My attention naturally turned to the Nano ships, still on station in a mass around Eden-12.
“If we could only get the Nano ships to join us, we could take them out right now,” I said. “Any more successful contacts, Marvin?”
“Nothing new, Colonel Riggs,” Marvin said. “They simply repeat the requirement that we speak with their commanders.”
“How are we supposed to do that? Do they expect me to fly to the gas giant and land on it?”
“Possibly.”
“What is the gravitational pull down there?” I asked.
“About two point five times that of Earth.”
I blinked in surprise. “Why is that? I thought I’d be instantly crushed if I went to a planet with that much mass.”
“This is a common misperception,” Marvin admitted. “The gas giant is over three hundred times the total mass of Earth, but it is far less dense. If it was compressed to a solid ball, it would collapse a human body standing on the surface. The real problem with visitation is its lack of a solid surface. The semi-gaseous, semi-liquid matter that makes up Eden-12 is quite unlike the atmosphere of rocky worlds like Eden-11 or Earth. It is-cloud-like.”
I thought about that. I’d understood these things, but hadn’t thought of such a place in terms of visiting there. I shook my head, was I actually considering taking the Blues up on their nebulous invitation to visit their nebulous homeworld?
“What about temperature? Wind velocities?”
“Colonel Riggs?” Sandra asked, interrupting me.
I looked at her. She gave me a fake, sweet smile. “You aren’t honestly thinking of trying to walk on this hydrogen-methane waterbed, are you?”
“Well, I don’t know. If we could somehow talk them into joining us, it might be worth the risk. Together, our fleets could push the Macros out of this system. I’m sure of it.”
Sandra compressed her lips into a tight line. “Maybe Marvin should do it. He can survive temperatures and levels of pressure a living creature never could.”
Up until this moment, Marvin had been focusing most of his cameras on the various screens and different people’s faces. But at this point I gained four cameras, while Sandra warranted three. I glanced at him, and saw the lenses rotate and zoom. He was trying to catch my expression from many different angles to analyze it.
“That’s not a bad idea,” I said. “It’s a terrible one. Marvin is a machine, and if these biotics trusted machines, they would be dealing with the Macros. Also, no offense Marvin, but I don’t think you are tremendous when it comes to diplomacy.”
Marvin continued to study us quietly. I wasn’t sure if he wanted to go, or didn’t, but I was certain he was interested in the discussion.
“If you go down there, you might not be able to escape the gravity,” Sandra continued stubbornly. “You might drift deeper than you wanted to. You don’t even know where the Blues are! It’s a big world. What if you land in the equivalent of their Sahara Desert?”
“These are all reasonable concerns. But possibly, I could fly out to the system and visit with them via radio at a safe distance from orbit. Their requirements are vague.”
“No, I don’t agree,” Marvin said, suddenly joining the discussion. “I’ve been the translator throughout, and I believe they want to experience you as a physical being.”
“ Experience him?” Sandra asked. “You mean like eat him?”
“Yes, something like that. They are not structurally the same as other biotics. They are not solid individuals. When they meet one another on their world, their forms meld together. Some part of each individuals is left with the other.”
“Oh, this is getting better all the time,” Sandra said. “How would you translate their words if you don’t go down with Kyle?”
“I could do that from higher orbit. I must be allowed aboard the ship at least. I’m afraid the ship and I would count only as machines to the Blues. We are tools to them, not as important as living things.”
“Maybe I could get out of my ship,” I said thoughtfully, “and visit them in my battle suit. It’s like a tiny spaceship, anyway. Do you think that would be good enough for them, Marvin? Do you think they would feel they had- experienced me?”
Sandra’s expression changed from suspicion to alarm. Everyone else on the command crew appeared incredulous. Only Marvin and I were deadly serious. In truth, the idea was growing on me. I’d always wanted to meet with the Blues. I’d wished them harm in the past, but now I simply wanted to understand them. To experience the creatures that had unleashed such robotic hell on their neighboring worlds. Had they done so intentionally or accidentally? Did they even grasp their own guilt?
I recalled the creature that referred to itself as Introspection. When I’d accused it of creating the Macros and Nanos and releasing them upon unsuspecting neighbors, it had finally drifted away. We’d never found it again on Eden-11. Perhaps it had headed out into space, or dissipated into the atmosphere. If I went to talk to its fellows on the gas giant I was sure I would learn something about them, about why and how all of this had happened. The idea that I might learn great truths was magnetic.
Marvin felt it too, I could tell. His burning curiosity to understand the mysteries of the universe around him was unmistakable. Right now, I shared his lust for knowledge. All of this fighting and dying-what was it all about? How had it all started? I wasn’t sure I would get answers from the Blues, but if they didn’t come from that source, we’d probably never learn the truth.
“I think I’m going to try it,” I said thoughtfully.
“But Kyle,” Sandra said. “The temperatures, the pressure-the winds! They move at hundreds of miles per hour. You’ll be frozen and torn apart if you even take off your helmet. You won’t be able to breathe or see anything.”
“I’ve considered those contingencies,” Marvin said suddenly. “I have made preparations.”
Everyone stared at him. What the hell was he talking about? I was immediately suspicious. Was this all part of Marvin’s scheming? I could see it now. He wanted us to come to this conclusion. He’d been very quiet, only inserting various facts at critical points of the conversation. Just how smart was my pet robot? It was time to find out.
“What have you got, Marvin?”
He squirmed a bit before answering. Uncoiling his lower tentacles, he inched closer to me, and I got the impression he wanted to talk in a conspiratorial whisper, but didn’t know how. When he did speak, he’d turned his volume down a notch. It was pointless of course, as everyone in the room was listening closely. I didn’t blame them.
Marvin directed a loop of a small, upper tentacle toward Sandra. “It has been done before. Nothing new. Only this time, there would be controlled input and superior output. I can replicate what has been done-but more than that, I can improve it.”
I eyed him, and glanced at Sandra. She caught on at the same moment I did, I thought.
“Oh no,” she said. “You can forget about that, robot. I don’t want you putting Kyle into some kind of microbial bath. I went through it, and I wish I hadn’t.”
Marvin considered her with a half dozen artificial eyes. “Are you certain of that, Lieutenant? There have been several instances where your new abilities were crucial. I’ve studied the medical records, after-action reports and vids. I believe that in at least two instances Colonel Riggs would have perished if not for your new abilities.”
Sandra had her hands on her hips. She was a sucker for a compliment, but she was suspicious by nature as well. She glared at Marvin. “I’ve saved Kyle at least three times, by my count,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean I want you to make him into some kind of freak like me-or something worse.”
Marvin squirmed and shuffled his coils. His cameras shifted from one face to another, studying us. I tried to count all his cameras-there had to be about fifteen now. He must have added some new ones. More tentacles, too.