He let his next words out so slowly, he could have been experiencing physical pain in saying them. "We suspect that factions of the Brazilian government are playing with the idea of growing and training their own tame worms as weapons of war." He let that thought sink in. "We suspect that they may be intending to attack the United States again, by sending swarms of these trained worms up through Central America. We suspect that plan will backfire and that the swarms of worms will move on Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro first, but even so-the whole idea is so appalling that we have no choice but to investigate it.
"Of course, you realize," he added, "if we take any action against the Amazon mandalas without the agreement of the Brazilian government, it could be considered an act of war, and it probably will be." He spread his hands in front of him, as if to hold a very uncomfortable idea. "This whole situation is extremely delicate."
General Anderson stepped forward then. "At this point, we are not prepared to risk a war. Your mission is not to start one, not to fight one, but merely to gather intelligence on the scale of operation needed to win such a war, if and when it occurs.
"We want you to gather specific specimens and freeze them for our labs in Houston and Oakland. Other than that, we want you to minimize all direct contact with the inhabitants of the mandalas, human or Chtorran-except for those circumstances that also serve your scientific goals.
"In specific, we do not want you to initiate any military action against the mandala; but if you are. attacked, we want you to defend yourselves and get out as quickly as you can. Let me also add this: if you come into contact with any human who you think has a direct contact with the Brazilian authorities, you are to terminate that individual immediately, rather than risk any direct reports on our activities getting back."
Wallachstein added, "I don't have to tell you how dangerous this whole thing is. I want you to be careful. But most of all, I want you to get the job done. We're prepared to cover for you, more than you may realize, but please don't make our jobs any harder than necessary."
Dr. Zymph again. "I know that most of you signed on for a mission of scientific observation. And I know that you're not exactly overjoyed about having a military component to this operation. Let me put those thoughts to rest. The military aspect of this operation has been part of it from the very beginning; for obvious security reasons, it has been kept extraordinarily secret; but I want you all to understand that the immediacy of the military imperative is directly derived from the ecological crisis confronting us. There is no dichotomy here, there is no disagreement between the two branches. We are in.complete agreement about our needs and our goals.
"As most of you know; the Amazon is a particularly fragile environment. It does not repair itself easily. Great parts of it today are desert as a result of massive cutting and defoliation and other mistakes made during Brazil's industrial years. We have some experience with attempts at rain forest rehabilitation. As a result of that experience, we believe that the damage to this environment inflicted by the Chtorran infestation is irreparable; therefore, it's imperative that we find ways to limit this danger as quickly as possible. We must minimize any further damage to the planet's oxygen-balance.
"There's an additional piece of information that we haven't discussed with you until now because we weren't sure what it meant. We still aren't certain, but at least we want you to have access to our best guesses." She cleared her throat gruffly and began.
"The satellite maps of the Amazon infestations have revealed a great deal of information about the growth and expansion cycles of the mandalas. As we have previously stated, we believe that the three largest settlements are rapidly approaching a point of specific criticality. In particular, the Japuran mandala is demonstrating the clearest impending evidence of that possibilitywhich is why, despite whatever has been said in any other briefing about its undesirability, the Japuran mandala has always been our primary target." She glanced hastily at her watch. "For those of you who haven't had access to the ecological background briefings before this, I'll explain quickly. The rest of you, who've heard this before, please be patient.
"We have previously observed steadily developing cycles of rapid expansion, followed by prolonged periods of rest and stability. During these periods of rest, we see assimilation, rehabilitation, and increasing internal elaboration, as indicated by the developing intricacies of the mandala design itself. During ihese periods, each nest within the mandala will show evidence of udding more and more members, until the entire mandala begins to experience an increased density of population, eventually leading to significant crowding and periods of visible agitation and localized aggressiveness. We have even observed occasional acts of violence and possible mob frenzies actually directed against parts of the mandala itself. All of these behaviors presage a period of rapid, almost uncontrolled expansion. Also, as that point of critical mass approaches, the jungle surrounding a mandala begins to show signs of heavy exploitation, up to and including the complete denudation of the surrounding terrain.
"This denuding of the forest provides two immediate benefits lo the mandala. First, the biomass serves as raw material for the construction of new domes within the settlement, as well as protein for the gastropetles and their partners. Second, once an area has been cleared, it's easier for Chtorran vegetation to take root and claim the territory.
"This behavior has been observed prior to every major expansion of the mandalas. The Japurart mandala has been demonstrating most of these patterns for the past six weeks, and we believe ilurt it is getting very close to a point of critical mass. It could happen tomorrow, but equally, it might not happen for another six months; the longer the period of anticipation, the greater the expansion that follows. The larger the mandala gets, the longer its periods of anticipation. We have no experience with a mandala of this size, and we have been observing significant anomalies of behavior that we don't know how to interpret. Please refer to your briefing books; read them carefully.
"I don't need to remind you that extreme caution is advised here; that goes without saying; but I also want to stress the opportunity that this mission represents for expanding our knowledge of the Chtorran life cycle. Here's the specific scientific question: ecologically, the Japuran mandala is a small city. It requires water, protein, waste management, and other services that require access to arable land. Without the kind of technology that we would use to support a settlement of that size, they are at a severe disadvantage. They are at the point of diminishing returns. The volume of the settlement is greater than can be supported by the territory they have access to. In other words, the Japuran mandala is at the limit of its ability to feed itself. Expansion is impossible. Nevertheless, it is demonstrating all the precursor signs of a major expansion.
"Our LI models suggest that if it attempts to expand, it will surely collapse and 'fragment. But we know that we are missing something from our LI models. Either there are other major sources of protein available to the mandala that we are unaware of, or the next cycle of, expansion will take some entirely new and unprecedented direction. Or, perhaps, we will see some combination of the two possibilities. At this point, we just don't know; but many of us are beginning to believe that the opportunity here is unprecedented. Whatever the Japuran mandala is about to metamorphose into may represent, if not the ultimate form of the Chtorran ecology, then certainly a viable forerunner of it. That information, of course, would be invaluable." She stepped back and returned the meeting to General Wallachstein, who was frowning impatiently at his watch.
"All right. We're running late. If we don't let this ship get back into the air today, the Brazilians are going to start getting suspicious. Before we go, Dr. Zymph needs to meet privately with the observation teams. Captain Harbaugh, thank you again for the courtesy of your, ah… facilities here. General Tirelli, will you please remain. The rest of you, begin filtering your way back into the various lounges. Don't be conspicuous, but please make sure that you have been seen by at least one or more of our resident Brazilian monitors sometime in the next half hour." What he said next was out of character, and obviously hard for him to say. "Good luck. Be careful. Come home safe."