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different from the day before, that she knew would be no different tomorrow.
"When I regress all the way back to an egg, I'm yours."
"Fried, poached, scrambled, diced, or in an omelet?"
"Hard-boiled," she responded, not missing a beat. She eyed the empty
bridge. "Master remote or no, shouldn't you be up there checking other
instruments?"
"For instance? You worry too much, Cora." He eased back into the lounge.
The material cooled his back, kept him from perspiring too much. "The
Commonwealth's been overtechnologized for centuries. If anything goes wrong,
the ship will stop. If nothing stops, there's no reason for me to hover over
the instruments. You're still thinking in terms of the oceans of more
developed worlds.
"There isn't an island or reef within kilometers. This section of sea,
this close to Mou'anui, has been fairly well mapped. The chance of our
encountering another ship, let alone running into one, is about one in several
million. A true passenger passages and lets his ship take care of itself.
That's what it's designed to do. In the unlikely event we do encounter
something, it will warn us in plenty of time. You don't think any vessel as
smart as this one is going to bash itself up simply because it has a few dumb
humans aboard, do you?"
"Okay-let up on me, will you?"
Several high whistles and squeaks joined the conversation. She looked to
starboard. Sam put down his book, frowned intently. "That's Latehoht. She's
talking to you."
"How do you know, and why to me?"
"I know a little orca. As to the second"-he smiled at her-"ask her
yourself. You'll need your headset. And hurry." He glanced upward. "Soon it
will be hot noon and they'll slide beneath the ship. They like to travel in
the shade of the hull."
She started to leave. "It's down in my cabin. I'll go get it."
"Never mind. Use mine." He pointed.
She located the translator unit, donned it, and adjusted the controls.
Then she was leaning over the side and shouting, "Good morning."
"Haill and good hunttingg, grreetings to thhe sssun!" the joyful response
came. For an instant the magnificently streamlined black and white body
disappeared, only to break the surface seconds later. "A ggood dayy to beee
aliwe, to swwim and to eatt and to thhinkkkk."
"Haill and monrning," a slightly deeper echo sounded. Wenkoseemansa
greeted her nearby. Cora noted that when traveling, one had to adopt a
pause-and-wait style of conversation to match the whales arcing in and out of
the water. But the male did not reappear.
"What's wrong with Wenkoseemansa?" Cora asked Sam, moving the headset
pickup aside so the unit would not translate her question into orca. "Doesn't
he like me?"
"What makes you think Latehoht likes you?" he teased. "Don't mind
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Wenkoseemansa. He's the strong, silent type."
"Awwwoman, off anothher wworrrld!" a new cry sounded. Cora turned her
attention back to the waters. From her position high on the overdeck she could
see the entire powerful body. It cut through the water like a ship through
vacuum, sometimes playing only centimeters from the sharp, flexible metal of
the fore starboard foil.
"Lissten to a tale, lissten to a tale!"
Wenkoseemansa reappeared but did not speak. He cut under his more
loquacious mate, raced just ahead of the dangerous foil, and let it kiss his
tail flukes.
"I could listen to you all day," Cora replied honestly.
"Nottt sso longg," Latehoht corrected her quickly.
Cora heard a noise, raised her earphones, and heard in terranglo, "The
translator has a difficult time with metaphors," Sam was telling her. "Try to
be as literal as possible, even if Latehoht is not. And pay attention, or
you'll miss something good." He turned onto his side, his huge stomach
shifting to cover completely the instrument belt encircling his waist.
"Latehoht's a fine storyteller. Orcas love to tell stories. They all
think they're poets. Sometimes I think they stay around men just to have
someone new to listen to them. So be a good audience."
With pauses while she was beneath the surface,
Latehoht proceeded to tell the story of Poleetat, an ancestral orca and
one of the first to reach Cachalot. It seemed that Poleetat, in exploring his
new home, encountered a megalichthyian, one of the largest creatures
inhabiting Cachalot's ocean. The megalichthyian was four times Poleetat's
mass. Its teeth were sharp and small and many, and it boasted an enormous
single tusk protruding from its lower jaw like a sword.
Unlike some of the younger orcas, Poleetat did not try to bite the
megalichthyian. Instead, it remained out of range of that murderous,
sharp-edged tusk and harried its wielder, teased and tired and tempted it. All
the while the furious megalichthyian, which had already killed or severely
wounded several less circumspect orcas, slashed and thrust at its tormentor.
Eventually, all the other orcas either had been wounded or had fled in
confusion, not knowing how to deal with this alien enemy. And this was no
ordinary megalichthyian, Latehoht explained, but an enchanted one. It would
not tire or give up the fight.
Yet Poleetat, though his strength waned, refused to flee or pause to eat
lest this dangerous monster harm others of the pod. So they dueled a dance of
death, the enchanted megalichthyian twisting and stabbing, having only to make
a single strike with its great tusk to kill, while Poleetat spiraled and spun
around the great spotted brown bulk, snapping at its fins and tail and trying
to get in a bite at one of the monster's several eyes.
They danced their way all around the world, changed direction, and fought
from pole to pole, fighting even beneath the ice packs. Still the
megalichthyian did not tire. But Poleetat, though the strongest of the orcas,
was nearing the end of his strength and saw that something radically new in
the way of fighting would be needed to end this war.
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So he faked exhaustion, letting the spear of his opponent pass close, so
close to his belly that blood was drawn. Then he turned to swim limply away.
Smelling death and triumph, the megalichthyian rushed in pursuit, growing
nearer and nearer, ready to run Poleetat through from fluke to nose.
With his apparent last bit of strength Poleetat gave a final burst of
speed and soared out of the water as if to escape. Contemptuously the
megalichthyian followed. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]