Page 54 of Experimental Voyage
Rather than bite me, she bumped my hand back before coughing.
Poor thing.
“Okay, I’ve changed my mind. We can try to rescue the death horses. But I don’t want to hear any damned crying if we lose them.” I sighed and, aware of how genetics worked, said, “How are we going to handle genetic diversity?”
“We will evaluate all the islands, see if they have populations of the death horses, and take a pair from each island. Then we will return every two or three years and steal more death horses. Ideally, we will steal the sickened horses, restore their health, breed them, and diversify the population that way,” Fogali said, and he joined me and Delta at the laboring animal. “This is not the first time we have done such a thing. We have machines that can help with genetic therapy as well.”
Yulgali, who still battled his death horse, managed to get the animal to lower its head without stabbing him. With a practiced hand, he transformed the rope into a halter, secured it above and below the animal’s horns, and braced for the next wave. When the death horse relaxed, he loosened the rope around its neck, cooing to offer reassurances.
“Shouldn’t that process take a lot longer?” I asked, marveling over how Yulgali had wrangled the beast.
“They’re smart, and Yulgali killed one of the other ones, so the response is fear based. We will train them out of that, as we won’t eat them—at least where they can see,” Fogali informed me, and he petted the sickened animal. “Delta, go get the medication. I will keep her company with Camellia. It is better to overdose than not in this case. Bring clean water, the spray fungicides, and towels. We will need them. I did not bring a brush suitable for their coats.”
“I can make something,” Viva promised. “I’ll go with you, Delta. I think I have some items in the med kit we can use to help open her airways. I came stocked with cervid, bovine, and equine medications knowing we’d be hunting these animals.”
Once the couple left, Yulgali hooted a laugh, which startled the healthier death horse into rearing and pulling back against the rope. “That one would save the universe if she could. I knew this would be our fate before she did. I checked the species registrations and saw the variety of species prized off this world. And that the sickly one seems to be dying from the fungus is of interest—they must have a short lifespan.”
“How long does it take the fungus to actually kill people?” I asked. “You said it was a year for the infection to be irreversible?”
Fogali sighed, and he flattened his crest. “Inhomo sapiens, it is a year for the fungus to take root beyond what we can currently treat. It is closer to ten years for the virus to kill.This is part of what made the trauma so bad for Waldren and his sister. It wasn’t just the adults who died. The other children died as well, many of them while infants. The fungus gets into the entire body, and the children were infected with the mature spores at birth. According to Waldren’s sister, they were the only surviving children of the colony. After the adults died, the few young children struggling to survive followed soon after. We have located the burial site.”
I winced. “But can the fungus be treated? She’s so sick.”
“She is not ahomo sapiens. We don’t know. We will find out, however. She will either live or die, but she will do so with the best care we can give her.” Fogali scratched behind the death horse’s ear, and the animal leaned into his touch. “The ears are a sacred scratching spot uniting all species, I see.”
“Do you think that we’ll be able to develop a treatment for when the fungus has been established for longer than a year?”
“That is something we don’t know—and nobody is willing to test to find out. Thus far, there has been a zero success rate for treatments. Waldren and his sister are immune, and nobody understands why. Perhaps if we can figure out why they’re immune, then a treatment can be made. The answer is buried in their genetics somewhere. Nobody knows where, though. No matter how much we progress, there will always be secrets.” The Veloc sighed, and he cooed to comfort the death horse. “But we leave this world knowing we tried to save one—and if we can save her, we can save others like her. And then this species will be given a chance to thrive on one of our worlds.”
“Do you think they can thrive on other worlds?”
“Surely. This species must have come from Earth stock, likely genetically modified for survival. Earth horses are fragile things, and much of what makes horses fragile has been resolved with deliberate intent with these animals.” Fogali gestured to the death horse’s nose. “Take her illness, for example. An Earthhorse would have perished from this already. Their lungs are weak. They cannot vomit. They cannot do many things this beauty can. Her entire body has been modified for survivability. She is a marvel of genetic engineering. Someone made her on purpose. But who?”
The why I could understand. I’d paid attention to my lessons about Earth.
Homo sapiensloved horses, and they had formed a partnership with the animals from their earliest civilizations.
“I’d guess some variant ofhomo sapiens. Even on Earth, they tried to unlock the secrets of the universe and master the art of creation.” I sighed, wondering what the rest of the day would hold. “But I guess the other animals here haven’t avoided the fungus, have they? They just live long enough to continue breeding and surviving.”
“I feel you are right—and ten years forhomo sapiensis insufficient to breed and establish populations. Horses can breed as early as two years old. By the time they’re dying from the fungus, they’ve potentially bred six to eight times. That’s enough to keep the population increasing. There are scavengers on this world that benefit from the ready supply of bodies as well.” The Veloc shook himself off, and it took me a moment to realize the situation stressed him. “We will have to manage the populations carefully and perhaps work on a vaccine to give the herds to extend their lifespan a few years—enough we can steal away a few little ones each year for our breeding program without endangering the wild population. But it depends on what we find on the other islands. Is this island the only place with these animals?”
We would find out soon enough, assuming Viva was willing to fly us island to island before we left. “Can we observe their habits enough to know what they eat?”
“They are adventurous, decent enough swimmers, and hunt fish when the waters are calmer. They also will eat their own dead. I don’t know if they eat any of the other animals on the island—and if the other animals suffer from the fungus as well.”
I bet they did, else the island would have been overrun with birds and animals. “Considering how rare wildlife is, I’m assuming the fungus is aggressive and nothing is immune to it except other plants. The botany thrives.” I hesitated. “Only the botany seems to thrive.”
“Perhaps we should collect all mammal, avian, and reptilian life we can and test to see if they’re infected with the fungus.”
“Fish, too,” I said. “I’ll take care of the death horse as much as I can. I’m the reason we’re here, after all.”
“That’s a good way to end up the owner of the death horse,” Fogali warned me. “She won’t be suitable for staying on Cremora Delta; your quarters do not have space for her, and where they keep their equines is too far for you to work with. But should she become your animal, we can stipulate that your adopting clan must provide for her and her kin. We can take over the other creatures, which are more rodent in nature from the looks of it. Assuming, of course, they survive treatments.”
“Do you think we can teach them that Palta and Squeakers aren’t food?”
“With the right psionic abilities, I’m sure it can be done. There is nothing in the rules that bans you from taking your choice of five animalsalive.” The Veloc heaved a pained sigh. “You could even abuse us, taking our animals.”
“And the dying ones?”
