by David Brin
"I gotta get out there!" He grumbled. "There's gotta be a way!"
56 ::: Sah'ot
When Gillian called to ask that he talk to Creideiki, his first thought had been to rebel over the workload.
"I know, I know," her tiny simulacrum had agreed, "but you're the only one I can spare who has the qualifications. Let's rephrase that. You are the only one for the job. Creideiki is clearly aware and alert, but he can't talk! We need someone to help him communicate through parts of his brain that weren't damaged. You're our expert."
Sah'ot had never really liked Creideiki. And the type of injury the captain had suffered made Sah'ot feel queasy. Still, the challenge appealed to his vanity.
"What about Charlesss Dart? He's been driving Toshio and me until our flukes droop, and he has top priority on this line."
In the small holo image Gillian looked very tired. "Not any more he doesn't. We're sending out a new probe with Takkata-Jim and Metz, one he'll be able to control himself by commlink. Until then, his project takes last place. Last place. Is that understood?"
Sah'ot clapped his jaw loudly in assent. It felt good to hear decisive leadership again. The fact that the voice was that of a human he respected helped, too.
"This bit-t about Metz and Takkata-Jim ..."
"I've filled in Toshio." Gillian said. "He'll brief you when the chance comes. He is in absolute charge now. You're to obey him with alacrity. Is that clear?"
Gillian never lost her vocabulary under pressure. Sah'ot liked that. "Yesss. Eminently. Now, about these resonances I'm getting from the planet's crust. What shall I do? They are, to my knowledge, totally unprecedented! Can you ssspare someone to do a Library search for me?"
Gillian frowned. "You say resonances of apparent intelligent origin are coming from deep in Kithrup's crust?"
"Exactly."
Gillian rolled her eyes. "Ifni! To explore this world in peace and quiet would demand a decade of work by a dozen survey ships!" She shook her head. "No. My quick guess is that some formation of probability-sensitive rock below the surface is resonating with emanations from the battle overhead. In any event, it comes after the other priorities: security, the Kiqui, and talking to Creideiki. You've got a mouthful to deal with already."
Sah'ot stifled a protest. Complaining would only get Gillian to order him explicitly away from the probe. She hadn't yet, so it would be best to stay quiet.
"Now think about your options," Gillian reminded him. "If Streaker makes a break for it, we'll try to get the skiff out to pick up Tom and whoever wants to join us from the island. You can choose to come along, or stay with Metz and Takkata-Jim and wait it out in the longboat. Inform Toshio of your decision."
"I undersstand. I'll think about it." Somehow the issue seemed less urgent than it would have a few days ago. The sounds from below were having an effect on him.
"If I stay, I still wish you all the best of luck," he added.
"You too, mel-fin." Gillian smiled. "You're a strange duck, but if I get home, I'm going to recommend you get lots of grandchildren." Her image vanished as she broke the connection.
Sah'ot stared at the blank screen. The compliment, wholly unexpected, left him momentarily stunned. Then a few Kiqui who were foraging nearby were surprised to see a large dolphin rise up onto his tail and dance about the small pool.
* To be noticed by --
A humpback
* To be credited
At last
For being me *
57 ::: Dennie and Toshio
"I'm afraid."
Almost without a thought, Toshio put his arm around Dennie's shoulder. He gave her a reassuring squeeze. "What for? There's nothing to be scared of."
Dennie looked up from the pounding breakers to see if be was serious. Then she realized she was being teased. She stuck out her tongue at him.
Toshio inhaled deeply and was content. It wasn't clear to him where his new semi-relationship with Dennie was going. It wasn't physical, for one thing. They had slept together last night, but fully clothed. Toshio had thought it would be frustrating, and it was, sort of. But not as much as he had expected.
It would work out, one way or another. Right now Dennie needed someone to be nearby. It was satisfying just filling that need.
Maybe, when all this was over, she would go back to thinking of him as a boy, four years her junior. Somehow he doubted it. She was touching him more now, rather than less, holding his arm and punching him in mock anger, even as shivers from the psi-bomb episode faded.
"When are they supposed to get here with the longboat?" She looked back over the ocean once more. "Late tomorrow, sometime," he answered.
"Takkata-Jim and Metz wanted to negotiate with the ETs. What's to stop them if they decide to ignore orders and try anyway?"
"Gillian's giving them only enough power to get here. They have a regenerator, so they'll be able to charge up for space-travel in a month or so, but by then Streaker'd be gone one way or another."
Dennie shivered slightly.
Toshio cursed his awkward tongue. "Takkata-Jim won't have a radio. I'm to guard ours until the skiff comes to pick us up. Besides, what could he offer the Galactics? He won't have any of the charts marking the derelict fleet.
"My guess is he and Metz will wait until everybody leaves, then scuttle off to Earth with Metz's tapes and a hold full of gripes."
Dennie looked up at the first stars of the long Kithrup twilight. "Are you going back?" she asked.
"Streaker's my ship. Thank God, Creideiki is still alive. But even if he's not skipper any more, I owe it to him to keep on, as one of his officers should."
Dennie glanced up at him briefly, then nodded and looked back out at the sea.
She's thinking we haven't a chance, Toshio realized. And maybe we don't. Wearing a Thennanin battlewagon as a disguise, we'll have all the maneuverability of a Calafian mud-gleaner. And even fooling the Galactics might not be so good an idea. They want to capture Streaker, but they won't hold back their fire if they see a defeated enemy climbing back up for another round. There still have to be Thennanin around, if the scheme is to work.
But we can't just sit here waiting, can we? If we do, the Galactics will learn that they can push Earthlings around. We just can't afford to let anyone profit from chasing one of our survey ships.
Dennie seemed worried. Toshio changed the subject. "How's your report coming?"
"Oh, all right, I guess. It's clear the Kiqui are fully pre-sentient. They've been fallow a very long time. In fact, some Darwinist heretics might think they were just getting ripe to bootstrap themselves. They show some signs."
Some iconoclast humans still pushed the idea that a pre-sentient race could make the leap to spacefaring intelligence by evolution alone, without the intervention of a patron. Most Galactics thought the idea absurd and strange, but the failure to find humanity's missing benefactor had gained the theory a few adherents.
"What about the metal-mound?" Toshio asked about Dennie's other research, begun at Charlie Dart's behest when the chimp had been given top priority, but pursued now out of interest.
Dennie shrugged. "Oh, the mound's alive. The professional biologist in me would give her left arm to be able to stay a year on this island, with full laboratory equipment to study it!
"The metal-eating pseudo-coral, the drill-tree, the living core of the island, are all symbiots. In effect, they're organs in one giant entity! If I could only write it up at home I'd be famous ... if anyone believed me."
"They'll believe you," Toshio assured her. `And you'll be famous."
He motioned that they should start heading back to camp. They only had a little time after second supper to walk and talk. Now that he was in command, he had to make sure that timetables were kept.
Dennie held his arm as they turned to return to the encampment. Over the rushing rustle of the wind through the foliage came the intermittent squeaks of the natives, rousing from their siesta to prepare for the evening hunt.
58 ::: Galactics
Krat licked slowly at her mating claw, studiously ignoring the creatures who scurried to clean up the bloody mess in the corner.
There would be trouble over this. The Pilan High Council would protest.
Of course she was within her rights, as grand admiral, to deal with any member of the fleet as she saw fit. But that did not traditionally cover the skewering of a senior Librarian simply because he was the bearer of bad news.
I am getting old, she realized. And the daughter I had hoped would soon be strong enough to pull me down is now dead. Who now will do me the honors, before I grow erratic and become a hazard to the clan?
The small, furry body was hauled away, and a sturdy Paha mopped up the bloody mess. The other Pila looked at her.
Let them stare. When we capture the Earthlings it won't matter. I shall be famous, and this incident will be ignored by all, especially the Pila.
If we are the first ones to approach the Progenitors with an offering, the Law won't matter any more. The Pila will not simply be our adult liege-clients. They will be ours again, to meddle with, to redesign, to shape once more.
"Back to work! All!" She snapped her mating claw. The twang sent the bridge crew scuttling off to their stations, some to repair the smoking damage from a near miss in the most recent battle with the Tandu.
Think now, Soro mother. Can you spare ships to send once more to the planet? To that hellish volcano where every fleet has already sent a party to fight and die?
There weren't supposed to be any Gubru left here! But a battered Gubru scout had shown up at the place where the distress call came from. It had gone to smoky ruin along with a Tandu destroyer, Pritil's ship number sixteen, and two other vessels even her battle computers could not identify. Perhaps one was a surviving spearship of the Brothers of the Night which had hidden on one of Kithrup's moons.
Meanwhile, out here, the "final" battle with the Tandu's unholy alliance had turned into a bloody draw. The Soro still had a slim advantage, so the remaining Thennanin stayed by their Tandu allies.
Should she risk all in the next encounter? For the Tandu to win would be horrible. They would, if they gained the Power, destroy so many beautiful species that the Soro might someday own.
If it came down to a choice, she guessed the Thennanin would switch sides one more time.
"Strategy section!" she snapped.
"Fleet-Mother?" A Paha warrior approached, but stopped just out of arm-reach. It eyed her cautiously.
Given a chance, she would breed respect into the Paha genes so deeply nothing would ever eradicate it.
The Paha stepped back involuntarily as her claw stretched. "Find out which ships are now most expendable. Organize them into a small squadron. We're going to investigate the planet again:"
The Paha saluted and returned to its station quickly. Krat settled deeper into the vletoor cushion.
We shall need a distraction, she thought. Perhaps another expedition to that volcano would make the Thennanin nervous and let the Tandu think we know something.
Of course, she reminded herself, the Tandu themselves may know what we do not.
59 ::: Creideiki
Far Away
They Call
The Giants,
The Spirits of OCEAN,
The Leviathans
Creideiki begins to understand -- does, does, begin --
The old gods are part figment, part racial memory, part ghost ... and part something else ... something an engineer could never have allowed his ears to hear, or eyes to see ...
Far Away
They Call
Leviathans ...
Not yet. Not yet, not. Creideiki has a duty to perform yet, does have a duty.
No more, no more an engineer -- but Creideiki remains a spacer. Not useless, Creideiki will do what he can, can do, can do to help.
Can do to help save his crew, his ship ...
60 ::: Gillian
She wanted to rub her eyes, but the facemask was in the way. Too much remained to be done.
The fins came and went, swooping by her wherever she traveled in the ship, almost toppling her in their hurry to report and then be off again, carrying out orders.
I hope Hikahi gets back soon. I'm not doing badly, I guess, but I'm no starship officer. She has the training to rule a crew.
Hikahi doesn't even know she's captain, Gillian thought. Much as I pray they get the line open soon, I'll hate having to break that news to her.
She wrote a brief message to Emerson D'Anite, and the last courier dashed off for the engine room. Wattaceti kept pace alongside her as she turned to swim into the outlook.
There were two small crowds of dolphins in the bay, one at the forward sally hatch and the other clustered about the longboat.
The bow of the small spaceship almost touched the iris of one of the outer hatches. Its stern disappeared into a metal sheath beyond the rear end of the outlock.
When the longboat is gone this place'll look pretty empty, she thought.
A fin in the party at the lock saw her and sped toward Gillian. He halted abruptly before her and hovered in the water at attention.
"Flankers and scoutsss are ready to depart when you give the word, Gillian."
"Thank you, Zaa'pht. It will be soon. Is there still no word from the line-repair party, or from Keepiru?"
"No, ssssir. The courier you sent to follow Keepiru should be near the wreck shortly, though."
It was frustrating. Takkata-Jim had severed the link to the Thennanin wreck, and now it seemed impossible to find the break. For once she cursed the fact that monofilaments could be hidden so well.
For all they knew, some terrible disaster might have struck the work party, at the very site she was planning on moving Streaker to.
At least the detectors indicated the space battle was still going on, almost as fierce as ever.
But what was keeping Tom? He was supposed to set off a message bomb when ETs showed up to investigate his ruse. But since the faked distress call there had been nothing.
In addition to everything else, the damned Niss machine wanted to talk to her. It had not set off the hidden alarm in her office to indicate that it was an emergency, but every time she used a comm unit she heard a faint click that signaled the thing's desire to talk.
It was enough to make a fem just want to climb into bed and stay there.
A sudden commotion broke out near the lock. The wall speaker let out a brief, sloppy squeal of Trinary, followed by a longer report in loose, high-pitched Anglic.
"Sssir!" Zaa'pht turned excitedly. "They report ..."
"I heard." She nodded. "The line's been repaired. Congratulate the repair team for me, and get them inside for a couple of hours' rest. Then please ask Heurkah-pete to contact Hikahi right away. He's to ascertain her situation and tell her we begin moving the ship at 2100 hours unless she objects. I'll be calling her shortly."
"Aye, sssir!" Zaa'pht whirled and sped off.
Wattaceti watched her silently, waiting.
"All right," she said. "Let's see Takkata-Jim and Metz off. You've made certain the crew has offloaded everything that wasn't on our checklist, and inspected everything the exiles took aboard?"
"Yesss. They haven't even got a flaregun. No radio and no more fuel than the minimum needed to reach the island."
Gillian had gone on her own inspection of the boat a few hours back, while Metz and Takkata-Jim were still packing. She had taken a few additional precautions that nobody else knew about.
"Who's going with them?"
"Three volunteers, all of them `strange' Stenos. All males. We searched them down to their penile sheathsss. They're clean. They're all in the longboat now, ready to go."
Gillian nodded. "Then, for better or worse, let's get them out of here so we can get on with other things."
Mentally she had already begun rehearsing what she had to tell Hikahi.
>
61 ::: Hikahi & Suessi
"Remember," she told Tsh't and Suessi, "maintain radio silence at all cossst. And try to keep those crazy fen in the wreck from eating up all the supplies in the first few days, hmmm?"
Tsh't signaled assent with a jaw clap, although her eyes were heavy with reservation. Suessi said, "Are you sure you won't let one of us come with you?"
"I'm sure. If I encounter disaster I want no more lives lost. If I find survivors, I might need every bit of room. In any event, the skiff runs itself, essentially. All I have to do is watch it."
"You can't fight while piloting," Hannes pointed out.
"If I had a gunner along I might be tempted to fight. This way I have to run away. If Streaker is dead or captured, I must be able to return the skiff to you here, or you'll all be doomed."
Suessi frowned, but found he had to agree with her reasoning. He was thankful Hikahi had stayed as long as she had, letting them use the skiffs power to finish preparing a habitat inside the wreck.
We're all worried about Streaker and the captain, he thought. But Hikahi must be in agony.
"All right, then. Good-bye and good luck, Hikahi. May Ifni's boss watch over you."
"The sssame to both of you," Hikahi took Suessi's hand gently between her jaws, then did the same with Tsh't's left pectoral fin.
Tsh't and Suessi left through the skiffs small airlock. They backed their sled toward the yawning opening in the sunken alien battleship.
A low whine spread from the skiff as power came on. The sound echoed back to them from the mammoth sea-cliff that towered over the crash site.
The tiny space vessel began to move slowly eastward, picking up speed underwater. Hikahi had chosen a roundabout route, taking her far out before swinging back in an arc to Streaker's hiding place. This would keep her out of touch for as long as a couple of days, but it would also mean that her point of origin could not be traced, if an enemy lay in wait where Streaker had been.