Astronomicon: Behemoth

Chapter 40 - Medical

Instead of the usual end of day briefing, Megan had made concessions to Santiago's instructions and called a much smaller meeting in the control room. With the cool-pad still resting on her eyes, she would just have to imagine the facial expressions of those people talking to her.

She had kept the meeting down to a minimum; just Margaux, Isa and Santiago.

"If that water sample checked out as safe to drink, we should look into ways to retrieve larger quantities of water," she said.

"I'd prefer to test a much larger sample first," replied Santiago.

"You're not sure it's safe?" she asked.

"Given where we are, I'd rather be absolutely sure," he replied. "There could be traces of toxic compounds but I only had a few millilitres of sample. If we could get a couple of litres, I can get an exhaustive analysis done. Then we'd know for sure if it's potable."

"Can you organise getting a better sample, Margaux?"

"No problem," Margaux replied. "It just depends how fast you want it. The simplest way would be to leave a large bowl in there for a few hours and return when it's full."

"Sounds simple enough. Can you prepare a suitable container?"

"It should be sterile too," Santiago interjected.

"No problem," replied Margaux. "I do have one question before we finish here."

"What's that?" asked Megan.

"When we first began exploring the main corridor, we explored to the right. All our more recent expeditions have been to the left. Why is that?"

Megan fine-tuned the position of her cool-pad while she worked out how to explain her answer. "Politeness, as much as any other reason. After we met the lobsters and, kind of, made friends with them, I've viewed going too far in that direction as straying into their territory. I'm probably being over-sensitive, but it feels like anything we scavenge in their territory is theft."

"That makes sense, but wouldn't it be a good idea to meet them more, try to learn to communicate more than we have so far?"

"If you think they're safe, Megan," interjected Isa. "I'd really like to meet them myself. I've seen the amazing video footage you got but that won't compare to meeting them in person. I am your exobiologist after all."

"I've no reason to think they are a threat to us," Megan replied.

Isa smiled. "After they gave us the mysterious goggles, we should take a gift to present to them. What would they understand as a gift?"

"Fruit!" replied Megan. "If we pick some fresh fruit from the orchard, that should work. They seemed very happy about that last time."

"Anything we can learn from them could be useful," said Isa.

"Sounds like we'll be doing two expeditions, each in opposite directions," Megan announced. "Doctor, when can I get rid of the pad and return to my duties?"

"I'll check again now, but it won't be before tomorrow morning," Santiago replied.

"The lobster trip will have to be tomorrow then. I'm not letting anyone else lead that expedition. I've had closer contact with the lobsters than anyone else."

* * *

"What do we do now?!" demanded L.E.O. Cohen.

"If this box is as tough as the floor in this place, we don't have anything which can cut it," replied Aron, at a loss as to what could be done.