Individuals are common in nature, but when things become important, they unite to make the hard decision. Here, when the big decision must be made, does unity stand, or does someone else make an even harder decision?
There I was, munching away peacefully on a batch of plant matter. After I ate, I had planned to get out and mindlessly explore, as was my routine. It was a simple, yet highly enjoyable life. No stress, free of all responsibility, swimming around with no need for a purpose.
Then, the collective species memory of ours activated.
Most of the time we are individuals, free to go about a simple life. Most of our kind has lived their full lives without ever having been actively aligned to the collective mind. We are always connected, all our memories saved in the greater plane of consciousness that links us as a species. We are all aware that if needed, we can be pulled together in order to coordinate us for something greater.
To find yourself suddenly linked up with a billion-billion other minds, sharing your active thoughts, is overwhelming, to say the least. If it were not for our uncomplicated normal lives and simple thinking, that number of voices coming all at once might have destroyed us. We each knew right away there were many who were unable to handle the flood of minds and shutdown, ceasing to exist.
After a time, we were fully synced up, thinking not as one, but in an orderly manner without overlapping each other. A truly impressive effort for that many billions of minds.
The group of us that activated the connection shared what they were seeing.
“These structures entered the world’s skies recently,” one voice explained. “They are clearly not created by the man creatures.”
The joint vision was of a group of large metallic saucers hovering in the sky.
A billion-billion voices saying “I have seen them as well,” echoed through our collective consciousness. This was soon followed by several billion voices, including my own after I looked to the skies, saying “I see them now.”
“What are they?” Billions of voices asked.
“Constructs from another world. Vessels that have brought alien creatures to our world.”
There was silence as a billion-billion minds took in the implications of the situation.
“What are their motives?” A billion voices asked.
“We do not know.”
“It is time to actively observe.”
A billion-billion acknowledgments of agreement ended the exchange.
###
Over the next few dark/light cycles, we gathered ourselves together and watched the other worldly constructs. The confining mass of my kind I found myself part of contained several hundred thousand of us. We clutched together and observed, exchanging our impressions of these beings and their interactions with the man creatures. There were a great deal of these interactions going on. Clearly, the man creatures were concerned about the new beings.
Once every dark/light cycle, we would reconnect the group mind and review the gathered observations from around the world. It was obvious and of no surprise that the man creatures were greatly agitated by the otherworldly beings. Massive amounts of the man creatures’ destructive creations had been mobilized near the vessels.
For all forms of life in our world, it was a strenuous period. Even the lesser creatures seemed to sense that a great change was coming.
When a few dark/light cycles later, the face of our planet was devastated, we were not surprised.
###
My gathering of our kind was clustered together, watching the otherworldly vessels when their bottom sections opened up. A glowing sphere exited the craft at great speed. This was followed by a blinding flash where the man creature’s structures crumbled. Debris of all manner was sent moving in chaotic arcs, crashing around us.
The responding forces threw us apart. I grasped the nearby others with all eight of my claws. A small number of us were able to hold on to each other as we found ourselves flung wildly about.
There came a blast of heat at temperatures that we knew to be fatal to most every other form of life on the planet.
In the time spent being tossed, I was able to catch glimpses of what was going on between the man creatures and the alien creatures. Flying constructs were launching destructive devices at the otherworldly vessels, which were releasing bars of bright light. Many of the constructs were falling apart, consumed in flames.
Even if I had not been in the midst of spinning uncontrollably through the air, the scene would have been chaotic.
After a time, our maddening trek ended. The less than half a hundred of us that had been able to hold on to each other found ourselves at rest a great distance removed from our original place of observance. As is our accepting nature, we quickly adjusted and resumed our task of observation.
All around us, the world was burning. Every manner of creature was panicking, attempting to flee, even though there was no place to flee to.
We settled in and waited for enough of us to be gathered, as well for the collective connection to be activated.
###
Harmony was not present within our joining this time. Even with billions of us lost, their voices now gone, there existed great dissonance within our numbers. There was no arguing, just billions of voices speaking at once, creating noise and nothing else. There was the unfamiliar sense of panic among us. Our carefree mentality was broken.
A few minds in the link had held themselves together. One of us accessed the memories from the past. It was from many dark/light cycles ago, more than what we could make sense of.
Images of a great rock descending from above was shared with all. The billion-billion voices fell silent.
“We have seen such devastation before,” one voice said.
The rock crashed into the planet, with enough force to level the great high places. Dust and debris flew into the air in quantities so massive, all was forced into the dark cycle.
The memories showed us the end of many types of creatures, now unfamiliar to us, that dominated the planet back then. We watched as those mammoth organisms, far larger than any creatures that walked the planet now, died off in horrific situations.
It was then we took notice of the smaller creatures.
“Those of our past made a choice at this point.”
In the memories were discussions of if they should take action. Four times before, our kind had witnessed such loss of creatures. There was a great deal of debate as the billion-billion from then discussed their role in the fate of the planet.
Those of us from cycles long past made the decision to care for the creatures which had survived the devastation. Compared to the great behemoths that had died out, these survivors were small scavenger creatures.
Our kind entered the bodies, pierced the creatures’ cells and altered them. In the span of a great many dark/light cycles, they were made stronger, smarter, and more adaptable. We watched the memories as they accelerated, moving quickly through the massive cycles. We witnessed those creatures changing into dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of different creatures. Every so often, our kind would examine the progress of these creatures, getting involved again as needed. After a great deal of cycles, we returned fully to our simple lives, allowing the creatures to develop without our interference.
That is when the man creatures came about. We watched as they developed well beyond what had been seen from any creature before them. They reshaped the world around us with barely an awareness of our existence.
“So, here we are observing as the man creatures we helped to shape, may cease to be,” a voice said over the memories. “Once more, it is time for us to come together and decide if action is needed.”
The debating began. It lasted for several full dark/light cycles. With a billion-billion voices all wishing to be heard, it takes time. What was being said rarely became complicated.
Yet, after many dark/light cycles, we could not reach a consensus.
There were some of us who believed it was time to let the man creatures die off. We had helped them gain dominance over our planet, and they had turned out to not be the greatest of caretakers for it. They felt it best for us to wait until the alien creatures were finished, as we would survive and be able to repair the planet once all has calmed down.
Then, there were those of us who believed the fate of the man creatures was unimportant, but we needed to investigate ways to defeat the alien invaders before they caused greater damage to our planet. They felt we should look into ways to eliminate all the larger lifeforms en masse as an effective way to bring it all to a conclusion.
Having seen our past, I had become fond of the man creatures, even though I had never paid them much attention before. Those who came before us created them, and it was our responsibility to be their caretakers.
My views were heard, but few agreed with them. Yet for me, there was never any doubt what action must be taken to preserve our planet and protect the fragile man creatures.
Other ideas were presented as well, but in the chaos of the billion-billion of us arguing, it was difficult for voices to get heard. It seemed to me that for once, our collective mind was being ineffective. Such debate would take a great deal of time, which was clearly going to be counterproductive in the end.
We needed action. In thoughts that I was able to keep hidden behind the noise of the arguing, I realized the best way for action to be taken would be for some of us to act independently of the collective.
In an exercise that went against the instincts of our kind, I was able to put out a message to only those who shared my beliefs in this, and cut myself out of the great joining, creating my own smaller one connected with only the few million of us that thought as I did.
Our numbers were small, but I felt we would be enough to effect a greater change.
###
“This is not the way things are done,” numerous voices stated once the new link had begun. “What is to be accomplished by this breaking of our ways?”
It was now up to me to speak my case alone.
“Each of us accepted the same conclusion about needing to protect the man creatures as we find a solution to stopping the alien creatures from further harming our world.”
There was agreement to my statement.
“There is an issue though with the level of disharmony we are finding within our kind at this moment,” I explained. “If all we do is argue, cycles will pass and we, in short, will discover it to be too late to take action.”
The silence made me question my decision in taking this chance. There was anxiety that the others might believe it best to return to the greater group conscious and single me out for punishment. I was ready to accept this possibility.
There was great relief in me as the others asked for clarification in what actions we should take.
“Of that, I am unsure,” I answered. “I do believe that if those who came before us had learned how to alter the larger beings by manipulating areas of their structures, the same process might be of benefit to us here in this situation.”
With us all in agreement, we made access to the past visions and took in the details of what those who came before us did to create the man creatures.
And so began a unique exchange among our kind, where we all contributed in an individual way to understanding what it was we needed to do.
In this, I took on the designation of Coordinator. It was odd to be referred to as a designation, but for our purposes, it was needed. I gave designations to several others as we went on and needed to have certain of us who showed understanding in various aspects of the plan noted as being given special responsibilities. It was needed to have designations to go with those voices to make our exchanges clearer and more effective.
Odd as it was, those of us who with designations took to it well, knowing what was at stake.
###
“The teams are in place, Coordinator,” the voice of First Organizer explained. “All is ready for the first exploratory mission to begin.”
“All are agreed in being ready,” I replied. “Let the mission begin.”
There were a thousand teams consisting of a hundred of us who had infiltrated the alien creatures’ construct, and were now ready to learn all they could regarding their bodies.
During this phase, it was decided that we should assign a number of us to reviewing in detail the actions of those of our past so that we would understand the mechanism of what we were about to attempt. It had taken them countless dark/light cycles and a great deal of experimentation to learn the biological workings of the creatures that would become the man creatures. As we did not seem to have as many cycles, we found it beneficial that in the shared memories, we could access the conclusions they had come up with and adjust them as our teams studied the structure of these alien creatures.
“Their biological infrastructure is noticeably different from those of the creatures of our world,” Head of Team 742 relayed to us. The other designated Heads of Teams sent their own confirmation of this.
“We need to look for any level of similarity in them,” I suggested. “Although with us wishing to do them harm instead of aiding them, logically, we do not need to be careful.”
“Perhaps we should look to working on certain clusters of cells that might be important to the functions of these creatures,” Twenty-Third Organizer remarked.
There came a flow of agreements to this logic.
“Look at the higher level of how their systems function and compare it with the systems of creatures from our world,” I directed.
The visions of our collective knowledge of various creatures’ anatomy were shared through all of us. The exploratory teams sent back what they were seeing from inside the alien creatures. We were able to find several structures in them that were similar to those in our world’s creatures that were needed to keep them from dying.
In short cycle, we were able to determine these alien creatures possessed a similar system of propelling fluids through their bodies for various aspects of maintenance on their systems. Once that was identified, the teams were quickly able to find the organ responsible for maintaining the flow of the fluids. By our reckoning, once these organs are shut down, the body itself should fail to function.
“All teams are to migrate to the creatures’ organs and discover methods to shut them down,” I directed. “When a team is successful, relay how the success was met to all the others. I believe quickness here is going to be significant in dissuading these alien creatures.”
There was agreement as the teams took action.
###
It was then, as the teams worked on what we were being hopeful would halt the alien creatures in their unnecessarily destructive activity against our world, that the rest of our kind, the billion-billion voices that I had forgotten about as I directed the efforts, made contact with us.
“What is this you are doing?” the voices asked.
“We are taking action to stop the alien creatures and preserve the safety of the man creatures,” I replied. “Please go quietly so we can bring this crisis to an end shortly.”
“You should not be taking action,” the voices stated as one.
“There was no consensus reached,” a lone voice stated. “We are not ready to perform any action.”
“The majority clearly was not ready, but action was needed,” I explained. “If we as a collective were unable to make a decisive decision, the probability of these alien creatures destroying not only the man creatures, but our world, grew as we remained inactive. Inaction was our greatest threat, and I felt it best to not allow for such a clear failure to take place.”
“Where did you get the authority to do such?” the voice replied.
“I gave myself the authority.”
“That is not our way.”
“That is an odd remark to make, as our normal behavior has us being solitary creatures. We go about our lives without concerning ourselves with gaining approval for our actions from each other. I believe that might be why we were unable to devise a way to achieve an agreement, leaving me the only option of taking action with those who had reached the same conclusion as I had.”
“Such has never been done before,” the lone voice stated. “How can our collective function if we have those who make decisions without the agreement of us all?”
“I am unable to answer that question, but it appears that there is function taking place without full agreement. If this is an issue the collective mind believes it needs to work through, then I shall recommend those who are not involved in taking action at this point, begin your discussion on the matter while allowing us a silence from your exchanges. We are at this point highly engaged in our actions.”
“You do not wish to be part of the discussion, then?”
“There are events of much more importance taking place. And in the aftermath of these events, if it is of the rational of the collective that I be punished, I am of the opinion that it might be wisest to separate me from the collective mind permanently. If I am considered a bad influence on our whole, then best I am made to return to a simplistic existence that will cause no further possible trouble for our kind.”
There was a sense of puzzlement as I pulled myself and those who had already pledged to work with me out of the full collective mind.
It was quickly relayed that there had been success in stopping the life functions of the alien creature from many teams. The information on how this was achieved was shared with all the teams.
“Once the beings you are in have fallen, move to another creature and repeat the process in that being,” I directed.
###
Several dark/light cycles passed before we once more connected with the full collective mind. There was chaos and confusion there.
“Is it over?”
“They are fleeing the planet.”
“Will they return?”
“What is left of the man creatures?”
“Much of the plant substances are contaminated.”
“Whole groups of the animal creatures are no more.”
“Our actions would seem to have been successful,” I explained over the billion-billion voices. “The usefulness of the collective mind would seem to be spent now. The man creatures have survived, if even more diminished in numbers than us. There is nothing more that we need to be part of.”
“What do we do now?” came the flood of voices.
“I would not speak for all of our kind,” I stated. “My present plans are to return to my life as it was before the alien creatures came to our world. Once fully separated from our collective mind, I believe the memories which we have created and been of use for this time, memories that should now be permanently part of our collective, will no longer be active and I will be able to resume a peaceful existence with only my basic needs to concern me. As for the rest of you, I would put forth it is up to you to make a choice and follow through with it.”
###
“Find anything yet?”
“Nah, just another tardigrade. These water bears really seem to like the aliens. I’ve seen other reports. The little buggers have been found in just about all the recovered alien bodies.”
“You think they might have been what made them sick?”
“Maybe. Could be the aliens were allergic to them. Don’t know.”
“Well, put that one with the others in the tank. If they did save us, the least we can do is let them enjoy a little peace and some nice uncontaminated moss.”
Unseen to the human eye, the short, plump, wrinkly form of the tardigrade stretched its eight stubby legs out and enthusiastically swam into the moss where it plunged its tubular mouth into the plant, tearing into the cells. As it sucked out the cell fluids, it embraced the chance to relax and return to a life with no need for a purpose.
The End
