“Sounds great,” Carrie said, and slipped into the cargo hold.
Carrie couldn’t help grinning as Sarbin nuzzled her with his snout. Her body began adapting to the watery environment even within her lifesuit. Her chest expanded (Not that Matt would let himself notice, she thought) to allow her to take in more oxygen, her blood coursed more quickly through her veins, and her skin thickened slightly. As usual when her body underwent its transformation, she felt more alive than she ever did on land.
Sarbin emitted a series of clicks, and Carrie’s datalink translated: “I’m so eager to leave—Matt, are we over Varis yet?”
“Just about,” came the answer from the submersible’s control cabin.
“ ‘Over’ Varis?” Carrie asked.
“She’s submerging,” Matt said, “and I’m going to settle us down so we’re just touching her back. Ah—we’re there.”
“So now what?”
“So now this.” A circular portal about two and a half meters wide irised open in the bottom of the cargo deck, and Carrie saw Varis’s skin rippling slightly at the bottom of it. “The edges of that portal are rimmed with medical tech. It’ll anesthetize that area of her skin and provide an entryway into her bloodstream at the same time—she shouldn’t feel more than a pinprick.”
That’s what doctors always say, Carrie thought. And they’re always lying. “How thick is her blubber?”
“The better part of a meter. But don’t worry. You’ll zip through it in an flash. And an anticoagulant follows you, so she shouldn’t bleed much.”
“How will we get out when we’re done?”
Carrie could hear the tension in Matt’s voice even over the datalink. “Just the same way. But we’ll have to pick a spot. Your datalinks will let me keep a position on you at all times. I’ll be your capcom, right here the whole time.”
Sarbin said, “Varis is ready, though she’s still fearful.”
She’s not the only one, Carrie thought. “Let’s get started.”
Matt said, “Both of you, float facing the incision area. Carrie first, Sarbin right behind her. You’re positioned right above a vein in Varis’s back. At the moment of injection, I’ll create a burst of positive pressure in the water around you.”
“Which should pop us right into the vein.”
“It should be quite a ride. And don’t worry, I won’t do any jokes about Jonah. Hold on… in three, two—”
I hate countdowns, Carrie thought.
“—one!”
A flash of light blinded her, a giant hand threatened to squeeze the life out of her, and Carrie felt as if she were falling from a high tower while simultaneously being pummeled by giants.
And, as promised, in a flash it was over and she was riding within a smoothly flowing current down a pink tunnel filled with bright red liquid.
Damned if it didn’t work, Carrie thought. She checked the size of the vein by extending her arms to either side—she couldn’t quite touch them as long as she stayed in the middle. Sarbin was a tighter fit, but still had room to move back and forth.
Her suit glowed, providing just enough illumination to let her see a few meters in any direction. It also helped that Carrie’s bioengineering included increased light sensitivity and an echolocation sense. But as Matt had said, everything was pretty blurry. “Sarbin, are you okay?”
“I’m right with you.”
Then came another push from behind them, and the vein’s walls rushed past that much faster for a while before they slowed again. “What the hell was that?”
Matt spoke up over the datalink. “Just a little boost from Varis’s pulse. You’ll feel it every twelve seconds or so.”
Carrie realized she must be blushing about as red as the rich oxygenated blood all around her. “Sorry. Wasn’t thinking.”
“Perfectly understandable. You and Sarbin are on a good path from Varis’s back to her belly. But it’s not a straight route—it curves around her body. It could become a bit of a roller coaster ride.”
Carrie encountered one of those curves and slammed a shoulder against one side of the vein, bounced off it, and nearly tumbled out of control. Only her bioengineered reactions and strength let her straighten out and force her way back into the middle of the steadily pumping bloodstream. “It already has,” she gasped.
Sarbin asked, “Are you all right, Carrie?”
“Getting there,” she said, trying to anticipate the vein’s next curve as she approached it—she took the bounce with her right arm and her hip this time. “That was better. You have to let the impact work for you. The sides are actually pretty resilient.”
“It’s too bad you don’t have a fluke,” the Aqua-tile said. “It makes the journey much easier.”
“It’s hard to tell how much progress we’re making.”
Matt’s voice came over Carrie’s datalink: “You’re not traveling as quickly as you might think. But it’s constant.”
“With that little boost from Varis’s pulse. Sarbin, how’s Varis doing?”
“Fortunately, she cannot feel us inside her. But the very idea still worries—”
Sarbin’s voice broke off as Carrie was tossed against one side of the vein, then the other, as a vast, deep rumbling assaulted her ears. A third collision knocked Carrie’s breath out of her, and for a while she let the bloodstream take her as it would, accepted the pummeling it gave her.
Matt’s voice over the datalink: “Carrie, Sar-bin—Varis is having a seizure. Are you all right?”
Carrie had her breath back and started anticipating each collision with the vein walls. “I’m starting to get the hang of it,” she said over the persistent reverberation that surrounded her. “It’s just rolling with the punches—except they don’t stop. Sarbin, what about you?”
The Aquatile replied, “In different circumstances, this could even be… fun.”
“Your idea of fun and mine are considerably different.”
“Really, Carrie? What’s fun for you?”
Some wine, some cheese, and a healthy specimen of manhood who is… “Let’s not worry about that right now, Sarbin. Matt, how long do these seizures last?”
“It depends. Sometimes several minutes.”
Carrie took another hard blow against the side of the vein wall. “Well, I wish this one would hurry up and—”
The rumbling ceased and Varis’s bloodstream quit trying to pummel her against the vein’s walls.
“—finish.”
Sarbin caught up with Carrie nearly effortlessly. “You really should consider having that fluke installed.”
Carrie couldn’t help grinning. “Matt—how close are we to the child?”
“You’re most of the way there. The trick’s going to be holding yourself against the blood flow while you insert the pouch.”
Sarbin said, “That’s another reason I’m here, Carrie—to brace you as you work.”
Matt said, “I wanted to be there with you.”
That jealousy again, Carrie thought. “Matt, I know you’ve worked quite a bit with Sarbin. But you couldn’t have done this. You don’t have the swimming skills or the body strength. Please realize I’m not bragging. I was made this way.”
No response for a moment, then Matt said, “Point taken. I’m glad you’re there to help Sarbin in ways I couldn’t.”
Can’t fault his loyalty, Carrie thought. “Thanks. How’s the baby doing?”
“Vitals are a bit rocky. We need to get that pouch to her.”