Arthur Clarke - The Ghost from the Grand Banks

“Congratulations, Rupert. So you’ve got into Great Grandfather’s suite.”

“Yes. Two of the Deep ROVs entered a week ago and did a preliminary survey. This is the first item they brought out.”

The chest still displayed, in stenciled lettering unfaded after a century in the abyss, a somewhat baffling inscription:

Parkinson raised the lid, almost reverently, and then drew aside the sheet of metal foil beneath it.

“Standard eighty-pound Ceylon tea chest,” he said. “It happened to be the right size, so they simply repacked it. And I’d no idea they used aluminum foil, back in 1912! Of course, the B.O.P. wouldn’t fetch a very good price at Colombo auction now—but it did its job. Admirably.”

With a piece of stiff cardboard, Parkinson delicately cleared away the top layer of the soggy black mess; he looked, Bradley thought, exactly like an underwater archaeologist extracting a fragment of pottery from the seabed. This, however, was not twenty-five-century-old Greek amphora, but something far more sophisticated.

“The Medici Goblet,” Parkinson whispered almost reverently. “No one has seen it for a hundred years; no one ever expected to see it again.”

He exposed only the upper few inches, but that was enough to show a circle of glass inside which multicolored threads were embedded in a complex design.

“We won’t remove it until we’re on land,” said Parkinson, “but this is what it looks like.”

He opened a typical coffee-table art book, bearing the title Glories of Venetian Glass. The full-page photo showed what at first sight looked like a glittering fountain, frozen in midair.

“I don’t believe it,” said Bradley, after a few seconds of wide-eyed astonishment. “How could anyone actually drink from it? More to the point, how could anyone make it?”

“Good questions. First of all, it’s purely ornamental—intended to be looked at, not used. A perfect example of Wilde’s dictum: ‘All art is quite useless.’

“And I wish I could answer your second question. We just don’t know. Oh, of course we can guess at some of the techniques used—but how did the glassblower make those curlicues intertwine? And look at the way those little spheres are nested one inside the other! If I hadn’t seen them with my own eyes, I’d have sworn that some of these pieces could only have been assembled in zero gravity.”

“So that’s why Parkinson’s booked space on Skylab 3.”

“What a ridiculous rumor; not worth contradicting.”

“Roy Emerson told me he was looking forward to his first trip into space… and setting up a weightless lab.”

“I’ll fax Roy a polite note, telling him to keep his bloody mouth shut. But since you’ve raised the subject—yes, we think there are possibilities for zero-gee glassblowing. It may not start a revolution in the industry, like float glass back in the last century—but it’s worth a try.”

“This probably isn’t a polite question, but how much is this goblet worth?”

“I assume you’re not asking in your official capacity, so I won’t give a figure I’d care to put in a company report. Anyway, you know how crazy the art business is—more ups and downs than the stock market! Look at those late twentieth-century megadollar daubs you can’t give away now. And in this case there’s the history of the piece—how can you put a value on that ?”

“Make a guess.”

“I’d be very disappointed at anything less than fifty M.”

Bradley whistled.

“And how much more is down there?”

“Lots. Here’s the complete listing, prepared for the exhibition the Smithsonian had planned. Is planning—just a hundred years late.”

There were more than forty items on the list, all with highly technical Italianate descriptions. About half had question marks beside them.

“Bit of a mystery here,” said Parkinson. “Twenty-two of the pieces are missing—but we know they were aboard, and we’re sure G.G. had them in his suite, because he complained about the space they were taking up—he couldn’t throw a party.”

“So—going to blame the French again?”

It was an old joke, and rather a bitter one. Some of the French expeditions to the wreck, in the years following its 1985 discovery, had done considerable damage while attempting to recover artifacts. Ballard and his associates had never forgiven them.

“No. I guess they’ve a pretty good alibi; we’re definitely the first inside. My theory is that G.G. had them moved out into an adjoining suite or corridor—I’m sure they’re not far away—we’ll find them sooner or later.”

“I hope so; if your estimate is right—and after all, you’re the expert—those boxes of glass will pay for this whole operation. And everything else will be a pure bonus. Nice work, Rupert.”

“Thank you. We hope Phase Two goes equally well.”

“The Mole? I noticed it down beside the moon pool. Anything since your last report—which was rather sketchy?”

“I know. We were in the middle of urgent mods when your office started making rude noises about schedules and deadlines. But now we’re on top of the problem—I hope.”

“Do you still plan to make a test first, on a stretch of open seabed?”

“No. We’re going to go for broke; we’re confident that all systems are okay, so why wait? Do you remember what happened in the Apollo Program, back in ’68? One of the most daring technological gambles in history… The big Saturn V had only flown twice—unmanned—and the second flight had been a partial failure. Yet NASA took a calculated risk; the next flight was not only manned—it went straight to the Moon!

“Of course, we’re not playing for such high stakes, but if the Mole doesn’t work—or we lose it—we’re in real trouble; our whole operation depends on it. The sooner we know about any real problems, the better.

“No one’s ever tried something quite like this before; but our first run will be the real thing—and we’d like you to watch.

“Now, Jason—how about a nice cup of tea?”

Article 1

Use of terms and scope

1. For the purposes of this Convention:

(1) “Area” means the seabed and ocean floor and subsoil thereof, beyond the limits of national jurisdiction;

(2) “Authority” means the International Seabed Authority;

Article 145

Protection of the marine environment

Necessary measures shall be taken in accordance with this Convention with respect to activities in the Area to ensure effective protection for the marine environment from harmful effects which may arise from such activities. To this end the Authority shall adopt appropriate rules, regulations and procedures for inter alia :

(a) the prevention, reduction and control of pollution and other hazards to the marine environment… particular attention being paid to the need for protection from harmful effects of such activities as drilling, dredging, disposal of waste, construction and operation or maintenance of installations, pipelines, and other devices related to such activities.

“We’re in deep trouble,” said Kato, from his Toyko office, “and that’s not meant to be funny.”

“What’s the problem?” asked Donald Craig, relaxing in the Castle garden. From time to time he liked to give his eyes a chance of focusing on something more than half a meter away, and this was an unusually warm and sunny afternoon for early spring.