Arthur Clarke: Cradle

At that moment, six feet above them, a ten-legged, black, spiderlike creature with a body about four inches in diameter walked unnoticed to the edge of the canopy. It extended three antennae in their direction and then leaped off the side, landing on the back of Lieutenant Ramirez’ neck. “Aieee,” screamed the lieutenant during the pause in the conversation. He fell down on his knees behind Nick and grasped at the black thing that was trying to take a sample chunk out of his neck. For a second nobody moved. Then Nick grabbed a large pair of pliers from the counter and thwacked the black thing once, twice, and even a third time before it released its grip on Ramirez’ neck.

All four men watched it fall to the deck, scuttle rapidly over to the cradle that Commander Winters had put down so that he could assist Ramirez, shrink its size by a factor of ten, and disappear into the cradle through the soft gooey opening on the top of the sphere. Within seconds the goo hardened and all the external surfaces of the cradle were again rigid.

Winters was flabbergasted. Ramirez crossed himself. The seaman looked as if he were about to faint. “I swear to you that my story is true, Commander,” Nick said calmly. “All you have to do is come down with me and see for yourself. I left my diving gear down there so that I could hurry up here to retrieve this thing. We can go together with my last working tank and share the air supply.”

Winters’ head was spinning. The ten-legged spider was the straw that broke the camel’s back. He felt that he had now entered the Twilight Zone. I have never seen or heard anything even remotely like this before in my life, Winters thought. And only half an hour ago I had wild hallucinations with musical accompaniment. Maybe I am the one losing touch with reality. Lieutenant Ramirez was still on his knees. It looked as if he were praying. Or maybe this is finally my sign from God.

“All right, Williams,” the commander was surprised to hear himself say. “I’ll go with you. But my men will wait here on your boat for our return.”

Nick picked up the trident and raced around the canopy to prepare the diving equipment.

It took Carol and Troy a few seconds to react to Nick’s abrupt departure. “That was strange,” Carol said finally. “What do you suppose he forgot?”

“I have no idea,” Troy shrugged. “But I hope he hurries back. I don’t think it’s very long until launch. And I’m sure they will throw us out before then.”

Carol thought for a moment and then turned back to look at the cylinder. “You know, Troy, those golden things are exactly like the trident on the outside. Did you say—”

“I didn’t answer you before, angel,” Troy interrupted. “But yes, you’re right. It is the same material. I hadn’t realized until we came down here today that what we picked up on that first dive was the seed package for Earth. They may have tried to tell me before; maybe I just didn’t understand them.”

Carol was fascinated. She walked over and put her face against the cylinder wall. It felt more like glass than plastic. “So maybe I was right when I thought it was heavier and thicker…” she said, as much to herself as to Troy. “And inside that trident are seeds for better plants and animals?” Troy nodded his head in response.

There was now some motion inside the cylinder. The thin membranes separating the subvolumes were growing what appeared to be guidewires that were wrapping themselves around the individual golden objects. Carol reloaded her camera with a new disc and ran around the outside of the cylinder, stopping in the best positions to photograph the process. Troy looked down at his bracelet. “There’s no doubt about it, angel. These ETs are definitely preparing to launch. Maybe we should go.”

’We’ll wait as long as we can,” Carol shouted from across the room. “These photographs will he priceless.” They both could now hear weird noises behind the walls. The noises were not loud, but they were distracting because they were erratic and so totally alien. Troy paced nervously as he listened to the gamut of sounds. Carol walked over beside him. “Besides,” she said, “Nick asked us to wait for him.”

“That’s great,” Troy answered, “as long as they wait as well.” He seemed uncharacteristically nervous. “I don’t want to be onboard when these guys leave the Earth.”

“Hey there, Mr. Jefferson,” Carol said, you are supposed to he the calm one. Relax. You just said yourself that you think they’ll throw us out before they leave.” She paused and looked searchingly at Troy. “What do you know that I don’t?”

Troy turned away from her and started walking toward the exit. Carol ran after him and grabbed his arm. “What is it, Troy?” she said. “What’s wrong?”

“Look, angel,” he replied, not looking directly at her, “I just figured it out myself a minute ago. And I’m still not sure what it means. I hope I haven’t made a terrible—”

“What are you talking about?” she interrupted him. “You’re not making any sense.”

“The Earth package,” he blurted out. “It has human seeds in it too. Along with the trees and insects and grasses and birds.”

Carol stood facing Troy, trying to understand what was bothering him so much. “When they came here a long long time ago,” he said, his face wrinkled with concern, “they took specimens of the different species and returned them to their home world. Where they were improved by genetic engineering and prepared for their eventual return to the Earth. Some of those specimens were human beings.”

Carol’s heart quickened as she realized what Troy was telling her. So that’s it, she said to herself. There are superhumans inside that package we’ve found. Not just better flowers and better bugs, but better people as well. But unlike Troy, Carol’s immediate reaction was not fear. She was overwhelmed by curiosity.

“Can I see them?” she asked excitedly. Troy didn’t understand. “The superhumans, or whatever you want to call them… ,” she continued, “can I see them?”

Troy shook his head. “They’re just tiny zygotes, angel. More than a billion would fit in your hand. You wouldn’t be able to see anything.”

Carol was not dissuaded.” But these guys have such amazing technological ability. Maybe they can…” She stopped. “Wait a minute, Troy. Remember that carrot on the base? It was a holographic projection and must have come somehow out of the information base on this spacecraft.”

Carol walked away from Troy into the middle of the room. She raised her arms and looked up at the ceiling thirty feet above her. “Okay, you guys, whoever you are,” she invoked in a loud voice. “Now there’s something that I want. We risked our ass to get what you needed for your repairs. You can at least reciprocate. I want to see what we might look like someday…”

To their left, not too far from one of the large blocky machines connected to the cylinder, two of the wall partitions moved apart to form a hallway. They could see light at the other end. “Come on,” an exultant Carol called to Troy, who was again smiling and admiring her assertiveness, “let’s go see what our superaliens have created for us now.”

At the end of the short corridor, there was a softly lit square room about twenty feet on a side. Against the opposite wall, illuminated by a blue light that gave the entire tableau a surrealistic appearance, eight children were standing around a large, glowing model of the Earth. As Carol and Troy approached, they recognized that what they were seeing was not real, that it was simply a complex sequence of images projected into the air in front of them. But the diaphanous picture contained such rich detail that it was easy to forget it was just a projection.