“Yes. I have not actually seen any younglings myself, as I left my outer association for higher studies at an early age and have been here ever since. I and my fellows at the Center for Medical Studies have long since settled into our roots here. The discovery of younglings, far out on the plains, is reported through the fine network of conveners on the periphery of our nation.”
A thought struck Deirdre: “And do those out on the periphery of the nation come across other animals or plants or living beings?” The startling reply was quick and firm:
“No. There are many different plants and animals in the ocean, but there are no other living creatures on the ice except coverers-of-the-ice.”
This was something which Deirdre had to pause to think about. Certainly the humans had seen no other plants or animals, no birds, insects, even grasses or mosses. The icerugs had been given no opportunity to observe reproduction and evolution — except, of course, among themselves. Although there was a great variety of life around the volcanic vents beneath the sea and under the ice near the icerug waste vents, as related by the flouwen, there were obviously beyond the ken of these terrestrial creatures, who only saw dead and rapidly freezing specimens of animals and plants thrown out by the geyser. Even their imaginations would be limited, having never seen another form of active life but themselves.
Staring up into the green orb, so disconcertingly like her own, Deirdre finally dared to ask the basic question:
“Can you speak, then, of how and where the young icerugs come from?” She held her breath, and then listened with growing dismay, as the alien spoke in its usual calm rumble.
“Careful and lengthy observation of the known facts has preceded the general acceptance of the Theory of Void-Filling Spontaneous Creation for the appearance of younglings. Never, in all our long history, has a single youngling appeared within the city. Never, in all our long history, has a single youngling appeared even far out in the country where the ice is covered with the bodies of those that collect sunlight to produce flesh. They appear, if ever, only in the distant ice plains, where no coverers-of-the-ice live, and where there is a total void of life. From careful experimentation in our laboratories at the Center for Scientific Studies, using pumps to evacuate thick-walled containers, we observe that, when a void exists, something rushes in to fill it. Complete emptiness is unnatural. Nature abhors such voids. Therefore, on those empty ice plains, nature spontaneously erupts, occasionally, and creates a new coverer-of-the-ice, a youngling. Unlike the eruptions of our geyser, we have so far not been able to predict such events accurately, but there is no doubt they occur, because the younglings appear.”
“Codswallop!” thought Deirdre. But she knew there was a time when spontaneous generation had been a widely accepted theory on earth, and spoke gently. “And has no one ventured forth upon those ice plains to see, to explore any other possibility of creation? Perhaps a bit of budding, from some traveling icerug?”
“No. There is no need for such a futile journey to be made, when the reports of our distant leaders and conveners are so accurate, and also so similar to each other. From what you have said, other, lower, creatures might come to exist by different methods — such as this sex method you spoke of. But for icerugs … I am sure our Theory of Spontaneous Generation is correct in every respect. It has been held by my teachers before me, and never once failed.”
To Deirdre, listening intently, there was just a hint of self-doubt in the final words, but she dismissed the thought. She knew that the icerugs must reproduce in some more prosaic manner, but without any genuine information on the subject, it was better dropped. However, Green-Eye had apparently absorbed Deirdre’s explanations of reproduction and successive generations so rapidly that now the alien had thought of more questions to ask. In particular, it was curious about the flouwen, and Deirdre carefully explained, as vividly as she could, the swirling dance of amalgamation between three or more individual flouwen which resulted in a young flouwen — a combination of budding and sexual union. Even as she was speaking, she was struck by the incredible differences between flouwen and icerugs; yet, according to the similarities of the genetic patterns on their cells that Katrina had obtained, they were, in some manner, related. She puzzled over that, deep in thought, as she walked back and met the Dragonfly again.
Thankfully climbing out of her exploration suit, she immediately went to find Cinnamon and Katrina, to relate the whole of her interview, with all the questions it had created. As she spoke, the eyes of the other two widened, but she hurried on.
“So then, when it was asking about why it was better to have a wide choice of genes, and I was telling about survival of the fittest…”
“Deirdre!” gasped Cinnamon. “You told it all that? All that totally new, foreign, unexpected information?”
“What were you thinking of?” cried Katrina. Deirdre was thunderstruck, and collapsed onto the sofa.
“I can’t believe, now, it was me doing all that talking. Me, interfering, pouring out, unasked — not that any of it was untrue, mind! but no, I should never…” she gulped, genuinely distressed.
“Ah, well,” sighed Cinnamon. “You didn’t actually tell it that it’s theory was rubbish, did you? And, maybe, now that it has heard a few facts, it will start to find out the truth on its own.”
“I cannot know whether to hope that happens or not,” said Deirdre miserably. “It was unforgivable — but it was wonderful interesting!” She brightened, unable to refrain from sharing with the other biologists the strange facts she had learned. Together they speculated on the truth of what it was that happened out on those empty plains of ice that produced young icerugs, but they could only wonder.
CHAPTER 11 — CIRCUMNAVIGATING
“We’ve been here at the inner pole for a month,” announced George one day at dinner. “A month of Earth days and fifty Zulu days. It’s time we looked at some of the rest of this world.”
“But there’s still so much to learn here,” protested Katrina. “I have an appointment to visit Smooth-Brown’s classes tomorrow to be the show-and-tell object while it teaches the young icerugs about humans. I hope at the same time to learn more about how they teach their young.”
“We’re going to have to leave some things for the follow-on missions to do,” answered George. “After all, our job is to explore and find, not stay and investigate. We’ve still got more moons around Gargantua to visit — Zuni in particular. But right now I want to visit more than just one icerug city. Besides, you can still keep your appointment — you’re scheduled to be one of the four on Victoria, while the rest of us go off in Dragonfly.” He turned to look at Shirley. “I’d like to leave tomorrow if possible. What needs to be done to make the Dragonfly ready for a three-week journey away from Victoria?”
“It already carries enough frozen food for ninety days, but that’s for the six humans,” replied Shirley. “We’ll need to stow aboard food for the flouwen, check out the plumbing arrangements that allow the airlock to be turned into a temporary flouwen habitat, and load up some consumables tanks with ammonia water. But, that shouldn’t take more than a day. Give me a work crew of four and I’ll have it done in half a day.” She looked around for volunteers, but everyone seemed to be avoiding her eyes.
“Arielle and Deirdre should be starting their sleep shifts so they will be fresh when we take off,” said George. “Richard, Cinnamon, and I are assigned to the Dragonfly, so we are obvious candidates for the work crew.” He looked around the lounge and Sam raised his hand.
“The rocks and ice around here can wait another day.”
“Let’s get going, then,” said Shirley, handing her tray to the galley imp and starting down the passway to the engineering deck below. She stopped to look back at George. “I may need you to move the Dragonfly a little closer to Victoria. The transfer hose for the ammonia water may be too short.”
It was only ten hours later when the various tasks had been accomplished, and Dragonfly was ready to go
as a fully self-supporting vehicle. The exploration crew which was to go off on the long journey in the airplane — George, Arielle, Cinnamon, Richard, Deirdre, Shirley, and the three flouwen — were all on board. The humans had switched to a rotating shift schedule so that Dragonfly was operational around the clock. Shirley and Cinnamon were now on sleep shift, while George and Arielle flew the plane, and Richard and Deirdre operated the science and engineering consoles.
“I want to visit one of the other icerug communities around the inner pole,” said George. “Since we can’t visit them all, we should make our choice carefully.”
“Here is the population density map of the inner pole region,” said Deirdre, bringing the map up on her console touch-screen. George copied her screen onto his co-pilot console. Deirdre touched various spots on the screen as she continued talking, and as she did so, a green splotch showed up there on George’s screen.
“There’s Manannan Geyser Lake next to Windward City,” Deirdre started, “Where we are now. It lies between the inner pole and the leading pole. Manannan is the biggest geyser, but Sam and Richard are sure that has nothing to do with its position. There are eight other active geysers, each about the same distance from the inner pole as Manannan.”
“That’s because the tidal strains on the crust are a maximum at that distance from the inner pole,” interjected Richard.
Deirdre touched an icon on the perimeter of the touch-screen to increase the color intensity, and the blue-green colors of icerug bodies leaped into prominence. “Around each geyser is an icerug city, while between the cities lies empty ice.” She pointed to a lake where the hues of the surrounding icerug bodies seemed dim.
“There used to be a tenth geyser, now inactive, although pictures taken during the passage of the flyby probe fifty-five years ago show that it was quite active in the past. Cinnamon, Katrina, and I felt it’s that city we’re wanting to visit. There seems to be falling off in both numbers and color strength. And, there’s signs that the size of the community has gone down while others around it are still thriving. We suspect it may be because the geyser has died away. The icerugs there seem to be trying to compensate by spreading out thin, to increase their photosynthesis intake, but they may need whatever it is the geyser gives them to prosper.”
“Sounds like a good choice,” said George, looking at the map. “At least it will be different from Windward City.”
Arielle copied the map onto her screen, looked at it with a practiced eye and grunted. “Be there in hour.”
Since the first stop was only an hour away, the flouwen, resting quietly in the airlock, stayed in the drysuits which they had donned to make the transfer from Victoria.
*Boring!* complained Little Red as he looked through the porthole in the inside airlock door at the interior of the Dragonfly. The red flouwen was getting quite expert at interpreting the visual images that were focused onto his red flesh behind the large lenses built into his helmet, but he could see little through the small porthole window except the suit lockers on the other side of the engineering section. Occasionally, the Christmas Branch would pass by, its colorful laser diodes sparkling brightly, busy on one task or another. He watched as the computer motile put some human clothing into a hole in the wall and shut the little round door. Little Red wondered idly if that was a hole to dispose of waste, like the hole that James and Josephine had taught the flouwen to use in their habitat tanks on board Prometheus and Victoria. Little Red then felt a sinking and rocking motion, similar to what he would feel when a large wave went overhead in his home ocean.
^We are lifting off,^ said Little White, looking through the porthole in the outside airlock door.
*Feels good!* exclaimed Little Red with satisfaction, as he adjusted easily to the rhythm.
They soon arrived at the city immediately north of Windward City, with its nearby geyser lake quiescent and choked with ice floes.
“Land us on the ice shelf near the center of the city, Arielle,” said George.
“No danger of wings icing up this time,” she replied, banking the Dragonfly in a large circle. Shirley and Cinnamon were still sleeping soundly, although Shirley — ever sensitive to the sounds of the machine she had helped design — shifted uneasily in her sleep as the flying hiss of the Dragonfly changed to a hovering hum, and then finally to the quieter noise of a plane sitting on the ground, engines running.
After Arielle had landed, she stayed at the controls while Richard, George, and Deirdre helped the flouwen out of the airlock and into the lake, their communicator Babble paddling along behind them.
“The major things you three are to look for are differences,” George reminded the flouwen through the radio-sonar communication link that Babble supplied. The flouwen had illuminated the ocean below them with sound as they had entered the water, and the sonar returns were starting to come back in.
*Nothing but differences!* remarked Little Red.
#No motion … anywhere!# added Little Purple.
^There seems to be no life forms of any kind anywhere nearby,^ reported Little White in more informative detail. ^Any motion of any animal, or even moving seaweed fronds, would be easily seen by us because of its doppler shift. Everything has been eaten.^ The translation stopped, and Joe’s voice came over the imp link.
“The words Little White used were; ‘Everything has been eaten.’ But since there is no word for death in the flouwen language, I presume from the context they should be translated ‘Everything is dead’.” George, aware that the nearly indestructible bodies of the flouwen were essentially immortal, so they had no concept of death, once again was forced to face his own mortality.
^There is nothing here,^ said Little White. ^We will go elsewhere.^
*Something move! Far off! I go see!* said Little Red.
#I go see too!# called Little Purple.
“Be back in five hours!” George called through his imp, the paddle treads on either side of Babble moving into high gear as the communications amphibian attempted to keep up with the flouwen, now swimming at high speed.
The three humans headed inland toward the center of the city. For safety reasons, and to supply a high quality radio relay link for Babble and the suited humans outside, Arielle took Dragonfly aloft and hovered over the city on the VTOL fans.
As the humans looked around at the city center, they could see several ornate above-ground structures which indicated some important buildings were below under the ice, but many of the structures seemed to be in disrepair. Between them and the lake front were a number of icerug bodies of various colors of pale blue-green. As the humans approached the icerugs, their suit imps climbed out, each holding a circular piece of glassy-foil to produce the low bass notes of the icerug language. An ornately dressed icerug node with a distinctly oval eye moved forward across its malachite-colored carpet to greet them. As the node grew closer, Deirdre could see that its cape, although elaborate, was torn and shabby. The icerug looked carefully at each of them in turn, its oval eyeball rotating as it did so.
“Welcome, wonderful beings that fly from star to star, and world to world, and moon to moon, on beams of light. I am Oval-Eye, Prime Speaker of Northward City, and I welcome you to our proud but deeply distressed community. We have heard much about you and your machines through our slender talker who connects to the slender talker of Windward City. When I heard and saw your flying machine approach our city, I summoned all the available Speakers, so that they can meet with you and carry the news of our discussions to all in our nation.”
The Prime Speaker and other members of the greeting party moved together toward the cluster of buildings and started underground, George checking the status of the commsat links as they moved under the ice. Soon they came to the Northward City equivalent of the great meeting hall. There were a number of icerugs there, but nowhere near as many as attended the meetings in Windward City. Their finery too was sparse and worn-looking. After introducing the humans to the assembled Speakers, the Prime Speaker
questioned the visitors.
“Some say you must have magic, to be able to fly through the air and between worlds. Have you magic enough to wake our god, Panapan? The great geyser has been asleep for far too long. Our city is suffering greatly.” George glanced quickly at Richard, who shook his head fractionally and added a comment through their private imp link.
“Once a geyser like this gets clogged up and quits, not even a nuclear bomb will get it going again in the same place. At best it would resurface kilometers away — which wouldn’t help this city much. I’m afraid they’re doomed.”
“We have no magic,” replied George to Oval-Eye through the translator imp. “We do know how to build machines to travel through air and space, but they are not magic. Some day you will be able to build similar machines, I am sure. I am afraid, however, there is nothing we can do to help you reawaken your geyser.”
“Is it vital to you, then?” asked Deirdre, trying to think of a way around the icerug’s plight. “You use the good of the sunlight, that we know; surely you can make new flesh thereby.”
“Those coverers-of-the-ice which are on the outskirts of the city do just that,” conceded a nearby icerug, who coloring was almost as pale as slate. It had been introduced as Pale-Gray, the Speaker of the Medical Guild, and the light gray eye which gave it its name regarded them steadily.
“They try very hard to keep us here in the center of the city fed with shipments of new flesh, but it is not sufficient. And a peculiar fact is that the flesh they send is increasingly poor in quality. It lacks flavor, and is singularly unsatisfying.”
“Sounds like a mineral deficiency,” said Deirdre quietly over their imp link. “A fruit tree, on earth, can seem to do well, given sunshine and water. But if the soil is lacking certain minerals, it’s fruit is so poor as to be worthless. The geyser, bringing up all the richness of the sea, must provide these creatures with vital elements.”
Ocean Under the Ice Page 27