"Commander!"
It was Zome's voice beaming into my head.
"Rahm here," I responded.
"Set your arm-unit for the input unit by the anthill, immediately!"
Zome did not have the authority to give me orders: but something in his voice made me respond. Reflexively, I extended my arm to allow Zur to share the view as the scene swam into focus.
There was a frenzy of activity at the anthill. A party of Ants was returning, bearing aloft a prize. They were triumphantly carrying our three missing teammates. Judging from their lack of movement, they were either dead or unconscious as they were dragged out of sight down the hole.
CHAPTER TEN
The loss of three teammates had a definite impact on the remaining members. Of particular note was Tzu, sorely missed as a Scientist, and irreplaceable as the head of the Scientists' team. Of no less loss, though some might dispute it, were Kor and Vahr. The loss of two veteran Warriors, particularly one of Kor's abilities, could only lessen our chances of success or even survival. Although still nine strong, the team was disproportionately weakened.
The situation was serious enough to require my calling a staff meeting. I was loath to do this, as I felt our meetings were becoming needlessly frequent, but we could ill afford uncoordinated action or thought at this time. Lack of information, and therefore lack of unity, has doomed many a campaign in a crisis that could have been salvaged.
"An appraisal of the Warrior situation, Zur?" I asked, to begin the meeting.
"The Warriors should be able to perform with the existing force, Commander. It cannot be discounted, however, that with the loss of four teammates, three of them Warriors, we may be pitted against a force we are incapable of dealing with. Of particular concern is the potential ineffectiveness of our cold-beams. Both Warriors lost on the last assignment were armed with cold-beam hand blasters, and Kor's reflexes were all known to all. Still, they were unable to secure sufficient time to beam a distress call or even a warning to the fortification. From this we must assume increased probability that such weapons are as ineffective against the Ants as they were against the Spiders. I would therefore recommend we give serious consideration to widespread use of hot-beams for the duration of the mission."
I considered this. Zome, now representing the Scientists remained silent, a fact for which I was grateful. It was obviously the Scientists' role to raise protest at the danger to the local ecology that use of the hot-beams would involve. The danger was obvious enough to go without saying, and he didn't say a thing. Lost in concentration though I was, I appreciated it.
"Horc," I said finally, "would it be possible for the Technicians to devise some method for containing any incidental fires started by the use of the hot-beams within the Defense Network?"
"We could do it either by establishing a firebreak around the network, or by a similar circular array of heat-triggered fire extinguishers. Of course, neither of these solutions are acceptable."
"Why not?"
"Either method would be difficult if not impossible to camouflage, and would therefore effectively pinpoint our position to the enemy."
"If I might point out, Horc, we have already lost three, possibly four, teammates to the Enemy. This indicates that they are fully aware of our presence, and if our exact location is not currently known, it very probably soon will be. I will therefore instruct you to install the necessary devices for fire containment. It is better that we begin to plan our defenses for such a confrontation than merely hope it will not occur."
"Very well, Commander."
"Zome, I realize the difficulty of your position, and would normally allow you a certain grace period to reacclimate yourself to the duties of command. Unfortunately, circumstances do not permit this. Do you have even an estimate for us as to how much additional time will be required to find an acceptable natural enemy to the Leapers?"
"I do, Commander. It is my belief we have already found it."
"Explain."
"For some time now the Scientists have been investigating a species of warm-bloods indigenous to this planet. They are small, only about a half meter in length, and are completely harmless to the Tzen. Their specific food is the eggs of the Leapers, which they sniff out and burrow after, each one consuming ten to fifty a day. It is our belief that seeding the Leaper-held planets with large quantities of these warm-bloods, coupled with a concentrated ground and air strike against the adult Leapers, could effectively eliminate that species of the Insect Coalition." His voice was uncharacteristically enthusiastic.
"Warm-bloods are notoriously short-lived," interrupted Horc. "How will they survive the flight back to the colony ship?"
"This particular species is highly prolific," answered Zome. "They should be able to produce new generations while on board the transport ship to replace those that die."
"If they are so potentially effective," interjected Zur, "why have they been unable to eliminate the Leapers on this planet?"
"The natural enemy for this species, a carnivorous plant, also abounds on this planet. It claims such a high percentage of the species' population that only its high reproductive rate has allowed the species to survive at all. For this particular planet, we would raise a high population in the colony ships to offset the normal mortality rate. Then, including the carnivorous plants on the target list along with the adult Leapers, we would dump them back here to deal with the eggs. By the time the plants reestablished themselves from seeds, the warm-bloods' work should be done."
"What do they eat besides Leaper eggs?" asked Horc. "What would we feed them in transit, or on the colony ships for that matter?"
"We have induced them to accept a chemical substitute in the lab, one which we can easily produce, even on board ship. I should note that we were careful to test one thing. They will not eat Tzen eggs:"
"How hard are they to catch?" Zur inquired. "What will be involved in obtaining a breeding stock to take back with us?"
"There is a particular chirp they emit when ready to breed, a chirp they use to attract a mate. It is possible to reproduce this sound mechanically, and properly amplified by the Technicians, it should be easy to draw them to our fortification for capture and transport.
"This trait is particularly advantageous, since if they begin to overpopulate the target planets, we will be able to attract them to a central point for disposal or dispersal."
"I have a question, Zome."
"Yes, Commander?"
"The species you describe seems to be the perfect solution to our problem. In fact, it is so perfect, I must inquire as to why it was not brought to our attention before?"
For the first time in his presentation, Zome hesitated before replying.
"Tzu does...did not like warm-bloods. She was at best reluctant to recommend spreading this species or any warm-blood through the universe. As such, she delayed reporting our findings while she searched for another alternative. She was investigating another predatory species of Insect, one outside the Coalition, when she had her encounter with the Ants."
"What was her objection to warm-bloods?" asked Zur.
"She expressed what I believe to be a personal theory. It maintains that considering the brain-size-to-body-mass ratio, that the warm-bloods are potentially intelligent, even more intelligent than the Insects or even the Tzen. If properly directed, that intelligence could be a potential threat to the Empire. "
"Warm-bloods?" interrupted Horc. "A threat to the Empire?"
"Having insufficient data to calculate the relative intelligence of warm-blood species, much less the probability of such an occurrence, she was prone to treat all warm-bloods with equal suspicion."
"I'm no Scientist, Zome," Horc commented, "but I find that theory hard to accept. To challenge the Empire would require not only intelligence, but technology. To the best of my knowledge, warm-bloods are not physically able to operate machines, much less develop them."