Rat Boys

By: Bill Gallagher

043006



....It was noted by the investigator (Official title Loent Ahtey) that the underground laboratory where the chimeric rats had been inadvertantly created, then released, 50 years before, appeared nearly intact, apparently having been sealed by Professor Seltremp himself, upon discovery of his personal involvement with the ill-born genetic concoction, and its quickly manifested detriments.

It is supposed in hindsight that this certain knowledge was cause for the previously unexplained suicide of Dr. Seltremp. Timeline reconstruction illustrates perfectly that the Seltremp suicide took place directly after he sealed his private underground lab...

archive #0201-mLA, 48273. Entitled: PRIMARY REPORT CONCERNING THE SELTREMP INCIDENT, Jolyn Warrior One, paragraph 112-13. 7 years after last orbital adjustment of Gaian Moon Facility.

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Chimera: A monster...wildly or vainly conceived. Websters International Dictionary, 1902 Christian Era, America, Earth.

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LAST THREE ENTRIES FROM SELTREMPS PERSONAL DIARY FOUND IN HIS DESK AT TIME OF LABORATORY DISCOVERY:

Gic 3, 48223. It is impossible for me to come to grips with how this awfulness was born. How could I, a contract breeder of experimental rodents and serpent food, accidently become the creator of Horror? The latest genetic splice material given to me as additive for my rodents has created gigantism, intellect, overt carnivorousness, and more. I am beside myself. They breed continually and it is like watching an amoeba grow, except this amoeba has teeth and a very large appetite...

Gic 11, 48223. I knew it. After exhaustive testing here I have finally determined beyond doubt that the genetic material given to me, by which these monsters have been created, was actually high grade human derivatives! These aberrations must be destroyed. I can even feel them in my mind. They positively glow within the grid and I am quite sure the grid goads their growth, appetites, and impulses.

Gic 14, 48223. ALL IS LOST. THE COLONY HAD GROWN BEYOND MY WILDEST IMAGININGS WITHIN ITS BURROWS AND WARRENS, AND THOUGH MANY WERE DESTROYED, MANY ESCAPED. THERE IS NO HOPE. GODS HELP US ALL.

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T-Communique from Autrits Moon, farthest of all Warrior Planets bases, 10 years later:

LARGE CARNIVOROUS RATS REPORTED IN 8 OF 14 SILOS ON AUTRITS MOON. INFESTATION DESTROYED ALL STORES WITHIN NAMED SILOS. VICIOUS AND FIERCE, THEY WILL ATTACK IN LARGE PACKS -- TWO HUMANS KILLED, MANY OTHERS INJURED.

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Little Monsters

...The eruption and ascendence of this mutant race of rodents is characterized by voraciousness, viciousness, and reproduction. As long as some sort of food is available any colony will quickly grow beyond the supply, unless ruthlessly hunted and destroyed. The Warrior hierarchy is at this moment about to unveil certain special weapons in the fight against these relentless mutant rats, which may be the result of illegal experimentations with human gene derivatives nearly 40 years ago...

Electrosense GridMedia Report, High Season Sunrise at the Great City, 48260.

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Tad Redili had a radiation sore, from the grid, on his shoulder, and it hurt. Thinking this made the hurt dissipate somewhat, and that was just one minor advantage of being part of the grid. Group empathy unconsciously worked among itself to suppress pain, because pain detracted from the subconscious Oneness of the Grid, and therefore was anti-productive. Group Empathy transcended both time and space, and was very nice to experience, in all its aspects. There were many advantages to the grid, to being part of the grid. The radiation sores and a few other things, like stomache cramping reflux, and tooth loss, were the disadvantages, but were being dealt with.

Afterall, The grid was only 200 years old. Already it had prolonged the life of its members by a factor of 2 at least, and that was enough for most people to ignore or downplay any disattributes or pains.

When a young human had successfully jumped through the hoops of grid inititiation, then a whole new world of community and power opened up. The worship of the Father God became as One, and everyone was able to join and be part, feel part. It was the way things were meant to be. After nearly 50 thousand years of recorded history, the human race had expanded more in the last 2 centuries, since the advent of the grid, than in the previous 46 centuries, and then some! Telepathy, telekinesis, prescience -- all became not only possible, but commonplace, within the grid.

Tad understood deep down inside that this reasoning was skewed, at least a little bit, but he was just proud to be part of the One, through the grid, and thinking about it made the radiation sore less sore, too. The medic at the moon base he’d last visited had given him a black sweet-smelling salve made from a genetically modified root. He said it would remove all open sores and cancers caused by grid radiation. Tad thought he would try it during his next 8 day layover.

His electrosuit itched then, right where the sore was, like a second skin, and he felt his antennae jut suddenly from its socket at the back of his neck. His bowels loosened slightly and reflux bubbled from his lips involuntarily, of its own accord.

The language of Humankind had evolved too, in the last two centuries since the grid, because the energy of the grid caused reflux and digestive irregularities, some might say distress, as by-product too. These noises caused by dis-ease had worked their way into the actual spoken language of the Warrior Empire. The beeps, burps, squeaks, shrieks, clicks, twitters, snickers, oinks and other noises common to advanced excessive reflux, caused by living in the electro-grid, had become part and parcel within verbal expression, even popular. Modern human music was quite a thing to behold.

Tads antennae retracted itself then, because there was no grid out here, nothing but space out here, and he smiled to himself as he sailed silently onward, Tad Redili, into the great wide night. He reminisced once again, as he often did, about the various steps to his induction into the grid. The operation which installed the antennae socket at the base of his neck, and the big party his parents had thrown afterwards; then the operation installing the antennae itself....the intense schooling; his first telepathy...

A lightly ringing beeper went off then, so Tad unstrapped himself from the space vehicles command chair, unplugging himself at the same time from the ships grid, and made his way back to the cargo area to check on his cargo. The animals slept peacefully, and that was good. The autofeeders and watering machines were working perfectly, and there was nary a sound but the occasional snore. He constantly monitored the whole ship through his connection to its miniature and self contained electro-grid, but physical inspections were rigorously adhered to for many reasons, not least of which was the simple exercise of it.

Tad stood for a few moments, studying the animals, and marveling at the ingenuity of his race. Even in adversity, the science of Humankind expressed itself in beauty and usefulness. It was good to be human and a member of the grid. He longed for contact with his own kind, but that was still a few days away. Sighing he quietly shut the door to the room and made his way back to his command console.

Strapping back in to the console-command-chair entailed plugging himself into the grid of the ship via the socket on his right wrist, and then he again looked upon the sleeping animals, all 200 of them, but this time with camera eyes, making sure he had not missed anything. These animals, and many others being distributed all around the solar system now, were the hope of Warrior planet, and its empire. Half of this cargo was destined for the newest base at the second moon of Wens, then the other half were to be delivered (As quickly as possible!) to Gaias moon, the transhipment and cold-storage moon of Gaia the Garden Planet, the agricultural world of the Warrior system, dedicated to Agricultural Production. The entire cornucopiae and pharmacopiae of lifeforms, and specialised human-made food creations, were now planted there and thriving.

Both the planet Gaia, and its moon, were created artifacts of Warrior Empire, and had been towed in and finally positioned by manipulation of the entire system-wide scalar grid. Gaia orbited a perfect 360 degrees around the Father Sun, one degree per day, and it also completed one full rotation itself per day. Minor maintenance was all it took to keep Gaia in place now. The planet was only sparsely populated, by small scattered crews of workers who lived underground, because the agricultural technology of magnifying the sun and creating pulsed energies of all types made plants grow better and bigger, but was sometimes quite harmful to humans.

Gaia Planet also had a full electro-grid comprised of a hundred or so giant stone pyramids, man-made mountains of high density and high order. These interferometers utilized the scalar powers created by the planet and its moon, efficiently, and on a large scale. They had been used to position the planet in its new traverse. The race of Human seemed to be striding ahead now, finally, after stumbling about blindly for so long. Yes the future looked bright for mankind.

If the rats did not get everything first!

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The lights inside the storage facilities were bright, and nearly perfect. That said a lot, seeing as they lit vast underground caverns on a huge and hollow planetoid which was really a man-made satellite just recently put into orbit, and used as a transfer and storage station for the agriculural planet Gaia. Recently meaning just 150 years ago.

The woman, one Nantha-Ane-Gaia-Fretol-3, or Nan to her friends, wore the obligatory full electrosuit of the grid, and it was lime green and appeared to possess millions of facets. It in fact did possess facets of a sort, each being a miniature but fully functional solar cell which inputted at a socket on her left wrist. This socket, or any other accoutrement of the electrosuit, was not visible of course, because everything except her face, even her hands and head, were covered by the full suit of the grid, and on top of the suits head covering was the semi-rigid protuberance that would allow her antennae to expand at will, whenever she needed farther reach or greater power personally from her birthright, the grid.

Nan was responsible for certain operations on this moon of Gaia, one of which was overseeing this cold storage freezer warehouse, where food and other bio-products from Gaia, destined for Warrior or wherever needed, could be stored indefinitely, by utilizing the absolute zero of the vacuum of space.

Nan saw the lights of an incoming ship and went to meet it. This would be the new animals sent by Warrior Planet to combat the ever pressing, and quickly growing rat problem. She had been briefed electronically and by T-Communique.

The pilot entered the vast hangar through the door at the side, then he pressed a button, opening a hangar door which revealed his well-lit cargo compartment. His ship had by then been secured to the outside of the dome with inflatable membranes, and interlocking parts. The inside of the cargo compartment was lined with cages. Within the cages, things moved. The animals. Tad motioned her over, and after introductions they walked through the cargo bay. The animals were slowly awakening after their long trip. He enjoyed her reactions.

“Are they...Are they like they said?” she asked.

“Yes, the dogs are made from bears, and the cats are made from tiger material, and both possess a good dose of the same derivatives that the rats got, plus plus.

There was silence for a few moments as both beings considered this. Human derivatives. These animals were part human. A disconcerting thought. Necessity born, but still...

The animals were beginning to stir about in further awakening from their storage sleep. Then, from Nan:

“Their Eyes Glow!”

“Yes,” replied Tad, “And they look right at you. Both animals like to be stroked by humans, it delights them, and the cats purr and it feels good in the grid. The dogs have some disgusting habits and have to be cleaned up after, but they hunt in packs and are as voracious, or moreso than their quarry.

“The cats hunt alone, and target the nests. They eliminate in sandboxes from birth, and will bring live adult rats by the scruff of the neck to a depository where they drop the animal and it is killed immediately. They hunt 6 hours or so everyday and sleep or eat and play during the rest. The dogs eat the rats and are driven by hunger to their quarry. They also eat dry food for vitamins and other additives to keep them healthy. The Dog is the more companionable, but the cat is overall the greater success as far as effectiveness and ease of maintenance. Either way, both are good things, and will no doubt be around a long long time. I suppose we should be getting about our deliveries...

Together they unloaded the animals that were destined for service here on Gaias moon, and on Gaia itself. The dogs and cats proved such a success they were kept around for companionship, and trained to do other jobs, long after the rat problem had been quelled.

Nobody knew or even had an inkling that because of Humanitys increasing dependence on their electronic grid, a huge blind spot had been created concerning their own survival as a race, and soon a meteor swarm would destroy all but the agricultural planet, shutting off the head as it were, Warrior Planet. The Red Planet. Everything in the Warrior Empire died, except Gaia. Gaia the Garden, and its animals, and its workers, would become the sole remnants, nay SEEDS, of humanity, destined to not just stumble along through the multiverse, but crawl for a good little while, again.

And it was, in fact, these very same animals, these cats and dogs, which had been created part human, to combat another animal also part human, who were the ancestors of the animals which would much later become the number one companions of the future Human Race. The very same group who would call Gaia planet Earth, and pretend that God made it just for them. Many humans of that future, totally ignorant of their past, would remark on the fact that dogs and cats are very much like people. And thats because its true.

FIN