Ocean Under the Ice

by Robert L. Forward

  Tony, at the navigation console, brought Prometheus into a position where it matched orbital motion with Zulu.

  “Jinjur?” Tony murmured to his imp.

  “Yes?” she replied from the command console.

  “I’ve arranged Prometheus‘s trajectory so that we will arrive just after local sunrise over the inner pole of Zulu, where the two surface exploration robots, Splish and Splash, are in contact with the two different species of intelligent aliens. That way they’ll have the ambient light they need to transmit up real-time imagery as we talk with them. The morning sunlight period will last just three hours. There will be an eclipse period of ninety minutes while Zulu passes through Gargantua’s shadow, then another three hours of daylight before sunset.”

  “Should be enough time,” said Jinjur. “When is local sunrise?”

  “One hour,” replied Tony.

  George, who was standing behind Jinjur, remarked, “We don’t need to wait until sunrise to talk to the orbiter.”

  “You’re right,” said Jinjur. “James, put the orbiter on all imps so everyone can hear the report.”

  There was a slight pause as James set up the connections.

  “This is Jacques,” came a nasal tone from their imps. “I am presently in a near-polar orbit of Zulu. I summarize my findings. On my initial approach to Zulu I confirmed that Zulu is losing air and water vapor at a high rate because of its low gravity and the large geysers that shoot up hot water into the upper atmosphere and out into space where they form a toroid of air and water centered about Zulu’s orbital path. Much of it is collected again by Zulu during subsequent orbits, but some of it drifts outward where it is captured by the next moon out, Zuni.”

  “Zuni makes out best,” interjected Sam. “It also collects smog from Zouave. Richard figured out it’s increasing in mass, while both Zouave and Zulu are losing.”

  “After exploring water toroid,” continued Jacques, “I dropped off aeroshells containing the amphibious surface exploration vehicles, and went into a polar orbit where I began with a global survey of imagery, topography, gravity, and remote sensing of the composition and characteristics of the atmosphere and surface. The temperature on Zulu is well below freezing everywhere except near the hot water geysers. The surface gravity is twenty-one percent of Earth gravity. The day is 14.8 hours long. The atmosphere has a pressure that is eighty-one percent of Earth pressure and is mostly nitrogen gas and water vapor, with small amounts of both oxygen and carbon dioxide present.”

  “You’d expect oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere if both animal and plant life exist on the planet,” remarked Deirdre. “I wonder if the air is breathable?”

  “Not for you, li’l lady,” said Sam kindly. “Not enough oxygen in it, although it isn’t poisonous like Rocheworld. But we’d need suits, anyway, with the temperature what it is. Still, with that pressure, lightweight exploration suits ought to be enough.”

  Jacques continued on with its report on the exact dimensions of the triaxial shape of the planetoid and the variations in the thickness of the ice cap over the ocean.

  “There are eighteen active large geysers on Zulu. Most of the geysers are grouped in bands around the two tidal bulges on the inner and outer poles. These are places where the strains on the crust would be a maximum…”

  Jacques finally finished with its report. “Since the surface exploration vehicles discovered potentially intelligent life forms, I did not repeat my orbital survey to improve the data statistics. Instead, I switched to my present near-polar elliptical orbit where the high oblateness of the gravity field of Zulu precesses my orbit enough to keep my apogee over the inner pole of Zulu where the exploration vehicles are stationed. In this manner I can supply them maximum communications relay support.”

  At the center of the control deck, Jinjur looked out one of the portholes on the control deck at the mottled white marble which nearly filled the glass. Some of the darker round patches, indicating large lakes of open water, were now in sunlight. “Is it sunrise there yet?” she asked her imp, expecting James to answer.

  “Barnard is just rising,” came a tiny voice in reply instead. “This is Splish reporting. I am near the lake containing the largest geyser. With me are some members of the alien species who live on the ice around the geyser.”

  “This is Splash,” said another tiny voice. “I am floating in a lake some distance away from the largest geyser. Below me are members of another alien species which live in the ocean. Since I cannot maintain radio contact with you while I am submerged, it is not possible for me to put you in direct contact with the underwater species, so I will transmit up some video sequences of the creatures taken previously.”

  Their screens now showed an underwater scene looking down at the bottom of a moderately shallow portion of the ocean with reddish sunlight streaming in from above. At various places along the bottom could be seen small peaks of grayish pumice stone with smoky plumes of water coming from them, and broad shallow craters with bubbling sand at the bottom, indicating there were a number of volcanic vents and hot springs operating. Close to those vents and springs grew grayish-white bulbs of something that looked like sponges or coral. Close to them were various seaweeds through which darted small swimming and crawling creatures.

  “I figure that water’s hotter than a hundred C, right there,” remarked Sam. “The only thing keeps it from boiling is the pressure.”

  “Some sponges and seaweed I’ve seen would like that fine,” murmured Deirdre.

  Swimming lazily around each major vent field was a large fish-like creature with brown knobby armored skin, gill vents, and a short tail. Instead of swimming fins, it had four stubby finned legs. The head had two bulbous eyes and a large mouth full of vicious-looking sharklike teeth. Coming out of the chest area below the mouth, looking something like a goatee, were four short stubby tentacles. Most of the creatures carried one or more stones in their tentacles, many with sharp points.

  As the creatures drew near one another in their patrols around their perimeter, they displayed their teeth and rushed forward to shake their sharp stones at each other, while at the same time emitting complexly modulated roars that sounded like two elephant seals swearing at each other. Nothing much happened at these encounters except the threats, and the participants usually withdrew and resumed their marches around their own territories. Occasionally, one of the creatures would look inward at the territory that it was defending and spot some small fish or crawling animal which had ventured out from the protection of the seaweed. Then, it would drop its stone, and relieved of its ballast, use its four feet as fins to swim inward at amazing speed to capture its prey. Sometimes the prey looked very much like miniature versions of the four-legged, shark-toothed fish that had caught it.

  “These are most unusual-looking fish,” said Cinnamon, staring at the picture on her monitor screen.

  “They look a little like sharks and a little like those fish on earth that were thought to be extinct, don’t they?” said Deirdre.

  “Yes, like coelacanths, only sharkier,” said Katrina.

  “Coelasharks,” suggested Richard who was staring over Sam’s shoulder at the picture.

  “Not bad,” came a grudging multivoiced murmur over the imp network, and the name was adopted.

  “What can you tell us about the coelasharks, Splash?” asked Sam.

  “They seem to be semi-intelligent,” said Splash. “In a savage or perhaps pre-savage stage. They are obviously solitary and territorial, with the strongest coelasharks controlling a particular vent field and using it to feed themselves — and only themselves. I have not seen evidence of mating pairs, or of a coelashark taking care of children. In fact, there seems to be no compunction whatsoever against eating smaller individuals of their own species. Although they do not have a cooperative social structure, which would indicate a high level of intelligence, they do use tools. Those sharp stones that they carry in their tentacles are not only used for ballast, so the
y can use their powerful legs to move across the ocean bottom, but they are also used as weapons when a challenge display turns into a real battle. These occur when a volcanic vent dies out, or a coelashark gets too large to be supported by its vent and needs a larger one. The sharp stone can be used to stab at the throat and eyes of an opponent, or to pry open its mouth if it has obtained a grip. I have also seen coelasharks change the stone in their tentacles from one with a sharp point to one with a thin blade, which is then used to open up a clamshell to get at the meat inside.”

  “Using tools definitely shows signs of intelligence,” remarked Katrina.

  “In addition to tools,” continued Splash. “They also seem to have a crude language.”

  “They do!” exclaimed Jinjur. “That’s important. Have you learned to speak with them?”

  “Yes,” replied Splash. “Early in my explorations under the oceans of Zulu, I came near the territorial vent of a coelashark almost as large as I was. It was nearly two meters long, and thicker and more massive than a human. Other coelasharks had avoided confronting me because of my large size, but this one attempted to eat me. I pulled in my antenna, stowed my imager and other sensors, closed my sample hold door, and let it attack. After breaking a few teeth, it gave up. When I didn’t attack it in return, it was puzzled. When I took one of the fish that I had collected from my sample hold, and gave the fish to the coelashark to eat, it was astonished. After a while, it realized that I was no threat to its territory, so it started making sounds at me, obviously attempting to converse with me. Instead of continuing with my explorations, I stayed to talk with it and observe its interactions with its neighbors. Finally, after many months of observation and effort, I was finally able to converse with it. I have built up a translation program containing their vocabulary and grammar. The translation program is not a large one, as the vocabulary of the coelasharks is limited and their grammar is simple. I am presently sending my most recently updated version through the data channel to James.”

  “Very good, Splash,” said Jinjur. “James. Make sure that the coelashark translation program gets distributed to all the computers on the exploration vehicles and suits so we can talk to a coelashark if we happen to run into one.”

  “It will be the flouwen that would be most likely to encounter a coelashark,” James reminded her. “I will make sure that the program is included in the computers in their drysuit backpacks also. After examining the program, however, I find it is so simple that I suspect that the flouwen, with their large memory and high intelligence quotient, could easily memorize it in a very short time. I am now in the process of transmitting it to them in their tank.”

  Soon, some flouwen remarks came over the open imp network.

  ^Interesting. All the words mean food, things, actions, or curses.^

  #Simple grammar. Very simple phrases. Mostly threats.#

  *EASY!*

  The human connections to the imp network were silent for a while as the humans realized their inadequacies in the face of the greatly superior intelligence and memory of the flouwen.

  “I wonder what kind of an IQ that takes,” mused Richard finally.

  “Since the present flouwen buds are significantly smaller than their primaries, their intelligence quotient is proportionately lower,” answered James. “I would estimate that the IQ of the buds is…”

  “DON’T SAY IT!” yelled Katrina. “I don’t want to know!”

  “Very well, Katrina,” replied James, with a programmed note of contriteness in its usually superior sounding tone.

  “Don’t vex yourself,” Deirdre comforted Katrina. “It means naught to us, we’ve not the IQ to comprehend what a really high IQ means.”

  Cinnamon noticed a flicker of activity in the flouwen’s habitat tank and looked up from her lap screen. The three flouwen had stopped looking at their underwater console, and were now crouched in opposite corners of the wedge-shaped tank. They had assumed the shape of coelasharks and were making roaring noises at each other.

  “James!” she said through her imp. “What’s going on?”

  “They are practicing speaking like coelasharks,” said James. “Now that they have memorized the vocabulary and learned the grammar, they need to gain some experience so that they can converse fluently with the coelasharks when they encounter them.”

  “The rest ought to see this. I presume you have an imager that covers what goes on in the tank. Send it to the others.” Almost instantly, a picture of the inside of the flouwen habitat tank, with its large red, white and purple versions of coelasharks appeared on her lap monitor.

  “Little Red!” Cinnamon called out, knowing that James would connect the link through her imp properly. “What are you three doing? Why are you shaped like coelasharks?”

  Little Red stopped in mid-roar to answer. *James told us how coelasharks talk! Great way to talk!*

  ^If we take shape of coelasharks, then we think more like coelasharks, so we can talk more like coelasharks,^ Little White explained.

  “The method-acting school of language lessons,” interjected Richard sarcastically.

  “What’s the language like?” Cinnamon asked.

  #We will speak as coelasharks do, and James will translate our words for you,# said Little Purple.

  ^Some meaning may be lost in translation,^ warned Little White.

  *Especially threats!* added Little Red. *They loudest and most FUN!*

  The three flouwen returned to their corners and resumed their coelashark shapes. Soon they were rushing at each other and emitting shouts and roars that could be easily heard through the thick tank walls.

  *Come any closer and I’ll bite your leg off!* yelled Little Red.

  #Listen to the weakling threaten me!# bellowed Little Purple in response.

  ^You’re both so timid, you’d belly-up at the sight of blood!^ roared Little White.

  Aghast, Cinnamon said, “That is the language of an intelligent life-form?”

  “At least that answers one question,” came Jinjur’s voice over the imp network. “We certainly will be prepared to interact adequately with one of the alien species on Zulu. Three of us can even talk directly with them without having to have a computer acting as an intermediary. Now let’s see if we are similarly prepared for the other one.”

  With difficulty the flouwen were made to calm down and stop playing coelasharks, for it was now time for the report by Splish, and the flouwen should hear that too, although in all probability they would not be interacting with these land-dwelling creatures as much as the humans would be.

  “This is Splish,” came the tiny voice from the surface as their console screens showed a computer-generated image of Zulu with a green dot on it near the largest of the clear water lake regions of the icy white moon. “The green dot indicates my present position.” The moon grew in size as the view zoomed rapidly in on the lake shore containing the green dot. As more details became clear, the round lake shore broke up into jagged edges, while in the lake were floating large icebergs which had calved off the shoreline.

  “Looks just like an ice shelf region in Antarctica, icebergs and all,” murmured Sam.

  “Except there, you have a small cold ice-covered land region completely surrounded by a warm body of water, while here you have a small warm body of water completely surrounded by cold ice-covered land,” pontificated Richard.

  As the zoom proceeded, some structure and coloring began showing up in the region around the lake, which soon turned into a semi-organized pattern of differing shades of greenish-blue. The zoom came to an end, and the computer-generated image was replaced by a live picture of one of the aliens, taken by the video camera extending from the top of the amphibious exploration vehicle. All of the crew had seen still images of the aliens that Splish had sent back previously, but it was different seeing one of these bewildering creatures in motion.

  Splish had learned early in its interactions with the aliens that they called themselves “coverers-of-the-ice�
�, where “ice” was used in a generic sense, similar to the way that humans used the word “earth” as meaning “terra-firma” rather than “dirt”.

  At first, when the humans referred to the aliens among themselves, they tried to use the correct name, “coverers-of-the-ice”. That proved too long, and an abbreviation, “icecoverers”, took its place. That still proved awkward and the name “icerugs” was finally coined. Despite the protests of Reiki and Deirdre, it stuck. James, however, assured them that the icerugs would never hear what the humans really called them, for the translation program would always change it to their correct name.

  The strange being appearing on their screens seemed to be half-plant and half-animal. The camera was now panning over the large plant portion, which covered the ice like a carpet, a carpet with a purplish blue-green color like an unripe plum. Almost an acre in extent, the carpet was thin enough to reveal even slight contours and bumps in the ice underneath. The fine plum-colored threads that covered the carpet had a light-absorbing velvet-like texture.

  “That is certainly an efficient surface for trapping the reddish photons from Barnard,” remarked Katrina. “There must be photosynthesis going on in that portion of the body.”

  “The blue-green plum color is distinctly different than chlorophyll-green, however,” said David, who possessed a color sense as discriminating as his tonal sense.

  “Probably a similar molecule that works better with red light,” responded Katrina. “I can’t wait to get a sample to analyze.”

  Deirdre’s eyes shot a green glare at her. “Aye, and would you be extending a finger of your own, in return?”

  The video scan stopped on the “node”, the animal part of the icerug. The “foot” of the node consisted of a thick plum-colored pedestal about a half-meter high, which rose smoothly and seamlessly out of the carpet which it was riding. On top of the thick pedestal was a spherical “head” the size of a large beach ball. In the middle of the head was a slit mouth with tiny sharp teeth that were occasionally visible. Between the head and the pedestal were four stubby tentacles, most of them in continuous motion, as if the creature were nervous. Two of the tentacles held artifacts and were quite different in length, indicating that they were alterable as well as flexible. Coming out of the top of the head was a large single eye on a flexible stalk. The entire node, except for the lens of the eye, was covered with the same plum-colored velvet as the rest of the body. The bright owl-like eye with a pink iris was staring fixedly at the camera. The eye blinked occasionally by closing a six-leaved nictating membrane over the pupil. The leaves of the membrane overlapped somewhat like the six-leaved aperture stop in a camera.