With luck, Hikahi would someday command ships greater than Streaker by orders of magnitude. The captain and teacher within him was pleased with her combination of modesty and cleverness. But another part of him had more immediate goals for her.
"Well, we'll take their idea under advisement. In case we have to adopt the plan quickly, see to stocking the longboat.
"But put a guard on it, too."
They both knew that it was a bad sign, when security precautions had to be taken within, as well as without.
A brightly striped rubber ring floated past them. Creideiki felt an urge to chase it… as he wanted to push Hikahi into a corner and nuzzle her until… He shook himself.
"As for further tectonic research," he said. "That's out of the question. Gillian Baskin has left for your island, to take supplies to Thomas Orley and to help Dennie Sudman study the aboriginals. When she returns, she can bring back rock samples for Charlie. That'll have to satisfy him.
"The rest of us will be very busy as soon as Suessi gets back here with those spare parts."
"Suessi's sure he found what we need at the wreck?"
"Fairly certain."
"This new plan means we'll have to move Streaker. Turning on our engines may give us away. But I guess there's no choice. I'll get started on a plan to move the ship."
Creideiki realized that this was getting him nowhere. A few hours remained, at most, until Suessi arrived, and here he was talking to Hikahi in Anglic… forcing her by example to think rigidly and carefully! No wonder he was getting no hint, no body language, no suggestion that an advance might be welcomed or rejected.
He answered her in Trinary.
* We'll only move her -
Below water
* To the crashed ship -
Empty, waiting
* Soon, while battles -
Still wrack the blackness
* Filling space -
With squid-like racket
* At a time when -
Orley, Net-bane,
* Far away, does
Make
Distraction
* Far away, does
Truth
Decipher
* Drawing sharks -
To make us safer *
Hikahi stared at him. This was the first time she had heard about that part of Orley's plan. Like many of the females aboard, Hikahi had a platonic passion for Thomas Orley.
I should have broken the news more gently, or, better yet, waited until later!
Her eyes blinked, once, twice, then closed. She sank slowly, and from her forehead melon came a faint keening.
Creideiki envied humans their enfolding arms. He dropped alongside her to touch her with the tip of his bottle-shaped rostrum.
* Do not grieve for -
Strong-eyed flyer
* Orley's song shall -
By whales be sung
Hikahi replied sadly.
* I, Hikahi -
Honor Orley
* Honor captain -
Honor crewmates
* Deeds are done, still -
For one I suffer -
For Jill Baskin -
Dear Life-Cleaner
* For her loss -
And body sorrow *
Shamed, Creideiki felt an enclosing shroud of melancholy fall around him. He shut his own eyes and the waters echoed back to him a shared sadness.
For a long time they lay side by side, rising to breathe, then settling once more below.
Creideiki's thoughts were far away when he finally felt Hikahi drift away. But then she was back, rubbing gently against his side, and then nibbling tenderly with sharp, small teeth.
Almost against his will, at first, Creideiki felt his enthusiasm begin to return. He rolled over to his side and let out a long sigh of bubbles as her nuzzling became more provocative.
The water began to taste happier then, as Hikahi crooned a familiar song, taken from one of the oldest of Primal signals. It seemed to say, amongst other things, "Life goes on."
27 ::: The Island
The night was quiet.
Kithrup's many small moons stirred low tides against the metal cliffs a hundred meters away. The ever-present winds, driven without brake across the planet ocean, tugged at the trees and ruled the foliage.
Still, compared to what they had known for months, the silence was heavy. There were none of the ubiquitous machine sounds which had followed them everywhere from Earth, the unceasing whirrs and clicks of mechanical function, or the occasional smoking crackle of failure.
The squeaking, groaning drone of dolphin conversation was gone, too. Even Keepiru and Sah'ot were absent. At night the two dolphins accompanied the Kithrup aboriginals in their nocturnal sea hunt.
The surface of the metal-mound was almost too quiet. The few sounds seemed to carry forever. The sea, the distant rumble of a faraway volcano…
There was a gentle moan in the night, followed by a very quiet gasping cry.
"They're at it again," Dennie sighed, not particularly caring if Toshio heard her.
The sounds came from the clearing at the southern point of the island. The third and fourth humans on the island had tried to find their privacy as far from the abo village and the tunnel pool as possible. Dennie wished they could have gone even farther away.
There was laughter, faint but clear.
"I've never heard anything like it," she sighed.
Toshio blushed and fed another stick to the fire. The couple in the next clearing deserved their privacy. He considered pointing this out to Dennie.
"I swear, they're like minks!" Dennie said, intending to sound sardonic and mock-envious. But it came out just a little bitter.
Toshio noticed. Against his better judgment, he said, "Dennie, we all know that humans are among the sexual athletes of the galaxy, though some of our clients give us a run for it."
Toshio poked a stick into the fire. That had been a pretty brash thing to say. He felt a trifle emboldened by the night, and the desire to break the tension by the fire.
"What do you mean by that?" Dennie looked at him sharply.
Toshio played with the stick. "We-ell, there's a line in an old play,… 'Why, your dolphin was not lustier!' Shakespeare wasn't the first to compare the two horniest of the brainy mammals; y'know I don't suppose anyone's come up with a scale to measure it, but I'd have to wonder if it weren't a prerequisite for intelligence.
"Of course, that's only one of the possibilities. If you take what the Galactics say about uplift into account…"
He rambled on, slowly drawing away from incitement, noticing how Dennie came this close to blowing her cool, before she turned and looked away.
He'd done it! He had played a round and won it! It was a minor victory in a game he had wondered if he would ever get to play.
The art of teasing had always been a one-sided affair to Toshio, and he'd always had the short end. To get the best of an attractive older woman by dint of clever conversation and character insight was a coup.
He didn't think he was being cruel, though a genteel cruelty did seem to be part of the game. All he knew for certain was that this was one way to get Dennie Sudman to treat him less like a child. If some of the easy mutual liking they'd had before had to suffer for it, that was too bad.
Much as he didn't care for Sah'ot, Toshio was glad the fin had provided the lever he needed to pry a chink in Dennie's armor.
He was about to try out another bon mot when Dennie cut in.
"I'm sorry, Tosh. I'd love to hear the rest, but I'm going to bed. We've a busy day tomorrow, launching Tom's glider, showing Gillian the Kiqui, and experimenting with that damned robot for Charlie. I suggest you get some sleep too."
She turned to wrap herself in her sleeping bag at the far end of the camp, near the watch-wards.