The Chaos Chronicles - The Infinite Sea Part 34

"Can you broadcast sound?" Bandicut asked.

S'Cali looked at him in puzzlement. "If we need to, of course."

"Could we broadcast an announcement? Tell them that Harding is on his way back up, and they should please wait for him?"

"Can you speak Astari?" Antares asked softly.

He focused inward.

"/Pretty well, I think."/ "Of course I can," he said.

"As long as they don't come after us," S'Cali said, his hand on the maneuvering control.

"But you can get away from them, right?"

S'Cali conceded the point, and switched on the outside comm.

Bandicut leaned close to the mike. He thought a moment, and spoke slowly and clearly. "Hear this/Hear this/ We are the Neri, the sea-people. We have an Astari named Harding in our care. He is coming back up from the deep--slowly, to decompress. We wish to return him. Please wait for us to contact you again."

He repeated the message, twice--then listened for a reply. No answer came. S'Cali kept a watch on the screen; the lander blip continued descending toward the wreck. "It might have paused while you were talking," he said. "But I can't be sure." S'Cali touched the controls and got the sub back underway again, steering a zigzag course away from the wreck. After a few minutes, there was no sign of pursuit. "Let's go take a look at those solar arrays," he said.

The solar collectors were a good distance from the salvage site, almost directly above the Neri city. Once the seafioor began to fall off rapidly, S'Cali began ascending and then made a steady course at a depth of fifty or so meters. The water was clear and deep blue, and Bandicut realized that they must be getting close to the point where he and his friends had fallen into the sea in the star-spanner bubble.

"It's a lucky thing we didn't hit this array of yours when we landed," he murmured.272 * .

"You nearly did," said the Neri. "That was one of the reasons we went out after you in the first place."

Bandicut glanced at Antares, detecting amus.e.m.e.nt. He was star- tled to realize that for the first time since they had plummeted into the depths, he could really see the gold flame that haloed the pupils of her eyes. What a difference sunlight made, even sunlight atten- uated by over a hundred feet of water! Her eyes were quite strik- ing now, set off by a mouth that was expressive in unhuman ways, and framed by her flowing auburn hair.

"We're picking up a s.h.i.+p overhead," S'Cali said, tapping the sonar. He reduced power again, and watched thoughtfully. Bandi- cut waited in silence, wondering what this was going to mean. "It's a small one. It seems to be moving away from the direction of the arrays,"

S'Cali said. "The question is, did it pa.s.s over them, and if ,..

so, did it detect them."

"What will you do if they do find the arrays?" Antares asked.

"I.

don't know," S'Cali admitted, his eyes following the display.

"I.

don't know what we can do about it."

"Except hope that you aren't at war," Antares murmured.

S'Cali didn't answer, but changed his course, and slowly in- creased power again. He set a new heading to approach the arrays from a wide sweep to the side.

On the screen, they watched as the lander s.h.i.+p slowly moved out of range.

"S'Cali,"

Antares said, pointing up, "are those the collectors?"

In answer, the Neri raised the sub's nose and began his ascent. There were glimmers of silver visible now--the surface dancing high overhead--and across the expanse, wide patches of darker shadow."Those are the arrays," he said. "They're floating just below the surface."

"Why so irregular in shape?" Bandicut asked.

"I've been told," said S'Cali, "that it makes them less likely to be noticed from above, by making them look like vast arrays of floating weeds."

/Ah,/ Bandicut thought. /Sarga.s.so. It's just like the Sarga.s.so Sea./ "/???"/.

/Look for it under "Atlantic Ocean," on Earth. It's a large, calm area where enormous clumps of seaweed float just below the surface.

A big habitat for sea critters, I believe./THE INFINITE SEA * 273 "/Ah. There."/ The quarx had located an image from a nature holo seen a long time ago.

/That's it,/he murmured, pleased that he still had the memory, and pleased that Char was able to find things in the library of his mind.

The closer they got to the surface, the more noticeable was the drop in air pressure. The last ten meters produced the greatest proportional change. Antares had some trouble equalizing her respiratory sinuses, but true to promise, the normalization and translator-stones together kept them from suffering from bends.

It was like looking up through a stained-gla.s.s window, all in shades of blue and silver, with just the odd hint of yellow-gold. They cruised beneath the translucent solar panels, and S'Cali noted places in need of repair. He steered around the long cables that stretched down into the endless gloom from the arrays, leading to the seafloor and ultimately to the Neri settlements. The cables not only anch.o.r.ed the arrays, but also carried the power.

"Don't you lose a lot of sunlight, having them below the surface like that?" asked Bandicut.

"I suppose we do sacrifice light to the water," said S'Cali. "That's why they're so large. But having them subsurface protects them from wave action--and of course, from being seen."

When the survey was finished, S'Cali steered toward a small habitat bubble flanking one of the larger arrays. "If you've no objection, I believe we'll dock here for the night. It's one of the service habitats," he said. As they ascended, the water continued to brighten around them. It was Caribbean blue, dazzling to the eyes and heartbreakingly beautiful.

Once they were docked and secure, Antares and Bandicut followed S'Cali out through the airlock into the habitat. The Neri's first action, once outside, was to plug a power line into the sub. Where better to recharge? Bandicut thought. Right at the source.

Antares looked around, sniffing the musty air. There was no hangar pool, just a docking port for the sub's airlock. The habitat was mostly transparent, and spartanly furnished. "This is where the maintenance crews stay?" she asked.

"That's right. In earlier times, they used to make observations of the surface from here. And even--" S'Cali hesitated, struggling for the right words. Even in Neri, he was uncertain how to say it. "The holes in the night sky?"274 * *

"Astronomy?" Bandicut cried in delight. "They studied the stars in the sky?"

"Yes. That's it." S'Cali stretched the webs between his fingers.

"I know little of it, myself."

"But how did they see the stars?" Bandicut asked.

The Neri gestured overhead. "There is a place, a hatch. The top section of the habitat can be adjusted to breach the surface."

Antares' eyes shone golden. "Can you--can we go--?"

The Neri's mouth opened in something like a smile. "Would you like to taste the air of our world? Follow me."BENEATH THE OCEAN SKY I BANDICUT'S HEART NEARLY stopped as he stepped out under a vast, blue and white-streaked sky. He squinted, shading his eyes against the brilliance of the sun. He felt himself grinning like a fool. It seemed like a hundred years since he had been above water; he felt a tremendous sense of release. A second later he realized that the sun was brilliant only by comparison with the world under the sea., it was actually at this moment hidden behind whorled streaks of cloud low on the horizon.

"/This is breathtaking./ I have never seen open s.p.a.ce before.

Not through your eyes."/ Antares stood beside him, gazing across the water. He felt her wonderment before he saw the expression on her face: the widening of her eyes, the irises a thin golden ring around the black pupils. She gasped long, slow breaths as she took in the view. "I had not known," she said at last, "just how closed in I felt. Not until I saw this." She pushed her hair back from her temples, peering around.

He murmured agreement. It was a featureless sea, nearly calm except for slowly undulating, peaceful-looking waves--with nothing in sight except the sea, the sky, and the gently rocking platform that surrounded the exit hatch of the still mostly submerged habitat.

He stepped out to the edge of the platform and peered over the tow b.u.mper that protected the edge. They were about a meter above the water's surface. Several Neri ladders were s.p.a.ced around276 * .

the edge; if they fell off, they'd be able to get back up. Peering down into the water, he could see the shadowy presence of the solar arrays contrasting with the blue of the clear depths. It didn't look that much like sarga.s.so, he thought, but maybe it wouldn't be conspicuous from the air. Or maybe the landers didn't possess air- craft.

"The arrays move up and down, as needed," said S'Cali, from the hatch. "In high seas, or if the sensors detect something in the area, the array will drop to a deeper level. But it does take time to respond."

Bandicut turned, and had to look twice to spot S'Cali. The Neri's ,.

head was just visible below the lip of the hatch. "Are you coming ,;,I.

out?" Bandicut asked.

"I... don't know if there's any need. Unless you require a.s.sis- , ,..

tance . . ."

'ii Struck by the tentativeness in S'Cali's voice, Bandicut moved closer. "No, that's all right." Antares put a hand on his arm, and he looked at her and felt a strong sense of, Don't. He peered at her questioningly.

"/I think she means, leave poor S'Cali alone."/ /Why "poor" S'Cali?/ "/ A blind man could see it.

He's afraid of the open s.p.a.ce."/ Bandicut blinked, suddenly understanding. Of course. S'Cali lived under the sea, spent his whole life there. On an extraordinarily clear day he could see maybe a hundred meters. It must be terrifying to him to be under the openness of the sky. It was not the sea or the waves that frightened him; it was the sky.

"We're fine," Antares said softly toward the hatch. "Why don't you go on with whatever you need to do. We'll come down if we need anything."

"Good," said S'Cali, with obvious relief. He vanished below.

Bandicut looked at Antares. "He must feel the way Li-Jared feels undervater."

Antares hmnmed a.s.sent. "I wish we could bring Li-Jared up tosee the surface. It would do him good, I think." She reflected for a moment. "And we must remember to thank S'Cali."

"Eh?"THE INFINITE SEA * 277*

"For bringing us here. Oh, he has his inspections to do--and yes, we're keeping an eye out for lander s.h.i.+ps. But I have a feeling he brought us here as much for our benefit as his." She fell silent, and they stood awhile, soaking up the feel of the open sea. Suddenly she walked over to the hatch and called down, "S'Cali, is there anything in this water that would hurt us if we swam in it?"

Bandicut couldn't hear the answer, but Antares returned a moment later and said, "He says it should be safe. The pikarta don't usually come to the surface. I think I'd like to go for a swim."

She peered down into the water. "Would it disturb you if I disrobed?"

He tried not to swallow his tongue. "Uh--no, I guess not."

"/Distu rb? "/ /Shut up./ "Will you swim with me?" Antares asked, removing her slipper-like shoes. Before he could answer, she had done something to her pantsuit, and it opened down the front. She turned slightly as she shrugged it off over her shoulders, stepped out of it, folded it neatly, and stood nude in front of him. At last he could see the ways in which she was like, and unlike, a human female. She indeed had four b.r.e.a.s.t.s--small and round, with what looked like largish nipples slightly above the center of each. Her body was covered with a fine, silky hair, and something that looked like pubic fur started as a point between her lower two b.r.e.a.s.t.s, widened and thickened over her stomach, and thinned again as it narrowed to another point between her legs. Her arms and legs were very humanlike, except that the curves of her muscles were just different enough to be noticeable.

Bandicut said nothing; he was busy trying not to stare. He began to fumble with the closure on his jumpsuit.

"Bandie, I didn't mean--I don't want to make you feel--"

"No, no--it's fine. Yes, of course I'll join you." He opened the front of his jumpsuit.

"It's all right if you look at me. I'm curious about you, too."

"Okay," he murmured as he stepped out of his own clothes.

He stood self-consciously before her, thinking, It didn't feel like this when I gave Ik a look at the human form.

"/No, this is certainly very--"/ /Yes, it is./278 * .

Antares c.o.c.ked her head, gazing at him. "You're not so different from a Thespi. So that must be your--what an interesting place for it. How do you--never mind, you can tell me later."

Bandicut blushed. "Shall we swim?" he said, turning toward the water.

"Yes, let's."

Antares stood beside him at the edge. "After you," he said--and watched with admiring interest as she stretched and dove gracefully into the clear water. He followed suit--grunting as the water smacked his unprotected groin--and s.h.i.+vered in the coolness, then sighed with pleasure as he surfaced and swam with brisk, strong strokes through the water.

Antares surfaced nearby, her wet hair pulling back from her head. Her lips parted in a Thespi smile, and her stones flickered in her throat, and Bandicut grinned at her. They swam back and forth for a while, then in circles around the platform. Finally, by silent agreement, they returned to the ladder, where they hung in the water for a few minutes, savoring the relaxation. "It'll be getting dark soon," Antares said. She began to climb up the ladder. He floated backward with lazy strokes, watching with interest as she emerged, water running off her back. He waited until she was standing back on the platform, then swam back and climbed out himself.

They stood s.h.i.+vering in the cool air. Without towels, it seemed smart to dry in the air first, then dress. The sun was very low in the sky, half hidden by clouds. But overhead, and to the east, the sky was clearing. Antares' skin glistened with seawater; her nipples seemed larger and more prominent as her b.r.e.a.s.t.s contracted with the cold. He could see now that the pubic fur over her stomach covered a depression about where a human's belly b.u.t.ton would be.

"/Interesting."/ /To you?/ "/And to you."/ He said nothing. He was starting to feel dry, and apparently so was Antares, because she picked up her clothes and began to put them on. After they were both dressed, they stood together, gazing out over the water.

"Tell me what you're thinking, John," she said after a minute.

"Mm?" And he thought, Not on your life. Not yet. He cleared his throat. "Thinking... in what sense?"*

THE INFINITE SEA * 279.

She gazed earnestly at him. "In any sense. Bandie, so much has happened so quickly--and we've been thrown this way and that--and I've hardly had a chance to get to know my new friends. People I've come to care about very much, but don't really know. I don't mean just the Neri. I mean you."

He let out his breath softly, nodding.

"/How exactly does she mean this?"/ /I don't know. I'm not sure she knows herself. She's trying to sort things out./ "/Like you."/ /Yeah. Like me./ "ohn?" Antares uttered a low hissing sound: laughter, or maybe a chuckle. "You seemed to go away there, br a minute."

"Ah. Sorry. My idiot face." "Uuhhhl?"

He chuckled ruefully. "It happens when I'm talking to Charlie and I forget to keep up my outer appearance. I wish I didn't do that."

Antares gazed out over the empty sea, then back at him. 'John, you asked me once if I wanted to join stones, so that we could know each other better. I think I would like to do that, if you still want tO.'

He felt something funny in the pit of his stomach, and then a smile taking over his lips. "I think," he said quietly, "that getting to know each other better would be a very good idea."

It was cool in the salt sea air, and there was no place very corn~ fortable to sit, but neither of them wanted to leave the open air.