Jeff Carlson - The Frozen Sky

Germany had spliced cockroach and black fly genes into some of their Special Forces commandos with solid results. China was known to have tried rat and chimpanzee DNA. The side effects were minor, and there would always be volunteers eager to trade their health for glory and strength.

Dawson was correct that Europan lifeforms dealt with high levels of radiation in addition to extreme cold. Christmas Bauman had felt that many of them must have evolved the ability to suppress and repair cellular damage, and Bauman’s word was enough for Vonnie. If she’d believed there were revolutionary genetics here, Vonnie wanted that magic for the human race, too — but it wasn’t fair for any single group to own it, and it wasn’t right to condemn the sunfish for anyone’s profit margin.

Vonnie felt like she was standing in a mine field. She didn’t know where to step. Someone she depended on today might betray her tomorrow, and she remembered when she’d met Ash. She’d done everything possible to convince Ash that she would put the team first.

Could the same be said for Ash’s intentions?

Ash will be my friend as long as it suits her , Vonnie thought. I think she genuinely likes me. That’s part of why she saved Lam. But no matter how she feels about me or the sunfish, eventually we’ll go home. She’s made a career for herself there, so she’ll lie or steal from me if that’s what they tell her to do. Won’t she?

What can I promise her that they haven’t? I don’t have a lot of money. Even if I was a division leader, any promotion I offered would be a joke compared to the job they’ve given her.

Who can I trust? Metzler? Koebsch?

Sitting with Ash in front of their holo display, Vonnie hid her reproach by tapping at the probe’s schematics. Removing the radar array created complications in the probe’s power grid.

In silence, the two women made corrections, needing no words to fulfill this task. Vonnie traced a line to bridge the hole in the grid. Ash added a secondary net so the probe could reroute its energy needs if it was damaged.

“Simple,” Ash said.

Vonnie wished everything was so easy. She felt sad and resentful, and she tried to shake her mood.

She copied the newest data from Probes 112 and 113 to her station, then let an AI collate those files with their existing programs. Each interaction with the sunfish would refine the movements of their probes’ arms.

But we need to do more than upgrade our mecha , she thought . We need a new approach. Instead of waiting for the sunfish to accept us, what would happen if we marched straight into their homes? They understand certainty .

The irony was she wanted the sunfish to be more uncertain. For their own welfare, they needed to question themselves.

Were they capable of ending their kill-or-be-killed aggression once they realized there was more to existence than the frozen sky? Even if they hadn’t grasped the notion that the ESA probes and spies came from outside the ice, they must feel as if they’d encountered brand-new lifeforms.

Earth had agreed that the next stage in communicating with the sunfish might be an attempt to provide gifts — fabric, meat, steel tools, and tanks of compressed oxygen — but they were concerned this wealth would draw new attacks, not only from the sunfish but from other species. Also, they were undecided if giving steel to the sunfish was worth the impression they wanted to make.

Would the sunfish accept the ESA’s technological superiority and welcome humankind in expectation of receiving more tools? Or would they become more aggressive, fighting for as much metal as they could scavenge from destroyed mecha?

The sunfishes’ rock clubs had been surprisingly effective against Vonnie’s scout suit. With steel blades beaten from shovels and air tanks, the sunfish might penetrate a suit through its joints or collar.

Authorizing gifts was Koebsch’s decision. He’d tabled the idea, suggesting it was too soon to gamble even with token presents of soft fabric or delicacies sealed in vacuum packs.

What if we poison them with our food ? he’d said. What if they’re allergic to the fabric?

Metzler was positive he’d identified the starches and sugars in human food that would harm sunfish. Poisoning them was unlikely — but a month ago, while Vonnie was still recuperating, Pärnits had sunk her plans to bribe the sunfish.

We don’t know what gift-giving means to them , Pärnits had said. They’re perpetually on the edge of starvation. What if showing excess food is an insult? We could go down there with the best intentions, give them everything, and offend them so badly they’ll never forgive us.

Since then, Pärnits had apologized to her, but he stood by his assessment. So did Koebsch.

It seemed to Vonnie that hundreds of years of in-fighting must have left the sunfish primed to negotiate. They would always look for new allies and resources. Given the right circumstances, the ESA might bond with one tribe. Those sunfish could act as a doorway to more tribes. Together, they could begin to form a new, stable empire — as stable as the sunfish allowed.

In comparison, on Earth, the European Union had contracted and expanded several times since the twentieth-first century, gaining new states and losing them. Partly that was because none of its members had surrendered their national identities or languages. English was common yet not required by law. To this day, their members maintained separate armies in addition to the E.U. military.

How many languages and individual tribal customs did the sunfish possess? Dozens? Only a few? They were homogenous in so many ways.

Metzler had compared their situation to the arrival of Caucasian settlers in North America. With superior technology and plague-hardened immune systems developed in the congested terrain of Europe, those settlers had ended life as the Native Americans knew it within a few hundred years.

That the Native Americans had been demoralized was a significant factor. Some tribes fought long and well, but only a small percentage of their losses had been in battle. The settlers had taken their lands with sickness, with commerce, and with well-meaning religion or greed or ignorance. They’d corrupted the natives in a million ways like sunlight evaporating snow.

Vonnie didn’t want the same thing to happen here. Assholes like Dawson would compromise the sunfish at every turn, and for what? For money?

On the American frontier, the clash between two worlds had been so varied and lawless that some white settlers sold guns to the natives in exchange for pelts or safe passage, arming the indigenous population against their fellow whites.

On Europa, the points of contact were far fewer and closely supervised, but there would always be people who wanted the short-term gain. Men like Dawson lacked her moral center. He had no empathy. He wanted his prize, whereas Vonnie didn’t think her adventures on this moon would be complete even if she lived to her hundredth birthday. Aiding the sunfish, teaching and guiding them, was a project that could last decades.

I need to prove Dawson wrong by showing that the sunfish will accept us , she thought.

She was pleased with the design work she’d accomplished with Ash. They’d recalibrated their probes to be lighter and more responsive. Now she needed to convince Koebsch to upgrade their tactics as well.

“Can you excuse me?” she said to Ash.

“Why?”

Vonnie saved their files and made a shooing motion with one hand. “Please. Go get lunch. I’ll come in a minute. There’s a little job I need to do.”

Ash hesitated, but she nodded and stood up. “All right.” Then she left data/comm.