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They deliberately sealed the shafts? It was a purely rhetorical question, however, as Victoria pursued the implications. Jesus Christ! Whatever it was that killed them ... they must have uncovered it!

But they were alive, some of them at least, when they sealed the shafts, Raphael pointed out.

Which means they were too late! Whatever it was ... is, is already free.

Raphael nodded. We’ve searched every inch of the shafts. There’s no sign of anything in them now.

You’re certain of that?

As certain as I can be considering I have no idea what it might be. You want us to seal the shafts again?

Victoria considered it for several moments and finally shook her head. If we do, we’ll have to explain why and panic is an ugly, dangerous thing. If whatever it was is already free, there wouldn’t be any point in it anyway. And then we have to consider the possibility that we could let even more out if we sink another shaft. What we need to find out is what was down here to begin with.

Raphael nodded. The problem is, we haven’t any marine biologists with us, nobody that would have at least a clue of what to look for.

Victoria frowned. I’m no biologist, but it occurs to me that whatever it is couldn’t have been completely sealed off even before they sank the shafts. Otherwise, how would it get food? Unless it was in something like a hibernation state and had been trapped after it sought a safe place to hibernate.

That’s a pretty long stretch—underwater hibernators? But if it’s a possibility, then we’d certainly not be any safer sealing the shafts—obviously it didn’t work for our predecessors.

Victoria shook her head. You’re thinking in terms of Earth creatures. One thing you can count on when you’ve been on as many worlds as I have is that there’s never any telling what sort of creatures might have evolved. There might be similarities—there often are, but there are always vast, unpredictable differences too. I can’t even begin to guess what sort of conditions might result in an underwater creature that would hibernate, but that doesn’t mean there might not have been conditions on this planet that would have produced such a thing. Anyway, it’s all guess work. There hasn’t been enough studies done on Kay to give us even an educated guess.

What we need to know, fast, is is whatever it is still active? If it is, we’ve got a real situation on our hands—the weapons the other crew had were inadequate protection against it and we don’t have anything different.

Until we figure something out, remind the crew as often as it takes to get their attention that they’re to stay alert for trouble at all times. We can’t afford to be lulled into a false sense of safety by the fact that it hasn’t attacked us yet, Victoria finished, deciding it was time to head back. The place gave her the creeps. It would have if it had been nothing more than a hole. The fact that there was, or had been, some dangerous creature, or creatures, living in the caverns made it that much more creepy.

We also can’t afford to assume this is the source of the threat, Raphael said thoughtfully as he followed her back up the mine shaft. It looks like they thought so, but they might have been dead wrong. The crew was attacked from above, not just from below.

Victoria paused as they neared the entrance once more. You think we’re looking for two different threats?

Possibly.

Victoria thought it over. It does seem like the most likely scenario. To attack from above, it would have to also have the ability to fly, or climb—besides being able to breathe air or water. It seems the possibility would be pretty remote that one creature would be capable of it. This planet is mostly water ... doesn’t seem like there’d be a logical reason for it to evolve in such a way. On the other hand, it’s also possible that they were attacked by some local wildlife, sent out a distress call and exposed themselves to predators of a different variety,” she pointed out. The survivors of the attack by the creature might have been taken by pirates, as we thought before.

Raphael frowned thoughtfully, but finally shook is head. I think the threat’s here. And whatever it is it’s either more tenacious than anything we’ve ever encountered before, or it’s intelligent enough that it figured out a way in.

Restraining a shiver with an effort, Victoria checked her watch. See how much ore you can pull today. Tomorrow, before you send them down, put them on moving the ore up for processing. I want to have a closer look at the shaft and see if we can come up with some clue of what we’re up against.

They left the cavern then and headed back toward the habitat. Roach, Victoria saw with a good deal of irritation, was no where in sight. She frowned, looking around, more than half expecting to find him sitting somewhere, watching the miners work. She knew they hadn’t been down in the mine shaft long enough for him to have finished his tally. He was no where in sight, however, and her irritation increased as it occurred to her that he’d obviously thought up an excuse to return to the habitat. If he spent half as much time working as he did thinking up excuses to get out of work, he would’ve been a senior supervisor by now instead of just a foreman.

Raphael stopped her as she reached the access pool. Remember to expel the water before you surface.

She nodded, expelled the fluid and surfaced. The first breath of air she dragged into her lungs burned like fire however, and she still retained enough water to bring on a spasm of coughing. Brown helped her from the pool. “Where’s Roach?” she asked when she caught her breath at last.

His brows rose. “I haven’t seen him since he went in with you.”

Victoria’s annoyance vanished abruptly. “You’re sure he didn’t come back?”

Brown shrugged. “I’ve been here ever since you left. I guess he might have come back without me noticing,” he said doubtfully.

She turned to look at Raphael, who’d emerged directly behind her. “Check with the crew. See if anyone’s seen him.”

Raphael nodded and dove once more. Victoria stood a little shakily and moved to the inner com unit. “Roach, come back.”

She waited several minutes and tried the com unit again. “Roach, if you’re in the habitat, come back.”

Raphael surfaced. “No sign of him. Taylor said the last he saw of him was when he left the area to relieve himself.”

“That moron!” Victoria snapped furiously. “Find him, and when you do I want him in the brig for disobeying a direct order!”

Victoria paced the floor while she waited for word, checking her watch every few minutes. A half hour passed, and then an hour and anger finally gave way to concern. It began to look as if Roach wasn’t shirking his duties this time.

Chapter Ten

It didn’t take long for word to spread that Roach was missing. It was obviously the topic of conversation in the dining hall for the moment Victoria and Raphael entered, conversation ceased immediately.

“Any sign of Roach?” Brown asked Raphael.

“No,” Victoria said, answering before Raphael could. “We’ll have a search party out again first thing in the morning.”

“Looks to me like the humans here are rapidly becoming extinct,” he muttered, returning his attention to his plate.

Victoria didn’t have to ask him what he was implying. “Roach, as usual, completely ignored a direct order not to go off alone ... for any reason. He’s no rookie. He knows damn well we know next to nothing about Kay and that there could be any number of dangers just waiting for the unwary. Don’t make more of this than there is,” she said, looking at Brown but speaking loudly enough that everyone nearby could hear her.

“You think he’s dead?” Tuttle asked.

Victoria shrugged. “He could be. He might also be injured. Might have fallen into a chasm ... might have run into some of the indigenous life. We won’t know until we find him.”

“If we find him,” Brown muttered.

Victoria gave him a look. “If,” she said flatly and went to collect a plate.

Brown waited until they sat before pursuing the matter. “I’m thinking it’s a little strange, it being Roach.”

Victoria eyed him for several moments. “Why?”

“It ain’t no secret he was hot for you and the ... underwater foreman didn’t like it. Then, he goes down with you and Raphael, and you two come back, but he doesn’t.”

“Don’t beat around the bush, Brown, just spit it out,” Victoria said tightly.

“I didn’t stutter,” Brown snapped. “I’m saying maybe Roach had help disappearing ... like maybe Kichens had a little help over the railing.”

Chairs clattered as Quinton leapt to his feet, his face dark red with fury. Brown was on his feet at almost the same instant. Before the two men could come to blows, they were seized by other crew members.

Victoria glared at the two men. “Take both of them to the brig to cool down.” When the two men had been escorted out, Victoria turned to face the remaining crew members. “Let’s not make this any uglier than it has to be, people. We have two crew members missing. It’s a risk every one of us faces every time we take a mission onto an uncharted world. You all know this. We can’t afford to degenerate to name calling and in fighting. We’ve got a job to do here, and we’ve got enough to contend with without fighting among ourselves, or throwing around unfounded accusations.”

She looked at them each in turn, waiting to see if anyone else had comments to make. When they remained silent, she sat down again and made an effort to eat, although her stomach was tied into knots. One by one the crew members finished their meals and left.

“It was bound to happen,” Raphael said when they were alone.

“What?” Victoria said irritably. “Being accused of doing away with a fellow crew member?”

Raphael frowned. “We are not the same.”

Victoria rolled her eyes. “Not you too.”

Smiling faintly, Raphael caught her chin in his hand. “We were bred in tanks,” he reminded her. “We can’t ... interact with the others in the way they think of as ‘normal’. We make them nervous. They distrust us.”

Victoria studied him a long moment and finally smiled faintly in return. “I couldn’t help but notice that I don’t seem to fall into either category.”

“You don’t.”

Victoria shook her head. “I’m like everyone else around here--scared. The only difference, if there is one, is that I’ve never seen that turning on everyone around me helps in any way.” She frowned. “You know, I wouldn’t put it past that asshole Roach to have gone off hoping it would cause problems.”

“You’re going to feel remorseful for that remark if it turns out he really is injured.”

“No, I won’t. It he’s hurt, or dead, it’s his own damned fault. He was told. The problem with Roach has always been that he’s one of those people that think rules were made for everybody else and don’t apply to him.”

“What about you?”

“What about me?” Victoria echoed.

“Do you always follow the rules?”

Victoria shrugged. “Not always ... mostly ... but if I choose to disregard them, I prepare myself for the possible consequences. I don’t expect exceptions to be made just for me ... hope for them, maybe, like anybody else that gets caught doing something they know they shouldn’t have. Roach not only disregards every rule and every order, he is outraged when he’s punished.

“I think that’s the main thing that pissed me off about Brown’s suggestion ... He knows Roach, knows how he is and the truth is he detests Roach every bit as much as I do. If we were going just by dislike, practically everybody on the habitat would’ve had a motive to get rid of him.”

Raphael shook his head. “No. The main reason you disliked the accusation was because it was pointed at me.”

Victoria glanced at him sharply, then looked away. “That wasn’t it.”

“As he said, he didn’t stutter. He was pretty pointed about accusing the merfolk of trying to do away with the humans. Quinton and Albert pitched Kichens over the side ... not sure what their motive was supposed to be, maybe just because she was an air breather. And I removed my rival.”

“That’s absurd!” Victoria got up abruptly, cleared her place and strode across the room to drop her dishes in the tub provided for them. Raphael followed suit, but stopped her when she would have brushed past him.

“It’s not true, but I’m not sure it’ll make a difference now that Brown stated it so baldly. It’s what all of them were thinking already—Tuttle, Brown, the kitchen crew. They’re surrounded, and outnumbered, by freaks they fear and distrust ... and it doesn’t help that the two that went missing were with my people when it happened.”

Victoria punched him in the chest with her finger. “Don’t ever say that to me again. I don’t believe that. They don’t believe that ... not really. Do you think we’ve never been around genetically manipulated humans before? I’ve got news for you, if you think you’re freaky ... ‘your people’ as you call them, are beautiful. You should see some of the horrors the company has come up with in their efforts to design ‘humans’ for every little project. I’ve seen them with four arms, eight legs—no noses, or ears ... skin like frogs, or alligators—and most of them are doomed to live like that for the rest of their lives.

“I know that none of you really had any life experience ... but maybe you should consider yourself lucky, after all. This is what we are ... distrustful, unforgiving of anyone that’s different. If you’d grown up like we did, you would’ve already had the luxury of fending off bullies and clawing your way up from lowest man on the totem pole to a position where only the biggest fish in the pond get a shot at you.

“I’ve worked with most of these people before. As people go, they’re good people. When they’re scared, they get mean and nasty. If it wasn’t you and your crew, it would be somebody else, because they’re always going to find somebody to take out their fear and frustrations on.”

She pushed past him then, strode from the dining hall, through the rec room and into her living quarters, slamming the door behind her. Raphael followed at a more leisurely pace, bolting the door behind him.