Jeff Carlson - The Frozen Sky

“I want you on our side,” Ash said. “The FNEE incursion is going to happen, but maybe we can minimize the danger to the sunfish. They respect strength. You said so yourself. A few of them will get hurt, but the rest might stop and listen. You can help us.”

Us , Vonnie marveled. Ash, Koebsch, and Dawson were all on the same side now.

She couldn’t fight everyone. She thought Pärnits and Metzler were with her. They were the pure scientists, but the rest of the crew were likely more interested in developing their partnership with Brazil or in securing the genetic material of the sunfish. Those interests made for strange bedfellows.

If Vonnie didn’t want to find herself without any clout whatsoever, she needed to bargain with Ash, so she stiffened her voice with just the right blend of reluctance and disdain.

“I’ll help you if you help me,” she said. “I want to know what Dawson wants.”

“You can’t stop him.”

“I know.” Had she spoken too fast? To convince Ash, she added, “If there’s any chance of saving the sunfish, I need a better feel for what kind of tissue samples he wants, which sexes, how many different individuals, et cetera.”

“Okay.” Ash studied Vonnie’s eyes. Then she looked at her data pad and activated it, unlocking several files before her index finger traced backwards abruptly.

Did she delete one ? Vonnie thought.

“I don’t have all of his files,” Ash said. “Some were too well encrypted even for me, but listen to what he says, Von. Really listen.”

“All right.”

“If you’re honest with yourself, I think you’ll realize Dawson’s heart is in the right place.”

“Dawson’s heart is a bank account.”

“He’ll be rich and famous, absolutely,” Ash said as she held up the data pad. “He’s also going to do a lot of good things for people. Our people.”

Then why do I feel like I’m dealing with the devil ? Vonnie thought. I guess that makes Ash the devil .

Vonnie took the data pad and Ash clapped her glove on Vonnie’s leg, an authoritative gesture like a judge banging her gavel to seal an agreement.

“Don’t hate me,” Ash said.

“I don’t.”

“Von, you couldn’t fake how you feel if your life was on the line. Don’t ever play cards. That’s my advice. I know you’re cross with me, but you have to believe me when I say I want to be on your side.”

“You did what seemed best to you. You shouldn’t feel bad.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Let me watch Dawson’s files.”

“I don’t feel bad,” Ash said, still protesting.

“I need a few minutes.”

“Fine.” Ash left the jeep and stalked toward the lander, radiating a puzzled hurt with her tight, brisk, scissor steps.

Vonnie smiled sadly, feeling branded by her own guilt. She’d definitely found the Achilles’ heel in Ash’s toughness. Friendship might be new to a girl trained almost from birth to rely solely on her mother, then an agency handler. Vonnie would have bet her teeth that Ash’s boss was a woman. Her personal history was too ripe. Her boss would use her dependencies as a goad and a leash.

I want to be her sister, not her mom, Vonnie thought. She needs positive influences, not another commander. She’d reject me if I tried. But I think I’m getting through. Otherwise we wouldn’t have felt so stung by each other.

Nearby, Ash walked up the lander’s steps and touched the air lock controls. The exterior door opened. She bolted inside.

Vonnie looked at the sky again, wishing they didn’t need to spend so much energy manipulating each other. She plugged the data pad into a jack in her wrist. Her visor brought up a short menu of sims. The time stamps ranged from six days ago to yesterday.

She opened the first file, which had been recorded from Dawson’s view of a group feed with fifteen people on Earth. Vonnie didn’t recognize them. The sim didn’t include a company patch, but Ash had filtched their identities by using voice keys and recognition software. She’d superimposed names, titles, and bio links.

Ten of the strangers were mid-level executives with LifeNova, a prominent Dutch health services corporation. The rest were gene smiths. Got you , Vonnie thought, contemplating their faces with cool malice.

Dawson was making a presentation. Two of the boxes in the group feed flickered with datastreams as he lectured. At the same time, the execs and gene smiths on Earth posted questions in an ongoing scroll. Their comments were out of sync with Dawson’s speech due to the lag in radio transmissions, but they’d uploaded an AI to his side to manage their remarks.

As the sim began, the AI said, “Why would that be true?”

“The sunfish appear more closely related to their primordial ancestors than we are to our predecessors on Earth,” Dawson said. “Bacteria like thermophiles and lithotrophs — heat lovers and rock eaters — were the earliest lifeforms on both worlds, but life on Europa appears to have made the leap from single-cell organisms to higher lifeforms in a shorter span. That’s how the sunfish maintained the ability to use iron to survive. Iron is one of their most prevalent catalysts.”

The AI highlighted a manager’s comments. “Less technical, please,” it said.

“Hydrothermal vents were probably the first environments to generate life on Europa,” Dawson said, “and volcanic eruptions release dissolved iron onto the ocean floor. Higher lifeforms like the sunfish retained that affinity for iron, but they can’t have more hemoglobin than us. That would turn their blood into sludge. They’d be too likely to die of strokes and heart attacks. So they use a mutated hemoglobin. It has extra iron atoms and additional twists compared to ours, which allows it to bond with a greater concentration of oxygen molecules.”

“Again, less technical,” the AI said.

Dawson was triumphant. “If we can fashion the same hyper intense hemoglobin in human beings, it would mean increased stamina and acuity, especially in combination with a second aspect of sunfish physiology. You’ll need both to reach the fullest potential.”

“We’ve arranged to negotiate your contract,” the AI said.

“I want royalties in addition to a secured position with your laboratories,” Dawson said. “In two years, every police force and military in the West will be using this gene tech. In five, it will be in construction and sports. I want a percentage.”

“We will pay a flat fee.”

“Nonsense.”

“We will absorb the legal costs. We will absorb the research, development, manufacturing, and marketing costs. Your compensation is a flat fee in addition to a salaried five-year contract with option to renew.”

“I’m the one skirting federal law.”

“We recognize the risk inherent in your position and will reward it,” the AI said.

“Perhaps you’d name an amount.”

The AI superimposed two lines of text on the group feed, numbers that must have been predecided on Earth: €1,000,000.00 bonus, €325,000.00 annual sa.

Dawson’s composure slipped. His eyes widened and his nostrils flared. Then he reverted to his normal mannerisms as a gentleman. “We can discuss this further without the AI,” he said smoothly. “I guarantee you’ll be impressed with my work.”

“Explain the second half of your proposal,” the AI said.

“Indeed.” Dawson opened a new datastream. “Sunfish are able to maintain body temperatures above that of the surrounding water or atmosphere due to a complicated heat exchange system between their muscles, digestive system, and blood vessels. They conserve and store heat like batteries. In duress, they release it. By raising their internal temperatures, they create spikes in reaction time. The heat also allows an increase in the absorption of nutrients. Combined with their mutated hemoglobin, these factors provide them with ’burst speed’ like tigers or sharks, except that the sunfish are able to sustain these bursts far, far longer than any Earth equivalent.”