Sphere

Aboard a ship, Norman is escorted through a maze of rooms and observes monitors that are tracking divers on the ocean floor. Norman asks what they’re doing and is told that they’ve found a titanium fin. Norman is taken to a room to meet a man named Captain Harold (“Hal”) Barnes. When Barnes enters the room, he asks Norman what he’s been told about the situation. He’s pleased when Norman tells him nothing. As they settle down to talk, the power goes out, and Barnes explains that it’s because the work they’re doing requires more power than the ship was designed for.

Barnes talks about the need for security, how he lied about Soviet submarine reconnaissance to get the destroyers there, and that the Soviets think they’re recovering lost nuclear warheads. Barnes explains that there was a plane crash, and the debris is directly below them on the ocean floor. Norman is confused as to why he’s there because he’s normally called out to counsel survivors, but no one could have survived in this case. Barnes explains that they think the plane or spacecraft crashed more than 300 years ago.

Barnes says that they estimated the craft’s age by the growth of coral around it but adds that the craft could be up to 1,000 years old. He tells Norman he’s there because of his association with the unidentified life form (ULF) program. Norman reflects back on ULF. He was contacted by a lawyer from the National Security Council when he was struggling to buy a house for his family. The lawyer told him that the Administration wanted to create a preparedness plan for the possibility of an alien invasion and wanted Norman to use his experience working with plane crash victims to devise a plan to deal with an alien contact. Norman thought it was a joke and was going to turn the lawyer down until he learned he would receive a substantial grant.

During the following year, Norman attended several meetings with high-level officials, discussing things like explaining the protocol of the president speaking with the alien, potentially learning the alien’s language, and discerning potential problems with etiquette in regard to the aliens. Another concern was the types of weapons that the aliens might have. After these meetings and some investigation, Norman submitted a report, but it was rejected because it implied that alien contact was hypothetical. He rewrote the report, and it was accepted but wasn’t approved by the Administration as part of its preparedness plan.

Barnes has a copy of Norman’s report and reads from a section regarding contact teams. Norman ran psychological tests on groups of scientists and created a set of parameters for a contact team. This included a small number of experts; team members who knew each other well; members who were in constant contact and not isolated; members who shared a collective goal; and members who had high phobic-tolerant personalities. Barnes shows Norman a list of the selected team members, and Norman is surprised to see that they’re all people he previously interviewed and selected for a potential contact team.

Norman is taken to his room and is greeted by Elizabeth (“Beth”) Halpern, the team’s zoologist/biochemist. Beth expresses excitement about the possibility that a spacecraft is on the ocean floor. Norman complains about not being able to call his wife, and Beth says that she was told the communication lines were down. Norman asks about her family and learns that she’s divorced but is happily raising her daughter. She tells Norman that Barnes isn’t in the Navy but is an aeronautical engineer and a retired Navy captain currently acting as a weapons acquisition consultant for the Defense Science Board. Beth expresses concern over Norman’s age and lack of physical fitness because she heard rumors that they’ll be going down to the spacecraft and exploring it. Although Norman has seen horrifying things while working with the FAA, he’s more frightened by the idea of going deep into the ocean.

Norman joins the rest of the team for a briefing. In addition to Beth, the team consists of Theodore (“Ted”) Fielding, an astrophysicist/planetary geologist; Harold (“Harry”) Adams, a mathematician; and Arthur Levine, a marine biologist/biochemist. Ted is a boyish, pompous man who recently married and has a small child. He’s excited about the spacecraft and has been watching the monitors of the divers at the site. Harry is a quiet, reserved man who expresses disbelief that the craft came from space; he shows Norman an equation to prove that it’s highly unlikely the craft is alien. As Harry makes his argument, Norman remembers worrying that Harry wouldn’t fit on such a team because he was a child prodigy and thus was often isolated due to his talents. Norman suspects that Harry’s disadvantaged childhood increased this isolation. Norman doesn’t get a chance to speak to Arthur Levine but notes that he looks uneasy.

Barnes enters the room and begins the briefing. He explains how the craft was discovered by a cable-laying vessel in mid-June. The Navy was informed and used sonar to produce a picture of the ocean bottom before sending a robot down. The images showed a fin-like object attached to a cylindrical object half a mile long. A sample of the fin was identified as “titanium alloy in an epoxy-resin honeycomb” (45) using a bonding technique currently unknown on Earth. The Navy divers established a subsea habitat, called Deep Habitat 7 (DH-7) and are attempting to find a door into the spacecraft.

Barnes tells them that shock waves transmitted around the craft’s outer shell have prevented attempts to get pictures of the inside of the craft. Harry expresses disbelief that the object crashed into the ocean without sustaining damage. Ted questions why they haven’t told the Russians. Harry confronts Barnes about the door, insisting they must have known that a door was found before flying the team in. Barnes admits that Harry is right and announces that the team will be taken to the ocean floor the following day. Norman congratulates Harry on seeing through Barnes’s lies. Harry tells him that Barnes is lying about everything, including the true nature of the craft. When Norman asks what Harry believes it is, Harry refuses to tell him.

Norman seeks out Arthur Levine and realizes that he’s seasick. Norman then meets with Barnes, and they discuss the team. Norman admits to concern over Arthur but says everyone else will be fine. Barnes receives a weather update and expresses concern that bad weather is coming in a few days. Norman asks about the potential that the craft is something other than an alien craft, but Barnes insists that they’ll have to see it in person to determine this.

After undergoing a series of medical tests, Norman receives clearance to go on the mission. According to Harry, only Norman was put through most of these tests, and this makes him nervous. During a briefing, Norman falls asleep, catching only a few moments of the meeting. He asks Harry if he missed anything important, and Harry assures him that he didn’t. Norman goes to his room to sleep.