the cloud: blood! The arm had been torn from Bushka's body.
As though it wanted to spit him out, the kelp tentacles whipped away from Bushka and shunted him swiftly upward.
Scudi tipped the foil's nose up and drove for the surface. They found Bushka there, half-conscious and bleeding dangerously. A hunt of dashers, coming to the smell of blood, was whipped back by kelp fronds.
Later, after Kareen had treated Bushka, Brett and Panille lashed him to the cot and carried him forward. Ale walked alongside. "He's lost a lot of blood," she said. "The brachial artery was wide open."
Scudi remained at the helm, sparing only a brief glance at Bushka's pale face as the cot was lowered to the deck behind her. She held the foil in a tight circle within a kelp-free area. Choppy waves drummed a dulled tunk-tunk against the hull. The last of the unwanted water had gone overboard but the decks were still damp with it.
Scudi, the image of Bushka's injuries fresh in her mind, thought: Ship save us! The kelp has turned vicious!
Panille stood above Bushka. A wash of agony grayed Bushka's face but he appeared conscious. Seeing this, Panille demanded, "What were you trying to do?"
"Shhhh," Ale cautioned.
"'S'all right," Bushka managed. "Was gonna kill Gallow."
Panille could not suppress his outrage. "You almost killed us all!"
Kareen pulled Panille away.
Brett slid into the seat beside Scudi and looked out at the dark pile of the outpost with its foam-laced base. Little Sun had risen and the water was bright with the double light.
"Kelp," Bushka said.
"Hush," Ale said. "Save your strength."
"Gotta talk. Kelp has all the Guemes dead ... in it. All there. Said I tore off arm of humanity ... punished me in kind. Damn! Damn!" He tried to look at the place where his arm had been but the lashings on the cot restrained him.
Scudi stared wide-eyed at Brett. Was it possible the kelp took on the personality of all the dead it had absorbed? Would all the old scores be settled? Given consciousness finally and words in which to express itself, the kelp spoke in violent action. She shuddered as she looked out at the green fronds surrounding the foil.
"There are dashers all over the place," Scudi said.
"Where ... where's my arm?" Bushka moaned.
His eyes were closed and his large head looked even larger against the pale fabric of the cot.
"Packed in ice in the cooler," Ale said. "We'll interfere as little as possible with the wound tissue. Better chance for reattachment."
"Kelp knew I was just a fool that Gallow ... took advantage of," Bushka groaned. He twisted his head from side to side. "Why'd it hurt me?"
A heavy gust of wind popped the foil hard and thrust it sideways against the kelp. A loud thump sounded amidships and the foil heeled, righting itself with a rasping hiss.
"What is it? What's that?" Ale demanded.
Brett pointed to the sky above the outpost. "I think we've just had our attention called to something. Look! Have you ever seen that many LTAs?"
"LTAs hell!" Panille said. "Ship's guts! Those are hylighters! Thousands of them."
Brett stared open-mouthed. Like all Pandoran children, he had watched holos of the kelp's spore carriers, a phenomenon unseen on Pandora for generations. Panille was right! Hylighters!
"They're so beautiful," Scudi murmured.
Brett had to agree. The hylighters, giant organic hydrogen bags, danced with rainbow colors in the doubled sunlight. They drifted high across the outpost, moving southwest on a steady wind.
"It's out of our hands now," Panille said. "The kelp will do its own propagating."
"They're coming down," Brett said. "Look. Some of them are trailing tentacles in the water.
The flight of hylighters, well past the outpost now, moved in a gentle slope of wind toward the sea.
"It's almost as though they were being directed," Scudi said. "See how they move together."
Once more, something hard banged against the foil's hull. A channel opened beside them, spreading outward toward the place where the hylighters were coming down close above the water. Slowly at first, a current moved the foil into the new channel.
"Better go along with it," Panille said.
"But Twisp is still there at the outpost!" Brett objected.
"Kelp's directing this show," Panille said. "Your friend will have to take his own chances."
"I think Shadow's right," Scudi ventured. She pointed toward the outpost. "See? There are more hylighters. They're almost touching the rock."
"But what if Twisp comes back and we aren't ..."
"I'll bring us back as soon as the kelp lets us," Scudi said. She fired up the ramjets.
"No! I'll