Collaborative fiction ~ Sci Fi ~ "Infestation"

[Quantum Quack]

Developing the personalities and leading to the story title mystery:

When Jarad teamed up with Celeste, for this amazing adventure into the distant reaches of the MIlky Way, he respected her romantic inclinations towards her own gender, noted that she always called the lab her kitchen, where she could exercise her amazing skills at chemical engineering, astrophysics and entomology. Celeste was also an amazing chef.
Bug collecting does have it's moments especially when other critters from the outside world want to join in the fun.
"Hell"Jarad thought, his fear of crawling things was over the top and perhaps it was time for that ancient remedy Diazapam, but the chem distillery that Celeste was building wasn't yet completed, mainly because there were too many bugs in the kitchen.

Oh, darn it! 

I was working towards a few of Benard’s creatures leading to the law of maximum entropy with LIFE being the infestation.

I know-I know…back to the lab. 

Bernard's creatures would make a great chapter...about experiments in the lab perhaps.. sure you could work it in...
Maybe link to the way all organisms are driven to infest, just like what the yellow glow thingos may be trying to do with their human observers....just thoughts...

[Zinjanthropos]

The Stowaway:

 Rastus claimed to have survived the ride inside the waste compartment. Jarad was positive he had sent the ship’s waste pod hurtling towards the nearby star prior to entering the planet’s atmosphere. How could Rastus have survived he wondered, seemed impossible. He must have escaped the pod but how, the only door to it was located outside, no entry from within. Even more troubling was Rastus’ request for a sex change. 

When Jarad completed the physical, he sent all the data including a photo he had of Rastus back to HQ. It would be a few days before he heard back. However the DNA analyzing equipment could not be properly calibrated. He sent that data anyway hoping that the glitch was in the calibration equipment, not affecting actual results. Why, Jarad thought, does that name Rastus seem so familiar?

The waste pod had been delivered to its destination as scheduled.

[Secular Sanity]

The Stowaway:

Why, Jarad thought, does that name Rastus seem so familiar?

God damn it, Zinman! I used it.

Why didn't C C catch that? 

Old codgers; can't trust 'em.

[Zinjanthropos]

The Stowaway:

Why, Jarad thought, does that name Rastus seem so familiar?

God damn it, Zinman! I used it.

Why didn't C C catch that? 

Old codgers; can't trust 'em.

How you doin’ you old #$*, is son adjusting to civilian life?

In this work of fiction? If so I don’t remember......another aspect of old codgery. Anyway I have a surprise in mind for Rastus if the story continues. 

[Secular Sanity]

How you doin’ you old #$*, is son adjusting to civilian life?

In this work of fiction? If so I don’t remember......another aspect of old codgery. Anyway I have a surprise in mind for Rastus if the story continues. 

Yeah, he feels right at home again. Big fight coming up. We’ve been working out. I swing and he dodges, fun-fun! He’s heading off to school in the fall. I’ve been showing him some of my local finds. We went to one of my favorite little holes in the wall last weekend. It’s usually empty but this time there was a group of older people. I heard a voice that sounded familiar. It was Dan Dennett. There was another male and a female that looked familiar but I couldn’t put a name to the faces. I couldn’t help overhearing their conversation, which is another aspect of old codgery…they’re loud. It wasn’t even interesting, though. He’s braggadocious. It’ll be nice when the summertime residents leave.

BTW, what is it with old men and ham radios? My antenna is bigger than yours type thingy? 

[C C]

--- lake, outpost --- (we return viewers to our newsflash interrupted programming, currently in progress)

"You're a long way from Corinth," said Matsya. "You don't even look Greek."

Jarad nodded. "That's how it is when you're immortal. Countless different guises and names over the centuries. The 'bugs' can even modify my appearance, not just keep me young and alive. But don't tell anybody, would hate being the lab rat of technological historians and anthropologists. By the way, it was actually on Cream of Wheat back then, the coffee mug came later."

Matsya mused for a moment. "So that's why you chose this habitable moon for the Outpost. You actually believe this might be the origin place of the alien nanites that infested your body those millennia ago? How did they ever reach Earth, why did they only choose you alone, why not reproduce and occupy other people and animals?"

"Not a clue. They're not quite communicative in that respect," said Jarad. "We could even speculate that they were hitchhikers on an interstellar meteor. That would radically extend things farther, their origins would rest in a civilization potentially dating back millions of years."

Matsya seemed unconvinced. "But we haven't encountered any evidence of such here. Granted, the achievements of an era as ancient as that could have long since eroded away or remnants of it might be surviving in deep sediment, out of sight."

"All the more reason for exploring those underwater caverns in the lake. The other peculiar features associated with that body of water can wait awhile. We'll use a hybrid submersible vehicle and travel a lot farther into them. If at some point those 'tunnels' finally start appearing a little less natural in appearance..."

"I'm only slow on land," Matsya protested. "I stopped going deeper into wider one because it didn't look interesting, just more of the same."

"But now you've got reason to suspect better," Jarad chuckled. "Clearly I have to be along with you as a fellow spelunker."

[Secular Sanity]

Damn it! C C raised the bar, arrg!

We have a bug. Nice job!

---

About seven hours into a nine-hour dive, communications with Nereus were lost. Jarad had an uncanny skill for convincing people that he knew what was needed. Celeste reminded him that the oxygen levels would be kept dramatically low to keep the risk of fires at minimum, but it’s not without side effects. Your body’s ability to repair itself will be significantly reduced. As Jarad began the decent, the scar on his right hand gradually returned and began to ooze. Celeste demanded that he return to the surface for additional testing. We need to take a look at your transcription factors.

Back at the lab Celeste was dumbfounded. Was it spherical aberration? She switched the plates to the TEM microscope. The rDNA gene transcription resembled something that she had never seen before.

A code of some sort on a pure form of Ytterbium.

Iʇ ʍɐs ʇɥǝ qǝsʇ oɟ ʇᴉɯǝs' ᴉʇ ʍɐs ʇɥǝ ʍoɹsʇ oɟ ʇᴉɯǝs' ᴉʇ ʍɐs ʇɥǝ ɐƃǝ oɟ ʍᴉspoɯ' ᴉʇ ʍɐs ʇɥǝ ɐƃǝ oɟ ɟoolᴉsɥuǝss' ᴉʇ ʍɐs ʇɥǝ ǝdoɔɥ oɟ qǝlᴉǝɟ' ᴉʇ ʍɐs ʇɥǝ ǝdoɔɥ oɟ ᴉuɔɹǝpnlᴉʇʎ' ᴉʇ ʍɐs ʇɥǝ sǝɐsou oɟ ˥ᴉƃɥʇ' ᴉʇ ʍɐs ʇɥǝ sǝɐsou oɟ pɐɹʞuǝss' ᴉʇ ʍɐs ʇɥǝ sdɹᴉuƃ oɟ ɥodǝ' ᴉʇ ʍɐs ʇɥǝ ʍᴉuʇǝɹ oɟ pǝsdɐᴉɹ' ʍǝ ɥɐp ǝʌǝɹʎʇɥᴉuƃ qǝɟoɹǝ ns' ʍǝ ɥɐp uoʇɥᴉuƃ qǝɟoɹǝ ns' ʍǝ ʍǝɹǝ ɐll ƃoᴉuƃ pᴉɹǝɔʇ ʇo Hǝɐʌǝu' ʍǝ ʍǝɹǝ ɐll ƃoᴉuƃ pᴉɹǝɔʇ ʇɥǝ oʇɥǝɹ ʍɐʎ—ᴉu sɥoɹʇ' ʇɥǝ dǝɹᴉop ʍɐs so ɟɐɹ lᴉʞǝ ʇɥǝ dɹǝsǝuʇ dǝɹᴉop' ʇɥɐʇ soɯǝ oɟ ᴉʇs uoᴉsᴉǝsʇ ɐnʇɥoɹᴉʇᴉǝs ᴉusᴉsʇǝp ou ᴉʇs qǝᴉuƃ ɹǝɔǝᴉʌǝp' ɟoɹ ƃoop oɹ ɟoɹ ǝʌᴉl' ᴉu ʇɥǝ sndǝɹlɐʇᴉʌǝ pǝƃɹǝǝ oɟ ɔoɯdɐɹᴉsou oulʎ.

[Zinjanthropos]

71 hours, 12 minutes and counting. A day on this rock seems an eternity to the travellers. Although the orb rotated on its axis, the star moved slowly across the sky. From observations made prior to flight, a day here was 74 hours 43 minutes with a 3h 17m interval of darkness before light from another nearby star interrupted night. They looked forward to the brief interlude.

Up to now sleep was difficult. Simulated night, sleeping medication and even simple blindfolds were the norm. Still, as night approached their senses were on alert. Night here was a huge unknown.

[C C]

Dash of Milton Caniff nostalgia (no, I wasn't even a dream of gametes yet back then) combined with a pathetically pale imitation of Ann Biderman's style in "Ray Donovan", especially with the intense rancor the family fixer feels for the patriarch Mickey. QQ's thread seems to have Isaac Asimov type standards in terms of curbing back offensive and over-the-top realism, so not about to get as graphically violent, suggestive, vulgar, raunchy, and politically incorrect as Showtime. (RD creator Ann Biderman: "I’m not interested in weddings and dresses and dating")

Lake / outpost storyline, but shifting temporarily to a different world within well-known or inhabited galactic territory. Already in progress...

- - -

Even dulled by the mickey finn, Prester John managed to resist the Dragon Lady's attempts to push him over the balcony. "Help me!" Anna May Long beesched Cathay, who was still sprawled half-dazed on the floor.

Together they rolled the Nestorian over the railing. An instant later he erupted into a small hive of Bagamidri wasps as the fleshly remains of their container rained down upon the street below. The angry pseudo-arthropods circled feverishly a couple of times, then flew away.

Cathay, bent over with hands on knees, blood trickling down over her face, gaspingly asked: "Those things -- were they sapient?"

"Call them a swarm intelligence that is trainable," Anna May Long replied. "That wasn't the real ruler of Nestor, but a kind of living puppet manipulated by them. The drug in the wine didn't completely incapacitate him because the brain of a poseur host does very little excutive functioning to begin with. Just bright enough to instinctively protect itself should the Bagamidri wasps be occasionally asleep at the wheel."

Cathay nodded. "I was wondering why the current holder of the title Prestor John would be meeting us in a second rate hotel like this, minus any bodyguards and PSD. Except for that pissant in the corner I sliced."

The Dragon Lady issued orders to the apartment's digital assistant to contact her clean-up crew and make flight preparations at the spaceport. "So your father's name is Jarad, that's the surname he's using these days? And this hologram of him -- it's current? You actually look slightly older. Furthermore..."

"Yeah, yeah, he's like a chameleon when it comes to appearances, ethnic and otherwise. Been everything under Sol at one time or another. I've uncovered old legends about Dad even being female in some eras and places. I've probably got a scattered family tree of unknown relatives numbering in the millions out there. The sphincter I recently divorced could have been from a parallel line of cousins for all I know. And for generations people often remarked about how well Jarad or whoever he's being at the time resists aging, when he's not faking senior status with cosmetic augmentations, or his secret isn't doing the latter for him. But you already know that, don't you?"

Anna May Long smiled bemusedly. "My organization has been searching a very, very, very long time for this man."

"He's homesteading a moon in the Outside Reach," Cathay partially divulged. "I'll give you the location for the amount of crypto-credit you promised... Plus your establishment agrees to do a couple of things after they procure what they want."

The Dragon Lady look surprised. "You truly hate your own father that much?"

A dark countenance flowed over Cathay's face. "Not just him. I especially want that plung-beast sow he recently married to be part of the package deal. And I want a token."

"We can't accommodate you completely. But I can assure you that Erastus... er, Jarad... will probably not enjoy what he endures in our research facilities. Your stepmother, however... There should be no problem taking care of that. I assume her head would be a satisfactory token."

[Zinjanthropos]

CC..... I’m not in your league. I respectfully bow out. Where’s QQ contributions...he started this.