The Swarm (16 page)

Wila said nothing. She had heard all of these arguments before. The dissertation committee had said pretty much the same thing only two hours ago—although, unlike Master Arjo, their faces were twisted with anger and contempt toward her when they had spoken. How dare she suggest that the Hive Queen's motivations were anything other than murderous.

If only Master Arjo could have been the voice of the committee, Wila thought. He would have rejected my theories with such gentleness that I would have considered the exchange a blessing. The outcome would have been the same, but at least she would have been spared all the insults and curses.

“You have grown quiet, child,” said Master Arjo.

Wila smiled. She was not a child. She was eighteen now, but he would always see her as the little girl who had come to him so many years ago.

“I have offended you,” said Master Arjo.

“Not at all,” said Wila. “I was merely thinking how much more I would have enjoyed my rejection had the committee employed you to deliver the news.”

“I do not reject you, child. I cannot. For to reject you is to reject a piece of my own heart.”

“Reject my thesis then,” said Wila.

“I question your theory on theological grounds,” said Master Arjo. “I cannot fathom how a creature responsible for so much death and destruction could possibly have a soul.”

“Not a soul,” said Wila. “A philote.”

Master Arjo frowned. “I do not know the word.”

“It is a new word,” said Wila. “A theoretical concept. And the basis of my dissertation. The idea is that philotes are the fundamental building blocks of all matter and energy.”

“A new molecular particle?”

“The true, indivisible particle that is not made up of smaller ones,” Wila said. “Philotes combine to form all structures. Electrons, protons, neutrons, atoms, molecules, humans, Formics, asteroids, all things in the universe.”

“How big is this particle?” Master Arjo asked.

“That is the part we do not yet understand,” said Wila, “for it is believed that philotes take up no space whatsoever.”

Master Arjo looked confused. “How is that possible? Everything occupies space, Wilasanee. If it has mass, even a subatomic amount of mass, it must occupy space to exist.”

Wila shrugged. “That's just it. A philote has no space or dimension or inertia.”

Master Arjo nearly laughed at the premise. “No inertia? Then this is not a physical thing. How can something that cannot be detected be proven to exist? It defies established laws of physics. It is no wonder that this persists as only a theory.”

“Do not discount the theory completely, Master Arjo. The idea of a philote might explain many unanswered questions. Central to the idea is that each philote connects itself to the rest of the universe along a single ray, a one-dimensional line that connects it to all the other philotes in its smallest immediate structure. These strands twine together and connect to a larger structure, such as a proton. And the gathering strands twine and extend to larger and larger structures in the molecular level and beyond, until all things are connected.”

“All things?” Master Arjo asked. “Both living and nonliving?”

“All things,” Wila repeated. “You are connected to me. And we to this temple, and the temple to the flowers of the lotus pond, and to the people of this city, and to the insects, and the birds, and the very planet itself. Consider it, Master Arjo. We have longed believed that the truly enlightened mind can, with little effort, do all that is required to benefit all beings of the universe, that it could manifest itself in millions of forms. Yet science has never answered how such a thing could be possible. In fact, science has always vehemently rejected the idea, for there has never been any basis in science for such a concept. But what if science and religion and faith entwined their fingers and worked as one? What if biochemistry and physics found place in Buddhism and vice versa? Philotical principles answer this great question of our faith. How can one mind reach out to others in the universe, crossing vast distances to communicate some message of comfort? How can the mind achieve such a seemingly impossible reach?”

“Why did this committee reject you?” Master Arjo asked. “Because of your views on the Hive Queen or your views on theoretical biochemistry?”

“Both,” Wila said. “At times it was hard to tell which concept angered them most. I tried to explain that I do not condone the Hive Queen's actions. I find the devastation of the Formics as horrific as they do. I am merely trying to understand a mind that is completely alien from our own. We have imposed our morals on a creature that developed under a completely different evolutionary process. What is death to a Formic? What is a human life? Does the Hive Queen share our values of such things? And are we certain that our interpretations of her point of view are correct? That is where we fall short, I believe. We are certain we know the mind of the Hive Queen. We have defined her as a malicious and remorseless creature of pure evil. But the basis for such a reputation is our own value system. We are operating under the assumption that she sees the world as we do and chooses to act destructively. But what if the Hive Queen does not see her acts as destructive? What if she sees them as the opposite? As constructive to her own species?”

“You did your research at one of the most conservative universities in all of Thailand,” said Master Arjo. “You knew your ideas would be rejected and yet you persisted.”

“They are not my ideas alone,” Wila said. “And I persisted because this is the path of enlightenment. Our duty is to see a creature's true nature. Not the value society places upon it, but what it truly is. That is the quest of the fully developed mind. The world may look at an acorn and see an annoying round nut that must be raked up from the yard and disposed of. It is a nuisance. But the Buddha mind must look at the acorn and see its true nature. We must see a potential oak tree.”

“And that is why you think the Hive Queen may be a bodhisatta. She has the potential to achieve Buddhahood.”

“It is the foundation of our belief system,” Wila said. “We believe that all beings can achieve full consciousness. Perhaps it will take the Hive Queen a thousand centuries to do so, living and dying a million times. But to say that she cannot, to deny her the possibility, contradicts the very core of our faith.”

Master Arjo smiled. “When monks speak with me, they come to learn wisdom. But with you I feel as if I am the student.”

Wila bowed low again, appalled. “Forgive me, Master Arjo. I did not mean to give offense.”

Master Arjo laughed. “No offense taken, child.” He grimaced as he got to his feet with some difficulty. “But come, walk me through the garden. Give me a biochemist's perspective on the wonder of life.” He held out his arm for her to take.

Wila got to her feet. “But it is dark out, Master Arjo. The sun has set.”

“The world is always dark through my eyes, Wila. Isn't that what you seek? To know the world through the eyes of another? To experience their view of the universe and thereby gain compassion? How else can you know and understand
me
? Come, teach me of the flowers. Let us see the acorns for what they truly are.”

*   *   *

Wila returned to her apartment late that evening, and for the first time in years there was no stack of books or academic papers demanding her attention. They were there on her computer terminal as always, waiting for her to read them, but they did not call to her now. She did not feel the driving sense of urgency that had carried her throughout her pursuit of her doctorate.

She would continue in her studies of course, despite the rejection. For it was her duty as a believer to expand her understanding. But that would be her only motivation. She would be doing it to grow her mind, not her income.

There were other, more liberal universities that might entertain her sympathetic views of the Hive Queen and call her progressive, but they would likely find her religious devotion off-putting if not downright disdainful. Religion had no place in academia, and especially not for a biochemist. Plus, she had no credentials. She had never been published. She had no doctorate. Who would take her seriously?

She had not shaved her head today, so she took a few minutes to do so. As always it allowed her to feel a sense of renewal. A starting from scratch. She prepared a glass of black tea with crushed tamarind and cardamom, and then settled in front of her terminal to read the news.

The lead story grabbed her immediately. Lem Jukes had released thousands of documents about the Formic hull and invited the world to help him crack it. Wila opened the files and began to browse. She had seen much of the interior of the ship already, for she had studied the vid that Victor Delgado had taken when he infiltrated the ship during the war. The vid had shown a massive garden in the center of the ship where dozens of alien life-forms were kept in a dense junglelike bio preserve. Animals and plants of every variety. The garden had served as the ship's source of oxygen, but for the scientific community it was the single greatest biological discovery in history. Or rather, it would have been if it had not been completely destroyed in the final battle when gamma radiation was released all throughout the ship.

Oh what Wila would give to have spent an hour in that garden. The smells, the soil, the plants, the creatures. So much could be learned about the Formic planet's evolutionary history. What genetic advantage had allowed the Formics to evolve as a dominant species, for example? And did the plants follow the pattern of photosynthesis? It would seem so, but how, and to what degree?

Wila had noticed in the vid—brief as it was—how the Formics had used smaller creatures to complete certain chores or operations. Had Formics evolved with these creatures or had the Formics engineered them for that specific task? The doily weapons the Formics wielded were evidence that the Formics had practiced some bioengineering. Had they engineered other, more complex organisms? And specifically, had the
Hive Queen
engineered them? And if so, could the Hive Queen communicate with an engineered species in the same way that she communicated with her own? The idea was not outside the realm of possibility. If the Hive Queen clearly understood philotic connections and how to transmit information across a philotic thread, then would she not also understand how those threads twined with an organism of her own invention?

The questions had swirled around in Wila's head for years.

Now there was this. The hull. Tech developed by the Formics. Along with years of detailed analyses from highly skilled scientists and engineers. And they were asking for help. Anyone's help.

On the surface it appeared to be a question of mechanical engineering. How do we break through this hull? What breach method or weapon do we build that's strong enough to destroy it?

But of course the real questions were metallurgical. What is this alloy? And how was it made? Those questions found their answers in chemistry. And while Wila might not be an engineer, she did know a bit about chemistry and had quite a few theories about how the Hive Queen had built her kingdom.

She downed the rest of her tea and set the glass aside, feeling a renewed sense of urgency. This was why she had studied. This was what had called her, what all of her research had prepared her for. She paused and offered a prayer: that her mind would be open, that it would see clearly and understand what others had already discovered.

Then she opened the first holo and began to read.

 

CHAPTER 7

Asteroid

To: [email protected]; [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Subject: Formics in the Kuiper Belt

Old Soldier and Lem,

Attached are images of asteroid 2030CT, a relatively small, icy rock here in the Kuiper Belt NOWHERE near Copernicus, which makes the following information all the more alarming. There is a Formic vessel anchored to the asteroid. A small miniship. By the looks of it, it puts out very little heat, which might explain how it was able to enter the system without being detected.

I can't say how long it's been here, but I suspect that it arrived relatively recently. Edimar noticed a drop in the asteroid's brightness and sent a probe ahead of us to investigate. As the images prove, the rock is reflecting less light because the Formics have covered it with a membranous shell of some kind. Like a balloon or a cocoon. If we're interpreting these images correctly, the circumference of the shell is greater than the circumference we have on record for the asteroid, meaning that there's space between the shell and the surface of the asteroid, perhaps as much as twenty meters. I have no idea what the shell is composed of or how it was made, but I think it could be airtight. If that's true, there might be an oxygenated environment beneath the shell. The water ice on the surface of the asteroid as well as the ice in the porous rock could provide plenty of oxygen and hydrogen in gas, liquid, or solid form, depending on the temperature they maintain inside the shell.

It is quite possible that the entire surface of the asteroid has been rendered habitable and a number of Formic workers and/or soldiers might be living and working there.

We are approaching the asteroid now. I will send further information soon. Please relay this to the Hegemon and senior officers of the International Fleet immediately. We do not know if we have sufficient force and firepower to contest possession of this rock or to resist them if they decide to drive us away. We do not know if we'll be able to insert any observers—human or robotic. We have no ability to conceal our approach or disguise our intentions. Advice is urgently requested.

Vico

—Victor Delgado to Mazer Rackham and Lem Jukes,
Mazer Rackham: Selected Correspondence,
International Fleet Archives, CentCom, Luna