Sphere

Sphere Page 16

"No, but he seems to be breathing comfortably. Color's good, all that. Anyway, I thought I better get the life-support systems going." She wiped grease on her cheek. "I mean, it's just the three of us now, Norman."

"You, me, and Harry?"

"That's right. You, me, and Harry."

Harry was sleeping peacefully on the floor between the bunks. Norman bent down, lifted one eyelid, shone a light in Harry's pupil. The pupil contracted.

"This can't be heaven," Harry said.

"Why not?" Norman said. He shone the light in the other pupil; it contracted.

"Because you're here. They don't let psychologists into heaven." He gave a weak smile.

"Can you move your toes? Your hands?"

"I can move everything. I walked up here, Norman, from down in C. I'm okay."

Norman sat back. "I'm glad you're okay, Harry." He meant it: he had been dreading the thought of an injury to Harry. From the beginning of the expedition, they had all relied on Harry. At every critical juncture, he had supplied the breakthrough, the necessary understanding. And even now, Norman took comfort in the thought that, if Beth couldn't figure out the life-support systems, Harry could.

"Yeah, I'm okay." He closed his eyes again, sighed. "Who's left?"

"Beth. Me. You."

"Jesus."

"Yeah. You want to get up?"

"Yeah, I'll get in the bunk. I'm real tired, Norman. I could sleep for a year."

Norman helped him to his feet. Harry dropped quickly onto the nearest bunk.

"Okay if I sleep for a while?"

"Sure."

"That's good. I'm real tired, Norman. I could sleep for a year."

"Yes, you said that - "

He broke off. Harry was snoring. Norman reached over to remove something crumpled on the pillow beneath Harry's head.

It was Ted Fielding's notebook.

Norman suddenly felt overwhelmed. He sat on his bunk, holding the notebook in his hands. Finally he looked at a couple of pages, filled with Ted's large, enthusiastic scrawl. A photograph fell onto his lap. He turned it over. It was a photo of a red Corvette. And the feelings just overwhelmed him. Norman didn't know if he was crying for Ted, or crying for himself, because it was clear to him that one by one, they were all dying down here. He was very sad, and very afraid.

Beth was in D Cyl, at the communications console, turning on all the monitors.

"They did a pretty good job with this place," she said. "Everything is marked; everything has instructions; there're computer help files. An idiot could figure it out. There's just one problem that I can see."

"What's that?"

"The galley was in E Cyl, and E Cyl is flooded. We've got no food, Norman."

"None at all?"

"I don't think so."

"Water?"

"Yes, plenty of water, but no food."

"Well, we can make it without food. How much longer have we got down here?"

"It looks like two more days."

"We can make it," Norman said, thinking: Two days, Jesus. Two more days in this place.

"That's assuming the storm clears on schedule," Beth added. "I've been trying to figure out how to release a surface balloon, and see what it's like up there. Tina used to punch some special code to release a balloon."

"We can make it," Norman said again.

"Oh sure. If worse comes to worst, we can always get food from the spaceship. There's plenty over there."

"You think we can risk going outside?"

"We'll have to," she said, glancing at the screens, "sometime in the next three hours."

"Why?"

"The minisub. It has that automatic surfacing timer, unless someone goes over and punches the button."

"The hell with the sub," Norman said. "Let the sub go." "Well, don't be too hasty," Beth said. "That sub can hold three people."

"You mean we could all get out of here in it?"

"Yeah. That's what I mean."

"Christ," Norman said. "Let's go now."

"There are two problems with that," Beth said. She pointed to the screens. "I've been going over the specs. First, the sub is unstable on the surface. If there are big waves on the surface, it'll bounce us around worse than anything we've had down here. And the second thing is that we have to link up with a decompression chamber on the surface. Don't forget, we still have ninety-six hours of decompression ahead of us."

"And if we don't decompress?" Norman said. He was thinking, Let's just go to the surface in the sub and throw open the hatch and see the clouds and the sky and breathe some normal earth air.

"We have to decompress," Beth said. "Your bloodstream is saturated with helium gas in solution. Right now you're under pressure, so everything is fine. But if you release that pressure suddenly, it's just the same as when you pop the top off a soda bottle. The helium will bubble explosively out of your system. You'll die instantly."

"Oh," Norman said.

"Ninety-six hours," Beth said. "That's how long it takes to get the helium out of you."

"Oh."

Norman went to the porthole and looked across at DH-7, and the minisub. It was a hundred yards away. "You think the squid will come back?"

She shrugged. "Ask Jerry."

Norman thought, No more of that Geraldine stuff now. Or did she prefer to think of this malevolent entity as masculine?

"Which monitor is it?"

"This one." She flicked it on. The screen glowed.

Norman said, "Jerry? Are you there?"

No answer.

He typed, JERRY? ARE YOU THERE?

There was no response.

"I'll tell you something about Jerry," Beth said. "He can't really read minds. When we were talking to him before, I sent him a thought and he didn't respond."

"I did, too," Norman said. "I sent both messages and images. He never responded."

"If we speak, he answers, but if we just think, he doesn't answer," Beth said. "So he's not all-powerful. He actually behaves as if he hears us."

"That's right," Norman said. "Although he doesn't seem to be hearing us now."

"No. I tried earlier, too."

"I wonder why he isn't answering."

"You said he was emotional. Maybe he's sulking."

Norman didn't think so. Child kings didn't sulk. They were vindictive and whimsical, but they didn't sulk.

"By the way," she said, "you might want to look at these." She handed him a stack of printouts. "They're the record of all the interactions we've had with him."

"They may give us a clue," Norman said, thumbing through the sheets without any real enthusiasm. He felt suddenly tired.

"Anyway, it'll occupy your mind."

"True."

"Personally," Beth said, "I'd like to go back to the ship."

"What for?"

"I'm not convinced we've found everything that's there."

"It's a long way to the ship," Norman said.

"I know. But if we get a clear time without the squid, I might try it."

"Just to occupy your mind?"

"I guess you could say that." She glanced at her watch. "Norman, I'm going to get a couple of hours of sleep," she said. "Then we can draw straws to see who goes to the submarine."

"Okay."

"You seem depressed, Norman."

"I am."

"Me, too," she said. "This place feels like a tomb - and I've been prematurely buried."

She climbed the ladder to her laboratory, but apparently she didn't go to sleep, because after a few moments, he heard Tina's recorded voice on videotape saying, "Do you think they'll ever get the sphere open?"

And Beth replied, "Maybe. I don't know."

"It scares me."

The whirr of rewinding and a short delay, then: "Do you think they'll ever get the sphere open?"

"Maybe. I don't know."

"It scares me."

The tape was becoming an obsession with Beth.

He stared at the printouts on his lap, and then he looked at the screen. "Jerry?" he said. "Are you there?"

Jerry did not answer.

THE SUB

She was shaking his shoulder gently. Norman opened his eyes.

"It's time," Beth said.

"Okay." He yawned. God, he was tired. "How much time is left?"

"Half an hour."

Beth switched on the sensory array at the communications console, adjusted the settings.

"You know how to work all that stuff?" Norman said. "The sensors?"

"Pretty well. I've been learning it."

"Then I should go to the sub," he said. He knew Beth would never agree, that she would insist on doing the active thing, but he wanted to make the effort.

"Okay," she said. "You go. That makes sense."

He covered his surprise. "I think so, too."

"Somebody has to watch the array," she said. "And I can give you warning if the squid is coming."

"Right," he said. Thinking, Hell, she's serious. "I don't think this is one for Harry," Norman said.

"No, Harry's not very physical. And he's still asleep. I say, let him sleep."

"Right," Norman said.

"You'll need help with your suit," Beth said.

"Oh, that's right, my suit," Norman said. "The fan is broken in my suit."

"Fletcher fixed it for you," Beth said.

"I hope she did it right."

"Maybe I should go instead," Beth said.

"No, no. You watch the consoles. I'll go. It's only a hundred yards or so, anyway. It can't be a big deal."

"All clear now," she said, glancing at the monitors.

"Right," Norman said.

His helmet clicked in place, and beth tapped his faceplate, gave him a questioning look: was everything all right?

Norman nodded, and she opened the floor hatch for him. He waved goodbye and jumped into the chilly black water. On the sea floor, he stood beneath the hatch for a moment and waited to make sure he could hear his circulating fan. Then he moved out from beneath the habitat.

There were only a few lights on in the habitat, and he could see many thin lines of bubbles streaming upward, from the leaking cylinders.

"How are you?" Beth said, over the intercom. "Okay. You know the place is leaking?"

"It looks worse than it is," Beth said. "Trust me." Norman came to the edge of the habitat and looked across the hundred yards of open sea floor that separated him from DH-7. "How does it look? Still clear?"

"Still clear," Beth said.

Norman set out. He walked as quickly as he could, but he felt as if his feet were moving in slow motion. He was soon short of breath; he swore.

"What's the matter?"

"I can't go fast." He kept looking north, expecting at any moment to see the greenish glow of the approaching squid, but the horizon remained dark.

"You're doing fine, Norman. Still clear."

He was now fifty yards from the habitat-halfway there. He could see DH-7, much smaller than their own habitat, a single cylinder forty feet high, with very few portholes. Alongside it was the inverted dome, and the minisub.

"You're almost there," Beth said. "Good work."

Norman began to feel dizzy. He slowed his pace. He could now see markings on the gray surface of the habitat. There were all sorts of block-printed Navy stencils.

"Coast is still clear," Beth said. "Congratulations. Looks like you made it."

He moved under the DH-7 cylinder, looked up at the hatch. It was closed. He spun the wheel, pushed it open. He couldn't see much of the interior, because most of the lights were out. But he wanted to have a look inside. There might be something, some weapon, they could use.

"Sub first," Beth said. "You've only got ten minutes to push the button."

"Right."

Norman moved to the sub. Standing behind the twin screws, he read the name: Deepstar III. The sub was yellow, like the sub that he had ridden down, but its configuration was somewhat different. He found handholds on the side, pulled himself up into the pocket of air trapped inside the dome. There was a large acrylic bubble canopy on top of the sub for the pilot; Norman found the hatch behind, opened it, and dropped inside.

"I'm in the sub."

There was no answer from Beth. She probably couldn't hear him, surrounded by all this metal. He looked around the sub, thinking, I'm dripping wet. But what was he supposed to do, wipe his shoes before entering? He smiled at the thought. He found the tapes secured in an aft compartment. There was plenty of room for more, and plenty of room for three people. But Beth was right about going to the surface: the interior of the sub was crammed with instruments and sharp edges. If you got banged around in here it wouldn't be pleasant.

Where was the delay button? He looked at the darkened instrument panel, and saw a single flashing red light above a button marked "TIMER HOLD." He pressed the button.

The red light stopped flashing, and now remained steadily on. A small amber video screen glowed:

Timer Reset - Counting 12:00:00

As he watched, the numbers began to run backward. He must have done it, he thought. The video screen switched off. Still looking at all the instruments, a thought occurred to him: in an emergency, could he operate this sub? He slipped into the pilot's chair, faced the bewildering dials and switches of the instrument array. There didn't seem to be any steering apparatus, no wheel or joystick. How did you work the damned thing?

The video screen switched on:

DEEPSTAR III - COMMAND MODULE

Do you require help?

Yes             No             Cancel

Yes, he thought. I require help. He looked around for a "YES" button near the screen, but there wasn't any that he could see. Finally he thought to touch the screen, pressing "YES."

DEEPSTAR III - CHECKLIST OPTIONS

Descend             Ascend

Secure                 Shutdown

Monitor              Cancel

He pressed "ASCEND." The screen changed to a small drawing of the instrument panel. One particular section of the drawing blinked on and off. Beneath the picture were the words:

DEEPSTAR III - ASCEND CHECKLIST

1. Set Ballast Blowers To: On

Proceed To Next       Cancel

So that was how it worked, Norman thought. A step-by-step checklist stored in the sub's computer. All you had to do was follow directions. He could do that.

A small surge of current moved the sub, swaying it at its tether.

He pressed the "CANCEL" and the screen went blank. It flashed:

Timer Reset - Counting 11:53:04

The counter was still running backward. He thought, Have I really been here seven minutes? Another surge of current, and the sub swayed again. It was time to go.

He moved to the hatch, climbed out into the dome, and closed the hatch. He lowered himself down the side of the sub, touched the bottom. Out from beneath the shielding metal, his radio immediately crackled.

" - you there? Norman, are you there? Answer, please!"

It was Harry, on the radio.

"I'm here," Norman said.

"Norman, for God's sake - "

In that moment, Norman saw the greenish glow, and he knew why the sub had surged and rocked at its moorings. The squid was just ten yards away, its glowing tentacles writhing out toward him, churning up the sediment along the ocean floor.

" - Norman, will you - "

There was no time to think. Norman took three steps, jumped, and pulled himself through the open hatch into DH-7.

He slammed the hatch door down behind him but the flat, spade-like tentacle was already reaching in. He pinned the tentacle in the partially closed hatch, but the tentacle didn't withdraw. It was incredibly strong and muscular, writhing as he watched, the suckers like small puckered mouths opening and closing. Norman stomped down on the hatch, trying to force the tentacle to withdraw. With a muscular flip, the hatch flew open, knocking him backward, and the tentacle reached up into the habitat. He smelled the strong odor of ammonium.

Norman fled, climbing higher into the cylinder. The second tentacle appeared, splashing up through the hatch. The two tentacles swung in circles beneath him, searching. He came to a porthole and looked out, saw the great body of the animal, the huge round staring eye. He clambered higher, getting away from the tentacles. Most of the cylinder seemed to be given over to storage; it was crammed with equipment, boxes, tanks. Many of the boxes were bright red with stencils: "CAUTION NO SMOKING NO ELECTRONICS TEVAC EXPLOSIVES." There were a hell of a lot of explosives in here, he thought, stumbling upward.

The tentacles rose higher behind him. Somewhere, in a detached, logical part of his brain, he thought: The cylinder is only forty feet high, and the tentacles are at least forty feet long. There will be no place for me to hide.

He stumbled, banged his knee, kept going. He heard the slap of the tentacles as they struck the walls, swung upward toward him.

A weapon, he thought. I have to find a weapon.

He came to the small galley, metal counter, some pots and pans. He pulled the drawers open hastily, looking for a knife. He could find only a small paring knife, threw it away in disgust. He heard the tentacles coming closer. The next moment he was knocked down, his helmet banging on the deck. Norman scrambled to his feet, dodged the tentacle, moved up the cylinder.

A communications section: radio set, computer, a couple of monitors. The tentacles were right behind him, slithering up like nightmarish vines. His eyes burned from the ammonia fumes.

He came to the bunks, a narrow space near the top of the cylinder.

No place to hide, he thought. No weapons, and no place to hide.

The tentacles reached the top of the cylinder, slapped against the upper curved surface, swung sideways. In a moment they would have him. He grabbed the mattress from one bunk, held it up as flimsy protection. The two tentacles were swinging erratically around him. He dodged the first.

And then with a whump the second tentacle coiled around him, holding both him and the mattress in a cold, slimy grip. He felt a sickening slow squeeze, the dozens of suckers gripping his body, cutting into his skin. He moaned in horror. The second tentacle swung back to grip him along with the first. He was trapped in a vise.

Oh God, he thought.

The tentacles swung away from the wall, lifting him high in the air, into the middle of the cylinder. This is it, he thought, but in the next moment he felt his body sliding downward past the mattress, and he slipped through the grip and fell through the air. He grabbed the tentacles for support, sliding down the giant evil-smelling vines, and then he crashed down onto the deck near the galley, his head banging on the metal deck. He rolled onto his back.

He saw the two tentacles above, gripping the mattress, squeezing it, twisting it. Did the squid realize what had happened, that he had gotten free?

Norman looked around desperately. A weapon, a weapon. This was a Navy habitat. There must be a weapon somewhere.

The tentacles tore the mattress apart. Shreds of white padding drifted down through the cylinder. The tentacles released the mattress, the big pieces falling. Then the tentacles started swinging around the habitat again.

Searching.

It knows, he thought. It knows I have gotten away, and that I am still in here somewhere. It is hunting me.

But how did it know?

Norman ducked behind the galley as one of the flat tentacles came crashing through the pots and pans, sweeping around, feeling for him. Norman scrambled back, coming up against a large potted plant. The tentacle was still searching, moving restlessly across the floor, banging the pans. Norman pushed the plant forward, and the tentacle gripped it, uprooted it easily, sweeping it away into the air.

The distraction allowed Norman to scramble forward. A weapon, he thought. A weapon.

He looked down to where the mattress had fallen, and he saw, lining the wall near the bottom hatch, a series of silver vertical bars. Spear guns! Somehow he had missed them on the way up. Each spear gun was tipped in a fat bulb like a hand grenade. Explosive tips? He started to climb down.

The tentacles were sliding down, too, following him. How did the squid know where he was? And then, as he passed a porthole, he saw the eye outside and he thought, He can see me, for God's sake.

Stay away from the portholes.

Not thinking clearly. Everything happening fast. Crawling down past the explosive crates in the storage hold, thinking, I better not miss in here, and he landed with a clang on the airlock deck.

The arms were slithering down, moving down the cylinder toward him. He tugged at one of the spear guns. It was strapped to the wall with a rubber cord. Norman pulled at it, tried to release it. The tentacles drew closer. He yanked at the rubber, but it wouldn't release. What was wrong with these snaps?

The tentacles were closer. Coming down swiftly.

Then he realized the cords had safety catches: you had to pull the guns sideways, not out. He did; the rubber popped free. The spear gun was in his hand. He turned, and the tentacle knocked him down. He flipped onto his back and saw the great flat suckered palm of the tentacle coming straight down on him, and the tentacle wrapped over his helmet, everything was black, and he fired.

There was tremendous pain in his chest and abdomen. For a horrified moment he thought he had shot himself. Then he gasped and he realized it was just the concussion; his chest was burning, but the squid released him.

He still couldn't see. He pulled the palm off his face and it fell heavily onto the deck, writhing, severed from the squid arm. The interior walls of the habitat were splattered with blood. One tentacle was still moving, the other was a bloody, ragged stump. Both arms pulled out through the hatch, slipped into the water.

Norman ran for the porthole; the squid moved swiftly away, the green glow diminishing. He had done it! He'd beaten it off.

He'd done it.

DH-8

"How many did you bring?" Harry said, turning the spear gun over in his hands.

"Five," Norman said. "That was all I could carry."

"But it worked?" He was examining the bulbous explosive tip.

"Yeah, it worked. Blew the whole tentacle off."

"I saw the squid going away," Harry said. "I figured you must have done something."

"Where's Beth?"

"I don't know. Her suit's gone. I think she may have gone to the ship."

"Gone to the ship?" Norman said, frowning.

"All I know is, when I woke up she was gone. I figured you were over at the habitat, and then I saw the squid, and I tried to get you on the radio but I guess the metal blocked the transmission."

"Beth left?" Norman said. He was starting to get angry. Beth was supposed to stay at the communications console, watching the sensors for him while he was outside. Instead, she had gone to the ship?

"Her suit's gone," Harry said again.

"Son of a bitch!" Norman said. He was suddenly furious - really, deeply furious. He kicked the console.

"Careful there," Harry said.

"Damn it!"

"Take it easy," Harry said, "come on, take it easy, Norman."

"What the hell does she think she's doing?"

"Come on, sit down, Norman." Harry steered him to a chair. "We're all tired."

"Damn right we're tired!"

"Easy, Norman, easy ... Remember your blood pressure."

"My blood pressure's fine!"

"Not now, it's not," Harry said. "You're purple."

"How could she let me go outside and then just leave?"

"Worse, go out herself," Harry said.

"But she wasn't watching out for me any more," Norman said. And then it came to him, why he was so angry-he was angry because he was afraid. At a moment of great personal danger, Beth had abandoned him. There were only three of them left down there, and they needed each other - they needed to depend on each other. But Beth was unreliable, and that made him afraid. And angry.

"Can you hear me?" her voice said, on the intercom. "Anybody hear me?"

Norman reached for the microphone, but Harry snatched it away. "I'll do this," he said. "Yes, Beth, we can hear you."

"I'm in the ship," she said, her voice crackling on the intercom. "I've found another compartment, aft, behind the crew bunks. It's quite interesting."

Quite interesting, Norman thought. Jesus, quite interesting. He grabbed the microphone from Harry. "Beth, what the hell are you doing over there?"

"Oh, hi, Norman. You made it back okay, huh?"

"Barely."

"You have some trouble?" She didn't sound concerned.

"Yes, I did."

"Are you all right? You sound mad."

"You bet I'm mad. Beth, why did you leave while I was out there?"

"Harry said he'd take over for me."

"He what?" Norman looked at Harry. Harry was shaking his head no.

"Harry said he'd take over at the console for me. He told me to go ahead to the ship. Since the squid wasn't around, it seemed like a good time."

Norman cupped his hand over microphone. "I don't the remember that," Harry said.

"Did you talk to her?"

"I don't remember talking to her."

Beth said, "Just ask him, Norman. He'll tell you."

"He says he never said that."

"Well, then, he's full of it," Beth said. "What do you think, I'd abandon you when you were outside, for Christ's sake?" There was a pause. "I'd never do that, Norman."

"I swear," Harry said to Norman. "I never had any conversation with Beth. I never talked to her at all. I'm telling you, she was gone when I woke up. There was nobody here. If you ask me, she always intended to go to the ship."

Norman remembered how quickly Beth had agreed to let Norman go to the sub, how surprised he had been. Perhaps Harry was right, he thought. Perhaps Beth had been planning it all along.

"You know what I think?" Harry said. "I think she's cracking up."

Over the intercom, Beth said, "You guys get it straightened out?"

Norman said, "I think so, Beth, yes."

"Good," Beth said. "Because I have made a discovery over here, in the spaceship."

"What's that?"

"I've found the crew."

"You both came," Beth said. She was sitting on a console in the comfortable beige flight deck of the spacecraft. "Yes," Norman said, looking at her. She looked okay. If anything, she looked better than ever. Stronger, clearer. She actually looked rather beautiful, he thought. "Harry thought that the squid wouldn't come back."