Hal Clement: The Nitrogen Fix

One of them was inside this time and saw the blaze start; she was lucky to get out at all. A small start was enough for a big finish. She came screaming out of the lock pool with the story of what was happening, but there was no time for anyone to do a thing before the whole place collapsed. Maybe that’ll teach ‘em to have all that loose oxygen around. They just weren’t trained to be properly afraid of the stuff!”

Kahvi chuckled, too. “Well, maybe by the time they can start over, which won’t be very soon if Genda has her way, they’ll have figured out some of the rules for themselves so they can believe them.

“Maybe,” agreed Earrin. “Go on out and tell all that to Bones, too. I don’t see how he could possibly work it out for himself, and you know how unhappy it makes him when he doesn’t understand something.”

“Right. I should tell him that it’s all right for the kids to come ashore, too. I’ll see you soon; maybe you can come outdoors away from this horrible air before very long.”

Earrin smiled quietly as his wife disappeared into the lock pool.

Bones watched for some minutes as the Hillers slowly sorted themselves into small groups and started south. The two families whose children had been threatened were still by the jail with their injured members. The young Delinquents, passive but not entirely resigned, were going back with their elders. It would be interesting to see how these independent minds would develop and perform in the next few years.

But there was work to be done. The Observer slid into the water and swam quickly toward the place where the other unit had been left. The job would take both of them, and both the buds they would be producing shortly, in the unlikely event that these proved, to be viable copies.

The injured unit was still where it had been left, moving slowly around in the thicket of seaweed and occasionally ingesting a mouthful. Bones sympathized; staying in one place and learning nothing, as had happened in the Hemenway jail for so long, was a hideous experience. It was not surprising that the smaller unit, spotting the other’s approach, showed that it could still swim rapidly. The pair embraced briefly, and then left the thicket, swimming at their highest speed toward the south.

South, to the shore where it was closest to Hemenway. Fast, because they must get there before the human vandals. They must reach the Delinquents’ laboratory before it was destroyed and its contents lost. They knew what to salvage; Kahvi had told them that. They knew why it had to be rescued; Earrin, indirectly, had told them that. They remembered the way.

Even if they were seen coming ashore, it shouldn’t matter; they could travel much faster than people.

No one who saw them would know what they were doing, until too late.

And once the reducing culture was safe, they would go into hiding. Their buds would grow, and separate, and either receive memory or be eaten for safety’s sake; and while this was going on, the reducing cultures would grow. Presently there would be enough so that seeding could be expected to take, and spread.

A world with an oxygen atmosphere was interesting even when its existence and qualities could only be inferred. A real one could be watched directly, and the new things to learn would be endless.

The two units swam faster at the common thought.

Delivery, Delayed

Cooling, Carefully

Morals, Mostly

Unknown, Unless

Captive, Curiously

Invaders, Indefinitely

Captured, Conditionally

Doubt, Duplicated

Arson, Aggravated

Contretemps, Confused

Experiment, Educational

Menace, Misunderstood

Peregrination, Painful

History, Hazily

Debate, Directed

Action, Antagonistic

Mail, Melanic

Variations, Violent

Mystery, Metallic

Answers, Applied