A shot rang out. Then more shots, and soon the gunfire was continuous. Marines crept along the ladders and scaffolding, trying to get into better position. But the shots seemed to have no effect. The frogman was armored, it seemed and the impacts were visible, as the diver twisted and turned to evade the fire, but he continued scaling the dive platform. And another head was emerging from below the water next to him.
Then came a brilliant flash of light, followed by several deafening sound pulses. Xi staggered back, blinded, instantly nauseated, vomit rising in the back of his throat. He pitched forward onto the deck, barely caught himself and shuddered and shivered as more booms reverberated around the pen. Windows rattled and shattered and there was a momentary stillness around the dock. Men lay sprawled everywhere, groaning, their ears bleeding, clutching their faces and eyes.
The Ponkti travelers, Loptoheen and Gozu, emerged fully from the dive platform and surveyed the carnage, climbing up onto the deck. Gozu had a slight leak in his suit, the result of scores of rounds from the Tailless weapons, but was otherwise unhurt. Loptoheen was unscathed. They tested their mobilitors and found they could maneuver in this odd world of Notwater, kicking and shuffling along step by step. Both trundled forward along the edge of the pier.
That’s when Chase surfaced and saw what was happening.
Ahead of them, a door opened. The door sign read in Chinese...Base Commander. Two men stepped out, instantly startled at the sight of the Ponkti visitors. One was Admiral Hu Zhejiang, commander of the Longpo naval base. Hu had gray white buzzcut hair, with sandy gray sideburns, thinning on top and a trim graying moustache. He had just arrived from Beijing, a fact-finding and inspection mission from the Navy General Staff. The other was Fei Wang, the dock master, who had ducked into the nearest office when the fusillade had begun.
Now, the two Chinese and the two Ponkti stared at each other for a long moment. To Hu, the visitors looked like dolphins with legs, somehow thrown up on land and seeming to be lost. They looked around nervously, checking everything. The flag officer had no sidearm, though instinctively he reached for the holster that he had left in his office. Fei was also unarmed.
Gozu pointed the sound suppressor at both men and their hands went up quickly. The Chinese started backpedaling, but Fei stumbled over a ladder and went down hard, then slid flailing off into the water with a loud splash. He scrambled to find something to grab onto, but Gozu handed his weapon to Loptoheen and dropped into the water beside Fei, grabbing the Tailless under his arms. The Ponkti flippered them back to the dive platform and deposited a coughing and gagging dockmaster over the railing. Fei coughed up water violently and sucked in huge gasps of air. Then Gozu climbed back to the deck.
Hu noticed a small pod-shaped device that Loptoheen was removing from a belt around his midsection. He flinched, started backing…another weapon?
But Loptoheen beckoned him to stop, using the gestures he had learned from the eekoti Chase many mah before. The Ponkti withdrew the device and held it out, offering it to the admiral.
Hu slowly put his hands down. “What? You want me to take this…is that it?”
Loptoheen shuffled forward a few steps on his mobilitors, earning another flinch from Hu. Cautiously, the Chinese officer reached out and took hold of the pod.
It was a small fist-sized object, oval, rounded at the top. The sea creature had extracted it from a small pouch in his belly; neither of them had seen that. His hands had six fingers, delicate fingers, and they grasped the object with a dexterity they could hardly believe.
“Shang jiang…watch out…please, don’t—“But he had already taken possession of the object. He stood up and examined it. The dockmaster came up and squinted at the thing in his hand.
“What is it? Is it a bomb?
“I don’t know—“Hu shook it slightly, then nearly dropped the thing when it started to glow…a dim red glow emanated from within. The outer case was almost translucent and a single red light shone from within.
The sea creature—Hu still thought of them as qianshuiyuan, —frogmen-- suddenly became agitated, flapping the air with its arms. He clicked and chittered and screeched, slapping the air again and again. The other creature soon joined in. The fracas lasted half a minute.
“What’s wrong with them? What are they doing?”
“It seems upset—“then Hu heard it. Something, a whispering susurration, began issuing from the object. He almost dropped the thing. “What the--?” He shook the can again, brought it up to eye level. Now the red light had grown stronger and sharper. He peered in, seeing nothing, then brought it to his ears. He could clearly hear something.
“Sounds like gibberish to me,” he said. Similar to the clicking the qianshuiyuan were doing, the can emitted a steady stream of sounds: clicks, whistles, grunts and chirps. He shook his head, then noticed the taller creature trying to mimic his head shakes. The creature waved his forelimbs, hands extended and Hu somehow knew that the creature wanted the object back. Cautiously, he approached, still hovering on the edge of the deck.
“Maybe it’s a grenade…it sounds like it’s ticking,” Fei decided. “We ought to get out of here right now—“
“I’m not so sure.” Gingerly, Hu handed the object back, placing it carefully in the qianshuiyuan’s outstretched hand. The fingers, they seemed so—
The creature seemed to nod and took the can. The other creature joined him in examining the object. Hu could tell they were doing something with the object. The dim red light cycled through more colors before finally settling on an orangish glow. He handed the object back to the officer.
Hu was intrigued and a little wary. Maybe it was an American trick, this qianshuiyuan with the talking can. But this was unique, working with dolphins like this, dolphins with hands. Or whatever they were. Had the Americans bred and trained these creatures, maybe equipped them with armored suits and weapons? He took the object back, watching the creature’s hand and beak movements carefully. In the back of his mind, the creature reminded Hu of a math teacher in school, one dour old Mr. Li.
Here…you want me to do this…like this…up here? He raised the can to his ears again. This time, the whistling and chirping had stopped. Now…my God! He could hear snatches of something…sounds …like words…like—
Understand…voice…to your…can…hear…your voice (unintelligible…) can you…my voice…
Hu practically dropped the thing. It was a machine. A translator. Voice box… whatever.
“Fei…come over…listen…you can hear…they’re speaking words….”
Cautiously, the dockmaster bent his ear to the device. Even as he listened, he could see ‘Mr. Li’ become a bit more agitated. Clicking. Whistles. Chirps, like a radio.
“It’s a radio, Admiral,” Fei decided. “Like a small radio. They’re singing—“
Hu listened more. He knew a thing or two about music, having fronted for clubs and karaoke bars all over Shanghai for years. But this wasn’t singing, not exactly. It was more…
“They’re not singing. They’re talking…this device’s translating all those whistles and screeches…listen—“
And deep inside, Fei knew he was right. It gave him a chill. To think that the Americans…or the British--
Now, the pod was glowing from within with a warm orange radiance. Hu told the dockmaster it was warm to the touch; Fei verified that himself, then his curiosity overcame everything. “Let me listen—“
Hu gave him the pod. …you can…can…hear my voice…can understand what…say--?
Both of them nodded. “We understand some words…yes, I hear your voice…can you understand me?” Hu sat down on the edge of the deck, a few meters from ‘Mr. Li’ and the other creature. Fei hung back by a nearby ladder, still listening, squinting, trying to make out more.
…is called…echo…pod…my voice…your voice…together…can you hear what I…
“Shi!” Hu practically shouted. He grabbed the pod back from Fei, spoke into it. “Yes, I hea
r your words…you talk…I mean, you can actually talk--?
‘Mr. Li’ raised his beak, squeaking and chirping rapidly, forelimbs waving wildly.
…’derstand you…echopod need adjust…give me…hand …pod me…
Hu looked up at Fei. “He wants the pod back.”
“Maybe it needs work.”
Hu gave ‘Mr. Li’ the pod. The creature dropped off the edge of the deck, splashing into the water again, did something once more with the device. The other creature stayed on the pier. Finally, the pod’s light had changed from orange to almost a yellowish tint. ‘Mr. Li’ surfaced, hoisting the pod with his right flipper-hand-thing and handed it back.
By now, Hu knew what to do. He grasped the pod carefully and raised it to his ear.
‘Mr. Li’ had ducked under again, yet both of them could hear the clicking and grunts and chirps bubbling up out of the water. ‘Li’s accomplice—Hu had mentally labeled him ‘Mr. Qi’-- had chimed in too. Li and Qi—Net comics often used by the Ministry of Public Security to entertain and instruct the home audiences…that made Hu smile. If they could only see their namesakes now.
And out of the pod poured a steady stream of words.
…adjust made…you hear better now…?
Hu shivered from a chill that went down his neck and nodded. “Much better. Who are you? Are you dolphins? American qianshuiyuan? Where did you come from?”
‘Mr. Qi’ suddenly stepped off the platform to join Li in the water, with a big splash.
‘Mr. Li’ seemed agitated by that and began circling alongside the hull of the Xichang, the two of them orbiting the small space between boat and dock in perfect unison.
…not this world…many beats distant…there is the Farpool…we come for…build home new—
But the words stopped and that’s when Hu and Fei both heard the clatter of something behind them.
Two Zhongguo Renmin…Chinese marines—had crept out of a nearby machine shop and were even now leveling their weapons at the creatures in the water.
Hu shouted. “Meiyou…Meiyou! Hold your fire! Don’t shoot!”
The marines crept forward until they stood abreast of Hu and Fei.
One of them, a hai jun xia shi…a petty officer, aimed his carbine at the two creatures in the water. “Admiral, what are they? Enemy spies? American divers?”
Hu carefully nudged the barrel of the marine’s rifle away. “I don’t know yet. They’re not Americans…or British. They’re not qianshuiyuan, at least not as we understand it.”
Fei clambered back up on deck, still dripping wet from his fall into the water. “Dolphins in armor, that’s what they are …and with legs…impossible.”
Hu stooped to the edge of the deck. ‘Mr. Li’ gestured for him to hand back the strange pod again. Hu did so and the creature ducked below the water again, working with ‘Mr. Qi’, apparently making more adjustments to the device. The interior light cycled through red, yellow and amber before settling on a muted gold color. The creature returned to the surface and handed the thing back.
“Who are you?” Hu asked. “What are you?”
Now Chase scrambled up onto the dock himself, startling everyone and said, “They’re Ponkti. This one is Omtorish…all of them Seomish. Me…I’m—” Well, that could wait. “We just want to talk about your harassing them as they build their village…out there.” He waved a finned arm toward the tunnel opening…toward the sea.
The marines raised their rifles again but Hu waved them back. He squinted at Chase, blinked, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “You…you speak…English…that thing translates you into English?”
Chase indicated that it did. “Not so well. I’m not like the others…I’m actually an American…Scotland Beach, Florida. See, I went to their world, went through this procedure….”
Admiral Hu suddenly felt a bit faint. He rested against the door to the machine shop, staggered a bit. First, armored dolphins with guns. Then a giant frog-monster that spoke English.
Hu Zhejiang blinked hard and wished he were anywhere but here. Perhaps at Tiger Lilly’s on the Bund in Shanghai, hoisting a mai tai.
Slowly, bit by bit, Hu teased out the barest shreds of understanding. For the next few minutes, he pinched himself again and again, telling himself, over the chirps and whistles and grunts, squeaks and clicks of the pod-thing, that nobody at Headquarters in Beijing would ever believe this.
The stand-off lasted nearly an hour, with the three dolphins periodically dipping back into the water, for it was increasingly clear that they were creatures of the water. The frog-monster didn’t seem to need that and wound up speaking for all of them. Hu didn’t understand any of it. Somehow, by the gods of war, the Fleet had come into contact with a new kind of intelligence…an intelligence not of this world, talking fish with weapons. Not American frogmen. Not British divers. Not trained animals, though there had been rumors about that.
Creatures from another place…perhaps from another world, as science fiction writers had often surmised. It was incredible. It was beyond imagining. But that seemed the best, maybe the only explanation.
The frog-monster called himself Chase. He described how the Navy had been harassing and interfering with the Ponkti efforts to build a small base at Reed Bank. How the Ponkti and thousands of others had come through some kind of gateway from another world, a world that had been destroyed. How they were refugees on Earth, trapped in the Earth’s oceans trying to build new lives in unfamiliar waters.
And how the PLA Navy had fired on them and pursued them and stalked them, even killed some, trying to drive them off.
“They are just refugees,” Chase insisted, hoping his echopod was making a passable translation. He wondered at the incredulous looks staring back at him, wondering if the looks were because of his words or because he looked like a giant frog. Maybe a little of both.
Finally, Admiral Hu recovered enough composure to stand up and fix his uniform, straightening his sleeves, his epaulets and a chest full of medals and ribbons.
“The Reed Bank is Chinese territory. You…your people…are trespassing on sacred Chinese territory. We have an inherent right to defend ourselves.”
“Excuse me, sir, but how can open waters and the seabed be someone’s territory?”
“It’s our exclusive economic zone,” Hu said. “Oil drilling. Gas deposits. Fishing. Mineral beds. This belongs to the Peoples Republic and we will defend it, just as international law permits.”
Now Loptoheen interrupted. “Nah…shkreeah…qqkkk…we also have right to live…we defend kelke…people…from attack. We…kkklllqqq…destroy kip’ts…subcraft….”
Chase wished the Ponkti tukmaster would just keep quiet. It was a delicate moment and he was no diplomat. None of them were.
This seemed to irritate Hu. “My ships have already been damaged by your weapons…your sonic weapons. You must leave Reed Bank. You must leave Nan Zhongguo hai…what you call South China Sea at once.”
Loptoheen wouldn’t stay quiet. He moved forward, his mobilitor motors whirring and squeaking, then stopped when the marines leveled rifles at his head.
“Kkkklllqq…shkreeah…Ponkti retreat no one…no threat moves us…we fight ready…” He started to reach for a prod holstered along the hip joint of his mobilitor, but one of the marines fired at once…a short burst from his Type 71 carbine.
The rounds spun Loptoheen around, not penetrating the mobilitor, but knocking him backwards until he cartwheeled into the water with a loud splash. The second marine was already raising his own weapon when Chase decided it was time to act.
Chase lunged forward at the second marine just as he discharged his carbine. The rounds sprayed upward, hitting the rock ceiling of the wharf area, loosening a seam of rock chips, which showered down on all of them. Chase crashed into the marine and the two of them fell heavily to the deck. Chase ripped the weapon away, then scrambled on all fours back to the edge of the wharf.
“Come on…get below! Le
t’s get out of here!”
Likteek had remained in the kip’t, with its canopy down and sealed but he had sensed the danger above and started the powerup procedure moments before, quickly getting the jets up to speed. Gozu dropped into the water with Chase and headed with Loptoheen for their own kip’t. In seconds, both sleds were turned about and speeding along the wharf’s edge toward the tunnel opening.
Automatic weapons fire slashed into the water behind and above them, with some rounds spanging off the kip’t hulls but no damage was done and Chase followed Loptoheen deep, to the very bottom of the slip. They made the tunnel and weaved their way around rock arches and stalactites, heading toward the open sea.
Moments later, they felt the currents and swells of open water and emerged into the bay of Longpo base, easing around the front jetties and heading out to sea.
It was only then that Chase allowed himself a much-needed breath. “Well, Lik, that went well, don’t you think? So much for my career as a diplomat.”
Likteek growled. “It seems as if the Tailless don’t wish to talk.” When even Kel’metah couldn’t make something good out of the situation, what hope was there? “The Ponkti should have waited to build their camp…until all the kels could meet and make decisions.”
By a brusque signal over the comm circuit, Loptoheen and Gozu informed Chase that the Ponkti would be returning to T’kel’rok, their crude encampment at Reed Bank. “We will fortify our base…and be ready for the Tailless when they return.”
“We could have worked this out,” Chase came back. He was angry at Loptoheen. Ponkti had never been known for patience…or nuance. “Both sides could have had something to take away…but you jumped the gun. Loptoheen…this isn’t one of your tuk matches. Humans are different.”
“They will soon understand what Ponkti are capable of. Already, Gozu has signaled our repeaters. More Ponkti will be coming. T’kel’rok will live.”
The Farpool_Exodus Page 13