Henry followed Kaya into the meeting room and was immediately subjected to an admonishment from Zhu, who was seated in his usual spot.
“You’re late. Sit down.”
Abashed, they wordlessly occupied the two empty seats at the table’s end, closest to the door. Everyone from the day before was present, including Aahana, along with two new people sitting opposite each other on the long sides of the table. In Henry’s former seat sat a light-skinned man with long black hair, tied back in a ponytail. His face was gaunt and narrow, and he was wearing the civil service uniform along with an excited smile. The right side of his collar bore a platinum atomic whirl—six thin rings arrayed artfully around a single solid circle. From Henry’s position at the bottom of the table he couldn’t quite get a glimpse at the left side of the man’s collar.
Across from him, on Zhu’s right, sat a bulky, light-skinned and middle-aged woman dressed in naval fatigues. There was a major’s rank pip on her chest, and her name tape read: “Cloete”. Her dirty blonde hair was cut in a half-bob, complimenting her heart-shaped face and wide mouth, which was currently twisted into an impatient frown.
Beside the unfamiliar man sat Genevieve, occupying one of the seats that’d been empty the day before. She, too, looked annoyed, but still held eye contact with Henry for several seconds before looking away.
“Now that we’re all finally here, let’s quickly introduce our newcomers for the record,” said Zhu.
He gestured across the table to the black haired man. “This is Ji-Seok Kim, the Vanuatu’s chief science officer. We’re here this morning on his account.”
Kim swiveled his head across the table, showing everyone his smile. “Good morning!”
“Next to me is Major Cloete, who is doubling as the Vanuatu’s senior deck officer and chief engineer.”
She leveled a baleful look upon Kim. “Much as I enjoy sitting around in a tiny room with you all, I have a fuckhuge list of shit to do that keeps growing by the hour. Which includes making the last-minute adjustments to the shuttle you asked me for. So get on with it.”
Kim replied with an awkward chuckle, and looked to Zhu.
“Go ahead,” he prompted.
“Right. Well, as everyone knows, the last twenty-four hours have been some of the most important in all of human history in terms of new scientific discoveries. It can’t be stressed enough just how lucky we are to have stumbled upon two ocean worlds in the same system, and within a hundred light years of Sol! And that is, of course, to say nothing about the Arkies.”
“Arkies?” Ioane asked, frowning.
“Yesss,” Kim said, drawing out the end of the word until it sounded like a hiss. “About that. While we were reviewing the video feed of Aahana’s interactions with the aliens, my husband made an off-hand comment about how similar they were, in certain respects, to Architeuthis dux. Though the comparison is rather crude and very likely wildly incorrect, the team preferred the nickname over repeating the phrase, ‘the aliens’, over and over.”
Art frowned at him. “Arky-what?”
“Ah, they’re colloquially known as giant squid. One of countless life forms that went extinct as a result of the catastrophic ecological damage done to Earth by the SAI rebellion. Their genome is stone dead since our ancestors were unable to escape with intact samples of Architeuthis DNA. So, unfortunately, they exist only in media now, often portrayed as oversized monsters dwelling in the depths of Pluto’s oceans. They’ve become modern day cryptids, essentially.”
The exaggerated way Cloete rolled her eyes made Henry wonder if they were about to escape from her head.
“Arkies,” Zhu said. “I see. That should be fine for now, but when Sol decides on a scientific designation for them I’ll have to insist we use it over this nickname. Please continue, doctor.”
Kim nodded to him. “Where was I…? Ah, the planets, yes. We’ve already come to some exciting conclusions based on the atmospheric data taken from both planets, the first being they are not quite close enough to share a biosphere. Probably. The second being it’s almost certain that Alpha One is less conducive to life than Alpha One-Alpha.”
“Less conducive to life,” said Kaya, sounding out the words.
Ioane squinted at Kim. “And why’s that?”
“An excess of carbon dioxide. Alpha One also has a large amount of dangerous particulates in its atmosphere, which makes the existence of life on the planet very…doubtful. The planet-wide ocean is likely quite acidic. It is possible, I suppose, that life exists there, but it would have had to adapt to a much more hostile environment than any form of life we’ve ever encountered before.”
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“Kim,” Cloete snapped. “Get to the fucking point!”
“Y-yes. Well. As to the Arkies. We suspect that the gesticulations the tentacle made when interacting with Aahana are a form of sign language.”
Surprised muttering filled the room.
“Sign language,” Ioane frowned. “As in, speaking through hand gestures?”
“So they’re definitely intelligent?” Kaya asked.
“We don’t know for sure,” Kim said hastily. “It’s an educated guess at this point, a working theory spawned more from gut instinct than hard data. Which is why we’re so anxious to return and gather data on them as soon as possible.”
“And that’s why we’re here,” Art said.
Kim nodded eagerly. “Yes! We are going to send another team down once Sarah has finished with the sonar modifications we’ve requested.”
“My grease monkeys should have it done by the time I get back down there,” Cloete said. “Or close enough.”
Zhu frowned, and turned to Kim. “Clearly state our objectives, please.”
“Of course. We, ah, have developed a very basic, very rudimentary method of attempting communication with the Arkies. We think that since they appear to be biological creatures not completely dissimilar to ourselves there should be a few simple ways we could attempt to communicate with them. We’ve come up with a few blown up pictograms to show them—just children’s drawings, really—based on the fact that they have eyes. We have also developed a very simple intelligence test to give to them, a puzzle that a human adult would be able to solve instantly, but would probably stump a three year old.”
Henry rubbed his face, frowning. Wow, this guy is just incapable of getting to the point.
Kim noticed his reaction, and let out another awkward chuckle. “...Forgive me. I’m told all the time that I’m scatterbrained, and I think a poor night’s sleep might be making it worse.”
Zhu then stepped in. “We’ll be deploying another science team to the same general vicinity where we made contact with the…Arkies. From there, Mister Kim and one other member of the science team will be lowered to the ocean floor via the shuttle’s tow cable. If the Arkies show up then they’ll implement their contact measures, if not they’ll take whatever samples they can find before returning. Major Cloete?”
“The sonar pods will be recording soundwaves the entire time you’re in the water,” she said. “We’re also going to be sending you down with a few goodies. My boys and girls got creative and came up with something resembling an underwater cattle prod. The shock they deliver is definitely enough to kill a human. So be careful with them. But the aliens are big enough that it shouldn’t do more than stun them. Well, hopefully. I’ll be on the shuttle personally to run the winch and lower you into the water.”
Genevieve leveled an angry glare on Zhu and spoke for the first time since the meeting began.
“I see you’re already attempting to get out ahead of Sol.”
“The cattle prods are purely for the protection of the science team,” Zhu said. “We’re also sending them down with an array of knives and other tools they might need.”
“Knives! Of course. Because we have to show the Arkies that we really mean business. You might as well just give them guns!”
Zhu ignored her, and turned to Aahana. “Miss Agarwa, I’d like you to be the one who joins Mister Kim.”
A look of fright came over Aahana at being the sudden focus of attention. She briefly scanned the faces turned to her with wide eyes before responding.
“Y-yes, um…I—yes, sir. I’ll go. I do want to go.”
“Good, then—”
“There’s something else that needs to be addressed,” Genevieve interrupted.
For a brief moment, Zhu looked very put off, but then gestured to her.
“Go on.”
“Thank you. The designations for the planets are already proving to be very unpopular with the crew. Nobody wants to call them Alpha One, or Alpha One-Alpha. It’s confusing for most people. I recommend that we—you, establish a formal naming committee for the planets. The members of said committee can be assembled from the crew at-large and their decisions can then be voted upon by the entire crew.”
“Denied,” Zhu said flatly. “Is there anything else?”
Genevieve sat forward a bit more in her chair. “You should be proactive and organize this so that everyone feels like they’re being heard. Ignoring this is just going to aggravate the crew. It’s not enough that we won’t be allowed to live—”
“Mister Chukwu, I want you scanning the ocean with the shuttle’s cameras the entire time they’re deployed.”
Art shot a glance at Genevieve, who was visibly fuming, before responding.
“Yes, sir.”
“And Miss Grimsdottir, as you are our most experienced nurse, I want you on the shuttle as well. Bring along anything you think you’ll need for a medical emergency.”
Kaya looked surprised, but still gave Zhu a firm nod. “Understood, sir.”
“You can’t just send a single nurse,” Genevieve spat out. “She’ll need help if something happens. A doctor should go with her.”
“Then make it happen. I don’t care who you send, so long as it isn’t yourself.”
Zhu then stood up from the table, and when Genevieve spoke again it was clear she was suppressing anger.
“...Doctor Wan will go with them. I’ll let him know.”
He gave her a perfunctory nod. “Meeting adjourned. Forger, send a brief communique to Sol explaining what we’re about to get up to.”
“Roger, sir,” Henry replied.
With that, everyone else began to lift themselves to their feet. Genevieve was the only person to remain seated, staring at Zhu with a look of intense vexation as he left the room.