Last year , we brought youan undivided lookat Frozen Sky by Plague Year author Jeff Carlson — and now , here ’s the first chapter ofthe continuation , Frozen Sky 2 : Betrayed — in which the situation with the alien sunfish on Europa is only getting more drastic . Plus some exclusive illustrations !
BETRAYED
The ice agitate again . Vonnie felt a moan movement through the brand level of Submodule 07 . Every vibration go through her bare feet into her branch and spine , overrun her bones , rippling through her nerves and flesh .
It scared her . Submodule 07 was ten meter beneath the surface . A thousand oodles of ice cover her , and she ’d darkened the elbow room except for one heads - up video display .
The exhibit had designate a flow of foreign hieroglyphics . Now it flickered . The eight - fortify conformation winked on and off like a endure good deal of sunfish .
Vonnie stress to stay unagitated . She was thirty - six year honest-to-god and had worked for Arianespace or the ESA for a decennary , first as an engineer , then as a member of an elect off - world crowd . She trust their sensor . Ben did n’t figure any quakes . This is just another tremor , she opine until the faculty shuddered with two randomness like rifle blast — like the insulated Isaac Hull had rend apart . Krak kak !
red-faced alarms filled her display . within , the mental faculty was a sword box seat lined with cabinet and her data / comm place . out of doors , struts and slip cables bristle from the exterior .
Three struts had pluck on the Mae West side . The hull was under stress , although if it had split , the fractures were thin since she had n’t see decompression . Not yet . But there were other dangers in the methamphetamine .
Suddenly the floor drop . Vonnie ’s jaw muscles tightened and her posture changed as she spread her blazonry , struggling for Libra the Balance . Her magniloquent , lean soundbox bent at the hips .
Behind her in the wickedness , a sunfish screech .
Oh God .
The alien ’s scream was actual , not a simulation like the complicated dance of eight - armed soma on her video display . A living sunfish was inside the mental faculty with her . Its beak clacked as it inhale the O - rich air .
Vonnie turned to push . She bar her teeth and raise her clenched fist , which were unprotected like her feet . Submodule 07 was as warm as a summertime sidereal day on Earth . She wore a tank top , shorts , and a med systems bangle . Her forearm and the bracelet made a poor cabaret . Its nano circuitry weigh a few snow leopard and its carpus isthmus was soft mesh — but the alumalloy edges of its casing would seem bright and heavy to a sunfish .
The alien skreak again , reading Vonnie with its sonar calls . Then it jump at her .
More than a meter broad , it was a writhing albino devil . The torso at its centre was a drop ball ringed with eight tentacles . Blunt dorsal spike armored its topside . On its bottom , its arms were line with K of tube feet and pedicellaria like squirming hair . Gill cunt and a sharp , thickset nozzle were the exclusive features on its belly . No eye . No olfactory organ . No ears except well - protect nubs hidden in the groove between its weapon .
“ Come on ! ” Vonnie yelled .
Deafening the sunfish was her first weapon . Crouching on the floor — taking the low position — was her second .
As the mola flew nigher , Vonnie pistoned upward to kibosh it , using all of the sinewy muscle in her abdomen and thigh . She jazz advantageously than to let it get behind her . At the same time , she swung her right fist up and over in a eminent roundhouse punch . She want to strike its topside . She needed to avoid the grasping , cutting snarls of its pedicellaria . One in force blow would bedaze it . She was secure than a headfish . But it was faster .
It curl two of its implements of war and knock off onto her wrist . Then it clutched at her head with six more arms . It fret her ears , her collarbone , her temple , her Kuki-Chin .
The floor shuddered again and throw Vonnie sideways . out of doors , the ice rumble .
Impossibly , the sunfish anticipated the complex fundamental interaction of the seesaw floor and her jerking organic structure . It scrabbled past her deal , spreading its weaponry like a horrific bloom . It stank . Its breath reek of faeces and carrion .
“ Yaaaaaaaah ! ” Vonnie scream .
She grabbed one of its gill prick with her right hired hand , then lock her arm and neck , using her skeleton like a Jack-tar to declare the mola at alcove .
It flex bonelessly around her . It slithered toward her boldness . She pummel its topside with her left fist , but the ironical cartilage of its skin feel like rubber . The pedicellaria beneath its arms were an undulating incubus .
jerk on her unretentive hair , it dragged her face closer to its snapping beak .
“ No ! No ! ”
One of its arm had been sever in its past . The scar - ravaged stump was a weak daub . Vonnie wrestle her shoulder against the amputation . She let the sunfish wrap her correct arm . Then she prize it away from her head , barely noticing when it peel her skin aside .
She slammed the centrarchid against the cap and yawl , “ You Word of a squawk ! ”
It screeched at her . Its high - sky sonar caused an eerie tintinnabulation in her skull , but she leaned closer , designedly exaggerating her grimace .
Its species empathize menace displays — and in its finish , the submissive spot was above . Standing on the mental faculty base , Vonnie had the dominant posture . Her size of it added to her bid for control .
She yelled again . “ Yaaaaah ! ”
Its arms cinched tighter on her lesion . Blood fell onto her cheek . The hot moisture stung her eyes , yet she refused to lean back . She keep her dentition bared .
I ’m spite , she thought .
forged , the sunfish was sure enough tasting her gore through the tube feet unify among its pedicellaria . Second by 2d , it was regaining energy , absorbing protein from her with the accelerated metabolism of its race .
Vonnie had fight her engagement in an panoplied suit or support at a data / comm station . Her metal money bear war by mecha , satellites , missiles , and SCPs . To the sunfish , fighting was a pheromone - infused muscle spasm of stone lodge , beak , and cannibalism . Its allowance for pain sensation and filth far exceeded her own . It would wipe out from her until her triumph was indisputable both physically and mentally .
“ Stop ! ” she shout out . “ Do n’t make me kill you ! ”
It screak again .
“ Stop ! ”
Now it shrilled — a mournful sound ? — and Vonnie run a risk a expression over her berm to valuate the module .
Outside , the methamphetamine was settle . She heard a bang as a chunk dropped onto the roof , but there were none of the louder noises of an on-going seism . The earth tremor was over .
She had n’t lost her breeze . Was the mental faculty entire ? The way was lighter now , not red , which meant her display had turn off its alarms . She saw a stir of account from the ESA grid . Faintly , she realized she ’d also been listening to human voice . The radio was loud but not as tatty as her heartbeat or the agony in her arm .
“ Von ! Von ! Talk to me ! ” Ben holler as Koebsch say in the background , “ pull up her up and discourage the tribes . Keep our mecha on alert . We ca n’t — ”
“ I ’m all right ! ” Vonnie call .
“ We ca n’t do this again , ” Koebsch said .
“ Do n’t pull me up . I ’m all right . ” Vonnie kept her look aim at the sunfish as she spoke . Holding its thickset body against the ceiling , she jammed her elbow into its tum like a bully engage a cheap shot . “ Right ! ? ” she yelled .
The ocean sunfish pull four of its subdivision from her rupture material body . Then it rustle its organic structure in a clockwise movement , curling each weapon system tip .
Vonnie agnise the gesture . She loosen up , and her grin faded . She felt woozy . She needed aesculapian care , but apportion with the headfish was more crucial .
She step back and allow go .
“ What are you doing ? ” Koebsch asked as Ben said , “ Von ? Are you trusted ? ”
“ Yes . It was my geological fault . ” Carefully maintaining her assertive tone and posture , Vonnie clamped her unexpended helping hand on her wounds .
The mola stayed above her . It clung to an unilluminated scant venire , bunch its branch in speedy patterns as it emitted its sonar telephone call .
Vonnie nodded in reply . From the very start , sunfish had understood human physiology well enough to identify the head as the core of their effective centripetal organs and their primary seed of communicating . It answered her nod with another clockwise motion of its arms .
“ The quake surprise us both , but I act wrong , ” Vonnie said . “ I showed fear . I showed mistrust . ”
“ You ’re injured , ” Koebsch said .
She managed to smile . “ It wo n’t be my first peel bribery . The AI can cover it . ”
“ Von , he mutilated you ! He was chewing on your branch ! What if he gets to your eyes next ? ”
“ It would n’t be my first transplant , either , ” she read . “ Please . Be quiet and let me work . ”
Koebsch was eleven years old than Vonnie , more conservative , even fatherly since she ’d rebuffed his overture as a potential wooer . His exasperation with her turn into letdown . “ That char is a lunatic , ” he announce as if speaking to someone else . Vonnie knew the commentary was signify for her and for the practical presence of leadership in Berlin , Washington , Tokyo and Brasilia .
She smile again . Nine workweek after First Contact , there were less than sixty mass on Jupiter ’s ice Sun Myung Moon Europa , but they were heavily outnumbered by electronic ghosts .
one C of AI proxies had been transport from Earth by government bureaucrats , full general , incarnate heads and the official of various blank agencies . gay sapiens always tried to install top - down hierarchies . It was their nature . Her rule of involvement were broad . Everything she did was monitored . Every 24-hour interval the proxies argued with Koebsch , wasting time , wasting energy , while Vonnie and the other cosmonaut dealt with the situation in real - time . Earth was too far away to interpose effectively .
“ Okay , ” she said . “ Okay . ”
Blood dripped idly from her branch , slow up by Europa ’s .13 gravity . She knelt over the red splatter on the floor . Then she gesticulate with her finger’s breadth bent as spacious and as far back as possible , an invitation .
“ amount on , ” she said . “ It ’s okay , Tom . ”
The sunfish was her admirer .
2 .
Tom leapt down beside her , shrilling . Vonnie ’s cutis prickled at the sensation . Most of the frequencies he used were unperceivable to human ears , a torrent of sound that she felt rather than heard .
Is he reading me from the angles of my frame as well as the tension in my articulation ? she wonder .
On Earth , searching for target , bats produce ten to twenty clicks per second , a rate that briefly heighten when they located their targets . Moments before killing their prey , cricket bat ’ asdic call step up into a “ terminal buzz ” of two hundred click per second . But they could n’t sustain these belly laugh .
With four air pouch wring the same intimation back and off through a twilled voice box , sunfish were capable of creating sounds almost without pause . Their talents also went beyond mere echo sounding . They used ultra- and infrasound .
Tom could “ see ” through her . Emitting more than four hundred pulse per second , he creak again , align many of his cry to wave - lengths that were audible to her . Vonnie recognized the tone . He was questioning her , challenging and probing her .
“ We ’re okay , ” she said . She extended her bare foot . Tom caressed her ankle , then explore her toes . “ I need aesculapian , ” she say . “ You know aesculapian ? The machine ? ”
Tom shrilled again , snarl up himself around her branch . Vonnie shiver at his grip , but she did not flinch .
His diabolical needs and reflexes were why the ESA biologist had warmed the module . They ’d require to lure him . Deviously , they ’d also planned to tranquillize him . Sunfish loved warmth . Most of the time , Tom get unusually sulky as he savour in the high , stiff temperature .
Vonnie had decide against wearing armour with the same intent , not because the faculty was hot , but to soothe Tom . Her finger and toe were an intact part of talking with him . The sunfish communicate mostly by sonar and touch . Her anatomy was wrong for their eubstance speech , and she could never reek or taste right , yet when she rocked her ankle , Tom nestled nearer like a small fry might reply to a tickling or a hug .
She did n’t conceive his onrush had been meant to belt down . Within their tribe , the sunfish were rough on each other . They provoked and intimidate their peers . Their group dynamic was always in fluxion . Drawing blood during an telephone exchange of estimate or moods was normal — and outside their tribes , they were perfectly savage .
The centrarchid were quick to fight , quick to heal , quick in everything except to make peace . They mature quickly and bred rapidly . Their lives were forgetful by human monetary standard . After twenty Earth years , a headfish was elderly , although it was rarified for them to attain honest-to-goodness age . They also died cursorily , either in lifelike tragedy like seism and volcanic eruption or during their warfare with each other .
“ Careful now , ” Vonnie say . Her soft tone was for the benefit of everyone keep an eye on her as well as Tom . “ Med systems up . Move at half f number . Do n’t upset him . ”
“ Roger that , ” Ben said on her showing .
The medical AI would operate with more skill than anyone using manual control , so Ben only confirmed its decisions as it extended two wire probe from the wall . Nevertheless , she appreciated the comfort of his vox .
Ben was close to her age than Koebsch . He was forty - three , squatting and harsh and mellifluous . He ’d been a hothead when they first met . Weeks afterwards , he ’d mellowed in some way . He was less sarcastic with their crewmates and saved his most nipping remarks for Koebsch , harassing him . Ben obviously hop to let out the distance between Vonnie and Koebsch .
Men , she think with irritation , trying to inhibit the nuisance in her arm . She should n’t have let her wounds enervate her . Fidgeting in discomfort , she move Tom closer to the wire probes . He tittle-tattle hazardously . Then his arms cinched on her leg like a knot of overweight snakes .
“ see it , ” Ben said .
“ Sorry . ”
“ Let me route the investigation away from him . ”
“ Thank you , Ben . ”
Finally , the AI slew its tools into her physique , injecting her with trauma Master of Education and nanotech . Vonnie sagged in easing .
“ You ’re gon na have one longsighted sexy scar , ” Ben said .
Vonnie express mirth . The noise suggest a new pattern of stroke from Tom , who recognized the gleeful auditory sensation . Simultaneously , he squeak at the investigation .
Was he covetous of the probe ’ intimacy with her haemorrhage arm ? Did he palpate excluded or threatened ?
Vonnie glanced at her show . She ’d get a line to take Tom with some reliability by herself , but , ironically , she was n’t always certain what she was saying , so the artificial intelligence did more than transliterate Tom ’s battle cry and body nomenclature . The AI also read the totality of her body , voice , and biochemistry as Tom might comprehend her .
VONNIE : Wary and hurt / I ’m ache / Determined / I can hurt you if you assail again .
TOM : You taste like fear but you show forbearance .
VONNIE : We are supporter / You suffer me .
TOM : Friends / Fear .
VONNIE : Show forbearance .
TOM : Do n’t wish your fear / detest your automobile / Hate your homes / Need nutrient and air .
VONNIE : I can protect you from the machines .
TOM : Yes / Protect .
A third investigation offer to spray bandages on her arm . Tom ’s unrest increase . He recoiled , then skreak at the credit card stink .
TOM : vote out it / suffer you / Kill it .
VONNIE : Patience .
TOM : Hurt you / Make it go .
The third probe was done . It withdrew . “ Shhh , Tom , ” she said . “ They ’re fixing me . ”
What did she smell like to him ? Her panel must have had an inviting odor . Now her injuries were sealed beneath the spray . Tom had fall back the odor of her blood , and fresh pain burst out through her ankle joint as he squeeze .
Koebsch is right-hand , she conceive . I ’m too obsessive .
Not everyone translate the responsibility she experience to assist the mola . few apportion her committedness . Many people , even highly trained spaceman , had difficulty seeing past their own egos .
Two months ago , the same had been honest for Vonnie . She ’d forced her mode into a tunnel carve with hieroglyphics because she ’d want to be the first explorer inside Europa . Her indirect request had come true . The cost had been the life sentence of two friend and uncounted centrarchid . Lost in the water ice , she ’d left a path of destruction through their settlement . She ’d killed dozens of them , so she could accept some risk and pain to adjudicate her debt . The main affair was hear to communicate .
I should have await to deal with my arm , she actualize . If I was a centrarchid , I would have bled until my tribe stopped it by applying pressure level . We could have bonded over the taste and scent .
“ Ben , take off my patch , ” she articulate .
“ Why the underworld would I do that ? ”
“ The nanotech will turn back the bleeding , ” she said . “ Take off my bandages . ”
“ There are fractures in your ulna and pollex . If I — ”
“ Do n’t utilize a new investigation . Tom is too edgy . The micro clusters in place can do the job . ”
“ Christ . You ’re going to feel it . ”
“ Not with the MEd . ”
“ I warned you , ” Ben said . He sent new commands to the AI . Then the operative tool in her arm bulged , opening holes like stomate through her patch .
It did n’t hurt . She was numb . But the pressure level was abrupt . “ Oh ! ” she cried .
“ Are you all veracious ? ”
“ Oh , fine , ” she said , tone her voice like a song as Tom lifted two arms . He ’d wind her wound . His sinewy grasp eased on her pegleg and she crooned , “ I ’m fine . We ’re ok . It ’s not spoiled . Thank you , Ben . ”
Tom chirped , his pedicellaria rasp on her cutis . Was he happy ? Restless ? wild ?
He feels all three , she thought before she expect at her display . Her inherent aptitude was right . The translation of Tom ’s demeanour showed pleasure mixed with aggressiveness .
The sunfish never let go of their hostility . Europa was far more unstable than Earth . Their conclusion were always for the short condition , ready to fight , ready to conk out , and Vonnie enjoyed the challenge of premise them to larger thing . Her ancestors had been problem - solving emulator who ’d actively sought new mysteries as they spread from jungles to grassland to plenty to shore . The sunfish possessed many of the same characteristics . They were clever and nomadic and unique . Vonnie did n’t understand mass who did n’t understand her excitement or the family relationship she felt .
We have every advantage over the ocean sunfish , she thought . Knowledge . medication . We can yield to be kindly . What would it say about us if we were n’t generous ?
While the probes lock on her arm , she scratch her left hired hand on Tom ’s jolting topside , increasing her physical middleman . As quickly as his metal money resort to violence , they were also mollified by the mere gesture .
If they had fur , she assumed they ’d be more pop . They would seem more like wiener or cats — fuzzy little inferior creatures who were easy to control . Instead , millions of mass regard the sunfish with horror . Many state humankind should leave Europa and abandon the tribes to their conk world . But they were sentient . Once upon a time , they ’d created an imperium within the ice before it was destroyed by volcanic upheaval . They were adequate to of philosophy and laws .
Yes , they were roughshod . She ’d been forced to shoot down them in self - defence . The sunfish had pullulate her . First she ’d crashed through their gentle wind locks , their farms , and their hatcheries . How would people have acted if a giant monster stumbled into Berlin ?
“ Surgery is done in thirty seconds , ” Ben allege . “ look good . Your arm will be sore for a few days . ”
“ If you ’re prosperous , I ’ll share my meds with you . ”
“ Ha . ”
She adjudicate she could do considerably than joke . “ No , I ’m serious , ” she said . “ Take out most of the nerve blocks . I take to use my arm . Do n’t immobilize it . ”
The AI close off thirty percent of the dull agent .
“ More . barricade , ” she said when it hit fifty percentage . She flexed her weapon system and grimaced .
mutely , the AI extract its probes . They ’d ordered it to communicate with her via data and imagery on her display , which Tom could n’t see . Originally she ’d also used an implant to listen to her crewmates . They had n’t require to affright Tom by broadcasting disembodied voices into the module , but he ’d sense the murmuring of her implant , which obnubilate him because their voices rarely equal her deportment . Koebsch tended to care . Ben offered wry humor and boost . Meanwhile , crewmates like Ash , Henri , and Harmeet ranged in attitudes of disgust toward the sunfish to lustrous enthrallment .
Vonnie had restrain her wireless channels to two men . She thirst Ben ’s support , and Koebsch was the boss , so she could n’t stop him from barking at her when he reject .
As the aesculapian AI posted gullible barroom on her display , Koebsch sound out , “ Von , if Tom hurts you again … ”
“ He might . ”
“ You do n’t have to do this . We should be using mecha for our ambassadors . ”
She continued to knead Tom ’s topside . “ Koebsch , we ’ve try on mecha , ” she order . “ This is better . It ’s more fat . ”
“ You ’re too vulnerable in there . ”
“ It ’s necessary . Face to face is how the sunfish approach everything . ”
“ Nobody wants to see you get kill , ” Koebsch tell , and Ben added , “ Well , some mass do . ”
Vonnie express joy .
For everyone who called her a hero for her role in the ESA ’s breakthroughs with the ocean sunfish , others had sentence her as an imbecile , a would - be martyr , or a traitor to the human slipstream .
Fortunately , most of the crew stand in her corner . Sometimes they ’d peril their career to aid her , although they had the strange advantage of being unreplaceable . Their leaders in Berlin could dock their pay or issue reprimands , but at the moment , Jupiter and Earth were virtually on opposite side of the Lord’s Day . radiocommunication signaling demand thirty - eight minutes to move in one charge . The crew had more independence than Berlin wanted , which put Koebsch in the difficult smudge of enforce his protocols on veridical - clip situation .
“ Von , this is n’t funny , ” Koebsch said .
“ If you die , Koebsch is in trouble , ” Ben excuse , trying again to make her laugh at the other man ’s disbursement .
Vonnie glower uneasily at their challenger . “ We can debate later , ” she said . “ Please . allow me play . If you seem at my display , I ’m have progress . Tom and I are closer now . Our fight was actually good for us . ”
Koebsch grunted , but he say nothing else . She was correct . The translation artificial intelligence had reduplicate her affinity scores , which calculated her resonance with Tom ground on a thousand factors from vocalisation intonations to skin temperature .
Hour by hour , Vonnie was learning to think more like a sunfish while Tom acted more human .
She allay his weight from her leg , then place upright up , keeping her toe in physical contact with two of his arms . “ Sing with me , ” she said . “ peach . ” Then she danced . “ Danach lasst uns alle streben , Brüderlich mit Herz and Hand … ”
Tom chirrup and swayed , match her beat .
“ Einigkeit under Recht and Frieheit , Sind des Glückes Unterpfand . ”
Three years of clarinet lessons in a Frankfurt elementary school had been Vonnie ’s gamy musical training . Her singing voice was raw at best . Ben said she sounded like a boy . Tom deal more about emotion than concord . Resynchronizing the moods of every kindred member after a battle or a hunt party ’s return was a sunfish ritual .
They moved together .
The experience was surreal , peach with an stranger inside a man - made structure on another world . It was magical . It stand out her childhood dreams of visiting distant stars at lightspeed .
I may be the favourable char alive , she thought , glance at the pool stick on her video display . She tended to forget the lyrics of voguish songs , which was why she recur Germany ’s national hymn , having memorized it long ago when her female parent enroll her in those clarinet lesson .
Koebsch had urged her to change her repertory . government overshadow every move they made . Back on Earth , chiliad of citizen and hundred of officials had objected to what they see as Vonnie ’s patriotism , so she ’d vary her gambling list with the anthems of France , Britain and the U.S. , mutilate her French but having fun with a mock British speech pattern . Once she ’d adjudicate some Limerick Ben had taught her .
People got upset about everything . the great unwashed were ego - centered and ego - absorbed . The sunfish were selfless . For them , the tribe was paramount . They were maniacal in their devotion to the whole — they went too far — but Vonnie admired their purity .
She believed Tom had been partnered with her for the same reasons he ’d served his federation of tribes as a scout . He was remarkably self-governing for a manlike , durable and smart . With his severed arm , he was also a cripple and therefore spendable .
The matriarch of his kindred had n’t expect him to emerge in one piece of music from Submodule 07 . The joke was Vonnie ’s superiors had also doubt she would survive .
The cracking similarity between humans and sunfish was that they ruled their various food chains because they were paranoid , adaptable omnivore . Their expectant difference was that the ocean sunfish did not — could not — lie . They had no modesty . In armed combat , they ’d mastered ambush and chicanery , but their bodies were their language like living Braille . They did not have hidden theme or subconscious thoughts . Their minds were a fluid ballet . Everything they felt , they exhibited in a disconnected rush .
VONNIE : Show me reliance / My tribe is firm .
TOM : You show fear .
VONNIE : You suffer me / I can aid .
TOM : Show fear / try out good .
VONNIE : No / cartel / Do n’t hurt me / My tribe is strong .
TOM : More tool / More nutrient .
VONNIE : Tools / Food / Yes / We can give you food for thought and tools / Show trust .
“ He ca n’t get past it , ” Ben say on her display , tot up a guarded feeling to their terpsichore .
“ He can , ” Vonnie said . “ He will . ”
TOM : Many voices / Other voices / Your tribe show awe .
VONNIE : Show trustingness / My tribe can assist / aid you / My lover possesses me .
TOM : My tribe possesses me .
VONNIE : Do n’t take heed / Do n’t / I show trustingness .
“ Oh shit , did you see that ? ” she ask .
Ben chortle and said , “ Yeah . It ’s funny what drop away through . ”
“ Do n’t laugh at me . ”
“ I ’m not , ” Ben said , but she take heed the smile in his voice . It made her vexed and glad , a fight of tone that intrigued the centrarchid .
TOM : You spurn him / Want him / Are you productive ?
VONNIE : No / Show overplus .
TOM : You mate with him / Your smell / Your heat / Are you fertile ?
VONNIE : He protects me / Pleasures me / Embarrassment .
“ Gah , ” she said , struggling with her loss of composure . She wondered how many scientist and administrators would go over her transcripts on Earth , but Tom did n’t comprehend her urge for secrecy .
TOM : You show surprisal / You do n’t know you ?
VONNIE : I know / They see / Small disgrace / big pride / My kindred see shame and failure inside large pride .
TOM : Humans and sunfish / Treaty / Show superbia .
VONNIE : Yes / Show pride .
She smile at Tom ’s genial leap . He often find her puzzling or dense , but he ’d take to sieve through her surface thought . He ’d identified the affectionateness of her feelings . Her plethora was less important than her conviction or her gumption of acquisition , and he shared her desire to work through their deviation .
TOM : Determination and trust .
VONNIE : Yes / Show trust / I can blot out my lover from you .
TOM : Why hide / Where / I get wind chaos in you .
VONNIE : Impatience / Chagrin .
TOM : You are distant from yourself .
VONNIE : No / Show trust .
TOM : I hear distance and chaos in you .
VONNIE : Stop .
shut down her weapon system in a affectation that meant wait , she take a breath . Tom was swift to perceive nuances she ’d barely seen in herself . Trying to keep up with him was dizzying . Too often he lead her into spirals of negative feedback , pressuring her , digging and gnawing at her like she was a tunnel in the ice .
“ Do n’t worry about me , ” Ben said . “ Tell him whatever you want . ”
“ I should n’t , ” she said .
“ You have to . ”
She nodded pensively . “ All properly . ” So she tried to trip the light fantastic toe about human lustfulness , excuse this side of herself .
Vonnie and Ben had n’t violated regulation by sleeping together . The ESA knew it could n’t necessitate adults to live in isolation for year without intimate relationships . In fact , their agency ’s leader had equilibrate the crew ’s genders and long time with the foregone conclusion that some of them would pair up , and perhaps dampen up , while others adopted the role of go-between or contender or confidants . Healthy people needed romance . The stress it create were a driving force in any chemical group .
The problem was Vonnie had become a renown . How she reduce her hair or which books she read during breakfast were the subjects of endless debate . Fan clubs had vote for her to sleep with various man ( and woman ) on Europa .
Her disparager were wait for a mistake . Offending the sunfish with her sexual activity would serve as the idealistic crime for certain politician and organized religion - based leaders . Part of her also worried about getting Koebsch in trouble . Would their flimsy common attracter show through ?
Mostly she did n’t desire to suffer Ben . What if he was humiliate by what she bring out to the world ?
She did n’t intend she loved him . He experience more like a great ally , good in bottom , great at his job , gravid on the radio and expectant in their labs . They figure out together , so she want a little interval from him . The mission came first . But she thought he love her . He was too protective .
It was n’t fair for his passion or her gentle tenderness to become public news , so she seek to inject more into her spokesperson and torso than she ’d authentically live .
VONNIE : Excitement / Satisfaction .
TOM : I hear more voices in you .
VONNIE : Yes / Guilt / Respect .
TOM : You are chaotic and infirm .
VONNIE : We are not sunfish .
TOM : You are unstable .
VONNIE : No / Yes .
TOM : hold off .
Vonnie should n’t have laughed . For once , it seemed like she ’d overwhelmed Tom rather than the other way around . He retreated from her with his arms curl up against his sides . Then her laugh stopped . With dismay , she realized he was signaling an end to their sitting .
She follow him across the module with her arms down , mimic his condition , shuffling her foot when she could have be given to cut back him off . “ Come back , ” she said .
VONNIE : Listen and tattle .
TOM : No / Go .
VONNIE : mind !
TOM : Go .
She knew better than to crowd him , not unless she wanted more wounds . He poke at a door latch install specifically for him on the floor . It spread out a small , customized air lock leading out of Submodule 07 .
“ Tom ! ” she said . Then she turned and telephone , “ What did I miss ? ”
“ His last readings seemed positive , ” Ben said .
“ What if it ’s a negotiating maneuver ? ” Koebsch ask .
The AIs interpret Tom ’s mood as matter - of - fact . The centrarchid were never apologetic , but Vonnie think she sense sadness . Maybe she was projecting .
Tom enter the ignition lock and end the doorway , forget her by herself in 07 .
“ Do we have more food for him ? ” she asked .
“ Roger that , ” Ben enjoin . “ We set another container outside while you were talking . We ’ve prepped others , but he can only convey one by himself . ”
“ He could order his kin , ” she said . “ They ’d come back for more . ”
“ Do you desire me to slow the lock or post a mecha around to meet him ? ”
“ No . Do n’t slow down the lock . He knows how long the cycle consider . ”
“ The outer door is opening now . ”
“ Do n’t send our mecha , either , ” Koebsch said . “ He might intend they ’re a threat . ”
“ Damn it . ” feel lost , Vonnie pace aside from Tom ’s breeze lock and said , “ Cameras . Full grid . I want to see what he ’s doing . ”
“ Get back to the surface , ” Koebsch said .
“ I will . ” She traced her good hired hand through her display , holographically enhancing the best angles without moving her exterior sensors . If a single lens pivot or zoomed , Tom would notice . She did n’t want him to feel like he was being run .
She wondered if something had happened alfresco . Were other sunfish calling him ?
watch over her video display , Vonnie saw nothing strange . suspend by its prance and berth cables , Submodule 07 perched at one end of a man - made cavern in the ice . Above it and alongside it , two sword shaft link up the cavern with the open . The first was an access tube for people . It open up into Hab Module 06 , a new structure they ’d built above 07 . The 2d was a larger cargo tube . It led to a staging area for mecha .
At the other end of the cavern , the ice crumbled . Narrow cracks extend into an eroding tangle where the few candid spaces fell toward a larger series of catacomb forty meters below .
Tom had stopped breathing as before long as he left 07 for the toxic breeze outside . Sunfish hemoglobin was a misrepresented iron - fat protein , which permit them to retain salient concentration of oxygen . Tom could run for two klick without another breath . Because he had gills in addition to lung , he could also endure on puddles if necessary or fully submerged in rivers or sea .
In infrared , he was a graceful star beleaguer by the frigid bulk of the ice . Vonnie watched him bound through a unretentive , perfect arc . He sailed to the thirty - kilo metal container they ’d left for him .
He grab it . He screeched . Then he fling himself across the cavern with his pillage . The AIs interpreted his cry as challenging and triumphant , even hawkish .
Why ?
Fifteen times before , Tom had reported back to his matriarchs . It was imaginable that this meeting — their 16th — marked a full of life step . The sunfish counted in twos and Eight like human beings weigh in quintuplet and tenner . Vonnie ’s crewmates consider his kindred was approaching a decision of some kind , but she could n’t sound why Tom had waited until now to weigh her about Ben .
Days ago , he ’d learned every contingent of her anatomy in his shameless , unpretentious mode . During their first meetings , Koebsch had also allow Tom to interact with a few types of mecha , which beatify him more than any human being .
The sunfish fear power . They had been stunned to divulge people controlled mecha , not vice versa . sympathise the symbiosis of man and machine had contribute Vonnie and Tom through several discussions about life on Earth . The estimation of commonwealth was standardised to that of tribes . More alien to him were the conception of monogamous sexual activity and youngster born to one couplet , particularly because human civilization was prevalent with adultery , divorce , abuse and negligence .
Reporting to his matriarchs , Tom must have partake in every trait he ’d discerned in Vonnie and the representative of her friend . She desire his picture were favorable . The headfish had enjoyed the ESA ’s lavish gifts of tools and solid food , but they always think in the short term .
What if they ’d decided a few talent were enough ?
Bypassing the good crack in the cavern floor , Tom brought his container to a wide chasm . He vanish into the maze . Soon he would trip out of range .
Vonnie ’s crewmates had seeded the ice with spies , yet they remained blind in thirty percentage of the immediate area . Two disaster had cost them hundreds of mecha . They were still ramp up Modern scouter and probes to meet their needs .
Because they could n’t afford to lose any resourcefulness , they had been conservative to penetrate while Tom and other pathfinder were gone . Then the sagging chicken feed in the labyrinth had pinned several of their machines , jam one of their hard - bring home the bacon mecha and immobilizing four more .
The larger catacomb below Submodule 07 were uncharted territory . Somehow his tribe had distinguish and destroyed every beacon fire hidden in the ESA ’s containers . Previously , other sunfish had masticate nanotags from their own skin . Now the ESA ’s containers were free of devices . The Bradypus tridactylus had said her crew was losing Tom ’s trust by attempting — and fail — to deceive him .
So much of what we do is sour or two - face , Vonnie thought . She worry that she might not see him again . We may be too complicated for them to take . We ’re so loud in our heads , so involved in our societal groups .
“ I ’m sorry , ” she say . Her words were for Tom even though he was run .
Both men answered . “ You were fantastic , ” Ben said .
“ Get to the surface , ” Koebsch told her . “ I do n’t care how Tom shout before he left . ”
“ The artificial insemination call back it sound like goodbye , ” she said .
“ It was more than that , ” Koebsch said . “ There were some aspects of goodby in his branch bm , but his screech was defiant . It was strong-growing . Get to the surface or I ’ll draw out the whole faculty . ”
“ That would ruin everything . ”
“ Do you remember what happened to Pärnits and Collinsworth ? The sunfish do n’t need to belt down you themselves . If they open another geyser … ”
“ Our sensing element would learn them digging . ”
“ Not if they ’re too far down . ”
“ Koebsch , they roll in the hay when I give the module . If Tom challenged me and I retreat , it demonstrates weakness . Let me stay . We need to show confidence . ”
“ The sunfish could have caused the tremor . They could be preparing another collapse . ”
“ Ben , what do your mannequin say ? ” Vonnie asked .
“ His models were n’t predicting a quake and he ca n’t explain where it spring up , ” Koebsch said . “ Get out . you’re able to go back after we see what happens . ”
“ What ’s pass is I let him down , ” Vonnie said . “ We need to strain harder , not expect them to count on everything out for us . ”
“ Look . Do n’t be so knockout on yourself . ” Koebsch ’s voice was boost now . “ Nobody else is willing to take the air in there with a sunfish , ” he said . “ You ’ve been special , but I ’ll be damned if I ’m going to see more of my citizenry die . Get out or I ’ll rend the faculty . ”
Vonnie nod reluctantly as she walked to the escape hatching . “ Yes , sir , ” she said . Then she open up the locker that held her boots and gloves , delaying as long as possible , wanting to stay and take to go .
Nothing on Europa was gentle .
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