Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5 (11 page)

She looked down to the ground, to see what kind of legs the creature had, but could see none. The membranes, when they reached the floor, seemed to splay out – so the Dessite had either more than fifty feet, or none at all. It moved smoothly, though, and quite quickly. The shuffling noise they had heard was the sound the membranes made on the floor of the facility as the strange-looking creature flowed along it. There was another projection on each membrane about half-way down the body, and the creature in front of them was now using a handful of these to manipulate the cross bars which held the hatch tightly shut. The membranes rippled in a cascade effect, and seemed to effortlessly carry the iron bars along with them. The Dessites were a strong race, then.

In a very short time, the Dessite had the hatch open. It then propelled itself inside, head first, and pulled the porthole-like door to behind it. Grace and Ledin saw the iron bars slam back into position, and then heard a gurgling noise. The hatch was apparently filling with water. There was a long pause, and then a sudden rushing noise announced that the Dessite had exited the facility and was now on its way up to the surface.

“Best way out, if you ask me,” said Six, coming up so silently that he made both of them jump. “I don’t know about you two, but I’m certainly not too keen on trying to make it back out up that cylinder of water.”

Ledin was eyeing the hatch in front of him rather doubtfully, and raised one eyebrow. Six clapped him on the back. “Thinking of making a life here, are you?”

“Just hoping we can get out at all,” came back the laconic answer. “But I’m not complaining. It was almost worth coming just to ride that slide.”

“Great, wasn’t it? But you can see why they choose to exit via the sea, can’t you? In any case, we couldn’t take the upward column of water if we wanted to – there are no decompression stops. It would kill us.”

“Do you mind if we get on with trying to find the visitor?” Diva had come up while they were talking, and looked nettled.

Six touched an imaginary forelock, and bowed. “Kept modom waiting, have we? Please accept our humble excuses.”

“You wouldn’t know humble if it came up and introduced itself, nomus!”

“Look who’s talking!”

Diva gave a sort of growl low in her throat and tossed her head. The effect was somewhat spoilt by being encased in a mask pack. She gave up. “Oh, do come ON!”

“All right, all right. We’re on our way, your royal shirtiness.”

“I don’t know what you two find to chat on about all the time. You are worse than a pair of old washerwomen,” she snapped.

Both Six and Ledin looked most indignant and Grace giggled. They all fell in behind Diva and scurried as quietly as they could out of the slide chamber. Then Six took over again as expedition leader, and they filed after him, Ledin bringing up the rear.

They had to dodge several other Dessites on their way to find the visitor, and they began to wonder if the aliens were completely deaf. It seemed impossible that their progress should not have been heard. Despite walking as stealthily as they could, they were still making too much noise, and it surely couldn’t have been luck that had kept them from being discovered so far. They still managed to hear the Dessites in time to hide.

Their eyesight didn’t look too good either. It seemed as though Arcan was right: they had developed the ultra-violet part of the spectrum due to their watery environment, and could not see well in the longer wavelengths.

Even so, progress was sketchy and it took them three more mask pack changes before they reached the chamber where the visitor had said it was being held.

This was where their luck seemed to run out; there were two burly Dessites keeping a very good guard on the visitor. Six ducked back quickly out of sight.

“Ideas?” he said.

They thought about it. “Distraction?” suggested Ledin.

“What sort?”

“Err … noise won’t work; they don’t seem to have ears. How about if one of us runs past them?”

“Considering they can all communicate instantaneously with each other that doesn’t sound such a great idea to me,” said Six, with a shake of his head.

Grace began to speak, “What we need—” they all turned around with hopeful expressions, “—is a natural distraction. Suppose … suppose one of their hatches out into the ocean sprang a leak? We are so far down that they would have to take that seriously, wouldn’t they? Even if they themselves could survive underwater, all these installations certainly wouldn’t.”

Six’s face cleared. “Brilliant!” He looked around at them. “Okay. Ledin, you and Grace go and sort that out. We … ” he raised an enquiring eyebrow in Diva’s direction and received a fierce nod back, “ … will stay here and wait. Once these two guards are on the move it should be a piece of cake to get the visitor out of there. If you open one of their stopcocks on the port side, that should leave the starboard side fairly free for us to make our escape.”

Ledin nodded. “Shall we stay in case you need back-up?”

Six thought for a minute and then moved his head from side to side. “I don’t think so. You would be isolated on that side of the island, surrounded by Dessites. I think the risk of being discovered would escalate exponentially. It simply isn’t worth it. No, you should be long away before they even discover that there is a problem. So make sure you are. We will meet you back at the shuttle. Oh – and remember to release that vial of altered titanium oxide if you see any Dessites when you hit the water.”

“Very well. What does it do?” Ledin fingered a small vial which he had been handed earlier on.

“Arcan told me that the Dessites only see in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum – that is partly why we are difficult for them to see. They can’t pick up reds at all – and these new bodywraps from the Independence are only a black tinge short of red. If you release the vial into the water, it will, to all extents and purposes, blind them to anything else. It will show up so vividly on their retina rods that it should give you time to disappear into the ocean.”

Ledin examined the vial with more interest. “Sounds as if it might come in very handy, then.”

“Oh – and remember to stop for decompression on the way up. We are a long way underwater here, and even if there is less difference in pressure than there would be on Kwaide, it is still essential.”

Ledin agreed. “I’ll take care of it. We will see you back at the shuttle then. Good luck.” The two men did one of their usual complicated handshakes and then Ledin signed to Grace to follow him. She raised a hand in Diva’s direction, and the two girls exchanged a small smile before they separated.

LEDIN AND GRACE made their way with the utmost care to the port side of the island, towards the platform they had come from earlier. They were looking for some unattended hatches, in a place that would offer some cover. The last thing they needed was interruptions.

“How are we going to block the hatch open?” asked Grace.

“We get in, shut the door behind us, catching only the very edge of one metal bar, and then let the ocean in, and us out. Easy.”

Grace looked at him sideways, and raised both eyebrows. He seemed quite fearless, and right at this moment she wasn’t sure that she knew him at all. He seemed to sense her bewilderment, and looked down at her. His eyes crinkled up into a smile.

“Sorry. Did I sound too eager?”

She nodded, rather shyly.

“It comes from bringing yourself up in the uninhabitable zone. You get used to it after a while, and when there is something you have to do, a sort of second person kicks in and tries to get the thing done. I can’t explain it very well …”

“I understand. I am glad you are like that. I suppose that happens to me, too – except I feel scared all of the time.”

He smiled ruefully. “So do I. But on Kwaide, you learn young to hide any signs of fear that you might feel. The ones who show fear don’t make it to adulthood.”

She nodded. “I see.” Then she considered for a while. “You never ever mention any family. Did you not have sisters, like Six?”

A muscle in Ledin’s jaw tightened ominously. There was a long silence, and Grace thought that he wasn’t going to answer. Finally, reluctantly, the words seeped out of him, slowly, painfully. “I had one – absolutely beautiful – sister. She had shining golden hair and eyes that could look into your soul and lift a laugh out of any blackness. She was the most precious thing in the world to me.” He stopped, and Grace saw a sudden stark wretchedness in his face. “She … died,” he finished, his voice choking at the memory.

Grace touched his shoulder. “I am sorry. I … I didn’t mean to cause you pain.”

“I know.” He turned his face slightly away from her until he could get it back to a normal expression. “I … I never talk about it.”

“Perhaps you should.”

“Perhaps. —One day, maybe …”

“I will be honoured to hear about her. When you are ready.” She pointed to a hatch which had just become visible in front of them; one of a bank of seven. “How about one of these?”

Ledin had himself back under control. “Ideal, I would say. Right; you keep a sharp look-out, and I will open one of them. I think we can both get into one, can’t we?”

“You and I can, certainly. I am not so sure about Six and Diva!”

He tried to smile. “Diva will have something to say about it, I am sure!”

It didn’t take Ledin long to open up the hatch. He peered into the hollow chamber inside. “Plenty of room for both of us. Come on, then.”

He held Grace’s shoulders and she walked her legs up the wall and into the tube. Then Ledin swung himself once on the hatch, launching himself ably in after her, feet first. There was room for them both, though the bodywraps made it rather a tight squeeze. They lay alongside of each other, and Ledin had just enough room to raise his arms above his head and fiddle with the locking mechanism.

“That should do it,” he gasped, after struggling for about three minutes. “It has to be tight enough to hold until we are out of the outer hatch, but loose enough to break after a couple of minutes. I hope I have got it right.”

Grace tapped him on the mask pack. “We might have a slight problem,” she said.

“What?”

“Can you turn around in this tube?”

“Of course not. Why?”

“Because … if neither of us can turn around, how are we going to open the outer hatch?”

They stared at each other through the mask packs. Ledin’s face was a sight to see. “I am a fool,” he said finally. “Of course, the Dessites must use those prehensile foot fronds they have to close the inner hatch, and they have the upper, hand, membranes to get the outer hatch open. But my feet are nowhere near strong enough to open the metal rods.”

“Neither are mine. So one of us will have to go in head-first,” Grace pointed out. “And—” she made signs in the direction of her own, battered hands, “—I may not be able to manipulate the metal bars at all.”

He thought quickly. “Well it is no good us going in separate tubes, because the same thing holds –we wouldn’t be able to open the rods on the sea side.”

Grace suddenly became aware of a peripheral movement out of the corner of her eye.

“Don’t move!” She hissed. But her advice was unnecessary, Ledin had caught the slight shadow even before she had, and had frozen into immobility. There were two or three Dessites standing by their hatch, presumably about to exit the station.

Ledin slowly drew out his sword, as best he could in the cramped conditions. He wasn’t sure exactly how much use it would be to him if the Dessites decided to open that particular hatch, but he was determined to protect Grace for as long as life let him. He found himself catching his breath, his heart thumping in his throat, as he waited.

But they were lucky. They could hear the faint scraping of metal on metal as the Dessites opened their tubes, and Ledin breathed again as he realized that they had taken the first three consecutive tubes, and thanked Sacras that Grace and he had picked the middle one of the seven hatches.

He waited until they had gone, until the rumble of water had happened three times, and then he scrambled to reopen the metal rod.

Pausing only to check that there were no more Dessites around, he pulled himself out of the tube, and turned back, his head now on a level with Grace’s, still inside the tube.

“You will have to close this hatch,” he said. “You only need to get one rod across, and that need only just catch onto the hatch. Remember, though. It must hold long enough for us to be able to get free. If it doesn’t the higher pressure outside will push us back in again, and they will realize that it hasn’t been an accident.”

She nodded, a serious expression on her face. He bit his lip, and then examined the tube. It was not going to be easy to pull himself inside without hurting Grace. He considered, and then hooked his legs over the hatch, leaving himself dangling upside down for a few seconds. Then he twisted his head and torso, and threaded them down the tube. With his legs already at the same height, it was easier to force his way past Grace without causing her too much damage. At last he was in place.

“Change your mask-pack now,” he said. “I will do mine too. We should have as much air as possible available for the ascent.”

They scrambled a bit to change the packs. Grace had a horrid moment’s panic when her clumsy fingers fumbled too much and she couldn’t fasten hers. She began to shake, but then she managed to find the clasp, and press it into place. She forced herself to breath more slowly than she would have liked. Now was definitely not a good time to block the mask pack and leave herself without air. Just the thought of that made her feel faint. She looked at Ledin’s boots, now at a level with her mask pack, and felt just slightly encouraged. At least she was not alone. Perhaps she would never have to be alone again. She felt suddenly humbled. What right had she to wish for something like that? She would just have to take whatever Almagest was handing out, like anybody else.

When the pack was on, she turned her attention to the metal rods, lifting both hands above her head to try to get a firm grasp on the one she had chosen to pull across. For this job she really only had two thumbs and three fingers at her disposal, and that was counting both hands. Still, it should be enough. She positioned her remaining digits as well as she could on either side of the bar, and began to tug.

Nothing happened. She gave a gasp of exasperation, and pulled again. Still nothing. Grace closed her eyes. If she didn’t succeed in this then they would both either die or be captured by the Dessites. That simply was
not
going to happen. She screwed up her face and put everything she could into the straining against the metal. Finally she felt two things give. One was the metal bar, which she slipped across until it just caught on the latch. The other was the index finger of her left hand, which snapped with disappointing ease.

The pain took a few moments to travel along her stressed neurons, and when it came was rather less than she expected. But then, it was only a finger. Just one more finger. She was used to that sort of pain. And this time it would heal, so it wasn’t really important at all, was it? All the same, she bit her lip.

Her part done, she was able to relax her muscles slightly. She could hear muffled breathing from behind her, and the scrape of metal against metal told her that Ledin was managing to move the rods. It took him longer than she thought; the Dessites must be quite effective with their strange appendages. She knocked twice against his legs, to tell him that her part was done.

Just as she was wondering if they were going to be entombed forever inside the tube, there was a sharp crack, and an inrush of water – so strong that it threw her bodily against the back hatch. She knocked her head against the metal rod and – for a few long moments – saw stars.

Then the tube was full of water; she was aware of somebody tugging hard on her feet, dragging her out backwards, pulling her towards relative safety. She scrabbled to push against the sides of the tube with her hands to help, and gradually felt the metal fall behind her as she came out. As soon as she was clear, Ledin pulled her upright, and signaled frantically to her to follow him upwards, away from the hatch which could give way at any moment. They kicked hard to get as far away as possible, and then kicked again, this time to the right, to get back into the lee of the island, to find some cover amongst the floating rock.

Grace put a hand out to feel the rock. It was smooth to the touch, but full of holes too, which were permeated with strands of black. That must be the carbon nanographite. It must be astonishingly light if it could make rock float in water– even if it was salt water. Hmm. She would have to ask Arcan. He would be bound to know.

Ledin stopped and made signs to her to wait. They were starting the decompression protocol. She nodded her understanding, and spent some time looking about her. Although Ledin had the flask in his hand, ready to release the liquid that would mask them, there was no movement whatsoever nearby. They waited.

BACK INSIDE THE underwater facility, Six and Diva were waiting too. It seemed a long time since Ledin and Grace had left, and they were both getting restless; they were more accustomed to movement. Six glanced over at the Coriolan girl. She was alert, but tense. It was easy to see that every cell in her body was ready for action. Six knew just how she felt.

Still they crouched in their hiding place, silently quelling their impulses and trying to be patient. Six found himself wondering if the other two had been captured. But surely, if they had, there would have been some sign from the Dessite guards who were standing in their way? No, all must still be well. He reached up to rub his eyes, and then realized that he still had a mask pack on. It must be nearly time to change the packs. He nudged Diva, and signed to her to change to a new pack. She intimated that she was perfectly capable of knowing when to change her own mask pack, but obeyed anyway.

Suddenly there was instant reaction from the guards. One moment all was quiet, and they were absolutely inactive. The next – they had gone. In one fluid leap they had disappeared to the port side of the facility.

Six finished fastening the catch of his mask pack, and then they raced together towards the door where they knew that the visitor bimorph was being held. It took a few moments to force back the three heavy bolts, but then they were inside.

The bimorph was looking very different. His colour was putrid, and he pulsated weakly. Diva found herself staring at the small shape, horrified.

“I … I am very glad you c-came,” he said.

“Can you move?” she asked.

“Not just now; you will have to carry me.”

Six grabbed the bimorph and tucked him inside the carry-all he had been toting everywhere. The visitor went more than willingly. In a flash, they were outside the door and edging the bolts carefully back into place.