"I don't like it out here," Beth said, tense.
"Just a second."
At first inspection, he had thought Levy's wound represented some sort of bite, but now he wasn't sure. "Her skin," Norman said. "It's like a rough file has gone over it - "
He jerked his head back, startled, as something small and white drifted past his faceplate. His heart pounded at the thought that it was a jellyfish - but then he saw it was perfectly round and almost opaque. It was about the size of a golf ball. It drifted past him.
He looked around. There were thin streaks of mucus in the water. And many white spheres.
"What're these, Beth?"
"Eggs." Over the intercom, he heard her take deep slow breaths. "Let's get out of here, Norman. Please."
"Just another second."
"No, Norman. Now."
On the radio, they heard an alarm. Distant and tinny, it seemed to be transmitted from inside the habitat. They heard voices, and then Barnes's voice, very loud. "What the hell are you doing out there?"
"We found Levy, Hal," Norman said.
"Well, get back on the double, damn it," Barnes said. "The sensors have activated. You're not alone out there - and whatever's with you is very damn big."
Norman felt dull and slow. "What about levy's body?"
"Drop the body. Get back here!"
But the body, he thought sluggishly. They had to do something with the body. He couldn't just leave the body.
Chapter 14
"What's the matter with you, Norman?" Barnes said.
Norman mumbled something, and he vaguely felt Beth grab him strongly by the arm, lead him back toward the habitat. The water was now clouded with white eggs. The alarms were ringing in his ears. The sound was very loud. And then he realized: a new alarm. This alarm was ringing inside his suit.
He began to shiver. His teeth chattered uncontrollably. He tried to speak but bit his tongue, tasted blood. He felt numb and stupid. Everything was happening in slow motion.
As they approached the habitat, he could see that the eggs were sticking to the cylinders, clinging densely, making a nubbly white surface.
"Hurry!" Barnes shouted. "Hurry! It's coming this way!" They were under the airlock, and he began to feel surging currents of water. There was something very big out there. Beth was pushing him upward and then his helmet burst above the waterline and Fletcher gripped him with strong arms, and a moment after that Beth was pulled up and the hatch slammed shut. Somebody took off his helmet and he heard the alarm, shrieking loud in his ears. By now his whole body was shaking in spasms, thumping on the deck. They stripped off his suit and wrapped him in a silver blanket and held him until his shivering lessened, then finally stopped. And abruptly, despite the alarm, he went to sleep.
MILITARY CONSIDERATIONS
"It's not your goddamned job, that's why," Barnes said. "You had no authorization to do what you did. None whatsoever."
"Levy might have still been alive," Beth said, calm in the face of Barnes's fury.
"But she wasn't alive, and by going outside you risked the lives of two civilian expedition members unnecessarily."
Norman said, "It was my idea, Hal." Norman was still wrapped in blankets, but they had given him hot drinks and made him rest, and now he felt better.
"And you," Barnes said. "You're lucky to be alive."
"I guess I am," Norman said. "But I don't know what happened."
"This is what happened," Barnes said, waving a small fan in front of him. "Your suit circulator shorted out and you experienced rapid central cooling from the helium. Another couple of minutes and you would have been dead."
"It was so fast," Norman said. "I didn't realize - "
" - You goddamn people," Barnes said. "I want to make something clear. This is not a scientific conference. This is not the Underwater Holiday Inn, where you can do whatever you please. This is a military operation and you will damn well follow military orders. Is that clear?"
"This is a military operation?" Ted said.
"It is now," Barnes said.
"Wait a minute. Was it always?"
"It is now."
"You haven't answered the question," Ted said. "Because if it is a military operation, I think we need to know that. I personally do not wish to be associated with - "
" - Then leave," Beth said.
" - a military operation that is - "
" - Look, Ted," Barnes said. "You know what this is costing the Navy?"
"No, but I don't see - "
" - I'll tell you. A deep-placement, saturated gas environment with full support runs about a hundred thousand dollars an hour. By the time we all get out of here, the total project cost will be eighty to a hundred million dollars. You don't get that kind of appropriations from the military without what they call 'a serious expectation of military benefit.' It's that simple. No expectation, no money. You following me?"
"You mean like a weapon?" Beth said.
"Possibly, yes," Barnes said.
"Well," Ted said, "I personally would never have joined - "
" - Is that right? You'd fly all the way to Tonga and I'd say, 'Ted, there's a spacecraft down there that might contain life from another galaxy, but it's a military operation,' and you'd say, 'Gosh, sorry to hear that, count me out'? Is that what you'd have done, Ted?"
"Well ..." Ted said.
"Then you better shut up," Barnes said. "Because I've had it with your posturing."