The Season Of Passage Part 21

Jim indicated the picture on the desk. 'Ivan, where is your commander? Where is Dmitri? Do you understand me?'

Ivan nodded. He pointed out the door. His nails were long.

'Anything in the other rooms?' she asked Bill and Jim.

'No,' Bill said. 'I'm going to make a quick inspection of the rest of the s.h.i.+p. Lauren, do not get so close to him that he could take you by surprise.'

'Bill?'

'Do what I say.' He left the room.

Once more Jim gestured to Dmitri's picture. 'Do you really know where the rest of your crew is, Ivan?'

Again Ivan nodded and pointed out the door. 'Are you cold?' Jim asked. He made a s.h.i.+vering gesture. Ivan smiled, showing his big yellow teeth.

'Do you know any Russian, Jim?' Lauren asked. 'I read somewhere that you can speak sixteen languages.'

'I can speak six languages, but unfortunately Russian is not one of them. But Friend can translate what he has to say. Where did you find him? On that bed?'

'Yes,' Lauren said. 'He was just lying there, under the blankets. He didn't get up or move when I walked in.' She paused. 'That's strange. Look at him.'

'What is it?' Jim asked.

'It's his body language. He doesn't have any.'

'He's smiling.'

'Those are not normal smiles,' she said. 'They look mechanical.'

'You'll have to examine him.'

Lauren nodded. 'But we can't take him back to the Hawk. He could have an alien disease.'

'Very alien,' Jim agreed. They lapsed into a watchful silence. Ivan continued to wear his grin, and Lauren was reminded of Carl, blissful Carl. Bill returned.

'The s.h.i.+p's empty,' he said. 'Have you discovered anything further from Zossima?'

'He continues to nod and point out the door when we ask about his companions,' Jim said.

Bill stepped past Ivan and grabbed the photo. He shoved it in front of Ivan's face and pointed at Dmitri. 'Take us to him,' he said.

Ivan nodded and left the room. They followed after him, and he led them to another bedroom. There he pushed a tiny red b.u.t.ton which uncovered a clear round porthole. He pointed east in the direction of Olympus Mons.

'Dmitri Maximov is there?' Bill asked.

Ivan nodded.

'You will take us to him,' Bill said. 'Now.'

Ivan appeared to understand. He nodded again.

Jim gestured to their jeep far below. He made a steering motion. 'Should we drive?' he asked.

Ivan imitated the steering motion and nodded enthusiastically. He led them to the laboratory and began to put on a suit. Bill contacted the Hawk. 'Major Wheeler?'

'Yes, sir?' Gary said.

'We've found a survivor.'

'Sure, Bill. I understand.'

'Ivan Zossima is alive. He appears to know where the rest of his crew is. There are no bodies here. We are going with him in the jeep to investigate. Notify Houston.'

'Huh? You're serious? The dude's really alive?'

'Yes,' Bill said. 'Colonel Brent out.'

When Ivan finished putting on his suit, they left the Karamazov and climbed in the jeep and rolled over the white plateau toward Olympus Mons. The Hawk fell behind on their right. Ivan sat in the front seat with Bill, occasionally pointing the way. Lauren figured if they drove another half mile they would ram into a wall of solid rock. However, as they got closer, she saw a jagged black hole in the side of the mountain, the mouth of a cave. Jim saw it, too, and leaned forward and tapped Ivan on the shoulder. He pointed at the opening. Ivan nodded in his bulky helmet. He was an agreeable fellow.

'If we go into the mountain any distance,' Jim said to Bill. 'We'll lose our communications.'

'I know,' Bill said. He glanced at Ivan. 'We'll stay on our toes.'

A minute later they were forced to park the jeep. The ground before them rose steeply, and it was piled with rocks. The cave loomed a hundred feet overhead. It was lined with sharp stones that bore an uncanny resemblance to teeth. Lauren did not want to go in there. She thought that if she did, she would never come out. But Ivan was leading them happily forward, seemingly gaining new life with each pa.s.sing second.

The weak gravity helped their climb up the rocks, and they were able to reach the opening of the cave without the aid of ropes or their jetpacks. They carried fresh oxygen canisters with them from the jeep. Plus flares, environmental monitors, and of course their lasers. At the door of the cave, Bill instructed them to halt. Once more he contacted the Hawk.

'Major Wheeler?'

'Your wife is throwing a fit,' Gary said.

'Tell Jessie we will be careful,' Bill said. 'But there could be a danger here, a danger we are totally unfamiliar with.' He explained the terrain to Garry. 'We will be underground for a while. If you do not hear from us in eight hours, you will once again begin preparation to take off, and then leave at the next favorable positioning of the Nova. No effort is to be made to find us. I think you understand the importance of this order, Gary.'

'Not really, but I'll do what you say.'

'Good,' Bill said. He turned off his radio.

'Isn't that a bit drastic?' Lauren asked.

'Not in my opinion,' Bill said. 'But I wouldn't mind if you stayed with Jessie and Gary.'

Lauren shook her head. 'I go where you guys go.'

'We can't be too careful with the rest of mankind,' Jim said to Lauren. She glanced at Ivan. His grin remained frozen on his face as if it were constructed of hard wax.

'I suppose so,' she said.

They plunged into the tunnel, and left the snow behind. Quickly Lauren's eyes adjusted to the dimness. The cave was approximately thirty feet wide, half that in height, with smooth, black, marble-like walls and floor. The floor and walls were not made of marble, however. Not only did the material fail to reflect their lights, it actually seemed to absorb the beams. Jim rubbed his gloved hand over the substance.

'It's of volcanic origin,' he said, puzzled. 'It's very hard. But I don't know what it is.'

'You never told me,' Lauren said. 'Is Olympus Mons extinct?'

'No,' Jim said.

'I wish you'd never told me,' Lauren said. Jim smiled. Lauren continued, 'This place almost looks as if it were carved by a machine.'

'It does appear unnatural, doesn't it?' Jim added thoughtfully, 'Still, here are places on Earth that give the same impression.'

Ivan led them forward at a fast pace. The cave veered to the right, to the left, and then it started to go down, with an angle of declination close to forty degrees. With the exception of Ivan, they all came close to slipping a number of times. The cave kept its uniform black smoothness, and they walked on and on, without much talk. Ivan must have been in good shape, his two years of isolation notwithstanding. Lauren's thirst grew; she felt hot. Perhaps unnaturally hot. When they had been marching for close to thirty minutes Jim brought them to a sudden halt.

'What is it?' Bill asked. He held his gun ready to fire, and kept his eyes on Ivan.

'What temperature do you have, Lauren?' Jim asked. His voice sounded loud.

'Why, it's two degrees above freezing!' she exclaimed. 'And the air pressure is up threefold. It's at thirty-one millibars.' With the denser air, it was no wonder they sounded loud. They were going to have to turn their vocals down.

'How is that possible?' Bill asked Jim.

'A s.h.i.+ft in temperature is to be expected as one goes underground, especially into a volcano. But the pressure is another matter. I've never seen anything like it. It's possible the tunnel is being fed with a constant supply of gas. But I haven't noticed any drafts. I really don't know, Bill.'

'I see,' Bill said.

They continued their descent. Another half hour of vigorous walking pa.s.sed, which brought them to a distance of approximately three miles from the plateau. If they did not reverse their course soon, Lauren thought, they would be pressed to meet Bill's eight-hour deadline. It was going to take them much longer to climb out of the cave. For all of her powers of endurance, Lauren was exhausted. More than anything else, she would have liked to stop and drink a big gla.s.s of water. Jim trudged by her side, his head bowed, his breathing hard. Of course he never complained. Bill and Ivan pulled a short distance ahead. Incredibly, the air pressure tripled once more, and the temperature crept five degrees above freezing.'

Abruptly their commander stopped and shouted something. Jim and Lauren caught up a minute later. Her first impression was that the cave had dead-ended. Bill and Ivan stood before a circle of featureless black. Then she realized that a few feet in front of them the walls and the floor vanished. They pointed their lights in every direction and saw nothing.

'You're lucky you didn't walk off the edge,' Jim said.

'No thanks to our friend here,' Bill said. 'Do you think it's safe to shoot a flare?'

Jim considered. 'From the sound of our voices, yes. This s.p.a.ce must be huge. But set the fuse for proximity detonation.'

Bill unhooked the flare launcher from his belt and adjusted the fuse. Then he raised his arm and fired. Lauren began to count. When she got to two the place exploded in a dazzling shower of white light. What she saw made her stagger back a step, overwhelmed by the t.i.tanic scale of what the flare revealed.

She was looking at the cave's big brother. The walls were smooth black; they rounded up in a half circle from a perfectly flat floor. Only this floor was quarter of a mile across, and the tunnel appeared to stretch forever in both directions. As the flare fell lower and began to die, Lauren saw a sight that filled her with a wonder she had never before experienced.

'He saw ca.n.a.ls, there is no doubt.'

The floor was a perfectly still sheet of water.

The flare fizzled in a puff of steam and went out. For a long time they said nothing. Ivan pointed to the right, up along the ma.s.sive waterway.

'Our friend here seems bent on leading us further,' Bill said finally. He looked over the edge. 'I think it's a good two-hundred-foot drop to that water. What is your opinion, Jim?'

Jim knelt at the edge of the cliff. 'The Russians must have explored this ca.n.a.l.' He pulled up a piece of rope that was fastened to the cliff wall with a metal spike. A faint splash sounded from the water far below. 'The way we just came is wide enough for Hummingbird. The drop would make no difference.'

Bill nodded. 'So I was thinking. Lauren?'

'The atmospheric pressure has increased, but not enough to allow water to exist in its liquid phase.'

'Professor?' Bill said.

Jim shook his head. 'It's close. It's just a little off, like everything else on this planet. The water could contain something that increases its cohesiveness.'

Bill addressed Ivan, who continued to point up the ca.n.a.l. 'Is your commander that way?' he asked.

Ivan nodded.

'Incredible,' Jim whispered. He dropped the rope and climbed to his feet.

'What is it?' Lauren asked. 'I thought he understood some English.'

'No,' Jim said. 'It's incredible that he heard Bill. We have our radios off. Ivan has no vocals.'

'He could have read his lips,' Lauren said.

'First he acts like a mindless zombie,' Bill said sarcastically. 'And now he's reading our lips.'

'The air pressure is much higher,' Lauren said. 'He might have been able to hear us without vocals.'

'It's possible,' Jim said, unconvinced.

'He's always nodding,' Lauren protested.

Bill yelled at Ivan. 'Can you hear me?'

Ivan gave no reaction.

'See,' Lauren said. 'He was just nodding at whatever you said.'

'Maybe,' Bill said slowly. 'Or maybe he just hears what he wants to hear. I don't like anybody who lies in a freezing s.h.i.+p in his underwear for two years. Before we go chasing up this ca.n.a.l, Friend is going to have a little talk with Ivan. Did you hear that, Mr Zossima?'

Ivan gave no reaction. Bill took his arm. 'Come along,' Bill said.

Ivan shook free. He pointed back up the ca.n.a.l. Bill pointed in the direction of the plateau. He grabbed Ivan's arm a second time. The Russian pulled sharply away.

'Strong devil,' Bill muttered. He aimed the laser at Ivan. Ivan grinned. Bill averted the rifle and fired at the water. A blinding bolt of ruby light cracked the air, followed by a black geyser of gus.h.i.+ng steam. The noise echoed into the bowels of Mars.

"The water must be deep,' Jim observed. 'The energy of your laser appears to have been absorbed solely through steam. The shot didn't penetrate to the bedrock.'

Bill turned his weapon back on the Russian. Ivan stopped smiling. He remained stubborn, however, and refused to return with them. Finally Jim intervened.

'Violence won't help us, Bill,' he said. 'If he wants to stay, let him stay. We need Hummingbird anyway.'

Bill nodded reluctantly. 'Very well. Ivan's interrogation will wait. Since our program revolves around discovering the fate of the Russians, we will return with Hummingbird. But we will establish a series of relays starting from the mouth of the cave so that the exploration of this ca.n.a.l can be monitored from the Hawk.'

'Who's going up the ca.n.a.l?' Lauren asked.