“Take nothing for granted,” Brink declared.
“I know. We really should find Maggie and let her know that you’re all right.”
“As you say, she will return in her own time.”
“I know, but I’m starting to get worried. I don’t see her surviving very long on her own.”
“She will come to her senses and rejoin us.” Brink spoke with assurance. “Or she will remain by herself and die.”
A startled Low thought the statement callous, then decided that the other man was simply stating the obvious. Besides, he’d just been dead. He was entitled to some leeway. Low returned to what would necessarily remain for them the principal topic of conversation.
“You and I need to do some exploring and see if we can find anything that will help us get back home.”
“Agreed. I am more optimistic than I was before. If there exist here devices that can raise the dead, then who is to say what might be possible? You say there are many mechanisms in this museum of yours?”
“Hundreds, maybe thousands.”
Brink nodded. “Among many thousands we need find only one that will reactivate the asteroid-ship. We have much work ahead of us.”
“Don’t I know it.” Low let his gaze rove around the great chamber. “The people who built this place may have died out or moved on, but they left a potent legacy behind them.” He turned. “Come on, and I’ll show you the museum. Admission’s free today.
Also tomorrow, and the day after that, and on into the next millennium.”
“I should hope,” remarked Brink easily, “that we will have sorted out its treasures before then.”
“What do you think of that?” The septet of supporters put the challenge to the caustic. The great majority of the undecided confessed themselves favorably swayed, though far from convinced. “The creature not only discovered the crystal but divined its most important use and applied it correctly!”
The serious decriers were not moved. “It takes very little initiative and intelligence to determine how to utilize a crystal for organic repair when one is provided with visual instruction in the process.”
“Yes. We thousand will be better convinced when the ability to reason more abstractly has been demonstrated. The creatures must show they can deduce without assistance.”
“You cannot deny what they have already accomplished,” asserted the first hundred. “They have found and made use of a crystal, the island transportation system, a door lock and more. The auguries are better than they have been in centuries!”
“The auguries were good for us as well before we stepped over,” reminded a cluster of aged thought-forms, “and see to what state we have been brought.”
A hundred and twenty thousand neutral perceptions brought forth a conclusion. “Progress has been demonstrated. Much remains to be done, and it is uncertain if these creatures are up to the challenge, but we see reason for hope.”
“Hope?” Two hundred thousand negative rejoinders coalesced simultaneously. “This is nothing more than another diversion. More entertaining than most, but no more conclusive.”
“Hopeful, yes!” shouted their opponents across the ether, which was as much as a light-minute wide and as short as the length of the average peptide chain. “Will you not concede the point?”
The argument continued unabated. As one of the only forms of viable recreation left to them in the Nirvana in which they had been imprisoned, the Cocytans pursued it with vigor.
CHAPTER 12
Brink gave no sign of being awed by the remarkable undersea transportation system. Low had learned that the scientist was not easily impressed. After having already experienced the reality of interstellar travel, not to mention resurrection from the dead, this was understandable.
As the sphere raced a second time down the dark tunnel, he kept a careful eye on his companion, watching for any signs of abnormal behavior. So far, Brink was the same old Brink. His skin hadn’t begun to slough away, he wasn’t rolling his eyes madly, and if anything he seemed more composed than usual. Maybe because he had just enjoyed, as he so tactfully put it, a nice nap.
The scientist was indeed impressed by the variety of devices on display in the museum spire. He went from one to the other, lingering over some, passing quickly by others.
When they had concluded their cursory inspection, they stood together framed in the open portal that led outside, studying the alien sea and sky.
“What I would really like to find are some more of those green crystals.” Brink shielded his eyes, which were more light-sensitive than the Commander’s, from the sun. “Can you imagine their scientific and commercial worth? I cannot. Such values are beyond me. And according to the display you say you witnessed, they are capable of many other functions as well?”
Low nodded. “Some of them I couldn’t even give a name to. Don’t have the necessary cultural referents.”
“If they can bring back the deceased and heal a broken spine, perhaps they can cure anything. Cancer, AIDS, Chagas’ disease, malaria, dengue fever … take one crystal and call me in the morning.”
“I don’t know.” They turned and walked back into the chamber. “I can’t imagine how it could analyze what was wrong with your alien system, recognize the problem, fix it and then resurrect you.”
“I cannot imagine traveling faster than light, either, but we did it.” Brink was thinking hard. “You say you placed it on my chest and it ‘melted’ into my body?”
“That’s the best description I can give you.”
Brink nodded. “I wonder if it remains intact somehow inside me, or if its substance has disintegrated and spread throughout my bloodstream, or perhaps my entire cellular structure?”
“Wish I could help you, Ludger, but I’m running a little short on medical imaging equipment at the moment.”
The scientist put a comradely arm around the other man’s shoulders. “Fortitude and persistence, my friend. We will find the answers to these mysteries. For example, have you not wondered if the curative effect is permanent, or only temporary?”
Low started. “I hadn’t gotten around to that one.”
Brink grinned. “I assure you that it occurred to me soon after your explanation of what took place. Therefore, if I should fall over dead in the middle of a sentence, you will know the cause.”
“I’d rather not consider that a possibility.” Brink’s sense of humor could be quietly ghoulish. “Let’s just assume it’s permanent. Do you expect your spine to rebreak?”
“It certainly seems unlikely, but we have no way of knowing. There may also be side effects that have yet to manifest themselves.”
“I’ll keep a lookout.” Low sought to change the subject. “If you start glowing green, I’ll let you know right away.”
“I’ve always considered green one of the more attractive colors.” The scientist smiled.
Despite their best efforts they could locate no more of the crystals. In fact, they found nothing of immediate usefulness. None of the alien devices responded to their ministrations, either manual or verbal.
They did, however, find several more of the small robotic door-openers. These followed them willingly back to the sphere. While they might do nothing for the asteroid-ship, there were several large doorways within the central chamber that remained closed.
“Watch.” Back on the main island, Low had coaxed one of the devices over to another arch. “When trapped between one of us and a door, they’ll turn and open it.” He proceeded to crowd the robot.
It backed up against the section of wall next to the arch and stopped. Low advanced until he was pressing against it with his legs. It ignored both proximity and pressure with equanimity.
“Well?” Brink stood nearby, waiting.
Perplexed, Low backed up to give the robot some space. “I don’t understand. When I crowded the other one, it turned and opened the entrance leading to the transportation chamber. The barrier just melted away.”
The scientist inspected the solid wall beneath the arch. “Well, it does not appear to be melting to me. Perhaps we should try another portal?”
Following the curving wall, they reached a third arch, where Low repeated the procedure that had been so successful earlier. When that failed, they returned to the second and tried another of the little robots, the result was the same: Nothing happened. When Low coaxed the original robot over to the second door, it proved as passive as its newly discovered brethren.
“Do not be discouraged, Commander.”
Swell, Low groused silently. I’m being consoled by a dead man. “Okay, I’m all out of bright ideas, Ludger. Your turn.”
The scientist’s gaze roved the chamber. “There are several much smaller doorways. Perhaps one of these devices will open one of them?”
Low looked doubtful. “Why bother with the small doors?”
To his surprise, one of the newly acquired robots did indeed cause one of the smaller barriers to melt out of the way. The modest storeroom thus revealed contained nothing as impressive as the sphere transportation system. Instead, it was filled with piles of reflective straps and plates that were clearly designed to be worn by something nonhuman. There were long tubular instruments that might as easily have been agricultural tools as weapons, or perhaps simply ceremonial staffs. Unable to induce them to do anything besides ring hollowly on the floor, Low had no way of identifying their intended function.