The girl glanced at the map Johann was holding and checked the placement of both the artificial light and the island. “You mean we could be lost?” she asked.
Johann nodded. “So fir we have seen nothing out here but more water. We have no evidence yet that there even exists a possible destination for us. Our most prudent course of action would be to keep the island in sight at all times, and make a wide circle around it, like this, while searching for a possible place to go. That way we could guarantee that we would always be able to return to our island.”
Maria watched his knife make a circular motion on the crude map. Then she turned and looked at Gretel. The aquatic creature, who had noticed that the boat had stopped and was now bounding in and out of the water about thirty meters in front of them, squealed when she saw Maria looking in her direction.
“Gretel knows where we are going,” Maria said. “And she would be able to take us back to our island if we asked her.”
Johann sighed. “Maria’ he said, “I don’t think you understand fully the seriousness of our situation. We have only a limited amount of food, and can’t be certain that we can find more. We don’t know where Gretel is leading us, or even if she is taking us anywhere at all. I think we should change our direction now, before we lose sight of the island completely.”
Maria glanced back and forth between Gretel and Johann. “I don’t agree, Johann,” she said in her most adult tone. “You yourself said that Gretel has been heading in the same direction since we started following her. Why else would she be doing that unless she was going somewhere specific? It wouldn’t make any sense otherwise.”
“You may be right, Maria,” Johann said, “but may is not sufficient in our current situation. In my engineering training, I learned to consider all the possibilities,” He paused for a moment. “Suppose Gretel is not taking us someplace where we can survive,” he then continued. “Then we will become lost and/or run out of food. In my opinion, the probability of this occurring is high enough that we shouldn’t risk it.”
Maria, deep in thought, stared at Johann for a long time. “I’m not sure I really understand what you just told me, Johann,” she said at length. “But my point of view is very simple. I don’t want to return to our island, and I’m not afraid of what might happen if we continue to follow Gretel. I know that Gretel is leading us someplace. She is my friend, and I have faith in her.”
Maria’s words and her facial expression both struck a resonant chord in Johann. For a brief instant he thought he was listening to Beatrice again. You are too analytical, Johann, Maria’s mother had said to him on more than one occasion. You must have more faith. Otherwise you will never be happy.
“All right, Maria,” Johann was surprised to hear himself say. “We will follow Gretel. But I want you to know that I am not completely comfortable with that decision.”
“Thank you, Johann,” the girl said excitedly. She hugged him and then raised her oar to signal to Gretel. “We’re ready,” Maria shouted.
JOHANN DID NOT become seriously worried until late in the afternoon. During lunch, and immediately thereafter, he was in a great mood and joked with Maria about the possibility of their seeing sea monsters, or mermaids, or even more fantastic creatures. Gretel continued on the same course and Johann updated his map periodically by making new incisions with his knife. When night began to approach, however, and Maria and he had still not seen a single landmark, Johann began chastising himself for having acquiesced to Maria’s desire to follow Gretel. His arms were also growing tired from all the rowing.
With a heavy sigh, Johann retrieved the oars and placed them where they belonged in the boat. “That’s enough for today,” he said. “You’d better signal to your friend.”
Maria waved an oar at Gretel. The aquacreature swam back beside them while Johann replenished the fuel for the torch and found the supper he had packed the day before.
“Here,” he said harshly, handing Maria her meal. “Try to eat it quickly, so you’ll finish before dark.” His comment was purposely intended to remind her of his dislike of her normal eating habits. Maria often dallied with her food, eating only a little at a time.
“You don’t need to be mean, Johann,” she said, taking a big bite out of a piece of fruit. “It’s not my fault that we haven’t seen anything.”
Johann forced a smile. “You’re right, of course,” he said. “I guess I’m upset with myself. We should have stayed within sight of the island… Now we could really be in trouble. During the night we will drift with whatever current there may be here, and I will have no idea where we are when morning comes.”
The girl leaned over the side of the boat and stuck her hand in the water. “It doesn’t feel as if there’s any current at all,” she said hopefully. “And besides, as I told you before, Gretel knows where we are, and where we’re going.”
Johann didn’t respond. “We’ll head back in the morning,” he announced brusquely when he had finished eating. “With or without Gretel… and there will be no discussion about the decision.”
Night came abruptly in their world. The artificial sunlight simply vanished in a moment, without a warning. Dark fell only moments after Johann had pulled the pillows out of their temporary storage bins. Gretel chirped beside them to acknowledge the night.
The torch was behind and above Johann’s head when he was sitting in his normal seat in the boat. A few minutes after dark, Maria came over beside him on the bench. “Talk to me about my mother,” the girl said. “That always seems to cheer you up.”
Johann restabilized the weight in the boat and then looked down at the beautiful little girl beside him. He marveled once more at her spectacular blue eyes. How could he possibly remain irritated when confronted by such an innocent and adoring smile?
“Your mother was the most amazing human being I ever met,” he began. He closed his eyes and leaned back, suddenly remembering that one special night when Beatrice had sung love songs to him on the beach. The power of his instant heartache took Johann aback and he was momentarily speechless.
“Go on,” Maria urged. “Tell me what was so amazing about her.”
“So many things,” Johann said, shaking his head. “Her singing voice had to be heard to be believed. She was also beautiful… But I think it was her goodness that made her so extraordinary. I never even heard a story about someone who was as good a person as your mother. She not only preached the words of Christ and Saint Michael, she actually lived by them…”
BEFORE THEY FELL asleep, Gretel had a couple of visitors. Judging from her initial reactions, Gretel had not met the other two members of her species before. At first she stayed close to Johann and Maria in the boat, but later on she ventured away from the boat, even out of sight, to play with her friends.
Johann and Maria could still hear Gretel and her playmates an hour later, but they could no longer see them. Maria yawned and then curled up to sleep sideways in the boat. Johann attempted to sleep sitting up, with his head resting in one hand and that elbow planted firmly on his thigh. He managed to sleep for periods of an hour or so, each time being awakened by aches in stiff joints that were not accustomed to the unusual position.
A few hours before daylight, frantic, high-pitched cries from Gretel and her friends woke Johann abruptly from a dreamless sleep. Before he had time to survey the situation, Gretel leaped over the boat to escape the oncoming rush of a solitary nozzler, whose blue, lofted tentacles with their fearsome claws were a terrifying sight in the torchlight. The tentacles had smacked the water only a few centimeters behind Gretel just moments before she jumped.
His heart pumping furiously, Johann grabbed one of the oars, shaking Maria awake in the process, and swung at one of the tentacles, now up in the air again, with all his might. He scored a direct hit, nearly severing the tentacle structure, and leaving its front portion with the vicious claw dangling helplessly aloft.
The damaged tentacle drooped into the water. Johann swung again, aiming for
the other tentacle, but the nozzler had already retracted it a safe distance away from the boat. Maria, who was sitting on her knees in the boat, watching the battle in speechless fright, now began to scream. Johann, still brandishing the oar and not taking his eyes off the nozzler, put one of his hands on Maria’s left forearm and squeezed. “Stop,” he ordered. “Stop now!”
She obeyed. Maria sat quietly, her body trembling, as Johann and she watched the nozzler draw closer to the boat. The one good tentacle remained elevated, half a meter or so above the water, poised and ready for a possible attack. There was movement inside the two forward nozzler eyes, as if it were looking at them carefully, assessing the probability that an attack would be successful.
The nozzler turned and swam parallel to the boat, allowing Johann and Maria a clear view of its side. The circular washboard organ facing them was open, exposing a nasty set of sharp teeth around its perimeter. The hard carapaces were the only part of the middle segment that was above the water line while the nozzler swam. The fanlike tail moved in and out of the water with ease and grace, acting as both an accelerator and a brake for the alien creature.
Gretel and her playmates, meanwhile, had disappeared. They had doubtless been the nozzler’s original prey Now though, as the alien continued to swim beside them just out of reach of the oar, it was obvious to Johann that Maria and he had replaced Gretel and her friends as the primary object of the nozzler’s attention.
Suddenly the nozzler vanished. It was a second or two before Johann realized that it had gone underwater. Turning his body so that he could fend off an attack coming from either side of the boat, Johann tensed his muscles and waited.
It wasn’t a long wait. The nozzler struck from the opposite side, its tentacle bursting out of the water and into the boat in an instant. The end of the claw snapped shut, catching Maria’s dress, and began pulling the child toward the water. She screamed in terror. Johann swung the oar hard, narrowly missing Maria and smashing it against both the back end of the claw and the side of the boat. The claw was torn from the tentacle and the oar shattered into two pieces. The tentacle slithered back into the water as Johann grabbed Maria.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
The girl nodded her head up and down. The end of the claw was still affixed to her dress, just above her stomach. Johann was unable to pry it open. With one eye on the nozzler, who remained beside the boat, watching them, Johann tore off the part of Maria’s dress containing the claw She had a long, thin flesh wound that was fortunately not too deep. It was barely bleeding.
Johann picked up Maria with one hand, and the second oar with the other. He set her down at the opposite end of the boat, where he had packed their medicine kit, while he kept a wary eye on the nozzler. “Rub the greenish stuff on it,” he said, after explaining to her where to look. “It will reduce the pain.”
Maria followed his instructions. Slowly she was regaining control of herself. After she had applied the herbal medicine, she glanced again at the nozzler.
“Why won’t it go away, Johann?” she asked in a frightened voice.
“I don’t know,” Johann answered. “But I don’t think it can hurt us anymore. It has lost both its claws.”
The nozzler now rolled over on its side, exposing part of its underbelly. The region around the clusters of tiny pearls, which were now aimed directly toward the spacecraft sky, began to pulsate and undulate. A few seconds later a loud, long bass sound, like an extended blast from a tuba, emanated from the temporary hole that had formed among the pearls. The sound repeated twice more, at approximately five-second intervals.
Almost immediately the call was answered, first faintly off in the distance to the left of the boat, and then, much louder, from in front of them. In both cases the answer consisted of five blasts, the last two at a slightly higher pitch.
Johann and Maria looked at each other. “It’s calling others,” the girl said, her eyes wide open with fear. “What are we going to do?”
When the nozzler started preparing to call again, Johann lunged at it with his remaining oar, nearly falling out of the boat. His stroke fell short of its mark, but he did distract the alien. The nozzler quickly swam several more meters away and repeated its three-part call.
This time there were three responses, one now coming from directly behind the boat. “Sit dawn and pick up your oars,” Johann said to Maria. He turned the boat so that it was headed to the right. “Now row,” he said, “as hard as you can.”
With Johann using only a solitary oar, it was difficult to control the direction of the boat. Eventually he settled into a routine of three strokes on one side, followed by three on the other. Maria rowed fiercely, timing her strokes to coincide with Johann’s as he had shown her during the day. Within minutes they were both sweating and breathing heavily
Their nozzler swam along with them, dropping behind when it issued another call, and then catching up effortlessly with a few rapid motions of its tail. The answering sounds were becoming louder and more numerous. Johann and Maria were not escaping.
A loud, five-part nozzler blast from their right indicated that a second nozzler had almost reached them. “Are they going to kill us, Johann?” Maria asked.
“Not if I can prevent it,” he said. He pulled his long oar into the boat and turned to face the direction from which the answering nozzler blast had come. Less than a minute later, Johann and Maria saw their new adversary This nozzler was huge, maybe four meters in length, by far the largest one they had seen. Its elevated tentacles towered above its swimming body almost as high as Johann’s head.
“Try to stay calm,” Johann said to Maria, sensing her redoubled fear. “And use your oars to protect yourself.”
The new nozzler swam completely around their boat, the fluid in its eyes in constant activity. Then, to Johann’s astonishment it retracted its tentacles and appeared to be treading water just off the prow of the boat. After several seconds the nozzler lifted its powerful tail out of the lake and smacked it down hard, sending an enormous burst of water toward Johann. He reacted quickly; grabbing the side of the boat just before the wave struck. Johann was drenched, and knocked down, but he managed both to hold on to the oar and to stay in the boat.
“Johann, Johann,” he heard Maria’s desperate call in the darkness. He looked around, unable to see the girl, and realized that the torch had been extinguished by the wave.
“I’m here, Maria,” he said. “Crawl over in this direction.”
They somehow found each other in the center of the boat. Maria held tightly to Johann as they both listened to the new nozzler’s deeper, louder, three-part call that was followed by a flurry of responses.
“What is it waiting for?” Maria asked.
“I don’t know,” Johann replied. Maybe it wants to kill us in the light, he thought. He briefly considered trying to make a stealthy escape in the darkness, but he rejected such an action as useless. Johann hugged Maria against his chest and tried not to think about death. “I love you, Maria,” he said. “I’m sorry…”
“It’s not your fault, Johann,” she said. “And I love you too.”
There were soon four nozzlers in the water around them. Johann and Maria could not see their bodies, but they could hear the alien sounds, now shorter, and more clipped, and occasional splashing on all sides. Then they became aware that their boat was moving. Johann crawled in the direction of their movement and verified that four nozzler claws were attached to the front of their boat, one pair on each side. The powerful, extended tentacles of the nozzlers were pulling the boat through the water.
They are taking us somewhere, Johann thought. We are their captives. He tried to calm his own fears as he crawled back to where he had left Maria. He was planning to attempt to reassure her, to relieve her of some of her terror, when he suddenly noticed that it was no longer pitch-black around them. What the…? the confused Johann was thinking when Maria stood up in the boat.
“Look, Johann,” the girl
shouted. “The ribbons are coming!”
Johann barely had time to look up into the spacecraft sky before there was a blinding explosion of light just above them. The next several seconds were complete chaos. Frenzied nozzler sounds and thrashing in the water surrounded Johann and Maria. The ribbons were everywhere, even under the water, as the nozzlers scattered in all directions. Then, just as quickly, the ribbons zoomed up into the sky and disappeared in the direction from which they had come.
Johann and Maria held each other in the center of the boat. They were too exhausted to talk. The nozzlers did not return.
GRETEL’S FRIENDLY SQUEAL awakened them. Johann and Maria opened their eyes almost simultaneously. It was already light in their world.
Maria reached into the lake to pat her friend. “And where have your friends gone, Gretel?” she said. “I hope they escaped from those nasty nozzlers.”
Gretel chirped and began cavorting in the water. “She’s inviting me in for a swim, Johann,” Maria said. “Is that all right?”
Johann, who was already attempting to make some sense out of what had happened to them the previous night, nodded affirmatively “But stay close to the boat and come quickly if I call.” The girl dove overboard and within seconds was swimming and laughing with Gretel.
Johann did not think about the fact that he had absolutely no idea where they were, and that their meager remaining food supply was soggy from the water inside the boat. He also pushed aside thoughts about how easily Maria and he could have been killed. For once, he suspended all his analyses, and simply watched with delight as his ward frolicked with her special friend.
When their play was done, and Maria was back in the boat, Gretel again began swimming in front of them. Johann, now using Maria’s two small oars to propel the boat, followed the aquacreature. Much to his surprise, Maria actually seemed to be in a happy mood, and showed no outward ill effects from the previous night’s harrowing experience.
Rama: The Omnibus Page 225
