The Tiny Terrors Part 2

The model, or statue, or WHATEVER it was, looked frighteningly lifelike. Fashioned with flawless craftmanship, its forelimbs were leafy green, its abdomen striped red and yellow, and its gauzy wings shone with a dull, metallic luster as Major--for the moment--Rippleton turned it carefully.

Commander Dongal noticed, with a shudder, that its mouth consisted of a cutting mandible and something resembling a suction hose. Huge compound eyes, four red, four green, dominated the facial aspect of the metallic insect.

Dongal reached out his hand to take the object but Biff pulled it back quickly. "You don't know what this thing can do!," exclaimed the major.

The commander, with a peeved look, asked, "What does that...THING, as you so rightly call it...have to do with you disobeying a general order? Nobody knows how that massive ship appeared out of nowhere on our radar, but appear it did, and you just let it slip away from you!"

Biff shut his eyes a moment before responding. He saw the infinity of stars before him, the dull red of Mars, and the gleam of distant planets. The luminous hull of the alien ship suddenly appeared in the middle of his viewing screen as if out of nowhere. Rippleton leaned forward, put his hands on the desk, and urgently declared, "Mere alienage doesn't justify murder, sir! Attacking a ship--particularly one of that size--would have been an act of criminal folly! Who knows what they would have done in response?"

Dongol shook his head violently in disagreement. "And how do you define murder, Major? If an incredibly intelligent chainsaw was headed for your neck, would you not do anything?"

The major ignored the--in his mind--illogical question. "Violence begets violence, sir. Just imagine if YOU drifted into their space. Wouldn't you like them to give you a chance to prove your good intentions?" Rippleton took a deep breath. "This model they sent me was clearly a warning, not an aggressive act. If their weapons are superior to ours, they proved their good intent by warning us. Why should I attack their ship until I have studied that warning?"

Dongol looked at the statue again. He felt compelled to look at it, fascinated by the glitter of its long wings. A dull throbbing began in the commander's temples. A terrible dread overcame him as he saw a horrifying vision of thousands of these things coming to attack him. When he recovered, he gripped the arms of his chair, and shouted at Rippleton, "If you had at least engaged in open combat, we would know where we stand! We could have put the entire fleet on alert! Now they might show up anywhere, anytime, armed with weapons that could wipe our entire planet out!"

Biff didn't bother mentioning the rather obvious fact that had he 'engaged in combat' and lost, which he likely would have considering the size of their ship compared to his, nobody would know about these insect-like beings at all. "I chose what I thought was the lesser of two evils, sir," he commented instead.

"And there were two of these objects. Now I will show you what happened with the other one."

Rippleton's finger whipped out and struck the model on the wings. For an agonizing second, nothing happened, then the statue suddenly sprung to life. It spread its wings and ascended up to the high ceiling.

Dongol leapt to his feet with a startled cry. The flying insect's wings blurred and another set of wings appeared behind them. Quickly, the second pair of wings became another metal insect, identical to its 'parent'. It whipped away with a furious buzzing noise to the other end of the ceiling. As the commander stared up in horror, nine more replicas quickly appeared, each stationing itself at strategic points on the ceiling.

Out of seemingly nowhere, a blinding flash of white light. The copies vanished and the original insect thudded to the floor. For a brief second, the thing squirmed, then lay motionless.

"It's playing possum!," Biff exclaimed. He went to the model and raised his foot and slowly starting putting his foot down, as if to crush it. When his foot got close to the metal insect, it shivered, opened its eyes and looked up at Biff.

The thing methodically began to dismember itself! It tore off its wings and shredded its abdomen. After a few moments, it lay still. Biff turned and looked at the commander. "If WE wanted to warn THEM, we could send them a little robot man, complete in every detail and armed with tiny little weapons. They've simply sent us a copy of themselves, a miniature model. They are warning us they can multiply rapidly by some process we have no clue about and that they could dominate the world within the span of a few hours. They have also demonstrated that they will destroy themselves if faced with overwhelming odds."

Gondol turned slightly and faced Rippleton directly. "Yes, that was quite a warning. That does not negate the fact that you disobeyed the general order of firing IMMEDIATELY upon any foreign vessel in our space! Your twenty minutes are up!"

Gondol reached for his communicator on the other side of his desk. The major took this opportunity to reach inside his uniform a second time. When Biff withdrew his hand, he was holding a very small, yet quite effective, pistol.

The commander took a step back. "My guards forgot to search you?," he shouted in disbelief.

"Oh, they searched me all right, but obviously, they weren't as thorough as they should have been."