Beastchild

brought from your moon, from the asteroid belts of your solar system. It was a formidable complex. The easiest way to wipe it out was to drop a few conversion cannisters on it."
        "I don't understand," Leo said. "We weren't told the Lake production centers had been hit."
        "Only seven years ago. It was the final blow. Otherwise, the planet would have held us off incredibly long."
        "You said 'conversion cannisters'?"
        The constant sheet of green fires that played across the crater from rim, up and down, zig-zagging, puffing like balls of burning gas, now flashed through with a faint streak of purple that caught their attention and held it for some minutes.
        "Conversion cannisters," Hulann continued, "contain one of the most virulent bacterial lifeforms in the known universe. The bacteria are capable of attacking certain forms of matter and converting them to energy. In the labs, various strains have been developed, some of which will attack only fixed nitrogen, others which will convert only iron, others for calcium, lead, on and on for as many elements and types of elements as there are."
        "The hissing-"
        "Is the conversion of matter taking place. The variety of strains included in the cannisters dropped here during attack, only the elements in your chief building supplies -and in the average sample of your topsoil for this area of the earth. The bacteria will convert everything in its path, convert it to a slowly-leaked form of energy rather than explosions of the atomic sort, down until it hits bedrock which it is not equipped to devour, and onward until it reaches water or some other 'indigestible' barrier."
        "And the green light is the only result?" Leo asked, stepping back as the edge of the pit came almost imperceptibly closer.
        "No. The green light energy is what we can see. Above your range of audio reception-even above mine -there is a great deal of sound energy generated. Also, there is an enormous amount of energy consumed by the bacteria themselves to enable them to continue their conversions and to reproduce at the rate the lab men set for them."
        "And it'll go on until there's nothing left?"
        "No. We don't want to destroy a world. Within a few days, a special naoli team will arrive to begin antibacterial work to halt the progress of the crater and destroy the mites."
        "But the air will carry them," Leo protested.
        "No. Such catastrophes have been guarded against. The bacteria are designed to anchor themselves to whatever elemental molecules they are bred to attack. Thus, a wind would have to blow away the entire linkage of ferrous trace elements in an area to also spread the iron-eating bacteria. And if a bacteria cannot find, within moments, any of its particular 'tropic' substance to latch on to, it dies. There are all sorts of built-in protections."
        "Why not a series of nuclears to wipe out the Lake complex?"
        Hulann shook his head. "Nuclears cannot damage well-shielded underground establishments. The bacteria can-by dissolving the earth that covers them, then converting the very structural materials of the installations."
        They watched the pit, the shimmering, glimmering flames. Faint heat waves rolled over them and kept the snow melted around the perimeter of the hole. If they strained their ears, they could hear the sound of the energy of conversion being released far up the scale of vibrations.
        "We didn't really have a chance against you," Leo said at last.
        Green erupted, staining their faces.
        "No," Hulann agreed.
        Leo went back to the car. Hulann followed.
        "Will it still fly?" Leo asked.
        Hulann bent and inspected the bottom of the craft. There was almost nothing remaining of the heavy rubber cushion rim. The metal frame was bent and ripped, but not so severely that it would push in against the blades in the recessed undercarriage. If there still were any blades under there. He looked back on the snowy highway but could not see any large dark objects that might be shafts or rotars.
        "Let's see," he said.
        The engine coughed, but turned over. They rose on the wind of the blades, though there was a steady vibration that gently rattled the frame. "Well, it runs," Hulann said. "But where do we go from here? The road ends, as you see."
        "Over the median," Leo said. "On back to the next exit. We'll