Eden by Stanislaw Lem Page B

navigation room by mistake. It was full of soil before, and now the soil is gone."
    "Gone? Where is it?"
    "I don't know."
    "You looked into the other rooms?"
    "Yes. I … wasn't sure that the navigation room had been full of soil, so at first I dismissed the thought, and went to the storeroom, where I found some drinking water, but I didn't have a cup, so I tried your cabin"—he glanced at the Cyberneticist—"and there…"
    "What was it, damn it?!"
    "Everything was covered with mucus."
    "Mucus?"
    "Sticky, transparent mucus—I must still have some of it on my boots!"
    "But that could have been something leaking from the tanks, a chemical reaction. Remember, half our instruments in the laboratory were smashed."
    "Ridiculous! Look at my boots!"
    The Doctor's flashlight wandered down to the boots in question, which in places gleamed, as though coated with polyurethane.
    "But that doesn't mean we had a visitor," said the Chemist lamely.
    "It didn't sink in at first," the Physicist went on. "I took a cup and returned to the storeroom. I felt my soles sticking, but paid no attention. I had a drink of water, and on my way back suddenly decided to check the library—I don't know why. I was uneasy. I opened the door and—no soil, not a trace! But I had dumped that soil myself! And then I knew that the soil had disappeared in the navigation room, too."
    "And then?" asked the Captain.
    "I ran back here."
    The flashlight illuminated the patch of ground where the men stood around the Physicist, who was still out of breath.
    "Do we go in, or what?" asked the Chemist, though it was obvious that he was not volunteering.
    "Let me see those boots again," said the Captain.
    He almost banged his head against the Doctor's when the latter bent over simultaneously. They exchanged glances. Neither said a word.
    "We have to do something," the Cyberneticist said desperately, as the Captain carefully examined the shiny layer that clung to the leather.
    "All that happened was that a specimen of local fauna entered the ship and, finding nothing of interest, left," said the Captain at last.
    "Some worm, perhaps, the size of a shark or two," the Cyberneticist babbled. "But what about the soil?"
    "Yes, that is strange…"
    The Doctor began to pace, then walked away. The beam of his flashlight swept the ground, then went higher, into the darkness.
    Suddenly he shouted, "Here, I've found it!"
    They ran over to him. He was standing near a furrow about thirty feet long that in places was covered by bits of shiny membrane.
    "It looks as if it really was a worm," said the Physicist in a low voice.
    "In that case we'll have to spend the night in the ship," the Captain decided.
    "But we'll have to search the ship thoroughly before we can close the hatch."
    "That will take all night!" groaned the Chemist.
    "It can't be helped."
    They left the tent to the mercy of whatever might be out there and went into the tunnel.
    Every nook and cranny of the ship was inspected. The Physicist thought that pieces of broken panel in the control room had been moved, but no one was sure. Then the Engineer began to wonder if the tools used to dig the tunnel were in the same position in which they had left them.
    "Look," said the Doctor impatiently, "we can't start playing detective now—it's almost two!"
    At three they lay down on mattresses removed from the bunks, and it would have been even later had the Engineer not decided to forgo checking both levels of the engine room and simply to bolt from inside the doors leading to it in the steel bulkhead. The air was close, with an unpleasant lingering odor, but they were dropping with fatigue, and no sooner did they take off their boots and suits and extinguish the light than they fell into a heavy sleep.
    The Doctor woke in total darkness. He raised his watch to his eyes—and was confused for a moment, because the time did not correspond to the darkness, but then he remembered that he was underground in the ship. The green dial