Bridger walked into the conference room, stood at the door, and smiled at Terry McShane and Richard Ernst.
"Thanks for coming to meet with me."
"Captain, I don't understand. We're almost at the station... I should be getting prepared." Ernst wore a cornered look. It suits him, Bridger thought.
Then he glanced at Terry, who looked much cooler, unflappable.
"I know, Dr. Ernst. But I'm afraid something has come up, something that requires that I ask you a few questions."
Ernst shook his head disgustedly.
"And I'm here—?" Terry said.
"Oh, I have a few questions for you too, Terry. Thought I might as well make it a little party."
"Captain, I don't find this very amusing. If you will—"
"Dr. Ernst, tell me why you're really going to the Azores station."
Ernst took a breath. "Because I'm a paleobiologist, and I'm planning on advising them about—"
Bridger shook his head. "I don't think so. I don't think that there would be such tremendous urgency to get you to the station unless something was wrong."
Ernst shifted in his seat.
Bridger saw Terry's eyes on him. He was checking her for a flicker of understanding. Perhaps they're together, thought Bridger. And maybe he was the only one who didn't know what was going on.
"Tell me about the worms, these Riftia pogonophosa Azores."
Ernst raised his eyebrows, surprised that Bridger knew the name of the worms. Ernst waved the subject away with his hands. "They are giant tube worms, much like the worms found at the other vent sites—"
Bridger circled the table, coming around behind Ernst.
"No, I don't think so. You see, the other tube worms can't feed on just about anything."
"Captain, I'm afraid that the information about them is classified—"
"No, nothing is classified about this anymore. The UEO sent us everything it has on the subject. But I still don't know what you are supposed to do... and whether it's too late."
Ernst looked up. "Too late, Captain? What do you mean, too late?"
Then Bridger was at the other end of the long conference table, facing Terry. He raised a hand to Ernst, making hint hold his question.
"Which brings us to you, Terry. Isn't it kind of strange that when we have to pick up Dr. Ernst, we are given orders to take you along... for a 'routine inspection' of the seaQuest crew in action."
Terry nodded, solemn. "Those are my orders."
Bridger nodded. "Bull. I'm sure you have orders, but I doubt they have anything to do with how the scientific and naval groups on seaQuest interact."
"Captain Bridger—I must insist on getting ready."
Bridger turned back to the scientist.
"What are we going to find. Dr. Ernst? Let's assume you were vacationing at SousMer. What happened at the Azores station to end that vacation? And what's happening now?"
Ernst shifted in his seat. Bridger thought that the man wouldn't say anything, a loyal Harpe employee.
But then he cleared his throat—and began talking.
MacInnis stood with the group, all of them holding their guns.
"Has there been confirmation from the seaQuest? he asked the station's communications officer.
"No, Mr. MacInnis. They've only acknowledged our transmission." The communications officer turned to him. "It's like they're waiting for something."
Morton Dell cleared his throat. "Maybe they smell a rat, MacInnis."
"T-tell them that we're ready to send entry procedures. Tell them that we'll send them instructions on using the south sub bay."
"Won't they wonder," Dell said, "why we're not having them come in the main submersible entrance? It will make them a tad curious..."
"Something's wrong," Rodriguez said. "That's why they're not responding. God, they're not going to come in."
"No... no, we'll tell them that we're experiencing difficulties with one of the entrance hatches."
"Good one," Dell said sarcastically.
MacInnis looked at the board showing the location of everyone at the station, showing the two wings sealed off.
He thought of the main sub bay... and what it had been like when they brought the sub in, the two-man research submersible that had been dubbed Lil' Bugger.
How strange everything seemed... and how it all happened so fast...
So fast...
The submersible had been working the northern vent area, a place that was surrounded by smokers, encircled by chimneys gushing superheated toxins—H2SO over 380 degrees hot.
Rodriguez had been monitoring the dive team—Marty Abbado and Jennifer Stern. They were experts on the chemosynthesis of the vent creatures, oceanographic microbiologists with the highest possible reputation.
Abbado and Stern had raised some questions about the new species of worm that had been found in burrows at the center of the vent field.
At first, only dead specimens of the worm had been brought onto the station... It was always tricky accommodating the demands of creatures used to high pressure and the intense heat of the vent area.
And the dead creatures presented so many strange anomalies—the biggest anomaly being who was calling the shots. The bacterial colony appeared incredibly primitive, similar to communities of stromatolites that had formed over 3 billion years ago.
But this bacterial colony, this parasite, was more advanced, with different areas of the colony creature adapted for completely different purposes, each exerting control over a different part of the worm.
That's what had been learned from the dead samples.
The rest of the station was being built, with its primary focus on using the thermal energy and the unique mineral and ore resources of the area. And while that went on, plans were made for a live dissection.
A dissection that was watched by the UEO, and Harpg, live.
No one would forget what they saw.
Because that's when the nightmare began...
Lieutenant Bachmann interrupted Bridger.
"Captain, we got another message from the station. They're sounding mighty anxious, Captain. They're trying to give us information on how to enter the station." There was a pause. "Sir, they don't want us to use the main sub bay. Some problem with a door."
"I bet," Bridger said.
Ernst stood up. "Captain, I—"
There was a knock on the conference room door. Bridger said, "Come in," and Lucas ran in, breathless.
"What's the matter, Lucas? Seen a ghost?"
Lucas didn't smile. "I have something you'd better see, Captain." Lucas looked around the room. "Maybe everyone here better see."
"What is it?"
"There was a dissection performed on one of these worms. Captain. It was in the UEO file that Admiral Noyce released. I downloaded the digital video. All I'm saying is, Captain Bridger, this you've got to see..."
Bridger looked over to Ernst. "Doctor... if you wouldn't mind? A few more minutes... and, Terry, maybe you'll have something to say after you see this..."
"Captain," Lucas said, "I've set it up so we can watch it on the conference room screen."
Bridger took a seat and brought out his VR-PAL.
"Mr. Bachmann, tell the good folks at the station that they'll have to wait. We have a video to watch..."
Bridger nodded to Lucas. "Roll it, Wolenczak. The suspense is killing me."
The tape started.
Dr. Marie Thibaud, the station's chief oceanographic zoologist, had dissected the worm while Abbado and Stern looked on.
The technique she used was tricky. The live rift worm was inside a small pressurized tank of water heated to over two hundred degrees, a figure generally agreed to keep it happy.
Manipulator arms, similar to those used on the subs, were employed to make rough incisions in the worm. The idea was to see the colony creature, the parasite functioning in the worm.
The entire operation was uplinked, a live feed going to the UEO and Harpe WorldWide.
Marie talked through the delicate procedure.
"I will cut a lateral incision of one hundred centimeters from just below the mouthlike opening, and down."
Was it a mouth at the top of the creature? Watching, MacInnis didn't have a clue. It was hard to tell... it looked like a mouth, ringed with nasty teeth, or maybe it was only a serrated opening of some kind. No one knew what to expect.
Certainly not what happened.
The first cut into the worm filled the tank with a murky red liquid, a thick substance. Someone said, "It has blood."
But Marie shook her head. "No, not blood. It's too thick."
Abbado said, "I'd love a sample of that."
Marie nodded. There were vials in the tank. Samples of tissue and blood could be gathered for later examination under an electron microscope.
But now, with the tank filled with a murky red liquid, it was hard, nearly impossible, to see.
Marie looked around. And she said, "We'd best wait… until the tank clears a bit."
A small filtering system would cleanse the water. It would take a few minutes, that's all... but no one knew that they didn't even have that short amount of time.
"You've seen this, I take it?" Bridger said to Ernst.
The scientist nodded. And from the sick expression on the man's face, Bridger guessed that Ernst knew what was coming up.
"I haven't seen past this point, Captain," Lucas said.
Then Bridger glanced at Terry. And from her open-mouthed expression, he was sure that she hadn't seen the tape. Good, he thought. It's nice to know that we're in the dark... together. And he felt a bit guilty about being so hard on her.
On the tape, he heard the chatter of the people at the dissection. Someone made a joke—"Wanna see my worm?" A few people laughed, someone groaned. The water was clearing...
Just as Bridger began to feel that something bad was about to happen...
Marie turned back to the tank, the water only slightly tinged red, but still the tube worm, the Riftia Azores, was a shadowy creature.
"Okay," Marie said. "I'll wait another minute. Then I'll—what?"
Everyone was looking at the tank, at the manipulator arms poised above the creature, one holding a sharp scapel-like device, the other grasping claws.
"That's strange."
MacInnis remembered saying, "What is it?" What's strange? Because he didn't see anything weird. Just the worm, and some dark, blackish material underneath the how open fold of skin.
It didn't look extraordinary to him.
"God—" Marie said. "I don't know. What's going on... In the..."
Jennifer Stern leaned close, putting her face right up to the tank. Maclnnis was going to tell her, We can't see, Dr. Stern. Please, could you please—
Marie Thibaud brought the grasping arm close to the worm, grabbed a flap of cut-open skin—
And, as she started exposing what lay beneath, the opening seemed to rupture, and something flew out of the open hole.
Whatever it was crashed against the glass of the tank, and Jennifer Stern screamed, reeling backward.
Whatever had been inside the worm had jumped out.
Living on its own.
Jennifer laughed, everyone laughed. It was so scary, so funny being startled like that, as if they were all kids at some spook show.
But then MacInnis, laughing too, feeling nervous, heard a sound.
Someone said, "Look at it. Look at what it's doing..."
MacInnis looked back to the tank. The thing that had been inside the worm was now smashing against the glass, pulling back, and then throwing its weight against the glass, trying to get out.
"We'd better—" MacInnis started to say.
But then he heard a crack...