Arthur Clarke: Cradle

“All right, genius,” Nick said to Troy, after he stared at the cylinder for almost a full minute. “Explain what this is all about.” Carol was in a photographer’s paradise. She had nearly finished recording all hundred and twenty-eight pictures that could be stored on one minidisc. She had photographed the cylinder from all angles, including a close-up of each of the objects suspended in the liquid, and was now working on the machines behind it. She stopped taking pictures to listen to Troy’s reply.

“Well, Professor…” Troy started. His forehead was knitted as he tried to concentrate. “As far as I can make out from what they’ve been trying to tell me, this spaceship is on a mission to a dozen planets that are scattered in this part of the galaxy. On each planet the aliens leave one of those golden things you see in the cylinder. They contain tiny embryos or seeds that have been genetically engineered for survival on that specific planet.”

Carol walked over beside them. “So the ship goes from planet to planet, dropping off these packages containing seeds of some kind? Sort of a galactic Johnny Appleseed?”

“Sort of, angel, except that there are both animal and plant seeds inside the container. Plus advanced robots that nurture and educate the growing things until they reach maturity. Then the creatures can flourish on their own without help.”

“All in that one little package?” Nick asked. He looked again at the fascinating objects floating in the liquid in the cylinder. He loved the golden color. All of a sudden he thought of the trident. He imagined thousands of tiny swarming embryos inside its outer golden surface and in his mind’s eye he projected the growth of the swarm into the future. There was something fearsome about creatures genetically engineered to survive on the planet Earth. What if they are not friendly?

Nick’s heart sped up as he realized what had been bothering him, partly subconsciously, since he started believing Troy’s story about the aliens. Why did they stop on the Earth in the first place? What do they really want from us? His mind raced on. And if that trident contains beings destined for Earth that are extremely advanced, he thought, then it doesn’t matter if they are friendly. We will be finished sooner or later anyway.

Carol and Troy were talking in general terms about the way an advanced civilization might use seeds to colonize other planets. Nick wasn’t listening carefully. I can’t tell Troy or even Carol. If the aliens know what I’m thinking they will stop me. I’d better do it soon.

“Troy,” he heard Carol say as she began to take another set of pictures of the objects in the cylinder, “is it just co-incidence that the trident we found on Thursday looks so much like one of these seed packages?”

Nick did not wait for Troy to answer. “Excuse me,” he interrupted in a loud voice. “I forgot something very important. I must go back to the boat. Stay here and wait for me. I’ll be right back.”

He burst out of the room, down the corridor, and across the room with the low ceiling and the window on the ocean. Good, he said to himself, nothing is going to stop me. Without even pausing to put on his diving gear, Nick took a huge breath and dove through the window. He was afraid that his lungs were going to explode before he reached the surface. But he made it. He climbed up the ladder and onto the boat.

Nick went immediately to the bottom drawer underneath the racks of electronic equipment. He reached in and grabbed the golden trident. He could feel that the axis rod had thickened considerably. It was now nearly twice as thick as it had been the first time that he held it. Carol was right. Damnit, why didn’t I listen to her at the time? He pulled the object completely out of the drawer. The sun was just about to come up behind him. In the dawn light Nick could see that the trident had changed in several other ways. It was heavier. The individual tines on the fork end were much thicker and had almost grown together. In addition, there was an open hole into a soft, gooey interior on the north pole of the larger of the two spheres.

Nick examined it carefully. Suddenly he felt powerful arms wrap themselves around his chest and upper body, forcing him to drop the trident on the floor of the boat. “Now just hold steady,” he heard a lightly accented voice say, “and turn around slowly. We won’t hurt you if you cooperate.”

Nick turned around. Commander Winters and a tall, fat seaman that Nick had never seen before were standing in front of him in wetsuits. Lieutenant Ramirez was still holding him from behind. Ramirez gradually released Nick and bent down to pick up the trident. He handed it to Winters. “Thank you, Lieutenant,” Winters said. “Where are your companions, Williams?” he then asked Nick. “Down there with my missile?”

Nick didn’t say anything at first. Too much was happening too fast. He was having difficulty integrating Winters into his scenario for returning the trident to the spaceship. As soon as Nick had felt the changes in its outer surface, he had known for certain that the trident was one of the seed packages.

Winters was studying the trident. “And what’s the significance of this thing?” he said. “You guys have taken enough photographs of it.”

Nick was doing some calculations. If I am delayed here very long, then Carol and Troy will undoubtedly leave the ship. And the aliens will launch. He took a deep breath. My only chance is the truth.

“Commander Winters,” Nick began, “please listen very carefully to what I’m about to say. It will sound fantastic, even preposterous, but it’s all true. And if you will come with me, I can prove everything to you. The fate of the human race may well depend on what we do in the next five minutes.” He paused to organize his ideas.

For some reason Winters thought about the ridiculous carrot story that Todd had told him. But the earnestness he was seeing in Nick’s face persuaded him to continue to pay attention. “Go ahead, Williams,” he said.

“Carol Dawson and Troy Jefferson are right now onboard a super-advanced extraterrestrial spaceship that is directly under this boat. The alien vehicle is traveling from planet to planet depositing packages of embryonic beings that are genetically designed to survive on a particular planet. That golden thing in your hand is, in a sense, a cradle for creatures that may later flourish on the Earth. I must return it to the aliens before they leave or our descendants may not survive.”

Commander Winters looked at Nick as if he had lost his mind. The commander started to say something. “No,” Nick interrupted. “Hear me out. The spacecraft also stopped here because it needed some repairs. At one time we thought it might have found your missile. That’s partially how we got involved in the first place. We didn’t know about the creatures in the cradle. So we were trying to help. One of the things the aliens needed for their repairs was gold. You see, they only had three days—”

“Jesus K. Christ!” Winters shouted at Nick. “Do you really expect me to believe this crap? This is the looniest, most farfetched story I have ever heard in my entire life. You’re nuts. Cradles, aliens who need gold for repairs… I suppose next you’ll be telling me that they are six feet tall and look like carrots—” “And have four vertical slits in their faces?” Nick added.

Winters glanced around. “You told him?” he said to Lieutenant Ramirez. Ramirez shook his head back and forth.

“No,” Nick continued abruptly as the commander looked completely confused. “The carrot thing wasn’t an alien, at least not one of the superaliens who made the ship. The carrot was a holographic projection…”

The perplexed Commander Winters waved his hands.” I’m not listening to any more of this nonsense, Williams. At least not here. What I want to know is what you and your friends know about the location of the missile. Now will you come with us over to our boat of your own free will, or do we have to tie you up?”