Dark Apprentice

by Kevin J. Anderson

  winds

  that are well within seasonal norms. No difficulties expected, but we are

  issuing an advisory against topside travel for the afternoon."

  "Acknowledged," Cilghal said. "We were planning on making the rest of our

  journey underwater. Thank you." She signed off, then turned back to Leia.

  "Don't worry, Minister. I can sense your anxiety, but I assure you, there is

  nothing to be concerned about."

  Leia sat up, trying to quell her nervousness until she put her finger on

  its cause. "I don't doubt you, Ambassador, it's just that... the last time I

  flew in a storm was on Vortex."

  Cilghal nodded somberly. "I understand." Leia sensed Cilghal's sincerity,

  and the look on her fishlike face was comforting. "We'll be safely landed in

  a

  few minutes."

  Through the mists and the whipping spray Leia watched them approach a

  metal island. Lumpy, but smoothed, like an organic coral reef, Foamwander

  City

  rose in a hemisphere out of the whitecaps. A forest of reinforced

  watchtowers

  and communications antennas rose from the top of the city, but the rest of

  the

  drifting metropolis had soft angles and polished outcroppings like a Mon

  Calamari star cruiser.

  The bright lights of thousands of above-surface windows shed jewels of

  light even through the whipping rain. Below the hemispherical dome Leia knew

  that the floating cities had underwater towers and descending complexes like

  the mirror image of a Coruscant skyline. The inverted skyscrapers of

  dwelling

  units and water-processing stations beneath the hemisphere made the city

  look

  like a mechanical jellyfish.

  Starved for raw materials on their marshy islands, the Mon Calamari had

  not been able to build a civilization until they joined forces with another

  intelligent species that lived beneath the oceans. The Quarren, a humanoid

  race with helmet-shaped heads and faces that looked like a fistful of

  tentacles sprouting beneath close-set eyes, had excavated metallic ores from

  the ocean crust. Working with the Calamarians, they built dozens of floating

  cities. Though the Quarren could also breathe air, they chose to remain

  under

  the sea while the Calamarians designed starships to explore the bright

  "islands in space."

  Cilghal approached the lumpy hemisphere of Foamwander City, circling to

  the leeward side, where the bulk of the metropolis protected them from

  buffeting winds. Whitecaps broke against the dull gray of the city's outer

  shell, sending arcs of droplets high like a handful of diamonds.

  "Open wave doors," Cilghal said into the voice pickup. She aimed the

  shuttle toward a line of bright lights that guided the ship in. Before Leia

  could detect the seam, heavy doors split open diagonally like a crooked

  mouth.

  Without slowing, Cilghal shot the vessel into a smooth tunnel, well lit

  by green illumination strips. Behind them the wave doors closed, sealing the

  metropolis against the onslaught of the storm.

  Leia felt herself swept along as the ambassador moved with a liquid

  grace, calmly but relentlessly, to the underwater sections of the floating

  city. Cilghal set a steady, rapid pace that helped Leia hurry but caused no

  alarm. This was no simple diplomatic mission.

  As Leia strode through the curved colorful halls of the upper levels, she

  was reminded of the corkscrewing chambers inside a gigantic shell. She saw

  no

  sharp corners, only rounded edges and smooth, polished decorations made of

  coral and mother-of-pearl. Even inside the enclosed city, the air had a

  salty

  tang, but it was not unpleasant.

  "Do you know where Ackbar is?" Leia finally asked.

  "Not exactly," the ambassador said. "We allowed him his privacy and did

  not follow him." Cilghal touched Leia's shoulder with a broad fin-hand. "But

  do not be concerned. The Calamarians have sources of information that the

  Empire never suspected. Even during the occupation we were able to keep our

  collective knowledge intact. We will find Ackbar."

  Leia followed Cilghal into a turbolift that plunged down into the deep

  underwater levels of the floating city. When they emerged, the quality of

  the

  corridors had changed. The lighting was dimmer and shimmering, a jewel-blue

  reflected through faceted glowlamps and thick transparisteel windows that

  looked out into the ocean depths.

  Leia could see divers swimming among the tangle of nets and mooring

  lines, satellite cages, and small submersible vehicles moving about the

  inverted towers of the city. The air was thicker and damper. The people in

  these levels were primarily Quarren, moving about their business, not

  acknowledging the presence of the visitors.

  Though the Quarren and the Calamarians had allied themselves to build

  this civilization, Leia knew that the two communities did not work together

  without friction. The Calamarians insisted on their dreams to reach the

  stars,

  while the Quarren wished to return to the oceans. Rumors suggested that the

  Quarren had betrayed their planet to the Empire, but that they had then been

  treated just as badly under Imperial occupation as the Calamarians.

  Cilghal stopped and spoke to a Quarren who stood by a valve-control

  station. The Quarren looked up at the interruption, flashing dark eyes at

  Leia, then at Cilghal. The Calamarian ambassador spoke in a high-pitched

  bubbly language, and the Quarren answered abruptly in kind. He gestured to

  the

  left down a steep ramp that corkscrewed to the lower level.

  Cilghal nodded her thanks, undisturbed by the Quarren's attitude as she

  led Leia down the ramp. They emerged into an open equipment bay that had

  been

  pressurized to allow easy access to the water.

  Five Calamarian males worked on a small submersible hoisted on a tractor

  beam; they moved together to unload dripping crates from a seatree cargo

  hold.

  Quarren, dressed in sleek, flat-black suits that seemed covered with minute

  scales, dived through access fields into the watery depths. The walls of the

  equipment bay flickered as traces of dim light wandered up and down the

  polished surfaces, creating a hypnotic bath of dark green and deep blue.

  Cilghal went to a row of small porcelain compartments and opened one.

  Before she could reach inside, two Quarren workers rushed over, speaking

  quickly and harshly in their bubbling language. Leia smelled a new, sour

  scent

  rising from them.

  Cilghal bowed in apology, then moved to a different set of compartments,

  opening them with more caution. Leia followed, trying to make herself small.

  She realized she was the only non-native in the entire chamber. The Quarren

  stared at her, though the Calamarians took no notice.

  Cilghal removed a pair of the slithery suits worn by the diving Quarren,

  handing one to Leia. Leia ran her fingers over the fabric. It seemed alive,

  clinging and slippery at the same time; the tiny mesh expanded and

  contracted

  as if seeking an
appropriate shape to best serve the wearer.

  Cilghal indicated a narrow closet-sized door. "Our changing compartments

  are a bit cramped, I'm afraid."

  Leia stepped inside, sealing the door behind her as blue-green

  illumination intensified in the small chamber. She disrobed and slid into

  the

  black suit, feeling her skin tingle as the fabric shifted and adjusted,

  trying

  to conform. When the crawly sensations stopped, it was the most comfortable

  garment she had ever worn--warm yet cool, light yet insulating, fuzzy yet

  slick.

  When Leia emerged, Cilghal stood outside the door already wearing her

  water garment. Without speaking Cilghal fitted a water jetpack over Leia's

  shoulders, then rigged a crude net for her long hair. Looking at the smooth

  salmon-and-olive dome of Cilghal's head and the fleshy scalps of the

  Quarren,

  Leia said, "I don't suppose you have much need for hair nets around here."

  Cilghal made a sound that Leia suspected might be a laugh, and led her

  over to one of the access fields. Beside a round opening that shimmered with

  faint static as it held the Calamarian ocean back, Cilghal dipped her broad

  hands into a bubbling urn. She pulled out a floppy translucent sheet and

  held

  it up. Water streamed off its surface, fizzing with tiny bubbles.

  "Humans sometimes find this unpleasant," Cilghal said. "I apologize."

  Without further warning she slapped the gelatinous mass across Leia's mouth

  and nose. The membrane was cold and wet, clinging to her cheeks, her skin.

  Leia stiffened in alarm and tried to struggle, but the strange soft gel

  stuck

  fast to her face.

  "Relax, and you can breathe," Cilghal said. "This symbiote filters oxygen

  from the sea. It can last for weeks under water."

  Starved for air, Leia tried to suck in a deep breath and found that she

  could indeed inhale clean, ozone-smelling air. Pure oxygen filled her lungs,

  and as she breathed slowly out, the bubbles percolated back through the

  symbiote membrane.

  Cilghal applied one of the symbiotes to her own angular face and then

  poked a tiny microphone unit into the soft jelly before adjusting another in

  her ear hole.

  She handed Leia a pair of the small devices. The microphone slid into the

  gelatinous membrane, but the symbiote held it firmly. When she put the

  second

  jack into her ear, Cilghal's voice came through clearly.

  "You must take care to articulate your words," Cilghal said, "but this

  system is quite satisfactory."

  Without another word Cilghal took Leia's arm. She could feel the

  ambassador's grip, every detail of her webbed hands transmitted through the

  remarkable mesh of the slick suit. Together, they plunged through the

  containment field and into the deep oceans of Calamari.

  As they jetted through the water, Leia felt warm currents on her forehead

  and around her eyes. The symbiote fed her a steady supply of air, and the

  fine

  mesh suit kept her warm and dry and comfortable. Some of her hair broke free

  of the makeshift netting, and thick strands flipped and flailed around her

  head as she cruised along.

  Behind them, the glittering inverted metropolis of Foamwander City

  drifted like a huge undersea creature with thousands of tiny figures

  swimming

  around it. On the sea floor Leia could see dull orange glows and domed

  cities,

  sites of Quarren deep-mining operations in the ocean crust. Above, the light

  turned milky as it filtered through waves churned by the pelting storm.

  Cilghal spoke little, though the radio pickup worked quite well. They

  left the floating city far behind, and Leia began to feel uneasy at being so

  far from civilization.

  Leia remained close beside Cilghal as their jetpacks bubbled and

  streamed. Eventually, Cilghal gestured toward a crevasse broken into the

  ocean

  crust, surrounded by lumps of coral and waving fronds of red and brown

  seaweed. "We are going to the Calamarian knowledge bank," Cilghal said

  through

  the tiny voice pickup.

  They cruised between zigzags of rock overgrown with slow sculptures of

  coral and hair-fine tendrils of deep plants. The water streamed faster as

  the

  rock walls channeled stray currents. Above and around them fleets of bright-

  colored fish skimmed about, fed upon by larger fish that snapped, swallowed,

  and returned to feed again.

  Leia looked ahead and saw a haphazard bed of shells, polished hulking

  mollusks a meter across. A faint lustrous glow seemed to come from the

  shells

  themselves.

  Cilghal unexpectedly switched off her jetpack, and Leia shot past her

  before managing to stop her own thrusters. Cilghal kicked her broad feet to

  push herself toward the bottom with long gliding motions.

  Leia struggled to keep up as they approached the enormous mollusks.

  Slowly kicking her feet to maintain her position against the current,

  Cilghal

  spread her arms wide as she bent over the largest of the humped shells at

  the

  front of the large bed. She hummed, a strange noise that vibrated through

  the

  water as much as it moved through the pickup circuit in Leia's ear.

  "We have questions," Cilghal said, speaking to the giant shells. "We

  require access to the knowledge stored here in the great collection of

  memories. We must know if you have the answers we seek."

  The top shell of the largest mollusk groaned open. The crack between its

  bivalve shells widened until a stream of golden illumination shone out, as

  if

  precious sunlight had been captured and held inside the impenetrable shell

  walls.

  Leia couldn't say anything in her astonishment. As the shell cracked open

  even wider, she saw the soft fleshy mass inside, swirled and curved - comn

  just the meaty lump of a shellfish, but the contours of a brain, an enormous

  brain that pulsed and shone with yellow light.

  A sluggish pulsing sound drummed at Leia's ears through the water, and

  Cilghal turned to her. "They will answer," she said.

  As Leia watched, row upon row of the giant shells opened, shedding rays

  of warm light into the narrow crevasse and exposing the swirled lumps of

  other

  large brains.

  "They sit," Cilghal said. "They wait. They listen. They know everything

  that happens on this planet--and they never forget."

  Cilghal began a long, ritualistic communion with the mollusk knowledge

  bank in a slow hypnotic language. Leia floated in place and watched,

  mystified

  and anxious.

  Finally Cilghal swam backward, brushing her flipper-hands back and forth

  as she drifted away. The thick mollusks closed their shells, sealing the

  golden light away from the shadows of the canyon.

  Leia had trouble seeing in the suddenly restored dimness of the depths,

  but the ambassador's words came crisply through the ear jack. "They have

  told

  me where to find him."

  Leia could detect no emotion in Cilghal's even voice, but she felt he
r

  own thrill of elation.

  As they turned to swim upward, Leia stared toward the lip of the

  crevasse. She froze as she saw a deadly sleek form like an Imperial attack

  ship above--an enormous living creature with a long bullet-shaped body,

  spined

  fins, a mouth filled with fangs. On either side of the mouth streamed

  whipping

  tentacles, each tipped with razor-jawed pincers.

  Leia began to swim frantically backward. Cilghal grabbed her shoulder and

  pulled her down. "Krakana," she said.

  The monster seemed to notice the bubbles caused by Leia's struggle. A

  stream of fizz came from the symbiote on Leia's mouth as she panted with

  terror, but Cilghal held her in a firm grip.

  "Will it attack us?" Leia said into the voice pickup.

  "If it senses us," Cilghal said. "The krakana will eat anything."

  "Then what--was Leia said.

  "It won't find us." Cilghal sounded alt too calm. Fish swam frantically

  away from the torpedo shape of the predator. Cilghal seemed to be

  concentrating.

  "No, it will get that one," she gestured with one large hand, "the blue-

  and-yellow-striped kieler. After that it will take that smaller orange one

  in

  the middle of the school. By then all the others will have fled, and the

  krakana will continue on its way. Then we can leave."

  "How do you know that?" Leia said, gripping the rough-edged lump of coral

  on the side of the chasm.

  "I know," Cilghal said. "It's a little trick I have."

  Leia watched in horrified fascination as the krakana streaked forward,

  coming unexpectedly from below as it reached out with its mass of tentacles

  to

  grab the blue-and-yellow kieler and rip it to ragged shreds before stuffing

  its fang-filled mouth.

  By the time the monster had grabbed the pale-orange fish, the rest of the

  school had vanished to hidden corners of the crevasse or fled into the broad

  expanse of the ocean. The krakana slid away as it cruised the depths,

  constantly in search of a meal.

  Leia stared at Cilghal, amazed at her prescient ability, but the

  Calamarian ambassador squeezed Leia's upper arm before igniting her water

  jetpack.

  "Now we must go find Ackbar," she said.

  Leia and Cilghal swam closer to the choppy surface after hours of gliding

  beneath the waves. Around them leathery seatrees veined with iridescent blue

  and red swirled in the churning current, stirred by the continuing storm.