Kaiju Preservation Society(57)

“Then why did it take a kaiju coming over for us to realize this world existed?” Sanders asked.

“Because we think we’re smart,” Niamh said.

“Come again?”

“We think we’re smart,” Niamh repeated. “And because we think we’re smart, we only looked at what we wanted to look at and didn’t think to look past it. We were looking at creating nuclear bombs and didn’t think about how nuclear energy might mess with a multiverse. We didn’t consider there was a multiverse. It’s not built into our model.”

“And the kaiju did consider this,” Sanders said, skeptically.

“Of course not,” Niamh said, the “I can’t believe I have to say this” tone returning. “They didn’t consider anything like that. It never occurred to them to create a model of a universe where alternate worlds would or wouldn’t exist. They just acted intelligently, within the context of their needs. They sensed a food source and they moved toward it. They didn’t consider that it was across a dimensional barrier. They came through to our world because it never occurred to them that they couldn’t.”





CHAPTER

19




“I have a couple of questions for you, if you don’t mind,” Brynn MacDonald said to General Tipton, after Niamh had finished their presentation and headed out, and we were coming to the close of our meeting schedule.

“Of course, Dr. MacDonald,” Tipton said.

“I was curious what your takeaway is and what you’ll be reporting back, for a start.”

Tipton glanced over at Sanders. “I think it’s clear your people know their stuff,” he said. “This wasn’t really in doubt; KPS always finds good people. But this is an unusual event, and you can understand why back in the real world we would have some concerns. It’s been decades since a kaiju came through, and the world has changed in the interim. To have one just sitting on a barrier? It’s a security issue, or so it would seem, at first.”

“And you think it’s less of one now,” Tom Stevens said.

“I do.” Tipton pointed. “Let me be clear that these presentations need to be backed up with data that I can share with my scientists back home. If they come to different conclusions from the data, I will let you know, and, bluntly, I’m not going to be happy about it. But you’ve never fudged the data before. I’m not sure why you would start now.”

“Thank you for the compliment, General.”

“You’re welcome. Of course, Dr. MacDonald, you would do us all a favor if you could find some way of getting Bella to move, so that breach can seal up entirely. Spray her with some pheromones or something. You do that sort of thing all the time.”

“We thought about it,” Tom said. “But since she’s not in danger of crossing over we decided it’s not an issue. Also, brooding kaiju are touchy.”

“Touchy?” Sanders asked.

“Bella would rip apart any other kaiju she felt was threatening her eggs. If one of our helicopters goes in and tries to get her to move, she’s going to see that as a threat and try to destroy it. And she’d likely chase it until she did destroy it, which would risk leading it back to Tanaka Base.”

“We’d like not to get stomped by Bella,” MacDonald said, dryly.

“So, we think it’s better to let her stay where she is for now,” Tom continued. “We have those cameras and equipment monitoring her, and we do live observations with the helicopters as well. If something happens that we need to worry about, you’ll know.”

“How much longer is she there for?” Sanders asked.

“Until she stops producing eggs. She’s due to lay more soon, and she’ll probably have another session after that.”

“So, weeks? Months?”

“Probably another month at least.”

“I understand you’re curious about these creatures, Mr. Sanders,” MacDonald said.

“Of course,” Sanders said.

“Enough so that you tried to bribe my pilot to land near Bella,” MacDonald continued. “You do understand that Dr. Satie filed an incident report not long after you landed. As he’s obliged to whenever something unusual happens on a flight.”

Sanders looked uncomfortable but not unduly so. He was back on land and in a conference room environment, which was his usual playing field. “Dr. MacDonald, I realize now that I let my enthusiasm get away from me—”

“Yes, you did,” MacDonald said. “Please tell me why.”

“It’s my first time here,” Sanders said. “Seeing this. Seeing all of this. I got carried away. It was wrong of me. I’m sorry.”

MacDonald looked at Sanders levelly. “You understand your family has a less-than-shining reputation with regard to Tanaka Base.”

Sanders appeared confused about this. “I … didn’t, actually.”

“In the sixties, as the KPS was getting underway, your grandfather pushed your company’s radioisotope thermoelectric generators as a way to power our bases, including the first version of Tanaka. There was a report noting the kaiju here seemed especially attracted to that version of RTGs and would go looking for them, but his counterpart at the time”—MacDonald motioned to Tipton—“approved it anyway, in no small part because your grandfather bribed him. Would you like to guess what happened next, Mr. Sanders?”