Paradise Blight

Chapter 5

The Swarm destroyed any life they contacted. Energy extracted from the consumption allowed them to replicate themselves and continue their deadly purpose, but for only a finite number of generations.

Somehow, this life differed from that anticipated by the programming, less palatable, and it slowed their destructive progress. But even slowed, so great were their numbers that the Swarm cleansed the area. Their task completed, the remaining Swarm perished alongside their hosts, and the Legion returned to sleep.

[Gan]

Mora helped me into the hovercar and graciously offered to retrieve my two bags — one with clothes and personal items, and the other with tools of my trade. I had wanted to make as complete a break from my former home as possible, so I brought little with me. She came back with my worn out bags and five crates of the buzzing menaces stacked on a motorized cart.

Guilt overtook me for not helping her load, but I was in no shape to do that right now. I literally weighed nearly four times more than I did over the last twelve years, and my body felt like stone.

After hefting the items into the back of the hovercar, she jumped in beside me, shook her hair back, and flashed me a smile.

"Hungry?" she asked. "We could go by the dining hall."

I nodded. "I am, and so looking forward to real food rather than that synthetic stuff they have on the ark."

"Well, some would argue whether or not we have real food here, but I will let you be the judge. Food selections are still limited."

Mora engaged the hovercar fans and took off in manual control, kicking up a small cloud of dust behind. Within a few minutes, we arrived at a very impressive dome building, the original habitat, if I was not mistaken. But she parked well away from any other vehicle — a wise precaution, I believed, when hauling thousands of bees.

My strength returned enough that I ventured inside on my own. The dome bristled with human activity, some dashing about and others standing in animated discussions, forcing us to weave through the hordes. While there were only a few hundred humans on the planet surface, it seemed most of them were here. And soon, there would be many more when the new colonists came down from the ark.

I halted as we passed a large window overlooking a vista of grassy hills dotted with flowers and forested valleys beneath puffy clouds — not at all alien, rather as scenic as any on Earth, at least those areas not already spoiled. The pictures of this place had not done it justice. Mora walked a few steps on, but then came back when she realized I had stopped.

"Spectacular, isn't it?" Mora said, stating the obvious.

I could only nod. Paradise indeed.

The food selections were limited, as she implied — a vegetable protein burger, sauteed potatoes with mixed vegetables, and fruit salad. I accepted some of each.

"Well, what do you think?" she asked, amused at my apparent gluttony.

I held up a finger as I finished chewing a bite too big. "This is good. Perhaps my expectations were lowered by what I ate on the ark, but I am enjoying this."

She nodded, grasping a cup of tea. "That may be a good philosophy for some things around here."

With hunger sated, we walked back to the hovercar. As I approached, one of those stinging menaces buzzed my head. On instinct, I recoiled and ducked away, swatting at the insect, and performing an awkward pantomime.

Mora smirked, almost giggling. "Do you have a thing against bees?"

Keeping her gaze on me, Mora raised an eyebrow while I slid into the hovercar. "Let's just say stinging insects and I do not get along very well," I answered. "It comes from an incident in my childhood when I poked around in a hive with a stick. Not to be recommended, by the way."