JК
Ribofunk :: Филиппо Пол Ди
Страница: 151 из 156A crew from Bechtel-Kanematsu-Gosho was supervising kibes who were laying lines of buckytubes that would carry circulating superhot plasma: its release would be a last-ditch suicidedefense.
As the group drew closer, the hillocks grew larger and larger, resolving themselves into separate entities. Finally they towered over the humans, more like living mountains, mobile indeed.
Twenty meters tall, bloated, white as paste, each topped by a normal-sized human rider who appeared dwarfed, the shuggoths shluffed noisily along in their continuous patrol, flattened ellipsoids massing as much as two basal blue whales apiece, separated from each other by only a quarter body-length. A damp soil odor typical of mycotronic creatures filled the air.
From time to time feelers and pseudopods erupted from the shuggoths' upper surfaces at random, to sample the environment.
"An impressive sight," commented Greenlaw. "Although how the Urblastema regards them is a matter we might speculate on."
Bambang bristled. "Your remark smells of defeatism, Peej-if I may be frank. I understand your distress, but we have a duty to crad a a nd humanity to maintain our professionalism. The Urb, after all, is not invulnerable. As you well know, it relies on speed and bulk in its attack. If we can overwhelm it on either of those two fronts, then we stand a chance. Even as we speak, vast quantities of the new petahertz dizdeks are flowing down the feeder lines to the reservoirs of the splash-cannons you can see here. Soon, we will repel this incursion, as we have all others."
"Leaving behind an ocean of disassembled, deconstructed slop. Plenty of raw feedstock. But not what was once here. Not what the Urb consumed. The people and trees and homes. Never that."
"I'm sorry, Peej. But we will rebuild. And repopulate. If that is any consolation to you."
Greenlaw sighed. "I suppose it will have to be. But enough talk. I wish to enter the zone now. Kibe-the box, please."
The obedient mechanism opened the lid of the medium-sized biopoly container it held.
Revealed was what appeared to be an undifferentiated mass of thick semiliquid like mercury, silvery and reflective.
"You mentioned speed as a defense, Haj Bambang. Here you see the ultimate in that line. This falseskin presents no stable molecular identity onto which the Urb can latch. Entirely chameleonic. It shifts through a thousand random cellular identities a second, its surface a kaleidoscope of antigens, while still maintaining its large-scale integrity. Unable to latch on long enough to unriddle the nature of its victim, the Urb is frustrated and cannot usurp and convert the material. Nor, obviously, what it protects."
Greenlaw turned to the box and plunged his hands in.
As the group drew closer, the hillocks grew larger and larger, resolving themselves into separate entities. Finally they towered over the humans, more like living mountains, mobile indeed.
Twenty meters tall, bloated, white as paste, each topped by a normal-sized human rider who appeared dwarfed, the shuggoths shluffed noisily along in their continuous patrol, flattened ellipsoids massing as much as two basal blue whales apiece, separated from each other by only a quarter body-length. A damp soil odor typical of mycotronic creatures filled the air.
From time to time feelers and pseudopods erupted from the shuggoths' upper surfaces at random, to sample the environment.
"An impressive sight," commented Greenlaw. "Although how the Urblastema regards them is a matter we might speculate on."
Bambang bristled. "Your remark smells of defeatism, Peej-if I may be frank. I understand your distress, but we have a duty to crad a a nd humanity to maintain our professionalism. The Urb, after all, is not invulnerable. As you well know, it relies on speed and bulk in its attack. If we can overwhelm it on either of those two fronts, then we stand a chance. Even as we speak, vast quantities of the new petahertz dizdeks are flowing down the feeder lines to the reservoirs of the splash-cannons you can see here. Soon, we will repel this incursion, as we have all others."
"Leaving behind an ocean of disassembled, deconstructed slop. Plenty of raw feedstock. But not what was once here. Not what the Urb consumed. The people and trees and homes. Never that."
"I'm sorry, Peej. But we will rebuild. And repopulate. If that is any consolation to you."
Greenlaw sighed. "I suppose it will have to be. But enough talk. I wish to enter the zone now. Kibe-the box, please."
The obedient mechanism opened the lid of the medium-sized biopoly container it held.
Revealed was what appeared to be an undifferentiated mass of thick semiliquid like mercury, silvery and reflective.
"You mentioned speed as a defense, Haj Bambang. Here you see the ultimate in that line. This falseskin presents no stable molecular identity onto which the Urb can latch. Entirely chameleonic. It shifts through a thousand random cellular identities a second, its surface a kaleidoscope of antigens, while still maintaining its large-scale integrity. Unable to latch on long enough to unriddle the nature of its victim, the Urb is frustrated and cannot usurp and convert the material. Nor, obviously, what it protects."
Greenlaw turned to the box and plunged his hands in.