cuts, if you will?”
“It is clear that the Deepers are biological-mechanical hybrid organisms. They are composed of a combination of inorganic substrate that forms a matrix for a living organic component, with Dark Metal appearing to function as a bridge between the two. However, that understates the complexity of the resulting system.”
One of the image windows popped out and became a larger window on its own. It depicted what looked like a simple x-ray but, based on the data depicted across the bottom of the image, was actually a composite of x-ray, ultrasound, radioactive isotope scans, and several other types of scanner inputs. The result was a nightmarish image—Dark Metal mesh was woven into porous, chitinous plates, bone-like webbing, and what seemed to be power cells—essentially, high-capacity batteries that derived their power from some stew of biochemical reactions within. A system of sinuses carried something resembling a mix of lymph and spinal fluids and more Dark Metal in colloidal suspension. Strong DNA peaks registered from the biological material throughout the image.
“And this is the inside of a missile?” Harolyn asked. “That looks more like the innards of some living thing.”
“It might be both,” Grunne replied. He and Elois had been talking, discussing biochemical concepts in words that might as well have been an alien tongue, as far as Dash was concerned. “It does kind of stretch the definition of what might constitute life pretty thin, though.” He pointed at part of the image. “I mean, I can’t tell if this part, which seems mostly biological, is alive or—shit, it seems to actually be life and nano-scale tech in the same cells.”
“Whatever it is,” Viktor said, “it has not only the ability to kill but also to heal itself.”
“Yeah. Sentinel, can you play that imagery we collected of that missile healing up?” Dash asked.
Another window opened, this time showing the Archetype’s point of view. The high-res imagery started just after Dash had struck the missile with a glancing dark-lance shot, sending it spiraling out of control. The image then cut to the same missile, revealing the gash that had been blasted open along its flank closing, and the hull knitting itself seamlessly back together. Stunned silence reigned as the video played, broken only by snorts of disbelief or disgust.
“So there we go,” Dash said. “That’s what we’re up against. Oh, and based on our fight against the Deepers that boarded the Eclipse, the Deepers themselves can heal the same way.”
“Amazing,” Elois said. “Horrifying, but still amazing.”
“Actually, Messenger,” Custodian put in, “it is an artificial distinction to refer to the Deepers as creatures distinct from their ship and weapons technology. Rather, there is no distinction. The forms and functions are different, but it is all essentially a continuum.”
“You mean, when we refer to the Deepers, we’re really talking about one big, disgusting package?” Dash said. “The creatures we call Deepers, their ships, their weapons, their stations, all of them are really the same thing? They just have different shapes and purposes?”
“That is essentially correct, yes.”
“How the hell would something like that evolve?” Harolyn asked. “I mean, the idea that a Deeper, the ship it's aboard, the missile it fires, are all the same organism, just repurposed in different ways—” She shook her head. “How?”
“The answer to that,” Dash said, “is probably somewhere in the Large Magellanic Cloud.”
“Which means out of our reach,” Viktor put in.
“Unless we find a gate that leads back there, or are prepared to spend a few tens of millions of years flying there, yeah, pretty much,” Dash replied. He opened his mouth to go on, but the Marine company commander interrupted him.
“Excuse me, sir, do you still need us?”
Dash was about to say, no, you guys can go, but he stopped himself. There was still an awful lot of intact-looking wreckage sitting in the fabrication bay, and based on the current conversation, it was all still alive—after a fashion, anyway.
“You can stand your company down, but keep them ready and nearby, just in case,” Dash finally said.
“You bet, sir.” The man saluted smartly—a gesture that Dash returned with casual elan, then turned and started snapping out orders to his command.
“So, what are we saying here? That these are glorified insects that can heal in hard vacuum?” Conover asked.
“Well, I don’t know if they’re technically insects, but as a description, it’s probably as close as anything we’ve got,” Grunne replied, nodding, his eyes still darting across the data depicted on the first holo-image.
Conover stared at the looped video, Deeper