"But Twisp is still there at the outpost!" Brett objected.
"Kelp's directing this show," Panille said. "Your friend will have to take his own chances."
"I think Shadow's right," Scudi ventured. She pointed toward the outpost. "See? There are more hylighters. They're almost touching the rock."
"But what if Twisp comes back and we aren't ..."
"I'll bring us back as soon as the kelp lets us," Scudi said. She fired up the ramjets.
"No! I'll take breather tanks and go out to -"
"Brett!" Scudi put a hand on his arm. "You saw what it did to Bushka."
"But I haven't hurt it ... or anyone. That Merman would have killed me."
"We don't know what it'll do," Scudi said.
"She's right," Panille said. "What good would you be to your friend without arms?"
Brett sank back into the seat.
Scudi pushed the throttles ahead and lowered the foils. The boat gathered speed, lifted and swept down the channel toward the descending hylighters.
Brett sat in silence. He felt suddenly that his Mermen companions had turned against him, even Scudi. How could they know what the kelp wanted? So it opened a channel through its heavy growth! So it directed a current through that channel! Twisp might need him back there where they were supposed to be waiting.
Abruptly, Brett shook his head. He thought how Twisp would react to such protests. Don't be a fool! The kelp had spoken without misunderstanding. Bushka ... the channel ... the current - words could say no clearer what had to be done now. Scudi and the others had merely understood and accepted it more quickly.
With a quick chopping motion, Scudi cut the power and the foil settled in a heaving surge that sent waves curling outward on both sides.
"We're blocked," she said.
They looked ahead. Not only had kelp closed the channel through which the foil had come, but fronds and stalks lifted out of the water ahead of them. A low, thick forest of green blocked their passage.
Brett glanced left. The outpost loomed high there, no more than three klicks away. Hylighters continued to descend about a klick ahead of them, massed flocks of them.
Panille spoke from directly behind Brett. "I don't remember them as being that colorful in the holos."
"A new breed, no doubt of it," Kareen said.
"What do we do now?" Brett asked.
"We sit here until we find out why the kelp directed us to this place," Scudi said.
Brett looked up at the descending flocks of hylighters. Dark tentacles reached down toward the water. Sunlight flashed rainbow iridescence off the great bags.
"The histories say the kelp makes its own hydrogen the way you Islanders do," Panille said. "The bags are extruded deep underwater, filled and sent flying to spread the spores. One of my ancestors rode a hylighter." He spoke in a breathless whisper. "They've always fascinated me. I've dreamed of this day."
"What are they doing?" Scudi asked. "Why would they bring spores here? There's kelp all around us."
"You're assuming they're intelligently directed," Kareen said. "They're probably going wherever the wind takes them."
Panille shook his head sharply. "No. Who controls the currents controls the temperature of the surface water. Who controls that directs the winds."
"Then what are they doing?" Scudi repeated. "They're not drifting very fast anymore. It's as though they were assembling here."
"The hyb tanks?" Kareen asked.
"How could the kelp -" Scudi began. She broke off, then: "Is this where they're supposed to come down?"
"Near enough," Kareen said. "Shadow?"
"The correct quadrant," he said. He glanced at a chrono. "By the original schedule, splashdown's already overdue."
"There's a strange hylighter," Brett said. "Or is that really an LTA?" He pointed upward, his finger almost touching the overhead plaz.
"Parachute!" Panille said. "Ship's guts! There comes the first hyb tank!"
"Look at the hylighters!" Scudi said.
The colorful bags had begun a swirling motion, opening a space in their center. The open space drifted somewhat south and a bit west, presenting a net of sea to catch the descending parachute.
Something could be seen dangling from the parachute now - a silvery cylinder that reflected bright flashes from the suns.
"Ship! That thing is big!" Panille said.
"I wonder what's in it," Kareen whispered.
"We're about to discover that," Brett said. "Look! Above the parachute - there comes another one ... and another."
"Ohhhh, if I could only get my hands on one of them ... just one," Panille said.
The first hyb tank was now little more than a hundred meters above the water. It descended swiftly, the actual splashdown concealed within the ring of hylighters. A second hyb tank fell into the open circle, a third ... fourth ... The watchers counted twenty of them, some larger than the foil.
The circle of hylighters closed in as the last tank hit the water. Immediately, a lane through the kelp began to spread from the foil's blocked position to where the hylighters had collected.
"We're being asked to join them," Scudi said. She fired up the rams and eased the foil ahead at hull speed, keeping it just off the step. A bow wave spread on both sides. The hylighters parted as the foil drew near them, opening a passage into a kelp-free circle where the great tanks bobbed.
The occupants of the foil stared in wonder at the vista opened to them. Hylighter tentacles could be seen working over the closure mechanisms of the tanks, opening them and snaking inside. Wide curved hatches swung aside to the probing tentacles. Abruptly, one of the opened tanks tipped, admitting a surge of water. White-bellied sea mammals emerged and immediately dove into the water.
"Orcas," Panille breathed. "Look!" He pointed across Brett's shoulder. "Humpback whales! Just the way they looked in the holos."
"My whales," Scudi whispered.
The channel that had been opened for the foil curved left now, directing them to a cluster of six tanks being held side by side in a nest of kelp. Hylighter tentacles could be seen writhing and twisting into the tanks.
As the foil neared this cluster, a dark tentacle emerged with a struggling human form - pale-skinned and naked. Another tentacle came up with another human ... another ... another ... A spectrum of skin shades came out of the tanks - from darker than Scudi to paler than Kareen Ale.
"What are they doing with those poor people?" Kareen demanded.
The faces of the people being taken from the tanks betrayed obvious terror, but the terror began to subside even as the foil's occupants watched. Slowly, hylighters carrying humans began to drift toward the foil.
"There's why we were brought in," Brett said. "Come on, Shadow. Let's open the hatch."
Scudi silenced the foil's jets. "We can't handle that many people," she said. She pointed at the massed hylighters removing other humans from the adjacent tanks. More than a hundred human figures could be seen grasped in hylighter tentacles and more humans were being removed from the tanks every second. "That many will sink us!" Scudi said.
Brett, hesitating in the passageway to follow the direction of Scudi's pointing finger, said: "We'll have to tow them to the outpost. We'll see if we can get a line to them." He whirled and dashed down the passage toward the main hatch. Panille could be heard running behind him.
Hylighters already were clustering around the hatchway when Brett opened it. A tentacle snaked in the opening and grasped Brett. He froze. Words filled his mind, clear and perfect, without any secondary sounds to distort them.
"Gentle human who is loved by Avata's beloved Scudi, do not fear. We bring you Shipclones to live in peace beside all of you who share Pandora with Avata."