The COMPLEAT Collected SFF Works, page 483
"Sorry," Conway said, laughing, and began climbing into his own suit.
THE WRECK looked like a long section of metal tree trunk with a few short, twisted branches sprouting from it, Conway thought as they launched themselves from Rhabwar's casualty lock toward the distressed alien ship, but apart from those pieces of projecting metal the vessel seemed to have retained its structural integrity. He could see two small viewports reflecting the ambulance ship's floodlights like two tiny suns. One of the ports was set about two meters back from the bows of the wreck and the other a similar distance from the stern, although it was impossible to say just then which was which, and he had learned that there were another two viewports in identical positions on the side hidden from him.
He could also see the loose, transparent folds of Tyrell's portable airlock clinging to the hull like a wrinkled limpet and, beside it, the tiny figure of what could only be the scoutship's Orligian medic, Krach-Yul.
Fletcher, Murchison, and Conway landed beside the Orligian. They did not speak and they tried hard not to think so that Prilicla, who was slowly circling the distressed vessel, would be able to feel for survivors with the minimum of emotional interference. If anything lived inside that wreck, no matter how faintly the spark of life glowed, the little empath would detect it.
"This is very strange, friend Conway," said Prilicla after nearly fifteen minutes had passed and they were all radiating feelings of impatience in spite of themselves. "There is life on board, one source only, and the emotional radiation is so very faint that I cannot locate it with accuracy. And contrary to what I would expect in these circumstances, there are no indications that the survivor is in a distressed condition."
"Could the survivor be an infant?" Krach-Yul asked, "Left in a safe place by adults who perished, and too young to realize that there is danger?"
Prilicla, who never disagreed with anyone because to do so might give rise to unpleasant emotional radiation from the other party, said, "The possibility cannot be dismissed, friend Krach-Yul."
"An embryo, then," Murchison said, "who still lives within its dead parent?"
"That is not impossible, either, friend Murchison," Prilicla replied.
"Which means," the Pathologist said, laughing, "that you don't think much of that idea, either."
"But there is a survivor," the Captain said impatiently, "so let's go in and get it out."
Fletcher wriggled through the double seal of the portable airlock and under the folds of tough, transparent plastic which, when inflated, would form a chamber large enough for them to work at extricating the survivor and, if necessary, provide emergency treatment. Murchison and Conway, meanwhile, spent several minutes at each of the tiny viewports, which were so deeply recessed that their helmet lights showed only areas of featureless leathery tegument.
When they joined the Captain in the lock, Fletcher said, "There are only so many ways of opening a door. It can hinge inward or outward, unscrew in either direction, slide open, or dilate. The actuator for this one appears to be a simple recessed lever which—Oh!"
The large metal hatch was swinging open. Conway tensed, waiting to feel the outward rush of the ship's air tugging at his suit and inflating the portable lock, but nothing else happened. The Captain grasped the edge with both hands, detached his foot magnets so that his legs swung away from the hull, and drew his head deep inside the opening. "This isn't an airlock but a simple access hatch to mechanisms and systems situated between the inner and outer hulls. I can see cable runs, plumbing, and what looks like a—"
"I need an air sample," Murchison said, "quickly."
"Sorry, ma'am," Fletcher said. He let go with one hand and pointed carefully, then went on, "It seems obvious that only the inner hull is airtight. It should be safe enough for you if you site your drill in the angle between that support bracket and cable loom just there. I don't know how efficient their insulation is, but that cable is too thin to carry much power. The color coding suggests that their visual range is similar to ours, wouldn't you say?"
"I would," Murchison agreed.
Conway said quickly, "If you use a Five drill it will be wide enough to take an Eye."
"I intend doing that," she said dryly.
The drill whirred briefly, the sound conducted through the metal of the hull and the fabric of Conway's suit, and a sample of the ship's atmosphere hissed through the hollow drill-head and into the analyzer.
"The pressure is a little low by our standards," she reported quietly, "but that could be dangerously low or normal so far as the survivor is concerned. Composition, the proportion of oxygen to inert gases, makes it a warm-blooded, oxygen-breathing life-form. I shall now insert the Eye."
Conway saw her detach the analyzer from the hollow drill and, so expertly that she could not have lost more than a few cubic centimeters of ship's atmosphere in the process, replace it with the Eye. Very carefully she threaded in the transparent tube containing the lens, light source, and vision recorder through the hollow center of the drill, then attached the eyepiece and magnifier which would enable her to use the instrument while wearing a space helmet.
For what seemed like an hour but was probably only ten minutes she swiveled the lens and varied the light intensity, without speaking. Then she wriggled backward out of the opening to give Conway and the others a look.
"It's big," she said.
The interior of the wreck was a hollow cylinder completely free of compartment dividers or structural crossmembers and the floor—Conway was assuming it was the floor because it was flat and ran the length of the ship—had a double line of closely spaced holes three or four inches in diameter running down the middle. Seven or eight pairs of the survivor's feet disappeared into the holes so they were probably part of the vessel's system of safety restraints, as were the broad bands of torn webbing which floated loosely about its body.
The Eye was positioned close to floor level so that Conway could see the being's flank along the section whose feet were held in the deck holes. Farther along, where the feet had been pulled free by the force of the accident to its ship, he could see in detail the double line of stubby, centipedal legs and the pale-gray underside. In the opposite direction—he could not tell whether it was toward the being's head or tail—he could make out part of the upper surface of the creature and a single line of dorsal tentacular appendages. The long, cylindrical compartment did not give the being much room to maneuver and the twists and curves of the weightless, flaccid body seriously hampered viewing, but at the limit of his vision Conway could just make out three lengths of tubing, pencil thin, transparent, and apparently flexible, which sprouted from a container attached to the wall to disappear into the body of the survivor.
Despite the multiplicity of the being's arms and legs there seemed to be very little if anything for it to do. Apart from a large number of wall-mounted storage cabinets, the interior of the ship was bare of anything resembling control and indication systems or any obvious means by which the vessel could be guided by its occupant—unless, of course, there was a small control center forward in the area concealed by the survivor's body.
Conway must have been thinking aloud because the Captain, who had just returned from an external examination of the ship, said seriously, "There is nothing for it to do, Doctor. Except for a very unsophisticated power cell which, at present, is not being used to power anything, there is nothing. No propulsion unit, no attitude control jets, no recognizable external sensors or communications, no personnel lock. I'm beginning to wonder if this is a ship or some kind of survival pod. This would explain the odd configuration of the vessel, which is a cylinder of constant diameter with a perfectly flat face at each end. However, when I sighted along the hull in an effort to detect minor protrusions which could have housed sensor equipment, I observed that the cylinder was very slightly curved along its longitudinal axis. This opens up another possibility which—"
"What about power sources and comm equipment mounted outboard?" Conway broke in before the Captain's observations could develop into a lecture on ship design philosophy. "We have matched hyperdrive generators on our wingtips and perhaps these people had a similar idea."
"No, Doctor," Fletcher said in the cool, formal tone he used when he thought someone was trying to tell him his business. "I examined those external spars, which have been broken off too short to give any indication of the type of structure they supported, but the wiring still attached to them is much too thin to carry power to a hyperspace generator. In fact, I seriously doubt if these people had either hyperdrive or artificial gravity, and the general level of technology displayed is pretty elementary for a star-traveling race. Then there is the apparent absence of an entry port. An airlock for this beastie would have to be almost as long as the vessel itself."
"There are a few star-traveling species who do not use them," Conway said. "For purely physiological reasons they do not indulge in extravehicular activity, entering and leaving their ships only at time of departure and arrival."
"Suppose," Murchison said, "this vehicle is the being's spacesuit."
"A nice idea, ma'am, but no," Fletcher said apologetically. "Apart from the four viewports, whose angles of vision are severely limited because of their small size and the space between the outer and inner hulls, there is no sensory input of any kind known to me and, more important, no external manipulators. But there must be some easy way of getting that beastie into and out of that thing, whether it is a ship, a survival pod, or something else."
There was a long silence, then Conway said, "I'm sorry, Captain. A few minutes ago you were about to mention a third possibility when I interrupted you."
"I was," Fletcher said in the tone of one graciously receiving an apology. "But you will understand, Doctor, that the theory is based on my initial visual observation only and not, as yet, supported by accurate measurements. Nevertheless, as I have already stated, this vessel is not a true cylinder but appears to be curved slightly along its longitudinal axis.
"Now, an explosion or collision sufficiently violent to warp the cylinder out of true," he went on, slipping into his lecturing manner, "would buckle and open up seams in the hull plating, and leave evidence of heat discoloration and indentations from flying debris. There are no such indications. So if the longitudinal axis of the vessel is, in fact, a very flat curve rather than a straight line, then the curvature was deliberate, built in. This would explain the lack of power and control linkages and an artificial gravity system because they used—"
"Of course!" Conway broke in. "The hull beneath the flat deck was outward facing and free of structural projections, which means that they got their gravity the old-fashioned way by—"
"Will one of you," Murchison said crossly, "kindly tell me what you are talking about?"
"Certainly," Conway said. "The Captain has convinced me that this structure is not a ship or a lifeboat, but a section of a space station, an early Wheeltype of very large diameter, which suffered a collision."
"A space station away out here?" Murchison sounded incredulous. Then she began to realize the implications and added feelingly, "In that case we could have an awful lot of work ahead of us."
"Maybe not, ma'am," Fletcher said. "Admittedly there is a strong possibility of finding many more space station segments, but the survivors may be very few." His tone became suddenly forceful. "Transferring that creature to our Casualty Deck is out of the question. Instead I suggest we attach it to our hull, extend Rhabwar's hyperspace envelope accordingly, and whisk it back to Sector General where their airlocks can easily handle a patient extraction problem of this size. I am not the e-t medical specialist, of course, but I think we should do this at once, leaving Tyrell to search for other survivors, and then return as soon as possible for the others."
"No," Conway said firmly.
"I don't understand you, Doctor." Behind his helmet visor Fletcher's face had gone red.
Conway ignored him for a moment while he addressed Murchison and Prilicla, who had drifted closer in spite of the strong emotional radiation being generated in the area. He said, "The survivor, so far as we are able to see, is linked to what appears to be some kind of life-support system by three separate sets of tubing. It is deeply unconscious but not physically distressed. There is also the fact that its vessel contains a reservoir of power which is not presently being used. Now, would either of you agree that the observed emotional radiation and apparent lack of physical injury could be the result of it being in a hibernation anesthesia condition?"
Before either of them could reply, Conway added, "Since there is no evidence of the presence of the power-hungry, complex refrigeration systems which we associate with suspended animation techniques, just three sets of tubing entering its body, would you also agree that the life-form is a natural hibernator?"
There was a short silence, then Murchison said, "We are familiar with the idea of long-term suspended animation being associated with star travel—that used to be the only way to do it, after all, and the cold-sleeping travelers would require neither air nor food during their trips. In the case of a life-form with the ability to go periodically into a state of hibernation for planetary environmental reasons, a minimal supply of food and air would be required. It is quite possible that the natural process of hibernation could be artificially initiated, extended, and counteracted by specific medication and the food supplied intravenously, as seems to be the case with our friend here."
"Friend Conway," Prilicla said, "the survivor's emotional radiation pattern agrees in every particular with the hypothesis of hibernation anesthesia."
Captain Fletcher was not slow on the uptake. He said, "Very well, Doctor. The survivor has been in this condition for a very long time, so there is no great urgency about moving it or the other survivors we might find to the hospital. But what are your immediate intentions?"
Conway was aware of a multiple, purely subjective silence as the party on the alien's hull and the communications officers who were listening in on Rhabwar and Tyrell held their collective breath. He cleared his throat and said, "We will examine this section of space station, if that is what it is, as closely as possible without entering it, and simultaneously make as detailed a visual examination of the survivor as we can using the Eye, and then we will all try to think."
He had the feeling, very strong and not at all pleasant to judge by the trembling of Prilicla's spidery limbs, that this was not going to be an easy rescue.
FOR A little over three hours, the duration remaining to their lightweight suits, they did nothing but think as they examined the exterior of the wreck and what little they could see of its occupant, slowly adding data which might or might not be important. But they thought as individuals, increasingly baffled individuals, so that it was not until they met on Rhabwar's Messdeck and recreation level that they were able to think as an equally baffled group.
Tyrell was represented by its Captain, Major Nelson, and Surgeon-Lieutenant Krach-Yul, while Major Fletcher and the astrogation officer, Lieutenant Dodds, furnished the required military balance for Rhabwar. Murchison, Prilicla, Naydrad, and Conway—who were, after all, mere civilians—filled the remainder of the deck space with the exception of the empath, who was clinging to the safety of the ceiling.
It was Prilicla, knowing that nobody else felt ready to contribute any useful ideas, who spoke first.
"I feel that we are all agreed," it said in the musical trills and clicks of the Cinrusskin tongue, which emanated from their translator packs as faultless if somewhat toneless speech in the languages of Kelgia, Orligia, and Earth, "that the being is in a state of suspended animation, that there is a high probability that it is not a patient but a survivor who should be returned to its home world as soon as convenient if this planet can be found, and that the need to move it is not an urgent one."
Lieutenant Dodds looked at Fletcher for permission to speak, then said, "It depends on what you mean by urgent, Doctor. I ran a vectors and velocities check on this and the other pieces of wreckage within detector range. These bits of alien vessel or space station occupied roughly the same volume of space approximately eighty-seven years ago, which is when the disaster must have occurred. If it was a ship I don't think it was heading for the nearby sun since there are no planets, but a lot of the dispersed wreckage will either fall into the sun or pass closely enough to make no difference to any other survivors in hibernation. This will begin to occur in just over eleven weeks."
They digested that for a moment, then Tyrell's Captain said, "I still say a space station way out here is impossible, especially one traveling at such a clip that its wreckage will reach the sun, there, in eleven weeks. It is far more likely that the survivor is in a lifeboat with suspended animation extending the duration of its consumables."
Fletcher glared at his fellow Captain, then he noticed Prilicla beginning to tremble. He visibly calmed himself as he said, "It is not impossible, Major Nelson, although it is unlikely. Let us suppose that the survivor's race, which is at the interplanetary flight level of technology, was beginning to experiment with hyperspace generation on its space station and inadvertently performed a random Jump and found themselves very far indeed from home, and subsequently went into hibernation for the reason you have stated. Many such accidents have occurred during early experiments with hypertravel. In any case, I think we are drawing too many conclusions from what is, after all, only one small piece of a very large jigsaw."
Conway decided to join in before this spirited exchange of technical views could devolve into a quarrel. He said placatingly, "But what conclusions, however few and tentative, can we draw from the piece you have examined, Captain? And what, however vaguely, can you see of the complete picture?"
