said to the little assemblage. He told them the entity that had been killing the prisoners was an amalgamation, a collection of numerous creatures, not all of them heterogeneous. They were symbiotically linked, a united democracy. “I’m reminded of the extinct Earth animal known as a Portuguese Man o’ War, which was not a jellyfish but a colony of zooid organisms. Though in the case of that animal, the zooids weren’t able to exist separately from the colony. That isn’t the case here.”
“But why take on an anthropomorphic form?” Conant asked.
“Not sure why that artful collage. Maybe it was to get Cirvik to relate to them more easily, as another humanoid being. Or maybe it was a form they chose to frighten him, and anyone else who might witness the thing.”
Ploss made a scoffing sound. “This prison is full of Punktown criminals. I’m not sure any form it chose could be frightening enough.”
Zaleski continued, “But as I told Cirvik, I believe the main reason it adopts that collaborative form is to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. One animal on its own is not so powerful, perhaps not even so intelligent. But it seems to me that, telepathically or otherwise, in a cooperative state they enter into a hive mind.”
“I knew you were more analytical than you were letting on,” Stake said.
His pride puffed up by what he perceived as a compliment, Zaleski stated, “I was chosen for this position because of the diversity of the inmates and my extensive knowledge of nonhuman anatomy.” He returned to his point. “It was this possibility, of the conglomeration building in intelligence and strength the more individual animals joined it, that caused Cirvik a lot of fear. What if all the creatures in this pocket were to conjoin? All the creatures inhabiting the interstitial matter beyond this pocket? Cirvik thought if they could do that—combine into an entity made from thousands or millions or billions of individual lives—the final product would be like a god. A god that might cross into our reality and annihilate us.”
“But he decided to keep it to himself,” Conant marveled, full of horror.
“We’ve known about these animals going back to the days of ships crossing space through artificial wormholes,” Ploss said. “Before long-distance teleportation took over. Yeah, sometimes you heard stories that they thought these critters might be causing small electrical disturbances, but I never heard of any outright attacks. So why this? Why now?”
“Maybe because the wormholes in which the animals were formerly encountered were temporary—open only long enough for the ship to pass through—not a permanent structure like the pocket our prison occupies,” Zaleski said. “Or maybe they’re only now, themselves, discovering the process of combining their forms. Even from what Cirvik learned, I still can’t tell you much. The things are a complete mystery. No living specimen has ever survived in captivity. Even their remains in death can’t be preserved; they fade out of existence. So no one has ever learned much about them.”
“Either that,” Stake said, “or the authorities are keeping some knowledge to themselves, too.”
“But why the attacks on the prisoners?” Conant asked.
“I’m getting to that,” Zaleski said. “The main thing to understand is the creature…the creatures , rather…are furious to be trapped in our pocket. The first inmate they killed was in solitary confinement. They apparently chose him as an experiment…not to kill him out of rage, but to try to take control of his mind, so they could speak through him to initiate contact. Apparently they believed that since they can affect electrical fields, they might manipulate the electrical impulses of a human brain. Instead, well, they inadvertently discovered that by trying to occupy the same space as a human being, the reaction would cause his body to become displaced in a very messy way. After
“But why take on an anthropomorphic form?” Conant asked.
“Not sure why that artful collage. Maybe it was to get Cirvik to relate to them more easily, as another humanoid being. Or maybe it was a form they chose to frighten him, and anyone else who might witness the thing.”
Ploss made a scoffing sound. “This prison is full of Punktown criminals. I’m not sure any form it chose could be frightening enough.”
Zaleski continued, “But as I told Cirvik, I believe the main reason it adopts that collaborative form is to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. One animal on its own is not so powerful, perhaps not even so intelligent. But it seems to me that, telepathically or otherwise, in a cooperative state they enter into a hive mind.”
“I knew you were more analytical than you were letting on,” Stake said.
His pride puffed up by what he perceived as a compliment, Zaleski stated, “I was chosen for this position because of the diversity of the inmates and my extensive knowledge of nonhuman anatomy.” He returned to his point. “It was this possibility, of the conglomeration building in intelligence and strength the more individual animals joined it, that caused Cirvik a lot of fear. What if all the creatures in this pocket were to conjoin? All the creatures inhabiting the interstitial matter beyond this pocket? Cirvik thought if they could do that—combine into an entity made from thousands or millions or billions of individual lives—the final product would be like a god. A god that might cross into our reality and annihilate us.”
“But he decided to keep it to himself,” Conant marveled, full of horror.
“We’ve known about these animals going back to the days of ships crossing space through artificial wormholes,” Ploss said. “Before long-distance teleportation took over. Yeah, sometimes you heard stories that they thought these critters might be causing small electrical disturbances, but I never heard of any outright attacks. So why this? Why now?”
“Maybe because the wormholes in which the animals were formerly encountered were temporary—open only long enough for the ship to pass through—not a permanent structure like the pocket our prison occupies,” Zaleski said. “Or maybe they’re only now, themselves, discovering the process of combining their forms. Even from what Cirvik learned, I still can’t tell you much. The things are a complete mystery. No living specimen has ever survived in captivity. Even their remains in death can’t be preserved; they fade out of existence. So no one has ever learned much about them.”
“Either that,” Stake said, “or the authorities are keeping some knowledge to themselves, too.”
“But why the attacks on the prisoners?” Conant asked.
“I’m getting to that,” Zaleski said. “The main thing to understand is the creature…the creatures , rather…are furious to be trapped in our pocket. The first inmate they killed was in solitary confinement. They apparently chose him as an experiment…not to kill him out of rage, but to try to take control of his mind, so they could speak through him to initiate contact. Apparently they believed that since they can affect electrical fields, they might manipulate the electrical impulses of a human brain. Instead, well, they inadvertently discovered that by trying to occupy the same space as a human being, the reaction would cause his body to become displaced in a very messy way. After
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