They left Ch’ing’s body by the riverside and continued to survey the planet.
Without the floater, it was a difficult task. Most of their time was taken up in traveling-literally running from their high-latitude position up to the pole, down to the equator, and back. With their suits’ amplification they could cover a thousand kilometers or more per day.
The planet was less than promising:
There was a sea, covering a fourth of its surface, that had such a high concentration of salt that nothing could live in it, except for certain hardy microorganisms that stayed close to the mouths of rivers.
The polar cap was a frozen wasteland, arid and lifeless, where fossil snow rolled rattling, hard tiny granules pushed by a never-ceasing gale; where the wind carved ice mountains into fantastic shapes, great curving sweeps that met in razor edges to sing one long note in the wind.
A chain of dead volcanoes, their tops dusted with a golden snow of monoclinic sulphur.
An ancient weathered meteor crater, larger than Texas, perfectly round, with the vestige of a central peak-filled with sweet water and a bewildering variety of marine life. None of the creatures had telepathic properties.
Working down from the pole, the frozen sterile ground thawed into a bog, with more and more plant life as they moved toward the equator; then less life as the ground dried out and the temperature rose. The last several hundred kilometers before the equator was all parched desolation, bare gray rock and sand in monotonously regular dunes.
On their last day they hurried back to the river, so they could slingshot Ch’ing’s corpse and suit back for the scientists at Colorado Springs.
DEATH DUE TO UNDIAGNOSED GPEM MALFUNCTION had haunted all of them for seven days.
They had been pushing their suits to the limit all week.
Ch’ing had been killed by his just standing, doing nothing.
But there hadn’t been any problems. These things happen, Tania said; freak accidents. The GPEM’s are checked, double-, triple-, and quadruple-checked. But it’s as complex a mechanism as anyone has ever trusted with his life. The doctors and engineers will find out what happened to Ch’ing and make sure it never happens again. Tania said.
The river had risen and Ch’ing was standing upright in knee-deep water. They got there with more than two hours to spare, before the Slingshot Effect took hold.
They moved him out of the water and sat, waiting. Jacque took the creature out of the compartment in Ch’ing’s suit, where they had stored it (in an environment that simulated the river).
They passed the animal around and its powers seemed undiminished.
“I have a theory,” Jacque said.
“On what?” Carol said.
“Why there aren’t any land animals.” Except for the creature Ch’ing found, they’d found no animal that could survive out of the water. “When that meteor hit, you know, the big crater? It must have caused a worldwide catastrophe. Earthquakes, fires, tidal waves-“
“Fill the atmosphere with superheated steam, if it landed in water,” Carol said.
“Radioactive steam,” Tania added. “That kind of impact-“
“That’s what I mean,” Jacque said. “Nothing on land survived. Only plants and animals that were protected by a buffer of water.”
“Could be, could well be,” Tania said. “If that happened, the geologists ought to be able to reconstruct it.”
“From the samples,” Carol said.
They were quiet for some time. The only one standing was Ch’ing.
“How much longer?” Vivian asked.
“About twenty minutes,” Tania said. “Twenty-two.” Another long silence. “Well, we might as well get into position,” Tania said. “Jacque, you’ll be on top again, otherwise the heights won’t match up. I’ll be on the bottom with Ch’ing . . . Ch’ing’s suit.”
They shuffled and climbed into place, after Tania scratched a 120-centimeter circle to guide their arms and legs. “Four minutes.”
Like the first time, the transition was abrupt. One instant, they were looking out over the dirty-milk river; the next instant they were falling from a meter or so above the floor of the Colorado Springs LMT chamber.
“We have life,” Vivian said, before Jacque had even hit the ground. “Need a chamber at twenty-eight degrees, pressure point eight nine four. The following mix: nitrogen, point three five seven; argon, point two nine seven . . .” This would be the preliminary environment for the creature; they would be able to match the ambience of Groombridge exactly after analyzing the samples the Tamers brought back. “. . . and a source of circulating water, a tub. The creature is semi-aquatic.”
“And we have a fatality, Tamer Ch’ing. Undiagnosed suit malfunction.”
Before going through decontamination, they had to wait for an analysis team to come take charge of their samples. It took a while, since most of the scientists had to be routed out of bed-nobody had expected a milk-run training mission to come back with organic material.
The autopsy team, though, was ready and waiting.
Finally they went through the room of mirrors and cleansing lights, into the ready room. The cranes lifted off the top halves of their GPEM’s and they scrambled out to an orgy of backscratching. Then hot showers and clean clothes, a quick physical exam and some real food. Then six hours of rest before debriefing, while the analysts surveyed their accumulated data.
Jacque set down the totally naked bone of a ravaged pork chop. “Uh, Carol . . .”
“Sure. Should be fun.” She poured herself another glass of wine and passed the carafe down to Vivian.
“You know-“
“I’ve been waiting an hour for you to ask.”
“And I’ve been waiting for you. After all, you asked Ch’ing.”
“He would never have gotten around to it. I was curious how long it would take you.”
Jacque raised his glass. “In the interests of science, then.”
She joined him. “Pure research.”
“One of you lovebirds pass the salt?”
TO: Medical Research Group, AED Colorado Springs, Westhampton, Lyon, Nagpur, Mengtzu, La Rioja, Charleville
FROM: Johnathon Legman, M.D., Ph.D.
Andre Barnett, M.D.
Miriam Kophage, M.D., Medical Research
Group, AED Col Spr
RE: Autopsy of Tamer 1 Hsi Ch’ing
Abstract
Tamer 1 Hsi Ch’ing died on his first translation, a training mission to a fairly earthlike planet of Groom-bridge 1618. The mission was highly unusual in many respects. Not only was the planet quite viable for geoformy, but one of the animals the Tamers discovered seems to function as an amplifier for telepathic communication (preliminary report attached; Appendix VIII).
Tamer Ch’ing died at 21:32:47.6, 17 August 2051. The GPEM attempted to diagnose the cause of death but was unable to, and so communicated to the supervisor “Death due to undiagnosed GPEM malfunction,” and then froze the cadaver for later analysis earthside.
Our bioengineering section has checked out the GPEM very minutely, and reports that it is functioning perfectly. Its data crystals show no indication of malfunction at the time of the Tamer’s death. The diagnostic it communicated to the supervisor can also be interpreted “Cause of death unknown.” (Appendix III)
Our examination of the cadaver was similarly negative. Tamer Ch’ing was in excellent health on 16 August 2051 (See pre-translation physical, Appendix IV), and the cadaver likewise showed no symptoms of illness or trauma not directly attributable to postmortem freezing.
Biometric data just prior to death are ambiguous, and can be variously interpreted as indicating death due to cardiac infarction or massive cerebrovascular incident. Autopsy, however, denies the possibility of either.
28 August 2051
Contents:
Autopsy report
Appendix I: Subject’s medical history
Appendix II: Raw laboratory data
Appendix III: Bioengineering Section report
Appendix IV: Pre-translation physical & interview
Appendix V: Autopsy visuals
Appendix VI: Specialist’s report: cerebrovascular
Appendix VII: Specialist’s report: cardiac
Appendix VIII: Preliminary report: The Groombridge “Bridge”
Copies of original data crystals available on request.
EXPERIMENT SCHEDULE: Groombridge “Bridge.”
Hours Team Purpose Equipment
25 Aug
03:05 (translation) -
03:05-10:00 Senior Survey General investing.ad lib
10:00-17:00 Bio Group, Meta/catabolic Mod. Stokes
Willard meas. chamber
17:00-24:00 Bio Group, Reaction to ad lib
Jameson stimuli
26 Aug
00:00-14:00 Math Comm, ESP (stat) Rhine deck
Chandler
14:00-15:00 PR Group Public relations ad lib
15:00-22:00 Bio Group, Exp. w/modified
Van der terrestrial breathers,
Walls animals animals ad lib
22:00-24:00 Lefavre, Personal cot
Wachal (ESP, psych)
27 Aug 00:00-14:00 Math ESP (stat) Rhine deck
Comm, Fong
14:00-17:00 Riley et al Press Conference -
17:00-24:00 Bio Group, Change in Mod. Stokes
Willard metabolic chamber
rate wrt stress
increment
EXPERIMENTS 28 AUG-31 AUG TO BE DETERMINED BY RESULTS OF THE PRECEDING WORK.
1 Sept 19:00-20:49 Bio Group, Dissection Surg instr.,
Willard cameras
20:49 - (translation: “slingshot”)