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A tiny dart quivered in the already dead flesh of the creature in the magter's skull. The action had all the symbolism of a broken lance, the declaration of war. "Ulv understands it a lot better than you might think," Lea said. "He knows things about symbiosis and mutualism that would get him a job as a lecturer in any university on Earth. He knows just what the brain-symbiote is and what it does.
"I have seen dead animals and my people dead with their heads open, but I have never seen anything like that before," he said. "What is it?" Brion asked. "The invader, the alien you were looking for," Lea told him. The magter's brain was only two-thirds of what would have been its normal size. Instead of filling the skull completely, it shared the space with a green, amorphous shape.
Things it must have done, since the magter are obviously the dominant life form on this planet. They paid a high price for the symbiote, but it didn't matter to race survival until now. Did you notice that the magter's brain is no smaller than normal?" "It must be or how else could that brain-symbiote fit in inside the skull with it?" Brion said.
Carefully and delicately she removed the cap of bone from the magter's head, exposing his brain to the shaft of light from the window. "You were right all the time, Brion," she said. "There is your alien." Ulv joined them as they looked down at the exposed brain of the magter. The thing was so clearly evident that even Ulv noticed it.
Now that I have seen this growth in the magter's skull, I can think of a positive parallel. The fly Drepanosiphum also had a large green organ, only it fills half of the body cavity instead of the head. Its identity puzzled biologists for years, and they had a number of complex theories to explain it. Finally someone managed to dissect and examine it.
Placing the tip of the scalpel just below the magter's breast bone, she made the long post-mortem incision down to the pubic symphysis. The great, body-length wound gaped open like a red mouth. Across the table Ulv shuddered but didn't avert his eyes. One by one she removed the internal organs. Once she looked up at Brion, then quickly returned to work.
"If the magter's total brain were smaller in volume than normal it could fit into the remaining space in the cranial hollow. But the brain is full-sized it is just that part of it is missing, absorbed by the symbiote." "The frontal lobes," Brion said with sudden realization. "This hellish growth has performed a prefrontal lobotomy!"
The man had backed in, firing behind him as he came. Ulv had no compunctions about killing, only his darts couldn't penetrate the magter's thick clothing. As the magter turned, Ulv's breath pulsed once and death stung the back of the other man's hand. He collapsed into a crumpled heap.
Every egg cell has some, and every egg that grows to maturity is infected with the plant spores. The continuation of the symbiosis is unbroken and guaranteed." "Do you think those green spheres in the magter's blood cells could be the same kind of thing?" Brion asked. "I'm sure of it," Lea said. "It must be the same process.
He took some of the bigger pieces and broke them to rough squares that would fit under the clips on the stage. Lea accepted them without a word. Putting a drop of the magter's blood on the slide, she bent over the eyepiece. Her hands shook when she tried to adjust the focusing. Using low power, she examined the specimen, squinting through the angled tube.
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