Orb (39 page)

“Very much so. I’d like to discuss their significance. I’ll transfer the images, and others like them, to your AIDs. Please gather up Paul and Kelly; Melhaus, too. Not here. Too crowded. Meeting, outside, in five … no, fifteen minutes. I’ll need more time.” Thompson laughed. “Anyway, a bit longer to further consider what this all means.”

Thompson was never late for anything. Twenty minutes had elapsed and we were still anxiously waiting for him to assume his place at the head of the worktable. In the interim, Kelly, Paul, and Melhaus had reviewed the images. The physicist was alert, seated near the table once again. I was glad to see that he appeared to be convalescing quite nicely. As we began trading wild ideas as to what was prompting Thompson’s odd behavior, he appeared in
Desio’s
open hatchway, pausing on the landing to reflect on spires and the Orbs slowly returning to our field of vision.

Joining us, he said, “You’ve all seen the images?”

We nodded.

“Any disagreement?”

“Should there be?” Kelly asked.

“No. But what was obvious to my eyes was unacceptable to my mind. I could have been mistaken. I needed independent confirmation. Each of you provided that.”

“You’re welcome,” Diana said. “Confirmation of what?”

“An explanation is in order. Today, I revisited the first core hole, the one drilled eight days ago into the spires. All I could do was sit there and stare. Although I had used every means at my disposal, I had failed to solve the riddle of the spires’ formation. You may call what I did next intuition or call it desperation, but I give myself credit to this extent: I realized that if a solution were to be found, I would need to transcend conventional thinking.

“Not knowing exactly why—perhaps I was subconsciously reacting to something Kyle said—I decided to remove a small chip from the interior rim of the first bore hole. I then carefully prepared a thin section for analysis with the scanning microscope. Under extreme magnification—resolutions of less than one-billionth of a meter—I expected the sides of the bore hole, in this case the chip I took from it, to appear jagged and irregular. What I saw defied belief. Not only had the jaggedness been smoothed out and all the voids filled in, but approximately forty nanometers of mineral identical to the rest of the spire, had accreted onto the surface. Repeating my procedures, I scanned a chip taken from the interior of a bore hole drilled four days after the first. I discovered the surface jaggedness to be nearly gone and perhaps twenty nanometers of mineral accreted. I am rounding off here, and omitting detailed methodology so I can get to the point. Doctor Melhaus, can you confirm my math and extrapolate the mineral accrual rate to more useful values?”

“Certainly. Assuming a uniform rate of accrual, fifty meters in ten billion days, uh … that’s twenty-eight million Earth years.”

“Help me out here,” Diana said. “This mineral accrual occurs how?”

“Ah, that is the question, isn’t it? Consider the other two images. One is from the surface of the first core,
not
the hole it came from mind you,
but the removed core
; the other is a sample of a fragment that came from the spire’s summit.”

“You mean one of the fragments that nearly caved your head in?” Diana said as gentle reminder.

“Right,” Thompson said, frowning. “Neither sample shows mineral accrual. Only the spire itself is accruing material.”

“Oh, I get it!” Diana declared. “You want us to believe the spire is repairing itself!”

“Why limit it?” Thompson said.

“You’re saying the spires form themselves this way? That, like some kind of a giant stone tree, it grows?”

“Diana, that’s exactly what I’m saying. That the spires are, in some sense, alive. By my calculations some of the spires are as ancient as one hundred million years. Ancient and alive.”

“May I offer my opinion?” Melhaus said.

“Of course,” Thompson replied.

“I would submit that if the growth rate is slower than the repair rate, the spires may be quite a bit older. Perhaps as old as we’re guessing the Orb to be.”

“Good point. I hadn’t considered that possibility. Unfortunately, we lack the time and the means to prove it.”

“What the hell did I say that helped you with this?” I asked.

“Your description of the spires in the OceanOrb. You gave them living attributes. Said they appeared like sentinels growing off the bottom, or words to that effect.”

“Yes. Yes, I did,” I said, pretending to inflate my contribution. “I had promised to solve the spires’ riddle, so this discovery gets me off the hook.”

“No, not quite,” he replied. “Unless you make another offhand remark telling us how the spires originated here.”

“Same way as the phytoplankton?” I volunteered.

“Can we back up a minute?” Kelly said. “You’re asking us to accept a lot. You never answered Diana’s question. What’s the actual process causing this growth?”

“Shall I coin a new term? Molecular transmigration?”

“Conjecture is a long way from calling something alive,” Kelly responded.

“Perhaps. But I will ask you to reflect on how we arrived at this point. How the Orb, with all their unusual attributes, challenged our perceptions of what constitutes a life-form; how the first contact was made, not by us but by Angie, further coaxing us out of our self-righteous expectations; how the OceanOrb, universal, immense, timeless by our standards, carried us further from our preconceived notions; how the planet’s weather and Orb appeared to us as inseparable; how Kyle’s metaphysical contact made us confront the supposed limitations of mind; and now, the spires, forcing us to truly accept what we only claimed to understand all along: Life may refuse to follow the strictures we lay down for it. What more do we need to see? We must be willing to accept where this is leading us. We must be prepared to reconsider and expand the definition of life so that it encompasses the planet itself as a living entity.” Thompson swept a challenging gaze across us. “No, even that is too confining. Between the scientist, the artist, and the physician we must completely rewrite the definition. Together we must brave being scorned and become visionaries. Is the next step in our journey finding out that life is inseparable from all of creation? Is this our simple answer, Paul?”

“I’m not prepared to go quite that far.”

Thompson laughed once again. “Neither am I. But I am prepared to go partway. If you can’t follow me, you will find what I am about to do incomprehensible.”

Thompson turned to me. “Which compartment holds the collected rainwater?”

“Reserve Compartment B,’” I responded. “The smaller of the two.”

“Good. Empty it.”

“Say again? You lost me.”

“Empty it. The main compartment is sufficient for our needs. We shall do our best to leave this planet as we found it. I will set further example by leaving the samples I have collected.”

“What?!” Diana shouted. “You want me to leave all my specimens?!”

“I’m well aware of how much your work means to you. To all of you. Don’t you think I wrestled with this decision? But let me ask you this, Diana: How long have you been able to keep specimens of phytoplankton alive?”

“Four hours.”

“Figure it out. Keeping phytoplankton alive is impossible for the same reason spire fragments do not regenerate. Everything on this planet is somehow an integral part of the whole. There is connectivity here. We should not assume any of this is ours for the taking.”

“The last crew did,” Diana said.

“In their ignorance. If it is any consolation, what they’ve taken from this planet is still available for study.”

“What about the specimens I preserved or slide-mounted?

“Since they are corrupted, I see no point in leaving those behind.”

“You’re going to be subjected to censure for this decision,” Paul said.

“You bet.”

“I, for one, will back you up.”

“No,” Diana added, “
we
will back you up. You saved our collective butts. It’s time we returned the favor.”

The day’s unlikely events and the hard work of preparing the ship for tomorrow’s departure left me little time for Angie. With the setting of the sun, I noticed she discovered a new playmate. Who that playmate was gave me pause.

Melhaus, propped up against a boulder, was staring off into the horizon thinking of who knows what when Angie sauntered over, plopped the stuffed duck in front of him, then stared up expectantly. She did this despite being rebuffed on numerous other occasions. What transpired next ranks in the top five amazing events on Orb. Melhaus began tossing the duck! He did this gamely, wincing in pain with each throw but apparently enjoying himself. Eventually, when the discomfort forced him (but not Angie) to stop, I approached to rescue him.

“She can be a little insistent at times,” I said, scooping Angie up. “Tell me if she bothers you.”

“No bother. I was rather enjoying myself.”

Out in the growing darkness a few dozen softly glowing Orbs silently glided among themselves like ice skaters on a frozen pond.

Paul joined us. “Glad to see your spirits improving, Larry. Just to let you know, to comply with Bruce’s directive, which Diana and I agree with, I have removed most of your samples from the lab. I petitioned Bruce to save one or two.”

“So be it. There weren’t many.” The next words seemed difficult for Melhaus to get out, but he said them: “Thank you.”

“Just keep getting well.”

Paul had been Melhaus’s biggest defender. Maybe now that was being noticed.

I felt as if I hadn’t been alone with Kelly for a hundred years. I was heading for my cabin to update my work when I literally bumped into her.

“I missed you,” I said, picking up Angie and pressing the three of us together. “
We
missed you.”

“I missed you both, too.”

“Well, have I changed?” I asked, expecting “no” for an answer.

Kelly pressed her lips to the top of Angie’s head, looked up at me with her dark eyes, and gave me a cagey smile. “A little.”

“C’mon. What?”

“You seem a little happier.”

“You’ve only yourself to blame.”

“Is that so? Then I’m going to make you
really
happy later.”

“It’s working already,” I said, kissing her. “Have I told you I love you?”

“Tell me.”

“I love you.”

We spied Diana, approaching. “Can I have some of this free love?” she said, spreading her arms wide and squeezing the three of us, now the four of us, into one big embrace.

“You want to get Thompson, Paul, and Larry in on this, too?” I asked.

“Speaking of, what’s up with Larry?” Diana said, taking a step back. “Was I hallucinating or did I actually see him playing with Angie? This is your handiwork, Kelly. He must be experiencing some kind of euphoria from the pain medication.”

“Didn’t you both see?” Kelly said, backing away from Angie and me. “No, you couldn’t have; you two were in the ship talking to Bruce. Larry waded up to his waist in the OceanOrb. It was totally his idea. Interesting, no?”

“Interesting, yes.
If
that’s the reason for his behavior,” Diana responded. “His turnaround has been rather remarkable.”

“Hey, wait, I have an idea,” I said. “We’re tired and sweaty and it will be our last opportunity. Tonight we can all go for a communal swim. Right in front of
Desio
, under the partial darkness of a starlit sky.”

“Sounds wonderful,” Kelly said.

“I’ll run it by Bruce,” Diana volunteered, “but I’m sure he’ll agree.”

Diana and Kelly rushed off to finish their chores and I headed to my cabin to quickly bring my work up to date.

Pending Additions/Notes:

On Earth, who will bother to read this?

Peering out of the box. Nice view.

?Insert following from recording: “Larry, one of the reasons I signed on to this expedition was to reinvent myself, even while doubting a person can. Well, if I have, you have. Twice.”

Re loneliness: Paul, as usual, was right.

CSA wanted a different perspective on deep space missions; I guess they got what they wanted from me. And more.

Remove details of sexual intimacy with Kelly?

Draw definitive conclusions? Be suspicious of absolutes.

Will I regress when back on Earth? Fallback: Like it or not, we’re stuck with each other.

We survived ourselves.

19 November 2232 21:38:22 Hrs
K. Lorenzo Recorder Download No.728

Gilmore:  Here comes Kyle now.

Thompson:  Careful now, there’s a drop-off.

Gilmore:  On Earth, does Angie like playing in the water?

Lorenzo:  Sometimes.

Unknown: 
(indecipherable)

Lorenzo:  Kelly, can you hold her? Be right back. I don’t want to go in with my recorder.

Bertrand:  It’s waterproof…

Lorenzo:  That’s the problem.

Bertrand:  Very funny. I see what you mean.

Takara:  Larry, you can get that bandage wet if you want to.

Melhaus: 
(Inaud)
…forget about it.

Takara:  Kyle, hurry back. There are streaks of color lighting up the water! It’s beautiful!

Thompson:  Doctor, you…
(Inaud)

(Power off 21:39:53)

Date: 17 February 2235

Desio
Recovery Mission