you’re right, Toshio. The X-ray spectrometer works. So do the laser zapper and the magnetometer. Can the robot still move?”
“Like a little rock lobster! The only thing it can’t do is float hack up. Its buoyancy tanks were ruptured when the piece of coral crashed down on it.”
“Where is the robot now?”
“It’s on a ledge about ninety meters down.” Toshio tapped the tiny keyboard and brought a holo schematic into space in front of the screen. “It’s given me a sonar map that deep. I’ve held off going any lower until I talk to Dr. Dart. We can only go down, one ledge at a time. Once the robot leaves a spot there’s no going back.”
The schematic showed a slightly tapered cylindrical cavity, descending into the metal-rich silicate rock of Kithrup’s thin crust. The walls were studded with outcrops and ledges, like the one the crippled probe now rested on.
A solid shaft ran up the great cavity, tilted at a slight angle. It was the great drill-root Toshio and Dennie had blown apart a few days earlier. The upper end rested against one rim of its own underwater excavation. The shaft disappeared into unknown territory below the mapped area.
“I think you’re right, Toshio,” Gillian grinned and squeezed the boy’s shoulder. “Charlie will be glad about this. It may help get him off Creideiki’s back. Do you want to ring him up with the news?”
Toshio was obviously pleased with the compliment, but taken aback by Gillian’s offer. “Uh, no, thank you, sir. I mean, couldn’t you just tuck this in when you report to the ship, today? I’m sure Dr. Dart will have questions I’m not qualified to handle …”
Gillian couldn’t blame Toshio. Presenting good news to Charles Dart was barely more pleasant than delivering bad news. But Toshio would have to come to grips with the chimp planetologist sooner or later. It would be best if he learned to deal with the problem from the start.
“Sorry, Toshio. Dr. Dart is all yours. Don’t forget that I’m leaving here in a few days. You’re the one who’s going to have to … satisfy Charlie, when he asks you to put in thirty-hour shifts.”
Toshio nodded seriously, taking her advice soberly until she managed to catch eye contact with him. She grinned until couldn’t help but blush and smile.
36
Akki
Hurrying to get to the bridge before watch change, Akki took a shortcut through the outlock. In his haste he was halfway across the wide chamber before he noticed anything different.
He did an overhead flip to stop. His gill-lungs heaved, and he cursed himself for an idiot, speeding and doing fancy maneuvers when there just wasn’t enough oxygen available!
The outlock was as empty as he had ever seen it. The captain’s gig had been lost at the Shallow Cluster. Heavy sleds and a lot of equipment had been moved to the Thennanin wreck, and Lieutenant Hikahi had taken the skiff there only yesterday.
There was a cluster of activity around the longboat, the last and largest of Streaker’s pinnaces. Several crewfen used mechanical spiders to carry crates into the small spacecraft. Akki forgot his haste to be early on duty, and kicked a lazy spiral toward the activity.
He swam up behind one spider-riding dolphin. The fin’s spider carried a large box in its waldo-arms.
“Hey Sup-peh, v-what’s going on here?” Akki kept his sentences short and simple. He was getting better speaking Anglic in oxywater, but if a Calafian couldn’t speak properly, what where the others to think?
The other dolphin looked up. “Oh, hello, Mr. Akki. Change of orders is what-t. We’re checking the longboat for spaceworthiness. Also, we been told to load these cratesss.”
“What are vey … er, what’s in the boxes?”
“Dr. Metz’s records, seemsss-s,” the spider’s third manipulator arm waved toward the pile of waterproof cartons. “Imagine, all our grandparents ’n’ grandchildren here, listed on mag chips. It gives you a feeling of continuity, don’t it-t-t?”
Sup-peh was from the South Atlantic community, a clan which took pride in quaint speech. Akki wondered if it were really eccentricity as much as plain dimness. “I thought you were on the supply run to the Thennanin ship?” he asked. Sup-peh was usually assigned tasks that required minimal finesse.
“That I were, Mr. Akki. But-t-t those runs have been stopped. The ship’s closed down, didn’t you hear? We’re all swimming in circles t-till it’s clearer about the captain’sss condition.”
“Wvhat?” Akki choked. “… the captain …?”
“Got hurt in an inspection outside the ship. ’Lectrocuted, I hear. Barely found him before his