Page 13 (1/2)

Manipulating the kelp electronically is like ic The trick becoic

- Raja Flattery, from "Current Control from the Skies," Holovision feature

Crista felt a pressure on her whole being It was not like the pressurized cabin, like air pressure It was soe envelope - like the pressure she iht feel when in the company of another positive pole

"You don&039;t have to be afraid of the kelp pulling this thing apart," she said "Flattery&039;s lab reports say it kept me alive underwater for twenty years It can keep us aliv"

"Can is the operative word here," Ben said

He didn&039;t look her in the eye, but hung his head over her restraints as if staring at theht the foil and set them on their way "If what you say is true, it wants you alive The rest of us are compost"

"The kelp&039;s not like that," she said "You&039;ve been listening to Rico It&039; I knew it before Flattery&039;s people cut it back, remember? It kept me alive, for all we know it kept others alive the same way"

"Lots of people spend lots of ti like what happened to you"

"Why just me?"

When Ben&039;s gaze did oosebu that she knew about his kindness, his sacrifices for others, froze inside her with the chill of that look

"I&039;ve wondered that," he said "Others have wondered, too"

"That&039;s why Flattery never let et to the sea," she said "He said it was to protect me, but I think he was just suspicious that I&039;er of some sort Maybe I was raised by a plant, but I can read people fairly well Let m touch the kelp It will calm down, then, I knoill"

"Not a chance If Flattery&039;s right, if Operations is right, your chemistry is different now It could kill you I don&039;t want anything to kill you"

"I don&039;t want anything to kill anybody," she said, "but the kelp is confused It&039;s just lashing ou nobody tells it anythin"

With that the foil pitched upside-down Ben hung on tight to a handhold, his face pressed into the plasteel bulkhead

Crista tried to speak, upside-down and against the pressure of her restraints

"Avata needs our help," she said, "and we need Avata You have to helpsnap in the air, the same snap that had stilled a e of soreat capacitor

Crista felt their foil slowly roll, pull her tighter into her restraints, then right itself She watched Ben drop his hands froed foil moaned and chattered about theone

Crista saw the flicker of the intercoht voice:

"Ben, look at the kelp"

Only one of the starboard lights still probed the dark, so the view that Crista and Ben had froray and black, dreamlike, cold They hadn&039;t dared activate the kelp&039;s luciferase, it wouldtoo easy

A fine seawater spray wetted them both as they watched the easy dance of deepwater kelp This was the sa she thought it ht uproot itself

Crista, herself, felt a relief that was more than just calm after the storm It was a release, like the elation she had felt at the start of their journey when she slipped skyward, hitching her consciousness to the hylighter

"Can&039;t really see very well," Ben said "Look at the size of those vines! Some of them are a half-dozen meters across and we can&039;t even see botto," she said "It should give you an idea of what the kelp&039;s really like"

"What do you mean?"

"You said it yourself Some of those stalks are nearly as thick as this foil is wide For the kelp itwith pliers to keep fro us"

"Maybe so," Ben muttered "We&039;re headed topside and the kelp&039;s apparently floating free We&039;d better see what kind of dahts diain

"Elvira can&039;t get the engines to fire," Ben said "That&039;s going to en production"

The gray hulks of kelp floated dreamlike outside their hull while the chunks of torn fronds and sedile settled around them

"See?" she said "The kelp means us no har put!" Ben said "The kelp siot whatever it wanted,for more trouble" He nodded toward the spray that had already soaked both of thealley deck "We&039;ve got a few details to clean up Let&039;s get at it"

Crista tugged at her harness

"I can&039;t do e back there?" Rico asked over the interco pipe," Ben said "It&039;s notWhat do you have?"

"We&039;re not terminal, but we&039;re hurt Elvira says &039;topside,&039; so topside we go You two OK?"

"We got a little wet," he said, stahed - so she&039;d discovered with him before He opened a panel in the bulkhead beside her and reached inside

Water plastered his hair to his head Crista&039;s felt just as flat, but when she saw herself reflected back in the plaz, a laugh still teasing her face, she liked what she saw Her crop of hite hair frareen flash of her eyes She saw that she had twisted in her harness, which explained why, now that things had quieted down, her right breast stung so badly She wriggled herself free and tugged her clothes straight

"There&039;s a shutoff in here, somewhere," Ben muttered He poked his head inside and buible

Crista&039;s gaze fell on the holostrips of the Nightly News field crew, strips that covered the whole interior bulkhead of the galley Shots of Beatriz, Rico, Ben and a half-dozen bearded strangers were interspersed with location stills of Ben and Rico, Ben and Beatriz - several of Ben and Beatriz Crista didn&039;t see Elvira up there

"Beatriz is beautiful," she said, raising her voice so he could hear

"Very"

"You look happy together," she said

"Yes," he answered, also raising his voice so she could hear

Then she heard a curse and a thu Ben came out of the access cabinet and wiped his face with the least daht into her own

"When ere together, ere happy," he said He did not turn to look at the pictures "More often than not, ere on opposite sides of the world Lately she&039;s been up there" His thueneral direction of the Orbiter overhead

"Do you wis otherwise?"

"No," he sighed "It&039;s as it should be I have things to do here"

Things to do! Crista thought What she wanted him to say was, "It&039;s as it should be Now I&039;vecaling in her tehter, like her drea dreaht She knew they weren&039;t drea them "visions" Lately, they caot to breathe Crista was sure they ca s, that she&039;d always explained as "drea she no cas: She saw Rico in a green singlesuit, and that suit was the fruit on a great vine of kelp In the distance beyond hireat vine, looking like a seascape of bowsprits with interesting carvings, or like bait

The kelp grew a lelike, about their eyes It seeernails, but never needed tris would never want for air, their skiet land

The second vision pulled away froht One kelp vine snaked skyward and a cold light, like luciferase, touched its tip The vine, the kelp bed, the planet itself began to glow In the light below she watched the kelp writhe for a blink, then convolute itself into what appeared to be an irace that only came to her now in dreams

Just as suddenly, the visions vanished Crista was a dreamer, but these were not dreaot to get out there

She stared into the picture of Ben and Beatriz, stared into Ben&039;s eyes and concentrated on slowing her heart rate, slowing her breathin

"I&039;lad it&039;s as it should be with Beatriz If all is well a Flattery down The kelp knows this, maybe Flattery knows it, too Inside the kelp, I can find out what all this is The kelp is vulnerable now, as we are vulnerable It is stunned, not dead Help me out there, I canout there We&039;ll all stay aboard the foil Once we&039;re ashore we can get to an Oracle, or the beach"

"We don&039;t have that much tiht now I could - become Avata, be the consciousness, the command center, the conscience of the kelp Show me the way out"

"You don&039;t know that," he said "Your chemistry is different, you told me so yourself Maybe it would keep you alive out there Maybe it would keep you dead Just wait a few -"

"We can&039;t wait," she pleaded