In Situ
Page 28
“Very good, Alex daughter of Simon,” Mot said approvingly as he untied her.
He tossed the rope back to Ara and they repeated the whole process-Tom with the climbing rope and Ara easily making the same spectacular leap that Mot had done earlier-until all four of them stood on the other side of the crevasse.
Tom had not gone into detail about the pumping of the caves, so Mot and Alex were both very relieved when they found them dry, realizing that they would not have to swim through them again. They eventually reached the chamber where Mot and Ara had been asleep all of those years, Alex explaining exactly how she had found Mot and pointing to the area where Ara had been as they passed through.
As they began to climb back up the original tunnel that Tom and Alex had taken down, the earth shook violently. They all fell to their knees and instinctively covered, but the shaking stopped, and the caves miraculously held together.
“Aftershock?” Alex asked Tom when the caves had quieted.
“Let’s hope,” he replied, getting back up and dusting himself off. He offered Alex his hand.
“What do you mean?”
“I hope it’s not a ‘before’ shock,” Tom said, panning his flashlight overhead, looking for cracks in the stone. “Come on, we need to get to the ARC.”
Chapter 37
Welcome To My Cave
The four of them stood in the small chamber, looking at the several hundred tons of rock and stone that had been shoved into the entrance. Tom’s worst fears were coming true. It appeared as though his crew had managed to seal the breach in the ARC from the other side after all. If that were the case, then they were not only facing having to dig through the mountain of debris in front of them, but there might be several thousand cubic feet of cement and aluminum rebar already drying on the other side. His heart stopped just thinking about it. Their little foray to the safety of the Utah ARC might just be over. He began to think he had made a huge mistake.
“What’s wrong, Tom?” Alex said, watching his reaction.
“I don’t know, Alex. It doesn’t look good,” was all he could say, panning his flashlight over the pile of boulders.
Mot stepped up onto one of the larger rocks and looked around. “What is the problem, Tom?” he asked, sniffing the air and flicking his tongue.
Tom just kept looking.
Ara, concerned, had once again probed deeper into Tom’s mind than she should have. “He’s saying we are trapped,” she said, her eyes narrowing. After coming all this way, they were trapped, she thought. Her future with Mot, which she had been contemplating with great joy, was suddenly doomed. No way forward and now, because of this human-Tom’s bad judgment, no way back.
Alex looked over at her, upset that Ara had obviously probed Tom’s mind. The two exchanged glances. “Well, it’s not Tom’s fault,” Alex said, irritated.
Ara stared at Alex, her eyes almost glowing in the dark, resenting her and all of the rest of the humans who had put her in this predicament. “You should just have left us alone,” she finally said, her anger turning into sorrow.
“Ara,” Mot said, jumping down from the stone he had been standing on, “remember, we are Zanta. Where are your manners?”
Ara immediately realized that Mot was correct. In the Arzat culture, particularly in the Zanta clan, it was considered an atrocity to disrespect an elder in any way. Ara wasn’t sure how that applied to humans, but it certainly applied to the opinion of her male mate who had just pointed out her fault.
“I am sorry, Mot,” she said, her head hanging. She turned to Tom and Alex. “Please, forgive me. I know you have done all you can.”
Mot reached out and gently lifted Ara’s chin. “Can you not smell it?” he asked her, a hopeful look in his eyes.
Ara sniffed the air deeply, flicking her tongue in the process, examining all of the elements. She looked at Mot and her eyes opened wide. “Yes, Mot son of Url, I smell it.”
“Smell what?” Tom asked.
“Your cave Tom, your cave!” Mot said, turning back to him. “And I smell meat, lots and lots of meat!”
Mot scrambled up easily over the large pile of rocks, his nose working in tandem with his tongue, searching for the source of the delicious smell. He was very hungry. It had been hours since they had eaten.
“I have found it,” he eventually said. A large rock, wedged between the top of the pile and the stone ceiling, was the only thing blocking his way. Mot jammed his feet securely against it, using the rocks behind him for leverage, and kicked the boulder back into the darkness on the other side. His nostrils filled with the scent of food.
Mot led his three companions over the rubble, through the small opening he had created, and down into the ARC. Tom was able to locate the main control room, and they all watched as he threw switches and gradually powered the place up, until the entire facility was lit like a small city.
“That should do for now,” he said, looking around proudly at his creation.
The Utah ARC had been designed much differently than the Nevada site. The Area 51 ARC was much older, and consisted only of a series of many rooms linked by miles of corridors. Tom’s ARC was wide open, with bright white buildings and actual streets. It had been built to house fifteen hundred souls. Eventually, the other three ARCs, including Nevada, were to have been replaced by this new design.
It looks like a snow globe that I had as a child, thought Alex. Ara and Mot gazed at the white city, speechless.
“Welcome to my cave,” Tom said proudly to all of them, immensely relieved. “Now, let’s go see about some dinner.”
Tom led them to one of the commissaries that, like some in Nevada, had been built to resemble a restaurant. Among his many talents, he was a very skilled chef, having pulled more than his fair share of shifts in the military mess halls for his occasional minor acts of insubordination.
He pulled out 20 pounds of rib eye steaks from one of the massive freezers in the restaurant kitchen and proceeded to thaw them while he prepared instant mash potatoes and several cans of vegetables. He resolved to attempt to get the ARC’s hydroponic farm going as he opened the last container and dumped it into a pot. Tom wasn’t quite sure about the Arzat’s dietary preferences aside from meat, but, he thought, what the heck, might as well find out.
While Tom prepared dinner, he sent the Arzats and Alex out on a reconnaissance mission to see if they could spot any heavy equipment and to select quarters. By the time they returned he had set one of the restaurant tables and laid out his massive feast, complete with artificial candlelight that was flickering in white glass. He turned on some background music and ceremoniously invited them to sit down.
“We could have helped you,” Alex said, taking a seat, secretly glad that Tom hadn’t asked. It felt so good to sit that she immediately wondered if she would ever be able to rise.
Ara was initially quite confused by the chairs and watched Alex closely before she tried hers, sure that it would collapse beneath her.
“What do you think?” Alex asked once they were seated.
“Quite comfortable,” Mot said, his eyes fixed on the large platter of steaks.
“We can move to the floor if you wish,” Alex suggested, embarrassed that she might have put Ara in a very awkward position.
“No,” said Ara quickly, “thank you.” She was determined to try the human way, including the strange metal tools they used to feed themselves.
*
“Well, Alex, did you have any luck?” Tom said as they were finishing dinner, referring to the heavy equipment he had sent her to find.
Alex fished in her pocket and threw a pack of cigarettes on the table in front of her. “What’s that tell you?” she said, beaming. “Matches too,” she smiled, holding up a book of them between her fingers.
“Alex, I thought you quit,” Tom said.
“Oh, come on Tom, after all we’ve been through. Heck, there’s only half a pack here and when they’re gone they’re gone. I didn’t see any mini mart
s around this place, I can tell you that, but there is one big-ass loader parked over by the main ramp,” she added, smiling.
Tom wasn’t about to argue with her. Alex did what she wanted. That was how it had always been, and he liked it that way. He just looked at her, happily defeated. He still couldn’t believe their luck. The loader would make the job of sealing the ARC about a million times easier. “Mot, we have one more thing to do tonight that I don’t think can wait,” Tom said to the huge Arzat who had just polished off several pounds of meat.
Mot had very much enjoyed the dinner Tom had prepared. He had never seen a male cook anything in his life. These humans are so odd, he thought. Now that his stomach was full he was eager to return the favor. “How can I help, Tom son of Richard?”
“We need to go and plug that hole in the wall you knocked out. How are you at operating heavy equipment?” Tom said, reaching up to pat the shoulder of the huge Arzat.
The two males left the room and Alex and Ara found themselves suddenly alone with each other for the very first time. The silence was deafening with the exception of some classical music playing lightly in the background.
Alex didn’t know if the music was Beethoven or Bach. The only classical composer she could readily identify was Mozart, who had been her father’s favorite and was hers.
“What do you call this sound?” Ara asked.
Oh my god, she’s reading my mind again, thought Alex. She glanced at Ara.
“I am sorry, Alex, it is too easy,” Ara said, embarrassed, as if it simply were not her fault.
“Don’t worry about it.” Alex poured a half inch of water into a short glass to use as an ashtray and fired up a cigarette, blowing the smoke luxuriously into the room. “We call it ‘music.’”
The aroma of Alex’s cigarette was actually quite pleasant, thought Ara. It vaguely reminded her of the Great Chamber. “We too have such a thing, like this ‘music’ as you call it, although we must have Arzats to create it. The sound is different…, yet much the same.”
Alex let the comment pass, as much as she was interested. She wished Tom and Mot would hurry and get back so she could go to bed. She could feel her eyes getting heavy.
“I am sorry, Alex,” Ara said again.
“Why are you so sorry, Ara?” Alex scolded her. “You have been through, well, I cannot even imagine.”
“I am sorry for my behavior in the cave. Mot was correct. In my culture, you would have every right to kill me or banish me. It is an atrocity to show such disrespect to an elder. I’m afraid I was overcome with, something I think you humans call ‘emotion.’”
Alex couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, I certainly have no intention of killing or banishing you. We females have to stick together now, don’t we?” she said, liking Ara again very much. “And,” she added, “I am not your elder.”
“Oh, yes,” Ara said. “Mot has told me of your many seasons. You are almost as old as my mother.”
“Ouch.” Alex looked at Ara closely, squinting over her cigarette, sizing her up. “OK, what is still bothering you?”
“I have conceived Alex. Mot and I have conceived,” Ara finally said, as if she were afraid to admit it.
Alex almost choked on her cigarette. She looked at it scornfully, and threw it in the glass of water. “You are going to have a child? Already?”
“Yes, Alex,” Ara said, her eyes now glowing.
“How long, I mean, how…, er?” Alex stammered.
“Several,” Ara hesitated, “several of your ‘weeks’ for the egg, then several more for the child. A half of one season.”
Alex rose from the table and approached Ara. She dropped to her knees and put her arms around Ara’s massive midsection. She stayed that way for a long time then looked up at the female Arzat. “Now, so we can survive each other, will you teach me how to block?”
*
When Tom and Mot had finally returned, the couples headed for the quarters they had chosen, which were close but not too close to each other. Tom was able to turn off the obnoxious automatic timer on the shower for Alex, and she had stayed in it for a very long time. When she came out, she approached Tom aggressively and made love to him until they were both exhausted and fell asleep in each other’s arms.
Chapter 38
Cross Your Fingers
For the next few weeks, their lives were like a holiday. Tom taught Mot the game of tennis and Mot began to beat him severely within a few days of his first lesson. Alex and Ara commiserated about the baby Arzat and began making plans for a nursery. Ara had been very curious about Alex’s clothing, and they had spent a good deal of time fashioning some things for Ara to wear. Eventually, the two of them had convinced Mot to join in, although he still preferred his loincloth. Shoes, of course, were out of the question.
Alex had recently developed a glow of her own, and although she hadn’t said anything yet, Tom began to wonder if she too, was pregnant. If so, he thought, he would find out soon enough—he was smart enough not to ask.
The four of them would have long dinners where Tom and Alex would tell the Arzats about everything human, and Mot and Ara would describe everything Arzat. The Arzats marveled at human technology, and the humans marveled at the complexities of the strict Arzat culture, as well as the extremely dangerous world they had come from. When Mot had told them the story about the night he had slain the dreaded beast, Alex couldn’t help but wonder if the creature he had killed was not the very same dinosaur she had found in front of the caves.
Mot, of course, was ecstatic about his soon-to-be child. He told Tom that, if it were male, he would teach the child to hunt and all the ways of the Arzats. If it were female, then, well, he would leave the matter to Ara and Alex. Tom would just nod and shake his head, not wishing to remind Mot that their hunting days were over, praying for a female. Mot had described his hunting stick to Tom in detail and had questioned Tom intensely about the ‘fire sticks’ of the humans. Tom considered actually showing Mot the arsenal, but refrained when Alex had asked him not to. “The last thing I want to see in here is a gun, Thomas,” she told him sternly. “I have had enough of them and I would think you had too.”
For the most part, he and Alex tried not to imagine what might be happening on the surface. None of the video monitors worked, but the atmospheric sensors continued to function, and Tom found himself checking them often. The carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide levels were astronomically high on the surface, and he doubted if anything above them that required a breath of air was still alive. Even more disturbing was the fact that he had tried to connect with all three of the other ARC units, but was unable to. Perhaps something had happened to sever the lines during the earthquakes. Perhaps it was something electrical, he could only wonder.
*
Then one day, a warning siren went off. Tom ran to check on it and found that the levels of CO and CO2 were off the charts inside of the ARC. He examined all of the air scrubbers and found them to be functioning perfectly. Then he ran a system check on the entire ARC but all of the reports came back negative. There had to be a breach somewhere in the ARC itself. His first thought was that it might be coming from the cave entrance that he and Mot had plugged, but they could find no evidence of a leak when they tested the air directly around it.
They spent over a week, crawling through the complex, checking everywhere, but still they could not locate the source of the poison air. Soon it would begin to affect their breathing. Then, Tom thought, it would eventually kill them.
“We might have to go into the suits if this keeps up Alex,” he said to her one night just after dinner. “I am so sorry, Alex, but I just cannot find the leak, and I don’t know if I have the resources to fix it even if I do find it.”
“I don’t think that I wish to live out my life in a plastic suit, Thomas. Anyhow, Ara’s pregnant and about to drop an egg any day and,” she paused, touching his arm, “I think I’m pregnant, as well.”
Tom smiled at her, speechless.
“What’s that?”
“There is a second asteroid coming, remember? I haven’t brought it up, but if I have my dates right, it will impact sometime day after tomorrow. It might give us another earthquake and make the situation worse.”
“What do you want to do Alex?” Tom said, afraid of her answer.
“There is another option.”
*
It took some convincing, but Mot and Ara totally trusted Alex now. If she said it must be done, then it must be done. The world above them had ended once again, and their shelter was now in jeopardy. As before, there seemed to be no choice. As far as Mot and Ara were concerned, the whole process they had been through the first time only involved taking a short nap. “What about my child Alex?” was Ara’s main concern.
“I don’t see why this won’t work just the same for your child, Ara. Doctor Pete told me the cryo-protectant was the most amazing preservative he had ever imagined. He based his version on the formula created by Fet the Wise Mother. Pete told me that it should perform every bit as well as the stuff she concocted, and this time, you won’t have to even get wet.”
Alex had gone to work closely studying everything she could about the cryo units. One of the features she found far more appealing than the prospect of being packed in the goo that had served Mot and Ara so well, was that Pete’s cryo-protectant was applied as an aerosol-no “packing in goo” required.