Tizhos did not want any disruptions. The station seemed too small, too isolated down here beneath kilometers of icy black water. Conflict could too easily damage something and kill everyone, Sholen and humans alike. During her time in Hitode, Tizhos more and more felt the weight of all that darkness around the station.
With reluctance, she got up from her place in the common room and went to the operations office, which Irona had turned into his private command center. “Irona, I have some interesting new information.”
“Go ahead, then.”
“Two discoveries of note. First, I have reviewed the files in the computer of the new captive. They contain a great deal of value and I would like to send a copy up to the ship at once.”
“As you wish.” She could smell Irona becoming impatient. “Among the files I discovered a large amount of material about communication with the native Ilmatarans. I believe the humans can speak with them. Their vocabulary already includes several hundred concepts.”
A sharp scent of anger. “That strikes me as horrible news. Tizhos, tell me if you think the humans have contaminated the Ilmatarans with alien ideas and information.”
“I consider it likely. Past statements by several of the humans indicate they approve strongly of sharing information with other species.” Irona’s angry scent is mixed with a faint whiff of despair at that news. Tizhos wants to comfort him. “Of course, we have no proof that they have done so.”
“Ask the female about it. And if they have indeed transmitted alien science to the Ilmatarans, we must find a way to control or reverse the contamination.”
Thirteen
“I don’t know what we can do,” said Rob, using number-taps. “They’ve got the station, they’ve got the surface, and even if help is coming it’ll take months. I’m afraid we’re going to have to give up.”
Broadtail was silent for a while. Rob couldn’t tell if he was thinking about what he’d said or if he’d just fallen asleep the way the Ilmatarans did.
“I hold small echoes [of] stabbing,” said the alien. “Many cords I echo sound [of] stabbing twice adults-with-raised-pincers grasping carved stones.”
Rob mulled that over. At times he wondered if he and the alien were having completely different conversations. He looked through the lexicon. “You think we should try to attack the Sholen? Stab them?”
“I sound [of] stabbing twice. Sever many adults-with-raised-pincers outside a wall of ice.”
“Cut them off! I get it! Yeah! Good idea. But how?”
“Many large adults tie cords. Sever the cord tied to food.”
“There isn’t a—you mean the elevator?”
“You and I are a pair.”
“That’s a great idea, Broadtail. I’ll tell the others. If we can figure out how to do it, will you help us?”
“I and many adults swim beside you pincers extended.”
“Look,” said Rob. “They can’t have an infinite supply of those drop capsules; even if they’re fabbing up new ones they’ll run out of feedstock eventually. So their only way of bringing in more stuff is the elevator. Cut that off and all of a sudden we’re on nearly equal terms. Broadtail suggested it.”
There was a pause while Josef thought about it. “How will we get back up without it? I want to stay on Ilmatar, but not my entire life.”
Rob waved his hand as if brushing an insect aside. “Trivial. We reconnect the cable later. Forget the cable. If the Sholen haven’t packed up the surface base we can fab a new one out of local matter. The important thing is to steal the elevator capsule itself. Without it the Sholen can’t go up and down at all—and we can use it as another shelter. Heck, it is another shelter: same structure, same life support and power. The only difference is that the elevator has a hard-dock adapter instead of legs, and the buoyancy control system.”“Very well,” said Josef. “If we do want to steal it—how?
When? Elevator weighs tons.”
“We have a sub. If it can carry one of the Coqs it can carry the elevator.”
Josef looked thoughtful. “Is feasible, yes. As you say, load is comparable to a Coquille and elevator is neutrally buoyant. But taking cable is impossible.”
“So we cut it as high up as possible and make sure it doesn’t fall on Hitode. If the Sholen want to go out in suits and impellers to try to reconnect it, bully for them.”
“You forget about decompression. We need elevator to decompress going up. How can we capture it if we explode?”
“Use the sub. That’s my answer for everything. Take it up a kilometer next time the elevator comes down, so we can be in position when it’s on its way back up again. You and I can live aboard for a few days. Plus Broadtail says his people will help.
Next time it goes up, we board the elevator, take control, cut the cable, and skedaddle.”
“Elevator is probably guarded. Sholen are not stupid, you know.”
“I know they’re not stupid, which is why I don’t think they’d do that. A guard going up has to come back down again, which means the whole capacity of the elevator is reduced by twentyfive percent. It’d be simpler to just send up humans and send down more Sholen techs and soldiers. If they want to keep the passengers going up from messing with the elevator, they can just disconnect the internal controls and send them up without suits.”
“Hope the Sholen think the same. Robert, I have question for you. Do you want to find Alicia?”
“Well—kind of. It would make sense for them to get her out of Hitode as fast as possible. But this isn’t hormones talking.
Snatching the elevator makes sense no matter what.”
“Good. Just making sure you know your own motives.”
And so Broadtail finds himself with Holdhard and half a dozen of Longpincer’s servants, clinging to the back of the swimming shelter like so many juvenile mudcrawlers on their mother. Just ahead of him Builder 1 is speaking to the human inside through a slender cord. Broadtail isn’t sure how they do it, but it seems to work. The alien turns and taps Broadtail’s head gently with one digit. His tapping is still slow and full of false starts.“Rises house approaches. Builds fights. Grasp.”
The shelter starts to move through the empty water. Ahead Broadtail hears the faint echoes of something solid. As they get closer he can make out the echo of the great cable stretching from ground to sky. A few lengths below them an object the size of a small house is clinging to the cable.
Builder 1 pushes off from the back of the ship and swims toward the object. Broadtail wishes he had some cord to take notes on how the aliens swim. Broadtail pings and takes up his spear. He leads Longpincer’s servants down and takes up station beneath the climbing house, where the door is. Their job is to prevent the other creatures from beyond the ice from interfering with Builder’s work. “If anything comes out, count the limbs,” he reminds the others. “Four limbs good, six limbs bad.”
The swimming shelter maneuvers above the climbing house. Builder 1 connects a thick cable from the bottom of the swimming shelter to the top of the house, then moves around to the siphon devices on the sides of the climbing house that drive it upward.
They are making a tremendous amount of noise, which worries Broadtail. If there are enemies about, they are surely aware of what is happening. Broadtail doesn’t remember fighting these Squatters, but Builder 1 and the other Builders seem very afraid of them. He wonders if he can overcome one in a fight. They are as big as an adult, and their thick limbs could be very strong.
He catches a faint, sharp sound like the noise of Builder tools and risks a ping. The door on the bottom of the climbing house is open and a large creature is emerging. It is one of the Squatters! Broadtail summons as much anger as he can on behalf of the Builders. It is their climbing house and the Squatters are uninvited intruders. “Attack!” he calls to the others, and swims toward it.