Responding to a distress call, Nathaniel, Haticat, Fred, and Doctor Bill discover a boot-shaped Extolon spaceship on the surface of an unknown planet. The crew is dead, their bones picked clean. In life, they would have been blue-yellow striped hominids with large jaws, but no longer. Exploring outside, they find a barren landscape underneath black clouds. They walk and walk but see only dirt. “This looks like good soil. Why are there no plants?” Haticat asks. “Maybe not enough sunlight gets through the clouds,” Nathaniel suggests. Finally, they see one leafless tree at a distance. They walk closer to get a better look. It is covered in flies working hard on stripping the bark and chewing the wood. “My guess is that these flies ate all the other plants. That’s why this area is so barren,” Doctor Bill says. “Ow!” Nathaniel shouts. “A fly bit me!” “Maybe it thinks you’re a tree,” Haticat says. “Maybe,” Nathaniel says. Another fly lands on him and he swats it. “Augh!” Fred shouts. “A fly bit me too!” More and more flies begin to land on Nathaniel and Haticat. They wave their arms frantically but can barely keep up with them. “These are carnivorous flies! Run!” Nathaniel yells. The boys run back to the ship with a swarm of flies behind them. One very large fly gets past Doctor Bill’s waving paws and takes a chunk out of his ear. White stuffing fibers hang out. “Aaaaah!!!” Nathaniel gets an idea. He sets his laser pistol on wide-angle and stuns the whole cloud of flies above them. They collapse to the ground around them like rain. Only a few escape. This buys them some time until they top the ridge in sight of their ship. “What is that?” A section of the dark clouds above extends to the ground all around the ship and is growing. It is also moving towards them. The clouds are made of flies! All four explorers fire their lasers, but there are too many flies. One bites Nathaniel on his trigger finger and makes him bleed. “Hide in the Extolon ship!” They run as fast as they can, but the flies are faster. A mouse-sized fly lands on Nathaniel’s forehead and almost takes out one of his eyes. Their mandibles are gigantic and as sharp as knives. “I hate flies!” Nathaniel shouts just before another fly tries to get in his mouth. Finally reaching the inner doors of the ship, Nathaniel, Haticat, and Fred set up defensive positions while Doctor Bill works on figuring out how to close the outer doors. Then something crashes to the floor in front of them. It is a fly the size of a cat. “Colossal sponge apocalypse!” Nathaniel curses. A quick shot from his laser pistol splatters boiling guts on the walls, but soon there are three more in its place, eating up the mess. At last, Doctor Bill figures out the controls and shuts the outer doors. The boys easily kill the few flies trapped inside with them. Not able to return to their own ship, they take refuge inside the Extolon ship and settle in as best as they can. They explore the interior of the ship and find the food stores. Much of the food has been eaten by maggots, but they rescue the untouched food and move it elsewhere. Later they all become sick. With fever, fatigue, headache, and (in the case of Nathaniel) vomiting, they are in no condition to fight. Making use of the onboard laboratory, Doctor Bill discovers that the maggots are covered with dozens of types of germs. The bacteria and viruses seem to be part of their natural immune systems. When finally feeling better, they make several attempts to get back to their own ship, but fail. At the same time, flies somehow repeatedly get inside the Extolon ship and have to be killed. They can’t understand how they keep getting in. They set up barricades and retreat further and further into the ship as the flies take over more and more sections – including the bridge. Their guns run low on power, but then they discover the Extolons’ store of laser rifles and laser cannons and find them considerably more effective. Unfortunately, the flies are just too numerous and too fast to be held off by only four laser rifles. Then a surprise attack of flies from their unprotected side forces them to retreat again, losing access to the armory too. “At least we still have food. As long as the doors hold, we can wait for all the flies to go away,” Nathaniel says. “Yes, we have enough food for a year, and the flies don’t have any food. They’ll need to fly elsewhere,” Haticat adds. “Wait? I’m tired of waiting. I’m already bored,” Fred says. “Yeah. It’s too bad the Extolons didn’t keep any toys with their food,” Nathaniel comments. In the meantime, they dissect one of the flies to learn about the unusual species. The flies are made largely of short peptides rather than true proteins. They have one heart in the head and another at the rear. They have five stomachs: one a grinding gizzard, one an acid bath, one an alkaline bath, one a hot bath, and one dedicated to absorption. They have leathery, grasping wings, sharp quills on the thorax and abdomen, hooked legs, strong mandibles, great vision, and a very decentralized and resilient nervous system. Finally, they make a horrifying discovery – and almost too late. Nathaniel witnesses a maggot transform into a fly right in front of his eyes. Maggots turn into flies! Maggots are fly babies! This was how the flies kept getting into the ship; they were already there! They are sharing the ship with millions of predators just waiting to pupate. The horror at their error sinks in. “What do we do now?” Nathaniel asks. “Die?” Fred suggests. Instead, the four boys put on Extolon spacesuits, fight their way to the bridge through hundreds of biting monsters, ignite the engines, launch, exit the atmosphere, open the doors to space, and starve both maggots and flies of oxygen. Returning to a different part of the planet to reoxygenate, they learn that the metamorphosis of maggots into flies – and their ravenous consumption of all organic matter – is part of the normal seasonal changes on the planet. The flies eventually metamorphosize into trees, which cover the landscape before producing maggot eggs. The boys leave their ship behind and take off in the bigger Extolon ship. Never stop asking questions, for learning is the true spice of life. Expand your world. Leave a comment and start a conversation. I’d love to discuss the underlying science and philosophy.
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January 2025
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