Read Online The Gabble and Other Stories by Neal Asher - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Neal Asher
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this book is presented you’ll stand in court and give your statement. THC will pay and they’ll pay heavily,’ said Hendricks.
‘I’ll come,’ said Ansel.
<>
* * * *
Garp and Geronamid
The grey-bearded park labourer reminded Salind of Earth and autumn, though the man was not raking up leaves. It was treelfall on Banjer - a season with no real Terran equivalent - and the snakish creatures squirming from the pox of holes in the banoaks were dying. Having raked the fallen into slightly shifting drifts, the man began forking the spaghetti tangle into his wheelbarrow.
‘I’ll be damned,’ said Salind, initiating the ‘save’ facility in Argus.
He watched the man for a while longer, then hoisted his rucksack more securely onto his shoulders before moving on. Shortly he came to where a black and twisted banoak had spilled from its hollow branches a thick crop of treels across the path. The banoak itself reminded him of a baobab, though he vaguely recollected it was not in fact a tree, being more akin to a tube worm. The parasitic treels were black and grey, and on average half a metre long. With their narrow heads and discshaped feeding mouths, they appeared more like lampreys than the eels after which they were named. Salind subvocalized a question and Argus, his internal augmentation, replied in its lecturing tone:
Because its life cycle is utterly confined to the soft tissues and hollow branches of the banoak, it will attempt to feed on any soft tissue with which it comes into contact. Avoidance is recommended.
Salind looked askance at the writhing mass as he stepped off the path and onto the spherule grass to bypass it.
‘Why do they die?’ he asked.
There came a pause from Argus as it accessed the relevant files.
A poison from the aforementioned soft tissues accumulates in the creatures and kills them off in their fifth year. Shall I continue?
‘Might as well,’ said Salind. ‘I don’t suppose Garp’s there yet.’
As I mentioned, the treel’s entire life cycle is confined to the interior of the banoak. There it feeds on the soft tissues of the polychaete body, mates and lays its eggs. By their fifth year the treels die from a cumulative poison in the polychaete’s flesh. It was first thought the poison served no other purpose than to rid the banoak creature of this parasite. It is now known that the treel’s relationship with its host is mutualistic rather than parasitic. The treels, as well as feeding on the banoak, protect it from predation. Creatures that feed on the banoak inevitably ingest treels and can sicken and die from the poison concentrated inside them.
‘They harvest them, don’t they?’ said Salind, his attention drawn to the large tanker parked under some distant banoaks. He could hear the cavitating roar of a vacuum pump and see another park labourer sucking up the creatures with a wide-ribbed hose.
The poison accumulates in their skin. For humans that substance works as a narcotic and mild hallucinogen. The treels are mulched, pressed and dried and what remains is mostly skin.
They make a tea from it here.
‘I guess I’ll have to give that a try then,’ said Salind, though he did not particularly relish the prospect.
The tea is as addictive as nicotine. Most people here drink it.
‘Then I’ll take a detoxicant course afterwards. My audience will want to know what it’s like.’
At the centre of the park stood a monolithic quartz crystal into whose lattices had been recorded the names and personal histories of the thousands who had died during the civil war here a century earlier. The deeply translucent crystal ran in its depths holograms taken randomly from those personal histories. Positioned all around it were seats for spectators, though they were unoccupied today and, studying the figure standing with his back to the crystal, Salind could understand why.
This man’s clothing resembled an antique acceleration suit with its
‘I’ll come,’ said Ansel.
<
* * * *
Garp and Geronamid
The grey-bearded park labourer reminded Salind of Earth and autumn, though the man was not raking up leaves. It was treelfall on Banjer - a season with no real Terran equivalent - and the snakish creatures squirming from the pox of holes in the banoaks were dying. Having raked the fallen into slightly shifting drifts, the man began forking the spaghetti tangle into his wheelbarrow.
‘I’ll be damned,’ said Salind, initiating the ‘save’ facility in Argus.
He watched the man for a while longer, then hoisted his rucksack more securely onto his shoulders before moving on. Shortly he came to where a black and twisted banoak had spilled from its hollow branches a thick crop of treels across the path. The banoak itself reminded him of a baobab, though he vaguely recollected it was not in fact a tree, being more akin to a tube worm. The parasitic treels were black and grey, and on average half a metre long. With their narrow heads and discshaped feeding mouths, they appeared more like lampreys than the eels after which they were named. Salind subvocalized a question and Argus, his internal augmentation, replied in its lecturing tone:
Because its life cycle is utterly confined to the soft tissues and hollow branches of the banoak, it will attempt to feed on any soft tissue with which it comes into contact. Avoidance is recommended.
Salind looked askance at the writhing mass as he stepped off the path and onto the spherule grass to bypass it.
‘Why do they die?’ he asked.
There came a pause from Argus as it accessed the relevant files.
A poison from the aforementioned soft tissues accumulates in the creatures and kills them off in their fifth year. Shall I continue?
‘Might as well,’ said Salind. ‘I don’t suppose Garp’s there yet.’
As I mentioned, the treel’s entire life cycle is confined to the interior of the banoak. There it feeds on the soft tissues of the polychaete body, mates and lays its eggs. By their fifth year the treels die from a cumulative poison in the polychaete’s flesh. It was first thought the poison served no other purpose than to rid the banoak creature of this parasite. It is now known that the treel’s relationship with its host is mutualistic rather than parasitic. The treels, as well as feeding on the banoak, protect it from predation. Creatures that feed on the banoak inevitably ingest treels and can sicken and die from the poison concentrated inside them.
‘They harvest them, don’t they?’ said Salind, his attention drawn to the large tanker parked under some distant banoaks. He could hear the cavitating roar of a vacuum pump and see another park labourer sucking up the creatures with a wide-ribbed hose.
The poison accumulates in their skin. For humans that substance works as a narcotic and mild hallucinogen. The treels are mulched, pressed and dried and what remains is mostly skin.
They make a tea from it here.
‘I guess I’ll have to give that a try then,’ said Salind, though he did not particularly relish the prospect.
The tea is as addictive as nicotine. Most people here drink it.
‘Then I’ll take a detoxicant course afterwards. My audience will want to know what it’s like.’
At the centre of the park stood a monolithic quartz crystal into whose lattices had been recorded the names and personal histories of the thousands who had died during the civil war here a century earlier. The deeply translucent crystal ran in its depths holograms taken randomly from those personal histories. Positioned all around it were seats for spectators, though they were unoccupied today and, studying the figure standing with his back to the crystal, Salind could understand why.
This man’s clothing resembled an antique acceleration suit with its
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