Archer smiled at her. “We’ve already paid for your passage here. And your scholarship. This would simply be protecting our investment in you.”
“And do you think that would work? The nanobugs could wipe out the virus?”
“Certainly. I’ll send the data today. Your current therapy is maintaining you; the virus isn’t spreading through your nervous system. Selene will produce the nanomachines to cure you.”
“And what do we do in the meantime?” Corvus asked. “Westfall will expect information from Dee.”
“We’ll give you information to feed her,” Archer said. “For example,
“Max,” Yeager corrected automatically. Then he added, “You’re right. Data capsule’s due in”—he glanced at his wristwatch—“two and a half hours.”
“Make a copy of the capsule’s upload and give it to Deirdre,” Archer directed. “That should keep Mrs. Westfall happy for a while.”
Corvus grinned. Dorn nodded thoughtfully.
But Yeager said, “If the capsule comes up. If everything’s going right down there.”
Sensor data: No leviathans observed.
Central computer: Extend search to maximum sensor range.
Sensor data: No leviathans observed.
Program time line: Data capsule to be launched in 60.0000 seconds.
Central computer: Query logic tree. Launch data capsule despite lack of data?
Logic tree: Command protocol dictates data capsule launch according to preprogrammed schedule, regardless of contents of data storage.
Human analog subprogram: Aphorism, “No news is good news.” Aphorism, “It is always darkest before the dawn.”
Central computer: Launch data capsule on schedule.
Mission objectives program: Data capsule launched.
Sensor report: Pressure waves indicate presence of large organisms at extreme range of sensitivity.
Time line: 17.3318 seconds elapsed since launch of data capsule.
Sensor report: Detected organisms moving at depth deeper than mission profile cruise depth.
Central computer: Mission profile cruise depth can be exceeded if necessary.
Sensor report: Detected organisms’ depth estimated at 900 kilometers below ocean surface.
Central computer: Nine hundred kilometers is within nominal performance limits. Change course to dive to depth of detected organisms.
Navigation program: Course correction implemented. Diving.
Sensor report: Detected organisms not leviathans. Signature indicates organisms to be predators.
Memory bank: Sharklike predators attack and feed on leviathans. Voracious. Extremely dangerous. Have attacked research vessels from time to time.
Central computer: Query, How many predators have been detected?
Sensor report: Eighty-two.
Memory bank: No previous observation of more than fifteen predators at one sighting. Eighty-two predators an unprecedented number.
Central computer: Query decision tree: Launch additional data capsule?
Decision tree: Not enough data to determine if this is new behavior of predators or normal behavior not heretofore observed.
Logic program: Large assemblage of predators an indication that large assemblage of prey must be near enough to be attacked. Since predators prey on leviathans, conclusion is that leviathans must be within sensory range of predators.
Mission objectives priority: 1. Self-preservation. 2. Observation of leviathans. 3. Report accumulated data on schedule. 4. Report new phenomena immediately. 5. Observation of predators.
Central computer: Follow predator swarm, assuming that they will lead to leviathans.
Mission protocol program: WARNING. Predator swarm near mission profile depth limit. Leviathans may be below mission profile depth limit.
Central computer: Follow predator swarm to depth limit of mission profile.
“No leviathans?” Andy Corvus asked, wide-eyed with disbelief. “Not even one?”
Max Yeager shook his head. “Not even one.”
Corvus had dropped in at the control center after another disappointing swim with the dolphins. Only one of the consoles was manned; even the cute little Russian chief controller had taken off. Yeager sat at one of the consoles, looking weary and rumpled, his long hair tangled, his chin dark with several days’ growth of stubble.
“Where are they?” Corvus asked.
Irritated, Yeager jabbed a finger at the console’s central screen. “You see any? They’re not there! Nowhere in sight!”
Corvus stared at the screen as if he could make the leviathans appear by sheer willpower.
“I’ve checked all the data sixteen times from Sunday,” Yeager grumbled. “
“Maybe the ship scared them off?”
Yeager gave him a sour look. “My baby might look big to you, Andy, but to those damned whales it’s just a little minnow. She didn’t scare them.”
Frowning with puzzlement, Corvus muttered, “Maybe something else did, then.”
Core memory: Attacks by predators not unusual. Two earlier submersible vessels lost, presumably due to predator attacks.
Mission objectives priority: 1. Self-preservation. 2. Observation of leviathans. 3. Report accumulated data on schedule. 4. Report new phenomena immediately. 5. Observation of predators.
Mission protocol program: WARNING. Approaching depth limit of mission profile.
Systems check: All systems functioning within design parameters.
Central computer: Do not exceed depth limit of 1000 kilometers.
Logic tree: Prime directive of self-preservation can be achieved by maintaining sufficient distance from predators to forestall their attacks.
Central computer: Follow predators while maintaining existing distance from them.
Logic tree: Why do predators attack inanimate vessels? Possibility one: Predators do not have enough intelligence to recognize inanimate objects from potential edible prey. Possibility two: Predators behaving analogously to predators of Earth by staking out hunting territory and resisting encroachment by others.
Question: Are predator attacks simple reflex action or territorial behavior? Not enough data to decide.
Subsidiary question: If behavior is territorial, how do predators distinguish particular locations? Are there characteristics of the ocean environment undetected by ship’s sensors but clearly discernable to predators?
Central computer: Insufficient data to derive meaningful solution. Continue following predators; maintain existing distance; do not exceed depth limit.
