Micro - Michael Crichton [108]
The pool was small and shallow enough that they could see all of it. Nothing seemed threatening.
“I’m going for a swim,” Erika said.
“I’m not,” Danny said.
Rick and Karen glanced at each other.
Erika went off behind a clump of moss, and returned naked. “Is there a problem?” she said to the others, while Danny stared. “We’re all biologists here.” She stepped onto the surface of the pool. The water dimpled under her toes, but it supported her weight, didn’t break. She pressed down harder, and suddenly she broke through and went in up to her neck. She waded over to the waterfall and stood under it. The droplets tumbled down, bursting on her head and making her gasp. “It’s magnificent. Come in.”
Karen began to take off her clothes in a matter-of-fact way. Rick Hutter wasn’t sure what to do; he felt embarrassed to be looking at Karen while she undressed, more embarrassed to be swimming with her and Erika naked. He got his clothes off fast, and jumped into the water.
“Welcome to Eden,” Erika said.
“A dangerous Eden.” Rick ducked down, and began scrubbing his head.
As Karen explored the pool, she saw it was like a fish tank full of living things, but they weren’t fish, they were single-celled organisms. The creatures spun and darted and drifted. A torpedo-shaped creature swam up against her.
It was a Paramecium, a pond-water animal, a protozoan consisting of a single cell. The Paramecium was covered with rippling hairs that propelled the creature through the water. It began bumping along Karen’s arm, tickling her skin. She cupped her hands and picked up the Paramecium, holding it in a handful of water. She could feel the hairs beating on her palms, and the cell squirmed. It reminded her of a cat that didn’t like being held. “I won’t hurt you,” she said to the cell, stroking it gently with a fingertip. As she touched the hairs, they reacted by reversing direction, beating against her finger. It was like stroking velvet that fought back.
Why am I talking to a cell? Karen thought. That’s pretty silly. A cell is a machine, she told herself. It’s just a clockwork of proteins inside a water-filled bag. And yet…she couldn’t help feeling that the cell was also a small being, full of its own purposes and desires. A cell wasn’t intelligent the way a human is, of course. A cell couldn’t imagine galaxies or compose a symphony, yet it was a sophisticated biological system, perfectly adapted to survive in this environment, and bent on making copies of itself, as many as possible. “Good luck,” she said out loud, opening her hands and letting the cell go free. She watched it hurry away, corkscrewing as it swam. She said to Rick, “We’re not so different from these protozoa.”
“I don’t see the resemblance,” Rick said.
“A person is a protozoan on the day the person is conceived. As the biologist John Tyler Bonner likes to say, ‘A human being is a single-celled organism with a complicated fruiting body.’ ”
Rick grinned. “The fruiting body is the best part.”
“Crude,” Karen remarked. Erika smirked at him.
A shadow crossed the pool, and a scream echoed above. Instinctively they ducked their heads under the water. When they came up, Rick looked around and said, “Birds.”
“What kind?” Karen said.
“No idea. They’re gone, anyway.” They washed their clothes in the pool, rinsing the dust and mud out. Afterward, they spread their clothes to dry, and sunbathed for a little while on the moss. The clothes dried quickly.
“We need to get going,” Rick Hutter said, buttoning his shirt.
Just then, the distant cries grew louder, and dark shapes flashed through the air above them. The humans leaped to their feet.
A flock of birds was cruising along the cliffs, landing and taking off. The birds were foraging. Their cries shattered the air.
A bird landed before