FANTASTIC PLANET v2.0 (16 page)

Expeditions
in the bush announced their return with teleboxes. They had been spending the
whole night laying the components for the barrier at the continent's strategic
points. To reach areas otherwise inaccessible, the last ship had slowly sailed
along the coast, dropping here and there commando units charged with placing
more elements.

The Oms
could already stave off a rocket attack. Two and a half million were now able
to stand up to one billion Traags!

***

The
transmitter was in place in a special room. All the intelligence was gathered
in the Council Chamber transformed in a war room from where the Aedile gave
orders.

Aedile! The
Oms from the nurseries are exhausted. They've been pushing themselves for too
long and are starting to make mistakes.'

'Relieve
them with the Oms from corridor 4. They'll swap exhaustion: some will be happy
to lie down, even with needles in their arms and others will be able to move
after two days of lying still!'

Terr turned
to
Char
.

'There are
too many babies. I should have slowed down the birth-rate. It's a useless burden.'

'Not for
later on.'

'Possibly,
but there will be no "later on" if we give way now.'

A telebox
buzzed. Char pressed on a switch:

'Yes?'

'Vail
speaking. The output is going down!'

'Why is
that?'

'The doctors
are exempting more and more Oms. I wonder how long they can hold out. Also...
there's been an accident. Almost a thousand Oms died suffocating in room 13
because of the fires.'

Char glanced
at Terr who was communicating with Sav. He deemed it unnecessary to overwhelm
him with this tragic detail.

'Hide it
from the others', he whispered in the telebox. 'Do what's required discreetly.
Have any expeditions returned?'

'Two hundred
Oms are announced at the city gate.'

'Put them on
battery duty straightaway; that way they'll get some rest.'

'There's
something else: Fifteen Oms got electrocuted in corridor 7. One of them made an
unfortunate gesture as he was sleeping. Fve already dealt with it...'

Terr was
still listening to Sav's overview of the situation.

'Well? I
know we have bombs, but we don't have any rockets to fire them. We can't wage
an offensive war.'

'Think about
it, Terr. Once the Traags realise their rockets and bubbles fall in the water,
what will they do?'

'They'll
send their landing troops by sea, of course. Then it will become an infantry
battle. Despite our limited resources, thanks to our mobility and the bush
we'll have a chance of discouraging them, and maybe even beat them.'

'What if I
gave you the means to send bombs to the ports?'

'I'd say you
were a genius or a madman. Say it anyway...'

'Listen, I
am no physicist. I know nothing about bombs and I am not in the least
interested in manufacturing or blowing them up. I leave that to engineers. But
a simple idea came to me, a naturalist's idea to send them to Traag ports.

Terr looked
both annoyed and disappointed.

'So, you're
not a genius but just a madman. Think of the time and difficulties we faced
when we crossed the ocean. We only have one ship left and you want to see it
laying bombs under the Traags' noses. The ship's batteries will just about last
for its expedition along the coast. And we'd need to design some floats!'

'Listen to
me, Terr. I know from the registers that five hundred bombs are aboard the
ship; where is it now?'

it's
crossing the prong bay carefully.'

'That's
exactly what I thought. Yesterday it'd reached Cape Black. In short, it'll soon
be at the 7.36 point in the Siwo.'

'To do what?'

'That's
where the Siwo passes near Rotten Island. It's a dumping ground for non
fertilized prong eggs which end up landing on the beach because of their light
weight. Many smash against the rocks during the tides, but quite a few remain
intact. Here are your floats! Just pierce two holes in each shell to empty
them, place the bomb inside with enough ballast to conceal the device. Filling
the holes back up is easy and engineers could find a way of setting off the
bombs as the shells break, such as beneath a Traag ship's stem.'

Terr shook
his head and said:

'This still
doesn't give me the means of sending the eggs towards the Traag continents.'

'Unfold a
map, dear Aedile. You'll see two interesting currents quite capable of
diverting the eggs towards their goal: the Return Siwo which bears north and
fans out towards A North and A South's bases; and the great Equatorial Current
which heads directly to B North's coastline. I must admit the explosions will
occur at random on that continent
!...
If I was a Traag
Councillor, that's where I'd give theorder to take to the sea. The Return Siwo
can't miss the moored Traag ships. Even if some of the bombs miss their
targets, the sunken ships would lose many landing troops that we wouldn't need
to fight off. As for the other explosions, imagine their effect on the Traags'
morale! Having failed because of our telebarrier, they'll see us as a dangerous
enemy and we may then reach a peaceful agreement based on coexistence. It'll
just be a question of diplomatic bluffing.'

'Oh dear!
Don't get carried away', said Terr. 'I must
admit it's a good idea. Listen, we have time as the ship will be in the prong
bay for another two hours. I'm giving you a free hand to gather the specialists
needed to study the plan. You'll have to manage on your own to find where they
are. By the way, where are you posted?'

'Where do
you think a naturalist is posted? I'm back with the herd and I've just spent
two days lying down in corridor 7, which gave me ample time to think about the
prongs.'

'And how are
you faring?'

'My legs are
like jelly and my arms are aching, but that will not stop me from finding
specialists.'

'Good luck!'

Terr switched
off the telebox and turned towards Char who was writing something dictated to
him by a machine. He looked pale.

The Aedile
leant over and felt his heart stop as he read:

"Pillage
unit 104, changed to an intelligence unit. Posted at Klud (A South)... (
indecipherable
)... new Great Traag Council chaired
exceptionally by Master Singh voted on the... (
indecipherable
)...
announcing that ten rockets will be launched on the Wild Continent's High
Plateaus at 28 hours, 7 x. -1 repeat. - (indecipherable)..."

A mass upsurge had caused the
Traag First Councillors to lose their seats. In order to appease the unrest it
was announced that Master Singh would be taking over.

A massive Om
hunt had been launched spontaneously on the four artificial continents. The
Traags went as far as burning parks and any old suspicious buildings. The
murderous frenzy caused Oms to appear all over the place. They came out in
gangs from the smoked out gutters, ran through the streets screaming, got out
of wastelands encircled by flames and ran away in large panic-stricken groups.
Though they had been warned, the Traags never expected to see so many. The hunt
had revealed the unbelievable number of free Oms who survived by plundering at
the expense of the Traags. The more they killed, the more were found to be
killed.

Terror made
them aggressive. They bit in passing, leapt from their holes to throw all sorts
of projectiles in the hunters' faces as they were leaning over them. Some had
invaded arsenals and stood up to an all out siege by throwing ray grenades.

Yet some
Traags had stayed home. Dismayed by the turn of events they were in tears as
they caressed their harmless Oms prior to sacrificing them. Others refused to
obey their neighbours, sometimes even their relatives. They claimed out loud that
their Oms had remained good animals with no intelligence and they defended them
with all their strength. Others acted through trickery: they showed
unidentified corpses and said they had killed their Oms when they were in fact
keeping them hidden.

Most of the
victims were wild Oms stunned by the Traags' sudden wrath after so many
tolerant years. Those who had been part of the old port had sensed the danger
long ago. They had taken cover in hiding places where they could not be found
and continued as best as they could to give information by telebox to the city
on the Wild Continent. Others, more active, blew up public buildings and
communication routes.

Meanwhile
Master Singh benefitted from an old title which had become obsolete for aeons.
He was called the Supreme Aedile and had absolute power. He was surrounded by
advisers in one of Klud Palace's rooms and was staring at an illuminated Ygam
planisphere.

At twenty
eight hours seven, three blue dots lit up south of A North and seven others A
South's coastline. The rockets were heading for the Wild Continent. They were
carrying payloads aimed at the High Plateaus and their trajectory could be seen
converging on the map.

When the
flight paths neared the continent, Master Singh gripped his mattress's armrests
and leant forward.

'This time
!...
' he said.

But to
everyone's astonishment the bright lines suddenly went out. A second of deep
silence ensued. Then everyone cried out, doubting the planisphere's screen and
commenting disagreeably on the engineers' merit. Master Singh stretched out a
membrane to quieten down the commotion.

'Go and
check!' he said.

A Traag
grabbed a telebox as it was receiving a call.

'What? Yes,
the rockets... well? Are you sure
?...
I'll refer
immediately to the Supreme Aedile.'

He put the
telebox down, his red eyes showing sorrowful amazement, and said:

'The ten
rockets fell into the sea.'

Master Singh
did not let his feelings show.

'Send ten
more rockets from the B Continents', he said coldly.

Fifteen
minutes later the new rockets met the same fate as the previous ones.

'They have a
barrier!' someone said, it's incredible!'

The Supreme
Aedile gave the order to bomb for an hour without stopping. The missiles could
be seen going out steadily as they neared the continent.

Reconnaissance
spheres were sent out. They did not return. Then, his heart aching, Master
Singh ordered landing ships to be launched.

'The engines
will probably stop near the coast', he said. 'Our Traags will then swim. At
least we're excellent swimmers and superior to the Oms in this respect.'

An hour
later, terrible news reached the Palace. Out of forty ships, thirty had been
hit by unknown devices and had sunk not far from the port. The surviving troops
were getting panicky and the Supreme Aedile

cancelled
his orders. He held his head in his hands in
the midst of widespread dismay.

'It's
dreadful', he whispered. 'I never imagined how right I was!'

Just then a
telebox rang.

'What
disaster can this be!' sighed Master Singh.

A Traag
leant over the telebox and cried out:

'Send the
text immediately.'

He turned
towards the old disheartened Traag:

'Supreme
Aedile', he said. 'We've just picked up a broadcast from the Oms. They're
making us a proposal.'

In the High Plateaus city, far
from crowing over their victory the Oms were anxiously waiting for a reply from
the Traags. They were exhausted by the night's
fighting,
even though most had done little more than lying down to give current for the
transmitter.

In the
Council Room, Terr was fiddling nervously with the text of his proposal. He was
chewing over it in a low voice:

"For
many years now, millions of Oms have embarked secretly for the Wild Continent.
There, we have built a civilisation equal to yours. Traags, why continue with a
pointless war when you can only gain from collaborating with us? We are not
your enemies. We are merely defending ourselves. It would be easier for us to
burn down your capital cities..."

Terr sighed
and threw the document on the table.

'This bluff
is our last chance', he said. 'We only have enough current left to deflect
another twenty rockets. The Oms can't hold out much longer. There are only a
few hundred thousand left, as the others had to be gradually exempted.'

Char put his
hand on his shoulder.

it's
no use getting upset. Anyway, we'd have led
wretched lives with the Traags. Thanks to you we've lived an amazing adventure.
Besides, nothing says that...'

A telebox
rang. Vail rushed onto it and looked up immediately, his cheeks red with
excitement.