The Caverns of Mare Cetus (41 page)

   "I'll tough it out," said Renata.

   "I'm with Rene," said Richelle. "Since I've beaten the infection in my uterus, nothing's going inside my body that isn't food or water."

   Trent, Edison, and Arielle looked surprised; Renata wasn't at all.

   "What-ever," said Arielle after a moment.

   Renata looked at the Kalo again. Why were Trent and Arielle blowing her off? She was certain she was right about it.

   "Stare all you want," said Trent, coming up behind her, "but there's no equipment on this unit capable of cutting up a body. Trust me." He nudged Renata's arm. "You know we're going to have to handcuff her. It isn't the best solution, but we have no choice with what she's done. She won't be able to carry a pack. Edison and I split up her stuff between our own." He turned to Richelle. "Like we discussed, Richelle. It's time. Please put out your hands."

   She held her hands out in front of her, and Trent handcuffed her. "Some of Garrett's stuff," he said. "Vimap controlled. Unbreakable."

   "Nothing's unbreakable," said Renata as she gently put her fingers on her fractured cheekbone, feeling the tenderness and pain. "Especially us." She put a hand on the Kalo. "You know exactly what happened to Isis, don't you? But you're not going to tell us, are you? Why? Because you're a monster."

Chapter Ten

Meadow of the Hidden Valley

The Hidden Valley cries silent through the night,
While leaves fall, twist and settle to their fate.
For the stains of snow will weave in their white,
To cover, to shadow, those destinies too great.

As a meadow is born just outside a sleepy town,
The black gates of Aris stand crumbling down.
Oh, dragons wail across the plains as they soar,
To passion, it is known and can never be more.

Ever the symbol of pure and light,
No more can it be willed.
Ever the rock and stone of might,
No more can it be milled.

For it is pale, the valley, its time grows near.
And it is fallow, the meadow, which will not hear.
Of reason, solitude, and time,
She catches all, leaving none behind.

Anonymous, Earth
1901

As Richelle suddenly started arguing with Trent about how the handcuffs were hurting her wrists, then about how she didn't like his idea of having the RT take her girlfriend's body out of the cavern, Renata ran some diagnostic scans on the Kalo, trying to ignore the commotion. When she finished with the scans, she set the robotic at a minimal operational status. She had no intention of leaving it, especially since she felt it was responsible for mutilating Isis. She also checked for signals from the remaining Kalos but could only pick up sporadic returns from Three. Four was completely out of com and not locatable. She couldn't be certain if it had gone fazz. As long as they didn't run across it, she really didn't care anymore.

   As she watched the Kalo run through its own diagnostics, she was brought back to how her suspicions about it seemed to have been blown off by Trent and denied by Arielle. As Renata tried to postulate some way in which the Kalo could have mutilated Isis, she couldn't get past Trent's arguments. It and Kalo Three were equipped with several types of saw blades that were used to take rock samples and cores from the caves, but the saws were coarsely serrated and would have ripped Isis to pieces had they been used on her body. Exploration Kalos weren't normally fitted with other precision tools because it was a philosophical human-robotics issue, the kind Hunter had vehemently supported.

   
"If you can't see the caves with your eyes," Hunter once said, "touch
them with your hands, smell them with your nose, taste them with your
tongue, and listen to them with your ears—then what's the point? The day
I have to sit on my ass and watch the robotics take over the caves is the day
I'll marry one."

   Renata smiled. Hunter had been dead serious when he said that. She continued to watch the 3D internal diagrams of Kalo One flash up on its starboard screen, searching for anything that might incriminate the monster. The sampling claws and mobility appendages were too blunt, its laser capabilities would have left a distinctive signature, none of its sensors had anything on them even resembling a knife blade. In the rest of the Kalo's compartments they had found only a pair of broken sunglasses, three tube-shaped lasercalibration devices, a toolkit that was probably left inside by one of the Kalo technicians, and ten packets of sealed fruits and nuts that had Garrett's signature all over them as he often used the Kalos as storage bins. Still, slot 2A was crying out to her.

   How did the blood of Isis get inside of 2A? Trent scanned Richelle thoroughly, finding only her own blood and some of Renata's on her. And Trent had briefly scanned Kalo One as well, detecting the blood in the 2A slot and some spots of blood on the cerametal above it, and nothing more.

   Renata sighed. She had no doubts Kalo One had moved from its original position, despite evidence to the contrary from the logs. As she looked at her reflection in the Kalo's cerametal plates, she realized how much blood was still on her face and neck. She grabbed a canteen and a cloth that were nearby and began washing it off.

   "We're just about ready to go," said Trent, stepping up to her after she had wiped off most of the blood. His backpack was already on. "Are you satisfied with your checks on our Kalo friend?"

   She turned and looked up. "Don't call it a friend, okay?" She turned back to her reflection and continued to wipe her face. "Is there any way the cerametal could be molded into a blade of some kind?"

   "Good thought," said Trent, "but no. To be honest, I wish we could come up with something that indicated this thing did it. It troubles me to believe Richelle is that deluded. I would have never expected something like that from her, even in her demented state of mind."

   "So which is it—demented or deluded?" She wiped a spot of blood off the tip of her nose.

   "What do you mean?"

   "A dementia doesn't usually allow a person to make very good choices. Richelle made some damned good choices. The knife wound to Edison was as skilled as a surgeon's cut. You said so yourself. And sure, she used the Mediprogs, but it took some manual dexterity as well. And her trap for me, as much as I hate to admit it, was wellexecuted, pardon the pun. She said she knew how I thought. I think she does. She's changed somehow."

   "If she knew how you thought, you'd never have been able to free your hands and slug her with your head."

   "But I've changed too," she said softly. "Haven't you noticed?" She turned and called to Edison.

   He came over to her, Richelle by his side.

   Renata immediately noticed all the blood had been cleaned off Richelle's face and neck. Her hair was again tightly pulled back in a near-perfect bun. She was wearing a light orange blouse now, and another jacket. "When…how?"

   "Trent cut me loose for a bit to clean up and change." Richelle held up her cuffed hands.

"She was well-watched," said Trent.

   Richelle put her hands toward Renata's head, and Renata jerked back.

   "It's okay," said Richelle. "You still have some blood in your hair, that's all." She touched Renata's hair above her forehead. "Right here."

   Renata briefly looked at Richelle's face. "You look good, you know." She turned to Edison. "I'm giving you a present. Get the Machine Cutter out of my pack." She laid a hand on the Kalo. "If this thing does anything it shouldn't, I want you to wipe out its core, no hesitation."

   A wide smile came to Edison's face. "Now you're talkin'." He went to her pack, dragging Richelle along.

   "Good idea," said Trent. "And here's a present for you." He stooped in front of her and put another hardhat on her head, adjusting its fit. "Richelle won't wear one because of her hair. I'm not going to fight with her over that." He waved to Arielle. "Let's go."

   Renata wondered.
Why had she just told Richelle she looked good,
after all Richelle had done to her?

   After Edison brought Renata her pack, the group began to hike again. Arielle stayed up front with Renata, the Kalo a short distance ahead of them. Trent and Richelle were directly behind them, and Edison was in back, the Machine Cutter in one hand and Isis' backpack in his other. Renata noticed he was still limping noticeably—and Richelle wasn't anymore. Had Trent convinced her to take some medication?

   Renata continued to wipe down her face and hair, almost obsessively so, while she looked in her compact. After seeing Richelle, she felt she had to get every bit of blood off. When she was satisfied she was clean, she began watching the robotic for even the slightest aberration in its behavior.

   "Arielle," she said after they had hiked for a while. "What can you tell me about that mineral we can't identify? You must know something about it with all the tools you have in GEAN."

   "Not much, really," replied Arielle. "I know its color. I think I know its luster and its habit, but not much else."

   "Doesn't that bother you?"

   "Well, yeah, it does some. But it's not the first time I've had problems with a mineral and GEAN. The Ceti system has quite a few minerals that are anomalous in comparison to what one might find on Earth and its neighbors."

   "But nothing this strange, right?" asked Renata.

   "Well, yes. Nothing quite this weird."

   "Then isn't it possible that mineral is doing something to us and our equipment?"

   "I suppose."

   "Doesn't that concern you?"

   "I suppose."

   Renata wanted to shake Arielle. How could she be taking this so casually with all that had happened? The answer might be right in front of them, and the geologist—the one who knew the most about the rocks—wasn't even giving it a second look.

   "What you're trying to tell me," said Arielle, "is that mineral caused Kalo Two to grab you and then attack us. It's been causing our com and HID problems. And it caused all of our other equipment to fail in the passage, including matches, but not the electras. Then it caused Richelle to think she was being attacked, or maybe it actually attacked her." She chuckled. "And then it caused Richelle to go insane. Okay. I can buy all those things happening to us, but I can't see how some damn mineral caused it. Besides, look at you—you're okay. I'm okay. Trent, Edison—looking just fine to me too. And then there's Hunter and Ramon—yeah, so they were fighting, but like that never happened before? And Devon. I don't know—she was just weird to begin with. Garrett. I didn't really know him that well. Do you think he was acting crazy too? So if something's affecting us, why aren't we all flipping out? Why does it affect just Richelle and our freaking unreliable equipment, and nothing else?"

   "Arielle," said Renata. "Are you in denial?"

   Arielle got choked up. "Rene. You're all I have left. Don't do this to me. We've screwed up big time down here. It's been too much tech and not enough us. I hate these caves. I'm never coming back." Tears began flowing down her cheeks. "Just let me be in denial, will you? It's too painful to think about. Right now, I'm on edge—waiting for the next catastrophe to hit us. Please talk about something else. Please."

   "Okay," said Renata as she quickly thought of something that wouldn't upset Arielle. "Uh. What about the lack of life on Mare? We can talk about that, can't we?"

   Arielle wiped her tears away, then sniffled. "Yeah. Sure. What do you want to know?"

   "Why don't you give me the geologist's perspective on why there isn't any life on this planet."

   Arielle sighed. "Well, Mare is just an enigma. Even though it sits at the edge of Tau Ceti's habitable zone, the excess carbon dioxide and water vapor in its atmosphere give it a warmer climate than would be expected this far from Ceti. Volcanism and outgassing have caused that. The greenhouse effect is greater than that of Novia, but it's been pretty well balanced over time by limestone formation, which takes up a lot of the excess CO
₂
. And there's more ocean water on this planet than on either Earth or Novia, which has contributed to the oxygen rich atmosphere, along with other weathering processes. It's actually the abundant nitrogen that has me puzzled. So, what did you ask me—why isn't there life on this rotten planet?"

   "Uh, yeah, that's what I asked."

   "Because, well…no one knows for certain. Like Earth, there's plate tectonics on Mare. And vertical tectonics too, but that shouldn't have stopped life from ever evolving. It has two good-sized satellites, so we have tides. There are a bunch of molecules around that are precursors to organic life, and there's plenty of volcanism and geothermal activity in the rock record—so I don't see how that differs much from Earth either. Everything says this place ought to have life all over it, but I think it all comes down to Myopic Science demanding that it should."

   Renata cringed. She had hoped not to hear that phrase. At times Arielle showed quite a disdain for much of mainstream science— Myos as she often called it—and Renata had too often listened silently to tirades from Arielle on its shortsightedness. She knew exactly what was coming next.

   Arielle continued. "Myopic Science said if a planet has an oxygen signature, it should have life. Too bad Mare kicked that theory in the teeth. The nature and origin of the oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere on Mare was totally unpredicted by Myos. Then there was the issue of how much asteroidal debris was detected around Ceti in the early 21
^st
Century. Myos said any planets around Ceti would be blasted by impacts because of the higher density of asteroidal material around Ceti than around the Sun, making it impossible for life to evolve in the system. Did Myos ever bother to consider the likelihood of four Neptune-sized planets orbiting Ceti…" She began counting on her fingers as she said their names. "…Galbinus, Velox, Viridus, and that screwy Novitas—that just might be shielding the inner planets from the impact threat? Besides, Myos once stated impacts caused most of the major extinctions on Earth. Wrong again. Sure, some extinctions were associated with impacts, but when
science
convincingly showed there were other contributing factors, impact induced extinctions eventually became passé."

   "True…"

   "The problem I have with Myos is it treats too many of its theories as fact. Based on a presumptuous and meager analysis of the Ceti dataset, Myos was ready to write off this entire system. Myos never could have predicted the wide variety of life that was found on Novia—plants, animals, and things we still can't even classify—oh, no! Here comes another asteroid to wipe everything out again." Arielle ducked down briefly. "Right. Like that's ever happened. Life is too resilient for just an asteroid to send it into oblivion. And what did Myos say when it came to interstellar travel? Can't be done—we'll never get past the speed of light—travel to the stars isn't feasible. Gee, who was wrong again on that amazing prediction? Thank God there were some bright ones in the mix who realized we needed to find the hidden doors that cut through our perceived reality of the universe— or we wouldn't be standing here now."