The simulated labor continued. The contractions of the synthi-womb were much more frequent and forcible now. Dr. Aidans, my superior, came in to check Erickson’s condition, and left the laboratory again. It was time for the second stage of labor to begin.
Carefully I removed the complex of tubes and pumps that had handled my patient’s nutrition and excretion. I put out my hand to touch the lever that would release the amniotic fluid from the plastic womb, thus simulating the traditional “breaking of the waters,” and then drew it back. I’d better check Erickson’s pulse, blood pressure and body temperature first. Yes, it was all in order. Once more I extended my hand.
My hand went to the contraction dial and turned it to maximum. I hadn’t touched the lever I meant to touch.
How had it happened? What had made me do that? I had no time to speculate on causation. The synthi-womb, activated to maximum, gave a tremendous grinding contraction, and Erickson was propelled rapidly through it onto the receiving area. He was born.
I was trembling. But it might still be all right. The last part of a genuine labor is sometimes very abrupt. I moved shakily toward where he was lying, like a new-born child, to give him the symbolic slap on the buttocks that should start his extrauterine respiration.
I was never more dismayed and disconcerted in my life than when my patient sat up in the receiving area and spoke to me.
“Where am I?” he demanded in a normal adult voice. “What’s been happening?”
I had no answer to make. Obviously the simulated gestation and labor had been completely ineffective with him; it seemed incredible. The days of preprocessing, the weeks in the synthi-womb—all entirely without result? Where had he got the strength to remain so perfectly his former self?
Erickson swung his legs off the receiving area and stood up. I was still staring at him, immobilized with dismay. He drew his fist back, and I saw he was going to hit me between the eyes. Only at the last moment did I have sense enough to try to dodge.
When I came to, I was lying on the lab floor, naked as a jay bird, and tied up with yards and yards of gauze bandages. Obviously, Erickson had taken my clothes and departed. But it was not until long afterward that I learned what finally happened to him.
Chapter 15
There was not much light in the cavern where we had taken refuge. Madelaine and Lawrence had to talk in whispers, for the navy sub was still snuffling industriously around the underwater entrance to the cavern, and there was always the chance that the sub might have sensitive sound detection devices. There was not much room for the two Splits to sit down either; they were perched precariously on a shallow rock ledge above the water. We sea people were more comfortable than they, for the cavern was large enough to let us swim comfortably.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” Lawrence said softly.
Madelaine made no reply. He had said this several times before, and I suppose she thought there was really no answer to be made.
“Fortunately,” he went on, “we’ve still got the ahln.” He pulled it out of the front of his jacket and set it down on the rock between himself and Moonlight. It was a gadgety-looking device about a foot square, with the copper wire, the lead prism, and the platinum helix that Moonlight had indicated in her original drawing. A crystal of smoky amethyst quartz had been added. The crystal was the power source—or, more accurately, the power conduit—that she and I had learned about when our joined minds had made contact with Altair. The components were mounted in a sort of aluminum cradle, so that the ahln would float.
“Yes, you saved that,” Madelaine answered.
“That, and my medical bag. And you slung the flask around your neck before you went over the side. That was quick thinking, Maddy. Otherwise, we’d be considerably thirstier than we are.”
“Thank you,” the girl answered a little wryly.
The navy plane, appearing abruptly out of the night sky, had first machine-gunned the Naomi, and then come back to drop a bomb on the little craft. Luckily, the plane hadn’t been equipped with infrared sensing devices, and we sea people had been able to rescue the two Splits from the sinking ship. Even so, we would all have been dead before morning, except that we had met a fleeing dolphin who had told us of the cavern with its underwater entrance. He told us that many, many more of the sea people had been killed.
“It’s hard to get used to,” the girl continued. “One minute we were on the deck of the Naomi, with our only real problem deciding whether we should use the ahln at full power, or try for a gradual melting of the polar ice.
“We’d overcome the difficulties of making and powering the ahln. We’d thought we might have trouble finding platinum wire for it, but the jeweler in Ensenada sold us a piece without any fuss, and we’d found the quartz crystals at a curio dealer’s. Le ad for the prism and aluminum for the float had been easy to locate. We had the pilot model assembled, and we’d found that it worked. There seemed to be nothing but green lights ahead.
“The next minute the bullets were coming down and the ship was sinking under us. It all happened so quick! I haven’t got used to it yet.”
“Yes, it’s difficult to adjust to change sometimes,” Lawrence replied absently. “But we do have the ahln, and I think we could use it to get out of here. Maddy, would you have your usual high-minded objections to our trying to make things hot, literally speaking, for that sub that we know is outside!”
“Make things hot? How could you do that?”
“Would the ahln work under water?” he retorted. “I don’t understand how it works above water, for that matter. You said it taps the nucleon-producing potential of space, but I’ve never been able to believe in the continuous creation of hydrogen anyhow. And that a thing like this, two coils of wire and an amethyst quartz crystal”—he tapped the pl a tinum helix lightly with one finger—“should produce enormous quantities of heat is as unreasonable as hitching up two bread sticks and a sugar bowl, and calling it an H-bomb.”
“It does work, though,” Madelaine answered. “You mustn’t be misled by its look ing so simple. The quartz crystal acts as a conduit for the energy of empty space that would otherwise be used in giving birth to a nucleon. The platinum helix converts the energy into heat.”
“Then why isn’t the helix melted?” Lawrence asked. “And how can the crystal act as a conduit for the nucleon-producing potential of empty space? How does the crystal make contact with it?”
“The helix isn’t melted because its atoms aren’t excited. I don’t know how the crystal makes its contact. Perhaps the lead pr ism—I’m not sure. It may be that the ahln device warps space. You remember the mirages that formed around the prism when we were testing the ahln.”
“Yes, I remember. Oh, I concede that it works, though I don’t understand why. But as I was saying, will it still work under water?”
“I think so, yes.”
“Would you dolphins be able to swim up close to the sub with the ahln?” Lawrence asked, turning his attention to us in the water.
“I suppose so,” I answered in a laborious whisper. Whispering is difficult for a dolphin, and besides, I felt no enthusiasm for Lawrence’s idea. I was afraid we’d be seen as we swam up with the ahln—the sub must have some sort of underwater sensing device—and almost more afraid that we’d be boiled alive before we could get out of range of the heat. The ahln, even at low power, makes an almost unbelievable amount of heat.
“Good,” Lawrence said. “Then I can set the ahln to low, have Amtor swim in with it, drop it under the sub, and get back here before the water heats up. Perhaps I can adjust it for a time lag in starting. It takes a little time for the ahln to get working, anyhow. We know that.”