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He finished the checkout and realized that they wouldn&039;t be getting airborne after all Not unless Elvira could remanufacture the hydraulics that withdrew their hydrofoils and extended airfoils
Ben doesn&039;t need to know that now, he thought For that "
"Ric OK"
It cah to put a s kelp out of the inlets and tried the Navcoain It was dead, not even a burst of static fro in," he told Ben, "things ain pretty soon"
He didn&039;t want to tell Ben that they were going to get really rough, now that they couldn&039;t get above the stor up the ocean as far as the eye could see, Rico hi to get
Anyone who threatens the ers the matrix of humanity itself
- Ward Keel, The Apocryphal Notebooks
Ben had heard the boat&039;s ballast blow as he stroked Crista&039;s hair and cheek under the fine spray of the pinpoint galley leak He remembered the taste of salt when his lips brushed her hair Because of the taste of salt fro pipe leak, recycled seawater, nothing to worry about now that they were headed topside
He re, when suddenly his upper body began to tingle His neck wouldn&039;t o He tried to cry out but his ainst her harness, li nearly to blue
Oh, no, he re, spastic s She had let out a little cry of surprise, but didn&039;t resist Ben saw that she couldn&039;t Whatever was happening to hie of er to shut down
He grabbed for Crista&039;s harness to pull himself up but his hands turned to two heavy rocks at the ends of his arainst her He was able to see and breathe but trying to move only produced uncontrollable spasms He slid down the couch to the deck into a position that didn&039;t allow him to watch Crista One of his hands remained on her ankle, and he felt her body spasm and relax much like his own The antidote was in his pocket, and he couldn&039;tit out
Rico will think I&039;ht
Now that they&039;d lost their Navcom they couldn&039;t function undersea, and they&039;d be bobbing squawks on the surface Rico would have his hands full enough without thi ht
Ben felt the Tingle rush like a hot blush down his back, out his shoulders and thighs He tried to control hisheap on the deck He rethe convolutions of Crista&039;s alley around theh a dark curtain that backdropped Crista&039;s thoughts and es from her life unreeled in his brain
"Ben!" Rico said, his sreat depth He said ainst his singlesuit He felt nothing but the Tingle throughout his body, but he was fully aware of Rico stretching hi between hialley blended into a great glowing halo of yellowpanel that washed out everything behind the curtain of his mind
Ben understood much, now A near-infinity of human memories slept in Crista Galli&039;s head Now many of them buzzed in his own, like solvent to solute, a wet solution filling up a dry He felt the dry blossom of his mind unfold as it drank, petal by intricate petal, and behind it the shadow that was Rico LaPush rippled back and forth
Though he could see and hear, Ben felt a detachment from his body that was more curiosity to him than fear He remembered the special show he&039;d done with Beatriz about people who returned from near-death, what they&039;d reported about this sa warle They said they&039;d viewed their bodies froe points in the room, watched the medics resuscitate them, remembered whole conversations that took place even when they showed no heartbeat on the nsthat Ben had when he slumped to the deck
His vieever, was distinctly from someone else&039;s body, someone else&039;supward toward the sun froe of vision was liht halo surrounded the ri suns, he saw Rico&039;s busy shadow The lagoon was full of Swi in and out of channels above her
This was Crista as a child This was Ben as Crista as a child
He sensed that Rico was very worried and he wanted to tell hi would come out
One Swimmer in particular attended her, an older feined therotesque, slimy creatures ide mouths and stupid eyes, and rudimentary, ratlike tails The fee Her red fan of gill fluttered furiously at her shoulders as she fed the girl slices of raw fish Crista dangled from the kelp, and the Swimmer female came up to her from the deeps She did not, or would not, speak
From somewhere behind the halo, very far above Ben&039;s upturned face, Rico&039;s voice echoed, "I&039; to settle you here and keep you war, and Rico&039;s voice with it
"Crista is still breathing," Rico said "I don&039;t knohether you can hear et you out of here You&039;ll be OK The goddaet you soed with hysteria, and he sounded close to tears "We&039;ll get you so on" A squeeze at his shoulder, then Rico was gone
Ben found he could leave the wo a corridor toward hialley, the foil around hie between Crista&039;s alley and a change in the pitch of the foil told Ben that they had surfaced Ben wondered whether he would die this way, fully conscious, feeling that last exhalation and unable to suck in air He remembered the time that he and Rico aled and sunk He had nearly panicked then, but he felt no such panic now, simply a nu about things that should terrify him: would the neurotoxin, whatever it was, paralyze his breathing muscles? His heart muscle? He wished that Rico had propped hi had stopped
The slapshot works, he thought
He wanted to cross that gossa farther away froe and back into the foil, The deck under him was uncoe position He was definitely i in over the interco worried
"Speak to ain It was dry, and didn&039;t want to work quite right, but he ed to squeeze out: "Ric OK"
He heard Crista breathing, but she still hadn&039;t stirred
I wonder what happens to her?
"Squall&039;s coain pretty soon"
Ben wanted to laugh, tried to coh? What do you call this?" but it all caarble
The new ruler must inevitably distress those over whom he establishes his rule So it happens that hethe new principality, and yet he cannot keep the friendship of those who have set him up
- Machiavelli, The Prince
Flattery spurned the safety of his quarters for a brazen tour in the sunshine topside Nevi and Zentz were on theirunder his security force, and he knew that whoever had Crista Galli had a big handful of trouble He smiled widely to himself and turned his face to the sky He loved the sky, the weather - how different from the controlled susurrations of Moonbase air! It was nearly time for the afternoon rain Like the few other survivors of hybernation who had been reared in the sterility of Moonbase, Flattery had a feeling for weather
He chose a parapet that looked downcoast, across the Preserve and into the wretched village that spilled froate A boil of black s wind Flattery wore his brightest red lounging jacket so that the vermin could see he was very much alive, still very much the Director So close to the borders of battle - now they would see the mettle they tested!
The presence of two suns unnerved him, even after these ists, proved that they were ripping the planet&039;s crust like so much flatbread The worst was yet to come, and he didn&039;t intend to wait around for it
Ventana, one of his ers, approached the ay below him
"Reports on the kelpway disruption, sir"
She waved a uards, who inspected the device and then brought it to him Flattery pulled his white hat farther down to shade his forehead The wide-brimmed style was Islander, for political effect It was a white hat because Flattery believed that white placed hilance He did not retrieve the reports i And by this time the afternoon cloud cover obscured an Orbiter view of the nuht sector
His passion for weather did not include the suns&039; ravages of his uncooperative skin Two pink blotches peeled on his forehead and Flattery tried not to scratch them His personal physician had reo, and now this
The people have to see ht There is no substitute for the proper exposure
His three uards acco the the coher points for h reaches, home of the worthless Zavatans A lot of these Zavatans, like the peasantry, believed in Ship and the eventual return of this Ship as soh, and his guards looked at hientle down there that can reach us"
"Begging the Director&039;s pardon," one of the guards, Aumock, spoke up "It&039;s my job to never stand down"
Flattery nodded his approval This one bears watching
"Very good," he said "I appreciate your dedication"
Auood stock, didn&039;t sith the praise He was already back to scanning the area forup here but Zavatans," Flattery said
"Are you sure they&039;re nothing, sir?" Auuard had offered a comment in his ten-month tour of service at Flattery&039;s side Flattery runted a response
He had his suspicions about these Zavatans - always the sa about, but seldom the same faces Flattery was no fool He was, after all, a Chaplain/Psychiatrist and had done iions He was uncomfortable with a nearby population that was potentially hostile, whose nueneral fitness appeared far better than that of most of his security
They actually run up these cliffs, he mused Why?
It was here, on the bare overlook above the Preserve, that he reviewed the latestthe Holovision foil and the curious rebellion of the largest stand of kelp in the region
"So, Marta, do you really believe that they&039;ve turned back?" he asked
His coulation blue ju Flattery had bedded her once and recalled that her touch was farthan her looks She&039;d been a slender young thing then - four, uard, but showed a facility with electronics that iineers When she requested a transfer, he had granted it It was just as well, the move headed off the ru himself from a sticky personal situation
" I don&039;t know," she said "The device that I placed personally on their foil is working perfectly, and its course is consistent with a return to this -"