Chapter 46
Containment
Mo contacted his Army liaison, Colonel Pollard, and advised him he needed the Army Corps of Engineers to go out to the Independence site to immediately start excavation of a water barrier around a new uplift that had been discovered. Colonel Pollard had a lot of questions but Mo declined to answer them on the grounds that such information was classified. Colonel Pollard didn’t like that answer but he agreed to obey the order and not ask questions. By nightfall dozens of bulldozers were working frantically to dig a 20' moat around the Independence site. Unfortunately a project like that would take several days to accomplish even with a dozen bulldozer’s working 24/7, so Mo used the time to locate water to fill the moat once it was constructed.
He first went to the county water district but was not so politely declined assistance. Water in the desert was a scarce commodity and nobody believed they had any extra to sell no matter what the price. The manager did give him the number of a water well drilling company and he suggested they go that route. That didn’t seem feasible as Mo thought drilling a well would take too much time, but after talking to a salesman he was told for the right price they could have one built in a few days. Praying the salesman knew what he was talking about, Mo ordered two 2000ft wells be drilled.
Fortunately the Nanomites seemed satisfied with building their new cathedral and were making great progress each day. Mo noticed the workers spending a lot of time watching the structure as it seemed to change on an hourly basis. He wondered if they were keeping their mouths shut as they were instructed to do, or was it only a matter of time before pilgrims would be showing up like they had at Bat Mountain.
When Agent Sanders, Jack and Dolly finally showed up two days later, Mo was relieved that they had brought some Nanomites with them to try to talk the Independence swarms into returning to Bat Mountain. But when he found out Jack had learned how to communicate with the Nanomites, he was flabbergasted.
“I didn’t even know that was possible,” Mo complained. “Hell, I have been trying to learn Tari so I could talk to Kulchz, but my God, I thought the French I took in high school was bad, but it was nothing compared to Tari.”
Linkh smiled. “If you come to the ship they can give you drugs and put probes on your forehead that will accelerate your learning and allow you to become fluent in Tari in just a few days.”
“Wow. I’ll have to try that,” Mo said. “So, how is this going to work?”
“We are close enough now for the Nanomite swarmmasters to talk,” Jack advised. “They are probably already at it. We’ll give them some time and then I’ll try to make contact with them to see what their mood is like.”
“Try?”
“Yeah, try. So, far I’ve only been able to listen to them. Hopefully I will be able to convey thoughts to them.”
Mo rolled his eyes skeptically. “I can’t believe you can hear them, let alone transfer thoughts to them. How in the hell did you figure out how to do it?”
“Well, Linkh tested me and said I had the gift and it was just a matter of learning how to use it. Knowing that gave me the motivation to try to develop the skill and the confidence I needed to succeed.”
“Okay, that makes sense, but I’m still having a hard time accepting it.”
Jack shrugged. “You and me both, but I did hear the Nanomites, so now I know Linkh was right.”
“Well, they should have had enough time to confer. Why don’t you do your magic and find out if they are going back to Bat Mountain peacefully or if we are going to have to make this their permanent home, God forbid.”
Jack nodded, walked over to the truck and put down the tailgate. He looked at the crystal cube for a long moment and then closed his eyes. He imagined a Nanomite in the image Linkh had described to him and concentrated. He didn’t feel anything so he began thinking of the Bat Mountain site. Nothing happened so he pictured in his mind two Nanomites face to face hoping they’d understand he wanted to know what they had decided. Nothing happened for a long minute and then he felt a strange sensation deep in the left side of his brain. A second later an image of men loading many cubes into a truck flashed in his mind. He smiled and pictured himself with the Nanomite bowing in thanks.
“Okay. I think they’ve agreed to go back,” Jack blurted out.
Mo laughed. “Seriously?”
“Yes, I can’t talk to them because I don’t speak Tari but the images we exchanged were clear. They are going to build transport cubes and once they are all built you can arrange for them to be taken back to Bat Mountain.”
“So, how long will it take?”
“Well, it will probably take about 24 hours. That’s how long it took to build this cube. Since there will have to be more of them, it might take a bit longer.”
Mo shook his head skeptically. “Okay. But I’m not stopping work on the moats until all the cubes are loaded into trucks.”
“They really didn’t have any choice,” Jack said. “They are a peaceful, rational life form and they don’t want a war, particularly one they could never win.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Now, if we had murdered a bunch of them, they wouldn’t have been so easy to convince.”
“Probably not,” Mo agreed.
Agent Sanders walked over to them. “So, what’s the word?”
“It appears they’ve agreed to go home,” Mo said.
Agent Sanders smiled. “Fantastic. Nice job, Jack.”
Agent Sander’s radio in her car beeped. She walked over to it and answered. “Sanders.” She listened for a moment and then sighed heavily. “Crap!”
“What’s wrong?” Mo asked.
“I had an agent track down the driver of the dump truck who stole your sand. I wanted to make sure they hadn’t stolen more than one load.”
“Yeah?” Jack said. “So, what did he find out?”
“That was the second load.”
“Oh, Jesus! Where did the other load go?”
“It went out yesterday to another house in the same neighborhood. I’m afraid it’s already been unloaded.”
“So, what should we do?” Jack asked.
“Get in your truck and follow me to the site. Your Nanomite friends have more work to do.”
Jack closed his eyes and pictured the dump truck emptying a load of sand into a concrete mixer. He hoped the image was getting through to the Nanomites and they’d figure out what needed to be done. “Okay, let’s go. I hope the Nanomites escaped from the sand before they went through the cement mixer. If not, they all may be dead.”
Agent Sanders looked at Mo and then back at Jack. “Yes, let’s pray they did. Come on. Let’s go.”
Jack put the tailgate back up and then climbed into the truck. Mo got in the passenger side seat and Dolly went with Agent Sanders. They both pulled out of the parking lot in a cloud of dust heading for what they hoped and prayed wouldn’t be a tomb for millions of Nanomites.