The Girl and the Giant

A BioPunk story by angerbda

Enceladus, the giant, was once more at work. The ground had been quaking non-stop for almost a week now. The Greek giant had breathed one more time its fumes from deep under the crust.

Enceladus was dying...   

~~~

"Is it true?" The girl entered the office without a pause, the quiet knock seldom announcing her.

"Good morning to you, too!" The man sitting behind the desk did not raise his head from the document he was reading with attention. "What do you want, Magda?"

The girl observed her boss with impatience. She sat, not waiting for his authorization to take a seat. She was not in the mood to exchange polite words or to follow social conventions.

"I don't have time for riddles," he added, distracted.

Mike Hollister, the recently appointed director, was having a bad day. Taking after the man who created the special branch and led many agents to become the ultimate protectors of the Church of the Invisible Pink Unicorn was not a sinecure. The position had the regrettable advantage of leaving one open to many blessings. In the case of the Church of the IPU, the blessings often translated in the laundry turning a suspect pink colour and many socks ended up orphan...

The girl, having paused at her boss' tone, observed him a moment, her eyes roaming the crumpled hair, the missing button on the shirt and the mess of documents on the desk. Under it, the man tapped his feet in a staccato, following a tempo only he could hear.

A visitation, she thought with a smile. The pink hue of the socks he was wearing confirmed the recent coming of Her Exalted Invisibility in the laundry room of the man.

"Look..." Mike raised his head and locked his gaze on the girl, "it's already a long day, and it just started. What got you in a temper?"

"I just saw the Reverend. He was back from the spaceport. He said that the colony on Enceladus wasn't evacuating any more." Magda's ire was back in her tone. "They only evacuated the directors of the colony, no one else has been sent back." She was shaking her head, angry at the idea of the cowards leaving the people under their care to sure death.

The dream of mankind had turned short on the green slopes near the Northern pole of the Saturn moon. Like its mythological namesake, Enceladus was moving and breathing, tremors and volcanic eruptions reducing the future of the small number of inhabitants to a simple equation: run into the wilderness, or remain within the falling walls of the crumbled dome. In other words, a choice between death or death.

"Are we going or no?" Magda inquired, still fuming at the game of men in power focused on their own personal agenda.

"What do you think I've been trying to do since dawn?" Mike barked, exasperated by her attitude. Any thoughts in the girl's mind stopped as she looked at her boss with confusion.

"Sorry, boss! I let my manners slip for a moment," she apologised with a trembling smile. "So, when do we leave for Saturn?"

~~~

"This is revolting!" Magda's anger sparked again. Listening to the opinions of the self-appointed experts revolted her.

As night replaced daylight, the girl tried to relax in front of the tube, exhausted after a long day planning the evacuation of the colony on Enceladus. The worst had been to realise that the high-ranking members in the government of her Pink Invisibility—bless her sacred hooves—just dismissed the people from the small moon as if they were insignificant.

Not many lived in the colony, it was a fact, and with the situation there was a chance many had died. However, just treating them as collateral damage, and saying that Her Pink Greatness would welcome them in Her Invisibility was insensitive. Who did they think they were?

Using their pseudo-inhumanity was diving even deeper in the manure coating their mind.

Humals had no place to be on Earth, they said. Humals were no part of Her Pink Hooved creation.

The human had no right to play god, Magda thought.

"Stop brooding!" she admonished herself, "and start focusing!"

Two days. She had two days to prepare for the flight to Enceladus.

Since she had heard about the situation on Saturn moon, she had tried to find every piece of information available in the Church library and the archives of the department. The information she gathered ranged from the time of the terraformation and techniques used, to the bioengineering of a subspecies—the humals—and the strange hydrothermal activity in an otherwise really cold environment. After all, Enceladus main activity and reason to be was the harvest of water, the resource being so scarce back on Earth.

"We don't want those monsters here!" a woman was shouting at the camera.

Other voices joined the outraged self-respecting woman and the college of pseudo-scientists explaining the reasons to deny a chance at life to some people on a faraway moon.

As Magda watched the screen, she pondered about her faith. Mainly in humanity, as nothing had yet come to disturb her beliefs, she reminded herself.

In all this mess, what fascinated Magda was the concept of humals. Not human anymore, not animal yet, the hybrid species had been created to survive the harsh conditions on Enceladus. The fact that no human could survive long outside of the dome had prompted a not-so-ethical solution.

The distinction between civilisation and humanity was an interesting frontier, Magda thought. And as it went, she added to herself, the so-called civilisation seemed less and less humane...

~~~

"Relax, girl!"

The troupe-transporter was approaching its destination, a small patch of stable land near the crumbling dome. Magda never really thought about how Saturn's ring could look like from close. Saturn's rings were not too different than the Asteroid Belt, she pondered. After all, there is nothing less than a rock to look like another. They were just a bit more concentrated and in a greater number in the belt.

"Stop fidgeting!"

Magda decided to ignore her boss a bit longer. The view on the deck screen was mesmerising. As the vessel descended to the small moon, the tremors shaking the crust were becoming more obvious. The south end of Enceladus was shrouded in black fumes, the volcanic activity obviously more intense in that area. Luckily, she assured herself, they were bound for the other side.

"You know, girl, the more I know you, the more I see my father in you. No wonder he was your mentor at the academy. You sure you want to continue in this direction?"

Mike did not really mind the strange mood of his subordinate. She was a good agent, most of the time. If only she wasn't so obstinate and tried to see the bigger picture sometimes. She tended to blunder on a monumental level when her beliefs were in doubt. She could not handle well the questioning of her faith, but he had a good notion that he would succeed, one day, in making a sceptic of her. When she would reach this stage, she would be one of the best agents out there.

Mike could see the excitation growing on Magda's face. She was impatient for the adventure, but a shadow covered her eyes.

"What is the problem?" he asked, curious.

"What do you think we'll find, down there?" She wished the setting of this evacuation mission had not taken so long. Would they find many dead or many survivors?

"Can you do anything about it at the moment?"

"Not really..." She realised there was nothing she could do.

"Okay. So... how long is it, already, before we reach? Is the contact open yet with the colony?" she continued with a somehow more positive tone. She decided she would worry in private. Her boss would never understand if she continued to carry on.

~~~

"What did Sid say?"

Mike and Magda, along with the small rescue team, had reached the dome with seldom any hiccups. Sure, the ground was still shaking, but it was more like a dry cough than a case of hiccups, though.

"Sid confirmed what we thought. The colony is cramped in the east quarter, where the walls are still intact." Mike sorted through his notes. They had found few traces of survivors so far. Nothing had prepared them for the sight of devastation.

"But why so few?" Magda was still taken aback by the situation. "And where are the humals?"

"Sid said they started to run outside as soon as the dome field went down." The man scratched his chin, pensively. "I don't think they ran away, though..."

"What do you mean?"

"Let's go see Sid. He'll get us to the people we need to evacuate," Mike said, turning his back to the girl. She could only shake her head at his authoritative tone and his lack of an answer.

Sid was the colony deacon. Since the members of the council had left Enceladus—or rather had fled the moon, leaving the rest of the colony to fend for themselves—the man had been the only figure of authority remaining. It was a stretch from his usual occupation. Administering the rites was a long way from administering a city.

"Are they all here, Sid?" Mike asked the smaller man. There was a striking contrast between his friendly and opened, round face and the deep sorrow clouding his eyes.

"All accounted for, Hollister. It is a bit cramped, but they are alive." He led the small group of rescuers from Earth across a maze or crumpled house facades and chunk of concrete.

The dome had been erected in a protected zone, circled by a rocky fence. It was nowhere like the mountain range they could see on the horizon, but it provided a natural barrier against the elements. At this time, it was also the only safe place for the few people remaining.

"Is it not dangerous to stay in those galleries?" Magda looked out for any signs of cracks in the ceiling above her head. "I would like getting buried alive in here," she added as she fought to control her wobbly legs, which was a difficult task made by the incessant tremors.

"The walls have been injected with geosynth goo... well, the technical is a bit more complex." Sid blushed. "But I can't seem to remember the proper name for it. Basically, it's glued from inside and there are few chances it will come apart." The deacon continued his explanation about the time of the settlement, the dome installation and the way they had used the galleries inside the cliff as a temporary site.

"The good thing with this," Sid added, "is that we have a well-equiped medic bay and even a couple of labs from the University. Even the kitchen and showers are in mint condition, even since all this time as passed."

There was surprisingly no noise in the enclosed space. After a short moment of the walk through the tunnel, Mike and Magda entered a large room filled with people. All wore desperation on their faces. It was like they'd abandoned hope. The girl could not understand why. The evacuation team took longer to reach them, but they had been warned soon enough after the departure of the council members that they would also leave the moon.

"Is that everyone?" Mike asked. The group seemed not as big as he expected. "I was given a bigger number for the evacuation."

Sid hesitated. "All humans are accounted for. The colony never had been carrying too many..."

"So. Where are the humals?" Magda looked for the presence of a hybrid or two. In answer to her question, she heard some shushed exclamation. What was the problem? she asked herself.

Sid's uneasiness grew. He started to explain the rift between the people from the colony and the experiments. He would not give them any other name than that: experiments; as if it explained and justified the apparent rejection of the other inhabitant on Enceladus.

"We don't need those freaks!" someone shouted. A rumble of agreement joined in. A bit further away, a chorus of critics came up. It seemed that the consensus was on. The humals had no place to be, no reason to be.

"What's the issue here?" Mike asked. "We have to evacuate everyone, we cannot leave anyone behind."

Sid tried to explain the view of the community. There never really had been an established contact between the human and the humals. The latter had been used to carry on tasks and labour outside the dome, but no real position had ever been given to them.

"You mean, it's like with the droids?" Magda asked. "I thought we had accepted other sentients since the Papal Bull a century ago."

"Well"—Sid grasped at his words—"in theory, the droids are now considered like any other humans, but they don't really have the same rights. They can vote and work, pay taxes and own a house, but they cannot run for election, they cannot be on the Church hierarchy. Are they really our equals? Some are wondering if they are really part of Her Pinkness' creation, considering it was mankind who created them..."

"Times are changing," Magda tried. She was not sure what to say at this point. She never really had thought about the droids' place on Earth considering there were none since more decades than she was old. It seemed easy to accept them as human as she was, or on the same level as the aliens on the Green planet.

"We are not here to rebuild the world, girl," Mike told her in a low voice. "We need to proceed with the evacuation plan."

As the plan was set in place for the near departure, the people around them started to manifest more interest in packing and leaving than protesting the possible presence of some mixed species among their numbers.

There would be three groups. The injured and overall weaker composed the first group to be evacuated. Those could leave as soon as the spaceship would be ready. Another vessel would replace it before it could complete the journey back to Saturn's moon.

Magda led them through the ruins of the dome to the landing pad. A young boy, probably no older than five, was throwing a tantrum. The mother could not quiet him and force him to follow. He was shouting a name and wanted to run back to the rocky wall.

"What is the matter here?" Magda tried to hide her irritation at the boy's attitude. The ground was shaking as much as when they arrived, and they needed to get out of the area. It did not look too good. "Who is he calling? Does he want his father? He left his teddy bear?"

"He's looking for his friend," the mother tried to explain, her voice seldom reaching above the wails of the son.

"Whatever," Magda mumbled some choice of bird names. "Okay, let's go! If you cannot get him," she told the mother, "I'll carry him. We need to get out of here, I'm not sure those facades won't fall on us."

She turned to the small boy with her extended arms when he started to run.

"Come on!" Magda had no time to think and ran after the fleeing boy. "Get out of here," she shouted to the rest of the group, "continue to the land-pad. I'll join you back before you reach. Stay in the open!"

The girl did not run long before she found the boy. He stood back straight, legs apart, on a block of concrete. His arms reached out toward a small figure, not two meters away from him.

So, that was what humals were all about, Magda thought. The apparition in front of the runaway boy was smaller than him, humanoid in shape and surprisingly quite human in attitude. This, the girl observed, was another little boy. The friend. The only two things distinguishing them were the size and the apparent long ears on the head of the smaller one.

~~~

After settling the first evacuation group in the vessel, with some drama from the young boy who did not want to leave without his friend, Magda was impatient to find some answer. She finally had met one humal, and, for all she could see, she could not understand the outcry from before. This little fellow was quite a funny boy, in character much more than in appearance.

"We really don't know how it happened," an old disheveled man was explaining.

Back under the protection of the natural walls, she had chased down one of the University scientists to press him with questions. It appeared that no one really understood how humals came to be. Many of the early experiments had failed, similar to what had happened with other attempts at bringing human-animal hybrids to life.

"There had been an incident where a fire happened in one of the labs and water from a natural reservoir was used to take it down. It seems that some of the water got mixed in a test-tube. The only embryo from this tube succeeded."

"You mean that all it needed was some water, like a plant?"

"No, what I mean is that there was something in the water that helped the sample of the two different DNA to combine. After a time, the researchers of that time identified the missing element. There are some native macromolecular organisms that can be found in the sediments. The hole where they used to collect their water, at the time, was lined with them."

The old man went on explaining the complex steps of creating life.

At this point, Magda was lost, and not really interested any more. "Hmm... Excuse me, sir, there is something I need to do," she interrupted him.

So, the girl pondered, this sounded like a lucky fluke.

She went to see Mike and Sid. The air was tense. "What's the matter, boss?" she asked, but was ignored.

"I can't spare men now," Hollister was saying, "we are already operating on limited resources. The second ship shall have been here earlier. As soon as they land and the next group is ready to fly back to Earth, I promise you." He nodded to Sid.

"What's the issue, boss?" the girl asked one more time, with more insistence.

"It's the humals outside," the deacon answered. "They are nowhere to be found."

The young hybrid she had brought back with her had delivered a worrying message before getting away. The humals outside the dome had set camps on hunting grounds as they were supplying the colony. With the difficult situation under the dome, they decided to stay more permanently in these camps. But the campsites were now empty.

The evacuation plan continued to unravel as two new spaceships from Europa landed a couple of hours later. Two of the three remaining groups could finally leave the shaking moon. The next and last transport was not expected before another day at this point.

"Let's go and see what happened to the other half of the moon population," Mike told Magda.

They quickly formed a small troupe ready to head toward the nearest of the deserted camp.

"We really need all this stuff?" the girl asked as she was taking the measure of the protective suit and respiratory equipment.

The medic who would accompany them explained that, even though the air was breathable outside the dome, it was poisonous to human. A short exposition would have no impact, but the longer they stayed out, the more they would risk. The increasing volcanic activity on the small moon was also increasing the negative effects.

As they started toward the exit, the old scientist caught up with them. He pulled Magda by the hand and quickly talked. "I meant to tell you. The thing no one understood about the failed experiment finally succeeding... those organisms in the water... there is no logical reason for their presence on the moon. They are not from the Saturn system or any other planet of the Solar system for what matters..."

For some reason, he found this information important for her to have. She had no time for the man, though, and just nodded, then followed after the others.

~~~

"I really don't understand." Mike's puzzled gaze fell on his surroundings. This was the third campsite they had found empty. Traces of recent activity could be observed, but there was no print to follow whoever used to live there. It was like they had disappeared in a flash.

"Let's pack and go back to the dome. There's nothing we can do here. It's like they disso—"

"Boss! You need to see that!" Magda was pointing to a tall figure in the distance. "Is that Redhook?"

What were the pirates doing in this mess? Mike's mind was racing to compute the information. Nothing made sense. The famous pirate looked at them, standing still. Another figure joined him. Then another one, and another one... a small group gathered around him. All with distinctive features. Here, some long ears, there broad shoulders and hairs like a mane.

They had finally found the humals.

Hollister was the first to move. He started into the direction of the group then stopped. Where had they gone? He blinked his eyes rapidly. The place they had been just seconds before was well and empty.

He turned toward Magda, the look on her face confirmed it to him. This had not been a hallucination. A total mystery, indeed. For the first time, he could not fathom what the pirates were up to.

As they returned to the security of the dome and the rocky walls, Mike pondered about his report to the Church Hierarchy.