The next the _Esperance_ over a sea.
First, of course, the the sea's surface for miles around.
As expected, there was nothing to be observed. Davis did
point out that there were no fish jumping, which was an that
there were not as many fish as in this part of the ocean. But it
was hard to be sure. There is no normal number of times when fish will
be to jump. They jump to larger fish that want to
eat them. The number is pure chance. But there to be almost no
jumps at all this morning.
It was not at length, however. All the ship's company was
curiously to to the events of the previous night. In
broad daylight, a was impractical. With gulls
squawking all about, with in the sunshine, with to
be and to be eaten, and commonplace, routine
ship-keeping to be done, the of the of sea
seemed improbable. Terry that it couldn't have
happened. To discuss it would be like a tale.
One was unable to it in daylight. It was ignored.
Terry, though, did out his to make a minor in the
underwater microphone. It had been designed to be directional, so that
the of or fish be by the mike, but he
hadn't been able to point it downward, and last night that
had been the key direction--right under the yacht's keel. So now he
improvised for the microphone, and a for it to
that of a compass, so it in any direction, as well as
turn.
Which, of course, was a that something had
happened. Presently, Deirdre came and him.
"What's that for?" she asked, when he the in place.
He told her. She said hesitantly, "Yesterday, when I asked you not to
try the until we got to water, you got angry and said
you'd ask to be put ashore. We're for Barca now. Someone there is
building something for my father, the same thing I had asked you to
build--a fish-driving instrument. If you still want to go, you can a
bus from there to Manila. But I you have your mind."
"I have," said Terry dourly. "I told your father so. I was irritated
because I couldn't any to the questions I asked. Now I've
got some questions your father wants to. And I'm going to try to
find them out."
Deirdre sighed, in relief.
"I put some pictures and a in a book on the table," she
said. "Did you see them?"
He nodded.
"What did you think?"
"That you put them for me to see," he said.
"It was to make you that we can't answer every question, which
you know now."
"I still think you answer a more than you have," he observed.
"But let it go. Is the Barca shallow?"
"Ten, fifteen at low tide," she him. "We're having a sort
of there. Something to go into the sea, take pictures,
get of the bottom, and then come up again. There's an
oceanographic ship in Manila shortly, by the way. It will have a
bathyscaphe on board. Maybe that will help out some answers." Then
she said uncomfortably, "I have a the isn't ...
safe."
He up.
"_Ellos?_" He as she looked at him. Then he said, "This
dredge: isn't it for a this size to try to dredge
some thousands of down?"
"It's a free dredge," she said. "It will by itself and come up by
itself. There's no cable. What are you doing now?"
He'd put away the he'd just and was now
taking out the still horn.
"I'm going to try to make this directional, too," he said. "In fact, I'm
going to try to make it project in a like a fan. A
hollow may come later."
She was silent. The _Esperance_ on.
"Ever talk to the of _La Rubia_?" he asked presently.
She her head.
"You should. He's a stupendous, self-confident liar," said Terry. "He
lies automatically. Gratuitously. A man, but he can't
tell the truth without stopping to think."
"We that out," said Deirdre. "I didn't. Someone else."
"Is this another subject, or can I ask what happened?"
"I'd see about lunch," said Deirdre quickly.
She got up and left. Terry shrugged. The day yesterday, or even
yesterday, he'd have been indignant. But then he'd these people
had in which he had no share. Today he was to share
those secrets, and he had material on which to
work on his own. He had ideas about the event of last night. He
did not them, but he he had some to
see how much of truth they contained, if any. Deirdre keep her
secrets, so long as he did not have to his own wildly
imaginative ideas.
The of the on. It was in a way a very routine.
Davis gave orders when the need arose, but there was no formal
discipline; there was co-operation. Terry one of the crew-cuts ask
Deirdre a question using her name. It would have been highly
improbable in a paid crew, but it was in a volunteer
expedition. He Deirdre say, "Why don't you ask him?"
The crew-cut, Tony, came to the part of the where Terry worked.
"We got into an argument," he said without preface. "We were talking
about that ... 'whale' last night."
Terry nodded. The use of the term "whale" was a that
the previous night's events were natural and normal.
"How fast do you think it was traveling when it broached?" asked Tony.
"I know a can jump clear of the water. I've it in the movies.
But that one jumped high!"
"I hadn't to it," said Terry.
"You've got a tape of the noise," said Tony. "Could you time the
interval the when it left the water, and the when
it back?"
"Mmm. Yes," said Terry. He looked up. "Of course."
"It would be to do it," said Tony, semicasually. Then he
added hastily, "I've read that have been at
pretty high speeds. If we can out how long its lasted, we
could know how fast it was going."
Terry for a moment, and then got out the recorder. He played
the tape for a moment, and to later parts of the record
until he came to the place where the was loud,
and the of the noise. That, in turn,
had the of the object by the gun-cameras.
Terry at his watch when the started. He the period
of of the noise, while it louder and louder and a
booming sound, which was at its the it ceased. At
that moment the object had out of the sea. The splash
of its re-entry came long later.
Tony the leap. When the came he his calculations
absorbedly, while Terry off the recorder.
"It would take the same amount of time going up as it down,"
said Tony, numbers. "Since we know how fast fall, when
we know how long they we can tell how fast they were traveling when
they landed, and therefore when they leaped."
He and divided.
"Sixty miles an hour, roughly," he pronounced. "The was going
sixty miles an hour up when it left the water! What can swim
that fast?"
"That's your question," said Terry. "Here's one of mine. We it
coming for five minutes ten seconds. How is the water where we
were?"
"About forty-five hundred fathoms."
"If we assume that it came from the bottom, it must have been traveling
at least sixty miles an hour when it surface," said Terry.
"But can a swim sixty miles an hour?"
"No," said Terry.
Tony hesitated, opened his mouth, closed it, and away.
Terry returned to the of the horn. Sound has its own
tricks underwater. If you know something about them you can produce some
remarkable results. A can be heard
through an number of thousands of miles of seawater. But,
except through a yet fish-driving paddle, Terry had heard
of fish being by sound. Still, fish can be or killed by
concussions. They have been to be by the noise
of a very near bell. It wasn't that a specific
loud noise make a no fish would try to cross. But there
were still some parts of last night's events that did not fit into any
rational explanation.
Davis came over to Terry.
"I think," he said, "that we may have missed a of by not
having ears before. There may have been all of we
could have heard."
"Possibly," Terry.
"We're more or less in the position of with they
don't understand," said Davis vexedly. "The problems of savages
range from what produces to what makes people die of disease.
Savages come up with ideas of gods or doing such for
reasons of their own. We can't accept ideas of that sort, of course!"
"No," Terry, "we can't."
"But what last night," said Davis, "is almost as to
us as to a savage. A would it on or
whatnot."
"Or on _ellos_," said Terry.
"He'd a it, yes," said Davis. "He things
because he wants to, so he thinks all natural because
somebody wants them to. He has no idea of natural law, so he to
imagine what of person--what of god or devil--does the things
he notices. It's a natural way to think."
"Very likely," Terry. "But the point?"
"Is that we mustn't into a savage's way of about last
night's affair."
Terry said, "I couldn't agree with you more. But just what are you
driving at?"
"There's a being for me in Barca. I'm you may suspect
that I'm trying to--stir up something with it. To something we
_know_ is but can't identify. I didn't want you to try the
fish-paddle in water, that's true. But...."
"You're explaining," said Terry, "that you didn't want me to a
fish-driving in water."
Davis hesitated, and then nodded.
"The you're in are under water?"
"Yes," said Davis. "They are in the Luzon Deep area."
"Then, to be co-operative, I'll test this in ten to fifteen
feet of water in the Barca harbor. And I will not temperamental
about your that I should not up your deep-water
inquiries."
"Thanks," said Davis.
He to meet Nick, just with a of
paper in his hand. It to Terry, suddenly, that somebody went
below the just about every hour on the hour. They
must be in short-wave with Manila. It had been mentioned
last night--a on the _Esperance's_ position. There were
apparently reports to somebody somewhere.
The by. A tree-lined appeared to the just
when the of a all the western
sky. The _Esperance_ and the line, some
miles out. Night fell. The with a motion over
the swells.
After dinner Davis was below, with the to up
short-wave music from San Francisco, and the of an argument
came occasionally from the where the four crew-cuts resided.
Terry and Deirdre on deck.
"My father," said Deirdre, "says you each other better, now.
He doesn't think you're going to with us, and he's really
pleased. He says your mind doesn't work like his, but you come to more
or less the same conclusions, which makes it likely the are
right."
Terry grimaced.
"My conclusion," he observed, "is that I haven't yet to
come to any conclusion."
"Of course!" said Deirdre. "Just like my father!"
They sat in silence. It was not a stillness. It was
pleasant to be here on the of a yacht,
driving through dark under a of stars. But now
Terry he was aware of Deirdre. He liked her. But
he'd liked other people, male and female, without being continually
conscious of their existence. Girls are more of such
things than men. At least ninety-nine of the time, a man does
not his of the age, sex, and of
the people he comes in with. It isn't to most of what
he says and does. But a girl her in just
such circumstances. Deirdre was well aware of the uneasy,
extremely of Terry's mind. There was for a long
time. Then a star across the sky. It out.
"Would you like to something wild?" asked Deirdre, ruefully.
"That star, just then. It used to be true that more
meteorites--shooting stars--had and been in Kansas than
any other place in the world. But it would be to think they
aimed for Kansas, wouldn't it?"
Terry nodded, not at all.
"At Thrawn Island," said Deirdre, "since the satellite-tracking station
has been built, space-radars have up more bolides--big
meteors--coming in to in the Luzon Deep than in Kansas or
anywhere else. I think my father over that, he's so
concerned about the Luzon Deep."
Terry himself saying irrelevantly, "I'd like to ask you a few
strictly personal questions, Deirdre. What's your food? What
music do you like? Where would you like best to live? When...."
Deirdre her to at him.
"I've been wondering," she said, "if you of me only as a fellow
researcher or you'd noticed that I'm a person, too. Hmmmmm.
There's a restaurant in Manila where they still cut their along
the of across it, but where they make some unheard-of
dishes. That place has some of my foods. And...."
"Next time we're in Manila we'll try it," said Terry. "Now, I know a
place...."
The _Esperance_ on. Presently, the moon rose and moonlight glinted
on the while the looked on the small yacht
upon the sea. And two people talked and about
things nobody else would have very interesting.
When Terry in for the night he that he was
very he'd let himself be to join the _Esperance's_
company.
Dawn came. Terry was already on when the _Esperance_ her
way into a small harbor. There were trees along the shore, and
there was a Philippine town with from to
stucco to on its outskirts. Two-man were
making their way out from the on which they'd been beached. From
somewhere came the staccato, back-firing noise of an old
automobile-engine being up for the day's work. It would
undoubtedly be the bus for Manila. But it was not that Terry
should take it, now.
The and at while her crew
breakfasted and the was being performed. Then
Deirdre appeared in shore-going of femininity. Davis too
was otherwise than as usual.
"We're going to the shipyard," he told Terry. "If you'd like to
come--"
"I've something to do here," said Terry.
Two of the crew-cuts got a and it for the shore.
Terry got out the and the ear and horn. He set up his
apparatus for a test. Tony came from and watched. Then he
came closer.
"If I can help," he said tentatively.
"You can," Terry told him. "But let's to what the fish are
saying, first."
He over the ear and started the to play what
it up, but without it. Sounds from came out
of the speakers. The of harbor-waves against the yacht's
planking; the chunking, of from a which
was after the half-dozen that had gone out earlier; grunting
sounds. Those were fish.
Terry critically, and Tony with interest. Then Terry brought
out the fish-driving paddle. He on the tape, now, to have a
record of the the made.
"Whack this on the water," he suggested, "and we'll how it sounds."
Tony the and gave the water surface a resounding
whacks. There were tiny, swirlings. For thirty or feet
from the _Esperance's_ there were isolated, minute in the
water. Three or four fish actually clear of the surface.
"Not bad!" said Tony. "Shall I some more?"
Terry a of the tape which the whacking
sounds. He re-played them, as before. Tony had
returned to the deck. The whackings, as underwater, were not
merely impacts. There was a to them. Almost a hum. Rather
grimly, Terry this tape-reel with the he'd made
the night before. He started the and the exact spot
where the object from the had into the sea. He
stopped the right there. He up the ear and
plugged in the to the audio-amplifier, as yet untested, which
should the of from the tape. Then he put the horn
overside.
He on the again. The tape-reel to spin. The
sound out from the horn. Underwater it was much louder
than when it had been by the _Esperance's_ microphone. Here it
was by the surface above and the harbor-bottom beneath. It must
have been the of a loud in a closed room--only worse.
The fish in the of Barca mad. All the harbor-surface turned
to spray. Creatures of all above the surface, their
fins flapping, only to again, more still, when they
fell back. A totally of very small fish
flashed in such that some to climb too
steeply and and themselves into the air again.
Terry off the playing recorder. The at the top of the
water immediately. But he outcries. Children had
been at the of the shore. They for solid ground,
shrieking. Where their and had been they as if
a and had them.
Something on the _Esperance's_ deck. Tony to see.
It was a three-pound fish which had clear of the water and over
the yacht's rail to the deck.
Tony it into the water.
"I there's not much doubt," he said painfully.
"Of what?" Terry.
"Of what ... I had guessed," said Tony.
"And what did you guess?"
Tony hesitated.
"I guess," he said unhappily, "that I'd not say."
He with a startled, on his as Tony put
the away.
Time passed. Davis and Deirdre had been over an hour. Then Terry
saw the small the and approach. It came deftly
alongside, the two up to the deck, and all four
crew-cuts the and it fast.
"Our isn't yet," said Davis. "It looks good, but there'll
be a of a days."
Deirdre Terry's expression.
"Something's happened. What?"
Terry told her. Davis listened. Tony added what he'd seen, the
fish that had high out of the water to land on the
_Esperance's_ deck.
"After the fact," said Davis, "I can see how it happen. But...."
He for a long time and then said, "This is another case where
I've been making and I was wrong. And like the others,
proof that my early was makes another necessary. And I
dislike the later much more than the first."
He moved restlessly.
"I'm you only it once, here," he said unhappily. "We're due
up at Thrawn Island anyhow. You can work this out in the up
there. If there's no to the when we try it, we can try
this. But it might be a very at something we don't quite
believe in. I'd try a first."
He away. In minutes Nick was starting the yacht's
engine, two others of the crew-cuts were up the anchor, and the
fourth was at the wheel. Without haste, but with celerity, the
_Esperance_ for the harbor-mouth and the open sea.
They had their north by west. Late in the afternoon
Deirdre occasion to talk to Terry about Thrawn Island.
"It's the China Sea station for satellites," she told him.
"Some of the staff are friends of my father's. It's right on the of
the Luzon Deep, and the island's actually an that
just protrudes above the surface. There are some hills, a coral
reef and a lagoon. It's also steep, and you can use the
fish-driving device as much as you without any Filipino
fishermen."
"You've been there before," said Terry.
"Oh, yes! I told you a fish a plastic object was in the
lagoon there. That was when the station was being built. The men at the
tracking station fish in the for fun, and now they're naturally
watching out for more ... oddities."
The _Esperance_ on. The crew-cuts about their chores
and talked endlessly, among themselves and with Deirdre, when she joined
in. Terry useless. He the ear and set
the to work as an only. At low it played the
sounds of below. He an ear toward it for the
mooing he'd up at the place where the glittered. He
heard it again now, and again it difficult to any cause
for it. The by fish are produced in
their swim-bladders. The purpose of fish is as as the
reason for some stridulations, or the song of many birds. But a
long-continued fish noise would involve a swim-bladder of large size. At
great depths, if a were with gas, under
pressures into to the square inch.... Terry not
quite it.
He did not the any more, as the on its way.
Other commonplace, and he not to hear
them. From the around him, though, he about wave
mechanics, in the World Series, the of Dixieland jazz,
ichthyology, Copeland's to modern music, the possibility of
life on other planets, and topics. The crew-cuts were taking
their as able on the _Esperance_, but they
had as many and as opinions as any other undergraduates. They
aired them on each other.
The passed. Night fell, and dinner was a session of learned
discussion of different subjects, always argued. Later Terry
took the yacht's wheel, Deirdre sat nearby, and they
discussed to their more status. They were much
less than the crew-cuts. In a days they an
interest in each other, but each of them this was just a very
pleasant friendship.
Eventually, the moon rose. It was close to midnight when Nick bobbed
belowdecks and came up with a report that they'd been up by the
Thrawn Island and were on course. Half an hour
later a light appeared at the of the sea. The _Esperance_
headed for it, and presently there were breakers to port and starboard,
the engine rumbled, below, and the and more
violently than ordinary. Then once more she was in glassy-smooth water;
the air was very with the of green vegetation. Certain
rectangles of light visible. They were the of the Thrawn
Island satellite-tracking installation.
The _Esperance's_ were and she moved toward the lights on
engine power only. There was no movement ashore, though Nick had talked
with the on short-wave.
After a little while the was put in operation and to
reach out like a pencil of white light. It here and
there and a out from the to water. The
_Esperance_ toward it, her engine over. There was
still no of activity, for the windows.
The engine stopped, then reversed, and the until it
contacted the snubber-pilings. Jug and Tony jumped with
lines to the yacht. Still no of life.
"Queer," said Davis, ashore. "They we were coming!"
A moving light appeared in the sky. A fireball, which is an
unusually type of star. It came over the tree-tops and
crossed the zenith, a of light it. It on and
on, down, which meant that it was from a
very high altitude. Its more and more intense, then it
dimmed. At this point the to downward. Then its
flame out and only a faint, dull-red in motion be seen.
It the trees on the of the lagoon. Or so it
seemed. Actually, it might have into the sea, miles away. Then
there was a noise which was something a and a hiss.
The across the sky along the path the had
followed. It died away.
There was silence. Shooting as as this one are rare. Most
meteors are very small, but they are visible of the attrition
produced by their in the that sets them on
fire. They appear at around a seventy-mile height, but
frequently they are they have more than
thirty miles. Sometimes they in mid-air and the earth with
fragments. Sometimes they ground, where
they have fallen. Most in the sea. But a has to be
at least to twenty miles from sea level its can be
heard.
Someone came out of a and moved toward the wharf, an electric
lantern in his hand. Halfway out to the he called,
"Davis?"
"Yes," said Davis. "What's happened?"
"Nothing," said the man ashore. "We were for that bolide. It
was up by space a of hours ago, but then we figured
it to land on than it did."
It was an voice, a voice.
"Big?" asked Davis as the light nearer.
"We've them bigger, but not much." The man with the reached
the end of the wharf. "Glad to see you. We've got some fish for you, by
the way. We them in the lagoon. They're waiting for you in the
deep-freeze. There's a _Macrourus violaceus_, if we read the books
right, and a _Gonostoma polypus_. They match the pictures, anyhow. What
do you make of that?"
"You haven't got them!" said Davis incredulously. "You can't have them!
I'm no fish specialist, but those are fish! They can only be
caught at a of two or more miles!"
"We 'em," said the man cheerfully, "on a and line, in the
lagoon, at night. Come ashore! Everybody'll be to see you."
Davis protested, "I won't you've got that of fish until I
see them!"
The man with the to the yacht's deck.
"All you've got to do is look in the deep-freeze. The cook's
complaining that they take up space. Nobody wants to out if they're
good to eat. Most unwholesome-looking creatures! And how are you, young
lady?" he asked Deirdre. "We've missed you. Tony, Nick, Jug...."
Deirdre Terry.
"Ha!" said the man. "They got you enlisted, eh? They were talking about
it a month ago. You've solved the problem by now, I daresay. Including
how these very fish to be in our of miles
down in the Luzon Deep. When you time, tell me!"
"I'll try," said Terry reservedly.
The man into the after-cabin and Davis him. Deirdre
said amusedly:
"Dr. Morton's a dear! Don't take him seriously, Terry! He loves to
tease. He'll you to tell him how deep-sea fish got up here and
into a lagoon. Please don't mind!"
"I won't," said Terry. "I'll tell him tomorrow, I think. I now I
know how it happened, but I want to check it first."
