This post is the 8th of the ten chapters of the speculative fiction scifi story Orussian Quarantine. If you havn't read the first 7 chapters yet, the first is available here.
Probabilities
Being the gifted general that he was, Michael had anticipated Lucius's attack on the Mara base and had delivered a decisive blow to the Dammon army. Most Dammons accepted Michael’s offer of evacuation, but Lucius did not. A little under seven hundred Dammons apparently remained on the surface when Mara's large water-mass had hit Woldera's surface. While Mara’s water-mass wasn't sufficient to turn Woldera into a real sea-planet, the tidal wave that resulted from the impact of the ball of water swept the whole globe several times, removing any hope of survival for any fauna living on the surface.
Although Michael had anticipated Lucius’ strike, Lucius has impressed him quite a bit. It was a bold attack and one that would have caught any general other than Michael by complete surprise. The attack had been more elaborate than any he had seen in the decades he had been serving as a general. Had Lucius had the reflexes of a younger man, his pod could very well have stopped the flood from happening, and could even have destroyed the Mara-based drone control hub in the process.
Michael had granted Lucius clemency, but Lucius had returned to the surface of the forest planet in his severely damaged pod, apparently preferring certain death to the prospect of evacuation to a different system.
Everything was proceeding as Raphaël had designed. After the devastating flood, the water settled into large seas that covered about two-thirds of the planet’s surface. While some woods stood strong, others had been swept away, leaving great plains where Raphaël assured all that grasslands would soon emerge.
Looking at the devastation caused by the flood, it was hard to imagine the newly-created plains would recover in time for the arrival of the Marsolian IRCs later that week. First the Woldarian pods would return to what was left of the forests. Drones were on the planet working hard on the salinity levels in the forests. The trees may have survived the great flood, but they could still die from the salt left behind in the soil and surface waters if the drones did not clean it up quickly.
After the Wolderian IRCs, the Maran IRCs would repopulate the Maran Sea which now covered much of Woldera. The final step would be the arrival of the Maarsolian IRCs. Michael felt some remorse for the needless Dammon deaths. There was no way the Dammons had survived the flood, or was there? Lucius showed incredible boldness and ingenuity in his attack on the Mara station. A military mind of that kind of stature would surely have a backup plan. Michael knew he had to report the possible survival of a small Dammon colony on Woldera to the Senate. The Archan Council had to remain at the Mara science station for quite some time as watchers.
They needed to monitor the creatures hatched from the IRCs. Their survival and health had to be monitored for a number of generations. If needed, fine-tuning should at least create a fighting chance for competing species from the different ecosystems. But as much as these ecosystems concerned his fellow Archans, Michael was a general first.
His main concern as a watcher would be to watch out for signs of the unlikely possibility that any ant-monkeys survived the flood, and secondly, if he was right about the Senate’s priorities, as much as he hated the idea he would need to watch out for all possible signs of a surviving Dammon colony. Michael knew that if Lucius survived, Lucius would realize the Senate was having the planet watched and he and his company would move only in the shadows. For generations if needed. He and any military attaché appointed to the Council after him would need to remain incredibly watchful. Lucius had survived the flood, Michael was almost certain of that now. And a great military mind like Lucius always had a backup plan.
Continue to Chapter 9