The Draco Tavern - Larry Niven [80]
Another bag said, “We have no secrets. What would you have of us? We look like this.” A picture formed on the bag’s side: a deep sea eel with long, elaborated fins manipulating a keyboard, goggle eyes and prominent pink gills. “We dare not make this envelope transparent. There’s too much light.”
“You tell too much,” the first bag said.
“They have not hidden themselves.”
“I concede.” The first bag showed a picture too, another deep sea eel, but with blue gills.
Dr. Kaylor came in. I’d never been sure of her rank, so I didn’t give it. She sat at one of the floating chairs, flustered but not showing it much. “Welcome to the local neighborhood,” she said.
“We are local indeed,” Blue Gills said. “Neighbors. We are from Mars.”
“Evolved on Europa,” said Pink Gills.
“Colony established some thirty thousand years ago,” said a third bag: Bronze Gills. The fourth still hadn’t shown itself.
“Jupiter orbits, not Earth orbits.”
“Are you aware of a near-frozen sea lying beneath the soil of Mars?”
“It covers near a hundred thousand square kilometers.”
They waited. Dr. Kaylor said, “Yes, in Elysium, near the equator. We think the dust keeps it from evaporating.”
Blue Gills said, “Dust and rubble, then dust compressed to cement, then pack ice, then solid ice. The Elysium Sea is well protected from loss of water vapor. Liquid water beneath. Conditions are very like those beneath the ice of Europa—”
“The increase in gravity is hard to notice.” Pink Gills.
“Pressure increases faster with depth.” Bronze Gills.
“But that’s as well, as the Elysium Sea is more shallow.”
Bronze Gills said, “Of course the taste of the water is quite different. A bit of planet-shaping was needed, and still the taste—”
“We prefer it.” Blue Gills.
“Barkeep, these are interesting flavors,” Pink Gills said. “What else have you?”
“Want to try something carbonated? Cheri, I’ll get your Irish coffee.”
When I came back one of the bags was saying, “Years ago. Here a probe, there a probe, descended on Mars with no clear method or pattern. Some stayed in orbit, some landed, some struck hard. Half of them destroyed themselves or failed to send a signal. We saw a similarity in design and guessed that they were from the inner world.”
“Yes, those were ours,” Dr. Kaylor said.
“Then they stopped,” said Blue Gills. “Nothing since three years ago. What happened?”
Cheri didn’t speak, so I said, “The Chirpsithra ships started coming. We’ve learned more about the universe since then than throughout our whole history.”
“But you ceased to explore Mars. Or did you cease entirely to explore?”
An uncomfortable silence. Cheri asked, “Did you come here in your own ship?”
Blue Gills said, “No! We feared you would take such as an invasion or violation of territory. When a Chirpsithra lander approached us, we concluded that we would be accepted as their guests. We come regarding a matter of territory, after all.”
“Who owns Mars?” Pink Gills demanded.
“Well,” said Cheri, “I don’t speak for the United Nations. I can bring this to Hermes Padat, I think.” The Secretary General.
Bronze Gills asked, “Can we settle this quickly? I myself dwell on Europa. Life support is a problem here. Too much gravity, too little pressure.”
“Oh, no, a case like this could take years,” Cheri said. “I should try to call the Secretary General.”
In a stunned silence we watched Cheri dial.
One of the Chirpsithra said, “No. I think we can decide more quickly than that. We hold authority in this part of space. Dr. Kaylor, do you claim Mars?”
“Of course. It’s our next-door neighbor, the nearest planet, much closer to us than Jupiter is.”
“Do you currently build ships capable of reaching Mars?”
She swallowed. “Ah ... no.”
“Has any human being ever set foot on this neighbor planet?”
“No. We would have, but you came. You already own most of space, most of the galaxy. You’ve said so yourselves.”
“Rick? Would you have gone to Mars if we had left you alone?”
When I was a boy, we had gone to the Moon, and come home, and stopped. Mars had changed whenever someone looked again, and always there was