CHAPTER-13
the spider in the well
Kim crouched in the pocket they had cut near the head of the shaft, watching as Ikuro and his brothers prepared the Cutter, tending it gently and encouraging it as if it were some massive beast - which, in truth, it was. Earlier he had patted its diamond-tough flank and felt its unexpected warmth. Unexpected, because this was a creature that could cut through solid rock and withstand the force of vacuum on its skin.
Seeing the Cutter whole as they towed it across to the drilling site, it had reminded him immensely of a giant maggot, its narrow segmented body tapering at each end. At the front end were the rotating jaws, a long, toughened gullet leading to a small but efficient refinery where all of the valuable minerals were extracted. Two smaller gullets led to the rear, one disposing of the waste in the form of neat pellets, the other leading to an expandible storage sack.
All in all it was ingenious. GenSyn, of course, but made to the specifications of the Ishida family.
Ikuro turned to him, the light in his helmet revealing a distinct smile.
"We're ready," he said, his voice sounding in Kim's own helmet. He drifted toward Kim slowly, then gestured to the lightweight transparent shields - like full-body riot shields -that were stacked to one side of the cave-like pocket. "You'd best take one of those. There's not usually much 'loose', but if s best to take no chances, neh?"
Kim nodded, then turned and, pushing off, floated over to the stack and picked one up. He was studying it, conscious that it wasn't polymer-based, when Ikuro came alongside him.
"It's processed rock," Ishida said, taking one for himself, then looking to Kim with his incessant grin. "It doesn't really matter what you use, Kim San, it's the way you fold the molecules that gives it its strength. That and the vacuum between each layer."
Kim smiled. So it was. It was just that he was so used to things being made of plastic. But it made sense. After all, what did they have most of in the asteroid belt? Rock and vacuum.
It made him understand. Going out there, things would change. Life adapted. And out there they would have to adapt very quickly, or die.
And when we come back? he asked himself, imagining things a thousand years hence. WHl they even recognise us back on Chung Kuo? That is, if Chung Kuo is still a living, breathing planet.
As ever, the thought of it engendered in him a mixed response -of excitement. . .and fear. Fear that somewhere along the line -as the result, perhaps, of extreme evolutionary pressures -mankind might become inhuman. Might spawn . . . well, De-Vores. A harder, more intelligent species, yet lacking in that moral sense that made mankind essentially a decent creature.
"Okay," he said, shaking off the sudden mood. "Let's see what it can do."
The drilling shaft had been cut by hand - Ikuro and his brothers working six-hour shifts, turn and turn about, until it was done. Only then could they use the Cutter. Now it was the machine's turn.
"Five days it'll take," Ikuro said, reaffirming what had been said earlier.
"What if it hits something hard enough to break its cutting jaw?" Kim asked, following Ikuro out into the gap between the Cutter and the shaft wall, moving slowly along the narrow space, his right hand hauling him along the Cutter's blood-warm flank, the shield scraping along the rough rock wall to his left.
Ikuro laughed. "If it hits something that hard, then we've struck solid diamond. And if we've struck diamond, then we buy another Cutter! Maybe two!"
Kim smiled, but still he was tense about this. It was so important. If they could - as the first estimates suggested -knock six months off the cutting schedule, then they could hit the earlier window. They could leave before the year's end - a full year earlier than they'd originally planned.
As the Cutter tapered, the gap grew wider until they could see the far wall. Several dozen of Ikuro's relatives had gathered there. Seeing Kim, they nodded their helmeted heads at him and grinned, or lifted their safety shields in welcome. A friendly bunch, sociable as only a close-knit community could be.
"You say when," Ikuro said, looking about him to check that all was in order.
"Aren't we in the way here?" Kim said, conscious of the huge bulk of the Cutter in the tunnel behind him.
"We would be if we were staying, but this is only a test. To show you what she can do." "She?"
Ikuro grinned again. "She's most definitely female. A real softie" Kim laughed, surprised. "Soft, huh?" Again Ikuro nodded. "Have you ever met a man who could work as hard as a woman? Who could endure as much? You think men would have babies if they had to suffer that kind of pain? No. The human race would have died out long ago. That's why we know she's a girl." He patted the Cutter's flank fondly. "Besides, she's a sweet thing, neh?" "Neh," Kim agreed. Then, "Well, shall we begin?" Ikuro turned, waving his brothers and cousins and uncles back. "Okay. I think she's hungry."
Kim watched, fascinated, as one of the brothers - the big one, Kano - drifted over to the Cutter's mouth and, undaunted by the massive ring of huge, shovel-like teeth, began to murmur to it. It seemed to tremble, like a struck bell, and then slowly, very slowly it began to edge forward, its segmented sides undulating gently, moving its huge bulk with a delicacy Kim would not have believed possible.
As the watching men moved back, it edged its way slowly forward until the edge of its jaws were touching the surface of the rock.
Kano's voice sounded in every helmet. "Shields up!"
Kim lifted his, staring through it as the jaws locked and began very slowly to turn, a strangely glutinous substance trickling over the jet black gums as it picked up speed. There was a crunching, a grinding that grew louder and louder. The air began to get hot. Soon the noise became unbearable. And then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped.
It had lasted only two minutes. At the end of it, the Cutter eased back, its jaws flexing once before they froze rigid again.
"Go and look," Ikuro said, nudging him forward.
He drifted across, amazed to see how far the Cutter had bored into the rock in that short time. Why, a team of men would have taken an hour to do as much, even with the latest equipment.
"Excellent," he said, turning to stare at Ikuro and his brother, steadying himself against the wall as he did, the heat of the rock transmitting itself through his glove. "And you say it doesn't need to rest?"
Ikuro shook his head. "The perfect woman, neh?"
Kim smiled, though he wasn't so sure Jelka would have liked the joke. "And when if s done?"
"Then we take over," Kano said, tapping his chest confidently. "Five days, six at most, and you have the best blast-hole you've ever seen!"
"Good," Kim said. "Excellent! Then you have the job."
"We have . . ."
Ikuro's whoop of joy made Kim put his hands up to his helmet. From all sides came the noises of celebration.
"Okay," Kim said, after a moment, "let's get out of here and let her get to work, neh?"
"Neh," both Ikuro and Kano answered him, as one, bowing their heads sharply, the movement sending them into a spin.
"Right," Kim said, making sure he did not laugh, lest it upset them. "And then we'll go back to my office and sign the terms straight away."
"Father?"
Kim turned, still laughing, his hand on Ikuro's shoulder, as his son came into the room.
"You should have seen it, Sampsa," Kim began, gesturing out through the big viewing window toward the drilling sight, his eyes still full of the sight of the Cutter biting into the rock, "why, I've never seen . . ."
He stopped abruptly, noting something in Sampsa's face.
"What is it?" he asked, suddenly more sober. "What's happened?"
"It's Tom," Sampsa answered ominously. "He says there's been a message. From mother." "Tom?" Kim frowned. "But I thought. . ."
Sampsa raised a hand. Kim could see now he'd been crying. "I think you should take the call at once."