As she examined the characters, she realized that the same two characters appeared on the panel. She also found that she could translate quite a lot more of the writing now than when she’d last examined it. She and Hummford had been so completely wrapped up in studying the tablets that they’d all but forgotten about it.
She called up to the office to ask for Hummford to come back down. Fifteen minutes later, the linguist arrived.
“What’s up?”
“I noticed the panel as I was leaving, and I realized we hadn’t looked at it in a while. Look at these two characters. I think they translate to something like ‘emergency.’ I think these are instructions for unsealing the suspension chambers.”
Hummford studied the writing for a moment before responding. “Sandy, there’s enough here to let us try activating the controls! Look — here’s a sequence of commands to override the automatic system. C’mon, let’s go find Hal!”
They found Reynolds in the main office talking with Mitchell. When he heard the news, he quickly rounded up the department heads for an impromptu meeting.
“Flo and Sandy think they’ve got enough of the language down to translate the controls on the suspension units,” Reynolds announced. “What we need to decide is, first, are we ready to proceed, and if so, how do we go about it, in terms of safety protocols and such?”
Mitchell spoke first. “We’ve gotten an awful lot of information over the past two months. We have a solid picture of the Sapios and their culture. We could go on studying the tablets for years on our own, but I think we’d get a lot more out of them with help from real live Sapios — keeping in mind what a long shot that is. I say let’s give it a try.”
Everyone in the room voiced their agreement.
“Hal, I’d appreciate a chance to check with my boss,” said Lightfoot.
“Understood,” Reynolds acknowledged. “OK, as for protocols, what do we need?”
“There’s no practical way to put an isolation box around the chambers,” said Griessman. “I’d suggest that whomever’s inside the Penthouse be in full bio suits, and that both the inner and outer doors be closed.”
“That sounds reasonable,” said Reynolds.
“If we do in fact proceed,” said Lightfoot, “I’d like to have one of their sidearms and one of mine discretely available.”
“Why on Earth do you want weapons?” asked Mitchell.
“Steph, even though there’s nothing we’ve seen that indicates the Sapios were violent, we have no idea how they might react on waking up to find what to them would be alien beings standing over them. In bio suits, for that matter.”
“But assuming that they do wake up, they’d almost certainly be in no condition to attack us.”
“Again, a good assumption, but only that.”
Mitchell was upset. She turned to Reynolds. “Hal?”
“Steph, I’m sorry, but I have to agree with Dan. I think we need to be careful. Dan can keep them out of sight in his pack, but I think it’s a reasonable precaution.” Mitchell shook her head, but said nothing more.
“As for the team inside, I’d like it to include Steph, of course, plus Deirdre, Flo, Arnie and Dan. And I’m pulling rank, of course,” he said, smiling. “No way on Earth I’d miss it.”
Hummford spoke up. “Hal, I think Sandy should be there too. She speaks Sapiosaurian as well as I do, and there are two of them in there.”
“I have no problem with that.” He looked around the room, and then at Lightfoot. “Unless we get shut down by our friends in Washington, how about tomorrow morning? Problem for anyone?”
No one objected, and the meeting broke up.
“I’ll call in, and get back to you in a half hour or so,” Lightfoot told Reynolds before he left. Forty minutes later, Lightfoot gave Reynolds the go-ahead.
•
Over the past two months, Eugene Northrup had been allowed into the Penthouse on a regular basis assigned to various teams, and with the exceptions of Lightfoot and Taylor — and Ruggiero — no one paid him much attention. When he wasn’t working downtown, he kept to himself, spending his time either in his room or at a table in the main office, reading his Bible.
When the hurried meeting had been called, he’d been in the office, and he hadn’t been asked to leave. As soon as the meeting ended, he hurried back to his room and called Billy Joe Wilder.
He quickly filled him in on what was happening.
“Have you been able to place your explosives?” Wilder asked.
“No sir, not yet. Everywhere I go, either Agent Lightfoot or Commander Taylor is nearby. Frankly, sir, I’m beginning to think they suspect something.”
“What about tomorrow? Will you be there when they try to revive these abominations?”
“No sir. They’re taking in a limited team, and security’s bound to be very tight. They’re even sealing the doors of the pyramid for the first time.”
“Now son, you can’t fail me on this. You’ve got to find a way to plant your charges.”
“I know, sir. I’ve been thinking about it, and I may have a way to get them inside. It’s risky, but I think I can do it. I’ll let you know, one way or another.”
“That’s my boy. Remember, this is God’s work you’re doing. You remain faithful, and He’ll help guide your hand.”
“I know that, sir.”
They signed off, and Northrup thought about the plan he had devised. He was counting on several factors falling into place, which made him nervous, but he couldn’t see any other options.
If the creatures were revived, he was guessing that they’d be kept inside the pyramid, at least for a while — hopefully for at least several days. If that were the case, he’d try to find something going down to the Penthouse in which he could hide the package, with its timer set to detonate it once it was inside. It wouldn’t be nearly as certain as if he could personally place the charge, but it would have to do.
He’d been carrying his Bible with him everywhere he went when off duty, and since the one with the C-4 inside was identical, he felt confident that he could slip it into a medical kit or camera bag, or something else that someone else would carry down.
While the details of his plan troubled him, there were other things that bothered him even more. He hadn’t said anything to Wilder about it, but as he had learned about the Sapiosaurian culture, he had come to question whether he was doing the right thing. They had been so advanced, and so civilized, that he couldn’t see how they could represent a threat to humanity.
At the same time, however, as Wilder had pointed out, the dinosaurs had been beasts, and in God’s plan, they were supposed to have been wiped out in the Flood. If these beasts survived through some freak accident, it was his duty to see to it that God’s plan was carried out.
But another thought crossed his mind: how could anything happen that wasn’t a part of God’s plan? If the beasts survived, could it be that this was what God had intended?
In the end, though still troubled, he decided that Reverend Wilder was a learned and Godly man who knew more about these matters than did he, and if he said this was the right thing to do, then so be it.
As he knelt to say his prayers, he once again included a request to God for strength, and for Sandy Ruggiero to not be in the Penthouse when the charges went off.
•
At 7:30 in the morning, the entire crew gathered in the main office for a briefing. Reynolds addressed them.
“There won’t be any live video, because the doors will be closed. Barry’s rigged transceiver relays that’ll get our intercom radio signals in and out, so we’ll have voice communication. I want everyone who’s not on the revival team to stay up top. Rank, I’d like you to close the outer door after us, and then beat it up top.”
Matthews nodded.
“If there’s nothing else, let’s suit up.”
The seven members of the revival team donned their bio suits, and carrying their helmets, they and Matthews headed for the Pe
nthouse.
Once the team was inside, Matthews leaned against the outer wall to close the door. He’d brought the mallet that Reynolds had used to open the door, but it turned out to be unnecessary. All three buttons of the “close” combination responded to the pressure he applied, and the door slid shut.
Lightfoot and Reynolds moved the sandbags that held the inner door open, and it too closed. The pyramid was sealed once again.
Hummford and Ruggiero stood at the control panel, and the others gathered around on the floor. McCollum began unpacking her medical kit.
“There appear to be five steps in the process,” said Hummford. “Once we start it, it’s completely automatic.”
“How long does the process take?” asked Mitchell.
“I haven’t a clue.”
“Well, let’s put our helmets on just for safety,” said Reynolds.
When the team were all sealed into their suits, Reynolds gave Hummford the thumbs-up. “Any time, Flo.”
She nodded, and pressed the three keys that the instructions indicated would start the process. In a clear area at the upper right, two characters appeared in green.
“There’s a mini display screen built in. It just lit up with the characters for ‘one’ and ‘begun.’ It’s working… I think.”
They were suddenly aware of a very faint, low humming sound that seemed to be coming from below the floor.
“Of course,” said Reynolds, “the mechanisms are in the lower part of Town Hall.”
“And from the sound of it, they’re still operational,” said Mitchell.
From the outside, there was no change for the next twenty minutes.
Inside the two chambers, unbeknownst to the humans, a solution began dissolving the gel that surrounded the bodies. When the gel was removed, a cleansing fluid was flushed through, washing them. At that point, the low hum stopped, and the bottom character on the display changed. In its place was the character that meant ‘complete.’
“Step one completed,” said Ruggiero.
Next to the first characters, the symbol for “two” and “begun” now appeared, again in green.
The chambers now filled with air, with a pulmonary stimulant suspended as a mist. This step took only a few minutes, and the display indicators changed.
Next, catheters began to drain the fluids in the bodies’ veins and arteries as oxygenated artificial blood was pumped in to replace it, and again, as the process ended, the display was updated.
Finally, multiple electrodes attached to and implanted in the bodies carried a series of timed impulses designed to restart various bodily functions. The impulses began with slow, rhythmic jolts to the heart, which were soon joined by a series of pulses to major organs. Then an increasingly complex sequence of impulses created a field in the electrodes in skullcaps to restart brain activity.
For more than twenty minutes, Hummford and Ruggerio watched the control panel, and the rest of the team watched the chambers for any signs of progress. Finally, the display indicated that the fourth step was completed.
“We’re at the last step,” Hummford announced. For several minutes, nothing happened. Then the entire team looked up at sounds from the overhead unit. From above both chambers, six arms were lowering to the sides of the chambers. At the ends of each arm were notches that would apparently fit onto the edges of the chambers’ tops.
The arms continued to extend downward until they reached the tops of the chambers, and then swung in to make contact with the top edges. After a moment, there was a loud “clunk” sound, and the arms began to retract, taking the top surface of the chambers with them.
“Stay back,” said Hummford to the others, as she moved around the control panel and approached one of the chambers.
She moved to its side as the cover cleared her eye level, and got her first view inside.
The Sapiosaur was lying on its back in a form-fitted couch-like construct molded into the interior of the chamber. It was completely motionless, as if dead. But if it was dead, it was in extremely good condition. There were at least 30 wires connected to electrodes attached at various points of the body. A skullcap had another twenty or thirty wires attached.
She placed her gloved hands on the edge of the chamber, and looked down at the creature. After more than two months of seeing them in tablet images, it seemed very familiar. Its eyes were closed, its hands were relaxed, and it seemed very much as if it were asleep, except for being completely still.
And then its chest moved.
Its mouth opened, and it took a deep breath.
“Holy fucking shit!” she said. “It worked! It’s alive!”
Ruggiero had taken a position on the far side of the second chamber, and she looked up with excitement. “This one’s alive too!”
The creature Hummford stood next to took several deep breaths, and then settled into a regular breathing pattern.
“Steph, they made it,” she said.
After a minute, she saw its left hand move slightly, and then it opened its eyes. It blinked several times. For a moment, it stared straight up. Then, its eyes started to move from side to side until it saw her, and looked straight at her.
“Klauguou. Khroulgoth plauth villumnik ghinumik,” she said.
“What did you say?” asked Mitchell.
“I said, ‘Hello, welcome back to life.’ “
If the Sapiosaur understood, it gave no immediate reaction.
•
Garlmek rose to awareness gradually. He became aware of sounds, and of the weight of his body. He felt a tremendous sense of disorientation, and tried to remember where he was and what he had been doing. There had been others, and he’d been lying on his back, and then there’d been a mist before his eyes, and then… nothing. Now there was… something. And the something was… pain!
His entire body felt like he’d been beaten. Every breath caused his chest to hurt. Every muscle ached, and his head ached, and his mouth and throat felt like parchment. His limbs were stiff, to the point that he wasn’t certain he could move, or that he wanted to.
And then slowly, the memories began to return. The asteroid… The mastaba… The life pods. That was were he must be. He’d been awakened from the suspension. The process had worked! But he was almost certain he’d heard sounds, which shouldn’t be. If all was well, he and Touolok should be the only ones inside the mastaba. The Controller would have determined that conditions outside were close enough to normal to begin the revival process.
Suddenly he felt a warm glow that started in his chest and began to spread over the rest of his body, and he knew that analgesics had been injected into his system. The pain began to subside almost at once.
After a moment, he tried moving his left hand, and found that he could. He opened his eyes, but could see only a blur. He blinked, and slowly the dark shape of the gantry above began to come into focus. He looked to the right, and saw that Touolok’s pod was open as well. He wanted to raise his head, to see if she was alright, but he knew even without trying that the effort would be too much. It would take a full eight measures for the therapy of nutrients, stimulants and muscle stimulation to be completed.
He looked up again, and a slight movement to his left caught his eye. He looked over, and saw that something unfamiliar had been placed next to his pod. It was an oddly shaped thing with a bright orange color, with a curved, partly clear object at its top, and inside the clear object was what appeared to be the head of a creature. It had very pale, pasty skin, two eyes, two nostrils, and a mouth. Surrounding the face was a mass of dark material too thick to be fur. Yet he was fairly certain that this was some sort of mammal. But how could a mammal have entered the mastaba?
As he stared at the creature’s head, both fascinated and concerned for his safety, it leaned closer, and opened its mouth.
“Greetings. Welcome back to sweet potato,” it said.
Garlmek was momentarily confused, and then realized that he was experiencing some kind of hallucinat
ion. He closed his eyes. He’d be better once the therapy was further along.
Then there were sounds, similar to what he thought he’d heard before. They were high-pitched babbling sounds, but they resembled language in some ways. After a few moments they stopped. And then from his left, he heard the word “water.”
He opened his eyes, and managed to turn his head slightly to the left. The hallucination was still there, but now it was holding a clear container that indeed appeared to be filled with water. From the top of the container emerged a tube, which went up and then angled downward. “If you want water, close eyes twice,” said the creature.
Garlmek began to doubt whether this was a hallucination after all. As a rule, Noaud dream of things familiar, and this definitely did not fall into that category. But water would be wonderful. He decided to see what would happen, and blinked slowly twice.
The creature made more of the odd sounds, and then moved the container close to his head. He felt something touch his mouth, and instinctively opened it slightly. And then there was water in his mouth. He closed his eyes, and the water stopped coming. Good. He felt his tongue soak in the moisture, and the water run down his throat. After a moment, he opened his eyes and looked at the creature again. He blinked twice, and the creature gave him more water. The creature once again made the odd noises.
As this process repeated several times, he could begin to feel the effect of nutrients entering his system, and the gentle tingle of electricity beginning to stimulate his muscles.
After his fourth drink, he turned his head to face the creature, and made his first attempt to speak. His first two tries failed, but finally he managed to croak out the word “Mate?”
The creature looked across towards Touolok’s pod and made some of its sounds. Similar sounds came from his right, and then it looked back down at him and answered. “Mate satisfactory.” The sounds were obviously a form of language the creatures used, and it was clear that there were at least two of them.
The creature turned away and said something in its tongue, and a new voice answered, this one a bit lower in tone. At least three of them, then.
Sapiosaurus | Out Of Time Page 23