– You mean that now he can swallow the food alive and digest it till only skeleton remains? I am not against most fantastic suppositions, and the same thought, I confess, came to my head too. But it was not difficult to make some calculations in my mind. We cannot go beyond the main and fundamental biological laws. For example, the speed of certain chemical reactions. It has its limiting constants. The same, in their own way, as the speed of light. The military men conducted their first radiation here just eight days ago. Transformation of living structures could have begun at once. But even according to boldest calculations it is a funny term for the squid to change its supersolid and superfirm jaw apparatus and the chemical complex of digestion system. These are not those wonders in which one should believe.
– Maybe my question is not very competent, – began one of the students cautiously, – but was the difference noticed between one organism subject to radiation and a group of them? I am asking it in connection with your words about collective survival.
– A wonderful question, my boy! Unfortunately, it has been studied very little still. But the problem you formulated is one of the most important. Imagine that a man appeared alone in a burning house. What will he do? Simply save himself, run away. Everyone will have this program working in him. And if there is a big group of healthy strong men in the house? They will undertake quite different actions: begin to extinguish fire, save the belongings. Moreover, interacting they will launch several different programs: somebody will bring water, somebody will take the fire away from curtains, take away the furniture which has not caught fire yet, and so on. That is, the program of escape will not work at all, and instead of it there will be a complex of several functional links. Something like that may happen with a big group of similar organisms. But the difficulty is that the unexpected laboratory conditions should really put into action one of potential programs of collective action. What experiment and in regard of what organisms is it better to conduct? Alas, it is very difficult to plan such investigations.
– If one follows the suggested logic, Professor, squids are very old creatures on the planet. They used to exist in the epoch of ichthyosaurs. Nature has changed since then, but the squids stood it. It means they have a great inner potential. Why could it not respond to stiff gamma-rays?
Professor nodded, agreeing reluctantly:
– I do not state categorically that the squid failed to transform. But then we should make a conclusion that we know almost nothing about the genuine speeds of biological reactions.
– And why – not? Einstein’s theory of relativity is also doubted by some scientists.
– Let it be so. But we know very little about sea depths. Who could be preserved there besides the squid?
– I’ve got everything ready, – declared Christian putting his head out of crew’s quarters.
The Search for the Enemy
Already in the first minutes of its work the location system established with the help of missile launching signaled the sector. Zero! No objects!
General Tuccert did not expect this at all.
And, strictly speaking, he had to make only two conclusions: the fighter was attacked not from water but from air. And the plane which had attacked it was invisible of “stealth” type because radar installation on the fighter controlling surrounding space did not respond. And the second: the enemy submarine could go down at the depth of more than a mile. But there have never been any data in the intelligent services of the country about the existence of such military technology and even of their projects in Russia or in China.
As such there are more than enough means of immersion to big depths in the world. Only this is purely research technology. They are very heavy because of the thickness of their body meant to sustain big pressures, slow and unable to maneuver, but the main thing is that they cannot surmount large ocean spaces independently. More so with armaments on board, which can aim exactly from under water at a modern fast fighter plane. But where could this slow moving vessel go? And that taking into account that the enemy has no military bases nearby. As to fighting submarines, their depth limit is a little over half a mile.
He reported everything to Navy headquarters. There they were also perplexed and confirmed: there are no large ships of the enemy which could be the means of transporting the deep-water submarine in the radius of several hundred miles from here. They asked what help was required.
He did not know it himself.
A ship and a deck fighter have been lost. Just like that, without any signs of the enemy.
Mark also told some terrible things about six hundred feet squid. Does it mean that its length it just a little less than that of the cruiser?.. It is difficult to believe, though its weight ought to be a hundred times less than the cruiser’s, anyway.
His brother is simply in panics, no doubt. It is clear, their small military ship became the victim of the same aggressor as the airplane. Military ships are always battened down safely. And no squid can drag such a ship under water. Because the resistance here is caused not by weight but by the tonnage. But anyway, there is too much ubnormal in everything happening.
Pete Tuccert looked at the photo of his father, as though expecting help. It is strange… sometimes it seems to him that father looks from the photo kindly and even caringly, and sometimes like now, like in their childhood, when he and his brother happened to be guilty of something.
Only one thing is consoling: now it is only eight o’clock in the morning, in seven and a half hours they will be at the place, and there will still be enough daylight to look into the things.
He got a report that the catapulted pilot had already been found and the hydroplane which had picked him up was on the way back.
In half an hour the pilot was brought.
The general knew already that he was an experienced pilot who had flown a lot, and actually there were no novices on the cruiser.
– Sit down, Captain. How are you?
– Quite normal.
– There is no “quite normal” after catapulting. You will go to the doctors all the same, but first tell me everything in order.
– During flying around, as I reported, nothing was found, except a small ship that was moving towards the coastline. But I was warned that it was known about it.
– Yes, a research ship.
– Having got a command to return I turned around and flew back.
– Where were you at the moment of the attack?
– Approximately at the place where these arched for ship was to be according to the coordinates.
– Go on.
– I felt a side blow and spontaneous bank to the left. I looked at the right wing. There were two lacerated holes at the distance of a foot from each other. It looked as though I had been attacked by a large-caliber machine-gun.
– From below or from up?
– Definitely from below. It could be seen by the bank of the machine, and by the metal characteristically damaged in the places of the attack.
– They could not fire from water, Captain, could they? The fighter has too high a speed to attack it from a machine-gun, and that at the height of two miles.
– Very unlikely, Sir.
– Then it could only be another plane which attacked you somewhere from below, from the side of the fuselage.
– Will you allow me to speak out my opinion, Sir.
– Yes, I am listening.
– It could only be invisible stealth, otherwise my radar would have discovered it.
– Certainly.
– I can’t understand, Sir, then he would have completely