Free EXOSKELETON II: Tympanum by Shane Stadler Page B

some good images. With our drift, we’ll get a few perspectives.”
    If we’re lucky , McHenry thought. He knew there was going to be some complex motion involved with the operation. The currents in the southern seas were notoriously strong and unpredictable. He worried that deeper crosscurrents might produce slack in the cables, resulting in a whiplash effect. The whole thing could end up on the ocean floor, and there was no retrieving it from that depth. But it didn’t matter: his orders were to take whatever risks necessary to get the images. Loss of equipment and, by implication, lives, were acceptable risks in this mission. It was an internal conflict for him, the risk versus his curiosity. A similar anxiety was evident in the eyes around him.
    “Everything is in position,” Finley informed.
    “Turn it on,” McHenry ordered. “Let’s see what this is all about.”
    Finley clicked a few buttons and typed parameters into the computer control program. “Detectors active. Standing by to energize the sounding source.”
    “Do it,” McHenry said without hesitation. He was curious to see how the new active sonar imaging system performed. The North Dakota was filled with new, unproven equipment that was touted as “advanced.” For him it was just another source of worry.
    Finley clicked a button and said, “We’re in active mode and collecting data.”
    A minute later an image formed in the data acquisition window.
    “This is a direct overhead view,” Finley explained. “Looks like there’s an object at about 1,500 meters. The depth to the sea floor is 4,000.”
    McHenry stared at the gray-toned image. It looked like a sphere suspended in the water.
    Finley clicked a button labeled Color Enhancement, and the image reformed with stunning clarity, a blue-green sphere over the darker background of the seafloor.
    The sphere seemed to have a bulge on one side. “How big is this thing?” McHenry asked.
    “About 25 meters in diameter,” Finley answered.
    Stunned, McHenry said, “That’s enormous. How can that thing survive at that depth?” He knew no one had the answer. There were no known structures of that size that could survive the hydrostatic pressures at that depth – unless it wasn’t hollow.
    “We need a profile shot,” McHenry said and grabbed a communicator device from his pocket that resembled a small cell phone. He pressed a button and spoke into it, “Get us to max depth, and 200 meters east of our current position. Go slowly – one knot.”
    “We have another 100 meters on the array. Shall we go to max depth on that as well?” Finley asked.
    “Yes, drop it when we’re stationary,” McHenry replied. “Take images as we move.”
    Finley nodded and said with apparent hesitation, “They might be blurred.”
    “Do it. The more data we have the better. We’ll get better images when we’re stationary.”
    The first new image formed on the screen.
    “That’s not too bad,” Finley commented.
    The coloring made the object look very spherical, with no evidence of a bulge. A few minutes later, the next image appeared and the asymmetry was on the opposite side.
    “That’s odd,” McHenry said, twisting his head to view the screen from a different angle.
    The next image showed the bulge in the same place, but more pronounced. And the next even more pronounced, and slightly tapered.
    A few minutes later, McHenry was informed that they had reached the desired location, and Finley turned to look at him.
    “Lowering the array to maximum depth,” Finley informed.
    Finley repositioned the array and took an image. At first, what came up on the screen was baffling. But they quickly figured it out: the bulge was a misperception caused by their angle of view from above. It was actually a long stem that propped up the sphere from below.
    “How far does that thing go down?” McHenry asked.
    Finley responded by color-enhancing the image. The answer was obvious.
    “The son-of-a-bitch goes all the