The Deviser

Shadrack the Deviser stood upon the tower's parapet. His optical televiewer showed him the approaching bugs, the Kha'rog. I stood below at the base of the structure. I am Bran, the Deviser's Alpha dog-soldier. Mine was the first chimera species, the first gene-split palingenesis of human and animal DNA. WE have been allies forever. We hunted their birds, shepherded their sheep, slept at the foot of their beds. Our canine ancestors were Man's Best Friend. My floppy ears pricked up and my nose wrinkled. My canine senses picked up the scraping sound of the approaching insects, as well as their fetid stench. I felt a growl grow in my throat.

Shadrack stepped off the tower and fell, conjuring the wind to slow his descent. His cloak billowed out behind him. He fell as if he had dived in the Big Pond and was only sinking to the muddy bottom, not falling through the thinner buoyancy of air. His boots touched the Earth lightly. He discarded his now spent and defunct counter-gravity cloak and it fell heavily to the ground.

I carried a thick katar knife, perfect for punching through chitinous armor, and a long-barrel blaster. Shadrack brandished a long sword-rapier with a swept hilt, dueling finger-ring, and a half-basket wire guard; he also wore a small disintegrator pistol. Chaiz the Cat-woman came up to join us. She had tawny fur with wide black stripes. A disruptor gun graced her studded leather belt. A spiked collar graced her slender neck.

Shadrack stepped out, his long strides eating up the distance between his camp and the advancing scourge of Kha'rog. The ultra-violet rays of the scant sunlight had reddened his balding forehead. A grey goatee circled his mouth. The Deviser's universal translator was a crystalline dodecahedron. He set it spinning in the air. My sharp ears could pick out the click, clack, and twills of the insectoid language. These sounds were created by rubbing their hindmost legs together. The creature began without salutation or preamble.

—zzzz carryfulls of Human corn are our tribute. Since the Sun began to fade, so it has been.

"Honored guests. It is with great sorrow and a penitent heart that I inform you that we have no gifts for you this year. Although, the glaciers are encroaching, not every year is a freeze. This spin about the pale Sun brought a deluge of Noah proportions, tornadoes and hurricanes that blow. Levees broke. Our fields were flooded and our crops drowned. We have food for humans and the human-hybrid chimera only."

A general buzz came from the hive of bugs. The translator glowed a vivid vermilion, but gave no voice to the noise. I knew that the Deviser told no lie. I had filled sandbags myself, and piled them high.

"We give you free run of our land from the red desert border to the Long River. Eat every blade of grass, each flowering dandelion, a multitude from the leaves of the trees. But do no damage to our buildings or our machinery. Respect our homes." Shadrack placed a large rock upon the ground between himself and the bugs. "Leave our stones unturned," he added, trying to imprint the message securely upon them. The bug raced toward the Deviser.

A howl escaped my muzzle as I fired a laser blast at the Kha'rog. The weapon's red crystal faded to pink as its cache of energy leached from the dying Sun drained into the discharge. I dropped to all fours and ran for the air skimmer. We, three, took flight.

The Kha'rog marched. Their segmented bodies swished and twisted. Each leg moved slowly but steadily. This pest would pillage our villages. One hundred packs guarded the grain silos across the river, Shadrack's private demesne. I scratched at the fur of my neck. I hate fleas. They are as much of an annoyance as the Kha'rog. When I returned to the tower, I would need a sonic treatment. If only we could as easily rid ourselves of other pests.

Shadrack sipped from a demitasse cup of Kona coffee from the Hawaiian sub-continent. I kept my forepaws on the targeting sights of the rocket powered petard aerolauncher.

Shadrack waved one ringed finger at the televeiwer. Suddenly the bugs stood before us, a arms length at the most. Yet the creature stood upon its six legs kilometres away. They moved the largest Ogham stone. It tipped, falling over like a mated King upon a Chessboard or toppling like the statue of a 21^st century dictator.

"Yes. Those phegmniks reversed the polarity of the positron flow! As I hoped. It has been released." Shadrack smiled.

Our first indication of what was to come was a solid, loud drone. Then the sky darkened into a small cloud of gnatlike beasties. These pests were metallic with gossamer wings made of plastic. These predators blasted into the invaders, sending waves of incendiary rockets into the scourge. I could not believe my eyes. I rubbed them with the backs of my furry paws. An entire city block was on the move, only the structures contained an army base, batteries of laser cannons, and flocks of armored tanks. This was one of the war machines from long ago. I have little mercy for the bugs, but even I could not believe the wreckage wrought.

"You can conrrrol it?" asked Chaiz, her large cat-eyes sparkling.

"There are things even Devisers fear. Terrible things from the Old Times. Even I cannot stop this abomination that has been devised by the Old Ones. I did not free it. And I broke no treaty in its emancipation. I warned the Kha'rog to leave the monoliths alone."

"And how are we to defend ourselves?" I asked.

"We do not," Shadrack confessed. "We wait till it returns to its hoary subterranean facility — its mission accomplished — then we replace the Ogham."

"How lonnng will that be?" Chaiz purred quietly.

"Too long!" Shadrack replied.

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