Leviathans of Jupiter (34 page)

So what if I tell Archer about it? That'd set up a real head-to-head battle between him and Westfall. She'd wipe the floor with him. Grant could never fight the way she would. She'd have him tossed off
Gold
before he knew what hit him.

No, Devlin told himself, I can't bring Archer into this. I've got to find a way to satisfy Westfall without running the danger of setting nanomachine gobblers loose all over the place.

But how? How can I do that?

He decided the answer was more than he could hope to achieve at the moment. But as he wriggled down into his bunk and closed his eyes for sleep, he realized he was wrong.

He knew the answer. It came from a story he'd been told at the orphanage, all those years ago. A story by somebody with three names: Hans Christian Andersen.

OBSERVATION DECK

With some misgivings, Deirdre made her way along the main passageway toward the observation deck, where Max Yeager was waiting for her.

She hadn't seen Yeager for several days, not even in the galley at dinnertime. The station's phone system tracked him down almost instantaneously in the mission control center. From her own compartment's wall screen, Deirdre could see that Max looked haggard, unshaven, his thick mane disheveled, his coveralls wrinkled and baggy. Over his shoulder she could see a bright-looking golden-haired woman with violet eyes sitting at the main console.

“Dee?” Yeager said, easing into a grin as soon as he recognized who had called him. “What can I do for you, gorgeous?”

Deirdre suppressed an annoyed frown. “Max, I need to talk to you.”

“Sure.” His grin became leering. “Your place or mine?”

“Be serious!”

“What's the trouble, Dee?”

“I need your advice. It … it's personal. Can we meet somewhere, in private, someplace where we won't be disturbed?”

His face totally serious now, Yeager said, “Okay, sure.” He thought a moment, then suggested, “How about the observation deck?”

Deirdre nodded. “All right.”

“I can be there in ten minutes.”

“The observation deck,” she said. “Ten minutes.”

Now, though, as she neared the doors, Deirdre recalled that the observation deck was sometimes used for lovers' trysts. Max! she railed silently. Did I give him the impression that I'm interested in him sexually? No, she told herself. But what I said and what he heard could be two entirely different things.

So she felt distinctly nervous as she slid back the door to the observation deck and stepped inside. The door slid shut automatically and the lights inside dimmed. It was like standing out in space. Deirdre could see myriads of stars spread across the infinite black, the beauty of the universe stretching before her eyes.

But she had no time for the glory of the heavens.

“Max?” she called. “Max, are you here?”

Silence. Then the door slid open again, spilling light from the passageway into the compartment. Max Yeager's burly form was silhouetted briefly as he stepped through and the door shut once more, automatically dimming the lights.

“Sorry I'm late,” he said, his tone apologetic. “I had to get loose from Linda; she wanted to come here with me.”

Deirdre assumed Linda was the woman she had glimpsed in the phone screen.

“It's all right,” she said. “I just got here myself.”

“So here we are, beautiful, in this romantic spot, just you and me and a few zillion stars.”

Deirdre said, “Behave yourself, Max.”

“Do I hafta?” he said, in an imitation of a little boy's whine.

“Max, I need your advice.”

“About what?”

Deirdre bit her lip, trying to frame her words. Max loomed before her in the shadows, a big shaggy presence.

“How dangerous will the mission be?” she asked.

In the dim light it was difficult to see his face, but his voice sounded surprised. “Dangerous? Like any flight mission, Dee. There's always the element of risk.”

“But … going down into the ocean. Living in that liquid, breathing it.”

“You're not going, are you?”

“Andy wants me to. He needs me to.”

For a couple of heartbeats Yeager said nothing. Then, “You're scared, eh?”

“Terrified,” she admitted.

“Then don't go.”

“But Andy … he wants to make contact with the leviathans and he thinks I can be a big help to him.”

“Then go.”

“You're not helping me!”

Yeager stepped closer to her, so close she could smell the acrid tang of his unwashed coveralls. “Dee, honey, what do you want from me? I can't make up your mind for you.”

“I need to know if your ship is safe,” she replied. “I need to know if we can get through the mission without harm.”

Yeager fell silent again.

“Will I be safe?” she asked, pleadingly.

“
Faraday
is as safe as I can make her. She's gone down into that ocean and come back again in tip-top condition. All systems performed as designed. She even took a battering from the sharks and survived virtually unscathed.”

“Virtually?”

Yeager shrugged and gave out a low chuckle. “A couple of minor subsystems went off-line from the shock for a few seconds. They came back on-line, just as they were designed to do.”

“So the ship is safe.”

She sensed him nodding. “As safe as I know how to make her, Dee.”

“Would you ride in it?”

“Sure. In a hot second.”

It was Deirdre's turn to fall silent.

“I don't mean that there aren't risks involved,” Yeager amended. “There're risks with any mission. But
Faraday
's a hundred times safer than the tin cans they sent out on crewed missions twenty years ago. A thousand times safer.”

“Really?”

Placing his hand over his heart, Yeager said, “On my honor as an engineer and a gentleman.”

Deirdre smiled at him. “You are a gentleman, Max.”

“Yeah, dammit.”

The glassteel-walled deck suddenly began to flood with light. Deirdre could see Max clearly: He looked solemn, pensive.

“Jupiter's rising,” she said.

The giant planet climbed into view, a huge overwhelming curve of glowing clouds, swirling and churning in multihued splendor.

“I'll be going into that world,” Deirdre said, still more than a little frightened, but totally determined now.

“And I'm going with you,” said Max Yeager.

“You? But—”

“I won't let you go without me, Dee. If anything happened to you I'd never forgive myself. But if I'm on board with you, if anything unforeseen happens, maybe I'll be able to fix it.”

“But Max, you're not a scientist. Dr. Archer won't allow you to go.”

“Yes he will,” Yeager said, his tone as flat and final as a judge pronouncing sentence. “I'll make him allow me.”

DOLPHIN TANK

Andy Corvus sat glumly on his equipment box and watched the dolphins gliding sleekly through the water all around him.

That's the life, he thought. Just swim around and eat fish. No worries. No dangers. No fears about the future or regrets about the past. Nothing but the here and now.

The dolphins were talking to each other, ignoring his presence. Andy understood part of their chatter through the translator and the DBS probe in the circlet he had placed on his head. They were talking about food, which fish were the tastiest, how the squid tried to hide among the rocks on the bottom of the tank.

Baby was growing bigger by the day. Sleek and strong, she slid past Andy's watching eyes, propelled by thrusts of her powerful tail flukes.

“Hello, Andy,” his translator crackled.

Surprised and pleased, Corvus replied, “Hello, Baby.”

“Where's Dee?” Baby asked.

Andy's breath caught in his throat. Deirdre hadn't been down to the tank for days, yet Baby missed her.

“Dee's not here,” Corvus said morosely. And, he thought, she probably never will come down here again.

“I'm right here, Andy.”

He whirled, almost falling off the equipment box. And there she was, in a knee-length robe that covered her swimsuit, looking as beautiful as a woman could possibly look.

“Hi!” he said, bouncing to his feet.

“I'm sorry I've been neglecting you and Baby,” Deirdre said. “What with the nanomachine therapy and working on the
Volvox
and then Dr. Archer wants me to study the leviathans' pictures…”

“I understand,” Corvus said, his spirits sinking again. “After all, if you're not going on the mission there's not much sense working with the dolphins.”

“But I am going on the mission, Andy.”

For a heartbeat or two Corvus couldn't believe what he'd heard. “You're going?”

“I talked it over with Dorn and Max. We're all going, the four of us together.”

Corvus shook his head. “No, Dee, you're not going.”

“Yes I am.”

“But I thought … I mean, you told me you were scared.”

“I still am.”

“So why would you change your mind if you're still frightened?” Before Deirdre could reply Corvus thought he knew the answer. “You're doing this for me?”

“Partly,” she said, with a bright smile. “And partly to help Dr. Archer. I mean, he's set up a scholarship for me at the Sorbonne. I owe him something, don't you think?”

Feeling confused, Corvus stuttered, “But … the risks … the danger.”

“I'm scared, for sure,” Deirdre admitted, “but I'm not going to let that stop me.”

“No! I won't let you.”

“Andy, it's not your decision to make.”

He stared at her: so beautiful, so sweet. She's willing to do what she's scared of, Corvus told himself, because she knows it will help me.

“I can't let you do it, Dee,” he said. “It really is dangerous. If anything happened to you—”

“It would happen to you, too, wouldn't it? I mean, we'll be in the ship together, you, me, Max, and Dorn.”

He sagged down onto the equipment box again, his thoughts whirling. “What made you change your mind?” he asked.

Sitting beside him, Deirdre replied very seriously, “I decided that it was very selfish of me to refuse. This mission is important. Not just to you, Andy. It's important to Dr. Archer. It's important to our understanding of the leviathans. If we can make contact with an intelligent alien species … that's mind-blowing!”

“We might get killed,” he said in a whisper.

“Max says the ship is safe. He's willing to go along with us, just in case anything goes wrong, but he says it's as safe as any ship can be.”

“Down in that ocean,” Corvus muttered. “Living in that perfluorocarbon gunk. With those sharks and the leviathans, totally cut off from the rest of the human race, cut off from any possibility of help.”

“It's like the old-time explorers,” Deirdre said gently. “Columbus was on his own once he sailed into the Atlantic. Peary and those other Arctic explorers were on their own, totally cut off from any possibility of help.”

“A lot of those guys died.”

“Yes, that's true.”

“I don't want you to die,” Corvus said. He grasped both Deirdre's hands. “I don't want you to die!”

She smiled again and leaned her forehead against his. “Andy, I don't want to die. But I couldn't stand staying here and watching you leave to go down into the ocean. I couldn't stand it if I stayed safe here and you got killed.”

“But that doesn't mean you should get killed, too!”

“None of us are going to get killed,” she insisted. “Max gave me his word. But if anything bad happens, it'll happen to all four of us.”

He shook his head. “That's a weird way to make a decision.”

“Remember what you said to Mrs. Westfall, the first night we were here on the station?”

“At Archer's dinner.”

“You said that if you were prevented from trying to contact the leviathans it would be like chopping off your hands.”

He grunted. “Your memory's too good. Besides, if you don't go with me, I'll still go down there. You won't be chopping off my hands.” Then he grinned. “Maybe it'd be like chopping off a finger or two.”

Deirdre looked down at their hands. “Not a finger. Not a little pinkie, even. I'm going with you.”

Suddenly it hit him and he felt overwhelmed. She means it! She's going to risk her life because of me.

“Dee … I … I don't know what to say.”

“You don't have to say a word, Andy. It's all settled.”

“But it's so damned risky!”

“Max says it isn't,” she repeated. “Besides, there's an old adage: ‘Behold the lowly turtle. He only makes progress when he sticks his neck out.' ”

LEVIATHAN

Deeper than normal in the all-encompassing sea, the Elders found a new flow of food and the Kin sated their hunger. Leviathan's mouth parts took in the particles greedily as the giant Jovian creature glided along the down-welling current.

Messages of joy and relief were flashing from one member of the Kin to another, bright yellows and greens. Still stationed on the Kin's outer perimeter, Leviathan's sensor parts searched the dark water for signs of the darters. None down at this depth, not within detection range, at least.

But that didn't mean that darters were not out there, farther off. They had feasted on the Eldest when it had sacrificed itself for the good of the Kin. Soon enough they would grow hungry again and seek more prey.

Leviathan remembered its own encounter with a pack of darters back when it had gone off alone, away from the Kin. The ravening beasts had torn at Leviathan's hide, ripping and slashing to get at the inner organs. If that strange alien creature hadn't helped Leviathan, the darters would have won the struggle.