The speculative bank quickly responded, "This is an emergency. We must
be able to observe from close up. We'll have to approach it."
"The entire mind?" enquired the disciplinary corps.
The speculative bank hesitated. "No, we'll need to split up. One-fifth
of us will go, the rest remain here. It's a short distance and we'll
still be able to continue in complete contact."
Those who were to go were quickly sorted out and Raeillo/ee13 was quite
thrilled to find he and Raellu//2 were included in the scouting party.
The group set off briskly toward their objective but had moved hardly
one hundred yards when a vertigo seemed to overtake them. Raeillo/ee13
found himself swimming helplessly in a vortex of darkness and isolation,
blanked off from not only the group-mind and his bank but also from
Raellu//2. Frantically he grasped for some sort of stasis, but
dependence on the group-mind was too ingrained and he was unable to stir
his long-dormant powers of sight and education.
Then the isolation cleared to be replaced by a brief impression of chaos
with perhaps a tinge of alienness. Another instant of vertigo followed
and then everything was normal once more as the comfortable familiar
mesh took hold.
"What was that?" Even the speculative bank sounded frightened.
"Sorry." The usually silent meshing bank sounded abashed. "We weren't
prepared for that. Some sort of thought wave is issuing from the opening
and it disrupted the group mesh till we were able to take it into
calculation and rebuild the mesh around it."
"Thought wave? Then there _are_ Rell in that thing."
"Do not compute before the mesh is set," the interpretive bank
cautioned. "The presence of Rell, while extremely probable, is not yet
entirely certain."
Without waiting for a suggestion from elsewhere the disciplinary group
ordered the entire mind forward.
Perhaps, in time of stress, dormant qualities tend to emerge,
Raeillo/ee13 mused. Certainly everyone, himself included, appeared to be
exercising speculative qualities. Not that specialization isn't a
marvelous blessing, he hastily added, in case the disciplinary corps
might be scanning his bank. But the disciplinary corps itself was as
fascinated by the phenomenon ahead as Raeillo/ee13.
Emerging from the infinitely huge upright thing was a mobile being, also
infinitely huge. Not that they were the same size. The mobile one was
small enough to fit easily through the opening in the lower portion of
the larger. But beyond a certain point words lose meaning and infinitely
huge was the closest measurement the tiny Rell could find for either the
upright pointed thing or the knobby one which had emerged and was
quickly identified as the source of the disrupting thought patterns.
* * * * *
Leonard Brown was enjoying himself thoroughly. The inside of a space
suit can scarcely be termed comfortable but at least you can move around
in it and Brown was making the most of this sensation after two months
cramped in his tiny cell. He was, in fact, comporting himself much as a
three-year-old might have done after a similar release.
But before long he settled down to the serious business of observing and
mentally recording everything in sight.
There were none of the mysterious 'canals' in view, which was
disappointing; one piece of glamour the publicity boys would necessarily
forego until the next trip. The ice cap itself, if such it could be
called, was almost equally disappointing. On Earth it would have been
dismissed as a mere frost patch, if this section was typical. For a
radius of many yards the ground was blasted bare by the action of the
exhaust and nowhere in sight did there appear to be more than the
flimsiest covering of white over the brown sandy soil.
"Not even lichens," muttered Brown in disgust.
But disgust cannot long stand against the magic of a fresh new planet
and Brown continued his avid, though barren, search until hunger forced
his return to the ship. He had been able to detect no life and was
completely unaware of his close proximity to the planet's dominant
species. It had been considered neither practical nor particularly
desirable to build a microscope into the space suit. Simplicity and the
least possible weight had been the watchwords here as with everything
designed to go aboard the ship.
In any case, a microscope would have done Brown little good in trying to
detect the submicroscopic beings of the Rell.
The Rell, who had somewhat lost their fear of Brown, hastily retreated
when they saw him returning to the still awesome ship.
"But are you _sure_ he's _completely_ self-powered?" the speculative
bank queried. "No Rell inside him at all?"
"There are many Rell-like beings in various parts of him," replied the
interpretive bank. "Some help digest his food, others are predators, and
still others their enemies. But most are too big and clumsy to have
developed intelligence, and even the small ones appear completely
mindless."
"But where do the thought waves come from? We all felt them."
"It's hard to accept but we are almost forced to conclude they are
emanating from the mobile unit itself, or rather from the living part
within the cocoon."
"You're positive they aren't the product of some of the Rell-beings
inside?"
"Almost positive. The mesh insists not. In fact, it claims this is an
un-Rell like type of intelligence, though that appears to be a
contradiction in terms. The thought pattern is completely outside our
experience. In fact, it is so alien we haven't broken it down yet to the
meaning behind it."
"But if the Rell inside are too large to have developed intelligence,
how could this gigantic monster in which they live have done so?"
"We cannot yet say. Remember, the theory that intelligence cannot
develop in creatures above a certain size is unproven, even though never
before challenged. We've watched other races die through failure to
adapt to change so apparently it is true of Rell-like creatures on this
world. But who can say about organisms on another world or of the
unprecedented size of this one? Completely different physical laws may
apply."
It was later that afternoon after the Rell had spent much time observing
Brown while Brown was busy observing the landscape that the interpretive
bank made the triumphant announcement, "We have it! We've broken the
thought waves down to their meanings and know what he's thinking. What
would you like to know first?"
"Check and see if there are any Rell inside the other thing or on his
home world. They might have constructed him."
"Apparently there are none, or at least no intelligent Rell, on his
world. We can't guide his mind but the memory bank recorded all the
thoughts we've received and some time ago he was thinking of something
he termed 'vermin'. Apparently these are sometimes Rell-like creatures,
although far larger. He regards them as a great nuisance, but mindless.
The big thing, by the way, he calls a 'ship' and it is utterly lifeless.
We needn't fear the flame until this creature leaves."
"What about him? What is he like?"
"That's the most exciting part! He thought of his bodily needs once and
we glimpsed a concept dealing with his physical construction. It's
incredible! His body is composed almost entirely of water ... there's
enough water in him alone to prolong the life of the Rell many ages.
Further, the air in his 'ship' is heavily impregnated with moisture and
he even has reserve supplies of water for his needs."
At this, not only Raeillo/ee13, but all except perhaps the most
responsible units felt a shiver of primitive longing and perhaps even
greed. Not for millennia had there been such a plentitude of water so
close!
"Then can't we appropriate at least part of it?" asked the speculative
bank.
"Unfortunately both the 'man', as he calls himself, and his 'ship' are
sealed so tightly that we could not penetrate either. Worse yet, almost
half his time here is already gone. We don't quite understand his
purpose here. His thoughts seem to say he is searching for Rell for some
unfathomable reason yet he seems to know nothing of the Rell and cannot
even detect us."
* * * * *
It was the next day when the time was almost all gone that the two big
discoveries were made. During a routine check, the mesh came across a
thought of the man's return and a visualization of his home world. It
was so startling that the interpretive bank was recalled from its effort
to try to devise a means through the spacesuit and set at the new
problem.
A hasty check of the man's subconscious thoughts revealed the big news.
"Do you know," the interpretive bank announced, "not only does this
being's home world have a moist atmosphere like that in his ship but two
thirds of the surface of his world is _liquid water_!"
Even the speculative bank was silent for a full two seconds after this
news. Then a hasty impulse was sent to the disciplinary corps and the
entire mind called into action. An extreme emergency upon which the fate
of the race hinged called for the utmost effort by even the humblest
members of the group.
The Rell worked diligently and many blind alleys were explored, but it
was not for some time that anyone thought of enquiring of the
not-too-bright feeding bank how they were managing to keep the mind
operating at considerably more than normal power with no frost within
feeding distance.
"We're taking moisture from the air," was the answer.
"Where is the moisture coming from?" the interpretive bank was asked.
The answer didn't take long. Rapid measurements supplied it. "Some of it
is vaporized frost but that wouldn't be enough for our needs. The only
other possibility is that moisture must be seeping away from either the
man or his ship despite his sureness that they were both airtight and
our own investigations which confirmed it."
They had maintained a cautious distance from the ship for the most part
despite the interpretive bank's assurance of no immediate danger. But
now they swarmed over both it and the spacesuit determined to detect the
leak.
They found none.
And now the man was returning to his ship.
"This is the last time," the mesh warned. It was now or never.
For a second there was conflict over control of the circuits to the
disciplinary corps which carried with it command of the organism during
the emergency. The speculative bank customarily assumed this
responsibility, but a slight schism had developed between it and the
interpretive bank. The latter's greater age and skill came into play and
victory was quickly won.