PeterWatts_Blindsight

Peter Watts 129 Blindsight
feel Rorschach itself, drawing nearer: the charred canopy of some
firestormed alien forest, more landscape than artefact. I imagined
titanic bolts of electricity arcing between its branches. I imagined
getting in the way.
What kind of creatures would choose to live in such a place?
"You really think we'll get along," I said.
James' shrug was all but lost under the armor. "Maybe not at
first. We may have gotten off on the wrong foot, we might have to
sort through all kinds of misunderstandings. But we'll figure each
other out eventually."
Evidently she thought that had answered my question.
The shuttle slewed; we bumped against each other like tenpins.
Thirty seconds of micromaneuvers brought us to a solid stop. A
cheery animation played across the HUD in greens and blues: the
shuttle's docking seal, easing through the membrane that served as
our entrance into Rorschach's inflatable vestibule. Even as a
cartoon it looked vaguely pornographic.
Bates had been prepacked next to the airlock. She slid back the
inner door. "Everybody duck."
Not an easy maneuver, swaddled in life-support and
ferroceramic. Helmets tilted and bumped. The grunts, flattened
overhead like great lethal cockroaches, hummed to life and
disengaged from the ceiling. They scraped past in the narrow
headroom, bobbed cryptically to their mistress, and exited stage
left.
Bates closed the inner hatch. The lock cycled, opened again on
an empty chamber.
Everything nominal, according to the board. The drones waited
patiently in the vestibule. Nothing had jumped out at them.
Bates followed them through.
We had to wait forever for the image. The baud rate was less
than a trickle. Words moved back and forth easily enough—"No
surprises so far," Bates reported in distorted Jews-harp vibrato—
but any picture was worth a million of them, and—
There: through the eyes of the grunt behind we saw the grunt
ahead in motionless, grainy monochrome. It was a postcard from
the past: sight turned to sound, thick clumsy vibrations of methane