The Dig

by Alan Dean Foster

  But what was he expected to do with the crystal? How was he supposed to apply it? Was there only one right way and many wrong ones? What if he did the wrong thing? Of course, with Brink already dead that ought not to be a real concern.

  He tried to remember every detail of the demonstration projection he'd viewed back in the museum spire (for that was how he'd come to think of it). Was the crystal still even functional? The green glow might be nothing more than some ancillary residual effect. It shone softly in his palm, exactly as it had appeared in the projection.

  Not knowing what else to do, he simply laid it on the scientist's chest, stepped back and waited.

  For a long moment nothing happened. Then the green glow intensified, as if the crystal were reacting to unknown programming, or perhaps to contact with a damaged life-form. Had he done the right thing? He reassured himself with the knowledge that he couldn't make Brink any deader than he already was.

  What happened next made his lower jaw drop, and Boston Low was not noted as a jaw-dropper. The crystal disappeared, not by evaporating into empty air but by sinking into the scientist's chest. Hurrying forward, Low knelt at the other man's side and ran his fingers over the place where the crystal had been. It had not turned invisible. It was most definitely gone. Into the scientist, melting through clothing and skin like green ice on a hot plate. A faint greenish aura spread over Brink's torso, lingered a moment and then was gone. It was like nothing Low had seen in the museum.

  Greater miracles were to follow.

  Brink coughed.

  As the scientist's body began to twitch, Low stepped back, wondering if there was anything he could do to help, to expedite whatever remarkable process was taking place. Lacking specific knowledge, he could do nothing but watch helplessly... and hope.

  As astonishing as the efficacy of the process was the speed with which it worked. Hardly a few minutes had passed when Brink sat up, rubbed his eyes and took several energetic swipes at something unseen in front of his face. Turning slowly, he focused on Low as he struggled to his knees.

  "Want a hand?" Low watched intently.

  "Not ... just yet, thank you." The scientist blinked, and shook his head as if trying to remember something important. "What happened, Commander?" His gaze finally settled not on Low but on the massive pile of broken rock and other material that towered behind him.

  "You fell." Low was observing him carefully for any signs of lingering trauma, but Brink acted like anyone who'd unexpectedly been roused from a deep sleep.

  "Yes. I fell." The scientist tilted his head back to stare at the greatly enlarged opening in the roof of the chamber. "I remember falling. There was pain...." One hand went to the back of his neck. "Then ... nothing. I must have lost consciousness."

  "That's not all you lost," Low informed him grimly. "You broke your neck."

  "Broke...?" At a loss for words, Brink looked blank.

  "How're you feeling?"

  "Why are you looking at me like that? I'm a little lightheaded, I suppose, but that's all. You know how you start to feel when you've had enough good wine? There is no pain. Surely I could not have broken my neck." As if to demonstrate the state of his health, he climbed easily to his feet. "Could a man with a broken neck do this?"

  "No. No, he couldn't. Excuse me." Approaching, Low put one hand on the back of the scientist's neck and pressed. A bemused Brink allowed the exploration. Low stepped back. "The last time I did that, your head moved around like one of those spring-loaded dolls you sometimes see bobbing in the back of people's cars. It was broken, Ludger. Now it feels as if there was never anything wrong. There's not even a bruise." He indicated the rubble.

  "You were buried in that when this section of ceiling collapsed. Nothing but one arm was showing. Maggie and I pulled you out." His voice was flat. "You were dead, Ludger. Stone-cold dead. You've been dead for over an hour."

  "Really now, Commander!" The scientist pinwheeled his arms. "I assure you I have never felt better in my life. Assuming for a moment that I accept your evaluation of my previous condition, to what do you attribute my apparent resurrection?"

  "I can't show you," Low replied promptly.

  "Ah!" Brink looked smug.

  "I can't show you because it's inside you, whether intact or dissolved I don't know. I found an interisland transportation system. If you remember, we speculated on that possibility soon after our arrival. I can now confirm it. Within view there is only this island and several surrounding smaller islets. I traveled to one of the lesser islands and found what looks like a museum of some kind, though it might just as easily be an old warehouse. There's a lot of stuff there. Some of it might prove useful.

  "One thing that caught my attention was a kind of green crystal. When I touched the case that held it, I got a three-dimensional projected treatise on some of its uses. Among them was the utilization of the crystal to cure badly injured animals." He shrugged. "I didn't see any harm in trying it out on you.

  Pretty hard to make a corpse worse off." His eyes locked on the other man's.

  "I extracted it from its case, brought it back here, and put it on your chest. It sank or melted into you, made your upper body glow for a minute, and then you started coughing. Tell me, what's it like being dead?"

  Brink didn't reply right away as he pondered Low's words. Finally he murmured, "Like sleeping, Commander. Just like sleeping. I have no memory of being seriously injured, of dying, or of coming back to life. I know only that one moment I was unconscious, and the next I was looking around curiously. Believe me, I am sorry I cannot better analyze what happened to me in the interim. I see that I must believe your story."

  "I wouldn't make something like that up," Low assured him. "Wouldn't know where to start. Maggie would, but she'll confirm that you were dead too."

  Brink looked around thoughtfully. "And where is the inquisitive and vivacious Ms. Robbins?"

  Low made a face. "Your death set her off. I think everything hit her all at once. She stomped off, she said to get away from me, but I think to be alone with her own thoughts. She's more angry at the situation than she is at me, but she needs time to figure that out." He peered past the scientist. "Thought she'd be back by now. I'll leave her be awhile longer yet." He manufactured a smile.

  "You need to see this museum, or storehouse. You'd be like a kid turned loose in a candy store, Ludger. I suspect that if touched, many of the other storage cases will also project explanations of their contents. It'll be a show. We ought to learn a lot."

  "Such as how to reactivate quiescent starships?" Brink was quietly amused. "One can but hope. You had no difficulty in removing this crystal from its container?"

  Low shook his head. "If there was ever any kind of alarm system, it's dead now. Or maybe it went off in some distant, empty office. An alarm system's not much use if there's no one left alive to respond to it."

  "You said that you found a transportation system?"

  "One-way, but wait until you see it. It goes around and around, and you come out there." He grinned anew. "Noiseless and vibrationless, just like the crystal. It's quite a discovery, Ludger. I've seen people take longer to recover from a bad headache."

  "You're absolutely certain I was dead, Commander?"

  "Indisputably. As dead as that rock." He indicated a basketball-sized boulder that had rolled clear of the rest of the mound. Both men stared at it for a moment. Then their eyes met, and they shared a knowing laugh.

  "Take nothing for granted," Brink declared.

  "I know. We really should find Maggie and let her know that you're all right."

  "As you say, she will return in her own time."

  "I know, but I'm starting to get worried. I don't see her surviving very long on her own."

  "She will come to her senses and rejoin us." Brink spoke with assurance. "Or she will remain by herself and die."

  A startled Low thought the statement callous, then decided that the other man was simply stating the obvious. Besides, he'd jus
t been dead. He was entitled to some leeway. Low returned to what would necessarily remain for them the principal topic of conversation.

  "You and I need to do some exploring and see if we can find anything that will help us get back home."

  "Agreed. I am more optimistic than I was before. If there exist here devices that can raise the dead, then who is to say what might be possible? You say there are many mechanisms in this museum of yours?"

  "Hundreds, maybe thousands."

  Brink nodded. "Among many thousands we need find only one that will reactivate the asteroid-ship. We have much work ahead of us."

  "Don't I know it." Low let his gaze rove around the great chamber. "The people who built this place may have died out or moved on, but they left a potent legacy behind them." He turned. "Come on, and I'll show you the museum. Admission's free today.

  Also tomorrow, and the day after that, and on into the next millennium."

  "I should hope," remarked Brink easily, "that we will have sorted out its treasures before then."

  "What do you think of that?" The septet of supporters put the challenge to the caustic. The great majority of the undecided confessed themselves favorably swayed, though far from convinced. "The creature not only discovered the crystal but divined its most important use and applied it correctly!"

  The serious decriers were not moved. "It takes very little initiative and intelligence to determine how to utilize a crystal for organic repair when one is provided with visual instruction in the process."

  "Yes. We thousand will be better convinced when the ability to reason more abstractly has been demonstrated. The creatures must show they can deduce without assistance."

  "You cannot deny what they have already accomplished," asserted the first hundred. "They have found and made use of a crystal, the island transportation system, a door lock and more. The auguries are better than they have been in centuries!"

  "The auguries were good for us as well before we stepped over," reminded a cluster of aged thought-forms, "and see to what state we have been brought."

  A hundred and twenty thousand neutral perceptions brought forth a conclusion. "Progress has been demonstrated. Much remains to be done, and it is uncertain if these creatures are up to the challenge, but we see reason for hope."

  "Hope?" Two hundred thousand negative rejoinders coalesced simultaneously. "This is nothing more than another diversion. More entertaining than most, but no more conclusive."

  "Hopeful, yes!" shouted their opponents across the ether, which was as much as a light-minute wide and as short as the length of the average peptide chain. "Will you not concede the point?"

  The argument continued unabated. As one of the only forms of viable recreation left to them in the Nirvana in which they had been imprisoned, the Cocytans pursued it with vigor.

  CHAPTER 12

  Brink gave no sign of being awed by the remarkable undersea transportation system. Low had learned that the scientist was not easily impressed. After having already experienced the reality of interstellar travel, not to mention resurrection from the dead, this was understandable.

  As the sphere raced a second time down the dark tunnel, he kept a careful eye on his companion, watching for any signs of abnormal behavior. So far, Brink was the same old Brink. His skin hadn't begun to slough away, he wasn't rolling his eyes madly, and if anything he seemed more composed than usual. Maybe because he had just enjoyed, as he so tactfully put it, a nice nap.

  The scientist was indeed impressed by the variety of devices on display in the museum spire. He went from one to the other, lingering over some, passing quickly by others.

  When they had concluded their cursory inspection, they stood together framed in the open portal that led outside, studying the alien sea and sky.

  "What I would really like to find are some more of those green crystals." Brink shielded his eyes, which were more light-sensitive than the Commander's, from the sun. "Can you imagine their scientific and commercial worth? I cannot. Such values are beyond me. And according to the display you say you witnessed, they are capable of many other functions as well?"

  Low nodded. "Some of them I couldn't even give a name to. Don't have the necessary cultural referents."

  "If they can bring back the deceased and heal a broken spine, perhaps they can cure anything. Cancer, AIDS, Chagas' disease, malaria, dengue fever ... take one crystal and call me in the morning."

  "I don't know." They turned and walked back into the chamber. "I can't imagine how it could analyze what was wrong with your alien system, recognize the problem, fix it and then resurrect you."

  "I cannot imagine traveling faster than light, either, but we did it." Brink was thinking hard. "You say you placed it on my chest and it 'melted' into my body?"

  "That's the best description I can give you."

  Brink nodded. "I wonder if it remains intact somehow inside me, or if its substance has disintegrated and spread throughout my bloodstream, or perhaps my entire cellular structure?"

  "Wish I could help you, Ludger, but I'm running a little short on medical imaging equipment at the moment."

  The scientist put a comradely arm around the other man's shoulders. "Fortitude and persistence, my friend. We will find the answers to these mysteries. For example, have you not wondered if the curative effect is permanent, or only temporary?"

  Low started. "I hadn't gotten around to that one."

  Brink grinned. "I assure you that it occurred to me soon after your explanation of what took place. Therefore, if I should fall over dead in the middle of a sentence, you will know the cause."

  "I'd rather not consider that a possibility." Brink's sense of humor could be quietly ghoulish. "Let's just assume it's permanent. Do you expect your spine to rebreak?"

  "It certainly seems unlikely, but we have no way of knowing. There may also be side effects that have yet to manifest themselves."

  "I'll keep a lookout." Low sought to change the subject. "If you start glowing green, I'll let you know right away."

  "I've always considered green one of the more attractive colors." The scientist smiled.

  Despite their best efforts they could locate no more of the crystals. In fact, they found nothing of immediate usefulness. None of the alien devices responded to their ministrations, either manual or verbal.

  They did, however, find several more of the small robotic door-openers. These followed them willingly back to the sphere. While they might do nothing for the asteroid-ship, there were several large doorways within the central chamber that remained closed.

  "Watch." Back on the main island, Low had coaxed one of the devices over to another arch. "When trapped between one of us and a door, they'll turn and open it." He proceeded to crowd the robot.

  It backed up against the section of wall next to the arch and stopped. Low advanced until he was pressing against it with his legs. It ignored both proximity and pressure with equanimity.

  "Well?" Brink stood nearby, waiting.

  Perplexed, Low backed up to give the robot some space. "I don't understand. When I crowded the other one, it turned and opened the entrance leading to the transportation chamber. The barrier just melted away."

  The scientist inspected the solid wall beneath the arch. "Well, it does not appear to be melting to me. Perhaps we should try another portal?"

  Following the curving wall, they reached a third arch, where Low repeated the procedure that had been so successful earlier. When that failed, they returned to the second and tried another of the little robots, the result was the same: Nothing happened. When Low coaxed the original robot over to the second door, it proved as passive as its newly discovered brethren.

  "Do not be discouraged, Commander."

  Swell, Low groused silently. I'm being consoled by a dead man. "Okay, I'm all out of bright ideas, Ludger. Your turn."

  The scientist's gaze roved the chamber. "There are several much smaller doorways. Perhaps one of these devices will open one of them?"


  Low looked doubtful. "Why bother with the small doors?"

  To his surprise, one of the newly acquired robots did indeed cause one of the smaller barriers to melt out of the way. The modest storeroom thus revealed contained nothing as impressive as the sphere transportation system. Instead, it was filled with piles of reflective straps and plates that were clearly designed to be worn by something nonhuman. There were long tubular instruments that might as easily have been agricultural tools as weapons, or perhaps simply ceremonial staffs. Unable to induce them to do anything besides ring hollowly on the floor, Low had no way of identifying their intended function.

  Probably a lousy clothes closet, Low found himself thinking. Raincoats and umbrellas. That'll get us back home.

  Brink called out from the far end of the room. The scientist's voice was trembling. "Commander Low! Come quick."

  "What is it, what's wrong?" Low hurried forward, past mounds of inexplicable gear.

  Nothing was wrong. Brink was standing before a transparent case not unlike those that dominated the display in the museum spire. It was a little larger than most and hung by invisible means to the back wall of the room. Glowing green crystals floated within.

  Lots of glowing green crystals, glistening in their transparent sheaths.

  Except in quantity, they were identical to the one Low had found in the museum spire and had used to revive Brink. A glance at the scientist showed him staring unblinkingly at the trove, eyes focused and glistening.

  "We must get them out!" There was an uncharacteristic quaver in his voice.

  "Hold on a minute." Low frowned at his companion. "Sure we'll get them out. They're potentially useful, and valuable, and we're not going to just leave them sitting here. Never can tell when we might need one. But why must we get them out?"

  His words seemed to penetrate the scientist's mind slowly, as if they had been delivered one at a time over a long interval. He blinked. "Why ... I should think that would be obvious. If my revived condition is temporary, a possibility we discussed, then application of a second crystal may extend my life."