PARTICULARLY EFFECTIVE IN UNKNOWINGLY SPREADING OUR COLONIES."
"Stone-Coats are far heavier than ant colonies," pointed out Mary.
"But when as small as Rocky they can still be transported using common human shipping technologies," said Running Bear.
"Much smaller implants would be possible," said Rocky, "though they would not be immediately sentient."
"We might even be able to help Stone-Coats spread beyond Earth," said Jerry unexpectedly.
"What?" Ed asked.
"Explain," said Rocky.
"I have been considering re-establishing our national space program," said Jerry.
"But all space programs have been reduced to almost nothing so that people can concentrate on climate change driven problems!" noted Mary.
"People need causes to rally around," said Jerry. "They need something inspiring to strive for. Maybe we can't fix global warming anytime soon but by God we could put humans on Mars and beyond."
"I applaud the notion," said Frank Gray Wolf. "Space exploration is mega-big science. One of my greatest concerns is that because of climate change and stingy right-wing politics, funding for most science has already disappeared. But wouldn't what you propose be truly cost-prohibitive, not to mention too energy and material resource intensive?"
"Not with Stone-Coat help," said Jerry. "They could literally grow just about everything we need in a very 'green' way. Why be limited to Earth? Stone-Coats together with humans could colonize whole new planets and asteroids. Where we delicate humans cannot live, Stone-Coats might thrive."
Rocky stood silent and motionless for several seconds before replying. "Agreed," he finally said. "We seek more details. And we also note that humans are very short lived and frequently change their decisions even over the span of their own incredibly short lifetimes."
"True, it is always good to proceed with caution when dealing with humans," agreed Running Bear. "On the human side to last very long things need to be institutionalized and made part of our culture. That is not always easy. But the lure of exploration has always been a strong motivation in humans. A new space exploration program would be welcomed by many and help with Stone-Coat acceptance by humans if the Stone-Coats support the effort and make it affordable."
"AGREED," added the jants. "THE JANTS AGREE TO ASSIST IF INCLUDED WITH SPACE COLONIZATION PLANS. OUR COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE WOULD PROVE USEFUL. WE COULD ALSO UNDER SOME CONDITIONS FUNCTION AS EFFECTIVE BIOLOGICAL TERRAFORMING AGENTS. IN ADDITION WE, NOT HUMANS, ARE NOW THE EARTH'S PREEMINENT LEADERS IN THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE FIELDS AND COULD PROVIDE SCIENCE SUPPORT."
Jerry, clearly taken by surprise, slowly nodded. "Agreed." He surveyed the meeting participants. "Again I stress to each of you that this meeting must not be disclosed to others. Human politics needs to be dealt with very carefully."
"Understood," said Running Bear. "Details remain to be established with regard to how to proceed on the several things we have discussed. Will you be staying with us for a while?"
"For only a day or two at most I think," said Jerry. "I dare not be out of Washington for longer than that."
"Super," said Mary. "I already readied some spots for you and your crew to stay in our Jant Clan Longhouse cave, assuming you won't mind bunking near the jants you created."
"We'll manage," said Jerry.
"We can also all dwell upon the new big issue we have been discussing," said Running Bear. "What I refer to is the problem of very soon making Stone-Coats known to the humans of the world in such a way that peace is maintained and we are not all destroyed."
"It is a big problem truly worthy of resolution by our Chief-for-the-month," said Mary.
"Swell," said Ed.
****