“How much memory have you got?”

“Fair amount. Ten giga, something like that.”

“Maybe the helium’s getting to the chips,” Tina said. “Maybe it’s a saturation effect.”

“I still think you should keep it,” Ted said.

Norman had been looking at the screen. He was no mathematician, but he’d looked at a lot of statistics in his life, searching for patterns in the data. That was something human brains were inherently good at; finding patterns in visual material. Norman couldn’t put his finger on it, but he sensed a pattern here. He said, “I have the feeling it’s not random.”

“Then let’s keep it,” Barnes said.

Tina went forward to the console. As her hands touched the keys, the screen went blank.

“So much for that,” Barnes said. “It’s gone. Too bad we didn’t have Harry to look at it with us.”

“Yeah,” Ted said gloomily. “Too bad.”

ANALYSIS

“Take a look at this,” Beth said. “this one is still alive.”

Norman was with her in the little biological laboratory near the top of D Cylinder. Nobody had been in this laboratory since their arrival, because they hadn’t found anything living. Now, with the lights out, he and Beth watched the squid move in the glass tank.

The creature had a delicate appearance. The blue glow was concentrated in stripes along the back and sides of the creature.

“Yes,” Beth said, “the bioluminescent structures seem to be located dorsally. They’re bacteria, of course.”

“What are?”

“The bioluminescent areas. Squid can’t create light themselves. The creatures that do are bacteria. So the bioluminescent animals in the sea have incorporated these bacteria into their bodies. You’re seeing bacteria glowing through the skin.”

“So it’s like an infection?”

“Yes, in a way.”

The large eyes of the squid stared. The tentacles moved. “And you can see all the internal organs,” Beth said. “The brain is hidden behind the eye. That sac is the digestive gland, and behind it, the stomach, and below that-see it beating?-the heart. That big thing at the front is the gonad, and coming down from the stomach, a sort of funnel-that’s where it squirts the ink, and propels itself.”

“Is it really a new species?” Norman said.

She sighed. “I don’t know. Internally it is so typical. But fewer tentacles would qualify it as a new species, all right.”

“You going to get to call it Squidus bethus? “ Norman said.

She smiled. “Architeuthis bethis,” she said. “Sounds like a dental problem. Architeuthis bethis: means you need root canal.”

“How about it, Dr. Halpern?” Levy said, poking her head in. “Got some good tomatoes and peppers, be a shame to waste them. Are the squid really poisonous?”

“I doubt it,” Beth said. “Squid aren’t known to be. Go ahead,” she said to Levy. “I think it’ll be okay to eat them.” When Levy had gone, Norman said, “I thought you gave up eating these things.”

“Just octopi,” Beth said. “An octopus is cute and smart. Squid are rather… unsympathetic.”

“Unsympathetic.”

“Well, they’re cannibalistic, and rather nasty… She raised an eyebrow. “Are you psychoanalyzing me again?”

“No. Just curious.”

“As a zoologist, you’re supposed to be objective,” Beth said, “but I have feelings about animals, like anybody else. I have a warm feeling about octopi. They’re clever, you know. I once had an octopus in a research tank that learned to kill cockroaches and use them as bait to catch crabs. The curious crab would come along, investigate the dead cockroach, and then the octopus would jump out of its hiding place and catch the crab.

“In fact, an octopus is so smart that the biggest limitation to its behavior is its lifespan. An octopus lives only three years, and that’s not long enough to develop anything as complicated as a culture or civilization. Maybe if octopi lived as long as we do, they would long ago have taken over the world.

“But squid are completely different. I have no feelings about squid. Except I don’t really like ‘em.”

He smiled. “Well,” he said, “at least you finally found some life down here.”

“You know, it’s funny,” she said. “Remember how barren it was out there? Nothing on the bottom?”

“Sure. Very striking.”

“Well, I went around the side of the habitat, to get these squid. And there’re all sorts of sea fans on the bottom. Beautiful colors, blues and purples and yellows. Some of them quite large.”

“Think they just grew?”

“No. They must have always been in that spot, but we never went over there. I’ll have to investigate it later. I’d like to know why they are localized in that particular place, next to the habitat.”

Norman went to the porthole. He had switched on the exterior habitat lights, shining onto the bottom. He could indeed see many large sea fans, purple and pink and blue, waving gently in the current. They extended out to the edge of the light, to the darkness.

“In a way,” Beth said, “it’s reassuring. We’re deep for the majority of oceanic life, which is found in the first hundred feet of water. But even so, this habitat is located in the most varied and abundant marine environment in the world.” Scientists had made species counts and had determined that the South Pacific had more species of coral and sponges than anywhere else on Earth.

“So I’m glad we’re finally finding things,” she said. She looked at her benches of chemicals and reagents. “And I’m glad to finally get to work on something.”

Harry was eating bacon and eggs in the galley. The others stood around and watched him, relieved that he was all right. And they told him the news; he listened with interest, until they mentioned that there had been a large school of squid.

“Squid?”

He looked up sharply and almost dropped his fork. “Yeah, lots of ‘em,” Levy said. “I’m cooking up a bunch for dinner.”

“Are they still here?” Harry asked.

“No, they’re gone now.”

He relaxed, shoulders dropping.

“Something the matter, Harry?” Norman said.

“I hate squid,” Harry said. “I can’t stand them.”

“I don’t care for the taste myself,” Ted said.

“Terrible,” Harry said, nodding. He resumed eating his eggs. The tension passed.

Then Tina shouted from D Cylinder: “I’m getting them again! I’m getting the numbers again!”

00032125252632 032629 301321 04261037 18 3016 06180

82132 29033005 1822 04261013 0830162137 1604 083016

21 1822 033013130432 00032125252632 032629 301321 0

4261037 18 3016 0618082132 29033005 1822 04261013 08

30162137 1604 08301621 1822 033013130432 000321252

52632 032629 301321 04261037 18 3016 0618082132 290

33005 1822 04261013 0830162137 1604 08301621 1822 03

3013130432 00032125252632 032629 301321 04261037 1

8 3016 0618082132 29033005 1822 04261013 0830162137

1604 08301621 1822 033013130432 00032125252632 032

629 301321 04261037 18 3016 0618082132 29033005 1822

04261013 0830162137 1604 08301621 1822 033013130432

0003212525252632 032629 301321 04261037 18 3016 06

18082132 29033005 1822 04261013 0830162137 1604 083

01621 1822 033013130432 0003212525632 032629 301321

“What do you think, Harry?” Barnes said, pointing to the screen.

“Is this what you got before?” Harry said. “Looks like it, except the spacing is different.”

“Because this is definitely nonrandom,” Harry said. “It’s a single sequence repeated over and over. Look. Starts here, goes to here, then repeats.”

00032125252632 032629 301321 04261037 18 3016 06180

82132 29033005 1822 04261013 0830162137 1604 083016