Leviathan signed that it had brought the alien for the Elders to see. And explain, if they could.
Its message flashed inward through the Kin to the core where the Elders dwelled. Leviathan saw that the alien was flashing, too, repeating its own message, but much slower. Mimicry again. Is that all it can do? It’s so weak, Leviathan thought. Weak and slow.
Dozens of the Kin gathered closer to Leviathan, flashing a myriad of questions. Where did the alien come from? Why is it attached to you? Is it feeding on you? Does it hurt? What does it want? Why is it here?
Leviathan signaled back to them as much as it knew, but that merely raised the Kin’s curiosity.
At last the Elders’ response came flashing through the Kin to the periphery where Leviathan waited, with the alien still attached to it. The other members of the Kin saw the message and made way for Leviathan to take the alien inward, to the waiting Elders.
“We’re a lot deeper than we ought to be,” Yeager said, pointing to the graphs on Dorn’s screens. It showed that
“Well, this is where the leviathans are,” said Corvus, “and we came here to contact them.”
“Should we detach the probe?” Deirdre asked, leaving unsaid “So we can get away quickly if we have to?”
Dorn flicked his eyes up and down the system status screens. “We’ve trimmed out at neutral buoyancy for this depth. The compression support arms are handling the stresses and all systems are functioning close to normal.”
“So far,” Yeager muttered.
“So far,” Dorn agreed.
“What about life support?” Deirdre asked.
“No apparent problems,” Dorn said, his eyes on the screens. The curves on the life-support displays were near their redlines. Before anyone could respond, he asked, “How do you feel?”
“Rotten,” Yeager snapped.
“I’m okay,” Corvus said quickly. Then he turned to Deirdre, “Dee, what about you?”
In the excitement of being surrounded by the leviathans Deirdre had forgotten the pain in her chest. It was still there, worse than ever. But I can deal with it, she told herself.
With a brief little nod, she said, “I’ll be all right.”
“Very well, then,” Dorn said. “The question remains, should we detach the probe or not?”
“Wait a sec,” Yeager protested. “What about you, pal? How do you feel?”
The cyborg hesitated, as if thinking over the question. Then, “Stiff. Sluggish. This pressure is degrading the performance of my prosthetics.”
“But not enough for us to leave,” Corvus prompted.
Dorn made a weary smile with the human side of his face. “No, Andy. It’s not bad enough to force us to leave.”
Corvus said, “I’ve been thinking. If we detach from the beast, then we’ll have to move on our own power.”
Yeager said, “That’s what the fusion propulsion system is for.”
“Yeah, but if we activate the fusion drive we’ll be squirting out hot steam. Our friends out there might not like that.”
Dorn nodded slowly. “They would not understand that we eject the steam to propel ourselves.”
“Would they think we’re deliberately trying to hurt them?” Deirdre wondered aloud.
Suddenly the bridge seemed to wrench sideways. All four of them lurched and grabbed for supports.
“Doesn’t matter now,” Yeager said, wedging his hands against the overhead once more. “The big guy’s towing us again.”
THE ELDERS
Through the herd of leviathans they moved, towed by the one that had brought them down to this depth. Deirdre watched in silence as they glided through the massive formation of the majestic creatures. They seemed to move away from
Deirdre’s chest still hurt, but the pain seemed no worse than before. I can stand it, she told herself as she stared at the screens’ displays. I can put up with it.
“Where’s he taking us?” Yeager asked.
“Deeper into the herd,” said Corvus.
“Into the center of their formation,” Dorn added.
“Why?” Yeager demanded. “What’s he up to?”
With the fragile alien in tow, Leviathan moved slowly, carefully, through the Kin. Ahead, at the core of their formation, waited the Elders.
There were five of them. Always five. When the Eldest had left the Kin to sacrifice itself to the waiting darters, another member of the Kin became an Elder. There had to be five. Why, Leviathan did not know. But it had been so for longer than the memory of the eldest among them.
The Elders hovered around Leviathan and the strange hard-shelled creature in its tow.
Here is the alien, Leviathan signed to them.
In unison, all five of the Elders signaled, Your replicant told us that you had gone back to find it.
It appears to be intelligent, Leviathan flashed. It is slow, but it is capable of mimicry. Perhaps it can communicate with us, tell us of its world.
For long moments the Elders remained dark. Then the new Eldest asked, Why is it attached to you?
Leviathan replied, It is small and weak. We allowed it to attach itself so that we could bring it to you.
It could not find us on its own? asked another of the Elders.
Perhaps it could, but towing it seemed better, more certain.
Again the Elders went dark. Without waiting for them to ask, Leviathan showed them how the alien helped fight off the darters when it was budding.
Instead of showing gratitude, one of the Elders signaled hotly, It interfered with the Symmetry!
It saved our life, Leviathan flashed back. It allowed us and our replicant to add to the Kin.
Darters are a part of the Symmetry, signed the disgruntled Elder. For all of existence we of the Kin have lived with the darters.
And died with the darters, Leviathan shot back.
Thus it has always been. Thus it must always be. That is the Symmetry.
Why must it always be? Leviathan demanded. Perhaps the alien is showing us a better way.
Destroying the Symmetry is a better way? the Elder signaled in glaring blue.
The darters are changing their ways, Leviathan pointed out. They are coming against us in larger numbers than ever. They cut us off from a stream of food. We should change our ways to meet this new challenge.
The Eldest lit up in solemn green: It is the alien that poses a challenge to us. Why is it here? What does it want of us? How will it affect the Symmetry?
Andy Corvus pinched two fingers over the bridge of his nose as he studied the slowed-down replay of the leviathans’ colorful displays.
