winds
that are well within seasonal norms. No difficulties expected, but we are
issuing an advisory against topside travel for the afternoon."
"Acknowledged," Cilghal said. "We were planning on making the rest of our
journey underwater. Thank you." She signed off, then turned back to Leia.
"Don't worry, Minister. I can sense your anxiety, but I assure you, there is
nothing to be concerned about."
Leia sat up, trying to quell her nervousness until she put her finger on
its cause. "I don't doubt you, Ambassador, it's just that... the last time I
flew in a storm was on Vortex."
Cilghal nodded somberly. "I understand." Leia sensed Cilghal's sincerity,
and the look on her fishlike face was comforting. "We'll be safely landed in
a
few minutes."
Through the mists and the whipping spray Leia watched them approach a
metal island. Lumpy, but smoothed, like an organic coral reef, Foamwander
City
rose in a hemisphere out of the whitecaps. A forest of reinforced
watchtowers
and communications antennas rose from the top of the city, but the rest of
the
drifting metropolis had soft angles and polished outcroppings like a Mon
Calamari star cruiser.
The bright lights of thousands of above-surface windows shed jewels of
light even through the whipping rain. Below the hemispherical dome Leia knew
that the floating cities had underwater towers and descending complexes like
the mirror image of a Coruscant skyline. The inverted skyscrapers of
dwelling
units and water-processing stations beneath the hemisphere made the city
look
like a mechanical jellyfish.
Starved for raw materials on their marshy islands, the Mon Calamari had
not been able to build a civilization until they joined forces with another
intelligent species that lived beneath the oceans. The Quarren, a humanoid
race with helmet-shaped heads and faces that looked like a fistful of
tentacles sprouting beneath close-set eyes, had excavated metallic ores from
the ocean crust. Working with the Calamarians, they built dozens of floating
cities. Though the Quarren could also breathe air, they chose to remain
under
the sea while the Calamarians designed starships to explore the bright
"islands in space."
Cilghal approached the lumpy hemisphere of Foamwander City, circling to
the leeward side, where the bulk of the metropolis protected them from
buffeting winds. Whitecaps broke against the dull gray of the city's outer
shell, sending arcs of droplets high like a handful of diamonds.
"Open wave doors," Cilghal said into the voice pickup. She aimed the
shuttle toward a line of bright lights that guided the ship in. Before Leia
could detect the seam, heavy doors split open diagonally like a crooked
mouth.
Without slowing, Cilghal shot the vessel into a smooth tunnel, well lit
by green illumination strips. Behind them the wave doors closed, sealing the
metropolis against the onslaught of the storm.
Leia felt herself swept along as the ambassador moved with a liquid
grace, calmly but relentlessly, to the underwater sections of the floating
city. Cilghal set a steady, rapid pace that helped Leia hurry but caused no
alarm. This was no simple diplomatic mission.
As Leia strode through the curved colorful halls of the upper levels, she
was reminded of the corkscrewing chambers inside a gigantic shell. She saw
no
sharp corners, only rounded edges and smooth, polished decorations made of
coral and mother-of-pearl. Even inside the enclosed city, the air had a
salty
tang, but it was not unpleasant.
"Do you know where Ackbar is?" Leia finally asked.
"Not exactly," the ambassador said. "We allowed him his privacy and did
not follow him." Cilghal touched Leia's shoulder with a broad fin-hand. "But
do not be concerned. The Calamarians have sources of information that the
Empire never suspected. Even during the occupation we were able to keep our
collective knowledge intact. We will find Ackbar."
Leia followed Cilghal into a turbolift that plunged down into the deep
underwater levels of the floating city. When they emerged, the quality of
the
corridors had changed. The lighting was dimmer and shimmering, a jewel-blue
reflected through faceted glowlamps and thick transparisteel windows that
looked out into the ocean depths.
Leia could see divers swimming among the tangle of nets and mooring
lines, satellite cages, and small submersible vehicles moving about the
inverted towers of the city. The air was thicker and damper. The people in
these levels were primarily Quarren, moving about their business, not
acknowledging the presence of the visitors.
Though the Quarren and the Calamarians had allied themselves to build
this civilization, Leia knew that the two communities did not work together
without friction. The Calamarians insisted on their dreams to reach the
stars,
while the Quarren wished to return to the oceans. Rumors suggested that the
Quarren had betrayed their planet to the Empire, but that they had then been
treated just as badly under Imperial occupation as the Calamarians.
Cilghal stopped and spoke to a Quarren who stood by a valve-control
station. The Quarren looked up at the interruption, flashing dark eyes at
Leia, then at Cilghal. The Calamarian ambassador spoke in a high-pitched
bubbly language, and the Quarren answered abruptly in kind. He gestured to
the
left down a steep ramp that corkscrewed to the lower level.
Cilghal nodded her thanks, undisturbed by the Quarren's attitude as she
led Leia down the ramp. They emerged into an open equipment bay that had
been
pressurized to allow easy access to the water.
Five Calamarian males worked on a small submersible hoisted on a tractor
beam; they moved together to unload dripping crates from a seatree cargo
hold.
Quarren, dressed in sleek, flat-black suits that seemed covered with minute
scales, dived through access fields into the watery depths. The walls of the
equipment bay flickered as traces of dim light wandered up and down the
polished surfaces, creating a hypnotic bath of dark green and deep blue.
Cilghal went to a row of small porcelain compartments and opened one.
Before she could reach inside, two Quarren workers rushed over, speaking
quickly and harshly in their bubbling language. Leia smelled a new, sour
scent
rising from them.
Cilghal bowed in apology, then moved to a different set of compartments,
opening them with more caution. Leia followed, trying to make herself small.
She realized she was the only non-native in the entire chamber. The Quarren
stared at her, though the Calamarians took no notice.
Cilghal removed a pair of the slithery suits worn by the diving Quarren,
handing one to Leia. Leia ran her fingers over the fabric. It seemed alive,
clinging and slippery at the same time; the tiny mesh expanded and
contracted
as if seeking an
appropriate shape to best serve the wearer.
Cilghal indicated a narrow closet-sized door. "Our changing compartments
are a bit cramped, I'm afraid."
Leia stepped inside, sealing the door behind her as blue-green
illumination intensified in the small chamber. She disrobed and slid into
the
black suit, feeling her skin tingle as the fabric shifted and adjusted,
trying
to conform. When the crawly sensations stopped, it was the most comfortable
garment she had ever worn--warm yet cool, light yet insulating, fuzzy yet
slick.
When Leia emerged, Cilghal stood outside the door already wearing her
water garment. Without speaking Cilghal fitted a water jetpack over Leia's
shoulders, then rigged a crude net for her long hair. Looking at the smooth
salmon-and-olive dome of Cilghal's head and the fleshy scalps of the
Quarren,
Leia said, "I don't suppose you have much need for hair nets around here."
Cilghal made a sound that Leia suspected might be a laugh, and led her
over to one of the access fields. Beside a round opening that shimmered with
faint static as it held the Calamarian ocean back, Cilghal dipped her broad
hands into a bubbling urn. She pulled out a floppy translucent sheet and
held
it up. Water streamed off its surface, fizzing with tiny bubbles.
"Humans sometimes find this unpleasant," Cilghal said. "I apologize."
Without further warning she slapped the gelatinous mass across Leia's mouth
and nose. The membrane was cold and wet, clinging to her cheeks, her skin.
Leia stiffened in alarm and tried to struggle, but the strange soft gel
stuck
fast to her face.
"Relax, and you can breathe," Cilghal said. "This symbiote filters oxygen
from the sea. It can last for weeks under water."
Starved for air, Leia tried to suck in a deep breath and found that she
could indeed inhale clean, ozone-smelling air. Pure oxygen filled her lungs,
and as she breathed slowly out, the bubbles percolated back through the
symbiote membrane.
Cilghal applied one of the symbiotes to her own angular face and then
poked a tiny microphone unit into the soft jelly before adjusting another in
her ear hole.
She handed Leia a pair of the small devices. The microphone slid into the
gelatinous membrane, but the symbiote held it firmly. When she put the
second
jack into her ear, Cilghal's voice came through clearly.
"You must take care to articulate your words," Cilghal said, "but this
system is quite satisfactory."
Without another word Cilghal took Leia's arm. She could feel the
ambassador's grip, every detail of her webbed hands transmitted through the
remarkable mesh of the slick suit. Together, they plunged through the
containment field and into the deep oceans of Calamari.
As they jetted through the water, Leia felt warm currents on her forehead
and around her eyes. The symbiote fed her a steady supply of air, and the
fine
mesh suit kept her warm and dry and comfortable. Some of her hair broke free
of the makeshift netting, and thick strands flipped and flailed around her
head as she cruised along.
Behind them, the glittering inverted metropolis of Foamwander City
drifted like a huge undersea creature with thousands of tiny figures
swimming
around it. On the sea floor Leia could see dull orange glows and domed
cities,
sites of Quarren deep-mining operations in the ocean crust. Above, the light
turned milky as it filtered through waves churned by the pelting storm.
Cilghal spoke little, though the radio pickup worked quite well. They
left the floating city far behind, and Leia began to feel uneasy at being so
far from civilization.
Leia remained close beside Cilghal as their jetpacks bubbled and
streamed. Eventually, Cilghal gestured toward a crevasse broken into the
ocean
crust, surrounded by lumps of coral and waving fronds of red and brown
seaweed. "We are going to the Calamarian knowledge bank," Cilghal said
through
the tiny voice pickup.
They cruised between zigzags of rock overgrown with slow sculptures of
coral and hair-fine tendrils of deep plants. The water streamed faster as
the
rock walls channeled stray currents. Above and around them fleets of bright-
colored fish skimmed about, fed upon by larger fish that snapped, swallowed,
and returned to feed again.
Leia looked ahead and saw a haphazard bed of shells, polished hulking
mollusks a meter across. A faint lustrous glow seemed to come from the
shells
themselves.
Cilghal unexpectedly switched off her jetpack, and Leia shot past her
before managing to stop her own thrusters. Cilghal kicked her broad feet to
push herself toward the bottom with long gliding motions.
Leia struggled to keep up as they approached the enormous mollusks.
Slowly kicking her feet to maintain her position against the current,
Cilghal
spread her arms wide as she bent over the largest of the humped shells at
the
front of the large bed. She hummed, a strange noise that vibrated through
the
water as much as it moved through the pickup circuit in Leia's ear.
"We have questions," Cilghal said, speaking to the giant shells. "We
require access to the knowledge stored here in the great collection of
memories. We must know if you have the answers we seek."
The top shell of the largest mollusk groaned open. The crack between its
bivalve shells widened until a stream of golden illumination shone out, as
if
precious sunlight had been captured and held inside the impenetrable shell
walls.
Leia couldn't say anything in her astonishment. As the shell cracked open
even wider, she saw the soft fleshy mass inside, swirled and curved - comn
just the meaty lump of a shellfish, but the contours of a brain, an enormous
brain that pulsed and shone with yellow light.
A sluggish pulsing sound drummed at Leia's ears through the water, and
Cilghal turned to her. "They will answer," she said.
As Leia watched, row upon row of the giant shells opened, shedding rays
of warm light into the narrow crevasse and exposing the swirled lumps of
other
large brains.
"They sit," Cilghal said. "They wait. They listen. They know everything
that happens on this planet--and they never forget."
Cilghal began a long, ritualistic communion with the mollusk knowledge
bank in a slow hypnotic language. Leia floated in place and watched,
mystified
and anxious.
Finally Cilghal swam backward, brushing her flipper-hands back and forth
as she drifted away. The thick mollusks closed their shells, sealing the
golden light away from the shadows of the canyon.
Leia had trouble seeing in the suddenly restored dimness of the depths,
but the ambassador's words came crisply through the ear jack. "They have
told
me where to find him."
Leia could detect no emotion in Cilghal's even voice, but she felt he
r
own thrill of elation.
As they turned to swim upward, Leia stared toward the lip of the
crevasse. She froze as she saw a deadly sleek form like an Imperial attack
ship above--an enormous living creature with a long bullet-shaped body,
spined
fins, a mouth filled with fangs. On either side of the mouth streamed
whipping
tentacles, each tipped with razor-jawed pincers.
Leia began to swim frantically backward. Cilghal grabbed her shoulder and
pulled her down. "Krakana," she said.
The monster seemed to notice the bubbles caused by Leia's struggle. A
stream of fizz came from the symbiote on Leia's mouth as she panted with
terror, but Cilghal held her in a firm grip.
"Will it attack us?" Leia said into the voice pickup.
"If it senses us," Cilghal said. "The krakana will eat anything."
"Then what--was Leia said.
"It won't find us." Cilghal sounded alt too calm. Fish swam frantically
away from the torpedo shape of the predator. Cilghal seemed to be
concentrating.
"No, it will get that one," she gestured with one large hand, "the blue-
and-yellow-striped kieler. After that it will take that smaller orange one
in
the middle of the school. By then all the others will have fled, and the
krakana will continue on its way. Then we can leave."
"How do you know that?" Leia said, gripping the rough-edged lump of coral
on the side of the chasm.
"I know," Cilghal said. "It's a little trick I have."
Leia watched in horrified fascination as the krakana streaked forward,
coming unexpectedly from below as it reached out with its mass of tentacles
to
grab the blue-and-yellow kieler and rip it to ragged shreds before stuffing
its fang-filled mouth.
By the time the monster had grabbed the pale-orange fish, the rest of the
school had vanished to hidden corners of the crevasse or fled into the broad
expanse of the ocean. The krakana slid away as it cruised the depths,
constantly in search of a meal.
Leia stared at Cilghal, amazed at her prescient ability, but the
Calamarian ambassador squeezed Leia's upper arm before igniting her water
jetpack.
"Now we must go find Ackbar," she said.
Leia and Cilghal swam closer to the choppy surface after hours of gliding
beneath the waves. Around them leathery seatrees veined with iridescent blue
and red swirled in the churning current, stirred by the continuing storm.
Dark Apprentice Page 16
