“Yes he will,” Yeager said, his tone as flat and final as a judge pronouncing sentence. “I’ll make him allow me.”
DOLPHIN TANK
Andy Corvus sat glumly on his equipment box and watched the dolphins gliding sleekly through the water all around him.
That’s the life, he thought. Just swim around and eat fish. No worries. No dangers. No fears about the future or regrets about the past. Nothing but the here and now.
The dolphins were talking to each other, ignoring his presence. Andy understood part of their chatter through the translator and the DBS probe in the circlet he had placed on his head. They were talking about food, which fish were the tastiest, how the squid tried to hide among the rocks on the bottom of the tank.
Baby was growing bigger by the day. Sleek and strong, she slid past Andy’s watching eyes, propelled by thrusts of her powerful tail flukes.
“Hello, Andy,” his translator crackled.
Surprised and pleased, Corvus replied, “Hello, Baby.”
“Where’s Dee?” Baby asked.
Andy’s breath caught in his throat. Deirdre hadn’t been down to the tank for days, yet Baby missed her.
“Dee’s not here,” Corvus said morosely. And, he thought, she probably never will come down here again.
“I’m right here, Andy.”
He whirled, almost falling off the equipment box. And there she was, in a knee-length robe that covered her swimsuit, looking as beautiful as a woman could possibly look.
“Hi!” he said, bouncing to his feet.
“I’m sorry I’ve been neglecting you and Baby,” Deirdre said. “What with the nanomachine therapy and working on the
“I understand,” Corvus said, his spirits sinking again. “After all, if you’re not going on the mission there’s not much sense working with the dolphins.”
“But I am going on the mission, Andy.”
For a heartbeat or two Corvus couldn’t believe what he’d heard. “You’re going?”
“I talked it over with Dorn and Max. We’re all going, the four of us together.”
Corvus shook his head. “No, Dee, you’re not going.”
“Yes I am.”
“But I thought … I mean, you told me you were scared.”
“I still am.”
“So why would you change your mind if you’re still frightened?” Before Deirdre could reply Corvus thought he knew the answer. “You’re doing this for me?”
“Partly,” she said, with a bright smile. “And partly to help Dr. Archer. I mean, he’s set up a scholarship for me at the Sorbonne. I owe him something, don’t you think?”
Feeling confused, Corvus stuttered, “But … the risks … the danger.”
“I’m scared, for sure,” Deirdre admitted, “but I’m not going to let that stop me.”
“No! I won’t let you.”
“Andy, it’s not your decision to make.”
He stared at her: so beautiful, so sweet. She’s willing to do what she’s scared of, Corvus told himself, because she knows it will help me.
“I can’t let you do it, Dee,” he said. “It really is dangerous. If anything happened to you—”
“It would happen to you, too, wouldn’t it? I mean, we’ll be in the ship together, you, me, Max, and Dorn.”
He sagged down onto the equipment box again, his thoughts whirling. “What made you change your mind?” he asked.
Sitting beside him, Deirdre replied very seriously, “I decided that it was very selfish of me to refuse. This mission is important. Not just to you, Andy. It’s important to Dr. Archer. It’s important to our understanding of the leviathans. If we can make contact with an intelligent alien species … that’s mind-blowing!”
“We might get killed,” he said in a whisper.
“Max says the ship is safe. He’s willing to go along with us, just in case anything goes wrong, but he says it’s as safe as any ship can be.”
“Down in that ocean,” Corvus muttered. “Living in that perfluorocarbon gunk. With those sharks and the leviathans, totally cut off from the rest of the human race, cut off from any possibility of help.”
“It’s like the old-time explorers,” Deirdre said gently. “Columbus was on his own once he sailed into the Atlantic. Peary and those other Arctic explorers were on their own, totally cut off from any possibility of help.”
“A lot of those guys died.”
“Yes, that’s true.”
“I don’t want you to die,” Corvus said. He grasped both Deirdre’s hands. “I don’t want you to die!”
She smiled again and leaned her forehead against his. “Andy, I don’t want to die. But I couldn’t stand staying here and watching you leave to go down into the ocean. I couldn’t stand it if I stayed safe here and you got killed.”
“But that doesn’t mean you should get killed, too!”
“None of us are going to get killed,” she insisted. “Max gave me his word. But if anything bad happens, it’ll happen to all four of us.”
He shook his head. “That’s a weird way to make a decision.”
“Remember what you said to Mrs. Westfall, the first night we were here on the station?”
“At Archer’s dinner.”
“You said that if you were prevented from trying to contact the leviathans it would be like chopping off your hands.”
He grunted. “Your memory’s too good. Besides, if you don’t go with me, I’ll still go down there. You won’t be chopping off my hands.” Then he grinned. “Maybe it’d be like chopping off a finger or two.”
Deirdre looked down at their hands. “Not a finger. Not a little pinkie, even. I’m going with you.”
Suddenly it hit him and he felt overwhelmed. She means it! She’s going to risk her life because of me.
“Dee … I … I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say a word, Andy. It’s all settled.”
“But it’s so damned risky!”
“Max says it isn’t,” she repeated. “Besides, there’s an old adage: ‘Behold the lowly turtle. He only makes progress when he sticks his neck out.’ ”
LEVIATHAN
Deeper than normal in the all-encompassing sea, the Elders found a new flow of food and the Kin sated their hunger. Leviathan’s mouth parts took in the particles greedily as the giant Jovian creature glided along the down- welling current.
Messages of joy and relief were flashing from one member of the Kin to another, bright yellows and greens. Still stationed on the Kin’s outer perimeter, Leviathan’s sensor parts searched the dark water for signs of the darters. None down at this depth, not within detection range, at least.
But that didn’t mean that darters were not out there, farther off. They had feasted on the Eldest when it had sacrificed itself for the good of the Kin. Soon enough they would grow hungry again and seek more prey.
