“Why?”
“They cannot use the inventory where that ship was taken. There will be too great a risk that it has been infected and they won’t take the chance that the spores will be released in their place of operations. They’re going to have to build entirely new ship building facilities and crews to man the new ships. I suspect they have the technology to make that happen faster than anything we can imagine but it won’t happen immediately.”
“What do you think will happen when they do show up?”
“I don’t know but it won’t be good.”
“We aren’t ready.”
“We know.”
Robby looked at the display, “Let’s go home. Worrying about it won’t change anything.”
The Distributor had the Council on his display and was as frightened as it had ever been in its long lifetime. It knew the words it used were going to determine whether it lived or died. The First Council Member stared at him with obvious rage and said, “What have you discovered!?!”
“We have been attacked by a very advanced civilization.” It watched the Councilor carefully and saw the rage change to doubt. Maybe he had a chance to survive.
“What do you mean?”
“The spore that attacks our pods was artificially created; it is not a naturally grown organism. It is deliberately designed to attack the pods and will not affect anything else. It was engineered to kill our supply of Remid.” It watched the four Council Members look at each other and, though they were still angry, they were also thinking about that piece of information.
“Where was it developed?”
This is where he had to be careful. He knew that if he said he didn’t know he was dead. “It came from one of the universes we have scouted to invade.”
The Council didn’t say anything. Finally the Third Councilor asked, “How do you know it didn’t come from the universe that was being harvested?”
“If that universe had that spore, it would have seeded their planets before we arrived to protect them and there would have been no delay in its activation. That spore had to have been spread developed before we started our harvesting in that universe.” The Council looked doubtful. “I’ve determined that the spore activates after fifty turns. It first appeared on a planet that was invaded more than eighty turns after the harvesting began. The first planet harvested began showing signs of the spore at the same moment as the one invaded eighty turns later. They had to have been seeded at the same time.”
“They could have developed it after we started our invasion.”
“None of the planets infected by the spore had a civilization advanced enough to develop it. It would have taken us more than six thousand turns to develop anything like it. No, this was brought to that universe and deployed against us. The long delay before the spores activated was intentional to insure complete dispersal in all of our facilities and ships. The second generation of spores does not have that delay engineered into them; they attack immediately.”
The Distributor saw the Council’s rage was gone and they were thinking about what had happened. He was not out of the woods yet. Be careful, he kept telling himself.
“Can we develop a means to kill that spore?”
“It would take us more than a million turns to even come close. That spore is hardy and almost impossible to kill. Whoever designed it is very close to our level of bioengineering.”
“Is it possible to modify the pods to withstand the spore?”
“Not without losing the benefits of the powder and that still wouldn’t protect us from it.”
The Fourth Councilor leaned forward and stared at the Distributor in the display, “Then where did the spore originate?”
“It had to come from one of the universes we’ve been scouting for harvesting.”
The Fourth leaned back and frowned, “And you determined that…?”
“Whoever created this monstrosity had to know about our existence and possess the ability to go to other universes. It is my belief that one of our scouts was discovered and followed.”
The Distributor saw the First register fear, “Do you think they came here?”
“No, I do not. If they possessed a dimensional drive they would have attacked us here instead of in that universe. No, they saw one of our ships, followed it, and ddtermined we were coming once they saw our harvesting efforts. That gave them time to develop this spore.”
“How many universes have we scouted that have not been attacked?”
“Ten but only eight of them are candidates for the attacker. Two of them are only recently being scouted and wouldn’t allow enough time for the spore to be developed.”
The Third asked, “How much Remid do we have in our stores?”
“We have enough to supply us for more than four thousand turns. We eliminated three fleets because the supply was growing too fast and, as we all know, the potency is reduced over time. One fleet harvesting filled our needs perfectly.”
The First then asked the question that could get him killed, “How much has been contaminated?”
The Distributor knew that they would see his fear if he wavered so he answered honestly and hoped for the best, “I am forced to act like everything has been exposed. Our production centers, our distribution centers, and our reserve fleets.”
The Second stood and the Distributor saw his rage, “How was the reserve fleets infected. Are you that inefficient?”
The Distributor forced himself to show no outward fear and said, “It was your command that required me to only send the needed number of ships to harvest a universe. You ordered me to invade with the entire fleet but then withdraw those ships not needed to manage the harvest. The current universe being attacked has one third the normal number of galaxies and after the initial attacks, I followed your command and began withdrawing the appropriate number of ships to reserve. I have no way of knowing if any of the spores are on their hulls. I choose not to run a risk in using them in any future harvestings.” The Distributor saw the Second deflate immediately as the other three on the Council stared at him. The Distributor smiled and said, “Unless you think I should use them.”
The First continued to stare at the Second as he said, “No, you’re right in that choice. Does that mean we must rebuild our entire infrastructure again?”
“It does.”
“What are you going to do about the old fleets?”
“I think we should destroy them all including the reserve fleets and quarantine those locations. A completely different universe should be used for our new facilities. I have been waiting for your guidance before I take that step.”
The first looked at the other Councilors and saw them nod, “You will carry out that plan. How do you plan to make up for lost production?”
The Distributor knew he was at another danger point but he pushed a button and sent the four Council Members a listing of priorities, “I will build eight fleets that we will use to harvest new universes. I will start the first ships harvesting before I build any of the advanced models we normally hold in reserve. We will no longer scout before we attack. We have not encountered any universe that can stand up to our technology. We scouted to pick the optimum universe to invade for fast and efficient conquest and that worked when our supply exceeded our needs. However, it is my belief that by scouting our future invasions, one of them was warned and the spore is a product of that knowledge. Once our supply is back to normal, we’ll eliminate as many fleets as needed to maintain optimal levels.”
“What about those eight universes that were scouted?”
The Distributor looked at the First and said, “I will carry out your orders on what you want me to do with them.”
The First leaned into the display and snarled, “Destroy them all.”
The Distributor smiled, “It will be my pleasure.”
The Distributor watched his display closely and saw three of the Council Members staring at the Second just
