The rapid cycle from active to relaxed to active again allowed the sunfish to maintain high levels of vigilance and stamina. Among those capable of sentience, regular lulls also aided their mental health.
Vonnie should have rested herself, but she was too busy, too thrilled, and her leg ached where her muscle grafts and ankle joint needed exercising. Metzler had brought her soup; Ash had increased her next round of antirejection meds and painkillers; and Koebsch let her participate in their data analysis.
During the wait, Koebsch had also mediated discussions between his crew and officials in Berlin. Dawson was the only one to abstain. Vonnie wanted to believe he was licking his wounds, but she suspected he’d elected to continue his talks with the gene corps in private.
Heading the Earth-based leaders had been the deputy prime minister, eight senators, four generals, and a bevy of division chiefs from the ESA. Their turnout was imposing. Two months ago, Vonnie might have felt intimidated. Instead, she’d rejoiced at the attention, because if these men and women were personally overseeing the mission, they wanted results.
But where was the finish line? How did anyone define success in this case? Politically, opening relations with a tribal alien species was an expensive boondoggle with no end in sight.
“I’d like to be sure our objectives are clear,” Koebsch had said. “What do we want from the sunfish?”
It was a loaded question. The radio delay should have allowed his crew to express positive opinions before anyone on Earth weighed in, but Johal condemned the tribe. She wasn’t fussy like O’Neal, but she was neat and polite, and the behavior she’d seen apparently didn’t sit well with her.
“I’m not sure we want anything from the Top Clans,” Johal had said. “We can continue our surveillance, but given what we’ve learned, I think we have a better chance of communicating with Mid and Low Clans.”
“We’ll get to the other sunfish eventually,” Koebsch said. “We’re here now. We have an asset inside their colony. Very few of us think it makes sense to walk away.”
Johal raised her hand. “I vote we walk away.”
“Top Clan Eight-Six can teach us more of their language,” Vonnie said. “They might act as guides and translators as we move deeper into the ice. What matters is building relationships with them and learning to work together.”
“So we’re looking for a formal contract of some kind,” Koebsch said. “Do they look at writing the same way we do?”
“Probably not,” O’Neal said. “But they seem to honor their agreements.”
“Okay,” Koebsch said. “Then we want a truce or, better yet, an alliance. We want pledges for mutual aid and safe passage.”
The response from Earth was less definitive. Four of the senators had been heavily involved in the negotiations with Brazil. There were currency and trade considerations on the table as well as the new defense treaty. They’d scheduled a hearing to review the events on Europa.
It was a delaying tactic.
Fortunately, public opinion had swung vigorously in favor of protecting the sunfish. Lam’s sims had been leaked onto the net by ESA and government staffers.
In the media, Brazilian and E.U. officials blamed each other for causing the deaths of two astronauts and a hundred sunfish. Privately, Vonnie was sure, both sides knew how to come up smelling like roses. Damage control began with securing what they’d always wanted: a supply of tissue samples and more reasons to work together. People like Dawson wouldn’t quit. The senators needed to bluster and the generals needed to issue sage pronouncements. Then the prime minister would meet again with Brazil’s president, reaffirming their partnership.
Koebsch had also spoken with Ribeiro. “My team is on standby until further orders,” Ribeiro said curtly. Jealousy and admiration shone in his eyes; jealousy for seeing Koebsch taken off the leash; admiration for the ESA crew, who, although they were rivals, had achieved a difficult goal.
In her soul, Vonnie knew she wasn’t done resisting Dawson’s schemes or Ribeiro’s guns.
Meanwhile, the ESA crew was all systems go.
Vonnie looked up from the maps and rover feeds on her station when Lam said:
—We’ve left hearing range of the colony.
“Keep running,” Koebsch said. “Let’s double that margin if possible.”
—Yes, sir.
The selection of the hunting party hadn’t gone as well as they hoped. Lam was a lesser male. When he’d approached Tom and Charlotte, claiming to remember the scent of eels, Charlotte had responded cautiously, requiring Lam to describe the eels’ location four times as she groped at him, tasting his mouth and ears.
Was it possible that sunfish could lie? O’Neal said no. Their shape-based language would betray any untruth. Every one of them was a natural polygraph machine, zealously attuned to each other’s blood pressure, pulse, and respiration.
Despite their skill at laying ambushes, it seemed improbable that sunfish were capable of deceiving each other in speech. There could never be traitors among them sent by other tribes… and yet many of the sunfish might be prone to delusions and fantasy. They were smart enough to go insane, which Vonnie thought was a uniquely human trait.
Lam’s certainty won them over. The needs of the colony might have caused Tom and Charlotte to give him a chance no matter what, but they’d seemed to temper their enthusiasm. They assigned another intelligent female to go with them — it was Brigit — then added four savage males to the pack.
Maybe they always brought an imbalance of stupid brutes. If they met enemies or prey, the idiot sunfish would attack, providing the intelligent sunfish with a few seconds to decide whether they should retreat or support the assault.
The worry on Earth and among the ESA crew was that the savages would swarm Lam as soon as he revealed himself. Koebsch’s decision had been to let the hunting party move away from the colony, then wait until they paused to orient themselves in the catacombs. He wanted Lam to speak to Tom, Charlotte, and Brigit when the pack wasn’t moving at top speed with all senses heightened to the extreme.
It’s like waiting for the eye of a hurricane, Vonnie thought. Violence is never far away, but if we can catch them at just the right instant when their guards are down…
Tom led the hunting party with Lam by his side. Charlotte and Brigit kept to the nucleus of the group as the savage males bounded ahead and behind. Maybe they were protecting the females. Maybe they were demonstrating their fitness and bravery.
When the pack stopped with cat-like suddenness, scouring the ice for spoor or tracks, it was in an ordinary stretch of tunnel no different than any of the fractures or holes around them.
It was where their future would be decided.
55.
Lam pretended to join the pack in searching the ice. He sniffed at the walls as he eased away from the savage males, positioning himself near Tom and Charlotte. Then he leapt onto the ceiling, intending to flatten his body into a submissive stance above them.
The slick ice was nearly his undoing. He slipped, bringing Tom’s attention before he was set. Worse, sunfish regarded clumsiness as weakness.
“That was close,” Metzler said as Vonnie whispered, “Hush.”
On her display, an AI superimposed a transcript of the conversation among the sunfish, interpreting their cries and body shapes:
LAM: Wait and listen / I deliver myself to you.