Hal Clement: Still River

The following students, all candidates for the Respected Opinion degree at the institution called by the Human name of Golden Fleece University (apparently from a rather remote association, through Human mythology and the constellation name Argus, with its location near the Leinster site at Eta Carinae), formed the voluntary associate team assigned to examine the standard laboratory object Enigma 88. This had been left untouched long enough to be sure that any casual memory of it would no longer be circulating in the School, and of course earlier laboratory reports had been sealed.

The names of the nonhuman students are given as carried by Human interpreter equipment. All had met, both socially and in connection with course and laboratory work, and appeared to like and respect each other sufficiently to be able to form an effective work group. They are:

1) Joe, Nethneen. Home planet Dinar, orbiting an MO main sequence sun, normal temperature range 220-260K, gravity 0.18 Earth standard, atmosphere inert at about 50 millibars. Body fluid ammonia based, nonbreathing. Spheroidal body, four equally spaced limbs of which two are adapted for handling and two for locomotion. Immobile head on top of body, four pairs of eyes covering full circle.

2) Molly (Mary Warrender Chmenici), Human. Home planet technically Earth, circling a G2 main sequence sun, temperature range 260-310K, but, like most of her species, born, raised, and educated on other planets and on board spacecraft. Body fluid water based, oxygen breather. Age 27 Earth years, 165 centimeters tall, mass 57 kilograms. Married to another student, one six-year-old son.

3) Charley, Kantrick. Home planet Merrvar, circling an M5 main sequence sun, temperature range 200-250K, gravity 0.87 Earth normal, atmosphere inert at about 850 millibars. Body fluid ammonia based, nonbreathing type. Physical shape roughly similar to Joe’s but considerably larger. His body is covered by an exoskeleton and therefore does not show Joe’s rubbery texture; he has four single eyes, covering, like Joe’s, the full circle. His prehensile organs are four-digited nippers rather than Joe’s delicate tendrils.

4) Carol, Shervah. Home planet Krekka circles M2 main sequence flare star; temperature range 240-250K, gravity 0.83 Earth normal, normal atmospheric pressure 2700 millibars, partial pressure of NOC1 210-330 millibars. Body fluid ammonia based, NOC1 breather. Shape humanoid, but very small by human standards; height 137 centimeters, mass 32 kilograms. Face repulsive to human taste; no chin, mouth almost out of sight, large independently mobile eyes on opposite sides of head able to cover full circle. Covered with dense brown fur.

5) Jenny, Rimmore. Planet Hrimm, sun an M2 main sequence star, temperature range 220-260K, gravity 1.85 Earth normal, atmospheric pressure 4300 millibars, oxygen partial pressure about 320 millibars, rest mostly nitrogen and carbon dioxide. Body fluids ammonia based, oxygen breather. Physical shape, two-meter-long centipede, front three of eighteen limb pairs modified for handling. Two large eyes on sides of head.

Joe, for the first time in weeks, felt really comfortable. True, the gravity was only half what it should be, but it was real gravity, and in a moment he would be outdoors. Not, of course, that he could feel any difference between acceleration and gravity—there wasn’t any—but having to compromise with beings who walked or slithered or crawled or even flew around weighing two or five or ten times what anything of their size should weigh was uncomfortable. It could even be dangerous, after a while.

There was gas outside, too. More than enough, actually, but gas couldn’t do any real damage, even if the pressure was rather high. These people who had to breathe did tend to be quite choosy about their gas mixtures; it was a nuisance having to wear a sealed garment just for their comfort. Some day he would have to find out just what compounds his skin gave off that made the Human and Rimmore so uncomfortable. Once outside now, he might even shed the suit and feel really free.

Waiting to calm Molly’s worries had been a nuisance, but probably worth doing, and Jenny had certainly been quick enough with her analysis. Of course there was nothing dangerous outside. No oxygen, no chlorine, none of Carol’s stinging nitrosyl chloride. Carbon dioxide, methane, and ammonia were all harmless. The ammonium carbamate and other dusts that the gases were constantly forming seemed inactive enough.

He opened the inner lock door, speaking reassuringly as he went—the Human still looked anxious. As quickly as possible without actual rudeness he closed it behind him and keyed open the outer valve. The ship trembled slightly as he did so, and simultaneously the voices of the high-gravity women roared confusingly through his translator.

Even if he could have untangled the messages, they would have been too late. There was no word for wind in Joe’s vocabulary or that of his communication device. His home world wasn’t quite airless—there was pressure enough to keep body fluids liquid—but no one had ever been blown away.

Until now. It was surprising that gas could transfer so much momentum, he thought rather blurrily as the landing boat spun out of sight.

Of course, his species had not used rockets for a long, long time.

The little Shervah dashed through the near-darkness at the top of her speed. With so little gravity, this meant an awkward series of leaps rather than a graceful run, but she could see ahead well enough in the beam of her hand light to be willing to risk that. There was no time to waste; there was life, however unlikely that might be, and, if her own eyes could be believed, all competing explanations for Enigma’s retention of atmosphere had to take second place. Biology just did too many improbable things.

She had no idea at the moment what that life might be doing, or what sort of ecological pattern would have to be worked out before the little planet made sense. Life, however, could do things like make oxygen and ammonia coexist in large quantities on Hrimm, or oxygen and cellulose on so many other worlds. This was even odder than having the oxygen, one of the most savagely active elements in the universe, existing free, as it did—thanks to life—in so many environments.

She had to see more. Finding Molly was also desirable, of course, taking reasonable care of her own safety should be given some sort of weight, but a possibility like this simply had to be checked out.

There was that sparkling, metallic stuff, too; now that she remembered, that could be living. She knew perfectly well there were races made of high-conducting hydrocarbons. Molly had collected some of this, of course, but Carol wanted to see for herself. Hurrying, even under near-zero gravity, was safe enough as long as one could see well ahead ...

And as long as one looked underfoot.

Her mind did not work as fast as Joe’s. He would probably have thought about hydrogen bonds being characteristic of life even while he was spinning through the air; he would have reasoned that that might be what made the sticky stuff that Molly had reported so sticky; he would have expected it to produce slippery material, too.

Carol didn’t. She was very annoyed with herself as she spun, but none of the explanations got to her consciousness until somewhat later. Instead, her memory flashed back to an incident months before on Pearl, the inner planet of Smoke, where most of the Humans lived because of the gravity. She had only recently met Molly, and the high-temperature family was engaged in teaching Carol’s group the sport of skating—ammonia, which does not expand when it freezes, is consequently not slippery. The rink had shop facilities, and skates had been quickly provided for the Shervah family, with interesting and challenging consequences.