The Galactic peered at him, then squawked joyfully. It spread its feathered arms wide and unsheathed long talons.
For the first time it said something direct and intelligible. "Now you shall talk, impertinent, half-formed, masterless upstart!"
It charged, screaming.
Tom dove to one side as the shrieking avian screeched past him. Slowed by hunger and exhaustion, he couldn't prevent one razor-sharp claw from passing through his wetsuit and ripping his side along one rib. He gasped and stumbled against a blood-stained wall as the Gubru turned around to renew the attack.
Neither of them even considered the handguns that lay on the floor. Depleted and slippery, the weapons weren't worth the gamble to stoop to retrieve them.
"Where are the dolphinnnns?" the Gubru squawked as it danced back and forth. "Tell me or I shall teach you respect for your elders the hard way."
Tom nodded. "Learn to swim, bird-brain, and I'll take you to them."
The Gubru's talons spread again. It shrieked and charged.
Tom summoned his reserves. He leapt into the air and met the creature's throat with a savage kick. The shriek was cut off abruptly, and he felt its vertebrae snap as it went down, sliding along the damp deck to fetch up at the wall in a heap.
Tom landed stumbling beside it. His eyes swam. Breathing heavily with hands on his knees, he looked down at his enemy.
"I told… told you we were… wolflings," he muttered.
When he could, he walked unsteadily to the ragged tear in the side of the ship and leaned on the curled and blackened lower edge, staring out at the drifting fog.
All he had left were his mask, his freshwater still, his clothes, and… oh yes, the nearly worthless hand weapons of the Gubru.
And the message-bomb, of course. The weight pressed against his midriff.
I've put off a decision long enough, he decided. While the battle lasted he could pretend he was searching for answers. Maybe he had been procrastinating, though.
I wanted to be sure. I wanted to know the trick had a maximum chance of working. For that to happen there had to be Thennanin.
I met that scout. The Gubru mentioned Thennanin. Do I have to see their fleet to guess there are still some in the battle above?
He realized there was another reason he had been putting the decision off.
Once I set it off, Creideiki and Gillian are gone. There's no way they'll be able to stop for me. I was to get back to the ship on my own, if at all.
While fighting on the weeds, he had kept hoping to find a working vessel. Anything that could fly him home. But there were only wrecks.
He sat down heavily with his back to the cool metal and drew out the message-bomb.
Do I set it off.
The Seahorse was his plan. Why was he out here, far from Gillian and home, but to find out if it would work?
Across the blood-smeared deck of the alien cruiser, his gaze fell on the Gubru radio.
You know, he told himself, there is one more thing I can do. Even if it means I'll be putting myself right in the middle of a bull's-eye, at least it'll give Jill and the others all I know.
And maybe it'll accomplish more than that.
Tom summoned the strength to stand up one more time. Ah, well, he thought as he staggered to his feet. There's no food anyway. I might as well go out in style.
PART NINE
Ascent
92 ::: Dennie Sah'ot
"It'sss the longer way, Dennie. Are you sure we shouldn't just cut southwest?"
Sah'ot swam alongside the sled, keeping pace fairly easily. Every few strokes he glided smoothly to the surface to blow, then rejoined his companion without breaking stride.
"I know it would be faster, Sah'ot." Dennie answered without looking up from her sonar display. She was careful to skirt far from any metal-mounds. It was in this area that the killer-weed grew. Toshio's story about his encounter with the deadly plant had terrified her, and she was determined to give the unfamiliar mounds a wide berth.
"Then why are we returning to Streaker's old site before heading sssouth?"
"For several reasons," Dennie answered. "First of all, we know this part of the route, having been over it before. And the path from the old site to the Seahorse is straight south, so there's less chance of getting lost."
Sah'ot snickered, unconvinced. "And?"
"And this way we'll stand a chance of finding Hikahi. My guess is she may be nosing around the old site about now"
"Did Gillian ask you to look for her?"
"Yeah," Dennie lied. Actually, she had her own reasons for wanting to find Hikahi.
Dennie was afraid of what Toshio intended to do. It was possible that he meant to delay leaving the island until Streaker's preparations were finished and it was too late for Takkata-Jim to interfere. Of course, by then it would be too late for him to rejoin the ship via sled.
In that case the skiff would be Toshio's only chance. She had to find Hikahi before Gillian did. Gillian might decide to send the skiff after Tom Orley instead of Toshio.
She knew she wasn't thinking things out, and felt a little guilty about her decision. But if she could lie to one dolphin, she could lie to another.
93 ::: Takkata-Jim Metz
The former vice-captain tossed his head and gnashed his teeth as he contemplated the latest sabotage.
"I will string their entrails from the foressst branches!" he hissed. The heavy waldo-arms of his armored spider whined.
Ignacio Metz stared up at the thin, almost invisible wires that formed a tight tracery over the longboat, holding it to the ground. He blinked, trying to follow the trail of fibers into the forest.
Metz shook his head. "Are you sure you're not overreacting, vice-captain? It seems to me the boy was only trying to make sure we didn't take off before we agreed to.
Takkata-Jim whirled to glare down on the human. "And have you sssuddenly changed your mind, Doctor Metz? Do you now think we should let the lunatic woman who now controls Streaker send our crewmates out to certain death?"
"N-no, of course not!" Metz shrank back from the dolphin officer's rancor. "We should persevere, I agree. We must try to make our offer of compromise to the Galactics, but…"
"But what?"
Metz shrugged uncertainly. "I just don't think you should blame Toshio for doing his job…"
Takkata-Jim's jaws clapped together like a gunshot, and he caused the spider to advance upon Metz, stopping less than a meter from the nervous man.
"You think! You THINK! Of all comedies, that one topsss all! You, who had the arrogance to suppose his wisdom exceeded the councils of Earth — who brought pet monsters amongst an already fragile crew — who deceived himself into thinking all was well, and ignored danger signs when his wisdom was needed by his desperate clients — yes, Ignacio Metz. Tell me how you think-k!" Takkata-Jim snorted in derision.
"B-but we… you and I agreed on nearly everything! My gene-graft Stenos were your most loyal supporters! They're the only ones who stood by you!"
"Your Stenos were not Stenos! They were benighted, erratic creatures who did not belong on thisss mission! I used them as I've used you. But don't class me with your monsters, Metz!"