OH NO!!! ANTS!!!

(c) 1992 by; Mr. David R. Dorrycott

"Ants" mummered Snowaters "are they dangerous" she asked.

<Only if we allow them to continue to multiply, there is a danger of locking up the Primary Memory Core>

"Hummm... So, Tani created these Data Ants to find a way out of Main Memory. Ingenious." She walked across her bridge to the Computer Monitoring Station. "At present they are already taking up two percent of memory. At their current rate of reproduction lockup will occur within the hour. What ideas do you have?"

<At present I have hunter programs keeping the population level under some control. Sending them back to their creator would be nice.>

"Your right. These things seem to continue looking for exits, then gather at the same address point. The datafile there is immense." She tapped her foot, thinking. "What about opening a one way direct path from their gathering point to the Klipper. Several subroutines should be able to re-program them to hunt out Tani and gather around her. Then mayhap a message before self destruct?"

Kalith pondered the possibilities, coming up with several solutions before selecting one.

<It will require several hours to completely purge memory, even with the hunters. But it is an interesting project. I will begin work now.>

Snowaters sat back in her tattered Command chair. She leaned back and began compiling the message, and most notably, the destruct sequence. After several minutes she began to smile.

Several hours later Tani noticed blue ants beginning to congregate around her. Try as she would they kept finding her. Finally she decided to try the destruct sequence. To her surprise all the ants within a short distance stopped, opened their mandibles, and said “YOUR WELCOME TO VISIT, BUT NEXT TIME PLEASE CLEAN UP BEHIND YOURSELF". Then, to her shear amazement they all stood up, grabbed their heads, and began shaking. Above each one the number five popped up, counting down. At zero they all screamed, then exploded into multi-coloured particles.

As she watched as more blue ants began congregating.

Snowaters, Star Diamond, & Kalith copyright Lord Rees

Tani Icedance & Data-Ants copyright Kay Shapero