Startide Rising (The Uplift Saga, #2) - David Brin Page 0,121

at last he made out a line of shadows moving slowly against the brightening horizon, spindly-legged figures, and one smaller, shambling thing. A column of tiny silhouettes moved slowly northward.

Tom shivered. They were headed toward the eggshell wreck. Unless he acted quickly, they would cut him off from his only chance at survival.

And he could tell already that they were Tandu.

PART SIX

Scatter

“The moot point is, whether Leviathan can long endure so wide a chase, and so remorseless a havoc … and the last whale, like the last man, smoke his last pipe, and then himself evaporate in the final puff.”

—HERMAN MELVILLE

64

Creideiki/Sah’ot

Creideiki stared at the holo display and concentrated. It was easier to talk than to listen. He could call up the words one or two at a time, speak them slowly, shuttling them like pearls on a string.

“… neural link … repaired … by … Gillian and Makanee … but … but … speech … still … still …”

“Still gone,” Sah’ot’s image nodded. “You can use tools now, though?”

Creideiki concentrated on Sah’ot’s simple question. You-can-use- … Each word was clear, its meaning obvious. But in a row they meant nothing. It was frustrating!

Sah’ot switched to Trinary.

* Tools to prod?

The balls

The starships—

* Is your jaw?

The player

The pilot— *

Creideiki nodded. That was much better, though even Trinary came to him like a foreign tongue, with difficulty.

* Spider walkers, walkers, walkers

* Holocomm talkers, talkers, talkers

Are my playthings, are— *

Creideiki averted his eyes. He knew there were elements of Primal in that simple phrase, in the repetition and high whistling. It was humiliating to still have an active, able mind, and know that to the outside world you sounded retarded.

At the same time, he wondered if Sah’ot noticed a trace of the language of his dreams—the voices of the old gods.

Listening to the captain, Sah’ot was relieved. Their first conversation had started off well, but toward the end Creideiki’s attention had begun to wander, especially when Sah’ot had started running him through a battery of linguistic tests. Now, after Makanee’s last operation, he seemed much more attentive.

He decided to test Creideiki’s listening ability by telling him about his discovery. He carefully and slowly explained in Trinary about the “singing” he had heard while linked to the robot in the drill-tree funnel.

Creideiki looked confused for a long moment as he concentrated on Sah’ot’s slow, simplified explanation, then he seemed to understand. In fact, from his expression, it seemed he thought it the most natural thing in the world that a planet should sing.

“Link … link me … pl—please.… I … I will … listen … listen …”

Sah’ot clapped his jaw in assent, pleased. Not that Creideiki, with his language centers burned, would be able to make out anything but static. It took all of Sah’ot’s subtle training and experience to trace the refrain. Except for that one time, when the voices from below had shouted in apparent anger, the sounds had been almost amorphous.

He still shuddered, remembering that one episode of lucidity.

“Okay, Creideiki,” he said as he made the connection. “Listen closely!”

Creideiki’s eyes recessed in concentration as the static crackled and popped over the line.

65

Gillian

“Triple damn! Well, we can’t wait for her to get here to start the move. It might take Hikahi two days to circle around in the skiff. I want to have Streaker safely inside the Seahorse by then.”

Suessi’s simulacrum shrugged. “Well, you could leave her a note.”

Gillian rubbed her eyes. “That’s just what we’ll do. We’ll drop a monofilament relay link at Streaker’s present position, so we can stay in touch with the party on the island. I’ll stick a message to the relay telling her where we’ve gone.”

“What about Toshio and Dennie?”

Gillian shrugged. “I’d hoped to send the skiff after them and Sah’ot … and maybe after Tom. But as things are, I’d better have Dennie and Sah’ot head toward your site by sled. I hate doing it. It’s dangerous and I need Toshio there watching Takkata-Jim until just before we take off.”

She didn’t mention the other reason for wanting Toshio to stay as long as possible. They both knew that Tom Orley, if he flew the glider home, would return to the island. He ought to have someone waiting for him.

“Are we really going to abandon Metz and Takkata-Jim?” Suessi looked perplexed.

“And Charlie Dart, apparently. He stowed away on the longboat. Yes, it’s their choice. They hope to make it home after the Galactics blow us to kingdom come. For all I know they may be right. Anyway, the