"I believe we have made a start, Captain. I was able to examine the basic programming, and determined that the major failure was something that could be worked around through programming changes, prior to attempting physical repair to the damaged components."
"Urrr!" said Ik, interrupting. "Are you saying that you will be able to physically repair the machines?"
Napoleon angled a sensor toward the Hraachee'an. "We personally? No. However, we hope to be able to assist the factory head in repairing itself—guiding, rather than doing the work for it."
"Hrah!" said Ik. "Just like our healing of the Neri!"
Bandicut grinned, despite himself.
Askelanda interrupted to ask for clarification. The robots had been speaking in a mixture of Neri and English, which Bandicut's translators had been rendering seamlessly to him as English. Bandicut quickly summarized what the robots had been saying. "Do I have that right?" he asked Napoleon.
"Yes," said Napoleon, "except for one more point. The factory still requires raw materials which it does not have, and which apparently it was never expected to find in the volcanic vent stream. The vents are rich with many chemicals, but the factory was designed with the expectation that it would be regularly supplied by the Neri, or by its designers, with supplemental raw materials, as needed."
Bandicut turned to Askelanda. "Is it possible that the subs that once collected manufactured products also carried down loads of raw materials to the factories?"
"It is possible," murmured Askelanda. "I do not know."
"In any case, that supply was interrupted," Napoleon continued. "Possibly by the same cataclysm. It may have so disrupted normal activities that the need to provide supplies was, in the end, simply forgotten. And the factory kept going for a while, using up its reserves."
"What materials do they need to get up and running again?"
The robot answered, "The greatest need appears to be for germanium, molybdenum, gallium, ytterbium, arsenic, and copper."
Bandicut and Ik exchanged uncertain glances. Askelanda simply appeared bewildered. Trying to explain, Bandicut only produced even more bewilderment. The translator-stones were remarkable devices, but even they were hard pressed to translate names of obscure chemical elements to the Neri who lacked the vocabulary of chemistry. He leaned toward Ik and asked, "Were you able to follow it okay?"
"Hrrm, I believe so. If I am not mistaken, those materials would be most likely to be found in . . . intelligent machines," Ik murmured.
"Such as the machines," Bandicut said, "that the Neri were trying to salvage from the sunken ship?"
Ik inclined his head and stroked his sculpted, blue-white temple with a long, bony finger. "Possibly. Quite possibly."
Bwong. "In that case," said Li-Jared, springing into the room with a quicker step than Bandicut had seen in a long time, "perhaps it is time we all had a talk with Harding." Behind him came the lander, walking with slow, determined steps.
Chapter 25
Convergence
BANDICUT WAS STUNNED, as they all rose. "You locked him through to this pressure? And he's still alive?"
Harding gazed back at him for a moment, his head moving in a rhythmical, dipping fashion. Bandicut knew the explanation, of course; it was the daughter-stones from Li-Jared. They were giving him enough internal physiological support to survive the pressure increase.
/// I'd guess that the stones are
having to work damned hard at it.
He's the only one of us who isn't normalized. ///
Harding spoke for himself, in labored but understandable words. He gestured to both Bandicut and Li-Jared with his pincer hands as he said, "Thank you for making it possible. But—" and he spoke now to the larger group "—I am not certain how long I can survive this environment. It is—" ffrrrrrr "—difficult. I also do not know if I will survive a return to the surface. So please, let us use the time that I do have."
Askelanda walked in a slow circle around the lander, as though inspecting him. It occurred to Bandicut that the scene was something out of a nightmare: a black, rubber-skinned mer creature with enormous eyes, gill slits, and a mantle of seaweed, circling ominously around a pebbly-skinned, fox-faced being from the world of air, who was breathing with difficulty and standing stooped with pain. The Neri leader halted in front of the lander. "You were part of the team that attacked our people on the sunken ship?"
Harding raised his head slightly. "I am of the—" ffrrrrr "—folk of earth and wood—" ffrrrr "—travelers—" ffrrrr "—Astari." He peered around. "We were attacked by a group of—amphibians—your people—when we tried to protect our property."
Askelanda's breath came in a rasp. "Your property? It was an abandoned wreck. Empty."
"Empty at that moment, perhaps. But we have been salvaging it. It is ours. It belonged to our ancestors."
Askelanda turned angrily, then swung his gaze back around. "And the land you live on belonged to our ancestors!"
Harding looked startled.
"Not only have you stolen our ancestors' land, but you have been poisoning our seas and killing our people!"
Harding seemed surprised by the accusation. The pupils of his eyes contracted to dots as he contemplated Askelanda's words. "I do not know anything about this poisoning of which you speak," he said finally. "But I do know—since you accuse us of theft of your land, which you do not seem to inhabit—that the land was empty when my people arrived there. Our records are clear on that."
Askelanda's breathing slits flared. He kept his eyes fixed on the lander. "It may be true," he said, "that misfortune had already befallen our ancestors when you arrived. But surely you saw signs of prior habitation."
Harding made a slow whistling sound. "Of course. There are still some abandoned cities, half under the sea and broken by earthquakes, which we have left as we found them." He rubbed his chest with a pincer. "Mostly, anyway. But living inhabitants? No."
Askelanda hissed softly, and paced for a moment. "So you settled the land. But now you attack our people. Why?"
The lander made a coughing sound. "We do not attack. We only defend what is ours. You have never made yourselves known to us. We have only seen our machinery disappearing!"
"As our machinery has disappeared from our old cities along the coast—even in the places you have not settled."
The lander studied him for a moment. "This I cannot say. It may be that there are other places being salvaged, which were not the property of our people." He made a rippling movement with his upper body, which Bandicut interpreted as a shrug.
Li-Jared was scowling in concentration through this exchange. Antares inclined her head slightly, and Bandicut felt a tiny inner change, a calming influence. At that moment, Ik spoke. "Might I offer an observation?"
The Neri and the lander turned.
"Hrrm, I have no right to make judgments. I am only a visitor here, and do not know nearly enough about your two peoples. But it sounds to me—" Ik glanced carefully from one to the other "—as if both of you have been salvaging materials from wrecked or abandoned sites belonging to the other's ancestors. Neither of you intended anything wrong. And yet, both of your people feel that you have been stolen from."
Askelanda and Harding stared at him.
"It is difficult when you do not know the other side, isn't it? When you have no way to speak, face to face—either in anger or in friendship." Ik extended a hand toward the Neri leader. "Askelanda, you could not have known that Harding's people came here from the stars—and perhaps never even meant to land on this world. And Harding—" Ik turned to the lander and pointed toward the dome window "—would you have guessed that the Neri had such a civilization down here?"
"No," whispered the lander, and his amazement surfaced like oil bubbling up through water.
"Take a look outside—with your permission, Askelanda? I don't think you were able to see this from the submarine."
Askelanda made a sweeping gesture. "Let him see. If he does not believe t
hat we have a civilization, let him see for himself."
Ik led Harding to the window, from which at least a dozen other habitats could be seen glowing in the darkness. Harding gazed silently into the sea. Turning to Askelanda, he said hoarsely, "I never imagined anything . . . at all like this. And so far down." He seemed to shudder slightly, perhaps with awe, or perhaps fear. "But do you ever . . . go to the surface? You speak as if you have visited the land. But we have not seen you. Or rather, there have been stories—but none have ever been confirmed. We were most surprised by your appearance at the starship."
"We go to the surface . . . on rare occasions," Askelanda answered. "But beyond that, I think, I will not speak right now."
Bandicut wondered what Askelanda was avoiding talking about. Then he remembered that the Neri had solar charging arrays, large fields of solar cells floating near the surface to convert sunlight into electricity. Askelanda was no doubt hoping that the arrays had not been discovered by lander surface ships.
Harding made a husky sound that might have been a grunt. He looked again out the window, before Askelanda said, "You have not yet answered my question. Why do you poison the seas? Are you so determined to keep us from these sunken ships?"
"Poison. You keep speaking of this," Harding said. "But what poison do you mean?"
"The poison my people are dying of!" Askelanda snapped, with startling intensity. "You rode here in a submarine filled with my dying swimmers! If it were not for the help of these two—" he waved his hands at Ik and Bandicut "—most of them would already be dead."
"But I did not see anyone dying in the submarine," protested the lander. "Except when the human, John Bandicut—"
"He doesn't mean me," Bandicut explained. "He means Neri who were riding in a lower compartment. They are all ill—and yes, many have died—from something called radiation poisoning."
Harding stared.
"It is hard—" Bandicut struggled for an explanation. "I do not know, really, how much you know—"
And then a rush of information sluiced through his mind, and he suddenly remembered that the stones did know something of what Harding knew. And the landers were in one respect much like the Neri: they had inherited some old and fairly sophisticated technology, but their general knowledge of science was fragmented. Much had been lost, much was disorganized. They—or at least Harding—had no understanding of reactor technology or even of basic radiation science. It was a testament to their determination that they were getting along as well as they were, using what was left of their ancestors' technology, with low-tech developments of their own. It was quite plausible that they might be unwittingly discharging radiation into the water, or even opening reactor chambers in ignorance of the dangers they were posing to themselves, to the environment, and to the Neri.
/// I suggest you give Harding an explanation
that will enable him to understand, deep down,
how the Neri swimmers are suffering. ///
Bandicut found himself nodding, as these thoughts poured through his mind. And he began to try to explain, and hoped that the stones could somehow make sense of it for the lander. "Radiation is something that you can't see—except for certain kinds, like sunlight, or the light of these lamps," he said, pointing to the glowing patches in the walls. "But other kinds, which are invisible, are so deadly that if you simply stand in their presence for a little while, you die . . ."
*
The tour of the medical area was Li-Jared's idea. But Ik led the way, under Corono's watchful gaze, touching the arms of the sick Neri as he passed them. Bandicut thought he knew how the Hraachee'an felt. It was as if he knew all of these Neri swimmers, or anyway those whose minds he had touched last night and the night before. Walking through, he was gratified to feel improvement in most of them.
But not all. Some were too far gone.
Ik paused beside a Neri whose face was blistered and raw. His eyes were open, but milky, blind. His breath came in a labored rasp, into lung chambers full of fluid. Ik whispered to him for a few moments, then spoke briefly to Corono, before turning to Harding. "His name is Ul'Kant. He got too close to the open reactor chamber on the sunken ship, and the radiation is destroying his body. It is beyond our power to heal him, I think."
Corono, touching Ul'Kant for a moment, spoke softly, but with deep feeling. "He will soon be on his spirit journey. It will not be an easy one. He suffers."
Harding stood a little apart from the sick Neri. He seemed to be regarding Ul'Kant with a mixture of horror, fear, and compassion. "He is in great pain," Harding said, and it was more statement than question.
"Yes," said Ik.
"And he will die?"
"Yes," said Ik. "Unless someone with greater healing power than mine can help him." He glanced at Bandicut, but while the two had been speaking, Bandicut had placed his own fingertips on Ul'Kant's arm. The Neri was burning with fever, and felt the same on the inside, within the mind, as he did through the flesh. Even Charlie had trouble not shying away.
/// He is gone . . . already gone . . . ///
whispered the quarx, with a shiver.
Bandicut shook his head sadly. "I can't do anything for him."
"You—" Harding said to both of them "—healed, using your . . . stones?"
"The stones," Ik said, "helped us to help them. We could not have done it without the stones. But the true healing came from within."
"Do you suppose," Harding said hesitantly, "that it's possible that I could help any of—" his voice caught, and he pointed to the dying Neri "—or help this one?"
Bandicut glanced at Ik, at Corono—and at Antares, from whom he sensed a sudden wave of . . . what? Caution? He peered at her, trying to read her thoughts. He turned finally to Askelanda, wondering if the Neri leader had understood Harding's question. "Our guest has asked—"
"No!" Askelanda rasped. He strode forward and waved the lander away from Ul'Kant. He had understood enough, apparently. "Let him die in peace, not at the hands of this—" He gestured at Harding, but words seemed to fail him.
Bandicut felt the tension rising in the room. Corono moved to interpose himself between his patient and the group. Bandicut touched Harding's arm. "It will not be allowed. I'm sorry."
Harding made a low rumbling sound under his breath, and stepped slowly back from the Neri swimmer. "He will die, then," Harding said—and it was clear he was offended, or saddened, or both by Askelanda's refusal.
"He will die as Neri die," Askelanda snapped. "Not at the hands of an alien. He will soon join with the sea." With a sweeping gesture of dismissal, Askelanda stalked from the room.
Bandicut squinted after him.
No one spoke. But Harding's reaction was clear. He stood motionless, his ringed eyes following Askelanda. His face seemed to contort through a startling assortment of expressions— conveying anger, astonishment, dismay, and other, unidentifiable emotions. Suddenly he lurched forward, limping after Askelanda, trying to move quickly in spite of the obvious pain he was suffering himself. Two of the Neri stayed close behind him.
The others began to follow, but Antares raised a hand. "They both want something from the other, and I'm not sure they know what. But they have to find out. I don't think we should interfere much."
"Hrrm, what could Harding want from the Neri, except to be taken home and left alone?" Ik asked. "I think he feels genuine regret about the injury and death. But what can he do about it, except go back and tell his own people?"
Li-Jared suddenly clicked his fingers excitedly. "I think I know. I think I know. He was talking about it in the sub." And without pausing to explain, Li-Jared sprang in pursuit of Harding and Askelanda, with the others close on his heels.
The two were back in the discussion room, arguing. The lander was standing with his foxlike head and snout jutting toward Askelanda in an almost feral-looking expression, while Askelanda's hands were on his hips in a humanlike fashion. The two robots were still there, and looked for all the world as if they we
re trying to follow the conversation. It was possible that they understood Askelanda, but it seemed unlikely that they could have followed much of what the lander was saying. Nevertheless Bandicut was startled to hear Napoleon saying, in the Neri tongue, "Yes, there are records in the factory's memory of a long history of seismic disturbances. I do not have detailed knowledge of your world's seismology, but it would seem reasonable to expect that this activity affects the Astari as well as the Neri."
Askelanda stopped pacing and stared at the robot with eyes that seemed weary with cares. He scarcely seemed to notice when Kailan and L'Kell entered the room a moment later. "All right. So there are seismic disruptions on land."
"And I should point out," said Li-Jared, "that there may also be severe climate changes associated with disruptions in the ocean currents."
Askelanda clearly did not enjoy having this information brought forward at just this moment. "What does any of this have to do with us?" he asked.
Harding took a step forward, closing two pincer fingers in the air. "It has to do," he said, "with terrible earthquakes and storms originating deep in the ocean. It has to do with my people being hurt and killed. Perhaps you do not control it, perhaps you do not understand it or even know much about it at all. But you are closer to the source than we are. And there are those Astari who wonder if these mysterious, rarely seen amphibians who thieve from sunken vessels might also be responsible for these disasters."
"Thieve?" said Askelanda. "Are we back to the accusations again?"
"I think," said Ik, stepping almost casually into the conversation, "that what Harding refers to is the perceptions of his people, who do not have the same information that we have."
Askelanda ignored the interruption. "Why—" he snapped, "would anyone think that we control the Maw of the Abyss? The Demon! We are in greater peril from it than anyone! If it caused your ship to crash, maybe you brought it to this world!"
Harding's gaze focused narrowly, his arm muscles swelling. "You do not—"
"I'm sorry to disagree with you, Askelanda," Bandicut broke in, "but I saw what happened when their ship crashed. They were as helpless and confused as your own people are when the Maw comes to life."
The Chaos Chronicles Page 92