CHAPTER 46.
Every ache in A.J.’s exhausted body vanished as he saw the familiar suit emerging from the hatch. He grasped Helen’s hand, pulled her to him, and for long minutes the two of them stood there, holding each other, and to him there was nothing else in the whole universe except knowing she was finally with him again.
Finally he let go, just enough for her to pull away a bit and look up. He knew he had as many tears on his face as she did on hers. “Doc, you did damn good.”
“And you.”
Glancing over, he saw that Joe and Maddie were just releasing their own embrace,and became aware of clapping all around them.
“Mr. Baker,” General Hohenheim said, with a broad grin that made him look ten years younger, “Dr. Sutter, Dr. Buckley, and Agent Fathom. It is good to see we are all reunited. It is time, I think, for us to stop pushing our luck and get back to the surface, would you agree?”
“Almost, General,” Helen said. “But I’ve got to thank our new friends, if I can.”
A.J. blinked. He’d almost forgotten about the fact they’d discovered aliens. “Holy Jebus. I’m losing all my geek points. Hold on, Helen!”
He saw her hesitate on the threshold of Zarathustra. Can’t blame her; I don’t know if you’d get me back into this thing if I’d just been stuck in it for that long.
Zarathustra now sat with its rear wheels in the air, the formerly-boiling radiators held three meters above the floor. The forward port was now far below the surface. “It’s starting to re-freeze now.”
“That’s good,” said Helen. “Don’t you see? If we can keep Zarathustra running—if I can leave the computer plugged in, put the display in the front port, we can keep communications going!”
He had thought of it, but only as she was saying it. But he could go one farther. “And now we can download some of the real First Contact packages and load them into Zarathustra. Get some of the experts on Earth working on this and combine it with the contact you guys already made? We’ll be talking with these guys in no time.” He looked down. “Oh my God.”
Hovering only a short distance away was something so like the models of Bemmius Secordii Sapiens that he had a chill pass over his whole body. It was like looking back in time, or through a portal to an alternate world. Maybe it’s exactly like that.
Helen had retrieved her portable screen from the far end of Zarathustra and placed it on the forward port; Zarathustra’s front console screen lit, showing the display as the Europans would see it.
It showed Zarathustra half-through the ice, and a repeating animation of two figures getting out and being greeted by others. Along with this, Helen kept flashing the signal for Yes.
The aliens watched for a few minutes, and then A.J. saw one—that he guessed had to be the one Helen called “Nemo”—flash yes.
All seven aliens slowly reached out and linked tentacles like grasping hands, until all seven were twined into a single line. They raised their third arms, pointing up, and in unison, flashed YES.
“General,” A.J. said, “They get our thanks, and seem pretty glad that we succeeded. And Helen’s right, this is the opportunity…not just of a lifetime, of all our lifetimes. I want to leave one of the big displays here, one that’s big enough to cover the whole front window.”
“I cannot think of a better use. But how can we make them understand that we still want to talk?”
“Helen’s already shown us how smart they are. I’ve got an idea. Let me work on it a little”
“We’re all just about at the end of our strength,” Maddie reminded him.”And we have to get out of here soon.”
“These guys deserve my last efforts today,” A.J. said. “Larry had one hell of a last-ditch idea, but I don’t think it would’ve worked without these people pitching in and doing their best.”
“I can’t argue there.”
God, I’m tired. Not twenty anymore. Not even thirty anymore. But I’m not dropping off yet. It’s not too hard, not with all the tools I have available…
It took him only fourteen minutes; he figured at the top of his game he could have done it in ten. But the animation playing now showed the people leaving Zarathustra, but leaving a big display which showed the people on it. Then it showed the Europans leaving, with the big rover staying alone on the screen.
Then, in the animation, Zarathustra started pounding on the ice in a pattern: one, two three…one, two, three…After several repetitions of the pattern, Europans swam up, and the display was shown flickering as though talking to them.
“Please understand,” he murmured, as the animation played again and again. He heard Helen murmuring the same thing. “You guys have figured out everything else we threw at you, just this last one…”
It was a complicated idea to try to get across with pictures, especially when it was hard to know what those pictures looked like to their opposite numbers. But obviously they looked like something because the communications had gone well enough before. They must use their own light a lot. I wonder…could Bemmie, the original group, have tried to make biological replacements for all the things an amphibious being might be giving up—like fire, reliable light, and so on?
The biggest creature gave the single long flash that meant “stop” or “no” in the impromptu code; A.J. stopped the display.
The aliens conferred for a few moments, then one swam over and examined the manipulator, pushed at it gently; A.J. let them maneuver it. They pushed it toward Zarathustra’s hull until it rapped three times.
“Oh, I get it. Yeah, you’re probably right. Hold on, guys…”
“What is it?”
“Uniqueness of sound. The signal has to be something they can hear a long way away and be able to tell it’s us, not something else.” The modified animation showed Zarathustra banging on its own lower hull in the one-two-three rhythm. “Carbonan hitting ice might not be quite so obvious, but carbonan hitting metal alloy? You’re not getting that sound anywhere else.”
The aliens were signaling.Yes. Yes. And on the backs of three, the image of Zarathustra being left behind while the oceanic creatures swam away to something blurry that seemed to be where a lot of them lived—”a city!” Helen murmured—and waited; then Zarathustra’s arm struck its body three times, three times again, and Europan people swam out of the fuzzy “city” and came to hover in front of Zarathustra.
“They understand!” Helen said.
“They do. And we can go home.”
A.J. rose from the controls, then waved along with Helen. The Europans waved back. Maybe it’s a gesture they alrady use, or maybe it’s just an obvious greeting and farewell for anyone with manipulating members. I don’t know.
Reluctantly, Helen followed him out of Zarathustra.
They rejoined the others and turned and looked back at the rover. “You know,” Joe said, “a part of me has never been happier to get away from a vehicle. And the other part of me is gonna miss Zarathustra.”
“Same here,” said Helen.
“Well,” Madeline said, “If this area stays reasonably intact, people will come back here. Maybe even to swim with our alien friends. The pressure isn’t beyond human diving technology.”
“Not sure I would be up for that,” A.J. said. “But I’ll bet a lot of people would. And with your permission, Maddie, General, I’m going to lay both cable and relays all through the tunnel leading here so that there’s a guaranteed connection. We can’t drop this ball.”
“Of course,” Madeline and General Hohenheim said together; the two chuckled. “As long as it is equipment we do not need to return home,” Hohenheim continued, “you may use anything you like.
“We now know we are not alone in this universe,” he said, “and we will make sure they, also, are no longer alone.”
Restoration, N:
1. : an act of restoring or the condition of being restored: as
a. a bringing back to a former position or condition : reinstatement
b. restitution
c. a restoring to an unimpaired or improved condition
2. : something that is restored; especially : a representation or reconstruction of the original form (as of a fossil or a building)