Reefsong

by Carol Severance

  “It's me,” Pua said very formally, just the way she did outside the house after having come from the sea. “It's Little Fe'e. I brought someone to meet you. Her name is Puhi ‘ai Pōhaku. She's from Earth, but she can hear Le Fe'e sing.”

  Angie glanced at Pua, then back at the image, which was already beginning to fade. The cave returned gradually to its original muted glow.

  “What was that?” Angie asked.

  “Fatu calls him the Grand Old Man of Pukui,” Pua said. “I pretend sometimes that he's Le Fe'e, so we can watch each other while we talk.”

  Angie stared at the place where the image had formed. There was nothing there now but slime-covered stone. “Is it a holo?” she asked, although she was sure it was not.

  Pua shook her head. “It's just the mold. When it's startled, it moves like that. It only does it once, so you have to look fast or you miss seeing him.”

  Angie looked around, shivering again. “Why did you bring me here?” she asked.

  “You said you wanted to talk, and I wanted to be sure Le Fe'e knows who you are. You never stayed in the water long enough before.”

  “Pua...”

  “And I wanted to show you my babies.”

  Angie caught her breath. She glanced toward the underwater entrance they had just used.

  “The rays are still out there,” Pua said. “They won't let you out unless I tell them to.”

  Angie couldn't help but laugh. “You really are getting good at this.”

  “I've been watching you, Auntie Puhi,” Pua said. “Come on.” She pulled Angie back underwater. They swam through another dark channel, one that in her earlier haste to reach the light Angie hadn't even noticed, then up a slight incline. The light that met them this time was flat and white.

  As they surfaced, Angie squinted against its artificial glare. They were inside a half-submerged airlock chamber. Angie had barely recognized it for what it was before Pua flipped open a ceiling hatch and hauled herself up and out of sight. Quickly, Angie pulled up after her. She blinked to adjust her eyes to a dimmer, more natural light.

  A woman the size of Gibraltar awaited them. Kin to Fatu, Angie thought, and then some. There was no mistaking the resemblance. She wore a loose, full dress, brightly colored—and carried a golden baby on each hip. The infants clung to her with long, thin fingers.

  “Pualeiokekai Pukui,” the woman demanded, “what the hell are you doing here?”

  “Pualei?” a shrill voice cried before Pua could answer. “You came back!”

  A boy, no taller than Angie's waist, darted around the woman. He was followed by a second, identical child. Both were naked except for mossy fringes around their ankles and wrists. Straight, ebony hair bounced across their wide shoulders, and their dark eyes were wide with delight. They raced toward Pua, long-fingered hands stretched forward in welcome.

  Chapter 18

  “I told you I'd come back.” Pua laughed, and scooped Kiki and Keha into her arms. “I told you I'd always come back!”

  “You stay where you are,” she heard Auntie Nola say. Pua hoped the mountainlady would have sense enough to do what she was told, just this once. She squeezed the boys tight, and they shrieked and pulled at her hair and arms. She tumbled over backward, then rolled and rolled with them across the moss-lined floor. Oh, she had missed them so much!

  “Pua! Stop it!” Nola demanded. “You're going to hurt somebody.”

  “We can't get hurt,” Pua called. “We're too tough!” She shouted and laughed and wrestled with the screaming boys until they were all choking for air. Finally, she collapsed under them and lay still, hugging them tight. Kiki and Keha stopped fighting at once and cuddled close. They tangled their fingers tight in her hair.

  “I missed you so much,” she whispered, and squeezed them both tighter.

  “Did you bring us some new snowballs?” Keha whispered back.

  “The old ones melted,” Kiki added.

  “On Auntie's catch nets,” Keha said.

  Pua laughed. “I have a whole bagful. Wait'll you see.”

  Suddenly, both boys were yanked up and away. Auntie Nola's strong hand replaced their grips in Pua's hair. Pua yelped when Nola tugged on the place where the mountainlady had yanked before. “I asked you a question, young lady,” Nola said.

  Pua grinned up at her. “I missed you, too, Auntie Nola, but I couldn't come before because somebody was following me.”

  Nola glanced pointedly at the warden.

  Pua looked over her shoulder at the mountainlady, who was kneeling beside the open hatch. She was staring at the babies Nola had set on the floor, and rubbing her legs. Pua grinned again. That had been a good fight they'd had. The woman's skill and strength had surprised her. Her own legs were sore from the strain of trying to break the woman's clever hold.

  “Come on, get up,” Nola said.

  Pua stood. The boys clung, one to each leg. Pua rested her hands on their backs and faced her auntie. She could feel Nola's pleasure at seeing her, even through her anger and concern.

  “The Company man is coming back tomorrow,” Pua said. “Toma wants me to go away from Pukui again.”

  “Auwe,” Auntie Nola said softly. She reached out then and pulled Pua into a hug. It was a real hug, hard and full, and not in any way reticent, as Fatu's had been. Nola was not afraid to touch her just because she had grown.

  “I missed you, Auntie,” Pua said, squeezing her tight as far around as her arms could reach. “I missed you all so much.” Nola's loose dress was damp across the front; it smelled of sweet babies’ milk.

  She pulled back slightly and reached up to transfer the string of lemon shells from her own neck to Nola's. “Where's Pili? And Misako? And—”

  “They're with Hana taking lessons,” Nola said. She hugged Pua again, then straightened. “You'd better close the hatch, lady, unless you feel like swimming after those two,” she said.

  Pua peeked around Nola's wide side to see the babies crawling toward the open hatch. The warden slid it shut quickly, then pulled back when the youngsters converged on her instead. Without hesitation, they reached up and pulled themselves into her lap. One tugged boldly at her wet shirt-front. Pua laughed, because the mountainlady appeared totally helpless under the onslaught. She could feel Nola's parallel chuckle.

  “Boys,” Nola said. “Go help.” She turned so that they could both watch the mountainlady, but did not release Pua from her hug. Willingly, Pua remained leaning against her side. Kiki and Keha each lifted a baby away from the warden.

  Keha settled his charge on one hip. “Who're you?” he asked.

  “Keha,” Nola warned.

  “She's the farm boss,” Pua said.

  Keha's eyes opened wide. “The puhi ‘ai pōhaku?”

  The warden sent Pua a cool look. Pua giggled.

  The warden returned her look to Keha. “My real name is Angela Roberta Dinsman. What's yours?”

  “Kehakehaokalani noun Toma me Kilisou.” Keha's shoulders straightened. He was exceedingly proud of his name, especially now that he could say it all in one breath.

  The warden's brows lifted. “That's a very big name for such a small boy. You must be someone important.” Pua was not sure if the warden's surprise was feigned or real, but it was clear that Keha was pleased by her reaction.

  “I'm going to get bigger pretty soon,” he said.

  The warden smiled. “I'm sure you are.” She reached out for the baby, and Keha passed it back to her without question.

  That was too much for Nola. She moved Pua to one side and stepped forward. “I'll take her,” she said.

  The warden looked up from the baby's hands. “I wasn't planning to hurt her.” The two women stared at each other for a moment. Then Nola reached out for the baby, and to Pua's surprise, the warden handed the child up to her willingly. The baby promptly peed down the side of Nola's dress.

  Nola scowled at Pua's snigger of laughter as she shook the trickle of moisture from her skirt. “I see you're no
t as unfamiliar with children as it first appeared,” she said to the warden.

  “I've handled a few that size,” the warden said. “Enough to know how many times you can pass one back and forth before it starts to leak.”

  “Pua, what's this all about?” Nola said, growing serious again. “Why did you bring her here?”

  Pua glanced from her to the warden. “We needed a place to talk—and maybe hide. Toma really does want to send me away. Her, too.”

  “Don't go,” both Kiki and Keha said.

  “I won't,” Pua replied.

  “Toma is going to know exactly where you are, Pua,” Nola said.

  “Maybe. But he won't take the chance of coming here now. Not with so many Company swimmers around. And not when he doesn't know for sure she's with me.”

  They all looked at the mountainlady. The warden was watching Pua. “You knew I was following you all along, didn't you?” she asked.

  “Only after you started swimming. How come you're so quiet on the land but so noisy in the water?”

  “Did you deliberately slow the rays so I wouldn't get left behind?”

  “How did you know not to follow the one I put the locator on?”

  “How come nobody ever answers?” Kiki asked.

  “Why did you try to kill me, Pua?”

  “Pua!” That was Auntie Nola.

  “Did you?” Kiki and Keha shouted.

  “If I'd wanted you dead, Mountainlady, you'd never have gotten past the inner lagoon.” That stopped them all, and Pua was almost sorry she had said it. She didn't want to make an enemy of the warden now. It was obvious Toma and Fatu didn't know what to do. They were only buying time. The mountainlady was Pukui's only hope, if Pua could just figure out how to use her.

  “You know, Pualei,” the warden said quietly, “sometime soon, you and I are going to have to stop testing each other and find a way to work this thing out.”

  Kiki pulled at Nola's skirt. “Did Pua really try to kill the puhi?” he asked. Auntie Nola shushed him.

  “Now?” Pua offered.

  The warden nodded, slowly. “Do you want to start? Or shall I?”

  “I already started,” Pua said. “I brought you here.”

  “So you did.” The woman was silent for a moment. “Do you remember my friend Sally? The one I talked about in my sleep?”

  Pua nodded.

  “Her cousin runs the company that makes the candies we ate today. He always tells her when I order more than a single box of that particular kind. It's a way we have of passing messages back and forth. Troubleshooters sometimes do things like that so they can communicate privately. By ordering a full case of caramels all the way from Earth, I let Sally know there's something very important, and very dangerous, going on here—and that I need her help.”

  “What can she do?”

  “I don't know,” the woman admitted. “But I got back twice as many as I ordered, which means she's doing something. We're not entirely alone in this, Pua. And there's something else. I don't know if it means anything, but when I asked Lili how much pay she wanted to boss the Company crews, she asked for ‘double’ Klooney's.”

  “And double again for overtime,” Pua said.

  The warden nodded. “I checked Lili's hire record later, and discovered she hadn't come to Pukui with any of the regular crews. She was working the nets as an unpaid volunteer. Have you ever known a Company boss to do that?”

  Pua shook her head. She had been surprised, herself, at Lili's presence among the swimmers; that she had been working without pay was almost unbelievable. “I've never known any Company squid to do that,” she said.

  The baby in Nola's arms cooed.

  “How many of these kids are there, anyway?” the warden asked.

  “Nine,” Pua replied. “Counting me.”

  “Now, just a minute...” Nola said.

  “Nine!” The warden's eyes widened. She leaned back against the wall. The light shivered, then steadied. “Nine? That's all?”

  Pua nodded.

  The mountainlady turned to Nola. “You're planning to take over an entire planet's economy with nine kids?”

  “There are some more that haven't been born yet,” Pua said, “at least—”

  Nola grabbed her arm. “This has gone far enough. Don't you say another word.” She shoved Pua behind her.

  “But, Auntie Nola...”

  “Kiki. Keha. Take the babies to the nursery pool. Stay there with them until I come.”

  “But, we want to watch the puhi—”

  “Go!”

  “Auntie Nola...”

  “Shut up, Pua. Warden, you may have fooled these children into thinking they can trust you, but you haven't, and you won't, fool me.”

  “I told you before,” the warden said. “I'm not planning to hurt your children.” Oh, rot! Pua thought. The warden's voice had gone all calm again. Pua yanked her arm away from Nola. Why were adult humans always so hard to control?

  “I know all about you, troubleshooter,” Nola said. “I know what the Company promised you to get you out here, and I know your reputation for never leaving a job undone. Well, lady, if the Company ever gets this job done, it won't be because you helped them. I guarantee you that.”

  She brushed her fingers across her wrist comm, and Pua heard the distant thud of the outer airlock doors closing. The hatch shifted slightly and clicked into locked position.

  “Oh, rot.” Pua said it aloud this time.

  “Pua, go in with the boys,” Nola said. “Stay there until I say otherwise. Warden, you come with me.”

  Neither Pua nor the warden moved. Pua was acutely conscious of Nola's shock at being disobeyed. It was not something Pua had ever done openly before, and she found it curious that Nola's obvious irritation caused her so little concern. Something has changed, she thought, and realized it must be herself. The mountainlady's look never strayed from her own.

  “Is this complex below the basalt level?” the warden asked.

  Pua nodded. “Most of it. Part extends up into the coral. Why?”

  “Damn it, Pua!” Nola exclaimed. “What did they do to you back there at that place? This woman works for the Company! Don't you have any sense left?”

  “All I have left is Pukui and my babies—and her.” Pua returned her look to the mountainlady. “Why did you ask how deep we were?”

  Nola activated the intruder alarm.

  “Have you ever heard of a place called Mururoa?” the warden replied over the low buzz of the alarm.

  Pua shook her head. She clicked a quick sequence with her fingertips to let Kiki and Keha know there was no danger but to remain alert for her orders. Nola frowned at that, because she didn't understand the click-talk when it was done rapidly and didn't like Pua using it here.

  “Mururoa is an atoll on Earth,” the warden said. “In French Polynesia. Actually, it's what's left of an atoll. It was used for many years as a nuclear testing site.” She glanced at Nola. “I see you know of it.”

  Nola had gone pale. “You wouldn't...”

  “I'm sure the Company won't nuke Pukui,” the warden said. “They want to preserve the reef for their own use if they can. But the data provided by decades of blasting at Mururoa show just how much explosive power is needed to do anything from causing a small coral slide to cracking open the entire understructure of a reef. How long do you think you and your nine kids can survive down here if somebody decides to just shake you out? I can't believe you only have nine kids. Surely you have more hidden somewhere else.”

  She straightened suddenly and shifted her attention to the doorway. Pua caught her breath as Jaime Sorens and Mariko Saito entered. An angry, red scar ran the length of Mariko's right thigh. She was limping heavily. A chill slid down Pua's back. Zena had told her that Mariko had been killed in a netting accident three months earlier.

  Nola turned off the alarm. “Jaime, Mariko,” she said, “the warden here will be staying with us for a while. Seems there's more Company adm
in on the way, and at the least, Toma wants her out of contact.”

  “Auntie Nola, if you would just lis—”

  “It's all right, Pua,” the warden said. “How many people live down here, anyway, Nola?”

  “None of your damn—”

  “There were four adults before I left,” Pua said. “Plus the kids.”

  “Jaime, get her out of here before she tells this bitch everything down to our shoe size,” Nola said. “Take her into the nursery with the rest of the kids. Now, Warden, I asked you before to come with me.”

  The warden finally stood. She did it slowly. She rubbed her thighs, then wiped her hands on her shorts. “I'd like to go with Pua,” she said.

  “You're not going anywhere with Pua,” Nola said. She motioned to Jaime, and he took Pua's arm in a grip Pua knew she could break only by hurting him. His look told her that he understood that, too, so she shrugged and submitted.

  It occurred to her that bringing the mountainlady here so openly might not have been such a good idea. Now she was going to have to figure out a way to get them both out. She tapped the fingernails of her free hand against the wall behind her.

  “Stop that, Pua,” Nola said. “If you want to talk to the boys, do it out loud. They're not fish. They need to learn to speak properly.”

  Pua stopped in mid-message, but kept her palm pressed against the wall. A faint vibration told her that Kiki was just outside and had caught her meaning. Pili's coming, he sent.

  “Toma took a locator biobug out of Pua's left hand earlier tonight,” the warden said, surprising even Pua. “But she still has a homing device in her right wrist. If you separate us, I'll activate it and broadcast this location to every Company receiver from here to Landing.”

  Pua caught her breath. She jerked her hand away from the wall. Then she rolled it into a fist. “You puhi bitch!” she breathed. “You did lie to me!” She reached up to yank away the locator string which she had tied back into her hair. How could she ever have trusted...

  And then she saw the lie in the mountainlady's quiet stare. She would never have recognized it if she hadn't once seen full truth in those eyes, that first day back in the freshwater pool. She's lying to make them keep us together, she thought. To cover her surprise, she pulled the comb from her hair and hurled it at the woman. The warden ducked away easily, and the comb bounced off the wall.