37

 

March 30, 2042

 

When he awoke in the morning, he was alone in the bunk. Alone on the whole deck. There were sounds from the galley below, and the beckoning smell of coffee. He dressed quickly and descended.

Elle was scraping eggs onto a plate, but she didn’t turn or speak. Bheru gave him a weary glance from the couch before returning his attention to his e-tablet. Matheus looked up from the computer workstation, his habitual smile back on his face. The man’s hand moved slightly, and Alex realized that he was giving the OK sign.

Well, it was too much to expect the nighttime escapade could have gone unnoticed.

Once Elle had carried her breakfast up to the comm deck, he poured a cup of coffee for himself and climbed down to the lab where Lee-Anna was working on a long rod-like device with holes at intervals along its length. She looked up and her eyes lit with amusement.

“You’re trying to think of something meaningful to say. Don’t. Last night was fun—don’t get hung up on it.” She went back to fitting a wire coupling together.

“Everybody heard.”

She laughed. “You didn’t seriously expect them not to. I wasn’t thinking of privacy when we built this place. We forgot two things: an exercise room and a love nest—or maybe just the one space to do double duty.”

“Yesterday, I thought you hated me.”

Lee-Anna waved a hand. “I was getting twitchy—too much pent-up energy. I needed an outlet for it. A release.” She smiled. “Thanks for the therapy.”

“Will you need another treatment?”

“Maybe.” Her eyelashes were lowered, the smile a tease. “If you’re concerned about my guy David, don’t be. With both of us travelling for work, we spend so much time apart it isn’t realistic to expect celibacy, and we don’t.”

He shrugged. It wasn’t his place to judge.

She leaned toward him and whispered, “I’m sorry if it screws things up between you and Elle, though.”

“Elle? But we …”

Her scornful look stopped him. Instead, he scratched the back of his head and asked, “What are you working on?”

“It’s a sniffer—a chemical sensor. I figured while we’re watching the vent communities, we might as well get readings on the gases and minerals being released. They might not tell us anything, but you never know. Two of the camera stands are close enough to vent outlets that I should be able to attach a couple of these and extend them into the flow.”

“Makes sense.” He sat on the other stool. “Do you really think that the shrimp circle was accidental? Just a coincidence?”

She hesitated. “No, I don’t. There’s an intelligence here that can access our thoughts, and especially Elle’s. No point denying that. But I do think it would be unwise to tell Phillip too much. The man has an agenda we know nothing about, and he makes me nervous.”

“Fair enough. Do you need any help?”

“Only once I’m ready to plant them. And Bheru or Matheus should come with me, not you. Besides, we can’t make out in dive suits. Although with the right programming ….”

His face must have showed his surprise because she laughed and said, “I’m kidding. Go find something to do.”

He’d reached Deck Two when Elle’s voice came from above.

“Phillip wants to talk to Alex. Alone.”

Her face was as expressionless as her words when he entered the comm deck. Without looking up or saying anything more, she climbed down the ladder. Alex put on the headset and plugged it in.

“What’s with Elle? Did you two have a fight?”

Phillip wore no trace of a smile. Alex cleared his throat.

“No, it’s nothing. What’s going on?”

“Have you made any progress?”

“We, uh, have reason to believe that the organisms at the vents can be affected by whatever’s down here.”

“Really? But they don’t have developed brains.”

“Maybe their nervous systems just react to the energy frequency like ions to an electrode. We don’t know, but we’ve set up cameras to watch the vent communities and Lee-Anna’s going to place chemical sensors to monitor the output of gases and such.”

“Has Elle picked up anything more?”

Alex looked toward the ladder and spoke even more quietly. “I’ve asked her to try to communicate but there’s … nothing so far. But she would have told you all this. Why did you ask to speak to me?”

“Our intelligence services have kept the Russians and the Chinese in the loop about the energy transmission since the beginning—we weren’t able to cover up what happened to the airliner passengers, and we needed the help of the Chinese moon probe. Now they’ve become aware of the habitat’s presence here. They know it’s not just routine exploration, so they’re both assuming we’ve found something that might be a potential threat. Political paranoia being what it is, they’re not willing to risk our making use of whatever we’ve found, or having us botch the job and let it get loose.”

He rubbed the tip of his nose with a finger. “We’re not anticipating any belligerent action yet, and you’re too deep for a conventional submarine to reach; but we don’t know the full capabilities of their robotic drones. Orion will keep watch, but there are thermoclines that interfere with her sonar. I suggest you activate the habitat’s own passive sonar. If anything comes snooping, just let us know immediately and we’ll take it from there.”

“Shit!” Alex swallowed. “It’s weird enough down here. You expect me to do this without telling anyone? Lee-Anna will know right away.”

“That’s up to you. If, as you say, the situation is strained already—nothing will be gained by burdening everyone with things they can’t do anything about.”

“That seems to be your mantra, Phillip.”

The other man frowned. “Let’s not forget that we have an important mission to perform. There’s no place for personal opinions. Or hasty judgements.” He ended the call.

Alex returned to the lab deck, ignoring quizzical looks from the others as he passed down through the Deck Two lounge, annoyed at Phillip’s obsession with secrecy. Lee-Anna swiveled to face him, arms crossed. He told her what Phillip had said.

She nodded. “I’ll look after it. Does it strike you that this is a little convenient, setting the stage for a quick pull-out if or when Phillip feels like it?”

His answer was a shrug. He sat down at the counter beside her and picked up a wire stripper, squeezed it closed and looked at the diminishing size of the holes. “I don’t think he’s lying, but there’s a good chance the Russians and Chinese want us to know they’re keeping an eye on us.”

She gave a half smile and shook her head, turning back to a screw she was tightening.

“You guys have odd concepts of foreplay.”