Bits and Bytes

Safari

Damn those greedy bastards! They should never have started it in first place. OK, It was another thing to start it when they had no other option. But once they had enough fund, they could not stop. Greed does that to peoples. I saw this coming. I warned them. Nobody listened. 'Just keep it under control, it will be fine' that is what they said. We will stop after a next batch. We need these fund for this and that. That is how it goes. People cant stop once they have taste of blood. Its their nature. Once they had taste of money, there was no stopping. Only next time was there. I should have taken control. I should have put end to it without waiting for their approval. I was weak. I followed their orders. I waited for someone else to take decision for me. I knew we cant control it. Now we all are going to die.

CD is looking at me like I am biggest idiot he has ever seen. Maybe I am. He did his best first time we had this problem. Now I am asking his help for sorting out mess WE made. Not by mistake, but deliberately. I should have taken control. Now whole planet is under threat. Graham is pretending that this is Raghu's fault. Like any cage was going to hold those beasts forever. Graham was first to put this madness to vote. He is our beloved leader after all. We all know, once this mess is sorted out or more precisely, IF this mess is sorted out, council will do it again. Greed is not easy to give up.

It has been 4 days. She cant get pregnant and lay eggs in 4 days. Hell, she might not have hatched from her own egg yet. But we don't know where she is, and that is the point. Once she hatched and became strong enough, there is no stopping them. She will grow and lay eggs. They will grow more in numbers. Soon they will outnumber us. Not that they need to be more in number. Every single one of them can kill 10 of us easily. Even when we are armed and they are not.

How can anyone who looked at a live one even think of using them for sport hunting? Even now when I am looking at a life size hologram, I cant imagine facing them. It is only a female one who is seriously injured. We still have her in cage. Queen bee we called her. Rather we should have been more afraid of females. They are the one with brain and hereditary memories. Male might be fearsome warriors, but females apply brain. They think and learn. Slowly, I give you that. Most intelligent female is known to have IQ of a average human. But Queen B had time to learn. she made sure her generation will live long after she is dead.

These idiots don't know what to look for. But I saw her. Now she has mocking smile on her face. She know she has succeeded. She has beaten our system. She found weakness and she exploited it. She planned and executed it perfectly. I should have been more concerned. I saw her intelligent eyes. How she observed everything. How she communicated with her children when they were in cage. I should have acted on my suspicion. Now it is too late.

I even understand what she say a bit. I learned their language from network. My proposal for a universal translator was denied. But even my proposal of such measures shows that I was aware. Still I took no action. I waited for these greedy bastards to do the right thing. What was I thinking.

Genie is sitting in corner with her usual poker face. She had this face when she was charged with murder of sectoral councillor and was scheduled to be executed for it. She never shows emotions in formal places. I only saw her smiling when she was with CD in pub after last mess they sorted out on this rock. Her training don't let her emotions come on surface. Never in official situations. She gets comfortable only with her friends. I should know, I had her in lockup for 29 days. She never blinked. Moment CD deputised her for 315 work, he had her respect and mine. Anybody with balls to deputise a sectoral councillor killer deserve respect. 

Now I am begging for his help again. First time it was a work in his long list of work. He could have bypassed it on any pretext. Nobody would have objected, but he did not passed. He took Genie and did what others can only imagine. He cleaned whole batch of brutes. Most were killed by Genie from distance. But still, he had guts to take the job. 315 declared planet uninhabitable anyway. They were right in their own mind. Once brutes infestation is established, nothing can stop it. Planet was as good as lost. 

But what choice we had ? Most had consolidated their assets to be first one on new planet. We had nowhere to go.  AtmoGen is still  working. After cleanup, we thought we can still survive. But without 315 aid, it was impossible. 315 do not aid uninhabitable planet. They have limited money and they can help a habitable planet, instead of a lost one. We were out of options. Idea came from that damn broker. He saw his percentage. Graham saw money for us to survive. We should have kept it short. But once money started flowing, all danger were forgotten. Now we pay the price. 

"You knew better". huh ? CD is looking directly at me. I can't meet his eyes.  I was the one who suggested using convicts to hunt brutes first time. Not even convicts were crazy enough to do that. Rather they had hope that staying behind bars will save them. Only Genie took chance. She had no other option. Her execution was scheduled in14 hrs. This gave her a respectable out. Going down fighting, that was what she learned. Along with how to kill. She used that. 

"It was under processing" Graham is saying. Processing ? huh. Yes Queen B was under processing. For 4yrs. Using a procedure where brutes are not killed immediately, we kept her alive. She was under processing. sure. I was the one who was required to complete process. Maybe I was also blinded by greed or maybe I got complacent. She was secured. I never thought about her eggs. Now my grandson is in danger. I allowed this danger to be created. They pressurised me for delaying the process. I gave in. 

"For 4 yrs ?" CD is fuming. He is our last hope and these idiots are making him angry. He has no obligation to help us. Don't they know? or they think that they can afford to take this lightly ? They will die screaming now. 

"How much money did you made? 1yr should have allowed you to get enough funding for proper development. 4yrs ? " CD can see through their lies. He was good at it. They can't pretend that it was for survival. 

"You must understand, we needed that money. We were new planet and were devastated by infestation." Graham is trying to buy his face with lies. He cant fool CD. CD knows things. 

"Yes I understand how much you need. You know why ? Because I deal with 20 such cases every year!" CD is angry. When you treat intelligent person like an idiot, they get angry. He has right to get angry. He was the one who saved us first time. We mistreated his generosity. He will leave us alone. He is leaving meeting room. I must do something. These idiots are drunk in money. They cant see coming death. I must ask him alone.

"CD. Please. I have a grandson. Only you can save us now." I will beg if I have to. I need him to save us. 

"You knew better Rick. You let them continue with this." His tone is accusatory. "You knew destruction a single brute can bring. Let alone a female brute. Still you let them. You are in-charge of law here. You could have killed her any time. " 

"I am sorry CD. They pressurised me and I gave in. Maybe I too was taken in by money. I can only beg you to help me. Please". His eyes are softening. Maybe he will help. Maybe he will hunt down that beast. He knows how to. He always know what to do. 

"Ok. But no more safari. All of them dead this time. Genie what do you suggest? " Genie is still her poker face. "I suggest killing the once in cage first sir. Those greedy bastards will never agree to it. We should ask L to poison them. It will take a few days for them to die. Till then, we call open season on brute hunting. More hunter in woods, more chance of them being dead. If hunters are not good enough, they will provide a bait for newborn female. She will be hungry and will go for high nutrition food. Humans are better then plants in nutrition."   Sharp as ever. Genie never seize to amaze me. As they say, it is the silent ones you should be afraid of. 

"I will tell them that I have given them sedatives to keep them docile. By the time they will find out, they will not be able to save them. I will call that Agent now for calling open season". Thanks heavens they are still willing. I should be among hunters. More bait will give Genie more chance of hunt.