Killer had been doing everything he could to find someone to translate the alien language. It wasn't something he could advertise for. He didn't want it to get out that he was planning to take over the government. The government would execute him for treason.
He had gone around and talked to everybody who acted like they had some education. The pickings were slim. The girl he had taken to the complex hadn't been able to do a bit of good and she had been his most likely candidate to figure out what he had.
His other option would be to turn over what he had found to the colony fathers and get some pittance for being such a good citizen. Killer wasn't used to playing by those rules. He considered such as that to be too pansy for him. He was too much of a high roller.
It was with great relief that he received the message that Cookie had managed to figure out what the machine did and how to activate it. It was some kind of water maker. According to the records Cookie found in the alien computer Seco, or whatever the planet had been called back in the time of the aliens, had been much like earth. It had had oceans and rivers and lakes. The planet had teamed with life including one intelligent species of lizard. Intelligent, perhaps that is the wrong word. They couldn't have been too smart. They spent too much of ther energy fighting wars, until the big one.
It had been the biggest war ever. It had decimated ther planet and killed 90% of ther population. When it was over the aliens had had enough. They would never again fight to kill. They couldn't. They had to pull together to survive, to escape ther home world. It was as if the planet wanted to get revenge on the survivors.
It had to do with something in the fallout of the bombs. It wasn't killing like had been expected. Life flourished. It flourished so much that it mutated. New species were created every day, new animals, new diseases, new deadly insects. In a matter of a few rotations around the suns the planet had deteriorated into a hell hole. Escape was the only option. The few million aliens that were left managed to come together for the common cause of saving ther lives.
They repaired enough spacecraft for everyone to leave. You might think that after years of warfare each faction would go in a different direction, but they didn't. They all left together towards one planet that they thought would be ther new home. They all left save one ship.
The aliens on that ship were volunteers. They stayed behind to make amends with the planet that had gone berserk. They stayed to put it out of it's misery. They were to perform a mercy killing. Horrible forms of disease had come into being. Life forms that could not be allowed to live.
The planet was already 'seeded' with huge machines to separate the oxygen and hydrogen from water. These chemicals had been used to fuel almost everything from the fleet hurrying towards the alien's new home to such mundane things as the alien's version of a car.
The chemicals had been released into the upper atmosphere forming the hydrogen cloud that hid the planet in a shroud. The machines were set to run until all surface water had been used. The oceans were drained and with ther demise the planet was freed from it's unwholesome collection of disease. Conservative estimates by the aliens had said that it would take at least a millennium for all the life forms on the planet to die. Actually, after the aliens left the shortage of water had killed every living thing in ten years. After five millennia there were no living survivors, no seeds, no frozen embryos, no dehydrated insects waiting for a drop of water to bring them back to life. Seco was sterile, decimated.
If you don't count the droids. If you disallow the artificial life forms then the planet was complete, mercifully, dead when the ship from earth had arrived. The sole job of the droids had been to perpetuate the alien civilization. They had repaired everything. They had even built the machines the aliens would need to mix the oxygen and hydrogen back together again. This would replenish the water, the rain, the rivers, the oceans. Life would once again abound as it had before the war.
If only the aliens had returned. They hadn't. Instead the planet had been invaded by the people from earth. It didn't matter to the droids. They had not been just waiting. They had ther choirs to do. The machines were ready to make the water again.
That would be Killer's weapon, the water machine. Most of the building on Seco had been done on what they referred to as 'the Great Plateau'. The great plateau had been the ocean floor. Take away the water and you have a huge, flat desert that covered more than half the whole surface of the planet. That is where the settlers had built ther new world. There were structures high on what they called the mesas, but only a few. 99% of the people and the machinery were located on the great plateau.
All Killer had to do was to threaten to turn on the alien water making machine, which would flood all the cities, and the powers in charge would have no choice but capitulation. He could see his dreams all coming true. He would own Seco. He would put some puppet in charge then Killer would devote the rest of his life to the exploration of pleasure with virtually unlimited resources.
He began plotting the steps necessary to take over the world.
1) build an army around himself
2) threaten the powers-that-be with what he could do
3) give a demonstration
4) take apart the old system
5) build his new order
He nearly had an army of followers already. Most CBs would line up behind him. There were some that wouldn't though. There were the rival gangs and the independent, up tight members of the CB community that tried to act like dweebs. The rival gangs would fall into line when he announced his plan to start the revolt and so would half of the independents. It would be more than enough. He laughed to himself thinking how he would probably become a hero as well as the world's richest man.
First things first. He needed to return to the complex and confirm what the girl, Cookie, had.
***
I remember being disappointed. Breathlessly I had transmitted the message to Killer at three a.m. telling him that I knew what the machine was, that I could operate it, and some of what I had learned about the aliens who had built it and why they had made it. Toni and I had then sat around on pins and needles for an hour waiting for Killer's reply. He had said: "Ok, I'll be there tomorrow."
When he arrived I could finally see that he was excited. I explained what the machine did and what was needed to put it into operation. I had been thrilled to just solve the mystery. It had not truly occurred to me completely that a water-making machine could be used as a weapon. Let me clarify: first, it wasn't a water-making machine it was an oceans-making machine and while I knew it would cause a great deal of destruction if we turned it on I didn't consider it as anything but a Doomsday bomb.
What good would it do to go to your enemy and say something like; "You do like I tell you or I'll kill both of us!" I don't know. If you did that to me I might say, "Do it!" or I might give in. It would depend on what you wanted from me. You couldn't ask me for so much that you would become more powerful than me. If I would give in to that it would be like saying, "Oh no, don't do that! Just kill me instead!". Not likely!
Killer was convinced that he could pull it off. He said what he needed was proof that he could make an ocean. First he wanted George. He would give George to the powers-that-be to prove to them that he had found alien artifacts and that they were in perfect operating order. I didn't like it, but it would be ok. George wasn't really George. George was just a shell that Jet sometimes spoke to me from.
With all the whoop-la that came with Killer's plans to start the fight against the dweeb rule over CBs the introduction to Jet was nearly overshadowed. She had finally gotten around to talking to Toni and they did fair well with each other even though there was something missing. Jet was loyal to me although I could tell she took an immediate liking to Killer when I introduced them.
I keep glossing over it, but it was weird that we were all talking with a sentient computer. Killer was amazed that there had been an intelligent computer in the complex all along, that there was such a thing altogether. I was sure Killer was thinking that if he had only spent more time trying to figure out the aliens he would have never needed me or Toni. As it was I was his number one aid. He didn't seem to mind.
I had thought a lot about killer and I had seen where he didn't believe in doing things himself. All he wanted to do was direct. I don't think he had the patience to sit around and figure out how to actually do something himself. That's funny when you think about it. Here Killer was a leader and he was 100% dependant of his followers. Without them absolutely nothing would ever get done. He didn't know anything about what really it took to do any of the things his businesses did. All he knew was how to get somebody to make booze for him or sell it or deliver it. He had to--he sure wouldn't do it himself!
That made me feel better. I knew that I wouldn't suddenly be out of a job. I wanted to stay with Jet. We were friends and Killer recognized that. Killer was actually giving me power. I was in charge of the machine and Jet. I liked that. I had a position. I would be counted on. I had been half afraid that Killer would replace me with some trusted member of his organization, instead he had just made me the trusted member. How elegant.
I explained to Jet what Killer was trying to do and asked if it would be alright if Killer took George to show the government that he wasn't just making things up. She said it would be fine. She would be able to manufacture a replacement for George and never miss it.
Killer had me find out if the machine could be turned on for a short while for a demonstration then shut back down again. Jet said that would be no problem and described what it would be like when the machine was in operation.
The roof of the cavern would open and the machine would be lifted to ground level. It would emit a loud whistle-like noise as a beam was directed at the hydrogen cloud. The beam would displace huge areas of the cloud which would be pushed out into space where the hydrogen would collect and condense and finally freeze. Frozen hydrogen is no longer lighter than air so it would fall back towards the planet. As it fell it would warm but before it could return to it's gaseous state it would mix with free oxygen to make water in the form of rain.
Jet said the effect would be both immediate and dramatic. She also said she could direct where the rain would be likely to fall. If we asked her to she could dump a million liters of rain on Tower city itself. It was perfect.
Killer said he had some organizing to do so he had to get back. We worked out a code to use over the radio so that we could communicate anytime that we wanted to. We also agreed on a time every day to let the other know we were still alright.
It had been a whirlwind visit. Killer had showed up one day and left the next. George was gone. I felt like there was much that we hadn't covered. Toni felt about like me but she was more than willing to follow Killer's lead. Normally I prefer to follow too, but this was too important to blindly follow Killer. I almost wished I hadn't let him know what he had. Things could get dangerous.
***
Killer spread the word that he wanted to meet with the heads of all the gangs as soon as he got back. He spread it carefully to only the right people so that the police would not detect what was going on. Once he had put out the word and made allies it would only be a matter of hours before the colony fathers would hear and begin making counter-plans. Hopefully that would give him enough time to contact them directly. He would deliver George to the center of government and let them have something to worry about. It would all have to go down very quickly and then he would have to go into hiding.
Keeping out of sight wouldn't be a problem. Killer had a dozen reliable lieutenants he could count on.
***
Peter Jackson was know by his co-workers as 'Terrible Pete'. He was mean and tenacious. He was a trouble-shooter for the colony manager and he had done some pretty dirty clean ups before. This one had the potential to be the worst he had even seen.
He had been called into his supervisor's office and told of the CB revolt. It was finally coming. Pete had been aware that it had been in the works for some time. Now it was all coming to a head. He was told about the mole the powers-that-be had put into place among the CBs. He had acted suspiciously from the start but he had been doing a job despite the fact that he had been making a mint for himself. That was the way it went. You see some guy skimming off the top and sooner or later he would go too far and something would have to be done.
The guy's name was Killer and they were asking to have him taken out of the picture. Either get him into a sleeper capsule on the sly or, if that proved too difficult, execute the poor slob. Pete was no stranger to that job. The colony fathers would normally request two or three removals a year. Pete had handled five in his career.
It wasn't too bad for him. He just remembered to not take pleasure from it and to think how it was for the good of the many. It was a part of the job. There were worse thing, like taking a bunch of flack for something that wasn't his fault. There was enough of that around. He would much rather effect a good kill than suffer through all the office politics.
This Killer guy was a pretty big wig on his own. He was rich and powerful. He had gotten too big for his own britches. Anybody who wanted to start a revolt was asking for it and fair game in Pete's mind.
It was simple. You get a revolt monster nipping at the heels of good decent people and the only thing you can do is cut off it's head. It would try to grow another one back again. You just sit back and wait for the proper time to cut that one off too. Sooner or later you get a head that works for you so you let it live just as long as you can--until it gets out of hand. That was Killer.
Pete's orders had been simple; "Do it now!"
Pete went to the streets and began hitting his informants hard. They all had places to look for Pete's man but nothing panned out. This Killer guy must have been a real loon. He had spent most of his time out in the open. Had. It was like he knew Pete was on his trail. They always knew. They always hid. It never helped a thing. It just made Pete's job harder. Pete hated it. They'd always let one of these guys get too far out of line and by the time Pete got a hold of it the guy had gone underground.
Pete had been on the job for about a day when he was called back into the office. He learned that his man had had a package delivered to the colony manager and was ordered to investigate what it was. By the time Pete got to the colony manager's office the package had been delivered to a lab where it was being looked at. He hurried to the lab where he pushed his way in. What he saw made him wish he had already retired.
It looked like some kind of automated vacuum-cleaner. That's what it appeared to be at first, until you add in the various appendages it had. It was clever. The lab boys were looking it over and noticed that the computer chips that made it go hadn't been made on Seco. The whole technology that it was based on was--different--alien.
This was the message that Killer had left;
We have discovered alien artifacts that
are way ahead of anything else on the
planet. We intend to use them to persuade
Tower colony to free all CBs and to allow
us to set up our own colony. You will
provide us with the supplies that we need to
get started. Failure to do so will force us
to demonstrate one of the many weapons we
have in our possession. You will begin to
free our people immediately otherwise we
will demonstrate our capability!
Pete knew he had fallen into it! He sealed the lab and got in touch with his supervisor. It was a mess. Pete had never seen such a mobilization before. A lid was put on everything. By the time to call it a day Pete had never seen so much covering-up.
The following day it was the same.
Pete decided to get back to trying to locate Killer. He talked to a hundred people and tracked down a thousand leads in the week to follow. After he had done all that work he was still back where he had started from except now he had his supervisor in his way.
It was quite by accident that Pete was present when a second message arrived from Killer. It said;
You have not freed any prisoners there-
fore it seems it will be necessary to prove
to you what we are capable of. As a demon-
stration of our power we will sprinkle
Tower city with water in the form of rain
tomorrow. Consider this a mild warning. If
we wanted to we could just destroy the
city, but this would result in the loss of
inoccent lives.
If, after our demonstration, we do not
see the release of our people you will
force us to arrange a more horrific show of
power. Please don't force us to do that.
Pete couldn't believe the gall the guy had. He felt a quick twang of admiration but forced it away from himself. It wasn't good to have feelings like that concerning someone when it looked like you might have to rub him out. It could cause a second of hesitation, a second that might prove to be fatal. The man was dangerous. He was threatening to kill all of Tower city--even his own people.
***
It was the first time it had ever happened since the colonists had settled. Those in the know, like the colony fathers, like Pete and his department, it made sick. It was proof that there was a mad man holding a loaded gun to ther heads. The person on the street didn't know what to make of it when the rain came. It only lasted for a minute or two, but the damage is caused was mind boggling. In a civilization that had never had to deal with water falling from the sky there were all sorts of things that couldn't stand it.
The water stood in some places on the streets making slippery spots and numerous accidents as well as a mess. In other places the water ran off and gathered in huge puddles flooding and causing water damage.
That was nothing compared to the problems when the water began shorting out the power distribution system causing power outages and fires.
That was still a minuscule problem next to all the havoc caused by panic when the water began to evaporate. The suddenly humid air alarmed the citizens who all thought they were being poisoned. The hospitals were swamped with fearful sick people that they didn't know how to treat.
It was amazing just how much damage was done. Everything from things falling apart due to glue dissolving to the trauma a city went through. They had not been warned. After it had happened the video stations were alive with the news and what to do in the biggest calamity to befall the planet. A dummy story was put out whereby the government took responsibility by saying that there had been an accident in some factory that had released millions of liters of water over the city.
Nearly 2,000 injuries and 2 deaths
The whole book in zipfile format.
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