Parasite

Small Stories
Parasites
The machine clung to the base of a branchless tree that swayed in the
storm. Totally oblivious to the violence of its environment, it nestled
deep in the roots, listening and waiting. That was part of its task,
its objective; hiding among the roots, waiting for the specific sound
of a specific creature. The sound that would trigger the subsequent
parts of the rudimentary programme that had been etched into its
silicon brain, steering it to complete the task it had been invented
for; killing its creator's enemies. This machine was the newest in a
breed of soldiers. It and thousands of its brothers had been sent to
join the countless organic occupants of their habitat. Creatures rarely
seen by man that lived their lives oblivious to him, yet mutually
dependent, entangled strangers. And now to this alien world man had
sent minions of his own making, fiendishly clever robots created to
regulate its stormy environment and do his bidding.
They weren't graceful machines, but like many of their utilitarian
counterparts from mans engineering past they possessed a functional
elegance, a strange fascination for the technically minded. No fancy
decorations, no redundant features, everything on it was purely
functional. For like all the pioneering robots of discovery, they too
had been sent on one-way missions and were designed to survive. Certain
refinements had of course been made to the breed. The machine was the
latest variation on the already familiar theme, over-evolved, some
would say, calling them a frivolous misuse of technology. The
developers at Kwae Electronics preferred the term "Pioneering in Pest
Control". They didn't mind what some people said, they already lead the
field and were still expanding faster than their nearest rivals. So
what if the IR 100 was deemed to be irrelevant consumer-oriented junk
by some? That didn't stop the competitors from developing their own
versions. But, the Kwae was the first, and like the Sony Walkman, that
was what counted in the eyes of the buying public and they loved it. It
was such a novel approach to the problem, it couldn't fail to be a
success. It sold particularly well in the west where all the other
solutions to the problem had either failed, or were "too
environmentally damaging", as if just killing vast numbers of Gods
creatures wasn't, and where the slightly erroneous name "Little
Samurai's" had grabbed the public imagination. Now it was rumoured that
even the World Health Organisation was interested, but that may have
been just marketing hype designed to give it an air of respectable
approval.
So it was that this particular Little Samurai was waiting, its sensors
tuned to the frequency of its prey's wing beat. Hiding in the stormy
forest that covered the surface of its new world. The machine drew its
energy from the beneath the surface of the forest, keeping a relatively
small battery fully charged and powering the standby systems. A small
quartz crystal, that was regulated by the CPU and which in turn kept
highly accurate time, was used to compare background noises to
pre-programmed references. The programmers at Kwae had done exhaustive
studies to get the response frequencies just right. They consulted the
experts of the newly formed biologic systems department, bright young
biologists, fresh out of university in Seoul, highly surprised to find
themselves recruited into this particular branch of industry.
Diligently they conducted their experiments. Colleagues from the sound
systems department were temporarily drafted in to assist them in their
meticulous research. For almost a year combined groups of scientists
from the two departments went on field trips all over the world. From
the rainforests of Indonesia to the tundra of northern Lapland, three
teams consisting of two biologists, a sound technician, a translator
and various local guides frequently astonished the inhabitants. With
their videos, DAT-recorders with hi-fidelity microphones and laptops,
they traipsed across some of the most inhospitable countryside on the
planet, gathering data. The effort was not without hazard; three of the
scientists contracted malaria, one was almost killed in a jeep accident
in Nigeria and one team had all its equipment stolen in a Moscow hotel,
though fortunately no data was lost as they had just sent off the
previous month's work with DHL. Replacement cameras, computers and
recorders arrived less than 48 hours later and the Koreans set off on
the Siberian Express in search of more subjects to research. Finally
the teams had collected all the necessary data. The tolerances were
known and the patterns analysed. The young biologists and audio
specialists congratulated themselves on a difficult job well done, sent
the data to the programmers and rushed off to celebrate the wedding of
one of the biologists one of the soundmen.
Using the quiet darkness that its prey cloaked itself in as a backdrop
the machine was able to pick out the enemy with great ease. The IR 100
knew exactly when its victim was approaching and turned itself on,
activating the secondary search mechanisms. Infra red and
electromagnetic sensors scanned the area, first comparing the new data
to regularly gathered readings, searching for anomalies, and linking
those to the audio signal. When it found the targets exact location and
path it locked on and homed in.
The programmers had in the meanwhile almost completed the algorithms
that the robots would need to fulfil its tasks. In truth; the software
had written itself. Using an American supercomputer to run a
simulation, tens of thousands of generations of virtual robots that
existed only in the mainframe, perfected the art of hunting. The
lessons learned from this electronic evolution helped physically shape
the robots, finding the ideal method of propulsion. Some surprising
hurdles were overcome well before an actual prototype had even been
built. The biologists were brought back to help find answers that would
suit the environment the machine would have to operate in. The natural
world.
Although only a fraction the size of its intended victim, it could
speed across the surface in time to intercept it on landing. It also
sent out and listened for signals from its mechanical brothers.
Communications between robots helped them to locate the target
precisely and it also prevented too many of them from attacking the
same target. The huge winged creature landed and settled, making ready
to drive its mouth-parts into the surface. The Kwae was ready for it
and before the long drill touched the soft skin the machine had it
gripped between its own powered jaws, squeezing the hollow tube shut
and transferring its weight from its feet to its vice-like arms. The
mosquito, realising that something was wrong, but not correctly
assessing quite what, shifted on its feet and tried again to drill into
the skin of its intended host. By this time the tiny robot had severed
the lower section of the sucker, rendering it useless. Now the insect
instinctively took off, carrying the micro-machine with it into the
darkness.
The Little Samurai climbed up the remaining probe towards the head of
the mosquito. The difference in scale, tough still great was no way
near that between itself and its human host. Its former home had been
as large as a city is to an ant, the mosquito was merely the size of a
cow. The Korean engineers had thought long and hard on this one; how
something that small could most effectively kill something that large.
They had first looked to nature for examples, but had rule out toxins
for logistical reasons, any poison would have to be carried within the
microbot, increasing weight, size and energy requirement. Electrocution
had been discounted for roughly the same reasons. The chosen method was
old-fashioned trauma, a lethal amount of damage to the organism in the
most effective place. Death needn't be immediate; the prevention of the
drawing of blood was of course the primary objective, but killing the
female mosquito and therefore her fertilised eggs that she had sought
to feed with protein-rich human blood, was a more than satisfactory
outcome. Preventing the eggs from being laid in stagnant water reduced
the risk from subsequent generations of her daughters.
It arrived at the insect's head and bored a way in. Using the last of
the stored electricity it inserted two electrodes. Now it drew its
power from the mosquito. Electrolysis of the chemicals that constituted
the insect's brain was somewhat ironically but ever so elegantly used
to power the instrument of its own destruction. The drill sped up,
enlarging the hole on the underside of the head until the robot could
pull itself through. Now in the final stage of the program, an endless
loop of random turns and frantic drilling, scrambling whatever
structure the insides of the skull had had, eventually sending the
mosquito's body spiralling to the ground below. Soon the power would
run out and the machine too would stop. Just two dead parasites. One
the others coffin.

Back on the surface, in the forest another machine had been activated;
alerted by the absence of the nano machine that now lay still in the
carcass of its victim far away on some distant floor. This was a
factory robot, a machine to build machines using minerals and trace
elements that it extracted from the blood of the host. This was how the
IR 100s actually arrived on the skin. A source unit implanted beneath
the skin of the human had built the factory robot and hundreds of its
ilk to a miniature blueprint, which had been sent out to every
extremity according to their programming. They built the IR 100s and
distributed them evenly across the skin, monitoring them constantly,
building replacements when needed, even recording the areas of greatest
attrition, adjusting the deployment accordingly.
Another machine lay waiting in the forest. Listening for the sound of
its creator's enemy.