Leviathans of Jupiter (11 page)

Dorn ushered Deirdre through one of the hatches that lined the circular passageway between the elevators and the blister. She stepped through and gasped.

As Dorn closed the hatch, Deirdre suddenly felt as if she were standing in space. The lights went out automatically when the hatch shut and there was nothing between her and the infinite universe but the transparent curving bubble of glassteel. Her knees went weak.

So many stars! The universe was filled with hard unblinking points of light: red, blue, yellow, it was overwhelming. Clouds of stars, swirls of stars, endless boundless teeming stars that sprinkled the blackness of space with color and beauty. Back at
Chrysalis II
they had observation ports, but nothing like this. This is like being outside!

Dorn heard her gasping breath. “Are you all right?”

“I…” Deirdre had to consciously remind herself that she was perfectly safe, standing on a glassteel deck, warm and protected from the vacuum out there that stretched to infinity. “I think so,” she half whispered.

“I'm sorry,” Dorn said softly. “I forgot how overwhelming it can be the first time. I've spent much of my life in spacecraft. This dark forever is like home to me.”

She turned toward him, saw the starlight glinting off the etched metal side of his face.

“The Sun is behind us,” Dorn began to explain, “on the other side of the ship. We're in shadow here. That's why you can see so much without the Sun's glare cutting down visibility.”

“It's … it's the most awesome thing I've ever seen.”

“The universe,” Dorn said, as solemnly as if praying. “Infinity.”

For several minutes Dorn pointed out the brighter stars for her, identified blue-hot Rigel and the sullen red of Betelgeuse.

At last she interrupted him. “You said we could talk in private here.”

“Yes,” he said, nodding gravely. “The blister goes all the way around the ship, but it's divided into compartments that are soundproof.” He hesitated. “I believe the ship's management thought couples might enjoy romantic liaisons here.”

Making it under the stars, Deirdre thought. Not a bad idea, once you got accustomed to having all those unblinking eyes watching you.

“You asked me when I became a cyborg,” Dorn said.

“I don't want to pry,” said Deirdre. “If it's painful for you—”

“Pain is part of life. If we're going to work together at the Jupiter station, you deserve to know about me.”

So he told her. Told her of his life as a mercenary soldier during the Asteroid Wars. How the corporation he worked for supplied their mercenaries with performance-enhancing drugs. How he had murdered a woman who loved him in a blaze of narcotic-driven jealous fury. How he destroyed the old
Chrysalis
habitat under the battle frenzy that the drugs induced. How he had held a minigrenade to his chest once his mind cleared and he realized what he had done.

“You tried to commit suicide?” Deirdre asked.

In the starlit shadows Dorn replied evenly, “I wasn't permitted to die. The corporations had invested too much in me. And besides, their medical technicians saw me as an interesting problem. So I was saved. I was rebuilt.”

“That's how you became a cyborg.”

“Yes. Not every scientist works for the benefit of humankind. Some of them—many of them, I think—work to solve problems that intrigue them. Work to achieve things no one else has achieved before them.”

Deirdre remembered a quotation from her history classes. The physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer had said, “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success.”

DORN'S TRANSFORMATION

“You became a priest?” Deirdre asked.

For a heartbeat Dorn remained silent. Then, “I had a life-altering experience. I encountered … an artifact. A work of an alien intelligence.”

“In the Belt?” Deirdre jumped at his revelation. “The rumors are true? About an alien artifact in one of the asteroids?”

“True,” said Dorn. “There is an alien artifact buried inside a small, stony asteroid. The rock is the property of Humphries Space Systems, Incorporated. I was still an employee of HSS when it was discovered. I was assigned to guard the asteroid and make certain that no one saw the alien artifact.

“But I saw it. Every day, for weeks. It changed me.”

“It's really true?” Deirdre marveled.

“Really true. However, Martin Humphries guards the asteroid jealously. At first he wanted to keep it for himself alone. When he flew out to see it, though, the artifact drove him insane. He collapsed, jibbering, helpless.”

Dorn stopped, as if the memories he was recalling were too painful to continue. But before Deirdre could think of anything to say, he resumed.

“Humphries recovered, eventually. But he would allow no one to see the artifact. And he wanted to eliminate those who saw his collapse, who heard his weeping, inconsolable pleadings.”

“He wanted to kill you?”

“He tried. But I, too, had seen the artifact. Experiencing it changed my life. I stopped being Dorik Harbin, mercenary warrior. I became Dorn. A priest. I began to try to atone for my former life.”

“Atone? How?”

“By finding the bodies of the mercenaries killed in the Asteroid Wars. Finding them and giving them proper death rites.”

“You did this?”

“For years. Wandering through the Belt, finding the dead who had been left to drift alone endlessly in space. This I did, together with the woman you saw at my trial.”

“My father exiled you.”

Almost smiling in the dim starlight, Dorn said, “He wanted to execute me. He wanted to kill me with his own hands. He settled for exile. I was recruited by the scientists of the Jupiter station. They've been testing me at Selene University for the past two years, to see if I can help them make deep dives into the Jovian ocean.”

“And here we are,” Deirdre said, trying to make it sound light, “on our way to Jupiter.”

“Yes.”

“You've lived quite a life,” she said. It sounded pathetically inane, she knew.

With a slight shake of his head, Dorn confessed, “But now I have no purpose for living. I've found all the dead from the Wars that I could. That doesn't atone for all those I killed.”

“You're working for the scientists now.”

“Yes, for the scientists. But serving their purposes doesn't give me any purpose to my life. I'm an empty shell, Deirdre. I have nothing to live for.”

She reached out and touched the human side of his face. “You've gone through so much. You'll find some reason for living. Maybe at Station
Gold
. Maybe you'll find your true purpose there.”

“Maybe,” he echoed. It sounded hollow to Deirdre.

“Well,” she said, “thanks for telling me about yourself. I hope you find what you're looking for.”

She started for the hatch, but Dorn put up his metallic hand, stopping her.

“This conversation began,” he said, “with you saying that I didn't ask what your medical problem is. May I ask you now?”

She bit her lip, hesitating. He has a right to know, Deirdre told herself. He's willing to give you his blood to help you. He has a right to know the truth.

“I have rabies,” she said, so softly she could barely hear her own words.

“Rabies.” Dorn appeared unshaken by the news. Then he asked, “I didn't realize that animals are kept in
Chrysalis II
.”

“They're not,” said Deirdre. “No pets. No meat animals. We get protein from soy substitutes and aquaculture.”

“Then how did you contract rabies? It comes from being bitten or scratched by a rabid animal, doesn't it?”

Nodding, she answered, “That's what makes it so peculiar. Dr. Pohan hasn't been able to figure it out.”

“Is the doctor certain that it's rabies? It seems totally unlikely.”

She shrugged. “He's certain. The virus showed up in the blood sample he took.”

Dorn looked out at the endless stars for several silent moments. At last he said to Deirdre, “He took a sample of your blood.”

“Yes. He did it for all the passengers. Didn't he take a sample of your blood?”

“Weeks ago, just after I boarded at Selene.”

“He must have taken samples from everybody.”

“He extracted your blood with a hypodermic syringe?” Dorn asked.

“How else?”

“And you haven't been bitten or scratched by an animal before you boarded this ship?”

A little impatiently, she replied, “I told you, Dorn, there aren't any animals in
Chrysalis II
to bite or scratch me!”

“Then the only time your skin has been punctured is when the ship's doctor took your blood.”

“Yes…” She finally saw where he was heading. Her eyes widening, Deirdre asked, “An infected needle?”

“How would it get infected with rabies here aboard the ship?”

“Dr. Pohan said there was a rabies case on the way out from the Earth/Moon system. A fatality.”

Dorn shook his head slowly. “I've been aboard this ship since it left lunar orbit. As far as I know, none of the passengers who came aboard from Earth or Selene have died.”

Deirdre felt confused. “He lied to me?”

“He not only lied to you,” said Dorn. “He infected you with rabies.”

ANDY CORVUS'S STATEROOM

Max Yeager looked around the compartment with narrowed eyes as Corvus ushered him into his quarters.

“Cripes, this place looks like the back room of an electronics lab. Where the hell do you sleep?”

Corvus waved toward the bed, which was covered with several laptops, a scattering of headsets, thumb-sized hard drives, diagnostic tools, and other gadgets. Two more laptops sat open on the compartment's tiny desk, their screens glowing, and a half-dozen more rollup screens were pasted to the bulkheads. The compartment's built-in wall screen showed a garishly colored image of what looked to Yeager like a canary yellow head of cauliflower. Or maybe a human brain. Tiny numbers pulsed on the imagery.

“What're you doing in here?” Yeager demanded. Inwardly he felt almost insulted at the cluttered, chaotic state of Corvus's room. You can't get any work done in such a turmoil, he thought. I'll bet he can't even find the toilet in this mess.

Scratching at his thick thatch of red hair, Corvus said good-naturedly, “I'm trying to figure out a way to reproduce the visual imagery that Dee saw when she was in contact with Baby.”

“Aha,” said Yeager.

“Aha what?” Andy asked. “Aha, like you know how to do it, or aha, you think it's impossible.”

Frowning slightly, Yeager said, “Aha, like now I understand what all these screens are showing.” He jabbed a finger at the rollups on the bulkheads. “Brain scans.”

“Right. The one on the wall screen is Baby's brain.”

“And what are all these numbers blinking on top of the imagery?”

“Color identifiers,” said Corvus. “I'm color blind, so I use the numbers to tell me what the colors are.”

“Uh-huh.” Yeager swung his gaze back and forth among the screens. “So this one is the dolphin's brain…”

“And all these,” Corvus waved a hand, “are Dee's—Deirdre's brain.” He stepped to the desk and sat on its springy little chair.

Yeager noticed that his feet were bare. He probably can't find his shoes, the engineer thought.

Pointing to the two adjacent laptops, Corvus explained, “And these two show Dee's brain activity in real time when she was connected with Baby.”

Yeager bent over Andy's shoulder and peered at the two screens. He couldn't help worrying that the pair of laptops were too big for the compartment's desk. If he's not careful he's going to wind up with one of them on the floor, the engineer thought. Maybe both of them.

“See?” Corvus was saying. “When an area in one of their brains lights up, the other brain lights up, too.”

“Not the same area,” Yeager muttered.

“Well, they're not the same brains. Not the same species. One's a dolphin and the other's a human being.”

“So how do you know they're connected?”

“They light up at the same time. And even though the regions of the brain showing activity aren't exactly the same, they're pretty darned close. I mean, we've made functional maps of human and dolphin brains for years. They're both lighting up in the same functional area.”

Yeager grunted, “Huh?”

Looking slightly disappointed, Corvus explained, “This area here in Dee's brain is her visual cortex. The dolphin's visual cortex is here.” Andy tapped the laptop's screen hard enough to make it wobble on the edge of the desk.

“They both light up at the same time,” Yeager realized.

“Right! That means they're both seeing the same thing at the same time!”

Yeager rubbed his stubbly jaw thoughtfully. “I don't know if you could say that, Andy. I don't think you've got enough evidence to make that stick.”

“That's why I called you. Can you help me?”

“Me? I'm not a neurotechnician.”

“But you've got a lot of experience with sensors and transducers. I looked up your dossier, you know.”

Yeager almost smiled. “My experience is with electronics and optronics equipment, not brains. There are lots of people who know a helluva lot more about this than I do.”

“Is there anybody on the team with you that can help me?” Corvus's voice was almost pleading.

“What do you want to do?”

“I want to take these brain scans and convert them into visual imagery. I want to put what Baby and Dee were seeing into images that you and I can see.”

Yeager gave out a low whistle. “That's a tall order, pal. I don't know if anybody knows how to do that.”