Far From The Sea We Know (41 page)

A few officers in uniform and civilians
stood next to the propellers for scale. They all looked ill at
ease. The propellers were perfectly arranged on top of one another,
the blades aligned and gleaming in the sunlight like burnished
gold.

“They have serial numbers and they are
either the same or exact duplicates,” Chiffrey said. “However, now
they’re in mint condition. No dings or anything, just as if they
were newly made. Better than when they were manufactured, the
report says. Somewhat like the shafts, their surfaces have changed.
Perfectly smooth and showing no sign of corrosion.”

“It’s a gift.”

“I had the same thought, believe it or not.
Maybe a kind of peace offering? The Pentagon had them removed, of
course.”

“Why?”

“Concern that it might be a Trojan horse.
The chance that there might be something with some devious purpose
that may not be discernible. Of course, me being me, I put a good
face on it to the higher ups. I went with the line that their
property had been returned to its rightful owner in a courteous
manner. Kind of like if you offer a lady your hanky, she returns it
cleaned and pressed.”

She stared at him, incredulousness no doubt
evident on her face.

“Well, it used to be like that,” he
said.

“You tried to snow them?”

“No, I was serious. I’m not the raging
warrior you take me for.”

He paused, scratched his ear, and looked out
the porthole. The resigned look on his face left little doubt about
how his line of reasoning had been received up the line. He cleared
his throat and went on.

“They didn’t quite see it my way. Point is,
centers of power in the government and military—and a few other
places—are starting to light up over this. Various departments of
the United States government, up to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and
all the various security and intelligence outfits. Even the White
House. Can you imagine what it must have been like for them the
last few weeks? Reading these reports that sound like
Through
the Looking Glass
? Then I tell them a man has been spirited
away from a submarine while under water. Impossible, they tell me,
but then they get this calling card right on their door step,
something they can just buzz over to and have a look see. This is
not just off the map. There no longer is a map.”

“At least they’re getting the message.”

“But they won’t read it like you do. I work
in that environment, as I’m sure you have all figured out. They
call it ‘intelligence’ for a reason, but I doubt if there is a mind
big enough in any of their think tanks to put this together. They
are finding the facts intolerable. For the people who make the
decisions to send personnel and ships, it’s now like standing under
a streetlight and wondering if someone out in the dark has a bead
on you. Someone with a finger on a trigger. If much more happens,
they’ll feel compelled to act, and maybe in less than a perfect
way.”

“And now you’re going to tell me just how
limited their options are.”

“Well, it’s true, and I’m glad we’re so much
in sync. Hey, just kidding. Anyway, the disbelief and denial that
I’ve mentioned in the past is being replaced by demands for action,
so give yourself another point. For a bonus, you can add that some
perceive whatever’s down there as potentially a very tasty
pie.”

“What a shock.”

“Yeah, yeah, you were at least partly right
on that as well. Of course they want to know how this works. They
want to be able to put a slice on their own plate. Until now, the
pie’s been airing on the sill just like my Auntie Hazel’s. Point
is, we’ve been watching over it, waiting for it to cool down enough
to touch without getting burned, but—”

“No, the point is we didn’t wait.”

“All right, we didn’t, but it may not have
made any difference if we had. Meanwhile, some see what’s down
there as a threat, while others see a pie or, more likely, both,
and they’ll all be putting a fork in soon.”

“It’s not a pie down there.” In spite of
pounding his pie metaphor into mush, Chiffrey was at least telling
it straight for once. Good, even if it made her feel worse, not
better.

“I’ve got us some hoop time on the court,”
he said, switching metaphors. “We had best use it well. Either
that, or we head for the locker room, and then only God knows
what.”

He paused and waited, but she had nothing to
say.

“One good thing about this latest news. Some
hope there.”

“For Matthew.”

“Yes, and now you tell me why, as I’m sure
you’re as sick of my jawing as I am.”

“Hard to imagine that, but sure. If the
propellers from the cruisers can be transported all that distance,
then why not Matthew?”

“Relaxing on a beach in Tahiti, for all we
know.”

The door rattled. Chiffrey had apparently
set it to lock behind her when she came in. There was a knock.
“It’s me, Becka. I need to talk to you.”

“Who?”

“Both of you. It’s about the tissue sample
from the dome.”

Chiffrey flipped the lock. Becka entered and
wasted no time. She glanced at Penny and said. “We found it after
you…retired yesterday. Just a small amount on one of the grappler
prongs.”

“How did you get that?” Penny said.

“Not sure. The last thing I remember was the
power fluctuating. I think maybe that the turbulence kicked up
again and the prong gouged into some part of the dome. Or maybe
something that came out of the opening we last saw.”

“You saw something come out?”

“No. The dome’s surface seemed hard so…well,
just speculating. The material we found didn’t look like the outer
surface. It’s soft tissue of some kind.”

“How do you know it isn’t something else,
then?”

“From examining it. There is a clear
cellular structure, and we’ve been able to identify some of the
amino acids, but it has highly unusual characteristics.”

“Such as?” Chiffrey asked.

“Some of the amino acids we found are
common. But there are others we can’t ID.”

“You mean they’re special or you have never
seen them before?”

“It’s too early to tell. We don’t have a
full lab here. The DNA tests will take longer.”

“Anything else?”

“Yes, and this is the money shot. Some of
the tissue is still active. We had already noticed some long
strands of bacteria interacting in what seemed to be some kind of
symbiotic relationship. That’s not unprecedented, but the ways they
are interacting seem complex beyond anything I’ve ever come across.
For instance—”

“Can you just give us the gist? Chiffrey
asked.

“Not really, but here’s what you need to
know. The complexity of the cell structures is astonishing. I’ve
never seen anything remotely like it. Comparing it to, say, the
cells in your muscle tissues would be like comparing a Stradivarius
to a kazoo. But there’s more. We witnessed mitosis
and the cells
were dividing into three
!

“Biology was not my best subject,” Chiffrey
said, “but as I recall, it’s usually two. Right?

“Yes, two, then four, then eight and so on.
Cells
always
divide that way. Always. What we saw has no
analogue on earth. Not possible, but I saw it with my own eyes.
Cell division is exponential, but this is exponential to the next
degree, like cubed compared to squared.”

“Meaning, much faster than normal.”

“Exactly. Listen, I’ve got to get back.”

“Yes, go. And great work, by the way.”

Becka nodded and left. Chiffrey looked much
happier. “Feels like we are getting somewhere.”

“Does it?” she said.

“Are we ready to say, for instance, that
this is evidence of alien life? I mean not terrestrial. I know,
this sounds like some ridiculous tabloid fodder, but in conjunction
with the
Honey Pot
video, which I now believe was the
landing, what other conclusion can we come to? Alien life form. It
fits.”

“If you were really listening, you would
have heard Becka say she also found signs clearly pointing to
terrestrial origin. The common amino acids. Perhaps it could be a
mutation. Yes, an astonishing one, but that is easier to accept
than some creature from outer space. You can’t make the leap to
extraterrestrial just based on this.”

“I’m not just leaping. Have some more intel
for you. Sorry, but you can’t say I’m holding anything back
now.”

“Merely taking your sweet time doling it
out.”

“Heaps of data analysis went into this, on
the fastest mainframes we could find. And I just got this an hour
ago. Going back to when our original problem occurred, the massive
interference with our over-the-horizon radar and so on, first thing
we did was to check satellite data. Unfortunately, none of ours was
pointing in that particular direction. However, after looking at
the
Honey Pot
video a few hundred times, some of my people
realized that maybe some
other
satellite might have caught
something. Sure enough, one used exclusively to collect data on
solar radiation nailed it. It took some heavy number crunching, but
we’ve determined that something entered the atmosphere at the same
time as our event. The data indicate that its trajectory changed at
least twice.”

“Not a meteor.”

“Or falling space junk. Couldn’t be, and it
was heading for a touchdown right about where we are at present.
Where the dome is. The timing matches up nicely. I’d say we have
several smoking guns and they are all pointing the same way. Even
though the inference is incredible, it is now becoming almost the
only conclusion. This thing came down from space, origin unknown.
All indications are that it is intelligently directed and takes
action specifically to remain undetectable. It seems to me, and
accounting for what happened to Matthew on the
Eva Shay
,
that whoever—or whatever—is in the dome is somehow using whales for
some kind of operation. Reconnaissance at the very least. The
military uses dolphins and sea lions as sentries, so that is not
such a stretch. However, the lead whale had qualities to suggest
that it was more than an ordinary gray whale. Again, we breed
animals to purpose. Our own biotechnology points to the possibility
of one day having the capability of altering life in almost any
manner. So. Incredible, yes, but I say, possible. The vertices are
starting to match the angles.”

“Still,” she said, “none of what you’re
saying speaks to why they would come here.

“Exactly, and by far the most important
question. Their intent. I’m not going to say they are clearly
hostile, but yes, what are their aims? Where does this go? Which
means, for us, what now?”

“Okay,” she said. “Your theory would explain
a lot. One thing I want to make clear. Anything we do next should
also tie into getting Matthew back—”

“Absolutely, and with no reservations,”
Chiffrey said. “As much as we can, of course.”

“Stop hedging. It needs to be unconditional,
and for good reason. For you as well as Matthew.” She got up and
took a few steps toward him. “Matthew is the key, as you’ve thought
all along, but you still don’t know how or why. If we focus on him,
we have the best shot of finding out what is really going on. I
believe Matthew is in the dome. Not on some beach in Tahiti. I
suggest we continue on that assumption.”

“The dome probably is his most likely
location,” he said without hesitation. “Especially now that we know
it is most likely a vessel of some kind. We also need to make sure
that anything we do, as you have so wisely counseled in the past,
does not make the situation worse.”

“Yes, I said that, but we can never be sure
we won’t make a mistake.”

In a low voice, almost as a throwaway,
Chiffrey said, “Well, that’s what we thought before, and look what
happened.”

“That’s not a chain you can yank!” She hated
to lose her temper, but there was no holding back now. “We can’t
just keep saying, ‘but we don’t know, we don’t know.’ Of course we
don’t, and we are wasting time and energy trying to figure it out.
We’re
never
going to figure it out. Don’t you get that?”

“You’re contradicting yourself. ‘But we
don’t know’ used to be your line.”

“And nothing’s changed, and that’s not the
point anymore. We’re like ants walking across a computer’s keyboard
and thinking it’s about the crumbs we find in the cracks.”

“We don’t know what we don’t know. Sure,
part of standard risk assessment.”

“And here’s the good news to give your
people who are worried about going up against it. Just relax. If
the dome is studying us, our endless bumbling around will
eventually
bore
it to death!”

Chiffrey burst out laughing. “And, damn,
don’t I know it…I mean, if you think I’m bad…” His laughing grew
uncontrollably, and he couldn’t stop. What was worse, she started
laughing. She stood facing him, tears rolling down her cheeks,
laughing out loud for the first time in many days.

They had been going on at least two minutes,
trying to speak, failing, when they both suddenly stopped. In spite
of having always cast him as a complete ass, maybe he was more like
an exotic species she hadn’t yet found a place for in her scheme of
things.

“Okay then,” Chiffrey said, “I’ll start
again. I agree, we are not in control here and are still largely in
the dark, yet we need to act. But I am not going to pass this
assessment up the chain.”

“Because you don’t want to give the
impression we’re in over our heads.”

He nodded. “We don’t want to fly that flag,
or they’ll just send in their own clowns. So again, given all that,
what have you got? Something, I hope. Or, like some folks here, are
we supposed to just heave everything we know over the side and
stare at the moon till wisdom comes?”

“No,” she said. “I don’t have anything
specific yet, but I will.”