The Stealth Forest

“I think I’m going to start a rock collection,” Nathaniel says.

“Like agates and obsidian?” Haticat says.

“No, just one stone from each planet to remember it by,” Nathaniel explains. “You know, the girls on Ninosa believed that stones held luck. Some combinations were good; others were bad.”

“That’s stupid,” Fred says.

“I know, right?” Nathaniel says.

Nathaniel, Haticat, Fred, and Doctor Bill explore the forest of Lastiana. There are trees evergreen and deciduous. Boulders and lichens are abundant. They walk through the woods for a long time, examining every tree. Nathaniel loves the forest. It is artistically exciting, yet calming. Sunshine is annoying, but shade is relaxing. “Where are we going next?” Haticat asks.

“I don’t know, maybe Molkonia, to see the great yogurt river,” Nathaniel suggests, placing his left hand on a nearby trunk. Planet Molkonia is another Earth-like planet. Just one of its major rivers is made of white, bacteria-rich sludge. It is a bit of a tourist attraction. People bathe in it.

“Well, I don’t want to leave Lastiana just yet, even if nothing exciting has happened,” Doctor Bill says.

“Yeah, me neither,” Nathaniel says, shifting his weight onto the tree he is touching. It suddenly moves – and then flies away rapidly through the trees. Instantly, all four explorers have their guns out and aimed at it. It appears as a simple, straight trunk tapered at both ends with no roots or branches, remaining perfectly vertical as it slips through the forest. A bulge near its middle fires green beams in their direction, burning whatever it touches.

“What was that?” Haticat asks.

“Not a tree,” Nathaniel says.

“Whatever it is, it doesn’t show up on scans,” Doctor Bill says. “The energy weapon seems to cause some sort of ionic damage.”

“Well, now something exciting has happened,” Fred says.

“I don’t think it’s part of the native wildlife. We need to talk to the Lastianites,” Nathaniel says. The Lastianites are Humanoids with bark-like skin and grass-like hair who wear baskets for clothes and live in giant basket-houses. They eat mashed squash and squash chips. All their roads are one-way and returning to where one came from can sometimes require looping back for over two kilometers.

The natives tell him that they never spend any time in the forest and have not seen any unusual activity, except for the appearance of a new hill last year. “A new hill?” Doctor Bill repeats.

“Yeah, that one.” The Lastianite points.

It looks just like an ordinary hill, covered in trees and grass. The four explorers go to investigate. On the way, Nathaniel starts to notice things he had not noticed before. There are clusters of leafy branches in the treetops without trunks to support them. There are stumps sitting next to drag marks as if they crawled on their roots to their present locations. There are floating, branchless trunks, each with a slight bulge in the middle. Thirty percent of the forest is fake. He pretends not to notice and signals for his crew to do the same.

Over the course of three hours, they walk all the way around the hill, doing deep positron scans. The hill is made of dirt and rocks and seems entirely ordinary in every way. “Too ordinary,” Doctor Bill comments. “Look at this ordinary fissure in the rock – and this one – and this one.”

Nathaniel stares intently at the digital map. “They’re all the same shape.”

“A projected scanning image to cover what’s really there,” Doctor Bill says.

“We need to get inside,” Nathaniel says.

“Without a known empty space to aim at, we can’t teleport in. We might end up inside a wall,” Doctor Bill says.

“Right, but we have a machine that can displace matter,” Nathaniel says.

“You’re not going to time-skip the whole ship inside are you?” Haticat asks.

“We don’t have to. We can set the force field small enough to contain only the one gazebo,” Nathaniel explains. “Alright everybody, grab some scanners and …uh …shooty things; we’re going in.”

Pop! The gazebo appears inside a warehouse filled with clear, spherical containers of fluid. With the coast clear, they shut off the force field and step down. Doctor Bill is already scanning. “The content of the spheres is mostly lipids. It’s probably food.”

Nathaniel sniffs the air. “Antigravity byproducts. This is a spaceship.”

The hallways are very tall and shaped like the letter I, wide on the top and bottom and narrower in the middle. They explore much of the inside of the structure without ever being seen. There are very few beings around.

They pass a room filled with large, humming machinery. “I smell matter crystals,” Nathaniel says.
“It looks like they use these machines to direct the matter crystals into growing different materials,” Doctor Bill says. “Lipids, ship parts, more matter crystals.”

“This looks like a lipid furnace. They must use their food as fuel to power the ship and keep the lights on,” Haticat suggests.

“They make everything they need,” Nathaniel says.

Finally, they arrive in a room full of pots, each with a huge seed half-imbedded in the soil. Dimly-lit screens cover each wall. Nathaniel, Haticat, and Fred look over these while Doctor Bill examines the growing plants. “I found a timeline,” Nathaniel states. Haticat joins him. “They’ve been here for ninety-nine years. This isn’t the first ship to be built. They’ve been replacing the forest on this planet this whole time.”

“Here’s a map,” Fred says. Nathaniel and Haticat join him. The map shows seventy-seven hill-ships spread around the world.

“What is their plan?” Haticat asks.

“There are three different kinds of seeds – three different species working together. None of them are photosynthetic, but require a diet of lipids,” Doctor Bill announces.

Nathaniel starts to pace. “They’re replacing the forest and the Lastianites don’t notice because they keep close to their houses and roads. The real trees are crowded out and die. Eventually, every tree is a composite of three aliens that provide nothing to the ecosystem. The ecosystem collapses. Everybody dies. It’s an invasion. It’s a very slow invasion of one biome by another.”

“Well, that’s normal. On such timescales, people don’t normally notice or care,” Haticat says.

“Yes, but we are not normal people,” Nathaniel says. “We can do something about this.”

All looking at the potted seeds, they do not see the stump crawl through the doorway. “Stop!” it utters in a very buzzy voice. “How did you enter the ship?”

“That’s top secret,” Nathaniel stammers out.

“Wait here for apprehension,” the stump orders.

Nathaniel waves for the others to follow him and runs right over the stump. Haticat, Fred, and Doctor Bill run around it. It chases them down the hallway, but is quite slow. The explorers are almost back to the warehouse when four flying trunks speed around a corner after them. Phoo! Phoo! Green energy ionizes the surface of the walls next to them. Nathaniel and Fred spin around and fire their laser pistols, forcing the trunks to retreat.

They round the corner into the warehouse, ducking behind the food containers. The trunks are behind them, firing wide beams that cause the air to crackle and surfaces to sizzle. Nathaniel provides laserfire to give the others a chance to reach the gazebo unit. Then he slips into superspeed, runs to the control panel, erects the force field, and leaves the timestream while the trunks again open fire. Pop!

Safely back in the pool-ship, the explorers start to hatch a plan. It only takes an hour to prepare. When finished, Nathaniel materializes his ship on top of the alien hill and steps outside. His crew follows behind. He sets his radio to broadcast on all channels. “Attention three species invaders, I know your plans and I will now negotiate your surrender.”

Soon, two trunks and three treetops fly up the hill and meet them at the top. “Who are you?” they buzz.

“Captain Nathaniel, explorer, adventurer, warrior, and the last thing you’ll ever see if you don’t leave the planet,” Nathaniel answers.

“We do not take orders,” the aliens buzz.

“Maybe not before, but you do now. In one instant, I can materialize bombs in every one of your ships, but I’m willing to let you go if you leave right away,” Nathaniel says.

“And how will you do that? Teleporters can only reach so far,” the aliens ask.

“Oh, I don’t need a teleporter. I can leave space and time itself and set down anywhere I want, displacing any matter in my way. There is nowhere safe,” Nathaniel says.

“I don’t believe you. That’s impossible,” the aliens respond.

“Not with time crystals it isn’t. Used correctly with the right machinery, time crystals can speed up, slow down, and even reverse time. See, your invasion takes too long. I can speed myself up and destroy your entire organization in seconds. You are outmatched,” Nathaniel claims.

“Really? In that case, you will teach us how to use them,” the closest treetop buzzes.

“What? I’m not teaching you anything. Leave the planet,” Nathaniel demands.

“We do not take orders; we give them,” the treetop replies.

“I told you…” Nathaniel says, but he is cut off by a shot of green energy landing right next to him. He is knocked over and all his hair stands on end.

“Teach us this technology,” a trunk demands.

Nathaniel takes the aliens inside the ship and shows them the time crystal assembly, carefully explaining how it works. “Are you going to take all my time crystals? Then I’ll only be able to traverse normal space.”

“Yes, then you’ll be no threat to us,” a treetop replies.

“There’s only eighty. That’s only enough for one ship of this size. You’ll need much more to speed up one of your hill-ships. I can show you where to find more time crystals, but only if I’m alive,” Nathaniel says.

“We don’t need you. We can grow more by using our matter crystals,” the treetop says.

Nathaniel looks frightened for the first time. “What? Are you telling me you only need one time crystal per ship to grow a whole set and speed up your invasion to finish by nightfall?”

“Yes, exactly,” the creatures buzz. “And now we are finished with you.”

All at once, Nathaniel and his three Stuffians leap into the water reservoir as the beings open fire. The fluid protects them and they surface under the walkways and gazebos.

“Never mind them. They aren’t important. Deliver the time crystals to every hill in the invasion force. We’ll be finished before they can stop us.” As they exit the doorway, one of them fires into the control station.

Haticat climbs onto a walkway and wrings himself out. Then he checks the controls. “There’s minimum damage. I can have us running in five minutes.”

“Good,” Nathaniel says, pulling fresh time crystals from the hidden safe and resetting the time machine.

“For a moment there, I thought you had lost control of the conversation,” Doctor Bill says.

“I never doubted the captain,” Fred says.

“The plan worked flawlessly. They’ll be really surprised to discover that time crystal radiation poisons matter crystals. The whole operation will shut down,” Nathaniel says.

“What if they bring the time crystals back together to build a time machine? They might be able to figure it out without you,” Doctor Bill says.

“They’ll be able to make one short trip at most. Those time crystals were worn to the point of collapse.” Nathaniel stands up and smacks the force field generator. It hums to life. Lights blink around its perimeter. “When to next?”

“Anywhen!” Haticat shouts from the control station.

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