Leviathans of Jupiter Read Online Free PDF

grasped the offered hand in his human one.
    Then the cyborg looked at her. Trying not to stare at the prosthetic arm, Deirdre mumbled, “Deirdre. My friends call me Dee.”
    â€œDee,” repeated the cyborg, almost solemnly.
    The robot rolled back to their table with drinks on its flat top. Andy picked up the stemmed wineglass and handed it to Deirdre, then took his own tall, tapered pilsner glass of beer.
    â€œWhat should we drink to?” Deirdre asked.
    Dorn immediately replied, “To a pleasant trip to Jupiter.”
    â€œTo the leviathans,” Andy said.
    Both men turned toward Deirdre. She gave them a tentative smile, then suggested, “To understanding.”
    â€œYes,” said Dorn. “To understanding.”
    They clinked glasses. Then Andy asked, “Understanding what?”
    â€œOurselves,” said Dorn, in his slow, heavy voice. “I believe it was Socrates who said, ‘Know thyself.’ ”
    â€œAnd Goethe,” Deirdre countered, “who said, ‘Know myself? If I knew myself I’d run away!’ ”
    Dorn made a sound that might have been a chuckle, deep down in his half-metal chest. Andy looked puzzled.
    â€œWhat’re you?” Corvus asked her, “some kind of a philosopher?”
    Deirdre lowered her eyes and replied, “No, not at all. I just have an eidetic memory.”
    â€œA photographic memory? Wow!” Corvus was obviously impressed.
    â€œWhat is your technical specialty?” Dorn asked.
    â€œActually,” she answered, “I’m a microbiologist.”
    â€œMicrobiologist?” The human half of Dorn’s face looked incredulous.
    She made an almost apologetic smile. “I know. It sounds strange, a microbiologist living at the habitat orbiting Ceres. But our health and safety people are very concerned with biofilms and other microbial threats. Chrysalis II is a pretty small community, and we live in a completely sealed environment. We have to be very careful about the microbes we carry around with us.”
    Deirdre thought that Dorn’s human eye flickered momentarily when she mentioned Chrysalis II, but it was so brief that she couldn’t be sure.
    â€œDon’t you have disinfectants?” Corvus asked. “Ultraviolet bug killers?”
    Dierdre’s smile turned almost condescending. “Andy, our bodies are habitats for whole ecologies of microbes. If you took an ultrascan of your body, and removed all your own cells from the image, you’d still see your body and all your organs outlined in microbes. They’re everywhere.”
    Dorn said, “It’s not Chrysalis II that surprised me. I’m wondering why a microbiologist is needed at Gold .”
    â€œYeah,” Corvus said. “Those whales are big, not little.”
    With a slight shake of her head, Deirdre replied, “All I know is that the request for a microbiologist came from Grant Archer himself, the head of the whole Jupiter team.”
    â€œHe specifically asked for a microbiologist?” Dorn sounded incredulous.
    â€œI suppose they want me for the same kind of thing I do at Chrysalis II : health protection.”
    â€œIt still sounds strange,” Dorn insisted. “ Gold must have its own medical staff.”
    With a shrug, Deirdre said, “I suppose we’ll just have to wait until we arrive there to see why they asked for me.” Then she added, “But it doesn’t matter what they expect me to do there. They’ve promised me a scholarship to the Sorbonne. I’ll be going to Earth! I’ll be going to our home world.”

JUPITER ORBIT: RESEARCH STATION THOMAS GOLD
    Grant Archer slid wearily into bed next to his wife. Marjorie smiled at him and murmured, “Two more weeks.”
    Grant tried to smile back, but failed. All these years, he thought. All these years and it’s going to end in failure. Abject failure.
    Grant Armstrong Archer III had