‘I checked the job sheets. There’s been nothing recent that’s required work under the panel. I can’t see any cameras but OPDEO’s got some the size of a pinhead.’
‘Okay, if you say so. Will your electronics affect any of the bath’s equipment?’
‘It’ll be fine. The shell of the gondola’s very thick, and the cameras outside won’t be affected. But take the headset off when you’re speaking to Port Authority Control, okay?’
They began the descent into the depths of the ice-bound ocean. It would take them several hours to reach their target location.
After a while, Maura broke the silence. ‘We can talk in confidence through these headsets, right? So tell me why your marriage didn’t last.’
‘Well, I guess it was my fault,’ said Geoff. He tried to laugh but then changed his mind and cleared his throat. ‘My wife said I was living on another planet. That’s pretty ironic, considering where we are.’
He half turned away on his swivel chair but Maura swung him back again. ‘What did she mean?’
‘Well, I never found out what she really needed from me. Perhaps I was too wrapped up in my work.’
‘So you got divorced?’
‘Yup.’ Geoff bit his lip and wondered whether to continue. He met Maura’s eyes. ‘Since then I’ve tried various uni-net dating sites, but I’m hopeless at relationships,’ he blurted.
‘Why’s that?’
He shrugged. ‘I don’t do emotional intelligence. Sooner or later I screw things up. I find it hard to know what women are really thinking.’
‘Only women?’
‘No, but the women I meet often say one thing and mean another.’
‘That’s a terrible thing to say, Geoff.’
‘I know, but I think it’s my fault, not theirs. I can’t tell what they really want from me.’
Maura had been reporting periodically to Control but, as on the last dive, she lost the connection with the port when the bath drew close to the Cronus Rift. Once again their floodlights illuminated the volcanic chimneys, black sulphide ‘smoke’ pouring from the top of their vents. Geoff remembered a poem from his schooldays. Among these dark satanic mills . . .
He observed Maura closely and read tension in her face. At his request, she released the cylindrical plaque from the sampling bay. Geoff watched it float away with negative buoyancy, just as he’d predicted. Then he set all the cameras to record and kept careful watch through the observation windows.
‘Who’s that speaking?’ asked Maura suddenly.
‘What? I can’t hear anything,’ said Geoff.
Maura stayed perfectly still, her head on one side. ‘Jaysis, I’m hearing a voice. I think it’s them. Keep the bath steady, I’ve got to listen to this.’ Then she laughed and leant back with her hands lightly clasped. Now and again she made eye contact with Geoff and gave him a thumbs up.
Geoff was bemused. What’s going on now? Is she hallucinating? Could she be ill? She hasn’t shown any symptoms up to now. Has Europa affected her in some way? This moon’s a place where abnormal is normal. Can she really be hearing an alien? Or am I losing my sanity?
He tried to get Maura’s attention, but she silenced him with a quick wave of her hand. He panned back and forth with the cameras and thought he saw some fleeting shadows. But he wasn’t able to focus on the shifting darkness. There was nothing for him to do but wait.
‘Okay, I’ve got her now,’ Maura said at last, taking control of the bath. ‘We’re going up.’ She set the course quickly and turned to Geoff. ‘If you’re sure those headphones of yours keep us private, I’ll tell you what happened.’
‘They work alright. Trust me, it’s what I’m good at,’ he said, more loudly than was necessary.
‘Well, it was incredible. An alien spoke to me! It was kind of scary, but wonderful. He told me so much. I think it was a he.’ She shrugged her shoulders. ‘Sorry, I don’t know where to begin.’
‘Just tell me what he said, in the order he said it, if it helps.’
‘Okay. Well, I heard a voice in my head. It sounded like my own voice. The speaker, he told me not to be afraid. He said I could call him by his name. It was something like Mecherbar – no – Mettravar, that was it. He was from a biological domain that’s unknown on Earth. They call themselves Thiosh.’
‘He was speaking to you in English?’
‘You told me they wrote in English on your computers, when they hacked your systems. They’ve probably hacked other sites as well. He spoke like a character in an old book – kind of poetic.’
‘How could he speak in your head? I don’t understand.’
‘I suppose it was telepathy. He said all the creatures like him are linked by their thoughts. He must be able to do it with other life forms. But don’t keep interrupting me. I need to tell you while it’s fresh in my mind.’
‘Go on then,’ said Geoff.
‘He was sorry a face-to-face meeting wouldn’t work too well. Their bodies are very different from ours – no arms or legs – more like fish. But they can make complicated things. They picture them in their brains and build robots that way, like the crab-bot that helped us last time.’
‘You mean they use telekinesis.’
‘Sure, that’s the word.’
‘So, we were right. There are robot-masters. Did he mention the crab-bot that’s missing?’
‘He knows military people have taken it. He understands we’re different because we’re scientists. He wants us to tell other Hesperians they have nothing to fear.’
‘Ye gods, they must have been spying on us for ages!’
Maura reached across and gripped Geoff by the shoulders as if talking to a child. ‘He’s genuinely friendly. Thiosh have lived in peace for millennia. They want to live in harmony with all living beings.’
‘But how do we know that?’
‘He thanked us for the picture of the man and woman, and he wanted to give us something too. He said he would make our minds stronger. He could develop any potential we already had. It would be a gift to show his friendship. He said, in my case, I had intuition. He’d let me link up with similar people so we could talk to each other in our heads.’
This is weird. Am I buying into this? ‘Is it permanent? Could I do it too?’
Maura pursed her lips and frowned. ‘Perhaps you’re just a bit too rational. I expect he found it easier to talk to me. I was brought up believing in leprechauns and fairies. He said he’d give you something though – he promised. Perhaps he’ll let you do even harder mental arithmetic.’
‘Oh, hang on. I’m not sure I want anyone playing around with my head. Is he doing an experiment on us?’
‘Not at all. It’s more he wants to train us for something. It’s some sort of mission.’
‘Is that what you thought was scary?’
‘Not that bit. That was good news. But the problem may be . . . he’s friends with the Khitans.’
‘Oh shit!’
Relocation
A party of Securopa officers stopped Geoff and Maura at the exit of the OPDEO complex. Geoff recognised the leader as the man who’d reprimanded them after Maura had set off the main alarm. ‘Dr Geoffrey Kirby and Dr Maura O’Hara, come with me, please,’ he said. ‘You’re under arrest!’
The officers led them back into the building. Then some of them took Maura from the group and ushered her away. Geoff turned and saw her looking back at him, but one of the guards stabbed him forward with the barrel of a tezla pistol.
They took Geoff down a level and led him along brightly lit corridors. This was part of the building he’d never seen before, and he tried to memorise the route they followed. Finally, he was pushed into a small room illuminated by a harsh, hanging light. In the middle were two chairs. The guards searched him, took away his com-phone and pressed him into a chair. Then they stood by the walls, holding their pistols in readiness. Geoff decided to act dumb.
A senior officer came in, whom Geoff recognised as Major Breckenridge
. The major grabbed one of the spare chairs, straddled it the wrong way round and, addressing Geoff in a conversational manner, began to question him.
‘Dr Kirby, d’you mind talkin’ me through what happened durin’ your first dive? You and Dr O’Hara seemed to be stuck on the seabed for a helluva time. What was goin’ on?’
‘It’s all in our report to Professor Mitchell.’
‘But I wanna hear it from you, Dr Kirby.’
‘Well, a volcanic chimney fell across the bows and partially crushed the hull.’
‘So whadya do then?’
‘We dumped all the ballast and powered the bath in reverse. We were trying to drive out from under the chimney, as stated in our report.’
‘That was how you escaped?’
‘No, we were stuck fast for a long time, over an hour. But eventually we began to float up.’
‘So how d’you explain the torch marks on the hull?’
‘Sorry, I can’t help you there. As I said in the report, the forward floodlamps were smashed and I couldn’t see the bows.’
A shrill tone from a com-phone broke the ensuing silence. Breckenridge went outside to take the call. After a minute he returned, and he was laughing. ‘We’ve got you now, Kirby. You’ve been interferin’ with OPDEO’s security equipment. That’s a capital offence!’
‘If you mean I took steps to stop you spying on us, then I admit it. But eavesdropping on private conversations is an infringement of human rights.’
‘Listen carefully, Kirby. There are obviously some things you don’t understand. When you’re on Europa, you ain’t got no rights. Soon you’re goin’ to tell me exactly what happened while you were stirrin’ shit on the seabed. How do I know that? It’s because . . .’ Breckenridge was dragging out his words. ‘When I inject some air into Dr O’Hara’s pretty little veins she’s gonna have a nasty case of decompression sickness. You know what that is? You’ve heard of the bends? First, she’ll think tiny insects are crawlin’ over her body . . . she’ll become short of breath . . . the pain’ll kick in . . . she’ll lose control of her bladder . . . then her bowels. Her legs’ll be paralysed and – unless she’s put in a decompression chamber pretty damn quick – she’ll die in agony. And you’re gonna watch every second of it.’
Geoff leapt to his feet, his fists clenched, only to collapse as every muscle in his body spasmed in pain.
Still at high speed, the celestonauts passed rapidly through the asteroid belt. Huang and Chen settled to a routine of exercise and instrument checks. This included monitoring for a possible collision with a comet or a meteor. They laughed grimly about this, in view of the fact the astronavigation program had predicted they’d collide with Europa. Kai was confident their journey wouldn’t end in disaster, but he only knew this by intuition. His meditation reinforced his certainty they would survive, but he had no definite information he could share. But it didn’t matter in the short term; Huang and Chen had stopped asking questions.
Huang viewed the image of Jupiter with a mixture of fascination and horror. It filled his viz-box screen, its atmosphere in turmoil as clouds streaked around the equator, as if determined to put the sluggish polar regions to shame. The celestonauts strapped themselves in their flight seats as the ship looped behind the giant planet, its gravity slowing their progress like invisible treacle. As Chen had predicted, their trajectory left them on course to collide with Europa. Kai turned the ship round so it was travelling stern first, and fired the retrorockets in short bursts. They drifted down to the moon’s icy surface and landed with the gentlest of bumps.
Huang peered through an observation window. ‘Aiya! Someone has built us a pagoda.’
‘Prepare for extravehicular activity,’ ordered Kai. ‘But go slowly, and do not slip on the ice.’
They put on their life-support suits and left the ship to investigate the shimmering edifice that glowed with blue light.
‘It is not real, only a hologram,’ said Huang, his initial excitement turning to disappointment.
But the steps leading down below the surface were solid enough. They descended to a circular door that opened as they approached. After passing through an airlock they paused to carry out safety checks. Their helmet sensors registered breathable air at moderate temperature and pressure, negligible radiation, and no harmful bacteria, viruses, or chemicals. The immediate environment was benign, but they kept their portable biometers hanging round their necks to give early warning of hazards.
Another door opened automatically. Kai nodded to Huang, who unslung his plasma gun, took off the safety catch and peered in, looking left and right. Satisfied the way ahead was safe, Huang led them into a circular atrium, about ten metres in diameter. Bright sheets, like slices of ice, extended over the ceiling in a hexagonal pattern. Chen seemingly forgot about possible dangers and began to run from one archway to another, peering into the area that lay beyond. Huang looked at Kai, anticipating orders, but the pilot captain was sitting on the floor in a lotus position, his eyes closed. Huang shook his head sadly as Chen babbled about auto-moulding armchairs, underfloor heating and wall hangings like curtains.
‘Be careful,’ said Huang. ‘I think this place is a trap.’ But Chen kept searching the rooms, opening cupboards and drawers, testing the plumbing and bouncing on the mattresses. After he had disappeared for a full minute, Huang found him in a room that looked like a recording studio. Chen picked up some headphones, but Huang gripped his wrist. ‘Do not touch,’ he warned. ‘We must not draw attention – at least – not yet.’
‘What this place made of, you think?’ asked Chen. ‘Metal or plastic?’
‘You should ask yourself first what it is for,’ said Huang. ‘We must find the exits, then check if anyone is here. When we have done that, we can talk.’
The two crewmen explored every centimetre of the complex. Chen commented on everything he saw and called Huang to show him things. Huang only nodded, while scanning the walls for possible joints or openings, and the floor for trapdoors. There was no sign of life and, indeed, no evidence the rooms had ever been lived in. Kai, meanwhile, continued to sit on the floor in an attitude of meditation. Huang and Chen took it in turns to keep watch.
After a couple of hours, Kai got up and summoned them to join him in what appeared to be a lounge. ‘We are safe now,’ he told them. ‘Our journey has been arduous. You must rest for a while.’
‘Cào nǐ mā!’ said Huang. ‘You tell us nothing. I think this place is a laboratory – to test us like rats.’
‘Trust me. I will explain when I can,’ said Kai. ‘Meanwhile, use your time here wisely. The e-books in the library have been put there for our benefit. I advise you to study all you can about Europa, and particularly its ocean. Now I must leave you. Wait here until I return.’
Escape
Geoff didn’t know the time or where he was. But he remembered the pain. He stretched his limbs and flexed his joints, pleased that the tezla gun had not caused him any lasting injury. He looked around. The focal point of the cell was the massively built steel door, equipped with a spyhole and an inundation point. It was a place for water from a fire hose to be injected, or possibly tear gas. Otherwise, the furniture comprised only a bunk, a sink and a bucket, all stained by previous use – use he could still smell.
There was some vulgar graffiti scratched on the wall above the board where he lay. But between an exhortation to ‘Wank while you still can’ and another to ‘Go down frigging’, he read ‘M = E/c2’. It was a transposition of Einstein’s famous energy equation. He wondered why anyone had bothered to write it. This was not a place of learning, only of fear and pain. What a damnable mess they’d got themselves into. He felt his stomach contract as he thought what could happen to Maura. She would have gone back to Earth if it hadn’t been for him.
He noticed a tiny grille at the top of the wall, up by the ceiling. If only he could move his bed, he might be able to look outside, but bolts fixed it securely to the floor. Furious at his impotenc
e, he picked up a tin cup and hurled it across his cell. It fell spinning and clanking around the floor. He looked back at the bed and, to his amazement, the bolts fractured with four loud cracks in quick succession. Then the bed itself heaved away from the wall and slid under the grille. Geoff felt momentarily drained of energy.
‘Fuck.’ It was the first time he’d ever said the word. He sat with his head in his hands. Is this what insanity is like? Living in a world of hallucinations? The illusion you can move things just by wanting it to happen? He went and touched the bed. It was definitely in a different place from where it’d been. He examined a broken bolt.
Maura said the Thiosh were telekinetic. They’ve made her telepathic. Have they expanded my brain too? And if so, why?
Geoff visualised the bed moving back to its original place. It scraped its way back to the wall, giving him more space to pace back and forth.
So I can transfer thought into a force, and it’s stronger than my muscles. It must be a gift from the Thiosh – but also an obligation. They’ve equipped me for some purpose, but what? Could it be so I can reach Maura and escape?
The spyhole in the door was blanked off by a cover on the outside. He remembered it as a pear-shaped flap, pivoted at its top. He moved the cover in his mind and looked out. ‘Yes!’ he cried out loud. He could see a fish-eye image of the corridor.
Geoff considered his options. He assumed the Thiosh were aware they’d been arrested. Maura would have told them by projecting her thoughts. They could almost certainly access Securopa’s computers to find out where he and Maura were being held. After all, they’d hacked into the UN network on Earth. They hadn’t made him telepathic, but that didn’t matter. If they wanted to tell him something they could use telekinesis to write on the wall.
Perhaps they already had. ‘M = E/c2’ was certainly Einstein’s energy equation, but why was it written that way round, with a capital M? There had to be a reason. When the Securopa goons had frogmarched him into the detention building, he’d noted how the floor levels and corridors had been identified by upper and lower-case letters. Was Einstein’s formula a code to tell him Maura’s whereabouts? An exclamation mark had appeared after the equation; he was sure it wasn’t there before. He took this as confirmation. She was in cell 2, corridor c, on level E.
The Hesperian Dilemma Page 5