"May we ask what is going on?" Ik said quietly, as the small sub sped through the water.
L'Kell ignored the question, as his hands worked the control surfaces. It seemed to Bandicut, as he watched the Neri, that the controls were awkwardly designed for the Neri's hands; nevertheless, L'Kell was a skilled pilot. He steered the vessel on a breathtaking slalom course among six or seven immense, luminous habitats. Several times, as they passed the glowing walls, Bandicut caught glimpses of shadowy Neri inside the habitats, moving close to the walls, and peering out.
He shivered. For a brief, hallucinatory moment, he felt as if he were gliding through the skyline of an eerie, celestial city—or diving into a virtual reality sim—or anywhere except in the perilous depths of an alien sea. Then he glimpsed the looming blackness of the sea-bottom slope beneath the habitats, and heard a distant rumble of venting air bubbles, and suddenly it all seemed far too real.
The sub dove beneath a large cluster of habitats and slowed. L'Kell pitched the nose up, and Bandicut squinted as they rose toward an oval, mirrored surface which formed the underside of one of the structures. An air-water surface. There were two shadows in the mirror that appeared to be docked vessels. L'Kell steered between them. The sub bobbed, then rocked slightly, as it breached the surface. The top half of the nose window broke out of the water, and light poured in.
There was a whisper of air around Bandicut, and a popping in his ears told him that the cabin pressurization was increasing to match the depth. L'Kell ran his fingers over the controls, and most of the lights went out. Then he turned his head to stare at Bandicut and Ik. "There has been a very bad incident— many Neri hurt. When Askelanda meets you, he will want to know everything that you know about it."
Bandicut's voice caught. "We will speak honestly—but we know nothing of what has happened on your world."
There was again that strange illusion that the Neri's eyes were spinning. "I hope that is so. Now follow, and do not stray." Without waiting for a reply, L'Kell drew himself back into a crouch, gestured to the other Neri, then stretched up to open the hatch overhead. A shaft of light shone into the sub. "This way," L'Kell said, and climbed out.
Bandicut had to squirm around to get into the hatch tunnel. The hand and footholds felt awkward in his grip. When he emerged and looked around, squinting in the light of the submersible hangar, he realized that he was standing in a sort of conning tower or sail atop the sub. For the first time, he could see the hull of the vessel they had ridden in. It was about five meters long, metallic grey, with curiously fluted surfaces running along the hull and curling around the tower. Two similar craft floated nearby.
"Interesting," said Ik, poking his head out of the hatch beside him.
"Come," barked L'Kell, from the bow of the sub. Bandicut climbed awkwardly out of the tower and made his way along the narrow topdeck of the sub toward the docking platform. Four Neri stood on a walkway that ringed the open water, and it didn't take long to notice that they were holding pointed objects that looked like spearguns. L'Kell stepped across the gap between the sub and the walkway, and watched as Bandicut hesitated. It wasn't a difficult gap to jump across; what bothered him was the feeling of stepping over a glowing invitation to a bottomless grave.
As he crossed, he thought he saw a flickering of slightly brighter illumination below, and felt a faint rumble through his feet.
The Neri guards stirred. "Geesh-kah!" one of them muttered, glancing down. L'Kell answered in a more subdued voice. Bandicut could not understand the words, but the tone seemed clear: suspicion, as the guards stared at Bandicut and Ik . . .and unease. But was the unease due to them, or to the rumbling from below?
* * *
/I wonder what they've done with Antares and Li-Jared and the robots,/ Bandicut thought, following L'Kell into a tubelike passageway that led from the submarine hangar to another habitat bubble.
/// Yes, well, I'm wondering
what this terrible incident was
that has them all so suspicious, ///
the quarx said moodily.
/// Do you suppose our arrival on the planet
had anything to do with it? ///
Bandicut frowned at the thought. /I hope not. Do the translators know anything about it?/
/// They say they don't.
I'm not sure whether I believe them. ///
There was something in the quarx's voice that worried Bandicut. Since when did Charlie doubt the word of the translators? This incarnation was starting to seem like a genuinely depressive personality, contrary to his cavalier initial appearance. /Why don't you believe them, Charlie? Is there something wrong?/
/// Something wrong?
Are you kidding, Bandicut?
Everything is wrong.
This whole damned thing is wrong.
I can't imagine why we're here. ///
Bandicut absorbed the quarx's words in silence. Whatever else he had to adapt to here, the newest quarx was going to be high on the list.
A sharp command from one of the Neri made him move a little faster. They were crawling more than walking now, up a sloping tube that was set at close to a forty-five-degree angle. The shoeless Neri, with the webbings retracted on their hands and feet, seemed to have little trouble negotiating the slope; but Bandicut, with his bare hands and rubber-soled shoes, was finding it difficult. Ik hissed and hrrmed behind him, apparently having some trouble, too.
The connecting tube finally came to an end, and they stepped out into a large chamber—a room—that for the first time looked like something that people might actually live in. Its walls were roughly spherical, but it was broken up by partitions into a variety of open spaces and alcoves, with overlooks and stairlike segments, and variously shaped pieces of furniture. After a moment, he became aware of the voices—a choir of hissing, murmuring voices. It was a choir without melody, though, almost like a rainfall over an irregular surface. Was it his imagination, or were the voices taut with urgency? All through the chamber, Neri seemed to be moving about, as though pacing.
L'Kell led them to a spot overlooking the open center of the room. Neri all around were turning or looking up at them, or peering down from higher balconies. Though he was unbound, he felt like a prisoner in chains. "Here we will wait," said L'Kell.
They did not have to wait long. There was a sigh of air pressure equalizing from somewhere, and an echoing gurgle of water. This seemed to cause a commotion among the Neri, and Bandicut tensed. The Neri below began moving toward the far side of the room. Bandicut instinctively leaned over the balcony and said, "What's this?"
Ik turned to look cautiously over his shoulder. Three or four spears were pointed at their backs. "I think," he said, in a droll tone, "that it is time to stay put."
Bandicut grunted, and wondered what Charlie was thinking. But from the quarx he heard only silence. Gloomy silence. /You there?/ More silence. And then:
/// Yeah. ///
Okay, he thought. He focused back on the Neri, who were gathering into something like a receiving line at an entrance. "L'Kell," he murmured, "what is this—someone arriving? A leader, or dignitary? Everyone seems—" L'Kell looked at him sharply, without speaking, and he fell silent.
A murmur rose, and two new Neri appeared at the edge of the room, walking through an opening in the crowd. At first Bandicut thought they were the ones being greeted. Then he realized that they were simply leading the arrival. Behind them, a Neri appeared who was clearly injured, or very ill, or old. It walked bent over, with an obvious limp. When it finally looked up, its face was covered with lesions and sores. It took a few steps into the room, then turned to look back.
Behind it, two more Neri were bearing a third on a litter. This one was not moving. Was it dead? Bandicut wondered. The voices fell silent. Another litter appeared. This victim was stirring, but only weakly. Finally, a fourth appeared, leaning on the arm of an escort. It appeared in a condition similar to the first.
The greeting Neri closed ranks behind them, as they moved toward the center of the room. Some of the Neri glanced up at the alien visitors—or prisoners—with an intensity that made Bandicut uneasy.
A taller Neri stepped out now from below the balcony on which Bandicut stood. The room fell silent. The tall Neri, who wore something around his neck that looked like a stole made of collected leaves and shells, spoke to the new arrivals in a voice that was a combination of whistle and bark. He stepped slowly among the new arrivals, touching each with a bony hand. Then he stepped back again, and turned the other way. Bandicut finally got a look at his face. His complexion was a dusty charcoal gray, rather than black. He appeared very old. Was he the leader?
A glance at L'Kell seemed to confirm that thought. L'Kell nudged Bandicut and Ik to attention. "Askelanda!" L'Kell called. "I have the—" hssss "—intruders here. Do you wish to question them?"
"Hockkk!" said Askelanda, raising one hand.
"This way," said L'Kell. Ik and Bandicut followed him down a half-stair, half-ramp, and approached Askelanda. The tall Neri studied them in silence, then made a gesture to L'Kell, who did the speaking. "Look before you at the latest casualties of the—" hssss "—death—poison—madness from ashore. Look at them and answer truthfully. Do you know what has caused this? Do you know the people—" he sputtered that last word, as if it caused a bad taste in his mouth "—who have caused this?"
Bandicut started to open his mouth, then closed it. From where he stood now, he could see little more of the injured Neri—except the pain on their faces. Even on their dark, alien faces, he could see the pain. A Neri wearing a harness with many pockets was moving among them, looking closely at each in turn. A healer? Bandicut swallowed, and glanced into the dusty-seeming eyes of Askelanda, and finally answered L'Kell. "I am sorry. I know nothing of this. We have only just arrived in this place, in this sea, on this world. We know nothing of what, or who, caused this."
L'Kell spoke to the leader.
Askelanda turned and issued several brief orders. The injured Neri were helped out of the room, and Askelanda turned back to L'Kell, who translated. "These brave swimmers have been stricken by an invisible blight—a blight from the landers, who poison even abandoned wrecks. They will die soon, all of them, unless Corono finds a way to heal them." Askelanda gestured toward the Neri Bandicut had noticed moving among the sick. Then he studied Bandicut and Ik for a moment, before continuing, through L'Kell. "We would like to know about you. L'Kell has passed on strange reports. But know that if you are in any way responsible for the sickness that you have just seen, then you too will die."
L'Kell interrupted the leader, and there were some words back and forth before L'Kell continued the translation. "I do not mean this as a threat but as a statement of fact, since you have said that you come from above the water, where this madness, this sickness comes from." More words between them. "It is possible that you are innocent. If you are, then help us." Askelanda fell silent and waited expectantly.
Bandicut held out his hands in helpless puzzlement. As his wrists were momentarily exposed, a murmur arose from the Neri standing nearby. It was the stones, of course, twinkling beneath his skin. He wondered if they had noticed the stones yet in the side of L'Kell's head.
As if hearing his thought, L'Kell spoke above the murmurs so that the other Neri could hear him. "Do you want to know how I can speak to, and understand, the intruders? This is how." He turned his head, and a fold in the skin rippled, and the stone on that side of his head flickered, visible just for a moment. The other Neri hissed and muttered, more loudly still when L'Kell pointed to Ik, and Ik turned his head to expose his stones.
Askelanda whistled for silence. Bandicut was aware of the sharp-tipped spears still at his back. Askelanda took a step toward L'Kell and spoke sharply. L'Kell dutifully translated, "Are you still L'Kell of the Neri? Still yourself?" And with only a moment's pause, L'Kell answered the question. "I am, Askelanda. I am unchanged—except that I can speak with our guests." And with pointed hand gestures, he added, "These are John Bandicut the Human, and Ik the Hraachee'an."
Askelanda murmured softly. He turned and spoke directly to Bandicut. His words were an untranslated rasp.
Bandicut felt a sting in his wrists.
*Raise your wrists, toward L'Kell.*
/Uh?/ He blinked at the sudden instruction from his stones. Then he understood. He raised his hands, palms out.
L'Kell peered at him, uncomprehending. He touched his own stones for a moment, then stepped forward slowly. "I feel that we should . . .though I do not understand . . ." He took Bandicut's wrists in his hands and raised them to the sides of his head. His eyes seemed to lose focus.
Bandicut suppressed a shudder at the Neri's touch. L'Kell's skin felt dry and rubbery; there were folds and tucks along the fingers, where the swimmer's webbing had drawn back out of the way. Bandicut's stones began to tingle almost effervescently as L'Kell drew them close to his. Bandicut felt a flush of nervous energy as something passed out of him, through him, back into him. /What are we doing?/ he whispered.
He expected the quarx to answer, but instead the nervous rush peaked, causing him to shiver involuntarily. And then the stones answered:
*Exchanging linguistic information.*
The feelings ebbed away. He drew a slow, deep breath, and lowered his hands. "Can you . . .understand me better now?" he asked the Neri.
L'Kell's huge, black eyes blinked. "I can hear you clearly. But what just happened?"
Bandicut closed his eyes, trying to capture the precise answer to that question. He glimpsed a fleeting image of swirling clouds of knowledge, similar to what he had seen in the inner world of the ice caverns of Shipworld. He felt dizzy for a moment, and had to open his eyes to remain standing. "I think . . .I have just been given knowledge of your language, L'Kell. Your stones, which came from mine, have settled in—and have adapted, and learned. And now they have shared what they have learned, at least of your language." He touched his brow with one hand, still feeling some of the dizziness.
"This is extraordinary." The words were spoken flatly. He was startled to realize that they were not L'Kell's words. They were Askelanda's. Translated by his stones alone.
Bandicut bowed. "Askelanda?" he said softly. "Do you understand my words?" There was a reverberation around him as he spoke, an echo following his words. Were his translator-stones actually translating his words, audibly, to the Neri? Usually it took two sets of stones, communicating with each other. And yet, he recalled—a lifetime ago, when he was seizing Neptune Explorer for his comet-stopping journey—that the stones had turned his words into an audible alien tongue.
"It would seem so," said Askelanda, drawing himself a little straighter. "Astonishing!" He turned to the other Neri, and from the murmuring, it was clear that he was not alone in understanding the human's words. Bandicut was startled to realize that he, in turn, understood many of the expressions of surprise and suspicion around him.
Askelanda moved around him in a slow circle, studying him. "Who are you, really?" the Neri leader asked.
Bandicut touched his palms together in what he now knew to be a Neri sign of respect. "I am John Bandicut, Human, of the planet Earth. It is exactly as L'Kell said." He glanced at Ik, and realized that Ik was following his words, but not necessarily Askelanda's. "My companion is Ik, of the planet Hraachee'a. We are truly new arrivals to your world, and know only what we have learned here, from your people. We wish—"
"Then how," interrupted Askelanda, "is it that with no knowledge of our people, you have the power to do this?" He gestured to L'Kell. "What power do you have in these . . .stones? The power to make my leader your servant? Your slave?"
Bandicut started to shake his head, saying, "No. No." Then he sighed, realizing that he would have asked the same question. "Askelanda," he said, trying hard to get the pronunciation of the leader's name right, "I do not control L'Kell in any way, or wish to. This power—of words, of thought—is not even from me, really, but rather is—" and he hesitated, thinking, is a gift of . . .the Shipworld Masters? and finally said "—a gift of the translator."
"And who," said Askelanda, "is the translator?"
"Well—" Bandicut swallowed; this was no time to tell the whole story. "The translator is . . .the machine that gave birth to these stones." He rubbed his wrists. "Daughter-stones, they are called, daughters of the translator. We do not control each other, the stones and I. But by agreement, we often help each other."
Askelanda eyed him for a moment, then stepped away, motioning several of the Neri, including L'Kell, to walk with him. Moving away from Bandicut and Ik, they spoke in low voices for a minute. Finally they returned to face Bandicut.
"These stones of yours—they are very powerful. Can they help our dying friends?" Askelanda barked, his voice startlingly harsh.
"I don't know," Bandicut said, taken aback. He half closed his eyes and turn the question inward. /Can we help them?/
There was no reply from the stones, and the quarx was slow in answering. The first sound was a quarxian sigh. Then:
/// What am I, a miracle worker? ///
Bandicut drew a measured breath. /Well . . .your predecessors helped heal me of serious injuries, on two different occasions. I thought there might be a way. For the stones, maybe./
/// I can ask. ///
/But you know—/ he hesitated, stung by the quarx's sullen response /—it wasn't really the stones that did the healing. It was you—the Charlies before you. I guess it took some knowledge of my physiology . . ./
/// Well, I know nuts about Neri physiology.
So I guess the answer's no. ///
Bandicut exhaled, nodding. To L'Kell and Askelanda, he said, "I don't think so. Not without knowing more, anyway. Perhaps if we knew what happened to your friends—"
Askelanda silenced him with a raised hand. "We have much to learn, all of us. But there is no time; we must see to our people. There may be time for your questions later." He turned to L'Kell. "Take them to the—" rrrzzz
The final word was too much for the translators. But Bandicut thought he had a pretty good idea what it meant. "Have you ever been in jail, Ik?" he murmured under his breath.
"Hrah," was all the Hraachee'an said.