Fourteen hours later the _Esperance_ to sail from Thrawn
Island. Her purpose was to the plastic objects to Manila, where
they would be over to to be studied.
Five such objects had been before: one in the Thrawn Island
lagoon, while the satellite-tracking station was under construction, and
four to fish to market by the fishing
boat _La Rubia_. Now there were eight more, of four different kinds. To
the would go Terry's that one of these
objects at and it at
much higher ones, but only under water. All this was very interesting
and very puzzling.
But a had at the station.
Dr. Morton came to the _Esperance_ her departure. He had a
problem. He'd to the minute, and almost to the mile, the
landing of the of the night before. That was the accurate
prediction of the in history. But his alone in its
precision. Nobody else had come near being right. Now he was being
insistently by the world over. They wanted to know
how he'd done it. In particular, they wanted to know how he'd figured
that the would just so many second velocity,
neither more less, in a three-quarter around the world. Nobody
else had such a in his for the landing spot. Dr. Morton
had. His had been exact. Where did he that necessary but
inexplicable figure?
He Davis and Terry to go with him, in the _Esperance's_
after cabin. Terry hesitated.
"You may as well my troubles," said Morton vexedly. "You're largely
responsible for them."
Terry uneasily. He didn't see how Dr. Morton them
responsible. He had his own about the _Esperance's_
discoveries against the expression. He couldn't let
himself in their correctness, but he was at the
inadequacy of all other of past events.
"In sixteen months," said Morton annoyedly, below, "we've spotted
six in to land in the Luzon Deep. That's out of all
reason! Of course, it be a mathematical series of unlikely
coincidences, such as says may sometimes. Up to last
night that to be a possible explanation."
Davis nodded. His was odd.
"But now," said Morton somehow indignantly, "that's out! It's
ruled out by last night's bolide, and yesterday's experiment,
and that of the sea, plus those plastic gadgets
and sea fish in water! There's no reasonable
explanation for such things, and they're not coincidences!"
"I'm afraid," Davis, "that they're not."
"The explanation," said Morton doggedly, "I to name or
consider. But the question is not a or an
explanation is or not. The question is it's true!"
Davis nodded. Terry had to agree. But the way people are in
modern times puts a great on reason, often at the of
fact. Terry the to accept a
statistically idea.
"I'm on a spot," Morton. "I calculated that the bolide
would slow after it into around the earth. I calculated that
it would slow so much. Do you want to know how I how
much it should slow down? I'll tell you! I calculated how much
it would have to slow to be able to into the Luzon Deep! It did
slow. It did there. But how am I going to that to
Washington?"
Terry a warm for Morton. It is to
dispute with when something happens. But Dr. Morton
had gone out on a limb. He'd been telling
the truth, and now he was asked to it. And he couldn't.
"This thing has got to come to a head!" he said angrily. "Sooner or
later they'll out that I don't where it'll land by its
behavior in space but by its landing spot! Davis, you've talked about
stirring something up. For Heaven's sake, do it! You may save my
reputation! And you...."
"I'll try to think of something," said Davis reservedly.
"I've got to have proof that my are right or I'm
ruined. I know what you're to do. Do it! Is there anything that
can be done here to help?"
Davis spread out his hands helplessly. But Terry said, "Yes. Send a boat
every so often to at the in the reef. Put an overboard
and put your ear to the handle. You should the hum, if
it's still there. It was there this morning."
Morton looked at him suspiciously.
"Why check on it? Should it change?"
"Perhaps," said Terry. "We've most of the deep-sea fish in the
lagoon. Maybe we've with ... the reports from the plastic
objects, telling what was up here. There may be a reaction. If
so, most likely the will stop, and after a longer or shorter
time again. And then, if my is right, there'll be more
deep-sea in the lagoon."
"Ha," said Morton. "I think you and I have the same of delusions!
All right. I'll see that that's done. You two do the rest."
He abovedecks. When Terry got on deck, Dr. Morton's figure
was already along the to the shore.
There was no of departure. The _Esperance_ off and her
engine started. She moved toward the entrance under power only,
but her were as she on, and Jug Bell was trimming
the when she the opening to the sea.
The in the water was still to the ear, close
to the land. It to Terry to take a on the of the
sound, the direction and the from
the reef. If his vertical-angle reading was accurate, a line from the
reef to the of the would touch the at twenty-seven
thousand down, four and five miles away.
The _Esperance_ on. The away. Terry left the
recorder up sounds, without them. It relayed
the to the people on deck. It was in Terry's mind to
keep at least an ear to it, in case the sounds, heard
and recorded elsewhere, should come again.
They did not. The _Esperance_ on her way, south
by east, under sail. A slowly of sea was all
about. There was nothing in the least or to be seen
anywhere.
Presently, Terry himself in with Deirdre, and the
world so normal that their talk all unusual
trends. They talked about their childhoods, about they had done
and places they had seen.
At about four in the Nick bellowed, "_Thar she blows!_" in a
fine attempt at proper ship style, and all the _Esperance's_
company joined to watch a ahead. The a
little, and presently a pod of at the surface. The
huge dark moved through the water. Jud great
erudition on the and in detail how their spouting
proved them to be whales. Deirdre pointed out a close
beside a larger one.
They on, the behind. The crew-cuts, inevitably,
argued about them. They all the and misinformation
they and came up with a about whales, how
they can swim to the without from the
bends on again. Then the to the food they
eat. Whalers, in the old days, had of and undigested
sections of squids' in the of whales.
There were reports of of four thick, a
startling total size, all of which proved that the had been at
the of the ocean, where such can be found. These
were the reports of skippers. Certainly the made
by the arms of squids, battle, have been
found on the skin of whales, and there have been reports of
battles on the surface and of most
naturalists would be to certify. In such cases it was assumed
that the had been at the of the sea and had
followed the to the surface when it came up in need of air.
Certainly only an would be able to a with
a whale.
Terry to the discussion. Everybody had his own opinion.
"You'd settle the argument, unless you put a camera and a
flash gun on a and an instrument-report from it."
Which was not a new idea, of course. But it was that the thought
of sending self-reporting to the of the sea had
been by his own that had been
sent up from below. Sounding lines had been with thermometers
and and machines. Core-takers had been to get
samplings of mud. But is more
than so useful.
Deirdre said something. Terry that she'd it. He'd
become in the possibilities of instrument-reporting from the
surface to the and again.
"You're not listening," Deirdre. "I'm talking about the
bathyscaphe that ought to be in Manila any day now."
"I'm trying to picture myself going in a bathyscaphe," said Terry
hastily. "I don't think I'd like it."
A is a metal with and of enormous
thickness, from a metal with for flotation.
It is to with the help of ballast, and is
equipped with electric for motion. It carries
powerful electric which allow as much as thirty or feet
of visibility. It to the surface again when its is
dumped. There are only three such in the
whole world.
"I'm not at all sure you wouldn't like it," said Deirdre.
Terry at his own thoughts. There are opinions a man firmly
without being aware of them, unless they are challenged, and if
that happens, he is of the challenge it
suggests that his opinion needs to be re-examined. Terry had been
gathering of here, and there,
resisting a all the while.
It to think that the plastic objects by
deep-sea fish out of their natural were actually man-made
instruments--telemetering closely to the devices
used to from space. It was imaginative
to that they from the water surface to
the of the ocean; that fish had been up from the in
order to report what on at the surface. Report to whom? It was the
most of to think that there was curiosity, in the
Luzon Deep, about the manners and of the of the
surface and of those not by the sea.
But Terry stopped short. There were limits to the ideas he would allow
his brain to think about.
Deirdre walked away, and he himself he of anything
so as the he had just reached. Presently, dinner
was served, and Terry like a perfectly rational
person. After dinner Davis, as usual, settled himself to a
program of music from San Francisco, many thousands of miles
away. And Deirdre from again.
Later on Terry himself alone on the _Esperance's_ deck, for
Nick at the wheel--a dark only by the light of the
binnacle lamp. There was a diffused, from the
after-cabin hatch. Up forward, one of the crew-cuts a guitar,
and Terry Doug trying to read despite the
noise. The were black against the sky. The was than
the sea.
Terry's him. He himself that he did not
entertain them for an instant. They were absurd! A part of his mind
argued that if they were there was no not to
test them. If he was to try, it would that at least part of
him them.
He up one of the plastic objects, and moved the close to
the rail. It still faithfully, at minimum volume, the
washing of the as from beneath, and occasional small sounds
from creatures, away in the sea. Heeled over as the
_Esperance_ was, his hand into the waters
overside.
He came to a resolution. He foolish, but by now he was determined
to try an experiment. Tiny light-blue where the water
raced past the yacht's planking. When he his hand, water up
against his and a of away behind.
He the plastic object against the hull. One tap, two taps, three
taps, four taps. Then five, six, seven, eight. He to one. One
tap, two, and three and four. Five and six and seven and eight.
The gave out the the had picked
up. It to Terry that the to the
shrillest in with the tappings.
Then Deirdre's voice came quietly, very near.
"I don't think," she said evenly, "that that's a thing to do."
He'd been over the rail in an position. He up,
guiltily.
"I know it's nonsense, but I was ... to admit ..."
"To admit," Deirdre for him, "that by numbers with a
plastic spy-device, you to say to it might that we've
found a communicator, and we know what it is, and we're trying to in
touch with the who it."
To his own self-denied spoken was appalling. Terry
instantly them entirely.
"It's ridiculous, of course," he protested. "It's childish...."
"But it be true," said Deirdre. "And, if true, it be
dangerous. Suppose put those plastic on the fish
doesn't want to be with? Suppose it that it should
defend the of its by killing those who it? I
wasn't on you," she added. "I the below."
Then she was gone. He saw the in the light from the
after-cabin as she below.
He was with at the idea that if his did
prove to be right, he might have Deirdre. And then he ceased
to foolish. He like a instead.
For a long, long time he with to the
recorder, he some reply to his signals.
But no answer came. The from utterly
commonplace.
When he was in a of gloom. At breakfast
Deirdre as if she the closed. And, such being
the nature of men, Terry than before.
He was not at again, when that the
_Esperance_ in past Cavite and Corregidor and into Manila Bay. A
new ship was at in the harbor. It was a stubby, ship which
Davis with interest.
"That's the _Pelorus_," he told Terry as the passed a mile,
on the way to her anchorage. "She's the ship with
the on board. We'll visit her. I'll Nick to call her on
short-wave."
He forward, where Nick was making to the anchor. Davis
took over the chore, and Nick below.
"Are you going ashore?" asked Deirdre.
Terry shrugged. "I've no to."
She looked relieved. "Then you'll with the _Esperance_
until--things are settled one way or another? I mean, you're really
enlisted?"
"Until there are no more left for me to blunder," said Terry
distastefully. "I'm about through the list, though."
"Not at all!" Deirdre. "Tapping numbers was a very good
idea. I was horrible! I you'd it a from me.
I'd have been proud if I'd of it first!"
Nick came and spoke to Davis. Davis came aft.
"The _Pelorus_ will send a as soon as we've anchored," he told
them. "They've something and want to see the plastic objects."
"I'd like the long end of a that they don't in them, or us,"
Terry said abruptly. "They're on the ocean
bottom. They know a lot. They know so much they can't really
believe there's anything more to know than what they're out
now."
Davis his head. He was confident. The _Esperance_ anchored, almost
exactly where she'd been when Terry came on board. Within an
hour a from the _Pelorus_. Terry his to go
along. Deirdre along with her father.
They came a little over an hour later. At Davis was almost
speechless with fury. Then he told Terry, on his rage,
"According to them, the plastic objects are a hoax. The is a school
of fish. We aren't observers. At Thrawn Island they're
astronomers and they don't know anything about biology. And we
should that it's for to develop
where the supply is limited. It's that fish
should have their swim so they won't from
release of pressure when they come to the surface. Those in the lagoon
aren't fish, just species!"
"Well?" Terry asked.
"Oh, they're going to make a dive!" said Davis as as
before. "As a of to somebody--not us. They'll make it
where we fish packed in a circle. That to be the deepest
part of the Luzon Deep, in any case. They don't object to our sending
our first. They will be if it comes back
up."
"I," Deirdre, "I am so I spit!"
"There's no use in our here," said Davis, seething. "Our dredge
should be ready. We'll go up to Barca and it to the point we want to
send it down."
He ordered Nick to to anchor.
"One question," Terry said finally. "Did you mention the bolides?"
"No!" Davis. "Would I want them to think I was crazy?"
He away.
The _Esperance_ put to sea again. She north along the coast. At
dinner was quiet. It was the only meal, since Terry's joining,
that had not been by an on some or
other. Davis was still in an mood. He it, and held
himself to silence.
Later, Terry and Deirdre talked together. They from
speaking of or any for plastic objects
against the _Esperance's_ hull. They only trivia, but somehow
Terry any absorbing, when he was with Deirdre.
After a while she below, and he abovedecks, smoking. The
moon had not yet when he in.
They into the small of Barca at ten in the morning. By
twelve, local had out an object some thirty-two
feet long. They it to at the _Esperance's_ stern. By one
o'clock they had on her a large, of sailcloth
and a dozen specially-cast with iron rods
cemented in them. At half-past one Deirdre, who had gone in one
of the yacht's own boats, came with she'd
bought. At two o'clock the _Esperance_ out to sea again.
The object was a around a with an
iron at its top end and a dozen to
its bottom. A of was to the smaller and
heavy were the and the in place its tow.
There was a for attaching the main to the sinkers.
"It opens like an umbrella," Deirdre. "We'll it upright
barely out of the water, and on the weights. The fits
on that iron pipe. When you let it go, it like an that's
tightly closed, but when it touches the spread it out and
an goes off in that iron tube. It's
special explosive. The it makes the bag, which can't
burn underwater, and that the whole thing up with the ribs
of the out and the them. It
should catch anything it as it rises. As the pressure lowers,
the can through a relief-valve. This is
experimental. If it works, it can be to do of things."
"Such as at we don't in," said Terry drily. "That
explosion ought to up anything in its neighborhood. It'll be much
more and than a light against the
_Esperance's_ hull!"
Deirdre and did not answer.
The the yacht. She did not the position of the
fish-filled circle until after nightfall, and it was necessary to have
plenty of light by which to the when it came to the
surface, so nothing be until the morning. A short
while daybreak, lights appeared at the horizon. Red and green
sidelights, and white lights. It was a steamer. It came closer
and closer. Presently, it and and slow,
barely steerage. It was the _Pelorus_.
Dawn in a which the night. The
_Pelorus_ in the of the sun. A large object
was out of her hold. Its shape was that of a goldfish,
with a smaller it. It overside, slowly, and
there it floated, on the waves. For a very long time
nothing to happen. Then the water-level of the a
little. It was being with gasoline, which is than water
and incompressible.
On the _Esperance_, the had been alongside and the yacht's
powerful it upright. The over from the weight.
The crew-cuts the in place, and Davis the
explosive into the iron tube. The crew-cuts the nets.
This operation promising, and it was likely
that the would as it was designed to do.
The _Pelorus_ impatiently. Nick his job and went
below to the short-wave set. He returned after.
"The _Pelorus_ says she'll be to send the for a
test in two hours," he reported. "She says she will object if our
gadget is free at the time, on the that it might
interfere with the bathyscaphe. She if you can send our down
right away and it over with."
"Tell them yes," said Davis. "In five minutes."
He his lips. The _Esperance's_ device, though clumsy, was
fundamentally simple. Five minutes later the top of the was
level with the water. "Cut away," said Davis.
Doug the single rope the dredge. It immediately.
The gave off the of waves. Occasionally, very
occasionally, a or a be heard. Twenty minutes.
Thirty.
There was a "crump!" from the which reported underwater
events. The to come from very below. Even a small
amount of makes a very when it goes
off so down, and the in all of
merely upward. The up that as a deep-bass
sound.
The sun shone. The wind increased. Waves in ranks from
here to there.
A long, long time later the came up and was floating
on top of the waves. The _Pelorus_ whistled. Nick below. A few
minutes later he came up again to report.
"The _Pelorus_ says not to our adrift. They're sending the
bathyscaphe unmanned, to test all a dive.
They don't want any in the sea."
"Tell them we send them a kiss," Davis, "and they needn't
worry!"
The _Esperance_ approached the bag. Jug out on the
lifting and it. The it out of the water. The
concrete were gone. What the had was not to
see. A fish with had come up from below, to
judge by what its swim had done to it in
uncontrolled expansion. Davis said it was _Linophrine arborifer_,
belonging two thousand below. An angry-looking creature,
similarly dead, was _Opisthoproctus grimaldi_. It than
the other. There were other specimens. A _genostoma_ of a the
books didn't picture; a _Myctophum_; and other creatures, mostly
as as their scientific names. All were fish. They had
died while from a pressure of square to
surface-pressure only.
"It worked," said Davis curtly. "I almost wish it hadn't. Let it down
into the water again. We'll it when the _Pelorus_ us
permission."
Time passed. More time. Still more. The was now in the
water, awash. Only a small tower above the
waves. Men around it.
There came a from the _Pelorus_. The _Esperance_ gave assurance
that the deep-sea had returned to the surface and would be kept
there.
The was allowed to sink.
The on the to up deep-toned from
the depths.
Presently, the ceased.
Two hours later, over an object on the
ocean. The _Pelorus_ toward it. Boats from
her and the float.
After a long time the _Pelorus_ got alongside and men fastened
the to the ship. Then the down-wind sea its
appearance. A of the _Esperance_.
"Something happened," said Davis dourly. "They're the
gasoline--not it aboard. Let's out of the stink."
The _Esperance_ to windward. The _Pelorus_ to something
large and out of the water. The _Esperance_ down-wind to
take a look at it.
The past no more than fifty yards away, just as the
bathyscaphe left the water and clear.
The bathyscaphe's conning-tower was gone. It had been away by brute
force. The three-inch-thick globe.... Half of it was gone. The
rest was crushed. The sphere, which had been designed to a
crushing pressure of ten square inch, had been in half!
It had been through. Bitten!
There was no by on the _Esperance_.
Half a mile from the ship, Davis said in a flat
voice, "Cut away the dredge. We won't try to use it again."
Someone the bag. It collapsed. Somebody cut away
a rope. The free sank, slowly. It would come up again.
The _Esperance_ course. She north by west. There was
still no at all. The to away from the
scene of the bathyscaphe's destruction.
A long time later, Deirdre said tentatively, "Have you been making
guesses, Terry?"
"Guesses, yes," he admitted.
"Such as?"
"Your father that the was designed to up whatever
gathered the fish together and then them to the of
the sea. I was right there with him in the denial, but that's what we
intended, just the same. We said we didn't there was anything
there, so it couldn't do any to it. We poked, all right! Our
dredge, and then the bathyscaphe...."
"But what ..."
"And a right there a of nights ago," said Terry
irrelevantly. "I wonder what the on the ocean-bottom of
the bolide. Hm." He paused. "I wonder, too, what the of
what it there. Is that too for a man to think,
Deirdre?"
She her head.
"Why is my father on this business?" she asked. "And why are the
boys helping, and why do tell us what they out, and
why did the Philippine Government ask the _Pelorus_ to make a
bathyscaphe at just that spot?"
Terry at her.
"Too for official notice, eh?" he said, "but too not to
check up on! Is it that the are bolides?"
"No."
"Thanks," said Terry. He his as if to whistle. "I've been
thinking of this thing as a puzzle. But it isn't. I'm very much afraid
it's a threat!" He paused. "Y-y-es. I've just a new guess. It adds
everything together. I do it's wrong, Deirdre! I've got cold chills
running up and my spine!"
