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it could go further and explore the surrounding terrain. But its physical bulk
could not extend more than these thousand feet from the vat. It was not truly
mobile. It was only a thing, not an individual, no matter how much it tried to
bridge the gap into full awareness.A thing, nothing more.But a very efficient
thing.The harsh sting of the alarms sliced through the Isola-tor from the
monitors in the station. Quickly, it with-drew from the sand, back into the
vat. It formed an eyeball of a thousand facets and examined the three-
dimensional vision on the bank of screens on the station's second level. For
the first time in months, it knew excitement. It almost rushed the majority of
its bulk through the wall into the screen room and managed to check itself
just a hair this side of disaster (at least half of the Isolator must remain
within the nurturing vat at all times). There, on the screen, was a floating
shuttlecraft, fluttering along the sand, stirring clouds of dust in its wake.
It had not issued the recognition signal; any naoli would have done that.
Which meant it was more than likely a human . . .The Isolator tapped one of
the monitoring posts which the shuttlecraft was approaching, released a
spy-bee from the distant outpost's storage unit. As the bee spun out across
the desert, the Isolator guided it, watching what the mechanical insect saw as
the images were projected on the largest of the screens. In moments, the
shuttlecraft appeared in a swirl of sand. He directed the spy-bee di-rectly at
it, toward the windscreen. The mite passed through the whirl of dust, shot
across the hood of the ve-hicle, then hovered inches from the window. Beyond
the screen, a naoli sat at the wheel, peering ahead at the shimmering heat
blankets rising from the sands.The Isolator felt despair as it looked at the
lizard face. It was about to destroy the spy-bee and return, its atten-tion to
the making of gnomes and other baubles when it thought to turn the bee's
attention on the passenger's seat. And there, of course, was the boy,
Leo.There was no more time for gnomes.Within the vat, the Isolator rejoiced.
It heaved upward in a great, joyous surge, pushing stickily against the cap of
the vat which it could have penetrated had it wanted. It splashed down into
itself, then ceased its celebration and turned to the chore at hand.It had
killing to do. Look at this, Hulann, Leo said, leaning forward in his seat,
straining against the automatic belt that held him.Hulann shifted his eyes
from the terrain ahead. It was not necessary to watch the path so cautiously
in a shuttle-craft, and he had only been using that as an excuse to avoid
conversation and let his mind race through the plethora of new data it had
accumulated in such a short period of time. It was good, now, to give his eyes
a rest. Look at what? Out the window. A mud wasp, the boy said.Hulann
looked, and when he could not spot it immedi-ately, asked the boy to show
him.Leo leaned even farther forward, pressing a finger against the glass
toward the hovering wasp. How can it do that? he asked.Hulann looked, found
the mud wasp, and felt his scalp tighten painfully as fear gripped him,
squeezed him, and nearly voided his lungs of air. How can it do that? Leo
repeated.. It's flying against us, yet it's standing still. A machine,
Hulann explained. Machine? A naoli weapon, Hulann said, gripping the wheel,
his eyes riveted to the electronic mite hovering before them. Or, rather, a
scout for a weapons system. The thing directing it is called a Region
Isolator. Leo frowned, made slits of his eyes. I've heard about them. But no
one really knows what they do. No one has ever gotten close enough to find
out I know. The Isolator is deadly. It is also expensive and prohibits mass
production because of the time involved in structuring one. They were used
sparingly in the war or it would have all been over much sooner than it
was. What is it? The Isolator itself is a huge mass of large cells with oval
nuclei that require the bulk of the cell shell. The overall mass must be as
large or larger than one of your houses. Leo made an appropriate whistle of
appreciation. Of its billions of component parts, each is identical to the
last. This lack of cellular diversification and specialization is possible
because every cell of the creature is ca-pable of life without relying on the
others and contains all life processes within its cell wall. It sounds like
one large amoeba made up of millions of smaller amoeba, Leo said. Somewhat.
But it has other powers which contrib-ute to its effectiveness as a
weapon. Such as? Leo asked. The Isolator was created through the same
techniques used to develop the Hunters, through gene juggling and careful
genetic engineering, though the subject was not a human foetus this time. It
was, instead, a small jelly fish of my home world, an animal that had
exhibited rudi-mentary intelligence and the capacity to learn. The ge-netic
engineers worked from there, and rumor has it that the project required more
than three hundred years. It was begun during a past war the naoli was engaged
in and was not completed in time to be used in that conflict, was not
completed until this new war had broken out be-tween our peoples. The Isolator
has been imbued with a a Proteus power. It is able to assume any form it
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