Of Ants and Dinosaurs

15 Luna and Leviathan

In the war room at the heart of the Ant Federation’s control centre, Supreme Consul Kachika and the Federation’s commander-in-chief, Field Marshal Jolie, were orchestrat­ing the destruction of the dinosaur world. Two large screens displayed the progress of Operation Disconnect and Operation Decapitate. At the bottom of the Operation Disconnect status screen was a steadily increasing figure showing the number of chameleon mines so far planted inside the machinery of the dinosaur world. The screen also showed a map of the world. The continents were over­laid with a bewilderingly dense conglomeration of glowing dots, circles and arrows indicating the location of mines and other relevant information. On the Operation Decapitate status screen, a second figure represented the number of dinosaurs whose brains had been mined. Each time the figure ticked upwards, the name and job title of the dinosaur flashed across the screen.

‘Everything appears to be proceeding smoothly,’ Jolie reported to Kachika.

Just then, the Federation’s chief scientist entered the room.

‘Ah, Professor Joya, I haven’t seen you in a week,’ said Kachika by way of greeting. ‘You’ve been hard at work analysing the intercepted information, I imagine.’ She shot the professor a quizzical look. ‘And judging by the grim expression on your face, it seems you may have some news for us.’

Joya dipped her antennae. ‘Yes. I need to speak with you both immediately.’

‘We’re very busy, so please be brief.’

‘I would like you to listen to something. It’s a recording of a conversation between Emperor Dadaeus and President Dodomi at yesterday’s Gondwana–Laurasia summit.’

‘From the summit? Surely there’s nothing more to learn from that,’ snapped Kachika impatiently. ‘We’ve already had the details. It’s public knowledge that the nuclear disarmament talks between the two of them collapsed. War between Gondwana and Laurasia is imminent, which is further validation that our chosen course of action is the right one. We must destroy the dinosaurs before they start a nuclear war. It’s the only way we can save the Earth.’

‘Madam Supreme Consul, that is certainly an accurate summary of the official press release issued at the close of the summit. But I want you to hear the details of a secret meeting between the two dinosaur leaders – a meeting in which they reveal something previously unknown to us.’

The recording began to play.

‘Stop! Stop! Stop!’ Kachika interrupted, waving her antennae. ‘Professor, I have no idea what they’re talking about.’

Joya paused the recording. ‘This conversation contains two seemingly crucial but currently uninterpretable pieces of information. Number one: what are “Luna” and “Leviathan”? Number two: what is a “command-loss timer”?’

‘Professor, strange codenames crop up all the time in the conversations of top dinosaur leaders. Why are you so worked up about this?’

‘From both the tone and the substance of the dinosaurs’ conversation, I can draw no other conclusion but that these things, though unknown to us, are so dangerous as to constitute a threat to the entire world.’

Kachika shifted irritably from leg to leg. ‘Logically speaking, that’s impossible, Professor. Anything capable of constituting a threat to the entire planet would by necessity have to be a massive installation. To wipe out civilisation on Earth, for example, one would require upwards of 10,000 intercontinental missiles. Imagine the size of such a launch facility! Not to mention that such a vast, complex system could never function properly without us ants being extensively involved in its maintenance. If such an installation existed, therefore, the Ant Federation would certainly be aware of it. And given that we are essential to the smooth operation of the current nuclear-weapons systems of both dinosaur powers, we are already fully apprised of everything there is to know about them.’

‘I agree with you, Madam Supreme Consul, that no large installation on Earth could be kept hidden from us. But a simple installation of more modest scope could be. A single intercontinental missile, for example, might not need ants to maintain it and could remain on standby for immediate launch for a long time without our involvement. Perhaps Luna and Leviathan are weapons along those lines.’

‘In which case, there’s nothing to worry about. Such small installations could hardly be considered a danger to the planet. Like I said, to destroy Earth would require thousands of even the highest-yield thermonuclear weapons.’

Joya fell silent for several seconds. Then she conspiratorially moved her face very close to Kachika’s so that their antennae crossed and their eyes were nearly touching. ‘That is the crux of the matter, Supreme Consul. Are nuclear bombs really the most powerful weapons on Earth?’

‘Professor, that’s common knowledge!’

Joya pulled her head away and dipped her antennae. ‘Quite right, it is common knowledge. And that is the fatal flaw in ant thinking. We concern ourselves only with things that are already known, whereas the dinosaurs are constantly exploring new and uncharted territory. As you are aware, through their astronomical observations, the dinosaurs learnt of the existence of distant celestial objects called quasars. These can radiate more energy than an entire galaxy of stars; in comparison, nuclear fusion is less luminous than a firefly. The dinosaurs also discovered that when matter falls into an interstellar black hole, it emits extremely strong radiation, generating energy at a far greater rate than nuclear fusion.’

‘But these objects you speak of are thousands of light-years away. They have no bearing on reality.’

‘Then let me remind you of something that does have a direct bearing on reality. Do you remember the new sun that suddenly appeared in the night sky three years ago?’

Kachika and Jolie remembered, of course. The incident had left a deep impression on all of them. It had been a normal cold winter’s night when suddenly a new sun had appeared in the sky over the Southern Hemisphere. In an instant, Earth became as bright as day. The light of the sun was so intense that looking straight at it caused temporary blindness. Twenty seconds later, the sun winked out again, but not before its radiant heat had turned the frigid winter’s night into a sweltering summer’s day. The effects were catastrophic. The rapid thawing of snow unleashed flash floods that inundated many cities. The event rocked the ant world. But when they asked the dinosaurs what had happened, the dinosaur scientists offered no explanation and the incurious ants soon forgot about it.

‘At the time, the only definite conclusion that could be drawn from our own observations was this: the new sun appeared approximately one astronomical unit from Earth, or roughly the same distance as that between Earth and the sun presently in the sky. Based on the distance and the amount of radiation received on Earth, we were able to infer the luminosity of this new sun. If such a vast quantity of energy had been generated through nuclear fusion, there should have been a relatively large celestial object there. But astronomical observations taken since have revealed that no such object exists. In other words, it’s possible that higher-energy processes than nuclear fusion exist in this solar system.’

Kachika was unconvinced. ‘Professor, all of this is still very far-fetched. Even if that sort of energy does exist, there’s no proof that the dinosaurs brought it to Earth. In fact, the probability that they did so is close to zero. One astronomical unit is a very great distance indeed, and given that most of the dinosaurs’ spacecraft operate in near-Earth orbit, it would not be easy for them to travel that far into space.’

‘I used to think that too, but…’ Professor Joya paused. ‘Please continue listening to the recording.’

Joya stopped the playback and turned to Kachika and Jolie. ‘I presume both of you took note of the date mentioned in that conversation.’

‘December the fourth, three years ago?’ Field Marshal Jolie’s antennae twitched. ‘That was the day the new sun appeared.’

‘Precisely. It is the common thread running through all of this.’ Professor Joya swivelled her gaze from the supreme consul to the field marshal then back to the supreme consul. ‘I don’t know about you, but this makes my feelers stand on end.’

‘We have no objections to your making every effort to try and clarify this matter,’ said Kachika coolly.

Joya sighed. ‘Easier said than done. The best way to get to the bottom of this would be to undertake a deep search of the dinosaurs’ military networks. Unfortunately, however, our computers are structurally incompatible with theirs. Infiltrating their hardware is easy enough, but to date we have not succeeded in hacking into their software. Which is why we’ve had to resort to eavesdropping to gather information. But that’s a clumsy and imperfect way of going about things and will almost certainly not enable us to resolve this mystery in the short time we have available.’

‘Well, Professor, in my opinion, your concerns are deluded.’ Kachika was impatient now to get back to the business of monitoring her soldiers’ progress on the big screens. ‘Nevertheless, I will provide you with the antpower required to conduct an investigation into this matter. But this cannot be allowed to affect in any way our war against the dinosaurs. Right now, the thing that makes my feelers stand on end is the possibility that the dinosaurs may continue to exist on this Earth. And that, Professor Joya, is our Federation’s one and only cause.’

Without another word, Professor Joya turned and left. The next day, she went missing.