A single marlin had become ensnared in a thin line, a line dropping down from the surface. There was something at the end of the line and the marlin had clamped his teeth around it and that’s when Chase realized what was happening. He didn’t even have to look above them…he could already hear the rumbling vibration of the motors.
They had roamed into range of a sportfishing boat and the marlin had seized bait at the end of one of the lines. Now it was caught.
“Come on!” Chase said. “Let’s help it out—”
He and Tulcheah swam over and, with Tulcheah holding the squirming body, Chase gingerly felt around inside the creature’s mouth, located the barbed hooks sticking out of a blue and silver head…a large doll’s eye leering back at him from the center of the lure. Carefully, Chase removed the lure and the fish darted off to rejoin its colleagues streaking off in the distance.
“What happened?” Tulcheah asked, examining the lure carefully.
Chase explained about sportfishing. “The humans…the Tailless above us in that boat—drop lines with lures like this at the end. They try to attract and catch the fish, reel them in…show them off as trophies.”
Tulcheah made a face. “How barbaric.”
“I’ve got an idea…let’s have a little fun with these clowns.”
“What are you--?”
Tulcheah watched in amazement as Chase took the lure and carefully placed it in his own mouth. It had a weird taste and he tried not to think about it too much. Once situated, he gave the line a few short sharp tugs, then relaxed his body. Immediately, the line tightened, the slack disappeared and it began moving…upward.
The fishermen at the other end had a catch and now they were reeling their prize in.
Chase clamped his teeth hard around the lure and let the line pull him upward. When he was just below the surface, he removed the line from his mouth, still holding it and with a mighty kick, breached the surface and made as big a splash as he could, rising as far as he could, so the fishermen could get a good look at a real ‘monster.”
At the stern of the Marlin Madame twin-engine cruiser, Lou Ransom was so startled at the sight of the creature that had erupted out of the water, that he knocked over his beer can and let go of the line. His chair vaulted backward and he fell with a hard thud to the deck, spluttering, scrambling, screaming.
“Guys! Guys…take a look…it’s that monster…it’s…God…what the hell is that?”
Just for good measure, Chase stroked over to the boat, and made to climb her gunwales, even managed to plant a scaly, armored leg over the side, enjoying the panic that had swept the boat when he saw someone emerge from the belowdecks cabin with a rifle.
Uh oh…better get out of here.
He dropped back into the water just as the riflemen let fly a volley into the water. Rounds peppered the water, zinging and hissing in tiny contrails of bubbles as he sank quickly from view. He chuckled as he descended into the depths and felt the warm touch of Tulcheah’s fins on his back.
“What a show!” he chortled. “They won’t forget that catch…the one that got away.”
Just then, he realized Tulcheah had stiffened and floated perfectly still alongside him. “Chase, did you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“Repeaters…one of ours. Omtorish alert song…” she listened more closely, though Chase could only hear the rumble of Marlin Madame above them, as the cruiser circled warily, looking for more signs of the ‘sea monster.’ “It’s an alert…some kind of signal…a signaler…from the Tailless…the Kel’em wants all on roam to return. We have to get back.”
“A signaler…from the Tailless?” Then Chase remembered. He had given one of the devices to the UNISEA delegates, to their Director. “It’s probably important. Can you guide us back…I’m kinda lost.”
Tulcheah pulsed the anxiety inside him and laughed. “Eekoti Chase…or should I say ‘Great Kel’metah?’ A great one is never lost…even in the far seas. Hold on—” she stuck out her tail flukes, “and turn up your jets. I’ll take us home.”
They stroked off and made it back to Keenomsh’pont in no time.
The Metah Mokleeoh had come with Oncolenia and the rest of her court to the lab and was in talks with Likteek when Chase and Tulcheah returned. Prodsmen escorted them through waves of curious onlookers to the caves.
Likteek explained. “We received the signaler notice a short time ago…it was set in panic mode…whether deliberately or not, we couldn’t tell. Listen—” he activated the echopod that had recorded the signaler’s low-frequency tones.
Chase listened. All he could make out was a stream of squeaks, clicks and whistles. He looked at Likteek puzzled.
“I can’t make anything out of it.”
Likteek translated. “They want to meet with us…it’s the emergency tone. Did you explain to the Tailless how the signaler is used?”
“I did. Maybe I didn’t explain it well.”
Likteek was sympathetic. “Or maybe you don’t understand it yourself. In any case, it’s clear the Tailless want to meet.”
Chase was thoughtful, eyeing Tulcheah for a moment. He could tell, without even pulsing, what she wanted.
“I’ll bet they want explanations for what the Ponkti and the Sk’ort did to that Russian city.” Chase knew the news was all over the repeater nets, worldwide. “They’re mad or puzzled or something.”
Mokleeoh was agitated, clearly upset with Lektereenah and her Ponkti contacts. “There was no reason for them to attack the Tailless…the Umans. This will make relations only more difficult for all of us. Kel’metah, you must do something.”
“Me? I don’t have any brilliant ideas, Affectionate Metah.”
Mokleeoh bore in on him. “Eekoti Chase, you are elected Kel’metah. All the kels disagree on how to deal with the Umans. You must decide for us…it’s your duty. Do we fight? Do we talk?”
Chase always hated it when events converged to make him the center of the conflict. What am I, some kind of great intergalactic diplomat? I’m a beach bum. My own family says so. He didn’t say any of this but looked helplessly from Mokleeoh to Likteek to Tulcheah.
Likteek was sympathetic. “Kel’metah, we all pulse the anxiety inside you…nobody could hide that. Perhaps a roam—”
Mokleeoh, always up for vish’tu, seconded that idea. “Come…the exertion will smooth out your thoughts…ke’shoo and ke’lee will come…you will think more clearly.”
“Thanks…thanks all of you, but I don’t need that. My head works differently. What I need is my go-tone…strum a few chords, pluck out a few notes. That’s what helps me think.”
Likteek offered an idea. “We have trangkors here…some were brought in the kel’vish’tu, the Emigration. Perhaps, these—”
“No, it wouldn’t be the same. No, something’s bothering me…it’s what the Ponkti discovered in the far seas…a place we humans call the South China Sea.”
Mokleeoh said, “You refer to the m’jeete?”
“Yes, that’s it. The Umans, when they were at Kinlok Island back on Seome, called them the Coethi. One of them, this Lieutenant Golich I mentioned, even gave me some details on what they knew of the Coethi. I’ve got to find those echopods—”
“A formidable enemy, from what I remember,” Likteek said.
“That’s the issue. That’s what’s bothering me now. Ever since the Emigration, the kels have been fighting each other. I know that isn’t exactly news. Now the kels are fighting with the humans. But the Coethi, if what Golich and the Umans said is true, are the greater enemy. If they’re here, however they got here, we really should tell the humans about them. They may not fully understand what we’re dealing with…I don’t think the Ponkti really understand the danger they’ve uncovered.”
“If we tell them,” Likteek thought, “are we not then obligated to help the humans get rid of this menace?”
Mokleeoh scoffed at that. “The kels can’t agree on anything. I have roamed and talked with
Lektereenah, with Okeemah and Oolandra, all the Metahs, about what has happened in the far seas. The Metahs can’t agree. If the Metahs can’t agree, the kels will never agree…already Lektereenah is making plans to take all Ponkti away from here and lead them to Ponkel’te, in the far seas, once it’s rebuilt. This will only make matters more difficult for all of us.”
“It seems we are at an impasse,” Likteek said, somewhat mournful. “A difficult decision…who is the greater threat: the Umans or the Coethi?”
Mokleeoh was firm. “This must be for the Kel’metah to decide. It is so written in our history…Kel’metah makes the decisions for all the kels.”
Chase wanted to throw up his hands but he didn’t. No way they’ll understand that gesture. “How did I get myself into this…where is it written in your history books that a beach bum-rock singer becomes the Great Leader? This is insane.”
Likteek motioned Tulcheah over and the two of them nuzzled Chase around the face and neck, sort of a Seomish way of kissing and consoling. At first, he had always been reluctant to engage in this…a physical form of ke’shoo and ke’lee…but now—
“The currents carry us where they will,” Mokleeoh said. “This is what Shooki tells us.”
“That doesn’t really help a lot,” Chase came back. I guess there’s no getting away from this. Maybe, if I could just toss a coin…but in the water, a coin just drifts around, tossed by currents.
But we can’t keep drifting around.
“Okay, folks, I’ve made up my mind. Don’t ask me to explain how. Likteek, you and me and maybe two others go to New York. We meet with the humans, this UNISEA group. And we tell them about the Coethi…in fact, we offer to help them contain or defeat the Coethi. Maybe an external threat like this will help bring humans and Seomish together…it’s worth a shot, don’t you think?”
Mokleeoh shot across the lab like she had been stung by k’orpuh. “Kel’metah has made the decision…this must go out immediately.” She stopped alongside Oncolenia. “Assemble the Kel’em, all of them, here, now. They should know of this.” To Chase, she added, “Whatever you require, I will approve.”
Chase was startled by the sudden burst of activity. But it felt good. The motion inside the lab space stirred the waters, invigorating everybody. Jeez, my little decision did this…if I could just pat myself on the back—
“We’ll need a couple of kip’ts, Affectionate Metah. I’d like Likteek to come with me. Maybe Tulcheah too and one of the scientists.”
“It is done,” Mokleeoh ordered. She made sure Oncolenia had recorded her words in a pod.
“One more thing,” Chase remembered.
“Anything, Kel’metah—”
“I need echopods. We have to find the pods that record what Lieutenant Golich told me about the Coethi…the humans need to hear it. After all, it was recorded by one of their own descendants.” Chase then had another idea. “And I’d like to have more echopods…could I take a few that describe your own history…the history of Om’tor and the kels on Seome? Maybe that’ll convince the doubters that Seomish are a real people, with a real history, a real culture.”
Mokleeoh gave the order to Likteek. “The Kelk’too is assigned to this full-time, Likteek. All other work stops. See to it that Kel’metah has what he wants.”
“Of course, Affectionate Metah.”
“The Tailless are not our enemies,” the Metah went on. “The m’jeete are the true enemy. If Lektereenah thinks that she and the Ponkti can control these creatures and use them, they will surely fail.”
Chase shuddered at the prospect of what they were facing. “If humans and Seomish can’t cooperate on defeating or at least containing the Coethi, all life on this planet is in danger, humans and Seomish. The kels have already lost one world. They’re not going to lose another one, if I have anything to do with it.”
Chapter 11
New York City
The East River
August 27, 2115
1830 hours
It was Keko Satsuyama’s idea to build a new conference structure to meet the Seomish, something they would feel more comfortable in. UNISEA and the Sea Council normally met in the UN complex at East 42nd Street, within the confines of UN Plaza. Now, however, Satsuyama looked on as finishing touches were made to a floating pavilion just off the East River pier, a hundred meters out into the sluggish river, a canopied structure anchored to the riverbed twenty meters below, surrounded on all sides by partitions but open to the water and the elements.
Today, the day of the first real conclave, it was raining and the towers of Roosevelt Island were barely visible in the mist, along with the looming bulk of the Queensboro Bridge overhead.
Satsuyama blinked mist out of his eyes and cinched up his rain coat further. It was mild, but windy along the waterfront and he eyed Dr. Josey Holland standing next to him on the pier, doing likewise.
Holland shivered in the chill. “We use to call this weather something only the ducks would love.”
Satsuyama smiled faintly. “Ducks and Seomish delegates. Hopefully, this will make them feel more at home…ah, look, isn’t that one of their craft now, surfacing just beyond the pier?”
Two rounded humps had appeared just off the pier. The two Seomish kip’ts circled the pier for a moment, while the UNISEA director communicated with Chase by signaler. It was a crude method but after some confusion, the kip’ts maneuvered inside the floating pavilion and docked there. Satsuyama, Holland and the rest of the Sea Council then boarded small boats themselves for the short ride out to the conference pavilion.
The pavilion was closed on three sides with partitions and open to the sea on the fourth side. A tarpaulin-like ceiling covered the structure, creaking and ruffling in the breezes. Rows of benches with built-in desks lined the three closed sides. Chase brought the kip’ts into the center of the inner pool, docked to a column there and popped the hatch. He climbed out, looking for all the world like a bad dream, an alligator with an enlarged head and mechanical legs. Likteek and the remainder of the Omtorish contingent exited the sleds and began a slow, stately orbit of the pool beneath the surface of the water.
Dr. Josey Holland noted there were three other Seomish delegates, besides Chase.
Chase’s voice came through the local echopods like a tinny whine.
“You sent us a signal. You wanted to meet. I assume this is about the recent attacks.”
Satsuyama had practiced his opening remarks for several days.
“Yes…recent…events in the Pacific have made it very clear that we must work out some kind of agreement—a treaty—delimiting territories and codes of conduct between humans and Seomish.”
Chase had already decided it was best not to try and defend what the Ponkti had done. “The kels of Seome, all of them—” he lied about this part, “—sincerely apologize for what happened. However, I should note that much of the motivation for what happened is a reaction to your own attacks on our settlements at Keenomsh’pont.”
Satsuyama figured this would come up. “Yes, we understand this. There is much to deplore in the conduct of both sides. We’ve drawn up a treaty that we’d like you to examine. The treaty provides a mechanism for both sides to meet and work out disputes and conflicts. It also outlines territories that would be under the control of the parties.”
Holland had been involved in some of the treaty work. “We’ve created a safe zone around your city at Bermuda. And we can create other safe zones around other settlements, if you like. We just need to know where to draw the lines.”
The Russian council member, whose name was Severin, spoke up. “These zones must not interfere with our fishing rights. Or our oil and gas exploration.”
“Or our legitimate security interests,” added the Chinese delegate. He scowled back at Holland and Satsuyama.
Now a new voice came out of the echopods. It was Likteek.
“Your lines and zones mean nothing to Seomish kels. The seas go where they will. The currents flow w
here they will. Shooki tells us that all the seas are one. And you live in the Notwater…the seas are foreign to you. For us, they are home. The seas are life to us.” To emphasize his point, Likteek raised his beak and head above the water’s surface and made a few splashes. A stream of angry clicks and squeaks filled the air.
Josey Holland raised a point. “That may well be but I’ve been to your main settlement. I’ve talked with Chase here. I know that you also have territories, just as we do. I’ve seen your bubble curtains. I even know that your ‘kels’ fight over territories.”
Chase was afraid this would come up. He’s already confided too much in this human scientist. “There is truth in what you say, but we come here not only to talk but to bring a warning.”
“A warning?” growled Severin. “What kind of warning?”
“Is this a threat?” asked the Chinese delegate.
“It’s a threat to all of us,” Chase said. “Before the most recent attacks, human ships and divers interfered with a Ponkti settlement in the Pacific. The Ponkti have made a major discovery there…something we all should be concerned about. Something that threatens all of us.”
The Chinese delegate was skeptical. “The only threat is what the Sea People are doing in our territorial waters.”
“Not true,” Chase said. He had been sitting atop the kip’t as it rode at anchor inside the pavilion pool. Now he stood up, his full seven-foot height startling some of the nearer delegates. “I’ve brought proof. In these echopods. Just listen…the Ponkti have discovered something that affects all of us…and we have to cooperate to stop it.”
With that, Chase reached into the cockpit of the kip’t and withdrew a small echopod. It was the recording he’d made of Lieutenant Golich’s explanation of their Coethi enemy, at the shack on the beach at Kinlok Island, on Seome. It seemed like a million years ago. He fumbled with the controls for a moment, then a voice came booming out, a human voice…
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