aluminum box under his prosthetic arm.
“This is a restricted area!” he snapped at them. “No visitors allowed.”
Before either of the others could reply, Yeager said firmly, “We’re friends of your patient and we’re not leaving until we see her.”
Pohan tried to glare at them, but he was too small to be intimidating. The three men towered over him. Yeager could see beads of perspiration break out on the doctor’s bald pate.
“Very well,” Pohan said, almost in a whisper. “Just for a moment.”
The cubicle was small and felt chilly. It smelled of disinfectant and something with a flat, acrid tang to it. Deirdre was lying on what looked to Andy Corvus like a high-tech couch. Three sides of the bed were surrounded by blinking, beeping electronics gear. Off in the corner a white boxy refrigerator gave off a faint wisp of condensation. Two Asian women in white medical gowns and soft blue masks stood to one side, silent, their dark eyes appraising the trio of interlopers.
Deirdre smiled up at them. “Hi,” she said groggily.
Dr. Pohan half whispered, “She has already been sedated. She will lose consciousness soon.”
Awkwardly bending his lanky frame over Deirdre, Corvus asked, “How d’you feel, Dee?”
“Sleepy.”
“Are you all right?” Yeager asked.
“Guess so.”
Dorn stepped up, still grasping Corvus’s equipment box in his prosthetic arm, and offered his human hand to her. She reached up and clasped it.
“We’ll be waiting for you,” he said. Then, looking sternly at Dr. Pohan, he added, “We’ll be right here when you wake up.”
Dierdre smiled at the three of them. “Good,” she whispered. “Good.”
She closed her eyes and her face relaxed into sleep.
Dr. Pohan hissed, “She is sedated. Now go! We have work to do.”
Dorn glanced at his two companions, then said to the doctor, “One of us will be here in your infirmary at all times.”
“Impossible!” snapped Pohan. “We have no waiting room, no facilities for—”
Yeager interrupted him. “At all times, like the man said. Even if we have to wait out in the passageway.”
“Yeah,” said Andy. “We’ll keep watch over her night and day.”
Dr. Pohan looked as if he might burst: red-faced, mustache quivering, scalp covered with beads of perspiration. But he admitted defeat. “Out in the passageway, then. Do not interfere with medical procedures.”
“We wouldn’t dream of it,” said Yeager, straight-faced.
“We merely want to look in on our friend from time to time,” said Dorn.
“Every day,” Corvus emphasized.
LEVIATHAN
Leviathan’s eye parts could see the darters clearly now, a huge swarm of them lurking upcurrent, between the Kin and the flow of food sifting down weakly from the cold abyss above.
Darters had never done this before, as far as Leviathan knew. They hunted in small packs and attacked individual members of the Kin, usually when one went off alone to dissociate and bud. But now the darters had grouped together and were apparently willing to attack the Kin en masse.
It flashed a question to the Elders, deep in the core of the Kin’s formation. Have the darters ever shown this behavior before? Have they ever displayed such planning, such cunning?
Leviathan’s question was relayed from one member of the Kin to another, inward toward the Elders. Leviathan watched the displays flashing yellow and green, briefly lighting the water, fainter and fainter as the message moved inward toward the Elders. Waiting, Leviathan saw that the darters were trying to cut the Kin off from the flow of food. If they wished to reach the downcurrent they would have to fight their way past the darters.
And if they failed to reach the flow of food, members of the Kin would begin to disintegrate involuntarily, hunger driving their primeval instinct to dissociate and reproduce. Then the darters would feast.
At last the Elders’ answer flashed from the display of the member nearest Leviathan. None of the Elders could recall the darters showing such organization and forethought before. Not even the most senior of the Elders had seen anything like this, even from its first budding, long ages ago.
Something new! Despite the danger Leviathan thrilled at the concept. Something new and different was happening. Perhaps it would lead the Elders to change their ancient ways.
Another message flashed from the display cells of the member nearest Leviathan. The Elders have decided that the Kin will turn away from the darters.
Leave the food stream? Leviathan was stunned by the Elders’ decision. Before it could question the command, though, the message from the Elders continued:
There are other food streams. The world is wide. There is no need to confront the darters over this one stream. We will find another.
As the huge spherical formation of the Kin slowly turned away, Leviathan wondered if the Elders knew what they were doing. The darters aren’t going to remain where they are and let us get away from them. They will follow us and attack, sooner or later.
Leviathan flashed that message inward toward the Elders. In time their reply flared from the hide of the member nearest it. The darters would never dare to attack the assembled Kin. We would destroy them and they know it. Stay together and we will leave them far behind us while we find another food stream.
Leviathan wondered about that. The darters have changed their ways, but the Elders do not recognize it. Nor do they realize that we must change our ways, as well.
But decisions of the Elders must be obeyed, or the Symmetry will be damaged beyond repair. Reluctantly, Leviathan swam with the rest of the Kin, away from the food stream, away from the waiting darters.
Its eye parts saw that the darters turned, too, and began to follow the Kin on their new course. They could be patient, Leviathan thought, and wait until starvation forces us to begin dissociating.
II
JUPITER ORBIT: RESEARCH STATION
RECOVERY
