CHAPTER 44.
“It didn’t work.”
Joe could hear the certainty in Helen’s voice. He nodded. “Yeah. They didn’t send down the data, but I can see that there’s only a few cracks that got through. The chances they can finish breaking all that up…aren’t good.”
Zarathustra swayed slightly. Joe had gotten used to this over the past days; he figured that it came from a current that ran along under the ice. The current wasn’t terribly fast, but then with Europa’s gravity and the buoyancy, Zarathustra wasn’t very heavy, so they swung somewhat to and fro on the rope that it was suspended from.
I’d worry about that wearing through the rope, if we had to hang here for a few more weeks. But at least that’s not a worry anymore.
“What’s the pressure up to?”
He checked. Not good. “Almost four now.” And I think six is going to be the limit. “I—crap!”
Something had just zipped past him, just outside of the front viewport.
Helen’s face lit up. “He’s back!”
Sure enough, the same tendrilled, tripartite shape was now drifting in front of the rear viewport. Helen lowered herself down and waved. Somewhat to Joe’s surprise, “Nemo” waved back. Then it pointed down. Helen looked, then stiffened. “Joe—take a look through the rear cameras.”
Rising up from the depths, slowly fading into visibility, were several more shapes. Each large shape shed a smaller one which continued to rise, until there were six or seven members of what Helen had tentatively called Bemmius Pelagica Sapiens (which, if he recalled his scientific nomenclature right, would mean the intelligent open-ocean Bemmie) drifting near the lower end of Zarathustra.
Joe stared. Looking carefully, he thought he could make out some differences. “I wonder if those notches along the side are natural or identifying marks, like tattoos or the scarring in some Earth societies.”
Helen looked with obvious interest at the others, staring at what appeared to be symmetrical patterns of little nicks or notches in the edges of the fins at each of the creature’s three body ridges. “I never noticed that before. I’d think it’s artificial, but it’s hard to tell.”
One of the other creatures—somewhat larger—shoved Nemo out of the way and made a flailing backward gesture which, to judge by the manner in which all the others moved swiftly away, meant something like “back off” or “clear the area.” Once the other creatures were away, the newcomer moved to the same location Nemo had spent most of its time, and suddenly flashed several times, generated a clear plus-sign on its back, and flashed several more times, ending with a long flash.
“Oh! He’s testing what he’s been told. Joe, how many flashes was that?”
He played it back for both of them. “Six and seven—so thirteen.”
Carefully, Helen sent thirteen flashes in response.
The large newcomer backed off immediately and the…seven, Joe finally managed to determine…oceanic creatures entered into an obvious conference, combining eerie calls that the outside microphones could only sometimes record with extremely fast flickering displays. He could also make out that several of the creatures had some sort of harnesses on them, with flat things that he had to assume were bags of some sort attached to the harnesses.
Three of the…well, people…now approached. The center one…“That’s Nemo there, right?”
“Yes, it is. He’s the one with a three-notch pattern on his fins.”
The three stopped in front of the viewport. For a moment they hovered, motionless, and then Helen gasped. “Look!”
On the back of one creature flickered the shape of one of his own kind, grasping tendrils and all. Nemo, in the middle, projected a simple arrow shape, the same one Helen had used for “equals.” And on the other creature…
A crude figure, with a somewhat indistinct head, but two arms and legs attached to a body. That’s us.
We equal you.
Helen laughed, an almost teary sound in her voice, and flashed back Yes. Yes. Yes. “Joe, they do understand pictures, not just models like I was afraid.” She grabbed her portable computer, unrolled the screen to its maximum size and put it against the window. Joe saw her engage the drawing function and sketch quickly: Human Bemmie.
Yes, flashed Nemo. After a moment, the others also flashed Yes.
The triad flashed excitedly; the sudden appearance of the bright computer display obviously changed things in several ways. Then they flashed another set of images.
“What…hm.” The first image was something like the oceanic Bemmie, but the hands were effectively missing, and it looked broader. “Oh,” said Helen, “it’s the things they’re riding on, the ones they’ve left back down there.” The next symbol was the arrow again, and then an obvious sketch of Zarathustra.
“Heh,” Joe chuckled. “They want to know if this is our riding beast. Which is sorta is, but…”
“Yes. We sort of agreed to that before, with Nemo, but…I want to try to get across that it’s used that way but we made it…how, though…?”
Joe thought a moment, and an idea came. “Hey, give me access.” He sketched in the air for a few moments, then sent the image to her display.
On the screen a picture of Zarathustra glowed, with an arrow pointing to pictures of the riding creature, a Europan spear, and a recognizable sketch of the harness and bags he could see on one of the Europans.
That triggered a furious sequence of flashing and near-ultrasonic calls between the creatures, culminating in them swarming around Zarathustra, tapping and poking gently at various parts. A couple of them also circled around the location near Athena, and hovered near the ice above, which echoed with the pounding of the others trying to get through.
“Joe, can you generate a model of this whole area? A sketch-level one?”
Joe thought a moment. “I think so. All the data’s here, and Zarathustra’s data-processing was meant to allow it to be used as a mobile base.” He checked the parameters. “Yeah, it’s easy if you’re talking stuff to display as simple sketches.”
She explained in detail, and Joe grinned. “That might work. Might work real well.”
A few minutes later, the others had gathered again near the end window. Joe sent the first picture—a sketch of the two of them inside of Zarathustra, which hung suspended from the ice above, and the seven Europan natives hovering nearby, and farther away and down the bigger shapes of the riding creatures.
Yes, flashed Nemo after a moment. He clearly understood they were showing him what was around them.
“Great!” Joe said. “Next one coming up.”
He zoomed the scene out. Everything in the first scene was still visible, but now they could see the thickness of the ice, and above the ice a bunch of other human figures.
The Europans considered this new idea, and hesitated. Then Nemo flickered uncertainly, and then generated an arrow, followed by yes.
“What?”
Helen smiled. “That’s ‘equals yes’…I think he’s asking, is this true?”
She sent Yes.
Nemo echoed the Yes, after conferring with the others.
“I like the fact that he’s apparently being allowed to keep the lead, even though that bigger guy seems almost certainly more like a boss,” Joe said. “Okay, now for the payoff.”
He animated the image, showing the people on the top trying to chip through the ice, and Zarathustra trying to get through from below.
Apparently the idea of moving pictures like that was novel. An explosion of flashing and haunting calls began, and went on for several minutes before Nemo and the others came back and looked again at the animation. Several more minutes went by with them watching. Then Nemo talked with its friends for a few more.
Then the three Europans moved so they were vertically arranged. The one on top showed some crude human figures. The one in the middle, Nemo, showed a line obviously meant to represent the ice. The bottom one showed a very simple Zarathustra, not much more than a lumpy oval, with two human figures inside.
Helen flashed a yes.
Then, very slowly, flashing like a video being stepped through frame by frame, the two figures from the bottom were shown moving up, then disappearing from the bottom creature and appearing on Nemo, and finally appearing with the others above the ice.
Yes! Yes!
Joe moved up, grabbed the manipulators, and started punching at the ice overhead. He couldn’t do much, but he figured the symbolism might work.
The Europans watched, and then the one on the top turned to its companions and they talked. Then they swam down, away, heading for their riding animals, all of them, almost fading to invisibility.
And then they were visible again, riding up, charging up with a vengeance, and the tentacles at the front of the riding creatures were bunched up in a peculiar fashion, and they went past Zarathustra, streaking by at what seemed immense velocity, and slammed, one by one, into the ice above.
Joe gave a whoop of triumph, and activated the communicator. “Heads up, everyone—we’ve got a second work party on the job, and they just might make the difference!”