Mindbridge (10 page)

“We’ll try,” Jacque said. Carol was a little pale. As she’d told him on the way back from supper, she had an irrational fear of watching dissections. When she was five or six she’d seen a popular science show where they’d taken the heart out of a living turtle and kept it beating for weeks. She still had nightmares about that heart.

They positioned the two Tamers so they wouldn’t get in the way of the holo cameras. When they touched the bridge, Jacque caught the racing fear in Carol’s mind. He tried to radiate reassurance, tenderness. He only half-heard what Dr. Willard was saying.

“Nobody’s ever dissected one of these before, of course. The nudibranch, though, is a close structural analog.” He picked up a scalpel. “Accordingly, I will . . . I . . . will make a sss-will incision, hm. Along the dors-dors’l service. . .”

“Doctor-“ An aide reached toward him.

The scalpel clattered on the table. With a puzzled expression on his lined face, Willard clutched his chest and sat down on the floor. He fell over sideways without straightening.

The aide felt for a pulse. “Heart stopped,” he said. He ripped open the front of Willard’s tunic.

“Get him out of here!” Dr. Jameson shouted. “Get him out in the hall, oxygen, you-“ He pointed at another aide. “-call a floater!”

There was a lot of confusion, shouting, shoving through the crowd. Jameson asked that everybody except medical doctors stay inside the chamber until they got Willard on his way to the hospital.

After a few minutes, Jameson came back inside. He stood in front of the table and addressed the group.

“This is a terrible . . . thing. I’ve been after Bob-“ He pointed at the reporter. “This isn’t for publication. I’ve been after Bob for ten years or more to go get an implant, a cardiac implant. An eighty-year-old man who smokes and drinks the way he does. . . well, most of you know Bob. He said he’d get an implant the day he stopped playing tennis.

“They got here in four minutes and there’s a cardiac team scrubbed and waiting back at General. So they might be able to save him.

“Meanwhile . . . I’d like to keep posted on Bob, but we have less than an hour to finish up here, before the thing slingshots. So on with it.”

He went to the other side of the table and picked up the scalpel Willard had dropped. “Now I don’t claim to know half the invertebrate anatomy that Bob does. Is there anybody here who thinks they can do a better job?”

Nobody responded. “Speak up, God damn it. I’m not puffing rank here. How about you, Modibo? You did that damn slug last month.”

A big black man in the front of the crowd shook his head slowly. “Not out of any special expertise, doctor. I was just on deck at the right time.”

“You go ahead, Phil,” another said. “If we see anything, we’ll shout it out.”

“All right.” To Carol and Jacque: “You two grab hold of the thing.

“Now. Dorsal incision.” He brought the blade down and hesitated. “Hm. Dorsal.”

He looked up at Jacque and shook his head violently. Then he carefully raised the scalpel and slit his own throat.

To:
           
Public Relations, Westinghouse International

From:
       
Black & Morgenstern

Date:
        
11 November 2075

Subject:
    
Text and Preliminary Camera Instructions, Four-Minute Public Interest Spot (for mid-point insert, Don Loft Show, 17 Jan 76)

SETTING:
           
Craters of the Moon National Park

REQUIREMENTS:
         
Animation lab; three (3) available-light holo cameras, three (3) actors, two (2) simulated GPEM suits, one (1) Westinghouse mass spectrograph.

Spot begins with a 30-second animated cartoon. First you have a simplified alien landscape, strange music. Five Tamers
pop
into existence, get out of formation and mill around, waiting.

The place they appeared from goes
pop
again, this time producing a pile of bricks, mortar, bricklaying tools. Music segues into a soft jissto as they start building a house. Tempo increases as they work faster and faster. New piles of bricks appear
pop
as they need them; it takes four piles to finish the house.

The Tamer-figures sit around the house, panting. Suddenly the music stops and the bottom layer of bricks disappears. The top three-fourths of the house falls with a resounding crash. This is repeated three more times, as each successive layer disappears.

The Tamers stand there scratching their heads. Then they also disappear. Fade into Craters of the Moon sequence.

(Camera positions given in conventional Cartesian style. Primary origin is ground level, centered underneath mass spectrograph, which will be placed on a level area 1250 meters NNW of benchmark 1728 (permissions bought from Park Service, Inc.). X-axis oriented 29° E of N. initially.)

time
   
origin
     
skew
 
X Y Z

030
    
31,00,3
    
00
   
8.5,8.5,3.0
Shattered landscape.

035
    
31,00,3
    
00
   
8.5,8.5,3.0
VOICE OVER:

SLOW X-AXIS DRIFT TO
                 
(t = 33) “Nothing made on

045
    
10,00,2
    
00
   
8.5,8.5,3.0
the Earth can stay on

050
    
05,05,1
    
00
   
8.5,8.5,3.0
another planet.”

055
    
00,00,0
    
00
   
7.5,7.5,3.0

TIGHTEN TO
                           
(t=55) “This is the

065
    
00,00,0
    
00
   
2.0,2.0,2.0
machine that gave humankind the stars.”

SKEW ROLL
                            
(t = 70) “The Westinghouse

075
    
00,00,0
    
-180
 
1.5,1.5,2.0
. . . Mass Spectrograph.”

HOLD THIS
                            
(t = 72) “The two Tamers,

CONFIGURATION TO
                     
walking together, approach

101
    
00,00,0
    
-180
 
1.5,1.5,2.0
the machine. They are carrying

great armloads of

SLOW
                                 
rock, which they dump onto

SQUEEZE/SKEW/DROP
                    
an already-large pile beside

102
    
00,00,0
    
175
  
1.4,1.4,1.9
the machine

103
    
00,00,0
    
-170
 
1.3,1.3,1.9

104
    
00,00,0
    
-166
 
1.2,1.2,1.8
VOICE OVER:

105
    
00,00,0
    
-163
 
1.1,1.1,1.8
(t = 88) “They don’t use

106
    
00,00,0
    
-161
 
1.0,1.0,1.7
the Westinghouse Mass

107
    
00,00,0
    
-159
 
0.9,0.9,1.7
Spectrograph to build brick

108
    
00,00,0
    
-158
 
0.9,0.9,1.6
houses. They use it to

109
    
00,00,0
    
-157
 
0.9,0.9,1.6
isolate pure elements . . .

110
    
00,00,0
    
-156
 
0.9,0.9,1.6
to build the machines . . .

111
    
00,00,0
    
-155
 
0.9,0.9,1.6
that will turn this sterile

112
    
00,00,0
    
-154
 
0.9,0.9,1.6
world. . . into a paradise

113
    
00,00,0
    
-153
 
0.9,0.9,1.6
for future generations.”

BLUR
 
SKEW:
                          
(t = 114) “This bank of

114
    
00,00,0
    
-098
 
0.9,0.9,1.6
dials and switches is a thing

                                     
that ancient alchemists sought for

all their lives:

                                     
the Philosopher’s Stone.

HOLD THIS
                            
(BEAT to t = 125) “Our

CONFIGURATION TO
                     
interest is not in changing

122
    
00,00,0
    
-098
 
0.9,0.9,1.6
base metals into gold, the

                                     
alchemist’s dream. Rather,

OUT AND SLIGHT UP
                    
we change rock into useful

 
(clear rock pile)
                   
metals.”

123
    
00,00,0
    
-098
 
1.0,1.0,1.7

124
    
00,00,0
    
-098
 
1.2,1.2,1.8
While VOICE OVER talks,

125
    
00,00,0
    
-098
 
1.4,1.4,1.9
the Tamers are filling the

126
    
00,00,0
    
-098
 
1.7,1.7,1.9
machine’s hopper with rock.

127
    
00,00,0
    
-098
 
2.1,2.1,1.9

128
    
00,00,0
    
-098
 
2.7,2.7,2.0
“The Westinghouse Mass

129
    
00,00,0
    
-098
 
3.5,3.5,2.0
Spectrograph has an inside

                                     
temperature so high that

HOLD THIS
                            
this rock is broken down

CONFIGURATION TO
                     
into individual molecules.

143
    
00,00,0
    
-098
 
3.5,3.5,2.0
It is able to sort through

                                     
these molecules and collect

SLOW SKEW
                            
those of any given element.”

(to other side of machine)

144
          
-096
                   
(SAFETY NOTE: During

145
          
-094
                   
this skew the holo team

146
          
-092
                   
must be careful. Y-axis

147
          
-090
                   
cameraman must wear

148
          
-088
                   
thermal armor, as he comes

149
          
-086
                   
within two meters of the

150
          
-084
                   
machine’s exhaust beam.)

151
          
-082

152
          
-081
                   
At t =156, one of the

153
          
-080
                   
Tamers sets the machine’s

154
          
-079
                   
controls.

155
          
-078

156
          
-077
                   
(t =156) “Here, the

                                     
machine is being set to

HOLD SKEW TO
                         
produce the element silver.

161
          
-077
 
3.5,3.5,2.0
      
(BEAT to t = 173) “It will

                                     
process all that rock in

                                     
approximately fifteen seconds.”

FASTER SKEW, SLOW