But the hyb tanks!
Twisp could not prevent a deep sense of excitement at the thought of them. He had grown up on stories speculating about the tanks' contents. They were a bag of prizes meant to humanize Pandora.
Could the kelp prevent that?
Twisp turned and looked at the LTAs. No doubt those things could move above the kelp's reach. But would the kelp let airborne humans pluck the prize from the sea? It all depended on where the tanks came down. There was kelp-free sea surface visible from this high point. A very uncertain lottery, though.
Gallow moved up beside Twisp to "share his view of the outpost's interior basin and its waiting LTAs.
"There's my fallback position," Gallow said. He nodded toward the LTAs.
Twisp knew what he would do now if this were bargaining for his catch. Threaten to go to another buyer. Get caustic and let this buyer know he had no status in the larger game.
"I think you're nothing but eelshit," Twisp said. "Concentrate on the facts. If the tanks land in kelp, you're finished. Without hostages, you're just a pitiful handful of people on one little bit of land. You may have followers elsewhere but I'm betting they'll desert you the second they recognize how powerless you really are."
"I still have you," Gallow grated. "And don't make any mistakes about what I can do to you!"
"What can you do?" Twisp asked, his voice at its most reasonable. "We're alone up here. All I have to do is grab you and dive off this place into the sea. The kelp will get us both."
Gallow smiled and slipped a lasgun from the pouch pocket at his waist.
"I thought you'd have one of those," Twisp said.
"I would take great pleasure in cutting you into pieces slowly," Gallow said.
"Except that you need me," Twisp said. "You're no gambler, Gallow. You like sure things."
Gallow scowled.
Twisp inclined his head toward the LTAs. The bags were beginning to swell. Someone was pumping hydrogen into them.
"Those are not a sure thing," Twisp said.
Gallow forced his features into a semblance of a smile. He looked down at the weapon in his hand. "Why are we arguing?"
"Is that what we're doing?" Twisp asked.
"You are stalling," Gallow said. "You want to see where the tanks come down."
Twisp smiled.
"For an Islander, you're pretty smart," Gallow said. "You know what I'm offering. You could have anything you want - money, women ..."
"How do you know what I want?" Twisp asked.
"You're no different from anyone else in that," Gallow said. He sent his glance along Twisp's long arms. "There might even be a few Mermen women who wouldn't find you objectionable."
Gallow pocketed his lasgun and displayed his empty hand. "See? I know what'll work with you. I know what I can give you."
Twisp shook his head slowly from side to side. Again, he looked at the LTAs. Objectionable? One step and he would have his long arms on the most objectionable human he had ever met. Two more steps and they would be over the side into the sea.
But then I might never know how it came out.
He thought about finding himself conscious in the kelp's vast reservoir of awareness. He shared Keel's revulsion to that end. Damn! And I couldn't help the old man! Gallow owes us for that!
A shadow passed across Twisp, bringing an immediate coolness from the breeze that tugged at him. He thought it just another cloud but Gallow gasped and something touched Twisp's shoulder, his cheek - a long and ropy something.
Twisp looked up into the base of a hylighter then, seeing the long, dark tentacles all around, feeling them grab him. Somewhere, he could hear screaming.
Gallow?
A flawless voice filled Twisp's senses, seeming to come at him along every nerve channel - hearing, touch, sight ... all of him was caught up in that voice.
"Welcome to Avata, fisherman Twisp," the voice said. "What is your wish?"
"Put me down," Twisp gasped.
"Ahhh, you wish to retain the flesh. Then Avata cannot put you down here. The flesh would be damaged, very likely destroyed. Be patient and have no fear. Avata will put you down with your friends."
"Gallow?" Twisp managed.
"He is not your friend!"
"I know that!"
"And so does Avata. Gallow will be put down, as you so quaintly phrase it, but from a great height. Gallow is no longer anything but a curiosity, no more than an aberration. Better to consider him a disease, infectious and sometimes deadly. Avata is curing the infected body."
Twisp grew aware then that he dangled high in the air, wind blowing past him. A great expanse of kelp spread out far below him. A sudden feeling of vertigo tightened his chest and throat, filled him with dizziness.
"Do not fear," the flawless voice said. "Avata cherishes the friends and companions of beloved Scudi Wang."
Twisp slowly twisted his head upward, feeling the ropy tentacles holding him tight around the waist and legs, seeing the dark underside of the bag that suspended this twining mass.
Avata?
"You see what you call hylighter," the voice told him. "Once more Avata spawns in the mother-sea. Once more there is rock. That which humans destroyed, humans have restored. Thereby, you learn from your mistakes."
A great feeling of bitterness welled up in Twisp. "So you're going to fix everything! No more mistakes. Everything perfect in the most perfect of worlds."
A sense of laughter without sound permeated Twisp then. The flawless voice came light and cajoling: "Do not project your fears upon Avata. Here is only the mirror that reveals yourself." The voice changed, becoming almost strident. "Now! Here below you have your friends. Treat them well and share your joys with them. Have not Islanders learned this lesson well from the human errors of the past?"
***
If war does come, the best thing to do will be to just stay alive and thus add to the numbers of sane people.
The forward bulk of Vashon was close enough in the darkness that Brett could pick out the lights of the more prominent structures. He sat beside Scudi in the control seats of the foil, hearing the low-voiced conversations behind him. Most of the Shipclones had been deposited on the outpost amidst the fearful and chastened Green Dashers. The task of feeding all those newcomers had become a primary problem. Only a representative few of the people from the hyb tanks remained in the foil. The Clone called Bickel stood close behind Brett, watching the same night view of their approach to Vashon.
That Bickel would be one to watch, Brett thought. A demanding, powerful man. And large. All of these Shipclones were big! This amplified the food problem in a daunting way.
Someone came up from the rear of the cabin and stopped near the big Shipclone.
"There will be a lot of debriefing once we get there." The voice was Kareen Ale's.
Brett heard Twisp cough at the rear of the cabin. Debriefing? Probably. Some of the old routines still had value. Twisp's experience in the grip of the hylighter must be added to all of the other new knowledge.
... beloved Scudi Wang.
Brett glanced at Scudi's profile outlined in the dim lights from the instruments ahead of her. Something filled his breast at the very thought of Scudi. Beloved, beloved, he thought.
The twin lane of blue lights that marked Vashon's main harbor entrance loomed dead ahead. Scudi dropped the foil down onto its hull.
"They'll have medical people waiting for Bushka," Scudi said. "Better get him back to the hatch."