Reefsong

by Carol Severance

  Toma slid rapidly back into his seat, unhooking the safety tether as he did so. He reached for the deck. “Stand by the hatch and go at my call,” he said. “I'll be right behind you.”

  “Not even I could land on the barge in this wind,” she said. “Your best bet is the open lawn in front of the main house.”

  “I'm not going to land,” he said.

  “You're going to ditch my flit?”

  “Easy come, easy go, Warden. Stand by the hatch. We'll blow the pen after we're in the water.”

  “Spit,” Angie said, although she didn't really object to having a strong swimmer at her side in these raging seas. She was astonished at how quickly the storm had grown out of control. She slipped out of her safety harness and her seat. “Ready at the hatch,” she called.

  Toma swung the flit low over the waves. “Pop it.”

  A spray of saltwater swept in with the wind. He was a lot lower than Angie would have put them. “Go!” he yelled.

  It was not a graceful dive, but she cleared the flit without major damage, and the surface of the water was no harder than she had expected. She blew out all the air in her lungs and let herself sink, fighting the instinctive urge to kick directly back to the surface. Her gills activated, and the quick infusion of adrenaline gave her the courage to continue downward.

  The water churned with conflicting currents, and Angie was buffeted and rolled. She kicked as hard as she could to maintain her dive, but it was the strong webbing between her fingers that pulled her through the turmoil. Through it all, she felt the shock of the flitter smacking into the surface. She hoped Toma had made it through the hatch in time.

  Not until she reached five meters did Angie have any real control over her movements in the churning water. As soon as she was stable, she pressed the locator implant. She turned in the water until she was facing the direction of the signal. A dark figure dove toward her through the turbulence. Toma.

  Immediately, he signaled for Pua's direction. Angie pointed. He stopped her before she could start swimming that way and pointed back the opposite way. He lifted the methane detonator. At the same moment, Angie saw something behind him. She grabbed his shoulder and pointed.

  Rays, an entire pack of them, were lifting from the depths. They swept close, circled, and dove, and suddenly Pua was there. She brought her face close to Angie's. “What happened to the flitter?” she called through the water.

  “What happened to you?” Angie cried. She lifted one of Pua's hands to her shoulder, where the locator was still emitting a weak, intermittent vibration. Pua's eyes opened wide.

  “Why?” Angie called.

  “Pili!” Pua said. “I gave the string to—” Her air ran out. She clicked her fingers, a signal to the rays, for they swept close again. Panic glowed in her eyes.

  Toma touched them both in warning and lifted the detonator again. He activated the release just as one of the rays lifted under him. Angie grabbed hold of her own waiting ray, and with Pua in the lead, they raced from the site. The booming thunder of exploding methane chased them through the water. As soon as the shock wave had passed, Pua turned her ray back toward Angie.

  Angie nodded, and pressed the locator for direction. Pua must have given the rays some other command then, because Angle's ray surged ahead. When Angie felt it going off course, she applied a slight pressure to the ray's back with her knees. The creature responded as easily as if it had been a horse she was riding.

  It soon became clear where the signal was leading them. The deep-water pipe tunnel, the nearest entrance to Sa le Fe'e. A strong current was sweeping down off the barrier reef face, and an even stronger one began pulling them ever faster toward the tunnel mouth. The rays slowed of their own accord. Toma motioned them up and in, toward the reef.

  Pua did not look happy at the delay, but she clicked her fingertips, and the rays took them that way. They carried them under a coral outcropping and slowed. Angie slid from the ray and swam after Toma and Pua. They crawled through a patch of sponge coral, then swam up into a mold-lit cave.

  “...in trouble,” Pua was shouting when Angie surfaced. “We have to go help them!”

  “Pua, the rays don't want to go through the tunnel,” Toma said. “The current is too strong.”

  “The current is always strong,” she said. “We have to go.”

  Toma shook his head. “The storm is dumping so much water over the reef and into the lagoon that the outflow through the tunnel is three times its usual tidal strength. Even if we could make it through there safely, we'd never be able to cross the outer reef face to Sa le Fe'e's entrance. The surge must be tearing the coral apart by now. Even the fishing exit may be impossible.”

  “We don't have to go outside. There's a way into Sa le Fe'e from inside the tunnel,” Pua said. “We can go in through the hot-tub overflow.”

  “That pipe is too small,” he said.

  Pua nodded toward Angie. “She got through it.”

  Toma sent Angie a startled glance.

  She shrugged. “It's a tight fit, but I did get through. You'd never make it, though.” Toma's shoulders were a good deal wider than her own. Angie cringed inwardly at the thought of squeezing through that dark space again.

  “Okay,” Toma said. “We have a back way in, at least for the two of you. How are we going to escape the current when we reach the outflow channel? I'm not exaggerating its strength, Pua. I don't know if even the rays can do it.”

  “They'll try if I tell them,” she replied. “What do you think is wrong?”

  “Could be storm damage,” Toma said, “but that's not likely at the basalt level. The main cave's never been seriously affected by storms before.”

  “Maybe there was a slide or something in one of the upper chambers,” Pua said.

  “Pua,” Angie asked, “did you see anyone else in the lagoon?”

  “Just the work crews leaving the barge,” she said. “There were a lot of Company squids still out there working when you came in the flitter. Zena told me they stayed to help even after Crawley ordered them out of the water. They didn't like those Earther swimmers telling them what to do.”

  “Did you see any of the Earther waterguards?” Angie pressed.

  Pua shook her head. “Zena said they all left awhile earlier.”

  Angie met Toma's look. “There was a lot of cargo aboard that bus. Any idea what it was?”

  “Crawley said farm equipment; the guards wouldn't let me near it,” he said.

  Angie thought for a moment. “It was probably a pair of minisubs. They rarely work without them for backup. That would give them shelter outside the reef, although it'd be a rough ride. They'll also have hand jets, which will give them maneuverability in the rough water.”

  Pua stared at her. “You think the Earthers are at Sale Fe'e?”

  “I don't know, Pua,” Angie said. “Is it possible Pili might have been somewhere outside when he broke the locator string?”

  “If he was hurt and in the water, Le Fe'e would be able to tell me what's wrong,” Pua replied. Again Angie met Toma's look. Myth or reality? How much of what Pua told them could they believe literally?

  “Let's start with the hot-tub outflow,” Toma said. “If I can't get through, you two go ahead in. Pua, you open the fishing exit gate, and I'll come in there. We'll play the rest by ear.”

  “How'll you get through the surge?” Pua asked.

  “There's a small hand jet in the last rest station. Maybe the guards missed it on their way through, if that's how they got through.”

  “Some of them probably tried it,” Angie said. But how had they found Sa le Fe'e at all? She was sure that they had. She could feel it. She could taste it! “Watch for them at the other end of the tunnel.”

  “Hell, I've been watching for them ever since we left the cave,” he said. “Don't worry about that.”

  “I'm going,” Pua said. “I'll tell the rays what to do.”

  “Wait.” Angie grabbed Pua's arm. It seemed she had
been doing that a lot lately. “Do you have to be with the rays for them to do things for you, or can they understand well enough to do something on their own?”

  “Like what?”

  “Like bring us a few reinforcements.”

  “The swimmers, you mean?”

  Angie nodded. “Would they recognize the Pukui people?”

  “Of course. Shall I tell them to go get some?”

  “Yes!” Toma said. “Ehu and Kobe will still be in the water, and Zena. You know the others we can trust. Go. Do it.”

  Pua swam ahead of them out of the cave. She must have sent her message to the rays while she was still passing through the sponge coral, because only the three largest were waiting. They mounted, Pua clicked her nails, and they swung directly into the tremendous outflow current of the barrier reef tunnel. Angie closed her eyes, then quickly opened them again. All she could see was glowing, rushing water.

  The ray's great wings lifted and fell. Slowly. Smoothly—with a controlled power Angie could feel through the warm, velvety skin. She had been aware of the creature's great strength before, but this was something she had not expected. She was being carried through the maelstrom of the current, not swept. The ray was in complete control.

  She wondered, not for the first time, why these great, gray creatures allowed themselves to be ruled by such a tiny, human child. Then she thought of her own association with Pua and acknowledged that she and the rays had something in common. “Pua controls us all,” she said against the ray's back. The water sucked her words away, but a ripple of movement under the velvety skin made her wonder if the ray had heard her.

  Mother of mountains, Angie thought, as she considered what that might mean. It was not the first time she had wondered if the rays understood more than just Pua's click-talk. I'm not sure I can handle a second indigenous peoples’ battle right now, she told the ray silently.

  She had expected a return to the terror her first trip through the tunnel had inspired, a return to the horror of her helpless sweep through the icy mountain waters of home. Instead, she found herself pondering the political complexities that would arise if a sentient, or even just a near-sentient, species was found to exist in the precious Lesaat seas.

  Spit, she thought, I am truly out of my league.

  The ray slowed. They must be approaching the hot-tub outflow. The water began rushing over Angie from the rear, and she found she had to hook her knees around the ray's narrow middle to keep from being swept forward off its back. Torn leaves and clicker fronds swept past. Something long and bright pink and green flashed by. It looked suspiciously like a rock eel. Angie huddled close to the ray's back.

  Pua's ray, which had preceded Angie's through the tunnel, slapped a giant wing against the right side of the tunnel. A large rubbery leaf of slime mold tore and peeled away. The ray's back wing struck the same place, and the whole camouflaging wall of hanging molds collapsed and was swept away with the current.

  The ray slid inside, just far enough to deposit Pua, then backed out again. Angie and Toma were taken into the shelter of the side channel in the same way. Angie brushed her hand along the edge of her mount's wing as she slid away. “Many thanks,” she whispered after it, then turned to follow Pua back to the hot-tub pipe.

  Suddenly, she stopped. She pressed her locator implant for a stronger reading. “Pua!” she called. The girl was already far ahead. Toma heard her, though. He clicked a quick signal with his nails. Instantly Pua rolled into a ball, turned, and kicked back toward them.

  Angie tapped her shoulder and pointed up. The signal locator might just be in a part of the nursery that was over their present position, but Angie wanted to make sure. If there was a way she could avoid squeezing back through that pipe, she would definitely like to find it.

  Pua's eyes opened wide. She took a mouthful of water, held it for an instant, then spat it out.

  “Blood,” she said. Abruptly, she shot straight up toward the high, narrow ceiling. Toma and Angie exchanged startled glances and followed.

  Pua led them into a crack so narrow they had to pull themselves upward with their hands. There was a turn, and another turn, and suddenly they were back in a space large enough to swim. Pua motioned them away from the perfectly coiled oxyworm that rested on the smooth bottom of the chamber. Then she took them up again.

  They surfaced into warm, moist air and the muffled sound of a crying baby.

  “Mariko,” Toma cried. “What are you doing here? What happened?”

  Mariko was kneeling on a slime and blood-slicked ledge, aiming at them with a raised speargun. Five children huddled behind her. They stared with wide, dark eyes. As she recognized Toma, Mariko dropped the gun and collapsed onto the stone. The side of her face was covered with blood.

  Toma lifted himself onto the ledge.

  “What happened?” Pua demanded.

  Pili dropped into the water from a shadowed ceiling crack. Angie started her attack the instant she saw the shadow of his move, but because Pua was between them, she had time to recognize the boy before she did him serious damage. He gave her a cautious look before turning his attention to Pua.

  “Earthers,” he said. “They blew the airlock. We had both hatches sealed because of the storm. That's what gave us time to get out. They had to blow both doors. Mariko got hit by a stone that broke loose and fell into the nursery pool while she was trying to get the babies. She was bleeding and could hardly see, so I broke the string like you said and brought her here...”

  Pua ordered the oldest girl into the water with the crying baby. As soon as the infant was submerged, the whimpering stopped, and an almost instant grin appeared. The baby was one of those Nola had been holding when Angie had first entered Sa le Fe'e. It blinked its wide eyes open and clung to its caretaker's hair.

  “You did just right, Pili,” Angie said. “Tell us what happened. Did you actually see the Earthers?”

  Pili nodded. “They were men mostly, all but one. They had gills, but they were Earthers. I know because of their hands.”

  “Were there any waterworlders?” Angie asked.

  Pili's eyes turned very hard. “One. A big hairy one with scratch marks on his skin.”

  Pua's eyes narrowed. Once again Angie found herself wrapping her long fingers around the girl's arm. “Where are Kiki and Keha?” Pua asked, without trying to pull away.

  “They're hiding by the fishing outlet gate. They couldn't get out because of the storm, but they were still okay when I brought the last kids through the hot tub.”

  How does he know that? Angie wondered, and then remembered the click-talk.

  “There was an old lady with them,” Pili went on. “She didn't have gills, only an oxymask around her neck. I think she was the boss.”

  “Doctor Waight,” Pua said softly.

  How had Waight found the nursery? How had that bitch known where to come?

  “She must have asked Fatu where Sa le Fe'e was,” Pua said. “I saw her close to him.”

  Suddenly Angie remembered the confusion that Crawley's outburst had caused. She had left Fatu's side for just one instant to argue with the Company man, and once again she had been played for a fool.

  “Where's Nola?” she asked.

  “She stayed to fight,” Mariko said. “To give us time to get the kids out. Jaime was caught in the blast. I think he's dead. Hana and Manuel stayed with Nola. They're both injured, I don't know how seriously.”

  Suddenly Pili blinked. “Pualei, I'm sorry.” Angie realized the sudden thickness in his voice was tears.

  Pua looked startled as well.

  “That old woman,” he said. “I couldn't stop her.”

  “It's not your fault,” Pua said.

  “She's got Little Ten!”

  Angie might as well not have been holding her. Pua escaped her grasp in one slick move and was gone.

  Chapter 26

  The grate leading into the thermal pool was closed but not locked. Pua listened carefully before opening i
t. She pressed her palms against the warm plastic but felt no vibrations. The water inside the tub was calm, disturbed only by the constant, bubbling inflow from thermal vents. She eased from the pipe.

  Before breaking surface, she stopped to listen again, hands spread on the warm stone wall. The mountainlady rose beside her and touched her arm. She was pale, but she had followed just as Pua had expected. Pua lifted high enough from the water to listen again, then climbed carefully from the pool.

  She motioned to the warden to follow, pointing for her to stay on the heaviest moss, where their drip would not show. Pua had shed her leaf skirt and her headdress back in the inner lagoon. All she wore now were friendly vines and seaweed—and her father's knife. Seawater ran in cool rivulets along the vines’ designs.

  They edged around the corner toward the sound of human voices—adults arguing and ‘Umi Iki's tiny, terrified cry.

  Nursery, Pua mouthed over her shoulder.

  Doctor Waight's ugly voice lifted over the others. “Well, they have to be here someplace. Keep looking.”

  “There's gotta be another exit. There's no sign—”

  “Find them!” Waight shouted. “They'd never take those babies out into this storm.”

  The warden yanked Pua back just as a figure stepped into the corridor ahead of them. They waited until the Earther came close, then the warden reached out and grabbed him. Before he could make a sound, her hand hit his mouth, then the side of his neck. He fell like a lump of basalt.

  Pua blinked at the suddenness of it, then helped the warden drag the man back to the thermal pool.

  “He's small enough,” the warden said. “Take him out through the pipe and secure him outside somewhere.”

  “I'm not leaving,” Pua said.

  The warden closed her eyes for a moment. “We have to get rid of him, Pua,” she said. “I'm too big to maneuver him through the pipe.”

  Pua stared at her. “Okay. But I'm just sticking him in the pipe. I'll call Pili to pull him out the other end. You wait for me.”

  “Go,” the warden said.