by P P Corcoran
Baylor’s voice returned clearly. “Come in, Doctor.”
The door slid open and she went in. She nodded at the other section heads sitting at the large conference table in Baylor’s office, but didn’t immediately take a seat. “What’s this about? I’m dealing with the most incredible social development we’ve observed yet among the EI’s, and the scientific implications are astounding. I’ve got issues...”
The base commander interrupted her. “We’ve got issues, Doctor, and we need your input. Please be seated.”
Agramonte sat only after taking note of the others. When she spoke, her tone held suspicion. “What’s the problem?”
Baylor glanced to his right, and nodded to Ikeda Watanabe. The Chief of Environmental Operations cleared her throat before speaking. “Station system losses have increased since my last report despite our efforts, and we’re barely meeting demand from the refueling station in orbit in addition to our own needs.”
Agramonte shrugged. “If the problems are technical, find them and fix them, Ikeda.”
“That’s not a helpful attitude, Maya,” Ben Robertson said coldly. “Until we can minimize the losses and increase output to cope with our ever-increasing demands, we need a plan.”
“Well, what’s Materials Sciences doing about this?”
Baylor interrupted. “Enough, people! I don’t need my senior administrators bickering, I need solutions.” He turned to Agramonte. “Frankly, Maya, the losses are only part of the problem. We’re investigating multiple paths towards a solution, and Life Sciences is going to need to address a very serious problem which is contributing to the overall concern.”
“Oh?” Agramonte leaned aggressively forward. “You’re going to cut my personnel again to decrease station demand, Jim? What we’re doing here is of absolutely critical...”
Baylor exploded. “Will you stop jumping to paranoid conclusions for a minute? This is bloody important!”
The Commander losing his temper brought Agramonte’s irritated tirade to an abrupt halt. She considered before beginning again. “Fine.” More grudgingly: “I’m sorry. What can my department do?”
“First, can you tell me why EI productivity has fallen fifteen percent over the last three standard months, despite breeding so efficiently and effectively that their numbers of adults are up ten percent over the same interval?”
Agramonte blinked in surprise. “But I was just outside with them and things were running smoothly! Like usual, I might add. The Exo-Indigenous are breeding and expanding as designed, using the local biochemistry; without any natural metals or conductors, it’s a far more cost-efficient process than machines. We’ve taught them to haul water-ice chunks which we blast out while they sleep at night—which they call ‘rocks’, logically enough, since it forms the majority of the ‘bedrock’ of this moon—continually from local sun up until sundown, as their physiology allows. Population figures are on perfect track; productivity should be paralleling that.”
“The operative words are ‘should be’,” Baylor said. “Our system losses are well above expected, and replacement from local resources is down from what we had with half the population.” He leaned forward and made measured eye contact with all three of his section heads. “The combination of those issues means we’re way behind where we should be.” The commander tapped the table with his forefinger to make his point. “Corporate is expecting a return on investment from this facility by providing ice to the station in orbit, which will function as a reaction-mass and water refueling point for interplanetary traffic. We’ve got reserves for the moment, but the EI’s are the key to making this venture profitable. If we can’t scale up the way Corporate’s been anticipating, we’re...”
“Dead in the lack of water,” Robertson interjected dryly.
Watanabe ignored the men. “Any thoughts on what the problem is, Maya?”
Agramonte thought about the exchange with the EI named ‘Fim’ not twenty minutes earlier, and suppressed a shiver. She stood; hands flat on the table. “You put your house in order, Ikeda; I’ll take care of mine.”
She stalked out, aware that she left no friends behind her in Baylor’s office. Watanabe called after her, following. “Maya, please wait.”
Agramonte did so, reluctantly. “Make it quick, Ikeda. The scientific implications of my recent observations are astounding. The EI’s are on the verge of a new level of social development, well in advance of predictions.”
Watanabe nodded, but her smile seemed forced. “I see you’re excited about the science, and what you’ve accomplished is remarkable. We’re not friends in the conventional sense; too much butting heads over corporate resources, I suppose, but know I applaud your successes. They’re at the heart of everything we hope to achieve here.”
“I hear a ‘but’ coming.”
The smile faded. “But...we are having troubles meeting quotas. If we can’t make this succeed, we all lose. So far from Earth, the only sure thing is a team effort, Maya. I hope to God that you’ll reach out and let me help if you need it, okay?”
The two scientists locked gazes for some moments before Agramonte replied flatly. “There is no ‘God’, Ikeda.” She walked past her colleague down the corridor.
Watanabe watched her go, frowning.
#
Fim startled when Taf’s voice came from behind her, and nearly dropped the alien thing she held.
“What’s that, Fim?”
“Just a thing Gray asked me to move from one place to another,” she said, turning and showing it to him.
Taf shook his head. “A strange thing, to be sure. If I’m not mistaken, it’s one of those that puts the sun in the cave, right?”
“Yes. The hot ones call it a ‘floodlamp’.”
“Such oddness.” Taf considered the horizon, where the last rays from the distant sun lingered as if embarrassed to be there. “It doesn’t seem like you’ll get it there today, does it?” He stretched his arms overhead, then wrapped them around himself. “I’m already feeling cool, and ready to sleep the moment it is dark.”
Fim considered. “What if I don’t want to tonight?”
“Foolishness. We must, because our bodies freeze without the sun’s warmth.” He folded downwards to a sitting position. “Might as well lie here with me as elsewhere. Gray’s thing will wait until morning.”
Around them, Fim saw others of her people doing the same. “But what if you weren’t forced to sleep, Taf? Would it be worth it to stay awake and hear the night sky sing?”
The sun slipped below the horizon and the darkness deepened. Only the light reflected from Saturn—eternally in their sky—and the myriad stars remained but did not offer any warmth. Taf mumbled as he lay down. “Don’t...know. Don’t much care, hhrrrr.....hrrrk.”
Fighting the cold, Fim switched on the thing she held, just as she’d seen some of Gray’s underlings do, and the alien light flared out into the dark around her. The hot one’s artifact hummed, breaking the silence of the hushed landscape of the world, but she felt its heat force back the chill of night. She glanced over her shoulder, where a heap of rocks due to be placed in the hot ones’ boxes stood between her and their home, shielding the light her pilfered ‘floodlamp’ emitted. She turned it on herself and felt the warmth from it chase away the chill of the encroaching darkness.
Fim sat and waited, head tilted so she might listen to the songs from the sky. Around her, the rest of her people slept where they had lain when the sun vanished below the curve of the world.
The songs were strange, even stranger than the hot ones’ ‘floodlamp’ which emitted enough warmth to allow her to stay awake through the chilly night.
After a while she found she understood them.
After that, she found that she liked what they had to say.
#
Several days later , Agramonte was suiting up to do more observations on the EI’s when one of her scientific staff came running up. “You’re not going to believe this, Maya.”
“Surveillance footage. Took some work to come up with something they wouldn’t notice so we could catch them in the act...”
Agramonte interrupted. “How many?”
“I’d estimate some twenty percent of the EI’s we filmed were ambulatory last night.” Lewis rubbed his eyes and stifled a yawn.
“How is that possible? We engineered them to go dormant when the temp drops and their circulatory systems freeze and shut down! Considering they can otherwise eat the endless methane snow to provide all the energy they need, we had to do something to limit them.”
“You’re going to love this: they are using the heat from the technology we’ve given them to expedite water production. Anything with a battery pack, basically—keeps them warm enough to remain active at night. Here. Watch for yourself.” He handed her his handheld.
Agramonte took the device and tapped out commands.
Lewis ran a hand through his hair while she watched. “Obviously, what’s amazing is that they figured this out on their own.” When his superior didn’t say anything in response, he went on. “They’ve begun to re-purpose what we’ve given them to suit their needs—it speaks of a far greater intelligence and sophistication of logical, rational thought than we imagined possible. The EI’s are ludicrously far ahead of our most optimistic projections! With your permission, I want to write this up for the Exobiology journals back home. Right now, in fact.”
She returned the handheld to Lewis. “What are the ambulatory ones doing overnight?”
“I’m hypothesizing they’ve reached a new stage in their social development—they’re moving into large clusters to sit, staring up at the night sky.”
Agramonte shook her head as if waking up, and continued to dress in her pressure suit. “What can they see through the hydrocarbon fog?”
“More than we can. Remember, we designed them to perceive farther into both ends of the spectrum...”
Ikeda Watanabe’s arrival, thin-lipped and glowering, interrupted Lewis. The chief of Environmental Ops glared at the younger scientist. “Leave. I need to speak with her right the hell now, and I need privacy.” When Lewis hesitated, looking to Agramonte for guidance, Watanabe invaded his personal space and bellowed “Now!” from about an inch away.
The scientist paled and fled.
Agramonte was fully dressed except for her helmet, which she tucked under one arm. She decided to meet Watanabe’s anger with some of her own. “What gives you the right to yell at one of my people?”
“Oh, I dunno, how about, let’s see, shall we? Yeah, let’s try sabotage for starters!”
“Wait. What?”
“Deliberate sabotage, Maya. The ice processor in the south quadrant that went down last week. Ground itself into slag on an axe head. Total loss.”
Agramonte scowled. “That could easily have been an accident. Maybe the piece flew off while chopping ice, and...”
“Perhaps, but you’re missing the point: it got past the metal detectors which would have shut the processor down before the machine destroyed itself.” Watanabe waved her hand in angry dismissal. “It had been encased in ice to fool the sensors, Maya! A rather innovative means to do the most damage possible.”
Agramonte finished sealing up the suit, leaving only the helmet to attach. “Take it to Baylor; security will run down any suspects. Why bring it to me? I’ve got work to do.”
Clenched muscles in Watanabe’s jaw betrayed her anger. “Because it’s not an isolated incident, Maya. In fact, we’ve found evidence of tampering with one of our three primary atmo recyclers.”
“Again, what has that got to do with me?” She put on her helmet and began to secure the seals. It came as an abrupt shock when Watanabe’s sharp slap against the faceplate banged her head against the side hard enough to bruise.
“Because one of your EI’s did it!” snarled the Chief of Environmental Operations, who spun and stalked off.
Agramonte, after a moment of shock, removed her helmet and followed at a run.
#
“Taf is dead.”
Fim stared at the speaker, another female, and around at the remainder of the gathered group. All were younger than Fim. Each wore a determined expression when she made eye contact with them. “He won’t be the only one. Now; what happened, Keth?”
“We went as you instructed to the hot ones’ machine, the one you said to be sure to damage. I was still searching for a place of weakness to attack when Taf chose his target and swung one of the rock-axes. Such heat when he broke its shell, Fim! The poison they breathe spewed all over him as well.” Keth hefted her own axe. “He screamed once and fell. I could do nothing.”
All was silent, except for the distant sounds of the hot ones’ mechanisms chewing rocks. Their rocks. Fim paced and let the silence build before shattering it, triumphant. “We heard the keening from their alien cave—Taf struck a mighty blow for us!” There were sounds of agreement from all, and she made eye contact with Keth once more. “What happened next?”
“I backed off, as you instructed, to see their response.”
“What about Taf’s body?”
Keth’s eyes widened. “I tried, but the hot ones responded too quickly! I...”
“YOU LEFT HIM THERE?”
“I didn’t want to, Fim, but the poison still spilled out, and I couldn’t get close. The noise sounded as if the world itself had broken, and...”
Fim swung and connected, knocking Keth to the ground, unconscious. The others moved a step away, but Fim paid no notice to their fear. “So by now they know we are responsible for the damage.”
“What...what will we do?” asked one of the males.
A confused babble broke out. “We won’t be able to resist the hot ones if they come against us,” someone said.
“Especially at night, when most will be sleeping!” moaned another.
Fim’s own axe thudded into the ground with a sound which chopped through the growing panic. “What do we do, you ask?”
Her voice was sure and calm when she answered her own question. “We do what the songs tell us to do.”
#
Commander Baylor’s office was silent, the mood grim, when Agramonte arrived. She saw a few frightened faces among her colleagues, but Ikeda Watanabe showed cold hostility. Agramonte’s lips thinned as she realized she’d clearly been summoned after the meeting had been under way for some time.
“Please sit, Maya.” Baylor sounded tired and had dark spots under his eyes, a remarkable feat considering the lesser gravity of Titan. “Time...”
Watanabe interrupted him. “It’s damn well past time, Jim!” She turned to Agramonte. “The company’s pulling us out: we are finished here! Hell, we’ll be lucky if we can get any work after we’re fired for cause!” Watanabe abruptly stood, leaning forwards, hands flat on the table. “And your snow-monkeys are the problem!” she shrieked.
Agramonte was taken aback with the vehemence of the verbal attack. “Is it true about the company, Jim?”
“Ikeda, please... Yes, Maya. A ship’s been dispatched—all division heads and assistants will be replaced, including me. I’m through, too.”
“How soon?”
“They’re some weeks out.”
Watanabe slapped the table, making several of those gathered jump. “Tell her the important part, Jim!”
Baylor heaved a sigh. “The company’s also ordered you to kill off the EI’s with your failsafe virus.”
Agramonte leapt to her feet. “You can’t be serious!”
“They’ve been sabotaging this station, Maya! Tampering with the ice collectors, atmo recyclers, water...all of it!”
A sudden tremor caused both standing women to lurch, and there were cries of surprise and one genuine scream of fear from around the table.
“What the hell was that?” yelled Baylor.
Ben Robertson’s voice cut through the confused babble. “Seismic activity,” he said, consultin
g his handheld.
Baylor answered. “But that’s impossible. There’s no geological instability on this moon.”
“True, as far as the fact goes.”
“Meaning what?”
Watanabe interrupted with a scowl. “He means naturally occurring instability.” Her own handheld beeped for attention and she answered it. “What? You’re certain?”
The station lurched again, and an alarm began blaring.
The Chief of Environmental Ops closed her handheld and sank into her chair as Baylor shouted over the tumult. “People! Calm down—clear out and get to your E-suits until we figure out what exactly...”
They didn’t wait for the rest of the order. ‘Get out’ was all they needed to hear. A stampede for the door left only the Commander, Watanabe, Agramonte, and Robertson at the table.
Ben Robertson licked his lips. “So? How bad is it, Ikeda?”
“Bad enough that running for our E-suits is a bloody waste of time.”
After a silence that stretched well beyond a reasonable sixty seconds, Baylor broke it. “What is happening?”
She threw a nasty glance at Agramonte. “Maya’s EI’s. They redirected our heat exchangers into the ice below the base, melting it.” She scowled. “We’re sinking, and we’ve got breaches to the outside. We’ll run out of air far in advance of the company’s replacement ship getting here, E-suits or no.”
Robertson muttered a curse, while Baylor sat back in his seat, pale. “But...”
“But nothing, Jim,” Watanabe said. She turned to Agramonte. “You might be able to release your killer virus in time to keep us alive, if you hurry. Or are you still too attached to your little pets, Maya?”
“I can’t understand how the EI advanced so much in such a brief period.”
Baylor sat forward. “What do you mean?”
“They’re primitives! They haven’t even existed for much more than five Earth years. None of our models showed the kind of social development, logical thinking, problem-solving abilities...”
