H. M. Hoover

by The Rains of Eridan

  "Karen!” she called as she burst in. "Where did we put the pack?”

  "I unpacked it. What’s wrong?” Karen put down her book. "What’s happening at the meeting?”

  "The film we took in the cave that day—where’s the recorder?”

  "I’ll get it.”

  "One of the men saw an animal that sounds like the ones you found.”

  "The mummies?” Karen pulled the oblong unit down from a shelf and handed it to Theo. "Where?”

  "Chasing grazers in the foothills.”

  "You mean alive?” The girl stared at her. "Alive?” That animal?”

  "It sounds like it.” She took the recorder from its case.

  "How can that be?”

  Theo shrugged. "I don’t know yet. Come. Let’s go show these to him.”

  "Am I allowed to come now? I thought I was too young for the meeting.”

  Theo grinned down at her, thinking of the weepers in the hall, and said, "You’re a lot older than most of the staff. Besides, I want your claim to fame established now, at the beginning, so there is no question of this creature’s discoverer.”

  "You think it’s going to be that important?”

  "Probably not. But I think you will be,” was Theo’s cryptic reply as they entered the conference room.

  She waited until the Commander had finished what he was saying and turned to her. “Dr. Leslie. You had something you wanted to show us?”

  “Yes, something Karen Orlov found. Ladies and gentlemen, Karen Orlov.” Karen bowed to the assembly and slipped shyly into the chair next to Theo’s.

  The biologist extracted the coin-sized tape and fitted it carefully into the projector part of the table. She touched several buttons on the terminal, one to enlarge, one to record into the permanent data banks, and another to record simultaneously on research data banks and their daily log files. The computer’s voice confirmed its readiness to ingest all this information. On its screen appeared a picture of the view from Theo’s camp.

  “Look. It’s not raining,” someone said, and there was laughter in the room.

  “It does seem remarkable, doesn’t it?” said Theo. “This film was shot at my camp in the mountains. The area is vegetation poor, as you can see. The air is very dry, desert-like. Altitude approximately seven thousand feet.” The camera wide-panned and picked up two vots starring in toothy curiosity.

  “That’s not the vicious animal I saw,” said Philip, and there was more laughter. Theo shut off the film. Somewhere soon on that tape were the pictures of Karen’s parents. “I’ve shown you this to introduce the general area.” She removed that tape and inserted the next. “Now I’ll show you where the animal was found.” The screen showed the approach to the cave. “This is about ten miles southwest of my camp.”

  “Look at the crystals!”

  “You’ll never be poor, Leslie. How many did you bring back?”

  "Note what appears to be an established path.” Theo ignored them. "Now, Philip, look closely at this.” She stopped the tape and enlarged the frame.

  "Look at those claws!”

  "That thing’s dead.”

  "Dried up.”

  "Does it resemble what you saw, Philip?” Theo persisted.

  "It’s hard to say in that lighting. The color is wrong. Too light. But it was something like that. The claws are just what I saw. How big was that?”

  "It was curled up in a ball,” said Karen, forgetting her shyness in the excitement of seeing her discovery again, "so you couldn’t really tell its length. Not dried up like that. And we couldn’t see its head to tell what kind of eyes it had. The animal was almost totally buried in the sand when we first saw it, except where the wind had blown sand away. But it was color banded. Like a caterpillar.”

  "Yes! Yes!” The young man grinned at her. "That’s what it looked like! It even moved that way. You were aware of all the legs.”

  "What is a caterpillar, Dr. Leslie?” Evelyn asked for the benefit of people born in the satellites who had no practical knowledge of insects.

  Theo explained briefly.

  "You aren’t going to tell me that’s a larval form?” Evelyn said, aghast.

  "Oh, no. It’s a mature animal. Or at least I think it is ..

  "Excuse me, Dr. Leslie,” Commander Tairas interrupted. "This is all very interesting, but how does it relate to the living animal Philip saw ? If at all ?”

  "Look at this.” Theo turned the film on again. "See those mounds? Each is a creature like the one Karen uncovered—” "Look at the crystals!” and attention was again momentarily diverted.

  "What is my point?” Theo wondered, because she didn’t really know. Intuition told her it was the same type of animal. But how?

  "Forget the damn crystals!” Tairas ordered. "Doctor?”

  "The creatures all lay there in their crypt. ...” Her dream of the night before came back suddenly at the word "crypt,” and she sat there, staring at the Commander’s eyes but seeing instead the cave and myriad other psychic symbols. "Cryptobiosis.” She almost whispered the word. "Cryptobiosis. That’s what my dream was telling me ... but is it possible in so large a form ?”

  "Dr. Leslie? What are you talking about?” Commander Tairas spoke gently as if he suspected she had been suddenly overcome by nervous exhaustion.

  "They may be the same animal,” she said, "in a cryptobiotic state. I will explain. Cryptobiosis means hidden life. It is a state of suspended animation. The organism’s activity slows down and eventually stops when its environment becomes too dry. It resumes animation when adequate moisture returns. This return to life is called anabiosis.”

  "Wasn’t something like this tested in early deep space travel?” asked Tairas. "As I recall, Earth tried to freeze-dry astronauts— as we were called in those days.”

  "Correct,” said Theo. "If it could have been done, the advantages would have been tremendous. In a cryptobiotic state, organisms can withstand any gravitational force, extreme temperature change, high vacuum, ionizing radiations . . . but in laboratory-induced cryptobiosis, desiccated tissue, especially neural tissue, did not respond properly to revival techniques. I remember reading an old study of the experiments. It was barbaric. Horrible!

  "The rapid loss of water from an organism causes death,” Theo went on. "But if dried slowly enough, theoretically body weight in water can be lost until water content of the tissue is less than three per cent. All activity stops. The body contracts. Without a specific carbohydrate molecule in unique proportion, death results. But with that carbohydrate molecule, suspended animation occurs. And with the addition of moisture, the body revives. The creature returns to life.”

  "How long can an organism survive in this state?” asked Evelyn.

  "It depends. Under ideal conditions, one year or one hundred Earth years would mean nothing to a cryptobiotic organism. It could be revived and redesiccated repeatedly. This planet may represent ideal conditions.”

  "Are you saying they’re immortal ?”

  "No. I’m saying that, theoretically, cryptobiosis enables an organism to prolong its normal life-span almost indefinitely with periods of suspended activity. But the organism can be destroyed in either state, should you so desire.”

  "Do you seriously consider your theory feasible?” asked Tairas.

  "Do you think those”—he indicated the pictures—"are capable of coming back to life?”

  "I have seen stranger things,” she said. "There’s a very easy way to check it out. Let me take an air car and go up there and look at the cave. If it’s still full of this—I’m wrong.”

  "I want to go along,” Karen and Philip said in unison.

  The Commander said, "That’s a bad flight in good weather. And what if you are correct?”

  "To find a creature of this size that’s cryptobiotic. . . ?” She stared through him, thinking of what it might mean. If those molecules could be isolated—synthesized—with metabolic advances, lifetimes could be extended beyond human dreams perhaps. But
who would want that? Aware he was waiting for a practical reply, she said, "For one thing, we’d know what we were fighting. There are enough problems with this expedition without the added jeopardy of becoming a protein source for a voracious beast.”

  XIV

  "IF you’re right, going back to the cave would be dangerous,” Evelyn warned. "Those creatures might kill you.”

  “If I’m right, the cave will be empty,” said Theo. “If it is empty, the next question is: how many other caves like that exist, and how many creatures?”

  There was a sudden silence in the room.

  “Very well.” Tairas sat up straighter. “We will cordon the base with alarms and laser fire. Guards will be posted. Does anyone object to serving guard duty?”

  No one did. “Dr. Leslie, I want to know more about these animals—or know more definitely our degree of danger. You will be allowed a staff of three to solve the problem. Please let me know by lunchtime how you propose to handle the matter. Now, we are suffering from communications problems. I want you technicians to check out our transmitter. I would like to talk to the Agribase as soon as possible. Dr. Wexler?”

  "Has there been any contact with Base One? Do you know if they’ve contacted any ship of our fleet or received any reply to their demands?”

  "No. To both questions.” He studied the worried faces around the table. "If you are concerned about being stranded on Eridan forever . . . don’t be. The Aurora Corporation does not waste people in whom it has so much invested. Regardless of what happens at Base One, we will be picked up. At present, we have two major objectives: First to stay alive and healthy. Second, to function as the professionals we are. This is, as you know, a business venture. We have a duty to protect and salvage as much as possible the money invested in this feasibility study. This world may be colonized. It depends on our work.”

  "Are we going back to the caves?” Karen wanted to know as soon as the meeting ended and the staff was filing out.

  Theo nodded, her mind on something else. Tairas was right. Eventually the space shuttle would return for them. All that happened here would be under inquiry. Considering the unorthodoxy of the situation, it was probable that all expedition members would be confined to one base or even one cruiser until judgment was made. It would be prudent of her to feed all her tapes into the data banks now. But she didn’t want Karen to see and relive again part of that film. She sat looking at Karen’s face, staring through her, wondering what excuse she should devise to get her out of the room while the tapes and journal were being recorded.

  "What is it?” the girl asked. "You don’t want me to go along?”

  "Oh, no—I promised you. . . . No. What I was thinking ...” Her focus narrowed to see the girl again; Karen . . . who did not take kindly to lies. . . . "What I was thinking was that I must record my tapes and notes into the computer. Some of it will be painful for you. I would prefer that you don’t see it.”

  "You filmed my parents?”

  "Yes.”

  "The killing? The whole thing?”

  "Yes, if the night lens picked it up.”

  Karen looked down at the blue carpet and nodded. "Good,” she said. "And no, I don’t want to see that. Not ever again.” She slid to her feet. "I’ll go see what the Commander wants me to do.” At the door Karen stopped and stood thinking.

  "Theo? Let’s call them cave bears.”

  "Call whom?”

  "The mummies we found. They need a name—we can’t just keep calling them ’those things’ or stuff like that. We found them in a cave and they’re bigger than bears, so let’s call them cave bears.”

  "Very well. They’re cave bears.”

  XV

  THEO HAD MORE VOLUNTEERS THAN SHE HAD EXPECTED FOR THE TRIP BACK INTO THE MOUNTAINS. THEIR ENTHUSIASM PUZZLED HER. WHEN SHE FIRST WENT ALONE INTO THE INTERIOR, HALF THE BASE STAFF HAD BEEN SO INCAPACITATED BY ILLOGICAL FEAR THAT THEY HAD HAD TO ESCORT EACH OTHER FROM DOME TO DOME. THEY WERE AFRAID TO BE ALONE OUTSIDE. NOW, WITH SEVERAL VERY GOOD REASONS TO BE AFRAID, ALMOST NO ONE WAS. WHY? THEY COULD IGNORE THE DANGER OF THE RAIN, FLYING IN THE RAIN, THE THREAT OF THE ANIMAL, THE DISCOMFORT OF CAMPING OUT? SHE TOO WAS WORRIED ABOUT ALL THESE THINGS, BUT HER SENSE OF CURIOSITY WAS STRONGER THAN HER SENSE OF FEAR. "I DON’T UNDERSTAND MY POPULARITY,” SHE TOLD KAREN AFTER THE FOURTEENTH VOLUNTEER LEFT THEIR COMPARTMENT.

  Karen looked at her oddly and frowned. "You really don’t know why they want to go with you ?”

  Theo shook her head.

  "Remember when the pictures of the cave started? No one said, 'Look at the mounds!’ What they said was, 'Look at the crystals!’ ”

  "Oh, surely not greed. Not to that degree,” Theo said in her naivete.

  "The Commander said rumor has it that the crystals are worth twelve hundred credits per karat uncut. Some of the crystals weigh more than twenty-five hundred karats.”

  "Oh.” Theo did not question what they would do with the money. She realized her attitude toward money was not mainstream. Like all members of colonial research and development crews, she was unable to spend any of her salary in space or while confined to new planets. Credits accumulated and interest compounded until, short of insane extravagance, she would never have time to spend it all. When she finally retired, probably to one of the ringworlds where controlled environments and lessened gravity prolonged human life, she would live to a ripe, rich old age. As should all her colleagues. The fact that almost all of them seemed to feel that one could never have too much money puzzled her. At times it made her wonder if they knew something she did not.

  "Well,” she said, "they can risk their lives to pick up crystals. But not mine or yours. We’re going alone, you and I.”

  Karen fell asleep early. The base was very quiet that evening. It seemed odd to look out the windows and see all the lights outside—odd but comforting. They lit up the rain. No animals at all even approached the area. Those staff members not on guard duty kept to their own rooms. Theo, busy collecting what gear she would need for the trip, saw almost no one in the halls after eight p.m.

  In the deserted lounge the vu-screen was entertaining the chairs with a very hoary space opera. She turned it off. From the sounds escaping into the hall, it was evident that a therapy session was going on in Dr. Wexler’s quarters. Evelyn was a devout believer in body contact to relieve tension and depression. Theo did not wonder why she had not been invited. She knew. But she did wonder for a moment if the Commander was in therapy, since Dr. Wexler had been trying to convince him it would be beneficial. And then Theo forgot about therapy as the thought occurred that it might be handy to have a large saw to cut up a sample specimen—provided there were still specimens to be cut up.

  She was lugging the saw out to the lobby to add it to the equipment to be loaded in the morning when Commander Tairas came in. Water puddled off his cape. For some reason she was very glad to see he had been outside.

  "I made sure the work wagon was all in order for you. Gave you the new one. Loaded your equipment. Old Tom Carlyle knew his stuff—know thy work and do it. The dictum certainly produces contented biologists, even at this hour.” He swung off the cape and hung it neatly over a chair back. "Come. Stop working for tonight and have a cube of coffee with me. Or shall I help you bring out more equipment first?”

  "I’m done,” she assured him, setting the saw down. "Last piece.”

  He raised an eyebrow at the saw but didn’t ask why she needed it.

  “Who’s going with you?”

  “Karen.”

  “And?” His whisker stubbles rasped as he rubbed his wet cheek on his sleeve.

  “Just Karen.” She saw he was going to argue. “She’s the only one I can count on not to spend time picking up crystals. I can’t afford to have someone who will be distracted by greed. It’s too dangerous.”

  “I’ll go with you,” he said impulsively.

  She shook her head. “You would be court-martialed for leaving your command for such a reason as this. Know th
y work and do it, remember? I’m the biologist. You are the Commander of this group. We are all your responsibility.”

  “Yes, but you get to have all the fun and I have to stay here and baby-sit.” He was joking and yet he was not, because he added wistfully, “I really would like to see that cave, Theo. I suppose you are right, though—about taking more than two. They’d just be added weight in the air and worry on the ground. But how about Philip instead of Karen? It is a dangerous situation for a—”

  “No!” She was very positive about that. “If I left without her, even for the best of reasons, she would never forgive me. She told me once it didn’t matter how things got spoiled—once it was done you couldn’t ever make it right again. I’m not going to spoil this for her.” Or for myself either, she thought, remembering the touching trust of this child.

  Tairas looked skeptical. “I’m not sure I understand all that.

  Since it’s you, I’ll go along with it. But I want both of you to wear intercoms all the way out, during, and back. You’ll be monitored. . . .”

  Theo gave him her sweetest smile. She had no intention of wearing an electronic eavesdropper, but there was no point in telling him that. "Oh, yes!” She’d just thought of it. "My lab pack! The power cell in the microscope died on me. Is there another one around?” He thought a minute, nodded, and they set off to find it. The subject of monitoring was forgotten.

  WHEN Theo came outside in the morning, the rain splattered against her hood. She found Karen and Tairas standing by the already loaded aircraft. In spite of the rain they were surrounded by half the people in camp. For a bad instant she thought something had happened.

  XVI

  "I just quit worrying quite so much about you, Dr. Leslie,” the Commander called. "Why didn’t you tell me your colleague had laser vision?” Theo’s perplexity must have shown on her face because he laughed. "I was going to give Karen some parental instruction on self-defense,” he explained, "until she made me look like an awkward amateur. Show her, Karen.”