Startide Rising

Dennie was afraid of what Toshio intended to do. It was possible that he meant to delay leaving the island until Streaker's preparations were finished and it was too late for Takkata-Jim to interfere. Of course, by then it would be too late for him to rejoin the ship via sled.

  In that case the skiff would be Toshio's only chance. She had to find Hikahi before Gillian did. Gillian might decide to send the skiff after Tom Orley instead of Toshio.

  She knew she wasn't thinking things out, and felt a little guilty about her decision. But if she could lie to one dolphin, she could lie to another.

  93 ::: Takkata-Jim & Metz

  The former vice-captain tossed his head and gnashed his teeth as he contemplated the latest sabotage.

  "I will string their entrails from the foressst branches!" he hissed. The heavy waldo-arms of his armored spider whined.

  Ignacio Metz stared up at the thin, almost invisible wires that formed a tight tracery over the longboat, holding it to the ground. He blinked, trying to follow the trail of fibers into the forest.

  Metz shook his head. "Are you sure you're not overreacting, vice-captain? It seems to me the boy was only trying to make sure we didn't take off before we agreed to.

  Takkata-Jim whirled to glare down on the human. "And have you sssuddenly changed your mind, Doctor Metz? Do you now think we should let the lunatic woman who now controls Streaker send our crewmates out to certain death?"

  "N-no, of course not!" Metz shrank back from the dolphin officer's rancor. "We should persevere, I agree. We must try to make our offer of compromise to the Galactics, but ..."

  "But what?"

  Metz shrugged uncertainly. "I just don't think you should blame Toshio for doing his job ...."

  Takkata-Jim's jaws clapped together like a gunshot, and he caused the spider to advance upon Metz, stopping less than a meter from the nervous man.

  "You think! You THINK! Of all comedies, that one topsss all! You, who had the arrogance to suppose his wisdom exceeded the councils of Earth -- who brought pet monsters amongst an already fragile crew -- who deceived himself into thinking all was well, and ignored danger signs when his wisdom was needed by his desperate clients -- yes, Ignacio Metz. Tell me how you think-k!" Takkata-Jim snorted in derision.

  "B-but we ... you and I agreed on nearly everything! My gene-graft Stenos were your most loyal supporters! They're the only ones who stood by you!"

  "Your Stenos were not Stenos! They were benighted, erratic creatures who did not belong on thisss mission! I used them as I've used you. But don't class me with your monsters, Metz!"

  Stunned, Metz sagged back against the hull of the longboat.

  From nearby came the sounds of returning machines. With a withering glance, Takkata-Jim warned the human to be silent. Sreekah-pol's spider pushed through the foliage.

  "The fibersss lead to the p-pool," the fin announced. His Anglic was almost too high-pitched for Metz to follow. "They go below and wrap around the drill-tree sh-shaft-t."

  "You've cut them?"

  "Yesss!" The neo-fin tossed its head.

  Takkata-Jim nodded. "Dr. Metz, please prepare the Kiqui. They are our second greatest trade item, and musst be ready for inspection by whichever race we contact-t."

  "Where are you going?" Metz asked.

  "You don't want to know."

  Metz saw Takkata-Jim's determined expression. Then he noted the three Stenos. Their eyes gleamed with an eager madness.

  "You've been goading them in Primal!" he gasped. "I can tell! You've taken these fen over the edge! You're going to make them homicidals!"

  Takkata-Jim sighed. "I will wrestle with my conscience later, Dr. Metz. In the meantime I will do what I must to save the ship and our mission. Since a sane dolphin cannot kill human beings, I needed insane dolphins."

  The three Stenos grinned at Metz. He looked at their eyes in terror, and listened to their feral clickings.

  "You're mad!" he whispered.

  "No, Dr. Metz," Takkata-Jim shook his head pityingly. "You are mad. These fen are mad. But I am only acting as a desperate and dedicated human being might act. Criminal or patriot, that's a matter of opinion, but I am sentient."

  Metz's eyes were wide. "You can't take back to Earth anyone who knows ..." He paled, and turned to run for the airlock.

  Takkata-Jim did not even have to give the order. From Sreekah-pol's spider a burst of actinic blue light lanced out. Ignacio Metz sighed and fell to the muddy ground just outside the longboat's hatch. He stared up at Sreekah-pol, like a father betrayed by a son he had doted on.

  Takkata-Jim turned to his crew, hiding the nauseated feeling that churned within him.

  # Find, Find,

  Find and Kill,

  # Kill

  Soft-skin human

  Hairy ape

  # I wait, wait

  Here

  # Wait Here -- #

  The fen gave out a shrill assent in unison, and turned as one to go crashing back into the forest, heavy manipulator arms brushing aside saplings like twigs.

  The man groaned. Takkata-Jim looked down at him and considered putting him out of his misery. He wanted to. But he couldn't bring himself to do direct violence against a human being.

  Just as well, he thought. There are still repairs to do. I must be ready when my monsters return.

  Takkata-Jim stepped daintily over the supine human and climbed into the airlock.

  "Dr. Metz!" Toshio pulled the wounded man to one side and lifted his head. He whispered urgently as he applied a spray ampule of pain killer to the geneticist's neck. "Dr. Metz, can you hear me?"

  Metz blearily looked up at the young man. "Toshio? My boy, you've got to get away! Takkata-Jim has sent ..."

  "I know, Dr. Metz. I was hiding in the bushes when they shot you."

  "Then you heard," he sighed.

  "Yes, Sir."

  `And you know what a fool I've been ..."

  "Now's not the time for that, Dr. Metz. We've got to get you away. Charlie Dart's hiding nearby. I'll go get him now, while the Stenos are searching another part of the island."

  Metz clutched Toshio's arm. "They're hunting for him, too."

  "I know. And you've never seen a more stunned chimp. He honestly believed they'd never think he helped me! Let me go get him, and we'll move you away from here."

  Metz coughed, and red foam appeared on his lips. He shook his head.

  "No. Like Victor Frankenstein, it seems I am murdered by my own hubris. Leave me. You must go to your sled and depart."

  Toshio grimaced. "Their first stop was the pool, Dr. Metz. I followed and saw them sink my sled.

  "I ran ahead then to chase the Kiqui off the island. Dennie taught me their panic signal, and they split like crazed lemmings when I called it out, so at least they're safe from the Stenos ..."

  "Not Stenos," Metz corrected. "Demenso cetus metzii, I should think. 'Metz's mad dolphins' ... you know, I think I'm the first dolphin-perpetrated homicide in ..." He brought his fist to his mouth and coughed again.

  Metz looked at the red spittle in his hand, then up at Toshio. "We were going to give the Kiqui to the Galactics you know. I wasn't too happy about it, but he convinced me ..."

  "Takkata-Jim?"

  "Yes. He didn't think offering the ETs the location of the derelict fleet would be enough ..."

  "He's got tapes?" Toshio felt stunned. "But how ... ?"

  Metz wasn't listening. He seemed to be fading fast. " ... He didn't think that would be enough to win Streaker's freedom, so ... decided we'd give them the aboriginals, as well."

  The man grabbed feebly at Toshio's arm. "You must set them free, Toshio. Don't let the fanatics have them. They are so promising. They must have kind patrons. Maybe the Linten, or the Synthians ... but we're not suited for the job ... we'd ... we'd make them into caricatures of ourselves. we'd ..."

  The geneticist sagged.

  Toshio waited with him. It was all he could do for the man. His tiny aid kit could do nothing but ease the pain.
>
  Metz roused once more, a minute later. He stared up without seeing.

  "Takkata-Jim ..." he gasped. "I never thought of it before. Why, he's exactly what we've been looking for! I never realized, but he's not a dolphin. He's a man .... Who in the world would have thought ..."

  His voice faded into a rattle. His eyes rolled upward.

  Toshio found no pulse. He lowered the corpse to the ground and slipped back into the forest.

  "Metz is dead," he told Charles Dart. The chimp looked out from the bushes. The whites of his eyes shone.

  "B-b-but th-that's ..."

  "That's homicide, I know" Toshio nodded, sympathizing with Charles Dart. The one standard technique of uplift humans had taken unmodified from the Galactics was to ingrain a revulsion of patron-murder in their clients. Few thought it particularly hypocritical, considering man's liberal record in other areas. Still ...

  "Then they w-won't think twice about shooting you and me!"

  Toshio shrugged.

  "What're we gonna do?" Charlie had dropped all professorial mannerisms. He looked to Toshio for guidance.

  He's the adult and I'm the kid, Toshio thought bitterly. It should be the other way around.

  No, that's foolish. Age or patron-client status has nothing to do with it. I'm military. Keeping us alive is my job.

  He kept his nervousness hidden. "We'll do as we have done, Dr. Dart. We've got to harass them, and keep them from taking off as long as possible."

  Dart blinked a few times, then protested. "But we'll have no way off, then! Can't you get Streaker to come for us?"

  "If it turns out to be at all possible, I'm sure Gillian will try to make arrangements. But you and I are expendable now. Try to understand that, Dr. Dart. We're soldiers. They say there's a kind of satisfaction in sacrificing oneself for others. I guess it's true; otherwise there wouldn't ever be legends."

  The chimp tried to believe. His hands fluttered. "If they get b-back to Earth, they'll tell about what we did, won't they?"

  Toshio smiled. "You bet."

  Charlie looked at the ground for a moment. In the distance they could hear the Stenos crashing through the forest.

  "Uh, Toshio, there's something you oughta know."

  "What is it, Dr. Dart?"

  "Uh, you remember that thing I wanted to make them wait a few hours for, before taking off?"

  "Your experiment. Yes, I remember."

  "Well the instruments I left aboard Streaker will take the data, so the info will get home even if I don't."

  "Hey, that's great, Dr. Dart! I'm happy for you." Toshio knew what that meant to the chimp scientist.

  Charlie smiled weakly. "Yeah, well, it's too late to stop it from happening, so I figure you oughta know so it doesn't surprise you."

  Something about the way he said it made Toshio feel uneasy. "Tell me," he said.

  Charlie looked at his watch. "The robot will be where I want it in eighty minutes." He glanced up at Toshio a little nervously. "Then my bomb goes off."

  Toshio fell back against the bole of a tree. "Oh, great, that's all we need ..."

  "I was gonna tell Takkata-Jim just before, so we could hover when it exploded," Charlie explained sheepishly. "I wouldn't worry too much, though. I looked over Dennie's map of the cavern below the island. I'd say there's at least even money the mound won't fall in, but, you know ..." He spread his hands.

  Toshio sighed. They were going to die anyway. Fortunately, this latest twist didn't seem to have any cosmic implications.

  94 ::: Streaker

  "We're ready." He made the announcement quite matter-of-factly.

  Gillian looked up from the holo display. Hannes Suessi gave Gillian a two-fingered salute from the door jamb. Light from the bright hallway cast a stark trapezoid onto the floor of the dimly lit room.

  "The impedance matchings ... ?" she asked.

  "All darn near perfect. In fact, when we get back to Earth I'm going to suggest we buy a bunch of old hulls from the Thennanin to refit all Snarks with. We'll be slow, doubly so because of all the water in the central bay, but Streaker will lift, fly, and warp. And it'll take a hell of a punch to pound through the outer shell."

  Gillian put one foot on the desk. "There's still a lot of punch out there, Hannes."

  "She'll fly. As for the rest ..." The engineer shrugged. "The only constraint I'd suggest is that you let the engineering staff get an hour or so under sleep machines if you don't want us sagging on takeoff: Other than that, it's up to you now, Madame Captain."

  He stopped her before she could speak. "And don't go looking to us for any advice either, Gillian. You've been doing too good a job so far, and neither Tsh't nor I are going to say anything but aye aye, sir, and jump when you say so."

  Gillian closed her eyes and nodded. "All right," she said softly.

  Hannes looked through the open door from her office to Gillian's laboratory. He knew about the ancient cadaver. He had been there to help Tom Orley bring it back into the ship.

  He saw a glimpse of a silhouette suspended within a glass case. He shivered and turned away.

  Gillian's holo display showed a small, Ping-Pong-ball sized representation of Kithrup, and a scattering of small BBs as the planet's moons. Two clusters of blue and red dots were accompanied by tiny computer-code letters suspended in space.

  "Don't seem like too many of the nasty buggers are left," Suessi commented.

  "Those are just the ships in nearby space. The expanded view, about a cubic astron, shows two still substantial Galactic squadrons. We can't actually identify the fleets, of course, but the battle computer assigns colors on the basis of movement. They're still changing alliances out there.

  "Also, there's a plethora of survivors hiding out on the moons."

  Suessi pursed his lips. Almost he asked the question that was on everyone's mind, but he bit it back. Gillian answered anyway.

  "There's still been no word from Tom." She looked at her hands. "Until now we didn't really have any use for the information, but now ..." She paused.

  "But now we've got to know whether taking off would be suicide." Suessi finished her thought. He noticed Gillian was studying the display again.

  "You're trying to figure it out for yourself, aren't you?"

  Gillian shrugged. "Go get that hour, Hannes, or three, or ten. Tell your fen to take their naps at their stations, and toggle their sleep machines to the bridge."

  She frowned as she looked at the drifting dots. "I may be wrong. We may wind up choosing the lesser evil -- hiding down here until our gums start turning blue from metal poisoning or we starve. But I have a feeling, a hunch, we may have to act soon." She shook her head.

  "What about Toshio and Hikahi and the others?"

  Gillian did not answer. No answer was necessary. After a moment Suessi turned and left. He closed the door behind him.

  Dots. No more could be resolved by Streaker's passive sensors than drifting dots that occasionally came together in sparkling swarms and separated smaller in number. The battle computer went over the patterns and drew tentative conclusions. But the answer she needed was never there. "Would the surviving fleets be indifferent to the sudden reappearance of a long-lost Thennanin cruiser, or would they join forces to swat it out of the sky?" The decision lay with her. Never had Gillian felt so alone.

  "Where are you, boy? You live, I know. I can feel your distant breath. What are you doing right now?"

  To her left a green light started flashing. "Yes," she told the comm link.

  "Dr. Bassskin!" It was the voice of Wattaceti, calling from the bridge. "Hikahi callsss! She is at-t the relay! And she has Creideiki!"

  "Put her through!"

  There was a hiss as the operator raised the gain on the attenuated signal.

  "Gillian? Is that-t you?"

  "Yes, Hikahi. Thank God! Are you all right? And Creideiki's still at the relay?"

  "We are both quite well, Life-Cleaner. From what the fen on the bridge tell usss, you don't see
m to need us there at all!"

  "They're damned patron-sucking liars! And I wouldn't trade a one of them away for my left arm. Listen, we're missing five crewfen. You should be warned, two are atavistic and highly dangerous."

  The line hissed for a long moment. Then, "All are accounted for, Gillian," came the reply at last. "Four of them are dead."

  Gillian covered her eyes. "Dear Lord ..."

  "Keepiru is with usss," Hikahi answered her unasked question.

  "Poor Akki," Gillian sighed.

  "Send word to Calafia that he did his duty. Keepiru says he was defiant and sentient till the end."

  Gillian did not like the implication of Hikahi's message. "Hikahi, you're in command now. We need you back here now. I am this instant officially handing over ..."

  "Don't, Gillian," the fluting voice interrupted. "Please. Not yet-t. There are still things to be done with the skiff. Those on the island must be recovered, and the Kiqui volunteers."

  "I'm not sure we'll have time, Hikahi." The words were bitter as she spoke them. She thought of bright, ever self-deprecating Dennie Sudman, of the erudite Sah'ot, and Toshio, so very young and noble.

  "Has T-Tom called? Is there an emergency?"

  "Neither, yet. But ..."

  "Then what-t?"

  She couldn't explain. She tried in Trinary.

  * What a piercing sound I hear --

  * The peal of bugles, engines rising --

  * The tears of love abandoned --

  * Soon, so very soon -- *

  There was a long silence from the skiff. Then, it was not Hikahi's voice, but Creideiki's, that answered. In his repetitious, simply-phrased Trinary, there was something Gillian could only catch a hint of, something deep and a little eerie.

  * Sounds, All Sounds

  Answer Something

  Answer Something :

  * Acts, All Acts

  Make Sounds

  Make Sounds :

  * But Duty, All Duty

  Calls Silently