The Chaos Chronicles - The Infinite Sea Part 30

For a mo- ment, further words seemed to fail him. Then he drew a breath and said, "Harding."

"Harding," Ik repeated. "That is how we may address you?Good. Harding." He pointed around the room, repeating each name.

"But... you must meet L'Kell, of the Neri. L'Kell?"

The Neri leader had turned from the comm, and was now lean- ing out of the c.o.c.kpit. "Is the captive talking?" He carefully stepped into the crowded compartment to stand facing the lander, who was still sitting on the floor, very much at a disadvantage. Not good, Li- Jared thought.

Ik gestured, introducing L'KeI1. "The lander's name is Harding."

"Harding," L'Kell repeated. "Do you know, you are the first of your kind to enter our city? I am glad you can understand us. There is a lot we must talk about."

Harding leaned forward slightly where he sat on the floor. "You called me ... captive. What do you intend to do with me?" He seemed to show his teeth just a little more.

Li-Jared felt Antares try-*

THE INFINITE SEA * 241.

ing to maintain a soothing presence, but her efforts were having limited effect.

L'Kell drew back slightly, as if trying to recall his words. "Perhaps I should have said, guest, "he murmured. But his voice seemed to have a bite to it as he continued, "You must stay here for now.

Until we can prepare a place for you."

"Here," the lander repeated, with a slight hand movement. It was clear he might as well have said jail.

Li-Jared squinted at Bandicut, wondering how much of this the human was able to follow. John didn't look so good. "Bandie? Are you all right?"

Bandicut's eyes flickered, probably responding more to the sound of the Karellian's voice, and the eye contact, than anything else. Li-Jared felt a pang. It was like watching an invisible force strike his friend deaf and dumb. Was this what it would be like for the rest of his life?

Whatyou contemplate might bepossible. But not without sk.*

Li-Jared started./What might be possible?/he thought, closing his eyes.

* To make contact. To divide. To share in theplace ofyourfriend's stones.*

His hearts beat quickly./And the risk?/ *If the host is reluctant, or too fragile... . it could do serious harm to the host. And to the other stones. And to us, if the feedback is too severe.*

His hearts went out of synch again for a moment./And if I don't, Bandie will stay like this. Or worse. Right? Do you have any other suggestions? Could you split and go to Bandie instead?/ *He needs his own stones back, the stones that know him. But we are prepared for this risk, if you wish to I.*

Li-Jared felt paralyzed, listening to the voices in the compartment around him, unable to open his eyes.

If you wish to try.

It was a little like the way a bird must feel sitting on a high wire in a thunderstorm waiting for a lightning strike, Bandicut thought. It was not just the emotional trauma of losing the connection--like losing his neuro all over again--though he certainly had been flas.h.i.+ng on that, over and over, in the eternity since he had given up the stones. It was also physical. He was s.h.i.+vering. And not just from cold: it was also the effects of high pressure, much higher than242 * .

anything his body had been meant to withstand. Was he getting too much oxygen or too little? Probably too much, but he couldn't re- ally tell. He felt himself flickering between euphoria and despon- dence. If something didn't happen soon, he would lose his mind and his body both.

The fugue was gone, at least. But he was left with a hazy un- derstanding of what was happening. Conversation with the lander.

Harding. Antares gripping his hand, three slender fingers squeez- ing with surprising strength. Rising and falling empathic connection, waves of sensation. A rush of concern, fear, affection. A more con- trolled wave of rea.s.surance, of calming. She was scared, scared for him. But she was also trained to submerge her own emotions, to listen and respond and reflect, according to the needs of the one ,.

I '.

in her sphere.

i I ' "/She is...

you know, C]','i'i she cares about you, John.

She does.

It would almost feel like love, I think, if she weren't..."/ , /It's not the time, Char, let's not think about that. If she weren't what?/ "/She's conflicted.I can feel it.

But she's trying very hard to pull you out of this, John, she's trying hard."/ He started to think of an answer, and couldn't, because he was suddenly aware that his breathing wasn't working quite right. Shal- low, panting; that's not right. But he couldn't stop. Was something wrong with the air--?

Beside him, the lander Harding had stopped talking to Ik or L'Kell or whoever it was, and turned his head to look at Bandicut.

Did he see Bandicut's distress? Or had perhaps the stones noticed, realized the danger... ?

There was another movement now, Li-Jared. Moving forward to crouch beside Antares. Peering at Harding. Peering at Bandicut.

Ik's attention had been divided between concern for John Bandi-cut and the need to foster communication between the lander and the Neri. Since Antares' and Li-Jared's arrival, he had been focused more on the latter. As they spoke, L'Kell seemed to absorb the factTHE INFINITE SEA * 243 that Harding might not be just a war captive, but a potential negotiator.

But what was L'Kell really thinking--and what would Aske-landa think? There were a lot of sick Neri, and angry Neri, who he supposed would be just as happy to see a lander captive fed to the pikarta.

"L'Kell," Ik said, "if you and Harding could allow the stones to help you understand one another..."

The Neri glanced at him, but it was the lander who spoke. "Are you the leader of these people?" he asked L'Kell.

L'Kell made an unfamiliar gesture with his hands. "I am a leader.

Perhaps later, you will speak to the one who leads all of my people.''

The lander gave a little s.h.i.+ver. "If I survive your bringing me to the bottom of the ocean."

L'Kell answered with a rasp. "My greater concern is for my peo- ple who are sick and dying, killed by your people."

Harding's head jerked a little. "That is not--"

His words were interrupted by another Neri's arrival through the airlock. It was Hargel, who had attended them previously. "L'Kell,"

Hargel said urgently, "we need Ik and Bandicut at once!"

L'Kell gave him a sharp look.

"The sick are worsening. Corono is trying, but some will certainly die soon, without the aliens' help."

Ik sensed the tension in the Neri leader's face as he turned. "Are you able to a.s.sist?" he asked Ik.

"I will do what I can. But John Bandicut, hrrm--" Ik peered at his friend. "John--are you able to--?" He stopped, stunned by the pain he saw, and the difficulty Bandicut was having breathing. "I'm afraid," he said to L'Kell, "that John Bandicut is one of the injured now. I do not know if he will live, without his stones."

Ik turned back to Bandicut, and was startled to see Li-Jared reaching out to touch first Bandicut, then the lander.

It had all come in a rush to Li-Jared. The pain and confusion on the human's face, the concern radiating in waves from the Thespi, and now the need of the Neri. Not those in positions of power, but the Neri dying in the hold, or in the habitat.

Li-Jared found himself crouching in front of Bandicut, listening to his labored breathing. "Bandie," he murmured. "Can you--" He paused, realizing that his words would not be understood. He244 * ,.

turned to the lander, who was watching with an indecipherable expression.

But Harding had the human's stones, and should be able to understand the words, at least. "Will you," Li-Jared said, tw.a.n.ging with nervousness, "allow me to save the life of the one who saved yours?"TURBULENT CLARITY I BANDICUT'S THOUGHTS SLIPPED and drifted, then cleared just in time for him to notice the points of light flickering through the air. From Li-Jared to the lander. From the lander to him. Like liquid jewels spattering from one to an- other.

His wrists burned. He watched stupidly as two marble-sized orbs of light shrank down to pinpoints and embedded themselves in his wrists, diamond-white on the right and black fire on the left.

He suddenly felt faint, as though from the pain. Dizzy. He struggled to hold on. It was not the pain; it was the stones reconnecting ...

"/It's working--"/ "John, are you--"

"John Bandicut?"

He could scarcely distinguish Antares' voice from Ik's. And then with a long, slow s.h.i.+ver, he felt the fog lift and blow away.

"/They've made the transition,"/ the quarx whispered.

"I'm... okay," he said, with a little gasp--and if his voice didn't work too well, the words did. Ik Hmm in satisfaction, and Antares squeezed his hand, sending waves of relief; and Li-Jared, his electric-blue eyes blinking like a lighthouse, was bonging in relief and amazement, "John Bandicut, John Bandicut, can you hear me can you hear me can you understand?"

And he laughed and nodded to Li-Jared, whispering thanks, and squeezed Antares' hand tightly before finally letting go.246 * .

The physical strength came back more slowly. His wheezing subsided, as the stones poured their effort into rebalancing his body chemistry and getting his breathing back to normal. After a few minutes, he could feel new strength start to flow back into his limbs. He sat up straighter, held his head up, watching the others.

Their attention had s.h.i.+fted back to the lander, once they were satisfied that Bandicut was safe. Harding was obviously having some trouble getting used to yet another abrupt change. He kept shaking his head, like a dog with something in its ear. But he did not seem angry. Bandicut understood, perhaps from his own stones, ., '".

that Harding had agreed to the change, had willingly let the stones !i return to their original host, to make room for new daughters from .

,ii Li-Jared. And now he was struggling to incorporate the new in place .1' of the old.

C,['.

'i "I--"

hroff "--don't--I think I can--" He shook his head with -, a jerk.

Bwong. "Can you understand what I'm saying? Are the words clear?"

Li-Jared was s.h.i.+fting his weight back and forth, left to right, ; peering nervously at the lander.

"Yes--" hrrrr "--yes, I begin to understand. Li-Jared. Yes, I-- yes. I am beginning to." Harding blinked his eyes, the concentric rings of his irises seeming to spin. He rubbed the side of his head with his pincer-fingered hand. "I was very--" hmmm "--dizzy.

ButI think we can speak now. Yes."

"Harding," Bandicut whispered.

The lander turned his head, fixing his bull's-eye gaze on Bandi- cut. For several heartbeats, they simply stared at each other, with locked gazes. Then, at the same moment, they both whispered, "Thank you."

i "John Bandicut," said L'Kell, interrupting. "I don't know if you were able to understand a few minutes ago. But there are swim- mers inside who need you, desperately. They are dying, John. Do you think you could..." His voice trailed off, perhaps because he had suddenly realized the intensity of the exchange he had inter- rupted. "I am very sorry to ask."

Bandicut wanted very badly to talk to Harding. But he swal- lowed and closed his eyes./Can we do it? Can we do some more healing?/ The quarx seemed to share his unutterable weariness as she replied,THE INFINITE SEA * 247 "/If we have to, then we can, I guess. "/ Bandicut glanced at Ik and nodded. "All right," he said, through a throat that felt like sandpaper. "Let's go."

Compressed air bled rapidly into the airlock, taking them to ambient pressure. When he stepped out into the sub hangar, Bandicut felt such a powerful feeling of homecoming that it stunned him to realize that he had been gone for less than two days, as he reckoned time. Led by Hargel, he and Ik walked through the habitat to the place where the sick had been brought--not the healing center, which was far too small, but the open meeting area where they had first met Askelanda. They paused at the entrance, horrified by the sight of Neri laid out on cots, on cus.h.i.+ons, on the floor before them. Inside the s.h.i.+pwreck, it had been dark--and they had never seen all of the radiation victims gathered together. There, it had been a desperate first-aid station; here they faced a full hospital floor, just as desperate.

"My G.o.d," Bandicut whispered.

"Moon and stars," Ik murmured in the same breath.

Hargel strode forward, calling out, "Corono! The aliens are here!

Where shall they start?"

The healer was on the far side of the room. But at Hargel's call, many of the Neri lying on cots turned their heads to look. Some peered at them with large, cloudy eyes. Others ignored them completely.

Even before Corono came to join them, the answer to the question was almost obvious: start just about anywhere. Many of the Neri they had not yet helped at all; many of those whom they had helped were failing again. Corono quickly identified the most urgent cases. Without a further word, they began.

The pa.s.sage of time was something almost outside of Bandicut's awareness, as they worked. It might have been another day, or another century, when they were joined by L'Kell and Kailan, who interrupted them to ask for instruction in using their own stones for healing. Bandicut stared at them in weary disbelief, too tired to be really surprised, but wondering why no one had thought of it before.

It wouldn't be easy, he told them, without a quarx, and without the experience of neurolinking to help them get started. But the need was great, and the Neri were willing; and they pressed their stones close, L'Kell to Bandicut's, and Kailan to Ik's. And soon the248 * .

two Neri were working alongside their alien friends, coaxing their people back toward life.

Bandicut was scarcely conscious by the time he was escorted to his sleeping room and given some food and drink. He was soon joined by Ik, but they were too tired to talk much. Ik sank into a deep meditation, and Bandicut lay down with a thick blanket wrapped around him. His mind was crowded with the events of the day. Without Char's help, he might have tossed and turned for hours. But the quarx touched him in the right places, and he slipped off quickly into a leaden sleep.

';;., He awoke, hours later, reverberating from intense dreams in which I '. the stones took on the forms of dancing brooms, scattering great ,{, '.' clouds of dust in the air, then vanis.h.i.+ng into a murky darkness, only l,' to reappear swinging overflowing buckets of water, water in which 'i he began to drown.

"/That came from somewhere ' deep down in the memory stores."/ /Yeah./He rubbed his temples, and then his wrists. There were ,:! two almost imperceptible b.u.mps where the stones resided. He heard voices in the next room. That was probably what woke him up. Ik was nowhere to be seen./I wonder how long I slept./ "/.

A long time.

You were tired, guy."/ /Yah. So how'd you pa.s.s the night?/ "/With catnaps.I don't need sleep the same wayyou do.