Still River

Chapter Two Datum Two: Carol

The little Shervah dashed through the near-darkness at the top of her speed. With so little gravity, this meant an awkward series of leaps rather than a graceful run, but she could see ahead well enough in the beam of her hand light to be willing to risk that. There was no time to waste; there was life, however unlikely that might be, and, if her own eyes could be believed, all competing explanations for Enigma’s retention of atmosphere had to take second place. Biology just did too many improbable things.

She had no idea at the moment what that life might be doing, or what sort of ecological pattern would have to be worked out before the little planet made sense. Life, however, could do things like make oxygen and ammonia coexist in large quantities on Hrimm, or oxygen and cellulose on so many other worlds. This was even odder than having the oxygen, one of the most savagely active elements in the universe, existing free, as it did—thanks to life—in so many environments.

She had to see more. Finding Molly was also desirable, of course, taking reasonable care of her own safety should be given some sort of weight, but a possibility like this simply had to be checked out.

There was that sparkling, metallic stuff, too; now that she remembered, that could be living. She knew perfectly well there were races made of high-conducting hydrocarbons. Molly had collected some of this, of course, but Carol wanted to see for herself. Hurrying, even under near-zero gravity, was safe enough as long as one could see well ahead ...

And as long as one looked underfoot.

Her mind did not work as fast as Joe’s. He would probably have thought about hydrogen bonds being characteristic of life even while he was spinning through the air; he would have reasoned that that might be what made the sticky stuff that Molly had reported so sticky; he would have expected it to produce slippery material, too.

Carol didn’t. She was very annoyed with herself as she spun, but none of the explanations got to her consciousness until somewhat later. Instead, her memory flashed back to an incident months before on Pearl, the inner planet of Smoke, where most of the Humans lived because of the gravity. She had only recently met Molly, and the high-temperature family was engaged in teaching Carol’s group the sport of skating—ammonia, which does not expand when it freezes, is consequently not slippery. The rink had shop facilities, and skates had been quickly provided for the Shervah family, with interesting and challenging consequences.

Carol and one of her Others had seriously considered mastering the art of figure skating ...

Contact with the cavern floor brought her mind back to the present.

Even then, she didn’t discuss either hydrogen bonds or ice with the others; speed was not the only way in which her mind differed from Joe’s.