Variations on a Theme Read online

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  I am much happier with my latest creations. It has taken somewhat longer than anticipated due to having to spend time eradicating the Harvester population. My initial prototypes proved even more adept at escape and evasion than I anticipated, and almost as adept at procreation. Their population density did not become fully known for some time, as they are also cunning and hide in all available ducts and pipework. However I am confident that they have now been fully cleansed, and their biomass has been returned to the vats where the new, improved Gardeners are now reaching maturity.

  These latest prototypes have been created with but one imperative; to find waste and cleanse it. Their metabolism is unique in that it converts the waste to water and methane. The water we shall be able to recycle, and the methane will be harvested and burned to provide extra heat for the cultivation of more crop. My own ingenuity has surprised me.

  And that is not the only area in which I have used some creative thinking. My original Harvesters were just too small to cope with the amount of waste producted by a structure such as the Great Redoubt. These new Gardeners are much more robust beasts, their design based on another omnivore from the Great Beyond. The antecedent I used for the information matrix was bred as a food animal, but we have no such need here, so I was able to make several improvements to the matrix before introducing the organic material. My Gardeners will be able to go on two legs or four, and, having had much of their fat replaced by muscle, will be able to shift very large quantities of slurry at any one time. I have bred them as voracious eaters but, mindful of the mistakes made previously, I have on this occassion removed much of the intelligence that imbued my Harvesters with such enthusiasm.

  The initial batch of two hundred cleared the square mile of ground I allocated to them in short order indeed, and Lord Marturioch expressed his own confidence that the problem may at last be solved, and not before time, as the Watchers have been circling the Redoubt in even greater numbers in this most recent cycle.

  Tomorrow we shall go into full production.