not understand him. “It’s them. The voices from below!”
Creideiki looked back at him, and Sah’ot realized that the captain already knew. In fact, he seemed hardly surprised. Creideiki crooned a soft melody of acceptance. He appeared content.
From the pilot’s station, Keepiru announced, “I’m getting neutrinos and anti-g flux! They’re coming from dead ahead. A small ship taking off.”
Hikahi nodded. “Probably Takkata-Jim. I hope Gillian’s right that he’s been taken care of.”
They continued to drive underwater toward the east. About a half-hour later, Keepiru shouted again. “More anti-g! A big ship! Taking off from near to the southwest!”
Creideiki’s flukes struck the surface of the water
* Up, up!
Up and Look!
* Look! :
Hikahi nodded to Keepiru. “Take her up.”
The skiff surfaced. Seawater slid in sheets off the ports.
They clustered around a southern port and watched as a distant wedge-shaped object erupted from the horizon, and lumbered into the sky, slowly gathering speed. They watched as it flew south, passing the speed of sound, finally disappearing into the high clouds.
They watched even after Streaker’s contrail began to drift and slowly come apart under Kithrup’s contrary winds.
PART TEN
Rapture
“They are the lads that always
live before the wind.”
—HERMAN MELVILLE
106
Toshio
Toshio swam hard as the swell tried to drag him backward. He fought the current and strove for the open sea. Finally, just as he felt aching arms and legs could do no more, he reached calmer waters. With burning lungs he turned and watched as the metal-mound, now almost two kilometers away, sank slowly into its pit.
The sinking couldn’t go on. The drill-tree had not completed its excavations when he and Dennie had blown it apart. The island would probably settle until the shaft was plugged.
Dull detonations groaned on all sides of him. Toshio treaded water and looked around. On islands in all directions trees swayed, and not from the wind. In the distance he saw at least three roiling clouds of steam and smoke rise from boiling patches in the sea. There was a growling of subsea quakes.
All this because of one little bomb? In spite of all he had been through, Toshio calmly wondered about the cause of it all. With nothing left to do but choose the manner of his dying, he felt queerly liberated.
What if the bomb released a vein of magma, Toshio wondered. If a volcano appeared anywhere, I’d think it would be in that drill-tree shaft. But I guess the island’s plugging it.
The metal-mound that had been his home for two weeks seemed to have stopped sinking. A few treetops waved above the water.
Toshio wondered about the fate of Charles Dart. He couldn’t imagine the chimpanzee swimming very far. Perhaps it was just as well. At least Charlie had had a clean exit.
Toshio felt a bit better having rested. He began swimming again, for the open sea.
About twenty minutes later there came another low rumbling. He turned around just in time to see the distant mound rocked by a terrific explosion. Dirt and vegetation flew in all directions. The mound itself heaved upward, almost out of the water, split apart, then fell back into a cloud of steam.
107
Takkata-Jim
“Calling battle fleet! Calling the battle fleet ahead! This is Lieutenant Takkata-Jim of the Terragens Survey Service. I wish to negotiate. Please ressspond!”
The receiver was silent. Takkata-Jim cursed. The radio must work. He had taken it from Thomas Orley’s sled, and that human always maintained his equipment. Why weren’t the Galactics answering?
The longboat was designed to be run by more than one person. The sudden and unexpected disaster at the island had forced him to abandon his Stenos. Now he had no one to help him. He had to juggle two or three jobs at once.
He watched the tactics display. A cluster of yellow lights were heading his way from Galactic north. It was a paltry flotilla compared with the great armadas that had come sweeping into the system only weeks ago. But it was still an awesome array of firepower. They were heading right for him.
Elsewhere, all was chaos. The planet was pockmarked with energy releases—boiling steam tornadoes where volcanoes emptied into the sea. And above the planet’s northern hemisphere a free-for-all battle was going on.
Takkata-Jim increased the scale on his display and saw another fleet. It, too, had just started turning toward him.
The ether was filled with a roar of voices. AM, FM, PCM—every spot on the dial took part in the confusion. Could that explain why nobody seemed to hear him?
No. The Galactics had sophisticated computers. It had to be his own