The Chaos Chronicles - The Infinite Sea Part 21

: "Oh, yes.

There is something in the s.h.i.+p that warms the water in one area.

It flows into a corridor, and this is where the sick are staying, until you can heal them."

Ik felt a rush of dizziness. The sick were staying in the corridor with the warm water? Terrible. Terrible! "Do you know where the warmth is coming from?" he asked hoa.r.s.ely.

"There is a grate-covered opening," Delent'l told him. "The water flows out through there. We have not been able to get inside to see what it is."

"Good!" Ik cried in a whisper. "If you got inside, you wouldTHE iNFINITE SEA * 175 probably die. You must move those people at once!" If it is not already too late, he thought helplessly.

Delent'l and S'Cali looked at one another in surprise. "Move them?" S'Cali asked. "But the warmth comforts them."

"Please!" Ik drew a breath. "You must. It is almost certainly the warm water that is making them ill!" As the two tried to comprehend that, Ik craned his neck to peer out the viewport. Several Neri swimmers were hovering outside the sub. "Can you call outside and send word?"

"Yes--I think so," S'Cali said. "But are you sure? You have not yet seen--"

"I know I have not seen it," Ik said quickly. "But I am nearly sure--and if I am right, then every minute they stay will make them sicker. Please!"

S'Cali had to fiddle some with the switches, until he got power back to the comm; then he relayed the message. But he looked back in puzzlement at Ik.

"If water is leaking out of a reactor, then it would very likely be warm," Ik explained. "It is probably contaminated with radiation."

Then he clacked his mouth shut and hoped that he could stay alive long enough to be of some help.

We can a.s.sist in maintaining yourphysical integrity.*

/That's good,/he said to the stones./Can you help me heal ra- diation sickness?/ * Uncertain.*

/You saw me being healed./ * Yes.*

Ik waited.

They answered finally: * We will do what we can.*

The water in the cabin was up to Ik's waist when the Neri made final adjustments to his air supply and strapped on a weighted vest to compensate for the buoyancy of the helmet. The visor, now wet, had become transparent. S'Cali's voice sounded thin and distant through the helmet. "We'll go out one at a time. If you have trou- ble swimming, we'll tow you. All right?"

"All right."In the gloom, he watched Delent'l wade past him, the Neri's webbed feet brus.h.i.+ng past his legs. Delent'l touched something, and Ik felt a slight change in the water movement. Then Delent'l sat in176 * .

the water, and with barely a ripple, sank out of sight through the floor of the cabin.

S'Cali tapped his shoulder. "Go ahead!"

Ik checked one last time for his rope, wrapped around his waist, then felt for the membrane-opening with his feet. He gasped at the cold as he bent to find a handhold, then dropped with a lurch down through the flooded pressurelock chamber below. There was a frightening rush and gurgle of cold water all around him, but he forced himself to keep going, until his feet met open water and fi- nally his shoulders and head cleared the bottom of the sub.

He felt DelentTs hand guiding him, then pulling him off to one side.

He suddenly realized he still had his moccasins strapped on, which was probably stupid. But there was was nothing he could do about it now. Delent'l looked like a sea monster in front of him, waving--probably asking if he was all right. Ik waved back.

The air seemed perfectly breathable, if a bit seaweedy-tasting, and he wasn't nearly as cold as he'd expected to be. But he was too buoy- ant; he was floating upward, hitting the underside of the damaged ':.

sub.

Delent'l saw it, too. Had they not weighted him enough? After: a moment, Ik looked at his hands and realized what was happen- ing: his voice-stones had provided a forcefield barrier around his skin, sealing in a thin layer of air for insulation. That's what was making him too buoyant.

He exhaled experimentally, and found that with his breath al- ,.,.

most completely out, he was just about neutrally buoyant./Can you ' ;17,.

let out just a little of that air?/he asked the stones.

A.

flurry of very fine bubbles surrounded him. He began to sink.

He drew a sharp breath. He was floating now. Good.

S'Cali came alongside, and the two Neri took hold of the ends of Ik's rope and began to swim. Ik tried to swim, but couldn't hope to match the Neri's speed; he soon gave up and held the rope to steady himself and allowed them to tow him. They glided across the empty cargo hold where they had crashed, a s.p.a.ce dimly illuminated by sunlight coming in through the breach in the hull. Several other Neri joined them as they turned to survey the sub.

The small vessel was jammed into the lower corner of the hold, wedged among some oddly shaped struts that appeared to be part of the sunken s.h.i.+p's original structure. There was little outward dam- age to the sub, but no doubt plenty of trouble inside, given theTHE INFINITE SEA * 177 flooding. Ik hoped that the Neri had the knowledge and resources to fix it.

He felt himself being pulled around in the water. S'Cali and De-lent'l were towing him away, and at a surprising speed. He was breathing hard, and glad he wasn't trying to keep up under his own power. They pa.s.sed through a sizable bulkhead opening into a darker s.p.a.ce. A number of dim glowlights were visible ahead, looking like deep-sea fish--handlights carried by swimmers, no doubt.

After a few moments, his eyes had adjusted enough to the gloom to see that they had entered a wide corridor, which would take them deep into the wrecked s.h.i.+p.

His breathing was coming just a little harder now. Probably the difficulty of holding his body in a streamlined position while the Neri pulled him.

He tried to settle his mind for visualizing and remembering the layout of the s.h.i.+p. The more he learned, the better. And he needed to be alert to any cues, any hints at all as to the nature of the radiation leakage.

Except he was having trouble focusing. It was his breathing. He hauled in a deep breath and felt it burning in his chest. It wasn't the physical exertion; it was the air. Something was wrong with his air.

Respiratory problem . . . immediate action required.*

Moon and stars! What could he do? Try to get back to the sub?

He struggled to call out to S'Cali and Delent'l, but he could not draw enough breath to shout. He fought a surge of panic; then he clacked his mouth and yanked hard on the rope.

S'Cali turned first. Ik waved urgently, and in the process caused himself to tumble so that he couldn't see either of the Neri. He tried to recover, but his hands caught on the lines and it took him precious moments to get untangled and turned back around. By that time, S'Cali and Delent'l had reached his side.

"Can't ... breathe," he gasped, grabbing his hood with both hands. The water seemed to be closing in around his head.

He could hear S'Cali and Delent'l speaking, but their words didn't quite penetrate his hood. He must have communicated his need, though, because they launched into motion, turning him around and heading back toward the sub.

Good! he thought. Good! We can make it...

Two Neri swimmers came streaking through the bulkhead to-178 * *

ward them. They were gesturing frantically--and crying out--and this time he heard the words.

"Into the s.h.i.+p! Landers coming! You can't go back!"

And as Ik strained for breath, S'Cali and Delent'l hauled him in a tight turn and sped inward into the s.h.i.+p, away from the only source of air he knew.s.h.i.+PWRE RESCUES L'KELL PILOTED THE sub with silent concentration, as Bandi-cut angled his gaze backward from the side of the nose viewport, trying to see if that ghostly light from the abyss was still visible behind them. It unnerved him to have something like that at his back. And he hated leaving the robots in danger.

"/You really think of them as friends, don 'I you?

As living, thinking beings."/ /Well, yeah. I mean, don't you think of the translator that way?/ Bandicut wasn't sure when he had stopped thinking of the robots as almost sentient, and started regarding them as members of the human community.

"/My thoughts of the stones and what memories I have of the translator are...

I don't know whatyou would call it.

Not masters, nor servants exactly, but not friends, either.

Do you regard Ik and Li-Jared and Antares as human?"/ /I guess so./Bandicut shrugged inwardly. It wasn't that he'd lost sight of their species differences. But somewhere along the line he had come to think of humanness, or maybe personhood, as being determined by more than a particular DNA coding. /You too,/he added.

The quarx didn't say anything, but he felt a flicker of acceptance, belonging.

All this talk, though, got Bandicut's thoughts going. /Tell me180 * .

something,/he said a little later./What about Charlie-Four? Do you think he ended his own life so he could get out of the way and make room for you? Because he knew he wasn't the right quarx for the job, or the time?/ "/R's possible, I suppose, What makes you ask?"/ /I dunno. It's been bothering me--the way he seemed to just give up like that./ "/You're thinking maybe it was self-sacrifi'ce? "/ /That's what I'm asking you. I mean, it doesn't square with the Charlie-Four I knew. And yet--/ ,.

"/Well I do have residual memories that make me suspect, anyway, that he was not wholly forthcoming with you about his feelings."/ /Meaning what?/ "/Meaning I think he tried ,,.

to be more of a sonofab.i.t.c.h than he really was."/ .

Bandicut rolled that around in his mind./But why?/ Charlene hesitated.

"/I don't know."/ /Well, if you don't know.../Bandicut sighed and looked back out the window.

; I,i'i, As they ascended along the slope of the seafioor, they were en- ; ,.. : countering a greater number and variety of animals, from slow-moving fish to large jellies to spider-legged things half a meter wide that sprang in long, slow-motion leaps through the headlight- smudged darkness. He kept wondering if they would ever see day- I.

light in the water, and then reminded himself that they were still .

far too deep.., and then, to his surprise, he blinked and saw what looked like the palest haze of moonlight filtering through the water.

"L'KeI1, is that sunlight I see?"

The Neri flicked off the one remaining headlight, to let Bandi-cut see the difference; there was a faint, colorless glow in the water.

Then L'Kell pointed off to the port side. There, some distance off and below them, was a cl.u.s.ter of yellow-green lights.

"The city? We pa.s.sed it?"

"At a distance. I think you were asleep."*

THE INFINITE SEA * 181.

"I was?" He had not been aware of dozing off at all.

"We still have some distance to go to the salvage area. The relief force hasn't been heard from since they reported sighting a large number of landers."

Bandicut's stomach knotted, as he thought of Ik./Mokin' fokin'

A./He had come to depend so much on Ik, he could not imagine what life would be like if anything happened to the Hraachee'an.

"/It's still perfect possible that they're okay, isn't it?"/ /Yeah, sure,/he said./We don't know' a thing, so I should quit worrying until I know more. Right?/ "/I'd say so. Will you? "/ /Not a chance,/Bandicut said, and rubbed his eyes as he peered ahead into the mists.

Ik couldn't last much longer. Towed by the Neri, he was floating down an endless corridor. His chest was searing now, his breath going in and out in frantic little movements.

*Remain as still as possible. We are modifying the forcefield.* He tried to obey, but it was not easy to keep his body still, and straight, and streamlined while being pulled by a rope through the water! He prayed that the Neri knew where they were going; if he could just hold on ...

* We are attempting to speed the exchange of gases through the forcefield, out of the water. We are also attempting to dampen your metabolic rate. You may feel faint...* .*

Faint. The darkness actually seemed to be lightening around him, as everything went grey and grainy, out of focus. He no longer felt the burning; he felt only the numbness.

And then even that slipped away, as he entered a kind of shadow world of awareness . . .

Movement of light and dark.., without bodily sensation...

When he blinked back to a fuller consciousness, there was still motion. Something was ahead, something blurry. s.h.i.+mmery. Like a mirror, but only a flicker of light on it. What would be s.h.i.+mmery? Air?

Some part of his mind wanted to launch into a furious swim.

He moved his hands ineffectually, but his body could no longer respond.

He could only hang limply behind the Neri, mind in a fog, as water flowed past his body.182 , .

And then the s.h.i.+mmer was in his face, and around him, and he broke through boundary layer into air, blessed air. He could feel his head and shoulders out of the water, but the helmet was still suffocating him. He gasped, trying weakly to reach--then felt other hands on the helmet, releasing straps and ties, and finally lifting it from his head.

.ii Ik's windpipe rasped as air flamed into his chest--wonderful, life-giving, air. It felt like fire, but he didn't care. At least a dozen long, ragged breaths went in and out before he even noticed how stale and metallic it tasted. It must have been trapped here for a long time. He slowly became aware of what was holding him up out of the water--four or five Neri kicking in the water, support- ing his weight. He could only wheeze in grat.i.tude.

*Readjusting metabolic parameters.*

His strength returned slowly. More and more Neri appeared :.