Leo Frankowski

wants
to feel that she’s doing something important. And I think that it is important that each intelligent species is trained by a human being.
They’ve got to remember that we created them, and that we’re boss. Otherwise, Uncle
Martin, I’ve hatched a monster.”
    “EMERGENCY!”
the telephone barked. “Gamma LDUs report that a U.S. bomber is twelve
minutes away. The crew has orders to accidentally drop an atomic bomb on Life
Valley!”
    “They start
quicker than we thought, Heiny!” Guibedo said, but Copernick was already giving
orders.
    “Notifiy
everyone in the valley that the bomber is out of control and heading this way.
Get everybody into the basements.
    “I want every
bird in the air, except the insect spreaders. I want every TRAC loaded with
water for fire fighting, dispersed around the valley and under cover. What’s the bomber’s
altitude?”
    “Twenty-two
thousand feet, my lord.”
    “Our birds
can’t fly that high. Get every Gamma LDU on that plane’s commander. Try to turn him
around, or at least get him to come in at five thousand feet.”
    “Yes, my lord.
They’re on it. But you know how unsuccessful the experiments with telecontrol
have been. There is a good probability that the aircraft commander will resist
or not even notice our probe.”
    “Any
suggestions?”
    “None, my lord.
Dropped from twenty-two thousand feet, that twenty-three hundred pound bomb
will be graveling
at supersonic speed. There is no chance of disarming it in flight or of
significantly deflecting its course.”
    “Then pray, my
friend. Pray,” Copernick said, heading for the communications center four
floors down.
     
    “Just like a practice run,
Colonel,” Captain Johnson had the B-3
in manual.
    “That it is,
Bill.”
    “I thought I’d
never get a chance to lay a nuke.”
    “Just do it by
the numbers.”
    “And I never
thought I’d be bombing Americans.”
    “Look, son. You
saw who gave the orders.”
    “But still, our
own countrymen?”
    “That’s just
it! They’re not our countrymen! These people have dropped out! They have abandoned America
and everything it stands for! They are doing everything in their power to destroy our society! It’s a plot more insidious than anything the Communists or the Neo-Krishnas ever
thought of! And it’s our job to stop them!”
    “But
still—”
    “Bill, I’ll
take the controls now!”
    “Colonel?”
    “It’s a
commander’s job. Anyway, I don’t want you to do anything you’d feel guilty
about.”
    “But—”
    “Enough! Kelly!
Put a chute on that egg.”
    “Aye, aye,
sir,” the flight engineer said.
    “Colonel,
you’re losing altitude,” Captain Johnson said.
    “This has to be precisely on target,
Bill. Any error and we kill real Americans
outside of Death Valley. We’ll do it
with a paradrop from five thousand feet,” the colonel said.
    They were thirty
miles and three minutes from Life Valley when they spotted a thin black cloud
ahead.
    Then they were in it.
    A twenty-pound
Canada goose bounced off the windshield. Followed by another. And another. Ahead of them, like contrails in reverse, eight long lines
of eagles, owls, and condors were flying into their jet intakes. One by one the engines choked and froze and died. The
fourteenth Canada goose took out
the windshield, spraying the cabin
with broken plastic and blood. The colonel pulled back on the controls, but they were sluggish. The plane was
losing altitude fast.
    “Kelly!”
the colonel shouted. Communications above the roar was barely possible. “Set the
bomb to detonate on impact!”
    “Are you
crazy?” Kelly yelled, disarming the bomb. “We’re too low to bail
out!”
    “I know! But
we’ve got to! They’re in my head!”
    “He is
crazy,” Kelly muttered, jettisoning the fuse and bracing for a
crash. He hit the lever to jettison the fuel, but he knew he was too late.
    The huge plane came
in near the center of the valley and erupted in a spray of broken wood and
torn aluminum. The wings sheared off, engines ripped loose, and nearly full fuel
tanks ruptured. Orange flames and black smoke poured through houses and into
basements. Huddled people screamed and died.
    One wing tank spun into Pinecroft’s side
and burst and burned. The entire side of the
hundred-foot-tall tree was a blanket
of flame. It went through the windows and up and down the elevator shaft.
    Mona and Patricia
made it to the surface in Mack, a TRAC tanker loaded with water. They set him
to