Chapter 4. Grotto
Small can be beautifuclass="underline" An eagle may at times go hungry; a pet canary, never.
In a large and well-lit washroom, Boranova and Dezhnev began to remove their outer clothing. Morrison, alarmed at the prospect, hesitated.
Boranova smiled. "You may keep your underclothing on, Dr. Morrison. Just toss everything else, except your shoes, into that bin. I presume there is nothing in your pockets. Place your shoes at the base of the bin. By the time we leave, it will all be cleaned and ready for use."
Morrison did as he was told, trying not to observe that Boranova had a most opulent figure, concerning which she seemed totally unaware. Amazing, he thought, what clothes will obscure when not designed to reveal.
They were washing now, with lavish application of soap - faces to the ears and arms to the elbows - then brushing savagely at their hair. Again Morrison hesitated and Boranova, reading his mind, said, "The brushes are cleaned after each use, Dr. Morrison. I don't know what you may have read of us, but some of us understand hygiene."
Morrison said, "All this just to go into the Grotto? Do you go through this every time?"
"Every time. That's why no one goes in just briefly. And even when staying within, there are frequent ablations. - You may find the next step unpleasant, Dr. Morrison. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and hold it if you can. It will take about a minute."
Morrison followed orders and found himself strongly buffeted by a swirling wind. He staggered drunkenly and collided with one of the bins. He held on tightly. Then, as suddenly as it started, it was over.
He opened his eyes. Dezhnev and Boranova looked as though they had put on fright wigs. He felt his own hair and knew he must look the same. He reached for his brush.
"Don't bother," said Boranova, "There's more we'll have to go through."
"What was that all about?" said Morrison. He found he had to clear his throat twice before he could speak.
"I mentioned that we'd have the dust vacuumed away from us, but that's only the first stage of the cleaning process. - Through this door, please." She held it open for him.
Morrison emerged into a narrow but well-lit corridor, the walls glowing photoluminescently. He lifted his eyebrows. "Very nice."
"Saves energy," Dezhnev said, "and that's very important. - Or are you referring to the technological advancement? Americans seem to come to the Soviet Union expecting everything to be kerosene lamps." He chuckled and added, "I admit we haven't caught up with you in every respect. Our brothels are very primitive compared with yours."
"You strike back without waiting to be struck," said Morrison. "That is a sure sign of an unclear conscience. If you were anxious to demonstrate advanced technology, I could point out that it would be very simple to pave the avenue going from Malenkigrad to the Grotto and to use closed air-jets. We would need less of this."
Dezhnev's face darkened, but Boranova put in sharply, "Dr. Morrison is quite right, Arkady. I don't like your feeling that it is not possible to be honest without being rude. If you cannot be both honest and polite, keep your tongue on your own side of your teeth."
Dezhnev grinned uneasily. "What have I said? Of course the American doctor is right, but is there anything we can do when decisions are made in Moscow by idiots who save small bits of money without counting the consequences? As my old father used to say, 'The trouble with economizing is that it can be very expensive.'"
"That's true enough," said Boranova. "We could save a great deal of money, Dr. Morrison, by spending on a better road and better air-jets, but it is not always easy to persuade those who hold the purse strings. Surely you have the same trouble in America."
She was motioning even as she talked and Morrison followed her into a small chamber. As the door closed behind them, Dezhnev held out a bracelet to Morrison. "Let me tie this around your right wrist. When we hold up our arms, you hold up yours."
Morrison felt his weight lighten momentarily as the chamber floor dropped.
"An elevator," he said.
"Clever guess," said Dezhnev. Then he clapped a hand to his mouth and said in a muffled tone, "But I mustn't be rude."
They stopped smoothly and the elevator door opened.
"Identification!" came a peremptory voice.
Dezhnev and Boranova raised their bands, at which Morrison did as well. Under the purplish light that suddenly suffused the elevator, the three bracelets glittered in patterns which were not, Morrison noted, exactly alike.
They were ushered down another corridor and into a room which was both warm and damp.
"We will have to have a final scrubdown, Dr. Morrison," said Boranova. "We are accustomed to this and stripping is routine for us. It is easier - and timesaving - to do it as a group."
"If you can stand it," said Morrison grimly, "I can."
"It is unimportant," said Dezhnev. "None of us are strangers to the sight."
Dezhnev scrambled out of his underclothes, stepped over to a portion of the wall where a small red knob was glowing, and placed his right thumb immediately above it. A narrow panel in the wall slid open and revealed white garments hanging flaccidly to one side. He placed his underclothes at the bottom.
He seemed utterly unabashed about being nude. His chest and shoulders were dark with hair and there was a long-healed scar on his right buttock. Morrison wondered idly how that might have come about.
Boranova did the same as Dezhnev had done and said, "Pick a light that is on, Dr. Morrison. It will open to your thumbprint and then, when you touch it again, it will close. After that it will open only to your thumbprint, so please remember your locker number and you won't have to press every locker in order to find your own."
Morrison did as he was told.
Boranova said, "If you need to use the bathroom first, you can go there."
"I'm all right," said Morrison.
With that, the room was aswirl with a damp mist of water droplets.
"Close your eyes," called out Boranova, but it was unnecessary for her to say so. The initial sting of the water forced his eyes closed at once.
There was soap in the water or, at any rate, something that stung his eyes, tasted bitter in his mouth, and irritated his nostrils.
"Lift your arms," called out Dezhnev. "You needn't circle. It comes from all directions."
Morrison lifted his arms. He knew it came from all directions. It came from the floor, too, as he could tell by the slightly uncomfortable pressure on his scrotum.
"How long does this last?" he gasped.
"Too long," said Dezhnev, "but it is necessary."
Morrison counted to himself. At the count of 58, it seemed to him that the bitterness on his lips ceased. He squinted his eyes. Yes, the other two were still there. He continued to count and when he reached 126, the water stopped and he was bathed in uncomfortably hot and dry air.
He was panting by the time that stopped too and he realized he had been holding his breath.
"What was all that for?" he said, looking away uncomfortably at the sight of Boranova's large but firm breasts and finding little comfort in Dezhnev's hairy chest.
"We are dry," said Boranova. "Let's get dressed."
Morrison was eager but was almost immediately disappointed by the nature of the white clothes in the locker. They consisted of a blouse and pants of light cotton, the pants held by a cord. There was also a light cap to cover the hair and light sandals. Though the cotton was opaque, it seemed to Morrison that little or nothing was truly left to the imagination.
He said, "Is this all we wear?"
"Yes," said Boranova. "We work in a clean, quiet environment at even temperature and, with throwaway clothes, we can't expect much in the way of fashion or expense. Indeed, barring a certain understandable reluctance, we could easily work in the nude. But enough - come."
And now at last they stepped into what Morrison recognized at once as the main body of the Grotto. It stretched away before him - between and beyond ornate pillars to a distance he couldn't make out.
He could recognize none of the equipment. How could he? He was entirely a theoretician and when he worked in his own field, he used computerized devices that he had designed and modified himself. For a moment, he felt a stab of nostalgia for his laboratory at the university, for his books, for the smell of the animal cages, even for the stupid obstinacy of his colleagues.
There were people everywhere in the Grotto. There were a dozen nearby and others farther off and the impression was of the interior of a human ant hill crawling with machinery, with humanity, with purpose.
No one paid any attention to the newcomers or to each other. They went about their work in silence, their steps muffled by their sandals.
Again Boranova seemed to read Morrison's mind and when she spoke it was in a whisper. "We keep our council here. None of us knows more than it is good for him - or her - to know. There must be no leaks of significance."
"But surely they must communicate."
"When they must, they will - minimally. It reduces the pleasure of camaraderie, but it is necessary."
"This kind of compartmentalization slows progress," said Morrison.
"It's the price we pay for security," said Boranova, "so if no one talks to you, it is not a personal matter. They will have no reason to talk to you."
"They'll be curious about a stranger."
"I have seen to it that they know you are an outside expert. That is all they need to know."
Morrison frowned. "How can they expect an American to be an outside expert?"
"They don't know you're an American."
"My accent will give me away at once as it did to the serving woman."
"But you will not talk to anyone, except for those to whom I will introduce you."
"As you wish," said Morrison indifferently.
He was still looking around. Since he was here, he might as well learn what he could, even if it should turn out to be trivial. When - if - he returned to the United States, he would surely be asked for every detail he had observed and he might as well have something to give them.
He said in Boranova's ear, "This must be an expensive place. What fraction of the national budget is expended here?"
"It's expensive," said Boranova, admitting nothing further, "and the government labors to limit the expense."
Dezhnev said sourly, "I had to work for an hour this morning to persuade them to allow a small additional experiment for your benefit - may the Committee catch the cholera."
Morrison said, "The cholera no longer exists, even in India."
"May it be reinstated for the Committee."
Boranova said, "Arkady, if these supposedly humorous expressions of yours get back to the Committee, it will do you no good."
"I'm not afraid of those pigs, Natasha."
"I am. What will happen to next year's budget if you infuriate them?"
Morrison said, with sudden impatience, but speaking even more softly, "What concerns me is neither the Committee nor the budget, but the simple question of what it is I am doing here."
Dezhnev said, "You are here to witness a miniaturization and to be given an explanation of why we need your help. Will that satisfy you, Comrade Am- Comrade Outside Expert?"