said.
She looked past him to the aquarium. Brown algae filmed the glass. Inside, the glorious anemone was shrunken and frayed; its tentacles twitched feebly in the current.
"Jesus, Marty. You couldn't even be bothered to clean the tank?"
"I just got home. I've been in Fairbanks for the past two weeks."
She'd forgotten.
"Sou, the prescriptions aren't working. I really think we should consider wiring you up with a therapist."
"I'm fine," she said automatically.
"You're not fine. I've looked into it already, we can afford it. It'll be available around the clock, whenever you need it."
"I don't trust therapists."
"Sou, it'd be a part of you. It already is, in a way, they just haven't—isolated it yet. And it runs pathways right to your temporal lobe, so you can talk to it as easily as you can talk to anyone."
"You want to cut out a part of my brain."
"No, Sou, just rewire it. Did you know the brain can support over a hundred fully sentient personalities? It doesn't affect sensory or motor performance at all. This would just be one, and it'd take up such a small amount of space—"
"My husband, the walking brochure."
"Sou—"
"It's multiple personality disorder, Martin. I don't care what cute name they give it these days, and I don't care how many of our friends live happy fulfilling lives because they hear voices in their heads. It's sick."
"Sou, please. I love you. I'm only trying to help."
"Then get out of my way."
She ran for shelter.
Sou-Hon. Are you there?
"Yes."
Good. Stand by.
Static. A brief spiderweb of connections and intercepts, orange filaments proliferating across a continent. Then no visual front and center, darkness everywhere else.
Go ahead.
"Lenie?" Perreault said.
"So. I wondered when they'd get around to this."
"Get around to what?"
"Hijacking my visor. Sou-Hon, right?"
"Right."
"They got that right, at least."
Perreault took a grateful breath. "You okay?"
"I got out. Thanks partly to you, I guess. That was you in the 'fly, wasn't it? At Yankton?"
"That was me."
"Thanks."
"Don't thank me. Thank—"
A damselfish flashed across Perreault's mind, safe in a nest of stinging tentacles.
"…anemone," she finished softly.
Silence on the line. Then: "Thank an enemy. That makes a lot of sense."
Perreault shook her head. "Sea anemone. It's this undersea ambush predator, it eats fish but sometimes—"
"I know what a sea anemone is, Suze. So what?"
"Everything's been perverted, somehow. The 'flies, the matchmakers— the whole system's done a one-eighty, it's protecting the very thing it was supposed to attack. You see?"
"Not really. But I was never that big on metaphors." A soft laugh. "I still can't get used to being a starfish."
Perreault wondered but didn't ask.
"This anemone of yours," Clarke said. "It kicks ass. It's powerful."
"Yes."
"So why is it so fucking stupid?"