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"You too?" said the man.

  Flopsy halted. "You may stop us today, but you won't hold us forever. The end of your rule is coming. There is a place where splices live free-"

  Mr. Tod listened unbelievingly. Not privy to the whispered nightly rumors exchanged among the barn-dwellers, he had never heard of such a thing. Could it be true? There was the presence of the bound rabbit to consider. Wait, was he the old Peter?

  McGregor silenced Flopsy with a backhand across her muzzle, rocking her on her big feet.

  "Anyone else have something to say?" he demanded.

  The splices all looked at the floor. McGregor laid down his gun. One of Peter's ears, the left, protruded from the net. McGregor grabbed it and effortlessly lifted Peter up to his feet.

  "I've been waiting a long time for this-"

  Peter had managed to regain his breath. Mustering all his strength, he spat now into McGregor's face.

  "Eat your own pellets, proke!"

  McGregor howled and closed his hands on Peter's neck.

  Something snapped in Mr. Tod.

  He launched himself across the distance separating him from the struggle.

  The impact of Mr. Tod on the man shattered his chokehold and knocked him to the floor.

  Mr. Tod scrambled atop McGregor.

  "What– " was all McGregor had time to utter.

  Then Mr. Tod fastened his teeth in McGregor's reinforced throat.

  Roaring, McGregor reflexively began to throttle the fox.

  Mr. Tod did not let go. Though all grew black, though the sound of some celestial hunter's horn filled his ears, his powerful jaws remained fastened tightly until he was dead.

  But by then, so was McGregor.

  7. Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes

  Mrs. Tiggywinkle freed Peter with her pinking shears. He surprised himself by being able to stand on his own.

  His throat felt like he had smoked a pack of fags in five minutes. His left ear throbbed. When he had fallen, his pistol had gouged him. Yet he had never felt better.

  Regarding the pair of corpses at his feet, Peter sensed words swelling up unbidden in him.

  "In the end, Tod was no quisling, but a true splice. And if man has stripped us of our birthright, he has also showed us the commonality of our lot. Fox saves rabbit, cat helps mouse, the lion lies down with the lamb. Tod's death was not the first, nor will it be the last. But without our further actions, it could be in vain. Come, we must flee."

  Outside, as the splices gathered 'round him, looking nervously at the world that awaited them, Peter removed a letterbomb from his coat.

  He threw the capsule at the barn.

  Shattering and splattering the wall, the intelligent silicrobe paint formed a departing message from the CLF.

  We have a little garden, A garden of our own, And every day we water there The seeds that we have sown.

  Brain Wars

  SEND:

  IMF MOBILE NODE SYS01-4591P

  RECEIVE: MC MURDO BIOSPHERE

  DATE/HOUR: 070465: 070465/1275

  TRANSMISSION STATUS: OK

  Dear Host Mother,

  The invasion is over, and I'm fine. Safe as a blastula in a bioreactor, in fact, here inside our risk bubble.

  Which is more than I can say for the enemy, Mom. We pretty much turned them into sodai gomi in less time than it takes to flip a SQUID.

  I'm really sorry I can't raster you face-to-face or virt you in Candyland and see you smile at the good news. I can almost picture you nictitating that way you do when you're happy. But for reasons of security, us zygotes (that's just a friendly term the officers have for noncoms) don't have full access to the metamedium. We've been stripped of all our telltags and poqetpals, most of us for the first time in our lives. I feel plumb naked! We're limited to this retro-jethro Teleport

  bonovox line, I guess so no live Si-viruses or GaAs-worms can slip in or out. And in fact, all these sending units have a TL1 AI chip in them that will automatically erase any critical information from the transmission. Like for instance, if I were to try to tell you that we're stationed just north of CENSORED, or that our KIA's amounted to CENSORED, the machine would simply blip that part right out.

  Works out just as well as the metamedium, I guess, what with CENSORED time zones between us and all.

  Anyway, the important thing is that our mission seems to be a big success. Once again, the IMF has managed to intervene just in time to stop a potential catastrophe.

  I'll tell you more in a while. But right now my main proxy, Penguin, is calling me. Seems we have to use the simorg colony to evolve some new expert modules they need by yesterday!

  Your loving guest-son, CENSORED

  SEND: IMF MOBILE NODE SYS01-4591P

  RECEIVE: MC MURDO BIOSPHERE

  DATE/HOUR: 070465/1610

  TRANSMISSION STATUS: OK

  Dear Host Mother,

  What a jangle-tangle! The brass-skulls and swellheads stopped by with a crew of noahs from the GEF wanting to evaluate the oceanic/atmospheric contamination produced by this latest Short War, and Penguin and I were kept busy bending molecules during what should have been our downtime. (At least one of the noahs, a Xuly Beth Vollbracht, was nice enough to bring along a dose of recreational tropes to share with us.) Anyhow, they finally finished with us, and since Penguin wanted to go offline for a while, I thought I'd pick up my transmission to you where I left off.

  Now, I know you and I have had our disagreements about the IMF's policies. Why, sometimes you actually sounded like a rifkin or greenpeacer! I can remember you saying, ''I never got to vote for the World Bank board." But we all got to vote for the politicians who voted for them, whether we hailed from a big polypax like the NU or the EC, or a little one like our own McMurdo, so we can't really blame anyone else when the IMF does something we don't particularly like. I'm thinking of the mess they made in what used to be Yongbyon-the "Pyongyang Gang Bang" I remember you called it-and the way they handled (or mishandled) those renegade cricks and transgenics hiding out in the Azores. The Atlantic will recover faster from that one than the IMF's reputation will!

  But those incidents took place before I joined, which you'll recall was right after the big command shakeup. My own unit was purged of all its officers, and Oberjefe Ozal received a field promotion, which he still holds. I think you'd like Ozal, he's a smart, goodlooking probe-the NYC gals in our pod all call him a "streetbeat gamete," which I guess is some kind of compliment-but he's not conceited. His main philofix is music. He plays his qawwali tabs whenever he has a spare moment-mostly thru earwigs, since no one else really enjoys the holy Slammer wailing.

  Anyhow, I can't say I feel any personal responsibility for any of the IMF's previous goo-screwing cockups (pardon the language), and nothing I've taken part in since I signed up has led me to regret my decision.

  I've got to cut this short now, since one of my proxies is waiting to use the 'vox unit. I'll be right back.

  Your loving guest-son, CENSORED

  SEND:

  IMF MOBILE NODE SYS01-4591P

  RECEIVE: MC MURDO BIOSPHERE

  DATE/HOUR: 070465/118

  TRANSMISSION STATUS: OK

  Dear Host Mother,

  Sorry about the delay. My buddy got an incoming 'vox right after he sent his. It was a "Dear Juan," wishing him a nasty hasta luego. Seems his target had joined the antiwar movement since he shipped out and now wants nothing to do with "bloody imperialist murderers" like us. It took some major tropes and a lot of talk to calm him down.

  I just can't understand these protestors, Mom. It must be that they don't know what's really going on here. If they did, they'd realize we're just doing what has to be done.

  I'm real proud of this operation, my first major action. We made the enemy "cry onco!" faster than ribozymes. I wish

  I could tell you all about it, since I understand the meta-medium coverage was somewhat limited. I'll try, and see what the chip lets thru.

  The IMF issued its unconditiona
l surrender ultimatum at 2300 hours on the second of this month. By 2400 hours, when the enemy had still not replied, the operation commenced. First in were the smartskin bombers, scramjets mostly under AI control, but a few being gloved by pilots offshore in MHD subs. These planes released burrowers, antipersonnel midges, thermites, core-borers, glass masters, virtual ghosts, and CENSORED. The enemy responded with Raid-Plus, bouncing buckyballs, fractal shrubs, moletraps, CENSORED, and kaleidoscopes, but were mucho out-classed. There was never really any contest.

  Hot on the first wave's heels, the APV's loaded with transgenic troops moved in for whatever close fighting might arise. The Fourth Wolverines really distinguished themselves, as did the CENSORED. Once I-Cubed reported that things were pretty much under control, approximately CENSORED of us fifty-oners went in, the only humans involved in the whole shootup.

  When the enemy's AI's committed silicide, we knew the latest Short War was history.

  Mom, I'll tell you now that what we found once we occupied the enemy's territory-in confirmation of the rumors that prompted the assault-is enough to make your cells metastasize. These guys had developed a whole armory of aerosol-borne neurotropic weapons which they planned to use shortly on their immediate neighbors, and afterwards on

  whoever got in their way. Of course this is entirely against the Minsk Conventions, which they are a signatory to, and these gnomic jokers had to be stopped.

  I don't imagine the next few days will see much excitement. We're just riding herd on the civilian populace while the experts from the essays, peltsies, beeves, and gembaitches-Textron, Rhone-Daewoo, Toyobo, Ciba-Kobe, EMBRAPA-dismantle the armament autofacs.

  I've got some I amp;I leave coming up after this is over and expect to spend some of it with you and Dad and Mom2 and Dad2 and Mom3.

  Crank those photoharvesters up-I'm used to the tropics now!

  Your loving guest-son, CENSORED

  SEND: IMF MOBILE NODE SYS01-4591P

  RECEIVE: MC MURDO BIOSPHERE

  DATE/HOUR: 070565/0325

  TRANSMISSION STATUS: OK

  Dear Host Mother,

  We just stepped down from Fever Alert Status.

  It appears that some autonomous remnant of the enemy is still functioning.

  Most of us were sleeping when our earwigs gave the alarm. I never thought the words "perimeter breach!" could sound so chilling. We all scrambled into our Affymax

  millipore gear, praying that we hadn't catalyzed anything contrametabolic. Almost before we could grab our high-kinetics and lyzers, the "all clear" came thru. The tinmen and transgenics had neutralized the invaders, who amounted only to a handful of Gorilla guerrillas. Examination of the corpses revealed nothing out of the ordinary-except for one thing. The vars had CENSORED incorporated into their bodies, right next to their CENSORED. These add-ons were empty, indicating they might have had time to spray something before being smoked.

  That something, they tell us, could be time-delayed in its effects.

  We're all just sitting around now on our hands while the mccoys and herriots go over us with their cell-sniffers and hormone hounds, squeezing our virtual platelets for anything nonsomatic. So I thought I'd 'vox you this letter.

  Don't worry.

  Your loving guest-son, CENSORED

  SEND: IMF MOBILE NODE SYS01-4591P

  RECEIVE: MC MURDO BIOSPHERE

  DATE/HOUR: 070565/0800

  TRANSMISSION STATUS: OK

  Dear,

  Can't find to refer to. Seem to have disappeared from. Made bad inside. Very bad. Hard to use common. Looks

  strange near and far. Because of made bad up inside. Hopeful to fix. Examine, then create. Reassurring.

  But– partly running around crazy. Dangerous. Watch, shoot-how? Forget how to use without.

  Sit still. Holding together, lovely and crying. Please don't cry. Can't convey. Too frustrating to go on.

  Will 'vox soon.

  Don't worry.

  Your loving, CENSORED

  SEND: IMF MOBILE NODE SYS01-4591P

  RECEIVE: MC MURDO BIOSPHERE

  DATE/HOUR: 070565/1200

  TRANSMISSION STATUS: OK

  Dear Host Mother,

  Whew! Am I glad the past four hours are over!

  My last transmission probably didn't make a whole lot of sense to you. That was because I couldn't use any nouns! You see, everyone in the pod was experiencing a selective aphasia, kind of a language blind spot. A whole category of language had been effectively wiped from our cortexes. Or so the blood-dusters tell us.

  It appears that the trope the enemy hit us with was something brand new. The experts have dubbed it a "multivector recombinant silicrobe." It resembles our own CENSORED, only several magnitudes more sophisticated.

  Apparently, the Gorillas discharged an aerosol of harmless individual components which were small enough to slip thru our millipore gear. Once inside our bodies, however, the individual pieces intelligently assembled themselves into larger agents that headed straight for our brains.

  The first indication we had that something foreign had penetrated us was a senseless announcement we all got thru our earwigs. It sounded just like my last 'vox: strings of verbs and particles with no easy meaning. When I turned to discuss it with my bunkmate, Penguin (I haven't really told you much about her yet, Mom; she's a real old-fashioned target, with fewer than 20 percent bodymods, and I know you'd get quite close to her, given a chance), we found that we were limited to the same bizarre lingo too!

  Needless to say, this kind of neural cockup-a "cortical abortical" the NYC posse calls it-could have caused us serious trouble if the enemy wasn't so well under control. Though even then, we'd still have the tinmen and transgenics-the splices weren't so strongly affected-to protect us. Still, how could we give them orders?…

  Anyhow, the aphasia didn't stop our stormin' biobrujos for long! They soon strung together a megablocker antagonist consisting of a charge of enhanced microglials and catalytic antibodies, along with CENSORED, which seems to have wiped the cerebral invader out quicker'n teraflops!

  Although there is a slim chance, they tell us, that the invader has simply self-mutated according to plan.

  In any case, a Digireal conference on this bug is underway now with experts scattered around the globe, including

  last year's Gengineering Nobelist, Doctor Sax, the guy who practically invented neurotropins.

  So don't worry, Mom-we're getting the best of care!

  Your loving guest son, CENSORED

  SEND: IMF MOBILE NODE SYS01-4591P

  RECEIVE: MC MURDO BIOSPHERE

  DATE/HOUR: 070565/1391

  TRANSMISSION STATUS: OK

  Daring Hotel Mothballs,

  The newest truest neural contradural manifestation in the implication is undersay they way to play can't shay. Too few too blue words are now becoming excessive depressive stretches of letches and leeches and feel like my head's exploding decoding. Broca's aphasia in Asia is a lack of pack of parcel of morsel of words and turds. But Wernicke's journey to meaning of seasons is to produce unreduce of fibbing gibberish that makes senseless of relentless squawk talk. There appears to be a component histonic of dyslexia distance instance ignorance, upon trying to writer communihesitation.

  This stool shall pasture.

  Your louvre question, CENSORED

  SEND: IMF MOBILE NODE SYS01-4591P

  RECEIVE: MC MURDO BIOSPHERE

  DATE/HOUR: 070565/1450

  TRANSMISSION STATUS: OK

  Dear Host Mother,

  The Wernicke's is over now. It's pretty evident that the MRS agent is staying one step ahead of the juice they shot us with. I just hope the bug isn't baltimoring anything permanently into our genomes. Right now, all it's doing is making auditory hallucinations. They're kind of pleasant-I heard you talking to me just a few minutes ago-but tend to interfere with real orders thru our earwigs. I notice that Oberjefe Ozal has notched his music up to eleven. I'll keep you posted. Hopefully, this'
ll be licked soon.

  Your loving guest son,

  CENSORED

  SEND: IMF MOBILE NODE SYS01-4591P

  RECEIVE: MC MURDO BIOSPHERE

  DATE/HOUR: 070565/1500

  TRANSMISSION STATUS: OK

  Dear Host Mother,

  The whole pod was sitting down at the rectangular surface raised above the floor level with four posts, ready to dig into a delayed meal-reddish oblongs streaked with white marbling, cylindrical orange tapering tubes, spherical crusted objects slit crosswise and topped with a melting square of yellow organic matter-when the newest trouble hit.

  It seems that the bug in our brains has now produced a generalized visual agnosia. Nothing looks familiar. The sight of common objects produces no referents in our brains, emotional or intellectual. Everything seems an assemblage of basic, almost geometrical parts, out of which nothing whole can be synthesized, resulting in a generalized lack of affect.

  Or so the Digireal experts tell us. It's kind of hard to tell exactly what's wrong from the inside.

  All I know is that when I look at what I assume is Penguin, I see a stretched toroid with an irregular topography topped with filaments of varying lengths. I assume she sees the same.

  It's hard to work up the emotion to comfort a toroid, but I try my best, and so does she.

  Oberjefe Ozal has been fantastic thru all this. He never loses his composure, but always keeps the ovoid with the seven openings atop the horizontal broadening of his column as cool as liquid nitrogen. He seems to derive almost superhuman strength and comfort from the qawwali buzz in 'the shell-shaped excrescences on the side of his aforementioned ovoid. I don't know what we'd do without him.

  I guess this bug is not going to be as easy to smoke as everyone first assumed.

  Well, now I'm contorting my buccal orifice and fleshy red tasting member into phonemes that will signal an end to