The Age of Discovery, Chapter 22: Microsia Aquatica Symbiotica

“Stay with the ship,” I tell Barron Wolfe as Lyra, Gyro, Rand and I hop from Cyclops’ deck onto the lowest platform of the Microsian colony, the nearest thing to a dock that I have seen since our departure from Duckweed Base.  I tighten the strap of my satchel, feeling the weight of its contents resting against my hip.  I signal to Rand, indicating for him to lead the way. 

To my right, there is no partition or seawall to prevent an accidental misstep and tumble into the enclosed sea, or to prevent waves from flooding into the city – an obvious contrast to seaside communities from our world.  But of course, there are no waves on this sea, and no tides.  Other than Cyclops the waterfront is devoid of other boats or vessels.  I reckon that if the Microsians make use of watercraft, such vessels would be submarine in nature, and are harbored below us, in some manner of underwater harbor.  

The multitude of Microsians observed previously all along the waterfront on every level of the micro mega-metropolis, has withdrawn and is no longer anywhere to be seen.  Have they become suddenly timid?  Or now that we are closer, do they prefer to observe us from the shadows?  Perhaps their curiosity has already been satiated and they no longer find us of interest.  Although questions bombard my thoughts, it is the myriad of possible answers that now flood my mind. 

I draw a calming breath, confronting the perils of amateur anthropology: projecting human behavior onto these decidedly un-human creatures is not the way of the scientific process.  That mistake will lead to incorrect assumptions, misunderstandings, and very likely disaster.  The dark legacy of explorers-that-came-before serves as a reminder to remain clearheaded, objective, and above all… observant.

We enter the first city without fanfare or hoopla. The micro metropolis appears to be abandoned, yet we know that we are being watched from what appear to be windows carved in the face of the many multi-story earthen-formed edifices.  With Rand in the lead, our landing party strolls along the sea-edge.  I take up the end of our procession and scan the spartan streets, the shadows between the odd structures ahead of us, for any sign of the Microsians.  There are none.  

Overhead, spanning the enormous bottle interior is a progression of six buttressed platforms, a vertical array of enormous bridges that each serve as the foundation for its own Microsian city.  The highest level is barely visible above a ceiling of cloud.  The uppermost city, Rand tells me, is where we are headed.

Randy explains that each of the seven levels is a city unto itself, complete with towering buildings built upon it, and inverted domiciles hanging like stalagmites from the underside.  And yet, it is eerily quiet.  There is no movement. 

“The Microsians,” I whisper, “have made themselves scarce, I daresay.”

“Where did they all go?” questions Gyro anxiously.

“No need to be nervous… or insulted,” answers Rand.  “The Unity shared the momentous occasion of your arrival, witnessed it through the eyes of every individual, then created a memory of it in its own fashion.  Now it has returned to its normal routine.  Life goes on!” A stray thought makes him laugh.  “Just because a little ship full of micro-sized humans – that its scouts have been watching for weeks – finally shows up, hardly warrants walking off the job and calling for a holiday.  This isn’t Washington D.C., after all!”

“They all have tasks then? asks Lyra.  “Like the division of labor in the social orders of honeybees, termites, and naked mole rats?”

“More complex than those.  The Microsia Aquatica symbiotica have a rigid caste system, and species-wide social equality.  There is no hierarchy – no leader, no president, king, queen, or emperor.  Just three castes: warriors, growers, and crafters – and all have equal importance and influence.”

“Efficient, but limiting I would think,” comments Lyra.

“Three jobs!  That’s not enough,” remarks Gyro.  “A society needs more than defense, agriculture, and construction.  What about a constabulary?”

Lyra: “And educators!”

Myself: “And explorers.”

“Irrelevant human institutions, all based on human nature,” says Rand, adopting his Academy guest professor of social anthropology tone. “And therefore meaningless here.  Among Microsians, at least with this symbiotica subspecies, the three castes cooperate in various combinations to fill non-essential niches.  You’ll find that most of the vocational callings of our world have no equivalent in this one.  Best to abandon those preconceptions.”

“It’s remarkable!” says Lyra.  “A civilization without leaders, or even family groups.”

“How then do they deal with visitors?” I inquire.

“Seems that the arrival of visitors is extremely rare, and from what I’ve learned, so rare that there is no formalized procedure for greeting, welcoming, or meeting newcomers.”

Lyra: “When you arrived, out of thin air, it must’ve changed their world.”

“You would think so,” muses Rand thoughtfully, “and yet, it was almost as if I had been expected.  When I materialized, I was escorted to an empty chamber where three Microsians met with me: a warrior, a grower, and a crafter.  Of course I didn’t understand those differentiations at the time.  Each of them attempted communication with me, in their own way, with various combinations of ciliary waves and crystal resonance – and a lot of gazing into my eyes.  Two of the three were unable to understand me, and I failed to decode their strange non verbal communication.  But the Microsian of the warrior caste succeeded – and she did so spectacularly.  Alontyn was able to decipher spoken English very quickly.  And even though I sensed some rudiments of her communication immediately, it took me a bit longer to become fluent in her microsian vibro-tongue.”

“Her?” asks Lyra.  “The warrior caste includes females?”

“As do all the castes.  In a strictly biological sense, all Microsians are female.  The exchange of DNA is not necessary for them to reproduce.”

How will these revelations play out over the coming minutes?  I am more curious than ever: “Then with whom will we be meeting?”

“As was the case when I arrived, it was decided that a representative from each caste would meet with each of you.  You’ll be bonded to a single Microsian, who will become the conduit of your voice to the Unity.  The representatives are waiting for you.”  Rand pointed skyward, toward the uppermost platform. “Up there.”

“That’s going to be quite a climb,” says Gyro with a tired sigh.

Rand smiles.  “There will be no climbing today.  The Microsians have a much better way to move between cities.  Over here…”

Rand leads us away from the water’s edge, to a cylindrical structure made of transparent material.  It disappears overhead into the second platform, and I assume continues upward to the cities above. 

“This is a capillary conveyer.   It’s how they move from one city, up or down, to another.  You’re going to enjoy this.”  Rand steps through the outer wall of the cylinder and is now inside, standing on a film of transparency.  He beckons us to join him with a hand gesture.  I lean into the wall of the cylinder.  Though it appears solid, the material offers a slight resistance – then quite effortlessly, with a gentle pop, I am inside this microsian elevator tube. The circular space easily accommodates we four, and could hold twice our number. 

Rand, who has kept one hand extended through the transparency, assesses the group, then announces: “Do not touch the wall.  When I pull my hand inside, enzymes in the cylinder membrane will denature the proteins in the floor under our feet and we will be suspended on the water itself, via surface tension.  The water beneath will instantly carry us up via capillary action.”

I cannot help marveling at the simplicity and genius of the Microsian elevator.

Rand withdraws his hand from the wall of the tube – and in the next instant we are propelled upward at what is for us, an astonishing speed.  The foundation level of the Primo Gradu drops away as we ascend through the space between buildings, then a moment of darkness as the tube carries us through the second platform.  In the space of a single breath we burst back into the light of the second city as the conveyer carries us higher and higher, through the third, then the fourth.

“Enjoy the view, but don’t press against the cylinder wall,” insists my always thorough first officer.

We break into the light of the fifth city.  The grand vista of the captured sea is breathtaking.  At this altitude the curved walls of the bottle are drawing closer, curving inward to meet us as we rocket skyward.  This vantage point reveals the arrays of algae farms clinging to the inside of the bottle.  A shimmer of movement among those vast gravity-defying fields betrays presence of the shy Microsians – the grower caste is hard at work, tending the simple crops that provide the colony with energy and oxygen. 

The darkness of the sixth level swallows us momentarily, and when we emerge from shadow, the light of the sixth city is the brightest yet.  We have ascended above the atmospheric vapor that drifts about the upper levels of the bottle-space, cloaking the seventh city from the others below. 

Rand slowly pushes two fingers through the inner cylinder wall.  At once our ascent slows.  As we enter the darkness of the seventh and uppermost platform, our speed drops to the scale equivalent of a Manhattan Otis elevator.

We rise into the light of the uppermost city – the terminus of our vertical transit.  Rand steps through the cylinder’s inner membrane.  The rest of us follow him onto the clean plain of the Semptimo Gradu, the city of the seventh level.

“Remember,” says Rand, “stay as calm and relaxed as you can muster.  And only touch them if invited to.  Ah, here they come.”

From the base of a massive spheroidal structure, a contingent of Microsians moves in our direction. There are many more than the four that I was expecting.   One is in the lead: that would be Rand’s Alontyn.  Behind her I count nine others.  Of course… one from each caste for myself, Lyra, and Gyro – for the pairing test.

I am captivated by the approaching entourage. 

My first impression is one of translucent membrane, exaggerated slender neck and limbs, a head crest of membrane-bound cilia that follows a longitudinal line from forehead, over the head, down the neck and back, ending where the legs part from the lower torso.  The same cilia-bound membrane adorns the backside of the arms.

The essential two-legged, two-armed, head, neck, and torso construction of the Microsians belie their exotic nature.  Everything about them reveals how un-human they are – but how perfectly microsian, like every organism we have encountered, adapted to living in a micro-verse.  They appear to glide over the ground.  Microsian stride is a flowing movement in which the human approximations of hip, leg, knee, and foot form and reform from one moment to the next from pairs of amoeba-like pseudopodia.  If a greater stride is required, mass for a larger leg is drawn from the torso, which in turn becomes slighter.  And if arms need to stretch further, the same thing occurs, with cytoplasm flowing from the torso and legs into the arms to supply the required mass.  Suspended throughout the microsian bodies are globules and spheres of all sizes, evidently serving as the individual’s vital organs – exactly as we have seen with the organelles of protozoa throughout our travels. 

Not until they are mere steps away do I notice the most un-human aspect of our hosts. 

 The Microsians have a single red eyespot.  Though disconcerting at first, this should come as no surprise, for we have seen the same simple adaptation for light response many times, especially with the green algal protists whose single photosensitive red eyespots serve to detect safe or desirable levels of solar radiation.  With the  Microsia aquatica the red eyespot is located in the center of a bulb-shaped head, which like all their appendages, extends from the torso on an extremely long, slender stalk-like neck.   Not until the Microsian appears intent on careful observation, does its large single red eyespot pull apart, forming two smaller eyes that take up positions in the face similar to where our own eyes are located.  I theorize that this is a response to situations when binocular observation is required.

I find myself surrounded by an earnest Microsian trio: a grower, a crafter, and a warrior.  They encircle me, their faces almost, but not quite, touching my own, their eyes piercing mine.  They take turns performing an almost avian-type display with waves of raised cilia accompanied by subsonic reverberations from the excretory crystals in their cytoplasm.  The vibrations washing over and through me are not unpleasant, and I am reminded of the deep reverberation I have experienced while riding in the engine cab of a steam locomotive, a sensation that could easily lull me to sleep. 

But there is no cognitive impression.  As a sense of disappointment begins to intrude on the experience I am slammed by a wave of intense feeling.

When she of the crafting caste locks her gaze onto mine and performs her dance/song I am suddenly filled with an explosion of euphoric contentment.  The initial overwhelming moment quickly resolves into more definable feelings of inclusiveness, completeness, safety, wholeness… unity.   So powerful are the unbidden emotions that I forget to breath, grow lightheaded, then gasp for lungs-full of the enriched algae-made oxygen.  After a minute the emotions temper, supplanted by more grounded images/thoughts/ideas.  I regain control of my breathing, lower my resistance, and let the connection happen.

Oxhya, her name exists as normally as it didn’t a moment earlier, is painting a fresco in my mind – a picture story that says we are compatible, have always been, will always be.  She and I have become what the Microsia Aquatica value above all else: symbiotic.

Oxhya is more content than happy, feeling the same sense of completeness as I.

I speak the words: “How is this possible?”
Her answer arrives as threads of a million thoughts, weaving into a new tapestry.  At their foundations, matter and energy are simply fields of energy, attracting and repelling.  One very pure form of that energy is consciousness, capable of interacting in more dynamic ways than most other kinds.  The consciousness generated by living things is unique to each individual, and has a forceful nature of attraction.  That elemental attraction is particularly powerful between Microsians and humans, making symbiotic links of interspecies consciousness possible.

It is clear to me now, finding ourselves in this amazing place, meeting this never-seen-before species, is no accident.  We have been led here, to this moment.   Our voyage of discovery through the micro habitats of the pond universe, though seemingly one of exploration, driven by curiosity and a need to understand the fundamentals of life, was much, much more.  We have been steered and redirected at every turn, onto paths that would bring us here, for this meeting, for this joining.  And yet, I cannot deny that the wonders we have observed in our travels seem to have perfectly prepared us for this moment.

“Why have you brought us here?”

We have failed to understand why humans do not seek symbiosis with life.  This has caused us pain.  The People have sought enlightenment, but cannot find it.  You were brought here to make the People understand why your kind does not seek symbiosis with life.  Humans benefit most from all worlds, so why are humans not stewards of all worlds?  Why do humans destroy worlds?  Why do humans waste?  Why do humans put material into the People’s world that ends life?  Why do humans…

My involuntary response to Oxhya’s questions exposes her to an emotion wholly new to the Microsia Aquatica symbiotica.

Shame.

As my arms drop to my sides, my left hand falls upon the satchel, and feels the weight contained within.  Now is the time to deliver that which was sent to my world, a package that I was given strict orders to hand over “when the time was right.”  I haven’t a doubt in my mind that this is that time.

Without breaking my gaze with Oxhya, my fingers fumble with the satchel’s leather closure.  I reach inside and wrap my hand around the cloth-enclosed parcel, then gently withdraw the bundle.

Oxhya extends her right arm.  The fin-like hand spreads wide to receive the cloth-enclosed parcel.  I set it gently onto her hand, which wraps tenderly to secure it.  Small pseudopods form fingers that deftly unwrap the bundle.  Cotton cloth falls away from a pile of perfect teardrop-shaped black crystals, each the size of my thumb.  A wave of knowledge: I feel and know instantly that these are the mineral remains of a microsian eye. 

Oxhya lifts the black shards to her face, and I see what she sees – feel what she feels.  This was Elaryn, also of the crafting caste, who gave her life to send the information to the outer world, to the humans.  From her crystalline essence came the instructions for building the amazing quantum restructuring micronizer. 

Recalling my own hubris I am embarrassed.  It was no grand accomplishment of human genius!  It was a gift from the very people our world endangers – a brilliant conveyance for getting us to come to them. 

No – it was for getting me to come to her.

End of Book 1

Author's note: Microscopic Monsters is now being featured on Best Science Fiction Blogs