Blood Shaper

“Nanomachines?”

“That came across in, uh, what’s your language called? Anglish? No, English. That doesn’t match a word we have. Also what do you mean by ‘gray goo scenario?’ Hasn’t all the goo we’ve seen so far been black?”

“Right…” Kay started breaking down the concepts to make sure he go the information across. “’Machine’ obvious translates, right?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, does ‘nano’?”

The two women quickly glanced at each other then shook their heads.

“No.”

“This is interesting, I’ve never investigated language with an Outworlder before. I can hear what you’re saying, the noises of it, but I don’t know what the word means. It’s so easy to just fall in to knowing that the Outworlder you’re speaking to will understand you without thinking about them having their own language from another world.”

“Let’s not dive into that right now. Kay, what does ‘nano’ mean?”

“I think it has more than one meaning, maybe? But for this its a prefix that means ‘very small’, like incredibly smaller. Several times too small to be seen by the naked eye.”

“So ‘nanomachines’ mean incredibly tiny machines? Why is that scary? We could just step on them.”

Eleniah shook her head. “Could you just step on the big blob thing that they all transformed into?”

“No, I guess not. So these nanomachines are working together and combining into one larger creature?”

“Yes they are. That isn’t the problem that I’m worried about, but if they’re as malleable as we’ve seen so far it explains how they’re able to take on the different shapes they have, they just change the outer surface of the shape they make to match. The thing I’m worried about is…” Kay sat forward as he started to explain. “Okay, so on the world I came from nanomachines didn’t exist, they were a hypothetical technology that people were working towards. I read about some scientists and companies developing very small machines for medicine, but those were more like ‘micromachines’ than real nanomachines, they weren’t as small. There are people there, mostly writers and storytellers from what I’ve experienced but probably beyond that, that try to think of what the future could be like, what people might make or do.”

“I can’t speak for all worlds, but I’d called that a fairly universal trait.”

“Someone out there thought up the existence of nanomachines that could make more of themselves and how that could become a problem. If they were left alone long enough and had enough materials they could create an endless amount of themselves, enough to wipe out everything. Who ever thought that up coined the term “gray goo” to describe that happening. Somewhere along the way the idea of nanomachines that could reproduce using any material got added, and a lot of horror stories were born.”

Alahna’s eyes slowly widened. “You think we’re dealing with something like that.”

“I am. When I was investigating the substance, if I concentrated hard enough and dove down deep enough, I could feel incredibly tiny constituent parts that all seemed the same. Additionally, the two guards we spoke to told us the other pair entered the room and no one else went in or out afterward. The substance in the container looked and felt like it was the same volume that we left behind the other day, and nothing else was missing in the room. I’m guessing that it killed the two guards, consumed their bodies, and made replacements using them as materials.”

“What do we even do about a threat like that?”

“I don’t think they’re unbeatable, or we’d already be dead.” Kay replied, “There’s no point in sending out scouts if you can just eat everything and turn it into yourself.”

“You think the replacements were scouts?”

“That makes sense,” Eleniah mused, “The first thing I would do if I got thrown into a new reality is go looking tor information.”

“Exactly. There’s obviously some kind of intelligence behind the nanomachines or else it wouldn’t know to send out scouts or to hide. Knowing that, and knowing that it is taking precautions instead of just eating every thing to grow tells us that whatever it is exactly, it knows it can be killed.”

Alahna nodded along. “I see the logic. Any being that thinks it can’t die won’t act with caution.”

“We don’t need to worry about it ending the world without being able to fight back, but we do need to find all of it. The main thing that makes it a threat is that it can spread potentially forever and the main weakness is probably how long it takes to make new copies of the nanomachines. The goo in the storage room had several hours to kill the two guards and replace them but it didn’t do anything beyond that. If I was in control of endlessly replicating nanomachines and had enough time, I’d have turned that entire room into a trap and then start spreading out. It only made two new guards, and that indicates an upper limit on how fast they can replicate. If we let any of it escape there’s the risk of it springing up again later.”

“That’s not as bad as I thought, although I get what you’re worried about.” Alahna said. “If we can weaken it enough, it becomes just another monster that can appear randomly as a threat. The real problem would be letting these nanomachines hide away and build themselves into massive numbers that we can’t deal with. If we occasionally find them and prune them down it should keep things manageable.”

“Except most monsters are animalistic. They act on instinct, not planning. Anything that replaces people to act as scouts, sneaks into secure areas for information, and can adapt to changing conditions like it can will be able to think of the same plan you just did. We need to wipe out all traces so that it doesn’t do exactly that.”

Alahna squeezed her eyes together. “Right. Sorry, I haven’t slept much in the last few days. I know we can run for longer as high tiers without really sleeping, but it doesn’t help me think straight at all times. I’ll gather up everyone we can to start searching all over the island. We’ll start searching everyone trying to leave as well, using the excuse of the attack on me. Is there any way to test them besides your Skills?”

“I think hurting them will work, they were fairly obvious about not being real when they got caught up in the fight. Maybe lightly scratch them or something? I can also try giving you some blood that I’ve charged with my Skill, but I have no idea if that will last. Also, we don’t know if these things can swim or float, so we might have to search beyond Sel.”

“It’s worth trying, and if we have to cause small wounds to test people I’ll make sure healers are available Searching Sel is the first priority, since using all our available manpower here before moving on will go faster. If we don’t find the enemy close by we ca start expanding our search after that. Lastly, I think I should also include a barrier mage or two with whoever we send out, just in case. If we can capture some nanomachines to give our trackers a sample it will help the search immensely.”

“If you do that you’re going to need to be incredibly careful.”

“Can you be on sight to help with that?”

“Of course.”

“How do we kill these things?” Eleniah asked, “That’s what I’m most worried about.”

“My best guess is overwhelming force, something that will scour them away no matter how small they are. Really powerful fire, the right kinds of acid, lightning, things like that. Anything that can put out enough damage to destroy them utterly.”

Eleniah held up a clenched fist and looked at it. “How hard do I have to hit to disintegrate a nanomachine?”

“I don’t know, but it looks like we’re going to find.”

Alahna stood to leave, the conversation obviously over. She paused at the edge of the couch Kay and Eleniah were sitting on. “Thank you,” She said, bowing her head deeper than protocol allowed. “Thank you for coming and helping me. Beyond the trade agreement stuff and anything with the System, I owe you for this.”

“Back on Earth a lot of people subscribed to the idea of ‘found family’. I had one, I lost it, and now I’ve built a new one with this lady in it.” He grabbed Eleniah’s hand and held it up. “You’re her family, and I chose her to be part of mine, so you’re close enough to count at this point.”

“I know about found families, and I appreciate it. Still, I owe you, and I won’t forget that.” She paused in the doorway. “Since Miri’s so stuck on following you around, she can handle anything you need while we track down the enemy. We’ll send word when we find anything.”

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The intelligence in the black sphere sent yet another harsh message to the young ones now hiding near it to shut up and stop giving away their positions. Assuming that the enemy couldn’t trace radio signals just because they hadn’t been seen using them was idiotic. The people of this world could control water with their mind and somehow turn blood into acid that seemed to only melt the n̸̡̻̈́a̵̝͂͌n̸̫̅̏i̴͖̇͘͜t̸͇̏e̶̹͋͛ͅs̷͎̐̍. It was a world of madness and underestimating the inhabitants just because they didn’t show signs of advanced technology was foolish.

For what must have been the hundredth time the intelligence debated whether it was lucky or unlucky to have fallen into this new world with the others. It was good because there was an abundance of resources to utilize, which the old world had been lacking. But it was also stuck with a bunch of younglings, intelligences raised in scarce times that were now high as kites on the exuberance of getting to expand as they liked. The material here was strange, lacking a few of the more common resources from the world before, and the all too important s̸̚ͅẗ̶͉r̴̘͝a̷̹̽n̷̹͘g̴̘̽e̷̛̤ ̷͇̄m̸͚͊ă̶͚t̷̃͜t̶͚̾ě̷̡r̵̳̽ the n̸̡̻̈́a̵̝͂͌n̸̫̅̏i̴͖̇͘͜t̸͇̏e̶̹͋͛ͅs̷͎̐̍ needed most was missing entirely, a very strange phenomena.

The elder that had come through with them had managed to mock up- a s̸̚ͅẗ̶͉r̴̘͝a̷̹̽n̷̹͘g̴̘̽e̷̛̤ ̷͇̄m̸͚͊ă̶͚t̷̃͜t̶͚̾ě̷̡r̵̳̽ extrusion device, but they only had the one, severely limiting the speed of their growth. Events having gone the way they did, there was no way the enemy didn’t know about their limitations, the vehemence of the reaction to the few young ones who had been sent to scout and infiltrate escaping meant they had to know something about what the intelligences were. The sphere turned a sensor toward a specific member of the young scouts with anger. Sabotaging a rival to take their resources was well and good when the only enemies around were other rivals, but doing it when up against an outside enemy was a poor choice. The intelligence had already sent a report up the chain to its superiors.

It was patient though, and soon it wouldn’t have to deal with the blasted younglings anymore. The leaders had made the decision it had expected. The enemy knew what they were, to some extent, and were now hunting them, seeking to destroy the intelligences before it was too late. Instead, the intelligences would attack before they were ready and wipe them out, establishing a beachhead to grow on. An entire world full of materials was much too valuable to let organic lifeforms run around wasting them all.