Leviathans of Jupiter

“In theory?” Corvus yelped.

Grudgingly, Yeager explained, “I designed this bucket, all its systems. But that doesn’t mean I have the reflexes, the skills to actually pilot her.”

“You said it was highly automated,” Corvus said, almost accusingly.

Deirdre piped up, “The ship ran completely automated, all by itself, didn’t it?”

Looking miserable, Yeager said, “Yeah, but to set it up that way means reprogramming its central computer. That could take hours.”

“We don’t have hours,” said Corvus. “We’ve got to get Dorn out of here now. At least up to a higher level, where the pressure isn’t so bad.”

Yeager seemed frozen with indecision. “I know,” he muttered. “I know. But … piloting … suppose I screw it up? I could kill us all.”

“We need Dorn?”

“We need Dorn.”

Deirdre listened to the two men while still focusing her eyes on the figures that the leviathan drew, again and again.

“Andy,” she called, “could you wake Dorn up with your DBS equipment?”

“He’s in a coma, almost.”

“But couldn’t you make contact with his mind?” Deirdre asked. “Get him to wake up? Maybe if he were conscious he could override his computer.”

Corvus bit his lip, glanced at Yeager, then said tightly, “It’s worth a try.”

* * *

Leviathan saw that a message was flashing toward it from the Elders, lighting up the waters in stern blue as it passed outward from one member of the Kin to the next.

Finally the member next to Leviathan transmitted the Elders’ question: If the alien is truly intelligent it would communicate freely with you. Has it done so?

Fighting down its first instinct to admit that the alien’s intelligence was limited to mimicry, Leviathan replied carefully, Its mind works very slowly. We have asked it where it comes from and are waiting for a reply to our question.

Leviathan could foresee the Elders’ next response, their sneering disdain for this slow, dull alien creature. They are afraid of the alien, Leviathan thought. Behind their scornful belittling is the fear that the alien will upset the Symmetry.

Wondering how it could communicate meaningfully with the alien before the Elders decided to drive the stranger away, Leviathan saw with a flash of grateful joy that the alien was lighting up again.

It’s trying to communicate! Leviathan thought hopefully.

* * *

Deirdre saw out of the corner of her eye that Andy was fitting one of his DBS circlets onto Dorn’s head. Maybe that will work, she thought. Max looks terribly nervous, frightened. If they can’t wake Dorn, Max is going to have to try to fly us back to the station.

It took an effort of will for her to concentrate on the message the leviathan was drawing. The same imagery again. A picture of the leviathan with us beside it. Then it shows us rising above the leviathan, going up farther and farther, until we fade out and dis—

Of course! Deirdre realized. It’s asking where we come from! It knows we came down to this level of the ocean from up above. It wants to know where we originated!

Deirdre worked her keyboard swiftly, calling up the earlier imagery she had shown the leviathan. She patched it together with the leviathan’s question and transmitted it to the lights on the vessel’s hull.

Her imagery showed the leviathan’s original picture of itself with Faraday beside it, then the vessel rising until the leviathan figure dwindled and disappeared. But now, instead of fading away—Deirdre figured that was the leviathan’s way of asking its question—the imagery of their vessel continued upward, out of the ocean, through the clear atmosphere populated by spider-kites and Clarke’s Medusas, on through the wide smear of clouds and out into space. The tiny sphere that represented Faraday moved on away from the planet until the imagery showed Jupiter as seen from space, a flattened sphere streaked with many-colored clouds.

Smiling with satisfaction, Deirdre wondered if the leviathan could possibly understand what she was trying to tell it.

* * *

The pictures made no sense to Leviathan. The alien seemed to rise up into the cold abyss above, and then moved on to realms that became stranger and stranger.

Gibberish? Leviathan asked itself. No, it decided. The alien is trying to tell us something, trying to explain where it comes from. Of course it would all seem strange, even senseless, to us. It comes from a different part of the Symmetry. Naturally its realm would seem strange, totally unlike anything the Kin has experienced before.

We were right! Leviathan told itself. The alien is intelligent—and the Symmetry is much larger and more complex than we had ever thought.

It began to signal these new thoughts inward through the Kin, toward the Elders.

* * *

“It’s working!” Yeager said. Then he added, “I think.”

Corvus was linked to Dorn: Both of them had DBS circlets on their heads. Yeager was peering eagerly at the readouts on the diagnostic screens.

“I’m talking with the leviathan,” Deirdre called to them, then added, “I think.”

Dorn’s prosthetic eye began to glow red, feebly, then his human eye slowly opened.

“Dorn!” Corvus said eagerly. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes.”

“Your central computer’s shutting down. Can you override it?”

“No.”

“But it’s killing you!”

Slowly, obviously in pain, Dorn replied, “It is following its programming.”

“But it’s killing you!” Corvus repeated.

Dorn said, “The prosthetics are protecting themselves. The fact that the flesh is dying is an unfortunate side effect.”

Corvus looked up at Yeager. “Max, you’ll have to pilot us out of here. It’s up to you.”

Yeager uttered a heartfelt “Shit.”

ESCAPE

Deirdre could see that Max was clearly frightened as he orally set up the command console’s navigation program.

“It’s up to you, Max,” she whispered to herself. “Dorn’s life depends on you.” Then she realized that all their lives depended on Max’s ability to pilot their vessel.

The leviathan was flashing signals at them again, the flickering of its glowing hide lighting up her communications screen.