"IF WE HAD allowed the habitat to breach," Kailan snapped, "not only would it have killed everyone on board, instead of just three, it would have destroyed part of the solar array, too."
Antares ducked out of the way to avoid being hit by webbed hands as the two angry Neri strode around one another, gesturing. She and Li-Jared moved farther to one side.
"And that, Obliq, is how you justify firing upon one of my submarines?" Askelanda stretched his hands wide. "How can you dismiss the deaths of three people so casually?"
"I am not dismissing their deaths," Kailan said with rising indignation. "They were my friends and I'm as sorry to send them on their spirit-journeys as you."
Askelanda made a gesture of apparent supplication, from his breast toward her, as though to acknowledge her grief. But what Antares felt coming from him was disbelief. "So, then," he said, "please explain why you—"
"Nor did I fire upon your submarine!" Kailan interrupted. "Our submarine. I gave warning, I begged you to move the sub. But you did not get it clear in time. There were lives at stake—and not just in the habitat and the sub."
Askelanda turned, arms crossed. Explain.
Kailan strode a few paces, then glanced at Antares and Li-Jared, perhaps to make sure they were listening. "Askelanda, imagine a habitat bubble bursting into the air—probably exploding from decompression. How much clearer a signal could you send to the landers: Here we are, if you want to find us!"
Askelanda stopped his pacing and peered at her. For the first time, he seemed to take her point seriously. "Perhaps, Obliq. If landers had been on the water, watching. But really—what were the chances of that?"
Kailan gazed at him with palpable annoyance. "Ahktah, if we know they have been working at the new salvage site, is it not possible that they might be found elsewhere on the sea, as well? Isn't it possible that they might have scanning equipment for searching above the sea, as we have it for searching within— which could enable them to detect an explosion?" She paused for his reaction. "No? You didn't believe in my instruments, either, Ahktah."
Askelanda turned away with a low, grumbling sound.
Antares listened in fascination to the verbal sparring. There was clearly more at stake here than whether or not Kailan did the right thing in destroying the broken habitat. Askelanda the ahktah—the male leader—was struggling, not just with the obliq's actions, but with the power that she wielded in her use of a technology he did not understand. How, Antares wondered, could that be? Were Askelanda and the male Neri so preoccupied with their explorations and their sea-farming and their search for salvageable equipment that they could not comprehend the value of the obliq's knowledge? It seemed a peculiar kind of blindness. But not one that she couldn't have witnessed on her own world, in one form or another.
Li-Jared spoke up, with a bonging apology. "Excuse me—very sorry—but just so I can understand, don't the landers already know where to find you?"
Both Neri leaders paused to gaze at the Karellian. "If they knew where to find us, they would have been here by now," said Askelanda. "It may be the only thing that has kept us from open warfare—instead of these skirmishes by night, where we barely even see each other."
Kailan drew her shawl close around her, the golden threads glittering. "I doubt," she said, "that they think much about us, or care where we live."
"They care enough to poison the sea," Askelanda said softly.
"Or," said Kailan, "they don't care enough, and so they poison the sea."
Li-Jared was clearly confused. "Then your conflict—"
"Is not an open battle, no," said Kailan. "In my opinion, they don't regard us as much worth troubling about. Nevertheless—" and she turned to Askelanda to complete her point "—if we continue to probe a salvage site which clearly interests them, and which my technicians have not found a way to make use of anyway—"
"I was not aware you had given up," Askelanda said.
"We have not given up. But why risk this—when we have a larger enemy to worry about, and a factory that no longer functions?"
"If the factory functioned, we wouldn't have to risk it," Askelanda said, with exasperation.
Li-Jared interrupted again. "By larger enemy, you mean—"
"Of course," said Kailan. "The Creature of Darkness. The Maw of the Abyss. Perhaps you can tell us how to stop it. But if not, and without the factory—" She turned her gaze to Askelanda. "Why remain here, facing disaster?"
"Why move, and risk losing everything that way, Obliq? The Maw has been sleeping for many years."
"Sleeping fitfully, Askelanda. Very fitfully. And now it has awakened."
Askelanda started to reply, but instead turned to stare out into the sea, where scores of Neri swimmers were hard at work repairing damage from the quake, and where the last of the returning rescue subs were gliding into the city toward their docks.
*
"If you don't mind," L'Kell said, as he assisted the others out of the sub and onto the dock, "I would like to take your plan directly to Askelanda."
"Of course," said Bandicut. "But first—"
"After you check on your robots," L'Kell said, with a husky hiss that Bandicut was beginning to recognize as laughter.
They waited at the edge of the hangar while a crew of Neri maneuvered the star-spanner bubble into a makeshift docking collar. A floating platform was tied into place, and at last Bandicut was able to step over to the bubble and crouch alongside it, peering down through its curved top. The two robots blinked at him, their sensor-arrays turning this way and that.
"Would you like to use this?" Ik said, handing him his rope.
"Thanks." Bandicut held the coiled rope close to the bubble. A glow blossomed from around his hand through the closest portion of the bubble membrane. He reached through without difficulty, shook the coil out and dangled one end of the rope toward the robots. The other end he passed back to Ik, who ran it over an overhead brace on the docking collar, then dropped it onto the floating platform, where it secured itself.
After a moment, there was a tug, and the rope began contracting, lifting the first robot. Copernicus emerged from the bubble, dangling from the rope like an oversized puppy, and Bandicut hauled awkwardly to pull him over onto the floating dock. "Coppy! Am I glad to see you! Are you all right?"
The robot ticked and whirred, his wheels rotating slightly before he touched down. "Cap'n, we are now. We did not think we would survive, once we were carried away in that downdraft."
"Well, you can thank L'Kell here for getting us to you—"
"Thank you," said the robot.
"—later, I mean. First, can you help me get Napoleon out?"
"Of course." Copernicus's sensor-array spun. "Ik! How good to see you unharmed. May I ask where Antares and Li-Jared are?"
"Hrrrm, well, we don't actually know—"
"Guys, let's get Napoleon out first," Bandicut interrupted.
"Of course." Copernicus turned and extended a metal arm to help pull on the rope.
"Hold on. Let me drop it to him." Bandicut fed the rope back into the bubble, and soon Napoleon emerged. As they hauled Napoleon onto the dock, Copernicus backed his rear wheels dangerously close to the edge. "Whoa, Coppy—watch it! You can't swim!"
The monkeylike Napoleon hooked a metal hand onto Copernicus and leaned back, holding him. "I have you," he said, staggering a little.
Ik hrrm'd. "Let's try not to lose both of you. Are you robots waterproof?"
"I think I once was," Copernicus answered. "But my seals and bushings have suffered the effects of wear."
"Let's get away from the open water," Bandicut urged. He was trying to think how they could possibly put the robots back down at that crushing depth and have them do any useful work.
"I've just been told," L'Kell said, helping them onto the encircling walkway, "that a farewell—" kresshh "—service is about to begin for those who recently died."
"Thorek?" Bandicut asked, suddenly sober.
"And those killed in the quake. One by rockslide, and three in the habitat that broke away."
"Rakh—it breached, then?" asked Ik.
"No." L'Kell explained how it had been brought down. "A controversial action. But five others were able to swim out as the habitat fell back down."
Another Neri called to L'Kell from across the hangar, and he answered, "In a moment." To the others: "I must go join the parting swim. You may watch from inside, if you wish."
With the help of two of the other Neri, Bandicut and Ik saw to it that the robots were safely parked in a room just a short ramp up from this level; then they hurried up a companionway to one of the domed rooms next door.
*
The farewell swim began in the open-water space between two large clusters of habitat bubbles, a sort of plaza in front of the artificial reef they had passed on their trip into the city the first time. Ik and Bandicut peered out the dome window at fifty or so Neri swimmers gathered around the seven fallen—two more than L'Kell had evidently been aware of. The dead were floating on narrow litters, their bodies garlanded with long coils of sea-fronds. Each litter was kept steady by four Neri, and as they began to swim, all the others began a procession, surrounding the dead on all sides. At the head of the procession was a Neri dressed with long trailers of sea-frond, similar to the dead.
The procession moved through the plaza, passing in front of the dome where Bandicut and Ik stood watching. They had been joined by Hargel, the young Neri who had briefly served as their jailor. "They will accompany the fallen out of the city and into the great Sweeping Current, where they will rejoin the circle of the sea," Hargel said.
"Will they simply float on forever, then?" Ik asked.
Hargel looked at him with apparent puzzlement, as if he had not understood the question. "Look there," he said, pointing up into the darkness ahead of the procession.
Movement was visible in the water, but faint, like ghostly impressions, fleeting in the water. "Pikarta," he said. "Spirit carriers."
Bandicut squinted into the darkness. The quarx momentarily increased his light sensitivity. The room glared painfully around him, but out in the darkness, he caught a glimpse of large white streamlined shapes. "Eaters," he murmured, as the brightness faded again.
/// Sharks? ///
/Something like that—/
Hargel turned his large black eyes for a glance at Bandicut. "Yes." He looked back out, watching the procession pass below them. "They have been drawn to us by an offering."
"An offering?"
"Towed by a sub."
Bandicut shuddered. "And they won't attack . . . prematurely?"
Hargel made a rippling gesture with his hand. "They usually strike only when there is rapid or violent movement in the water. Or smells of an offering. But the smells are being carried on the current ahead of the procession." Hargel watched the movement of the accompanying swimmers. Many of them were now moving in a kind of ballet around the dead, turning and spiraling and falling through the water.
/// They are grieving . . . ///
/Saying farewell,/ Bandicut agreed, and suddenly his heart became full of grief for Charlie-Four, whatever the reasons for his departure, and Charlie-Three not all that long before him, and all the Charlies he had lost to time and death. And he thought of Julie Stone, and of Earth, and it was all he could do to remain standing, one hand on the dome window.
/// It is good to grieve, I think. ///
/I suppose./ He wasn't sure that it felt all that good, but there was a comfort in sharing his grief with the sea-people, who sent their fallen out to rejoin the circle of the sea. And, he realized after a moment . . . in sharing with this quarx, with Charlene.
/// I do share it, ///
she whispered, and he knew that she meant not just his grief, but her own, for all of the quarx who had gone before, perhaps even for the quarx race itself.
"Is that," said Ik, "the healer leading the procession?"
"Yes, that's Corono," said Hargel. "He is our holtoph, our spirit leader. Those who cannot be healed, he leads on the spirit-journey."
The healer and the procession were soon past Bandicut and his companions, making their way through the habitat clusters and out of the city. "Just beyond the edge of the darkness, where our channeled current rejoins the Sweeping Current, they will set the travelers free."
They watched in silence, and soon after the last of the procession had disappeared into the undersea mist, the first of those returning reappeared. Bandicut thought he saw a faster movement in the distance, and nudged Charlie into giving him a few moments of heightened sensitivity. The world around him turned bright; he saw a few quick movements of white, before his vision blurred. /Was that—?/
/// Pikarta striking? I'm not certain . . . ///
Bandicut thought it was. He looked up and gazed across the plaza at the panorama of habitats. "John Bandicut," he heard Ik say, and he turned to look to his right, toward the next habitat in the cluster that they were a part of. He noticed that others were peering out of domes at the procession, as well. Two of them waved, and it took him several heartbeats to realize that they were Antares and Li-Jared.
*
Li-Jared sprang forward, bonging, to meet them, embracing Ik and springing away, then embracing Bandicut. His eyes were alive with fire—two narrow, vertical, almond-shapes of gold, bisected with electric-blue bands. Antares' eyes had their own shimmer of pale gold around black pupils. She was behind Li-Jared, but she ran forward, stones sparkling at her throat with pleasure and welcome. Bandicut threw his arms around her and squeezed her in a long embrace, and only after he'd stepped back, holding her long-fingered hand for a moment, did he quite realize what he'd done. "Damn, am I glad to see you!" he murmured huskily.
Antares seemed startled, but not displeased by the hug. She radiated a burst of warmth, her mouth crinkling—then, a second later, visibly drew back into her more familiar reserve. "I am very happy to see you, too. Both of you." She turned and squeezed Ik's arm in greeting. "And the robots? Have you heard from them?"
"They're safe. It was a near thing," Bandicut said. His mind, at that moment, was full of the sensation of Antares pressed against him, and her faintly piney scent. He blinked and shook his mind clear.
/// I'll have to ask you
more about these sensations.
Especially— ///
/Not—now—/
Bandicut explained what had happened—and nearly happened— to the robots. "And you two?"
He and Ik listened as their friends described their meeting with Kailan. "Who is this obliq?" Bandicut asked. "Is she here with you?"
"Kailan swam with the procession," answered Antares. "I expect we'll be able to rejoin her soon."
"Along with L'Kell," said Ik.
"You mean," said Bandicut, "that we can actually relax for a few minutes?" He let out a long, slow sigh. "I don't think I can believe it."
He heard footsteps behind him just then, and L'Kell's voice. "Have you found each other? Good! I hope you were comfortable watching the procession. Are you ready for a conference?"
Bandicut opened his mouth and closed it. Approaching behind L'Kell was a taller Neri of slighter build, greenish skin, and very different dress—instead of the harness, a shawl that glittered with gold-colored thread. This Neri—a female?—had two daughter-stones glimmering on the sides of her head. He bowed slightly. "Are you Kailan?"
"Indeed, and I have heard of your actions on our behalf," said the Neri. "I am pleased to meet you, John Bandicut and Ik. Is it true that your robots might have the ability to repair our factories?"
Bandicut blinked in surprise. Word traveled fast. "Perhaps," he said.
"Then let us go where we can speak of such matters," said Kailan.
*
What that meant, as it turned out, was adjourning to a large meeting room where no fewer than a dozen Neri could pace endlessly around each other as they talked. It seemed to be the Neri method of holding a conference. Bandicut found it dizzying. It was like trying to talk to a school of fish, weaving back and forth, around and around. The Neri seemed to have significant areas of conflict among themselves, but his proposal had them intrigued. He was starting to wish that he'd kept quiet about it until he was sure.
"I do not understand this nanotech," Kailan said, waving her hands as she paced. "What is it you mean?"
Bandicut spread his hands, trying to think how to make it clear. "That's the term we used back on my homeworld, Earth. It means machines smaller than you can see with your eye, almost smaller than you can imagine. It was an important part of our technology—for making things, repairing things, even . . . healing people." He couldn't help wincing a little over that last.
At the word healing, Askelanda wheeled around, his expression filled with a new intensity. Did he understand the difference between what Bandicut had done in his healing and what was being described now? Or did he regard Bandicut as a kind of alien wizard, who had performed certain services as requested, but now was holding out a little?
Bandicut tried to explain. "Not like what I did with Lako. That healing—" and as he groped for words he touched his temple, wishing he could touch Charlie and show them "—was different. That was . . . mind to mind. I didn't actually heal; I only helped Lako heal himself. Nanotech is different. It's machines."
Askelanda relaxed a little, and continued pacing, while listening.
"What I'm talking about now," Bandicut continued, "is manufacturing processes, which I think may be similar to what you use in your factory. I'm guessing, please understand—but it sounds right, because of what L'Kell described, about your factory using minerals from the hot vents, and tanks of liquid that objects are made in. I'm betting that your factory uses tiny machines that reproduce themselves rapidly, then work together to turn raw materials into much larger machines." He weaved his head, trying to follow Askelanda and Kailan.
Askelanda said nothing. But Kailan paused and peered at him with interest.
"And on my world, those tiny machines are—or were— controlled by programming, much as my robots are." He decided not to mention that he wasn't really sure how much his robots were controlled anymore by their original programming. And as for whatever had taken its place—could he even call that programming? It was more like a life process. "It's difficult to explain, really."
Kailan said, "We understand . . . programming, I think. Some of us do, anyway—a little. Ochile, we call it." She paced toward Askelanda, and veered away. "We use it in our repairs and modifications. Our—" kraaa "—changers—repair devices—require us to specify the changes we want them to make."
"Then you do have some knowledge of how these things work," Bandicut said, startled.
"Very little," she admitted. "The knowledge that produced the changers is lost to us, or at least inaccessible, and we are limited to using the devices as best we can."
Bandicut took a moment to absorb Kailan's words. "Then your—changers—"
"Can sometimes heal malfunctions, and sometimes alter machinery from one purpose to another. But their capabilities are limited, and they cannot construct from raw materials," Kailan said.
"Then," said Ik, "is that what you do with salvaged machinery?"
"That's right. It's our only way to maintain our surroundings in the absence of new equipment," said Kailan. "And the more equipment is lost, or falls into a state of final disrepair, the more our chances of long-term survival decline."
"And—" Bandicut swiveled back and forth between Kailan and Askelanda "—who among you actually maintains such knowledge and skill?"
Askelanda spoke in a rumble. "It is Obliq Kailan and her assistants who maintain the stores of arcane knowledge, and perform most of the technical alterations—while those who serve directly under my authority—"
/// —meaning the males? ///
/I think so./
"—are busy provisioning, and searching out new sources of supplies, and when necessary, occupied with self-defense." Askelanda stretched out his arms. "And with extending our reach and knowledge of our present world."
"We all," said Kailan, "work at trying to understand what is happening in the world around us. Especially in the abyss."
Askelanda waved his hands, pacing back and forth. "The obliq feels that I am too focused on keeping the present salvage area open, given the setbacks and losses—despite the growing need for new machinery to maintain our city."
"That is correct," said Kailan. "It is the Maw of the Darkness that most threatens us." She wheeled back toward Askelanda, arms wide.
Li-Jared scrambled out of the way, bonging softly. He'd had enough of the pacing. From Antares came a soft sense of: Patience. Have patience.
"We will not settle that disagreement here," said Askelanda. "But since we have no other hope of repairing our factories, we must consider our visitors' plan to assist us. But we must also protect our salvage areas, which may be our only remaining source of equipment."
"Quite so," said Kailan. When the senior Neri showed surprise, she said, "Let us hear our guests out."
"Very well," said Askelanda, turning to Bandicut. "Would you continue?"
Bandicut glanced at his friends. Antares was swaying slightly back and forth, as if to join in the pacing without actually moving from her spot. Bandicut wanted to scream at them all to stand still, but instead, he drew a breath and said, "My plan was to connect Napoleon and Copernicus to the factory control system—and see if they can determine what has gone wrong."
"Is this possible?" asked Kailan, peering at him. "They are not even of our world."
Bandicut shrugged. "That is true. But they have had some experience in joining with machines of alien origin." Though as he said it, he thought: Even on Shipworld, they didn't do anything like this.
"But surely they cannot rebuild broken factories," said Askelanda. "Can they even function at that depth?"
"I'm hoping that you can find a way to protect them from the depth," Bandicut admitted. "But no, they would not repair the factory themselves—any more than I repaired Lako when I joined with him. If I understand correctly, your factories are supposed to be able to repair themselves."
"That was true, until the repair machines broke down," Askelanda said.
"Then is it not possible that they might be restarted with a programming change?"
Askelanda paused, staring.
"If the repair units are self-replicators, and if there are any repair units still intact, the factory might have a chance of repairing itself. It might be that the programming itself has failed, or needs adjustment."
"Are you certain of this?"
"Not at all. I'm saying it's possible."
Askelanda and Kailan exchanged sharp looks and quiet words, then Kailan said, "You give us hope. What we face now is certain death—or undoubted losses, if we attempt to move our people. But even your success with the factory might not be enough."
"You mean, the Maw?"
Kailan made a low, murmuring sound. "Whatever happens with the factory, it will still be there. And I'm not certain that we can survive that threat if we stay."
"Hrrm," said Ik. "Are you saying that it might be necessary to move . . . your entire city? Could you do that?"
The tension between Kailan and Askelanda became palpable. "Very difficult, and very dangerous," Askelanda said at last. "And without the factory—"
"Your whole way of life is threatened," murmured Ik.
/// Unless they learn to manufacture
what they need themselves. ///
/No way they could do that in the short term. Not with so much of their life support based on things like those membranes which we don't even understand. That's gotta be nanotech./
"Nevertheless," said Kailan, "Neri have moved in the past, and we might have to move in the future. Unless—" and she peered at each of the company in turn "—you who come from the stars can find a way to stop the Maw from destroying us."
/Mokin' foke,/ Bandicut muttered silently. /That's why we're here, isn't it?/
There was a long silence. Finally Askelanda said, "Let us worry about one thing at a time. John Bandicut, what do you need to enable your robots to attempt this thing?"
Bandicut drew his thoughts back to the present. "They need to be protected from water and pressure—and somehow connected to the control center. Do you have a way to do that?"
"If you need it to be done, we will find a way to do it."
"Thank you."
"You saved Lako. Perhaps you can do this, as well. Whatever you need, ask L'Kell." And with that, Askelanda strode from the room.
But Kailan's expression seemed exceedingly worried as she watched the ahktah leave.