Close to Critical (11 page)

"I'm glad you mentioned that." Rich did not sound at all offended. "I know, Doctor, that it is difficult for you to bear up under Drommian mannerisms; they are a rather impulsive race, -and while they are very courteous by their standards, those standards are not quite identical to ours. Aminadabarlee is an unusually restrained member of his race; that is why he holds the position he does; but I must suggest very strongly that you check your natural impulse to answer sharply when he gets insulting, as he occasionally does. There is no point in straining his capacity for tolerance. I assure you most solemnly that if he loses his self-control sufficiently to make an emotional report to Dromm, every word he has said about the results to Earth would be literally fulfilled. There wouldn't be a war, of course, but the result of a ninety per cent - or even a fifty per cent - cut in Earth's interstellar trade would be fully as disastrous as any war. You must remember that to most of the races we know, Earthmen and Drommians are equally alien; they are both 'creatures from the stars,* and what one race says about the other would have quite a ring of authority to most of them. This may sound a trifle exaggerated to you, but this little situation is potentially the most ticklish political and diplomatic affair that has occurred in my lifetime."

That actually took Raeker's eyes from the screen for a moment.

"I didn't realize that," he said. "Also, I'm afraid I must admit that it will make no difference in my efforts to rescue Easy and 'Mina; I was doing my best already."

"I believe that, and I'm grateful; but I had to tell you about the other matter. If Aminadabarlee weren't here it wouldn't have been necessary; but since you can't in decency avoid seeing him, it's very necessary that you understand him. Whatever he says, however intolerant or impatient or downright insulting he may be, you must keep your own control. I assure you he won't take your calmness as a sign of fear; his people don't think that way. He'll respect you the more for it - and so will I."

"I'll do my best," promised Raeker, "but right now I'll be just as glad if he doesn't come in for a few hours. I'm busy juggling Nick across the river, and if you want to regard Nick as my child you won't be too far wrong. I don't mind talking as long as everything is going all right, but if I stop in the middle of a sentence don't be surprised. Have you been talking to the kids?"

"Yes. They're bearing up pretty well. It's lucky that Drommian is there; I'm afraid Easy would have let go all over the place if she didn't feel responsible for her 'Mina. He seems to feel that she's keeping everything in hand, so for the moment there's no morale problem. Did I tell you that Mr. Sakiiro found that some of the inspection ports had been left open on the bathyscaphe, so that the electrolysis leads were undoubtedly corroded by outside atmosphere? He has some idea of getting your people down there to do a repair job."

"I know. That's all I can think of at the moment, too; but to do that means I have to find them, and they have to find the 'scaphe. It's some comfort that the kids can stay alive almost indefinitely down there; the machine will keep them in food, water, and air."

"That's true; but Easy won't last forever under three gravities."

Raeker frowned. "I hadn't thought of that. Have you any medical information on how long she's likely to hold out?"

"None at all. The problem has never come up for such a young person. Adults have stood it for a good many months, I know."

"I see. Well, I should think you'd have a good excuse to be nastier than Aminadabarlee, at that rate. The gravity won't bother his youngster."

"No, but something else will. The synthesizers in the bathyscaphe produce human food."

"So what? Isn't Drommian metabolism like ours? They breathe oxygen, and I've seen them eat our food here on the Vindemiatrix"

"In general, yes; in detail, no. Their vitamin requirements are different, though they do use fats, carbohydrates, and proteins as we do. 'Mina will almost certainly start suffering from vitamin deficiency diseases if he stays there long enough; and like me, his father has no exact medical information."

Raeker whistled, and the frown stayed on his face. Rich thought for a moment that something had occurred on Tenebra to worry him, but the screens still showed nothing but river bed. The stream must have been fully a mile wide, judging by the time it was taking to cross it. The diplomat remained silent, and watched while the robot forged ahead and, finally, out on the far side of the great watercourse.

It was still raining, of course, and without Nick's torch it was necessary to use a spotlight to locate descending raindrops. After about ten minutes in normal air, Nick began to revive; and when he was once again himself, and had found and kindled a torch, the journey went on as before, except for the lack of anxiety over Swift's whereabouts.

Shortly after this, the relief operator appeared. Raeker didn't want to leave the controls, since the situation below was still rather ticklish, but he knew there was really no choice. The human being didn't live who could maintain decent alertness through a whole Tenebran night. He brought the other man up to date and, with several backward glances, left the observation room.

"I don't think I can sleep for a while," he remarked to Rich. "Let's go back to communications and see how Easy's making out."

"She was asleep a couple of hours ago," replied the girl's father. "That's why I came to see what you were up to. No harm in checking, though." He added after a moment's silence, "I like to be there when she wakes up." Raeker made no comment.

Nothing further had happened, according to the communication watch officer, but the two settled down in view of the bathyscaphe screen. No one had much to say.

Raeker was more than half asleep when Easy's voice came from the set.

"Dad! Are you there?" Rich might have been as drowsy as Raeker, but he answered instantly. "Yes, dear. What is it?"

"We're moving. 'Mina's still asleep, and I didn't want to wake him, but I thought I'd better tell you."

"Tell everything you can to Dr. Raeker; he's here, and knows Tenebra better than anyone else." "All right. You remember the first night we landed I thought we were on solid ground and the lake was getting deeper, don't you?"

"Yes, Easy. We decided that the rain was diluting the acid in which you had fallen, so its density was going down and you weren't floating so high."

"That's right. After a while the side windows were covered so we couldn't even see the rain, and each night before morning the top one is covered too; we're entirely under water."

"That's using the word a bit loosely, but I see what you mean. In that case you can't see out at all, I should think; how do you know you're moving tonight?"

"We can see, with the lights on; we're at the bottom of the lake or ocean or whatever it is, and the lights show the rocks and some funny things I suppose are plants. We're going by them slowly, sort of bouncing, and the ship is rocking a little from tune to time. I can hear the scrapes and bumps whenever we touch." "All right. I can't see that it's anything in particular to worry about, though I'd like to know why the change from the last five nights. When daylight comes the extra water will evaporate and you'll float again as usual, assuming you're still in the lake or sea. If, as seems rather likely, you're being carried down a river, you may find yourselves stranded on dry land somewhere when it dries up.

At least you'll have a more interesting landscape to watch tomorrow, if that's the case. "The only problem we have here is locating you. If you're going to start drifting around every night, directing our people to you is going to be hard, to say the least. You'll have to give us every bit of information you can on your surroundings, so we can pass it on to Nick and his friends. You were very smart to call us just now, the moment you discovered you were moving."

"Thanks, Doctor. We'll keep our eyes open. I want to meet your friend Nick."

"We're doing our best to see that you do. If, as we hope, you landed within a few dozen miles of the robot, the chances are you're being washed toward the same ocean that gave him trouble a couple of nights ago; we have reason to suspect that oceans don't get very large on Tenebra, at least by Earthly standards, so getting you together may not take too long."

"Maybe I'd better stay awake for a while, so as to report to you if anything special happens, and then let 'Mina take a watch while I sleep."

"That sounds perfect. We'll always have someone listening up here." Raeker opened the mike switch and turned to Rich. The diplomat was eyeing him intently.

"How much of that was for Easy's morale, and how much for mine?" he asked.

"I made it sound as good as possible," admitted Raeker, "mostly for the kids. However, I didn't lie. I'm reasonably sure I can get my crew to the 'scaphe before too long; I admit I'm less sure what they can do after they find it. We really haven't the slightest idea of the conditions on the outside of that machine, remember; we'll have to wait for Nick's report before we decide what instructions to give him." Rich stared hard at the biologist for a moment, then relaxed slightly. "That sounds reasonable," he said. If he had planned to say any more, he wasn't given the chance.

"It doesn't sound reasonable to me!" The shrill voice needed no identification. "Every human being in this place is dithering a lot of nonsense about teaching a bunch of savages to rewire a machine two thousand years ahead of their culture, and then risk not only a human but a Drommian life on their having done it properly. It's the sheerest nonsense I ever heard. It's hard to believe that anyone over three years old would fail to realize that nothing but another bathyscaphe has the slightest chance of making the rescue, but I haven't heard a single word about such an activity. I suppose men put the expense before the lives involved."

"I haven't heard of any messages proposing such an activity going to Dromm, either," snapped Raeker. "I've heard that it has an industrial capacity at least equal' to Earth's, and it's not a parsec farther from Altair. I suppose Drommians don't bother to repair situations that they feel are someone else's fault, whether lives are involved or not."

None of the human beings present could tell just how Aminadabarlee reacted to this; Rich gave him no time to say anything.

"Dr. Raeker, you're forgetting yourself," he said sharply. "If Councillor Aminadabarlee will come with me, I will discuss with him any points of value which may have been hidden in your words, as well as the very valuable suggestion he made himself. If you have any more courteous thoughts to'add, get them to me. Please come, sir." The diplomats stalked out, and the watch officer glanced uneasily at Raeker. "You don't talk to Drommians like that," he ventured at last.

"I know," replied Raeker. "Rich was telling me, a little while ago. I didn't like to do it, but it seemed to me that Rich needed something to take his attention off his kid."

"You're taking a chance. That fellow could easily turn his whole race so anti-Earth that every human trader outside the solar system would be forced out of business."

"So everyone seems to feel," replied the biologist a trifle uneasily. "I couldn't really believe that things were that critical. Maybe I was a little hasty. Anyway, Rich will be busy for a while, and so will the Drommian; let's concentrate on getting those kids out of trouble. I'll keep my nose out of interracial diplomacy after this."

"Frankly, that relieves me. How about that suggestion - building a new 'scaphe?"

"I'm no engineer," retorted Raeker, "but even I have a pretty good idea how long that would take, even with the experience from the first one to help. I am a biologist, and my considered opinion is that both those youngsters would be dead before another bathyscaphe could be made ready. If Rich and the Drommian want to try it, I wouldn't discourage them; the new machine will be useful, and I might even be wrong about the time factors. However, I believe seriously that we will have to run this rescue along the lines already planned."

"And the Drommian was right about those?"

"You mean, that we plan to get Nick's people to make the repairs? Yes. It's not as ridiculous as Aminadabarlee makes it sound. I've been bringing those people up for nearly sixteen years; they're as intelligent as human beings, judging by their learning rate, and they could certainly splice a few wires." The officer looked doubtful.

"As long as they splice the right wires," he muttered. "What will they use for insulation?"

"There's a glue they make - I showed them how, after some experiment - from animal scales. We'll have to make sure it's a nonconductor, but I'm not greatly worried about that."

"Even though you think there's sulphuric acid in their body fluids?"

"I said, not greatly worried," admitted Raeker. "The main problem right now is bringing the parties together.

You're sure you can't get me a closer fix on the robot and the 'scaphe?"

"Quite sure. They're putting out different wave lengths, and I have no means of finding the dispersion factor of the planet's atmosphere in that part of the spectrum, let alone getting the precise depth of the atmosphere itself or cutting down the inherent uncertainty of radio directional measurements. The chances, as I told you, are about fifty-fifty that the two are within forty miles of each other, and about nine out of ten that they're not over a hundred miles apart. Better than that I can't do, without radiations neither machine is equipped to transmit."

"All right. I'll just have to get information from Easy, and try to match it in with Nick's maps. At least, they don't have to get too close under our guidance; Nick will be able to see the 'scaphe's lights for miles." The officer nodded, and the two fell silent, watching the live screen. Nothing could be seen in it; if Easy was awake, as she had said she would be, she was not in the control room. Occasionally the men could hear a faint bumping or scraping sound; presumably the ship was still being carried with a current, but no landmark had attracted the girl's attention as being worth reporting.