Sphere (Page 29)

Norman was surprised: the cliche image of mathematicians was that they had their heads in the clouds, were absent-minded, inattentive. But Harry was astute; he didn’t miss a thing.

"Why would Barnes want to go?" Ted said.

"I think it’s clear," Harry said. "Because of the storm on the surface."

"The storm isn’t here yet," Ted said.

"No," Harry said. "And when it comes, we don’t know how long it will last."

"Barnes said twenty-four to forty-eight hours – "

"Neither Barnes nor anyone else can predict how long the storm will last," Harry said. "What if it lasts five days?"

"We can hold out that long. We have air and supplies for five days. What’re you so worried about?"

"I’m not worried," Harry said. "But I think Barnes is worried."

"Nothing will go wrong, for Christ’s sake," Ted said. "I think we should stay." And then there was a squishing sound. They looked down at the all-weather carpeting at their feet. The carpet was dark, soaked.

"What’s that?"

"I’d say it was water," Harry said.

"Salt water?" Ted said, bending over, touching the damp spot. He licked his finger. "Doesn’t taste salty."

From above them, a voice said, "That’s because it’s urine." Looking up, they saw Teeny Fletcher standing on a platform among a network of pipes near the curved top of the cylinder. "Everything’s under control, gentlemen. Just a small leak in the liquid waste disposal pipe that goes to the H2O recycler."

"Liquid waste?" Ted was shaking his head.

"Just a small leak," Fletcher said. "No problem, sir." She sprayed one of the pipes with white foam from a spray canister. The foam sputtered and hardened on the pipe. "We just urethane the suckers when we get them. Makes a perfect seal.

"How often do you get these leaks?" Harry said.

"Liquid waste?" Ted said again.

"Hard to say, Dr. Adams. But don’t worry. Really."

"I feel sick," Ted said.

Harry slapped him on the back. "Come on, it won’t kill you. Let’s get some sleep."

"I think I’m going to throw up."

They went into the sleeping chamber. Ted immediately ran off to the showers; they heard him coughing and gagging.

"Poor Ted," Harry said, shaking his head.

Norman said, "What’s all this business about a black hole, anyway?"

"A black hole," Harry said, "is a dead, compressed star. Basically, a star is like a big beach ball inflated by the atomic explosions occurring inside it. When a star gets old, and runs out of nuclear fuel, the ball collapses to a much smaller size. If it collapses enough, it becomes so dense and it has so much gravity that it keeps on collapsing, squeezing down on itself until it is very dense and very small – only a few miles in diameter. Then it’s a black hole. Nothing else in the universe is as dense as a black hole."

"So they’re black because they’re dead?"

"No. They’re black because they trap all the light. Black holes have so much gravity, they pull everything into them, like vacuum cleaners – all the surrounding interstellar gas and dust, and even light itself. They just suck it right up."

"They suck up light?" Norman said. He found it hard to think of that.

"Yes."

"So what were you two so excited about, with your calculations?"

"Oh, it’s a long story, and it’s just speculation." Harry yawned. "It probably won’t amount to anything, anyway. Talk about it later?"

"Sure," Norman said.

Harry rolled over, went to sleep. Ted was still in the showers, hacking and sputtering. Norman went back to D Cyl, to Tina’s console.

"Did Harry find you all right?" he said. "I know he wanted to see you."

"Yes, sir. And I have the information he requested now. Why? Did you want to make out your will, too?"

Norman frowned.

"Dr. Adams said he didn’t have a will and he wanted to make one. He seemed to feel it was quite urgent. Anyway, I checked with the surface and you can’t do it. It’s some legal problem about it being in your own handwriting; you can’t transmit your will over electronic lines."

"I see."

"I’m sorry, Dr. Johnson. Should I tell the others as well?"

"No," Norman said. "Don’t bother the others. We’ll be going to the surface soon. Right after we have one last look at the ship."

THE LARGE GLASS

This time they split up inside the spaceship. Barnes, Ted, and Edmunds continued forward in the vast cargo bays, to search the parts of the ship that were still unexplored. Norman, Beth, and Harry stayed in what they now called the flight deck, looking for the flight recorder.

Ted’s parting words were "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done." Then he set off with Barnes. Edmunds left them a small video monitor so they could see the progress of the other team in the forward section of the ship. And they could hear: Ted chattered continuously to Barnes, giving his views about structural features of the ship. The design of the big cargo bays reminded Ted of the stonework of the ancient Mycenaeans in Greece, particularly the Lion Gate ramp at Mycenae. …

"Ted has more irrelevant facts at his fingertips than any man I know," Harry said. "Can we turn the volume down?" Yawning, Norman turned the monitor down. He was tired. The bunks in DH-8 were damp, the electric blankets heavy and clinging. Sleep had been almost impossible. And then Beth had come storming in after her talk with Barnes.

She was still angry now. "God damn Barnes," she said. "Where does he get off?"