Chapter Twenty-One – Paperclip Battle
Belinda was yowling, and Carrie could hear the pings of placktoids bouncing off Gavin’s exoskeleton.
“Most odd. Most odd,” he said.
Carrie spun around, disorienting herself. She didn’t dare move too far in case she fell into the pit, nor peek between her fingers, but she remembered Dave had been standing by the exit. “Dave, where are you?”
“Over here.”
Her arms spread in front of her, Carrie stepped hesitantly towards her friend’s voice, cringing at the paperclip strikes, which felt like bee stings. “Open the door.”
“I can’t. I haven’t got the neutraliser.”
“Ow.” A placktoid had struck just below her nose. The strength of their impact seemed to be increasing. But Dave wasn’t making a sound. “Aren’t they attacking you?”
“No, they’re attacking Belinda and Gavin, mostly. Get over here. Maybe they’ll leave you alone.”
The frequency of hits did seem to diminish as Carrie neared Dave. He grabbed her arm and pulled her towards him. The jabs from the mechanical aliens stopped. She opened her eyes. She was at the closed door. Back at the open hatchway, Gavin was looking as bemused as an insect can while the paperclips pinged off his shell. Belinda was swinging the torch round in a futile attempt to ward off the attack.
Carrie swallowed, hard, and called, “Belinda, come over to the door. It looks like they’re staying in that area. You’ll be safe here. Gavin, we have to get out.”
Belinda began to shuffle towards Carrie and Dave, voicing regular expressions of pain as the paperclips hit her around her face and head and along her outstretched arms. Gavin didn’t move, but instead gazed into the hatch from which the aliens were swarming.
“Hey, I think they’re growing,” shouted Dave.
“That is impossible,” said Gavin.
Carrie peered at the swirling silver mass around the hole in the floor and the separate mass that encircled Belinda as she edged closer. It was difficult to tell, but she suspected Dave was right.
Belinda had crossed more than half the distance to the exit, but as she drew nearer the aliens followed. She wasn’t leaving them behind.
“Ow,” said Carrie as a paperclip flew into her neck. “Oh no, they’re coming over here with her. Go back, Belinda, go back.”
“No, I’m getting away from these things.”
“You aren’t getting away. They’re following you.”
Gavin, despite standing right next to the open hatch, was no longer being hit. He watched the clouds of placktoids zooming around Belinda.
“Ow,” shouted Carrie as another alien hit her. “Stop. Go away.” But it was too late. Belinda and her attackers had come too close.
“Ouch,” cried Dave. He dashed to the opposite side of the room, which was empty for the moment. Carrie ran to join him.
“Am I nearly there? Where are you?” called Belinda. “Where’s the door? Ow. Ouch.”
“It’s you they’re after,” called Carrie. “They aren’t attacking anyone else. Just you.”
“Oh no! Ouch. What am I going to do? Help. Help me.”
“Gavin, what can we do?” called Dave.
“Most perplexing,” he said.
Belinda was performing a mad dance as she waved the torch around her head. She set off in a different direction across the room, but wherever she went the aliens followed. Carrie and Dave kept carefully out of her way.
Belinda’s erratic, desperate movements generated in Carrie a tiny twinge of sympathy. “Maybe we can open the door, push her into the corridor, and close the door quickly behind us.”
“Look at her,” said Dave. “She’s swarming with them. They’ll follow her and the rest of us out.”
Carrie rubbed her face, where most of the placktoids had hit. The idea of being pursued around the spaceship by the small, vicious creatures didn’t appeal. She watched Belinda as she gyrated. Why were they attacking only her? What was different about her? What had she said about herself? A crease formed between Carrie’s eyes. That was it, she thought, she said she was half-dandrobian.
“Oh, please—ow—someone help me,” called Belinda.
“Gavin, what’s a dandrobian?” asked Carrie.
“The predominant sentient species of the planet Dandrobia.”
Carrie sighed. “Is there something about them that planktoids hate?”
“Not that I’m aware of. I do not believe the two species come into regular contact, in fact.”
“Can’t someone do something?” cried Belinda. “Any of you? Ouch. Ow.”
It had to be something else. Were they attacking her because she was tall? No, Dave was tall, too. Because she was shouting? No, Carrie had also shouted. What did she have that no one else in the room had? Carrie watched the aliens sweeping through the light from the torch. They reminded her of something. She strained to remember. The image came to her. The paperclips were behaving like moths around a flame. Though they circled, they always returned to the light. She remembered the tiny placktoids rising up along the torch’s beam from the hole in the floor. She shouted, “The torch. Turn off the torch.”
“What? Why?”
“They’re attracted to the light. Turn it off.”
Belinda fumbled for the switch, her eyes still closed. As the beam disappeared, the aliens’ energy dissipated. Their flying slowed until they drifted down like metallic snowflakes to the floor, where they lay moving feebly.
Putting the torch in her bag, Belinda smoothed her hair. Her face and hands were a mass of pink lines and shallow scratches. Two placktoids were caught in her tawny locks. She disentangled them and threw them down.
“Well,” she said, “thank goodness that’s over. Horrid things.”
Carrie looked at Dave, an eyebrow raised. “You’re welcome.”
“I’m sorry?” said Belinda.
“I said, you’re welcome. My saving you from the paperclips was no problem.”
“Oh, that.” Belinda waved a hand. “I was just thinking the same thing. About how the paper—I mean, placktoids—must be following the light from the torch.”
Carrie’s mouth fell open. She turned to Dave, who shrugged.
“Very, very strange,” said Gavin. His head was bent close to the small mechanical aliens on the floor.
Carrie could not decide who, between Belinda and Gavin, she wanted to hit most. “Gavin, I swear, you say that one more time—”
“Baby placktoids,” said Gavin.
“Yes, we did notice,” said Carrie.
“Not possible.”
“Ermm...” Carrie gestured to the small placktoids shifting slowly around them.
“Placktoids are mechanical. They build new members of their species. They have no juvenile stage.”
“Maybe they’re just small ones,” said Dave.
“I have never seen a placktoid even approaching this diminutive size,” said Gavin, “nor can I think what possible use such a small creature might have in their society. Furthermore, I believe you were correct. Look there.”
Carrie studied the aliens Gavin indicated. They seemed identical except for one thing. “They’re different sizes.”
“They grew while they were attacking us,” said Gavin. “Placktoids do not grow. And see here.” Two neatly severed paperclip halves were on the floor. A thin blue liquid dribbled from their ends. “Unfortunately a paperclip flew into my inner mandibles during the attack and cut itself in two.”
“What’s that blue stuff? Antifreeze or something?” asked Carrie.
“I believe it to be a form of blood. An unfortunate loss of life, but an accident.”
“They can bleed?” asked Dave.
“Again, no, placktoids do not bleed. But this one and presumably all its companions do. It appears the placktoids are developing biological parts and have instigated an intensive breeding programme. This is a most serious matter. Habitable planets are few and far between in the galaxy. The population growth of every species must be sustainable. The placktoids were granted permission to settle on the oootoon planet because the land area is unused, but their numbers cannot grow indefinitely. I cannot imagine why they would want to develop these excessive breeding methods.”
“But they still need materials to grow,” said Belinda. “They must pay for those, or acquire them somehow.”
“No, indeed,” said Gavin. “These were growing with the aid of one primary resource.”
“Light,” said Carrie.
Gavin lifted his back legs and rubbed them together. “Perhaps carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, too, in a manner similar to many plant species. We must search further, and try to find out not only where the placktoids are, but what they are doing. A further concern of mine is that these juvenile placktoids are aggressive.”
The spaceship seemed to drop from beneath Carrie’s feet. Her stomach lurched. “What was that?”
“The spaceship’s course has become unstable. I believe we may soon begin our descent to the planet,” said Gavin.
“Here’s hoping for a soft landing,” said Dave.