while linked to the robot in the drill-tree funnel.
Creideiki looked confused for a long moment as he concentrated on Sah'ot's slow, simplified explanation, then he seemed to understand. In fact, from his expression, it seemed he thought it the most natural thing in the world that a planet should sing.
'Link… link me… pl-please… I… I will… listen… listen…'
Sah'ot clapped his jaw in assent, pleased. Not that Creideiki, with his language centers burned, would be able to make out anything but static. It took all of Sah'ot's subtle training and experience to trace the refrain. Except for that one time, when the voices from below had shouted in apparent anger, the sounds had been almost amorphous.
He still shuddered, remembering that one episode of lucidity.
'Okay, Creideiki,' he said as he made the connection. 'Listen closely!'
Creideiki's eyes recessed in concentration as the static crackled and popped over the line.
65 ::: Gillian
'Triple damn! Well, we can't wait for her to get here to start the move. It might take Hikahi two days to circle around in the skiff: I want to have Streaker safely inside the Seahorse by then.'
Suessi's simulacrum shrugged. 'Well, you could leave her a note.'
Gillian rubbed her eyes. 'That's just what we'll do. We'll drop a monofilament relay link at Streaker's present position, so we can stay in touch with the party on the island. I'll stick a message to the relay telling her where we've gone.'
'What about Toshio and Dennie?'
Gillian shrugged. 'I'd hoped to send the skiff after them and Sah'ot… and maybe after Tom. But as things are, I'd better have Dennie and Sah'ot head toward your site by sled. I hate doing it. It's dangerous and I need Toshio there watching Takkata-Jim until just before we take off.'
She didn't mention the other reason for wanting Toshio to stay as long as possible. They both knew that Tom Orley, if he flew the glider home, would return to the island. He ought to have someone waiting for him.
'Are we really going to abandon Metz and Takkata-Jim?' Suessi looked perplexed.
'And Charlie Dart, apparently. He stowed away on the longboat. Yes, it's their choice. They hope to make it home after the Galactics blow us to kingdom come. For all I know they may be right. Anyway, the final decision's Hikahi's, when she finally shows up and finds out she's in command.'
Gillian shook her head. 'Ifni sure seems to have gone out of her way to throw us curves, hasn't she, Hannes?'
The elderly engineer smiled. 'Luck's always been fickle. That's why she's a lady.'
'Hmmph!' But Gillian didn't have the energy to give him much of a dirty look. A light winked on the console next to the holo display.
'Here it is, Hannes. The engine room is ready. I've got to go, now. We're getting under way.'
'Good luck, Gillian.' Suessi held up an 'O' sign, then broke the connection.
Gillian flicked a switch cutting into the comm line from Streaker to the island. 'Sah'ot, this is Gillian. Sorry to break in, but would you please tell the captain we're about to move.' It was a courtesy to let Creideiki know. Streaker had been his, once.
'Yesss, Gillian.' There was a series of high, repetitious whistles in very Primal-like Trinary. Much of it crested over the upper range of even Gillian's gene- enhanced hearing.
'The captain wantss to go outside to watch,' Sah'ot said. 'He promises not to get in the way.'
Gillian couldn't see any real reason to refuse. 'All right. But tell him to check with Wattaceti first, to use a sled, and to be careful! We won't be able to spare anyone to go chasing him if he wanders off!'
There was another high series of whistles that Gillian could barely follow. Creideiki signaled that he understood.
'Oh, by the way Sah'ot,' Gillian added. 'Please ask Toshio to call me as soon as the longboat arrives.'
'Yes!'
Gillian cut the connection and got up to dress. There were so many things to juggle simultaneously!
I wonder if I did the right thing, letting Charlie Dart sneak away, she thought. If he or Takkata-Jim behave in a way I don't expect, what'll I do?
A tiny light shone at the corner of her console. The Niss machine still wanted to talk to her. The light didn't flash urgent. Gillian decided to ignore it as she hurried out to supervise the move.
66 ::: Akki
With aching muscles, Akki swam slowly out of the notch in which he had rested until dawn.
He took several deep breaths and dove, scattering a school of brightly scaled fish-like creatures through shafts of morning light. Without thinking, he speared through the school and snapped up a large fish, relishing its frantic struggle between his jaws. But the metal taste was bitter. He flipped the creature away, spitting.
Red clouds spread a pink glow across the east as he surfaced again. Hunger growled in his compound stomachs. He wondered if the sound was loud enough to be picked up by his hunter.
It's unfair. When K'tha-Jon finds me, he, at least, will have something to eat!
Akki shook himself. What a bizarre thought! 'You're falling apart, middie. K'tha-Jon is no cannibal. He's a… a…'
A what? Akki remembered the final stretch, yesterday at sunset, when he had somehow made it to the chain of metal-mounds just meters ahead of his pursuer. The chase amidst the tiny islands had been a confusion of bubbles and surf and hunting cries. For hours after he had finally found a hiding place, he listened to staccato bursts of sonar that proved K'tha-Jon had not gone far.
Thought of the bosun sent chills down Akki's spine. What kind of creature was he? It wasn't just the irrationality of this death-chase; there was something else as well, something in the way K'tha-Jon hunted. The giant's sonar sweeps contained something malevolent that made Akki want to curl up in a ball.
Of course, Stenos gene-grafts might account for some of his size and irritability. But in K'tha-Jon there was more. Something very different must have gone into the bosun's gene splice. Something terrifying. Something Akki, raised on Calafia, had never encountered.
Akki swam close to the edge of the coral mound and stuck his jaw out beyond the northern verge. There were only the natural sounds of the Kithrup sea.
He hopped up on his tail and scanned visually. To go west, or north? To Hikahi, or Toshio?
Better north. This chain of mounds might extend to the one where the encampment lay. It might provide cover.
He dashed across the quarter-kilometer gap to the next island, then listened quietly. There was no change. Breathing a little more easily, he crossed the next channel, then the next, swimming quick bursts, then listening, then resuming his cautious passage.
Once he heard a strange, complex chatter to his right. He lay motionless until he realized that it couldn't be K'tha-Jon. He detoured slightly to take a look.
It was an underwater skirmish line of balloon-like creatures, with distended air bladders and lively blue faces. They carried crude implements and nets filled with thrashing prey. Except for a few holos sent back by Dennie Sudman and Sah'ot, this was Akki's first glimpse of the Kithrup natives, the Kiqui. He watched, fascinated, then swam toward them. He had thought himself still far south of Toshio, but if this group was the same…
As soon as they caught sight of him the hunters squeaked in panic. Dropping their nets, they scrambled up the vine covered face of a nearby island. Akki realized that he must have encountered a different tribe, one which had never seen dolphins before.
Still, seeing them was something. He watched the last one climb out of sight. Then he turned northward once more.
But when he passed the northern shore of the next mound, a sharp beam of sound passed over him.
Akki quailed. How! Had K'tha-Jon duplicated his logic about an island chain? Or had some demon instinct told him where to hunt his prey?
The eerie call passed over him once more. It had mutated further during the night into a piercing, falling cry that set Akki shivering.
The cry pealed again, nearer, and Akki knew he couldn't hide. That cry would seek him out in any cleft or cranny, until the panic took hold. He had to make a break for it, while he still had control over his mind!
67 ::: Keepiru
The fight had begun in the predawn darkness.
A few hours ago Keepiru realized that his pursuer's sled was showing no sign of failing. The engine screamed, but it would not die. Keepiru notched his own upward well beyond the red line, but it was too late. A short time later, he heard the whine of a torpedo homing in on him from behind. He zigged leftward and down, blowing ballast to leave a cloud of noisy bubbles in his wake.
The torpedo streaked past him and into the gloom beyond. An amplified squawk of disappointment and indignation echoed amongst the rills and seamounts. Keepiru was used to hearing Primal obscenities from his pursuer.
He had almost reached the line of metal-mounds behind which the two swimming dolphins had disappeared a few hours back. As he had drawn nearer, Keepiru had listened to the distant hunt cries, and been chilled by a gnawing association that he couldn't bring himself yet to believe. It made him dread for Akki.
Now Keepiru had his own problems. He wished Akki luck holding out until he could get rid of this idiot on his own tail.
It was growing light overhead. Keepiru dove his sled behind a lumpy ridge, then throttled the engine back and waited.
