Ocean Under the Ice

by Robert L. Forward

  “Something strange is happening here,” she said. “When Thomas looked out the viewport window during his mid-shift meal at midnight, he saw that the nearby icerugs are gone!”

  “Gone!” repeated George, concerned. “That is strange. I don’t like it. I think perhaps it would be best if we came straight back and rejoined forces, then find out what is going on.”

  * * *

  “My coring mole is on its repeat journey,” said Richard. “We don’t need to stay here for my sake. We can cut it and go — I’ve got more.”

  “Then let’s head back to base,” said George, starting for the cockpit.

  “Shucks,” said Cinnamon. “I was really hoping to find a whole coelashark to dissect — hopefully one with some vermicysts in it.”

  “It’ll have to wait,” said George, gruffly.

  CHAPTER 12 — WARRING

  As the Dragonfly sped back towards the Victoria, Deirdre discovered to her own surprise that she was eager to meet again with the icerugs of Windward City. Carefully avoiding the thought of any sentiment, she was hoping that the icerugs would have made some progress in figuring out their own life cycle, and that she could learn something about it. She still regretted her own “interferin’”, as she privately regarded her explanation of evolution to the icerug; however, if she had aroused the creature’s curiosity, it might perhaps prove fruitful.

  George radioed to Victoria as they neared.

  “Glad you’re nearly here,” said Katrina. “Thomas and Sam have been out looking around. They didn’t learn much, but there must be some kind of serious trouble here, and without the Dragonfly we can’t go find out what it is.”

  “What kind of trouble?” asked George.

  “That’s just it, we don’t know,” said Katrina, her concern clear in the transmitted words. “All the adult icerugs have left the area around us, abandoning the young ones and leaving them to shift on their own. Even the local teacher, Smooth-Brown has left. But there’s been no sign of any disasters, major eruptions outside the normal tidal cycle, or storms.” The crew aboard the Dragonfly were silent, considering this information. Arielle turned to George.

  “Fly by city center on way?”

  “Good idea,” agreed George. “Probably can’t tell much from the air, but it can’t hurt.” The slender plane turned gently to the right, and headed for the center of the icerug city. The human eyes stared eagerly down at the bleak landscape below, and as the first icerugs came into view, there were exclamations of surprise. Instead of the large, triangularly-shaped blue-green carpeted fields covering the ground, great sections of the ice now lay uncovered. On the northern side of the city they could see some icerug carpets, but they were arranged in long strips to form a kilometers-long tapered blue-green band of icerug flesh, with the wide ends of the carpets based in fields around the city, and the narrow ends close together and all pointing off into the distance toward the north. Far out on the horizon to the north of the end of the tapered band, another darkened blue-green band was visible, and without a word, Arielle turned the little craft in that direction. As they neared the strange formation, they began to see what it was.

  “More icerugs! In those peculiar strips!” David’s far-sighted eyes picked out the elongated pointed shapes of the icerug bodies.

  “The carpets are like spears,” said Deirdre. “I know they’re not spears, but the shape of them is spear-like. And they’re all pointed at the city.” Arielle swung the Dragonfly in a wide arc above the line of tightly grouped icerugs, and then headed back to Victoria directly.

  “As soon as we drop off the flouwen, we’ll head right back to the city and find out what’s going on,” commanded George. “Maybe this is an icerug ceremony of some kind.”

  Back at Victoria, the flouwen returned to their habitat tank. The humans, however, were anxious to learn what was happening and soon were back in the air. Arielle floated the plane gently down on the ice shelf near the center of the city.

  “We’ll plan on a short visit this time, Arielle,” said George. “I’d prefer that you not go all the way back to Victoria. Keep circling nearby, unless you hear from me. We might want to leave sooner than we’ve done before.” Arielle grinned.

  “Make quick go-away?” she asked.

  “I think it’s ‘getaway’ you mean, but yes, that’s the idea.” As the little plane hovered, the humans jumped to the surface, their boots kicking up a fine dust of frozen snow. They marched quickly, without talking, increasingly concerned at the sight of the changes around them. No icerug nodes stood talking, or moving about their own affairs in the normally busy environs of the city center. In the distance, through the blur of gently falling thick snowflakes, they could see occasional bright flashes of light, and hear loud icerug voices. Puzzled and alarmed, they hurried on, and rounded an icy wall, to confront an open area of ice which served the aliens as a central forum. Five icerug nodes were fighting furiously, and while three of the nodes were attached as usual to a track of carpet which led off to their body in some distant field, the other two nodes had no extended carpet, only a wide skirt of velvety flesh around the thick pedestal. The three normal nodes, hampered in their movements by their trailing carpets, were stabbing and slashing at the two more mobile nodes with crude halberds, poles of dried seaweed stalks topped with combination spike and axe heads of sharp stone. The outnumbered pair had stone knives in each tentacle and darted around and over the carpets of the others with lightning quickness, slashing at their opponent’s heads and eyes as they whirled past. They were all bellowing, and the speed and ferocity of the two strange nodes almost seemed to equalize the battle. One of the halberd wielders finally worked its way around behind the conflict, and struck savagely at the knife-wielding tentacles, severing a number of them in a series of short, powerful chops. The two carpetless nodes, now nearly helpless, still fought to wrestle their opponents with unbridled fury, even trying to bite their foes with their tiny mouths. There was no attempt to surrender or plead for mercy or even to flee, which the more mobile nodes could easily have done. It was obvious, though, that the mobile nodes were rapidly becoming exhausted. With roars of triumph, the three carpeted icerugs surrounded them, and stabbed and chopped viciously with their pole axes until their foes were only scattered chunks of flesh upon the scratched and gouged surface of the formerly polished ice. As the victors straightened, Richard saw with amazement that one of them was his companion of a few weeks ago, Pink-Orb. He spoke to it, amazed.

  “I can’t believe what I saw! What is going on here? Who were those icerugs without carpets?” The three aliens approached slowly, and Katrina exclaimed.

  “They’re hurt!”

  Deirdre and Richard recognized the other two then, but only just. Silver-Rim’s great shiny eye was dimmed, and apparently cooked to a coagulated white on one side, while Eclipse had lost the ends of three tentacles. As the humans looked, they could see the strange fluid-like skin of the icerugs begin to clot over their oozing slash wounds. The clots were soon covered with a fresh surface of velvety skin covering, leaving lumps where wounds had been.

  “Greetings, Richard.” Pink-Orb’s voice was weak, and it apparently hurt to vibrate the wounded tissues of its clot-dotted head portion, but the alien spoke as coolly as ever to the humans, nothing of the savage fighter showing in its manner. “Those creatures we have killed were some of the advance warriors of our enemy. We are at war.” The flat statement silenced the humans briefly.

  “War with who? Icerugs like those two — were?” George glanced at the remains and looked away. Pink-Orb exchanged a brief sentence or two with its companions, who moved off together at high speed, heading towards the distant sounds and lights. Pink-Orb addressed George, without the customary icerug verbosity.

  “War with invaders. Their own geyser, far to the north, has failed. The first we knew of their approach was when an advance party of carpetless warriors erupted from a tunnel they had made, deep within the ice and penetrating below our city
center. They attacked instantly, and killed our Presider and many others. By now, the others of us fighting below the surface have killed or driven back the carpeted icerug nodes that carried these carpetless ones through the tunnel. But there are still many of them loose in the city.”

  “You really had no warning?” asked George.

  “None. We knew they were starving because their geyser had stopped, and we suspected that they might some day come to drive us away from Manannan, but we did not have any warning of this attack until they were among us. The tunnel avoided all our own construction below the city with great care. It was a dreadful day. Many of us have been wounded, some very seriously, in the fighting. Two things have aided us; the invaders must travel a long distance, and the carpetless ones have little endurance. They must constantly eat to keep up their strength. Also, we were fortunate that the Convener of the Center of Historical Studies kept a museum of ancient weapons. They may be old, but the edge of a venerable axe is still good! And, of course the Convener has the history plates that tell us all about those weapons, so we are rapidly making more.”

  George was aghast; “You are making more weapons?”

  “Certainly.” The reply was grimly cold. “The invaders arrived armed only with crude stone knives and spears, and fire poles — long staffs with a ball of blazing pitch at the end to sear an eyeball. Our history plates tell us how to make poison gas to flood the invader’s tunnel and kill all those there, machines that throw flame to a great distance to singe the carpets of an invading army coming over the surface, and flash bombs to blind the foe. When blinded, the enemy are even more vulnerable, and we shall overwhelm them utterly. I must go to search out more of the advance party.” Pink-Orb glided away without another word.

  “We must stop them! We must get them to talk, negotiate, use reason!” Katrina was incoherent with dismay.

  “I can’t believe such civilized creatures really mean to destroy each other so totally,” said George. “Pink-Orb must have been exaggerating. Let’s go further along this way. But until we know more, we’d best stay out of the way as well as we can.”

  Richard spoke quietly: “I didn’t hear, in anything Pink-Orb said, the slightest desire for peace.”

  Deirdre nodded. “It’s most careful observation we must be making, just now. And most scientific detachment, Katrina. This is no time to interfere!” The little group raced as silently as possible towards the sounds ahead, and climbed up on a convenient ice wall to survey the action below.

  It was another battle of the carpeted icerugs with a group of carpetless invaders, not a large one, but of such ferocity the humans could only watch in horror. Pink-Orb had rejoined its associates, and the three were part of an uneven line advancing, with small, flashing bombs exploding before them. The invading icerugs, which were undistinguishable from the defenders to a human eye except for their lack of carpet, resisted bitterly.

  Two opposing nodes fell upon each other’s upraised whirling blades, and then separated, desperately wounded. With a final burst of energy, one hurled another flash bomb at its opponent, and got it full in the eye. The screams of both were ghastly, and the advancing victor, whom the humans recognized as Silver-Rim, closed brutally with its victim, slashing and stabbing. Katrina whimpered as the blinded icerug retaliated wildly, attacking still, until the ruthless blows of Silver-Rim killed it and chopped it into quivering chunks. Deirdre fought to remain calm.

  “You’ll be noticing, Richard, there is no call for mercy, and none given?” she said.

  Richard spoke with some difficulty. “Yes, I see that. The blinded icerug made no motion of surrender.” The battle continued, and George was shocked to observe that it was all aggression; there was no move to assist a fallen comrade, rather a total commitment to destroying the enemy. And the enemy, at least in this particular savage encounter, was annihilated to the last specimen. The victorious defenders stood, absolutely alone, upon the field, and then began slowly to collect their dead and wounded in silence. The gentle snow continued to fall upon the slaughtered, and the humans roused themselves, deeply disturbed by what they had witnessed.

  George was especially bothered. “When humans fight wars, they hate the enemy soldier and all he stands for, but once he’s injured and no longer a threat, it’s international law that he be treated well. He is, after all, a fellow human.”

  “But these are not humans,” Deirdre reminded him. “And they should not be judged according to humans standards. Besides, although we may not ken what it be, there is probably a reason for their behavior.”

  “Besides,” objected George. “What’s going on doesn’t make sense from either a political or military point of view.”

  “What do you mean by that?” asked Richard.

  “As we have seen from the air,” replied George. “There is plenty of room around Manannan geyser for more icerugs. Windward City occupies the best location, on the downwind side, but the vacant parts of the shore aren’t that bad. From a political point of view, it would have been wiser for the Presider of Windward City to let the Northward City icerugs occupy part of the unused lake shore, than to let things escalate into a total war with heavy casualties. From the military point of view, the invader’s tactics are wrong. What they want is the fallout from the geyser, so they need territory — territory under the geyser. They should have crept onto the unused lakefront territory, set up a perimeter defense, and waited, growing stronger all the time, daring the Windward City icerugs to attack. Instead, they launched a full-scale attack at the center of the city, complete with the icerug equivalent of berserkers, with the primary intention of killing as many of the Windward City icerugs as possible, no matter what the cost in casualties. It is almost as though both sides were unable to comprehend the concept of sharing.”

  “Perhaps that concept is alien to them,” said Deirdre coolly. “Humans are highly social, with cultures designed around sharing. Although the icerug communities may look like social organizations, they are not human, and you should not expect them to function similarly.”

  George began relating, for Josephine’s benefit, his impressions of the battle they had witnessed, to go along with the video images that their helmet cameras had recorded, as the humans headed back to meet Arielle. The listening crew were appalled at what he had to say, and Cinnamon queried him in disbelief.

  “You mean these gentle creatures, who make such lovely music, who have been so polite to us, who live in such beauty of their own creation — they actually slaughtered each other without mercy?”

  “With absolute savagery,” answered George somberly. “Without hesitating a second. There was no thought behind what I saw, it was just butchery.”

  “I thought this was a real civilization, Cinnamon,” Katrina transmitted sadly. “But I’m afraid I was wrong.”

  “I was too,” admitted George. “I fell into the old anthropomorphism thing, finding parallels with humankind at every step. That was a mistake. These creatures have no humanity in them.”

  “That’s right,” said Richard definitely. “They are purely and simply — alien.” They had reached the landing site now, and the Dragonfly was hovering silently.

  “True, damn it!”

  The barked words sounded like a gun-blast, and the crew spun around to stare in amazement at Deirdre. She stood apart, angrier than she had ever been before. Her words were scorching, and no one there had ever imagined the lilting voice was capable of such venom and fire.

  “Alien, ye’ve said it, and I’ve said it, and it’s a fine word that. An honest word, and it doesn’t mean less than human, or more than human, it means different to human! And ye should thank whatever gods your small minds pray to that they’re not human! Think you it’s a thing to be proud of, indeed? These ignorant creatures know nothing of torture, have you seen that? They dinna torture, nor enslave, nor harm any living thing, not for reasons of race, or greed, or lust, nor all the reasons any self-respecting human dictator can — and has — found
expedient! They dinna kill nor maim nor imprison minds or bodies in the blessed name of religion, which all human religions have found expedient! Nor do they do any of those things for the foul reason so many humans do — because their wicked souls enjoy inflicting pain on other people, on enslaved animals, on small things that have no words! I have tried, most of you have tried to keep from thinking of the icerugs as intelligent, unemotional, but funny-looking people, and we have all failed! We are wrong! And full well ye know it! They are not, nor shall they ever be human, and may the Universe forgive us for coming here and meddling and then, damn it to hell! condemning them for their behavior! Shame be on your human heads!

  The fiery green glare suddenly sparkled and softened, as Deirdre’s eyes filled with tears. She pushed through the little crew of stunned people, and hurried into the airlock. Nobody had anything to say. Richard followed quickly, removed his suit and headed thoughtfully for the shower. He saw that Deirdre had the same intention, and was coming towards him wrapped in a towel. They both stopped, and then Richard stepped back, with a brief nod, and got out of her way. Deirdre smiled and walked silently into the shower, closing the door firmly behind her.

  CHAPTER 13 — DIVING

  As the war continued, the humans stayed aboard Victoria.

  “I feel strongly that we must not interfere,” said George. “And I can’t see us just strolling about, observing and commenting, but taking no part in the action.”

  “And you’d be in the way,” added Deirdre drily. “Might even be a bit … painful, perchance.” George said nothing. The crew’s safety was his prime responsibility, and he took it seriously. For several days, as they stayed aboard their two vehicles and studied of the data and samples they had collected, the crew could hear occasional battle noises, which had now grown to loud explosions. They never became accustomed to them, and everyone winced at the sounds. On the fourth day, silence fell, and lasted. Shirley sent a query to Splish, which had remained immobile on the ice shelf lake front near the city.