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New pairs of eyes joined the kelp to reveal Gallow&039;s treachery The clearest of these eyes belonged to Scudi Wang Vata enjoyed the coo each tili mind, and she searched for Scudi daily When Vata dreamed the terrors of kelp, stor, the touch of Scudi&039;s skin on vine or frond s dreams to a warm calm Those times Vata, in turn, dreaes and visions, to keep the fear of kelp-madness out of Scudi&039;s head Vata had dreamed to others who had never come out of the dream She kne that Scudi&039;s mother was one of those lost drea into her from the kelp, the wo net The tender airfish at her neck was crushed and she drowned And the Mer her had made no e odyssey that worked its way back toward Outpost 22 She flexed her kelp when the gondola went down and acquainted herself with Bushka and Shadow Panille This Panille, he was blood to her

Brother, she thought, and marveled over the word She trusted Bushka and Panille to Scudi&039;s presence The e she sent Scudi was simple and clear: Find Gallow, drive him out Kelp will do the rest

Life is not an option, it is a gift Death is the option

- Ward Keel, Journal

It was late evening, but Ward Keel had lost all inclination to sleep He accepted the buzz of fatigue as a logical consequence of captivity His eyes refused to stay closed They blinked slowly and he gli lashes in the plaz beside him His brown eye faced itself in the plaz It was a sray at this depth His prison cubby array of down under washed his psyche cold

Keel had been watching the kelp for hours as Gallow&039;s men streamed into the outpost At first the kelp pulsed as usual with the current Fronds waved at full extension downcurrent like a wo breeze Now there was a different rhyther kelp fronds downcurrent of the outpost stretched directly toward Keel The currents were no longer consistent The outpost was being battered by sudden changes of current that had the kelp outside flickering in a firelight dance

Gallow&039;screw had never arrived His s fro strange about that kelp, Keel thought Stranger than ainst the current

Keel never even considered that Brett and Scudi entle undulations of the kelp, Keel thought often about his young friends

Had they reached Vashon? He worried about that But he heard no echoes of this in Gallow&039;s angry words Surely Galloould be reacting if thatto take over Merman Mercantile and the recovery of the hyb tanks Mer sent into space for the tanks Mer our planet in ways Islands cannot survive If Gallow succeeds, Islanders are dooht never know

Keel held out little hope for hiain, precisely as it had four years ago He knew that all traces of the reested and his intestines would gnaw at themselves until he either bled to death or starved There was no reason to doubt the word of his personal physician, and the evidence was too painfully iuise, even to hiht Why won&039;t it let me sleep now? Because last time he&039;d almost bled to death in his sleep, and now sleep was i that kept him awake Pain he had learned to bear over the years of ill-fitting support devices for his long neck This was the crisp wakefulness of the condeht Keel&039;s attention to the kelp So the currents and reaching toward the outpost The perian about two hundred meters from the outpost walls The outpost itself lay in the center of thisThe fish were gone, too Keel&039;s few earlier glimpses of the outer coardens at Core - fanlike butterfly fish with iridescent tails, the ever-present scrubberfish grazing leaves and plaz,the tall sails of their dorsal fins with every disturbance None was visible now and the gray filter of evening quickly washed itself black Just the kelp remained, sole proprietor of the world beyond the outpost&039;s perio froraceful to stately to full alert

That&039;s my translation, he reminded himself Don&039;t attribute humanity to other creatures It limits study A quick shudder iced his spine when he realized that this kelp had been grown from cells carried by mutant humans

The kelp had an infinite memory The histories said that, but so did GeLaar Gallow Conclusion? he asked hi up, he answered And it absorbs the reat tes in these journals, he thought I could leave everything Everything! Think of that! He entered these thoughts into his journal, and wished that he had his journals and his life&039;s collection of notes around him now It was possible, he knew for fact, that no Islander had given ht to life and life forms than Justice Keel Some of these observations he knew to be unique - soical, but vital every one These data he hated to see lost when a struggling humanity needed thehts, in tiht by the arrival of another sub overhead The sub gave the kelp a wide berth Gallow&039;s orders As the sub disappeared on its way to the interior docking bay, Keel e stalks tracked the sub&039;s path even though it ca the slow arc of sunlight across the sky, the kelp followed all of the incost the tendrils as one snapped out suddenly toward an intruder, but all Merht, the future of all the huh hu, "Like me If you&039;re huical kinship, after all Keel sed, and hoped silently that it was true that Vata was the key to the kelp He hoped, too, that ht he detected a change in the peri on and visibility so poor anyway, but he was sure that the two-hundred-h to notice

Keel cast about in his memory for all the information that he&039;d ever stored on the kelp Sentient, capable of nonverbal communication by touch, firmly anchored to ballast-rocks and mobile in its bloom state - except the bloom state had been extinct for hundreds of years That was the kelp the first humans on Pandora destroyed What surprises lay in store with this new kelp? This creature had been regrown froene-prints present in human carriers Could it be that the kelp has learned how to ination The dark outside was now nearly total, only a thin barrier of light escaped froht If there is aHe chuckled to hi at hiht He lance at his nose It spread over his face like a mashed fruit, the tip touched his upper lip whenever he pursed his ht

The hatch door behind him slammed into the wall and startled hiain when he saw Gallow, alone, carrying two liters of Islander wine

"Mr Justice," Gallow said, "I thought I&039;d liberate these froesture of hospitality"

Keel noted that the label showed that the as from Vashon, not Guemes, and breathed easier "Thank you, Mr Gallow," he said He allowed his head to drop in a slight bow "I seldoood wine anye, they say" Keel sat heavily and indicated the other chair next to his bunk "Have a seat Cups are on the sideboard"

"Good!" Gallow flashed the wide, white smile that Keel was sure opened ht He shook it off, suddenly embarrassed by himself Gallow took two stoneware cups from a shelf and set them on the desk The handles, Keel noted, were thick to accoers of outpost riders

Gallow poured but did not sit

"I have ordered supper for us," Gallow said "One of my men is a passable cook The outpost is crowded, so I took the liberty of ordering the meal delivered here I hope that ht What does he want? He took a cup of the amber wine Both lifted cups, but Keel only sipped

"Pleasant," Keel said His stoht of lu to ocentric prattle

"Cheers," Gallow said, "and to the health of your children" It was a traditional Islander toast that Keel acknowledged with a raised eyebrow Several acid replies teased the tip of his tongue, but he bit therape," Gallow said "Everything we have down under tastes like forrape needs weather," Keel said, "not racks of lamps That&039;s why each season has its own distinct flavor - you taste the story of the grape Formaldehyde is an accurate surape&039;s point of view"

Gallow&039;s expression darkened for a blink, the barest hint of a frown Again, the wide, winning grin "But your people are anxious to leave all this behind They prepare to move down under en masse It seems they have developed a taste for for Keel had heard these conversations before - the justifications of ined that uilty prattle of his jailer

"Right is self-evident," Keel said "It needs no defense, just good witness What is it that you come here for?"

"I come here for conversation, Mr Justice," Gallow said He brushed a stray shock of blonde hair back froht call it - it&039;s not readily available a my men"

"You must have leaders, officers of some sort Why not the that the one privacy of your imprisonment is breached here? At your ease, Mr Justice, conversation is all I&039;runt, my officers plan, my enemies plot My prisoner thinks, or he wouldn&039;t keep a journal, and I admire anyone who thinks The rational mind is a rare creature, one to be respected and nurtured"

Now Keel was positive that Galloanted so particular

Watch yourself, Keel cautioned, he&039;s a charmer The sip of wine found the hot spot deep in Keel&039;s belly and started its slow burn into his intestines He was tempted to end this conversation How much respect did you have for the minds on Guemes? But he couldn&039;t afford to end the conversation, not when there was a source of hard infor as I&039;ht

"I&039;ll tell you the truth," Keel said

"The truth is raced the comment, and Gallow drained his wine Keel poured him another

"The truth is that I have no one to talk with, either," Keel said "I am old, I have no children and I don&039;t want to leave the world eestured at the plaz-jacketed notebook on his bunk -"are my children I want to leave them in the best possible shape"

"I&039;ve read your notes," Gallow said "Most poetic It would pleases than most men"

"Because I dare to muse when your men dare not"

"I am not a monster, Mr Justice"

"I a person Simone Rocksack is Justice now, as well as C/P My influence is ain with the wine "Most perceptive," he said "Your information is correct - Simone is Chief Justice and C/P A first But because of the memory of one corrupt C/P, others have always been under scrutiny You, as Justice, have satisfied the people that there is a balance of power They wait to hear from you It is you who can relieve their worries, not Siood reason"

"What is the reason?"

Gallow&039;s easy smile uncurled and his eyes leveled their cold blue power at Keel

"They have good reason to worry, because Simone works for me She always has"

"That doesn&039;t surprise h it did He tried to keep his voice even, conversational

Get everything out of hiht, that&039;s the only skill I have left

"I think it did surprise you," Gallow said "Your body betrays you in subtle ways You and the C/P aren&039;t the only ones trained in observation"

"Yes, wellI find it hard to believe that she&039;d go along with the Guemes massacre"

"She didn&039;t know," Gallow said, "but she&039;ll adjust She&039;s a very depressing woet to know her Very bitter Did you know that there&039;s a mirror on every wall in her quarters?"

"I&039;ve never been to her quarters"

"I have" Gallow&039;s chest swelled with the stateliness, tears at her skin, contorts her face in the mirror until she can bear its natural form Only then will she leave her room Such a sad creature" Gallow shook his head and freshened his cup of wine

"Such a sad human, you mean?" Keel asked

"She doesn&039;t consider herself human"

"Has she told you this?"

"Yes"

"Then she needs help Friends around her Soliness," Gallow interrupted "That&039;s been tried Pity, she has a succulent body under all those wraps I am her friend because she considers me attractive, a row up ugly in an ugly world"

"She told you this?"

"Yes," Gallow said, "and more I listen to her, Mr Justice You and your Committee, you tolerate her And you lost her"

"It sounds like she was lost before I ever knew her"

Gallow&039;s white sht, of course," he said "But there was a time when she could have been won And I did it You did not That may shape the whole course of history"

"It may"

"You think your people will continue to revel in their deforood children to us You take in our rejects, our criminals and cripples What kind of life can they build that way? Misery Despair " Gallow shrugged as though the uable

Keel didn&039;t remember Islander life that way at all It was crowded beyond Merman belief, true Islands stank, also true But there was incoood word And who could explain to someone under the sea the incredible pleasure of sunrise, wars of person to person that proved you were cared foralive

"Mr Justice," Gallow said, "you&039;re not drinking your wine Is the quality not to your liking?"

It&039;s not the wine Keel thought, but the company Aloud, he said, "I have a stoenerally prefer boo"

"Boo?" Gallow&039;s eyebrows lifted in genuine surprise "That nerve-runner concoction? I thought it -"

"That only degenerates drank it? Perhaps It&039;s soothing, and to s I don&039;t do the collecting" That&039;s one he can relate to

Gallow nodded, then his lips pressed into a fire," he said "Aren&039;t you Islanders pushing your luck with that stuff?"

"Chroe?" Keel snorted He didn&039;t even try to suppress a laugh "Isn&039;t that a little like roulette with a broken wheel?"

Keel sipped his wine and sat back to see Gallow fully The look of disgust that shadowed the Merman&039;s face told Keel that Gallow had been reached

Anyone who can be reached can be probed Keel thought And anyone who can be probed can be had His position on the Coh at that?" Gallow&039;s blue eyes blazed "As long as you people breed, you endanger the whole species What if?"

Keel raised his hand and his voice "The Committee concerns itself with matters of &039;what if,&039; Mr Gallow Any infant that carries an endangering trait is terminated For a people trained in life-support, this is a uarantees life to all the others Tell me, Mr Gallo can you be so sure that there are only harly or useless mutations?"