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Mudtail’s directions were good, pointing out which forks and tributaries of the river to follow. Navigation was still tricky due to the floodwaters obscuring landmarks, but the view was clear enough from this height to pick out other clues.
=There should be one more turn at the three-trunked tree,= Mudtail said to Hubcap, who sat in the copilot’s seat. Mudtail peered through the windscreen, flicking his head from side to side and leaning over Larry’s shoulder. The human piloted as if he didn’t have an alien elbowing him in the head each time something interesting came into sight. The camera crew took turns filming their interactions. Mudtail didn’t seem to notice. =I think that’s it?= he said. =Or is that just three trees growing close together?= He pointed a hesitant claw at a cluster of trunks growing from muddy water.
“What about those—” Hubcap was interrupted.
=Wait, it’s that way! There’s the sharp cliff that broke off last flood! There, there!=
Hubcap translated the thought-words, still conserving battery, and Larry nodded. “I see it.” He banked to the right in a gentle arc so as not to jostle Mudtail. No one had tried to make the alien wear a harness. Neither the belts nor the chairs would fit a passenger shaped more like a smooth-scaled crocodile than a human.
“What will we see first?” Hubcap asked. “How do we know when we’re there?”
=The Airwater that the city is named for,= Mudtail said with pride. =I’ve seen it once, and it’s amazing. My home just has the Rockwall as a namesake, which isn’t that special, no matter how many carvings are in it. We don’t even have a very interesting history to carve. But the Airwater is useful!=
Hubcap wanted to ask for clarification, thinking that the translator was missing something, but Mudtail perked up and pointed into the distance, bracing a scaly hand on Larry’s shoulder in his excitement.
=There, I can see it! This is so fast, I didn’t think we’d be there yet! Look look look! Where the two tributaries meet!=
Hubcap searched for a waterfall or geyser, but instead saw a tower sprouting from the river. At his noise of surprise, the humans behind him abandoned their harnesses and crowded close for a look. Hubcap could make out the glint of windows as the aircar approached.
“That is impressively tall,” he said. “I didn’t realize your people had mastered glass. It takes a lot of work with fire the way we make it, which I imagine is tricky underwater.”
=I don’t know about all that,= Mudtail said. =I’m told the people of Airwater have a source of water-colored rocks that they carve into thin sheets. They won’t tell the rest of us where the things come from.=
“Probably underwater caves,” Hubcap said. The details of the tower’s stonework were coming into view, and they were intricate indeed. Cameras whirred behind Hubcap while he stared. The rocks fit together like puzzle pieces of different colors: gray and white and sandy yellow. The patterns that spiraled around the tower surely held some meaning to the inhabitants of the underwater city. Hubcap realized something.
“Is there water all the way to the top?” he asked, leaning forward in his seat.
=Yes! That’s why it’s called the Airwater! Isn’t it amazing?=
“It sure is.” Hubcap relayed this to the humans, who were equally impressed.
“No way,” Elliot said. “Like one of those fish tunnels? Their caulking must be excellent! That’s a lot of pressure to stand up to!”
The humans filmed away while discussing the logistics of building such a thing. They reasoned that there must have been a lot of breath-holding on the part of the stonelayers, and bailing out of the air trapped inside with buckets.
“But how would they even get that high if they don’t have legs to climb with?” Dale asked as he adjusted his camera’s focus.
“Scaffolding?” Xian suggested. “I want to know if they have reverse scuba suits.”
“We can ask them later,” Vic said. “Where do we land?”
“Keep an eye out for spears,” Larry added. All eyes turned down at that, and searched the brown water for dangers. As the aircar crossed over the edges of the city center, the mud cleared dramatically. There was some sort of screen in place, like at Mudtail’s home. Underwater buildings, gardens, and swimming citizens came into view. Thankfully, none of them held spears.
Hubcap asked Mudtail about that, and the alien said the aircar had flown right over the city’s defenses. No throwing weapons were allowed in the city center for fear of hurting civilians. Hubcap would have asked more, but Mudtail was urging the aircar forward to hover next to the tower so he could talk through the windows, and Hubcap hurried to translate.
Larry glanced at Vic for approval, then moved the car closer. The water below was filling with curious onlookers in a multitude of colors. They poured out of stone buildings that were equally colorful, and they swam up from the depths. The water was surprisingly deep here.
Underwater skyscrapers, Hubcap thought. Not what I expected to see today. I’m glad the camera monkeys are on top of all this. He grinned to himself. Suck it, Space Fashion.
Three videographers took in the scenery, while Tarja studied the alien in their midst. As the aircar approached the tower, three cameras moved as one to film the architecture with a row of beaky faces gathering behind the wrap-around windows at the peak.
Larry brought the aircar to a cautious stop with its nose a few feet away from those windows. Still no one threatened them with spears. Hubcap was torn between scanning for danger and focusing on the amazing thing that they were doing. Amazement won out for once.
Mudtail waved through the windshield, flashing yellows and golds in excitement. Hubcap switched the English translation on, so the humans could hear Mudtail’s words, though Hubcap still had to translate in the other direction. Mudtail hardly noticed, asking for the car to be moved so he could speak through the open door. Larry complied. Vic hauled the door open, and everyone gathered behind Mudtail as he made a formal greeting to the best of his ability. He hurried to explain that the cameras weren’t weapons.
The translator couldn’t penetrate the water inside the tower, so Hubcap kept it trained on Mudtail and figured out the rest of the conversation from there. He was picking up a lot of incredulity and surprise on the part of the officials, and eager entreaty from Mudtail.
=These are not-us,= he was saying. =From a whole other world! They need our help in saving their own people from the invisible blue clouds, and I think we should give it.=
The response was cautious, laced with more than a little suspicion, but the officials were willing to hear him out. Some, perhaps more educated than Mudtail, even understood pheromones when he explained what the offworlders wanted.
=Invisible smells?= Mudtail asked, struggling with the wording. =It sounded like fertilizer for emotions the way they described it — Yes, that!= He sparkled greens at hearing the proper name. =That must be it! Can we get those?=
But these officials didn’t have the rank to make big decisions themselves. They certainly looked like they wanted to; Hubcap watched more colorful faces crowd into that room with every passing moment. A large one in front seemed to be doing most of the talking. According to Mudtail, this official said that the highest authorities were on the way, and would likely need convincing on stronger grounds than pity.
“What will they want?” Vic asked. Hubcap translated.
=Well, relations with a new enclave are traditionally begun with goodwill gifts from both sides,= Mudtail said. =Assuming the advisors agree, they will arrange the gathering of pheromones as a gift to you. We need to present something of significant value.=
There was a flurry of brainstorming on that front. People suggested offworld gadgets from inside the aircar, tools, medical supplies that may or may not be suited to colortalker physiology. Performances. Favors.
Elliot looked around. “Is there anything that they use from on land, but they have trouble getting?” he suggested. “Anything from those trees, or that mountain, or farther up the river?”
Mudtail talked with the officials, and came up with a short list of possibilities. One stood out.
“Jetpods!” Hubcap exclaimed. He cycled through memories of his first day here. “We know jetpods! Where are the nearest ones?”
According to Mudtail, the distance was many days’ travel for swimmers, but only a short flight away for an aircar. The pods were valued as a delicacy, only rarely in reach when the floodwaters rose high enough, and only found when they had expended their seeds and fallen of their own accord. If these strangers from another world could provide fresh ones, the leaders would be most impressed.
=They say that one jetpod should be enough to start ally negotiations,= Mudtail said, turning away from the door.
Vic nodded. “So we’ll get two. Leave the other in the car, just in case we need to up the ante at the last minute.” She addressed Mudtail. “If you can ask them where we should bring their fresh jetpod — where we can land without sinking — we’ll go get it now.”
At Hubcap’s translation, Mudtail nodded and moved to talk with the officials again. Vic suggested that he ask whether they wanted the jetpod with or without its jetting capability intact.
The answer was prompt: they wanted it as fresh and dangerous as possible. Mudtail didn’t comment on the wisdom of this, but Hubcap suspected that he wanted to. Instead, he arranged a meeting location and bid the officials a polite goodbye.
When the door rolled closed and the aircar picked up speed away from the tower, Mudtail made a relieved sound and collapsed in roils of purple and green, exclaiming his disbelief at the situation he’d found himself in.
“You’re great at mediating!” Hubcap told him. “Better than a number of human professionals I could name.”
Elliot echoed the praise, offering a tentative pat on the shoulder that Hubcap confirmed for acceptable body language. The human also suggested food and drink, but Mudtail said he wasn’t hungry. Hubcap did his absolute best not to dwell on why that might be, and on how many hours of daylight were left.
“So! Jetpods,” he said instead, setting down the translator to rub his hands together in a series of clicks. “What’s our battle plan?”
That took some discussion. The aircar full of rookies spent the flight figuring out how they were going to safely wrangle two jetpods without proper supplies. In the end they settled on using a stretcher as a net to catch the thing, and the biggest knife that Xian had with him to cut the stem. There was no arguing who would be the one to do it.
“Ah, this brings me back,” Hubcap said as the jetpod trees grew closer. “Such memories. We were all fresh-faced youths back then. But we had a good crew chief to keep us in line, and we prevailed against the dangerous exploding plants.” He sketched a salute in the air. “Anrik, wherever you are, I sincerely hope we don’t mess this up terribly.”
Graham laughed. “Amen.”
Larry asked for advice on how to land on the side of a tree from someone who had actually done it before. This was a sobering realization that the TV crew were the most experienced people at hand. Vic picked out a spot and directed Larry toward it: a pair of large jetpods of approximately the same color as the ones they had harvested several days before. The pilot maneuvered the aircar into place underneath the things while everyone else gathered supplies.
Mudtail looked out the windows with delight, taking in the long drop and the enormous trees with the same kind of amazement he’d shown when Hubcap demonstrated how the harness buckles worked. It was endearing as all hell. Hubcap wanted to pat him on the head. But duty called.
It wasn’t the best plan, Hubcap reflected moments later.
He stood on top of the car in a safety harness, with Elliot and Dale crouched on either side holding the stretcher under a pod. They both wore their own harnesses and anxious expressions. Tarja stood in the open doorway below, peeking with a camera over the edge. Everything vibrated slightly from the hover engine. The ground was very far away.
Elliot gazed downward. “This is a terrible idea, you realize.”
“Oh yes. Monumentally terrible.”
“As long as we’re on the same page about that.” Elliot glanced at Dale. “You all right?”
“I’m ready.” The junior cameraman shook himself and set his jaw. “Let’s do this.” Hubcap would personally have preferred to have Larry on the other end of the stretcher, but he was the only one certified to fly the aircar, so that was ruled out. And Xian wasn’t visibly stronger than Dale, and Vic was a little too big to balance properly in the space available, and Hubcap realized he was stalling.
“Let’s do this,” he agreed. He grasped the tree bark with one hand and lined up the knife. “If I’m lost in an explosion of seeds and legend, make sure my remains are recycled into anything but hubcaps.” He swung the knife.