Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5

by Gillian Andrews

  Ledin examined the vial with more interest. “Sounds as if it might come in very handy, then.”

  “Oh – and remember to stop for decompression on the way up. We are a long way underwater here, and even if there is less difference in pressure than there would be on Kwaide, it is still essential.”

  Ledin agreed. “I’ll take care of it. We will see you back at the shuttle then. Good luck.” The two men did one of their usual complicated handshakes and then Ledin signed to Grace to follow him. She raised a hand in Diva’s direction, and the two girls exchanged a small smile before they separated.

  Chapter 8

  LEDIN AND GRACE made their way with the utmost care to the port side of the island, towards the platform they had come from earlier. They were looking for some unattended hatches, in a place that would offer some cover. The last thing they needed was interruptions.

  “How are we going to block the hatch open?” asked Grace.

  “We get in, shut the door behind us, catching only the very edge of one metal bar, and then let the ocean in, and us out. Easy.”

  Grace looked at him sideways, and raised both eyebrows. He seemed quite fearless, and right at this moment she wasn’t sure that she knew him at all. He seemed to sense her bewilderment, and looked down at her. His eyes crinkled up into a smile.

  “Sorry. Did I sound too eager?”

  She nodded, rather shyly.

  “It comes from bringing yourself up in the uninhabitable zone. You get used to it after a while, and when there is something you have to do, a sort of second person kicks in and tries to get the thing done. I can’t explain it very well …”

  “I understand. I am glad you are like that. I suppose that happens to me, too – except I feel scared all of the time.”

  He smiled ruefully. “So do I. But on Kwaide, you learn young to hide any signs of fear that you might feel. The ones who show fear don’t make it to adulthood.”

  She nodded. “I see.” Then she considered for a while. “You never ever mention any family. Did you not have sisters, like Six?”

  A muscle in Ledin’s jaw tightened ominously. There was a long silence, and Grace thought that he wasn’t going to answer. Finally, reluctantly, the words seeped out of him, slowly, painfully. “I had one – absolutely beautiful – sister. She had shining golden hair and eyes that could look into your soul and lift a laugh out of any blackness. She was the most precious thing in the world to me.” He stopped, and Grace saw a sudden stark wretchedness in his face. “She … died,” he finished, his voice choking at the memory.

  Grace touched his shoulder. “I am sorry. I … I didn’t mean to cause you pain.”

  “I know.” He turned his face slightly away from her until he could get it back to a normal expression. “I … I never talk about it.”

  “Perhaps you should.”

  “Perhaps. —One day, maybe …”

  “I will be honoured to hear about her. When you are ready.” She pointed to a hatch which had just become visible in front of them; one of a bank of seven. “How about one of these?”

  Ledin had himself back under control. “Ideal, I would say. Right; you keep a sharp look-out, and I will open one of them. I think we can both get into one, can’t we?”

  “You and I can, certainly. I am not so sure about Six and Diva!”

  He tried to smile. “Diva will have something to say about it, I am sure!”

  It didn’t take Ledin long to open up the hatch. He peered into the hollow chamber inside. “Plenty of room for both of us. Come on, then.”

  He held Grace’s shoulders and she walked her legs up the wall and into the tube. Then Ledin swung himself once on the hatch, launching himself ably in after her, feet first. There was room for them both, though the bodywraps made it rather a tight squeeze. They lay alongside of each other, and Ledin had just enough room to raise his arms above his head and fiddle with the locking mechanism.

  “That should do it,” he gasped, after struggling for about three minutes. “It has to be tight enough to hold until we are out of the outer hatch, but loose enough to break after a couple of minutes. I hope I have got it right.”

  Grace tapped him on the mask pack. “We might have a slight problem,” she said.

  “What?”

  “Can you turn around in this tube?”

  “Of course not. Why?”

  “Because … if neither of us can turn around, how are we going to open the outer hatch?”

  They stared at each other through the mask packs. Ledin’s face was a sight to see. “I am a fool,” he said finally. “Of course, the Dessites must use those prehensile foot fronds they have to close the inner hatch, and they have the upper, hand, membranes to get the outer hatch open. But my feet are nowhere near strong enough to open the metal rods.”

  “Neither are mine. So one of us will have to go in head-first,” Grace pointed out. “And—” she made signs in the direction of her own, battered hands, “—I may not be able to manipulate the metal bars at all.”

  He thought quickly. “Well it is no good us going in separate tubes, because the same thing holds –we wouldn’t be able to open the rods on the sea side.”

  Grace suddenly became aware of a peripheral movement out of the corner of her eye.

  “Don’t move!” She hissed. But her advice was unnecessary, Ledin had caught the slight shadow even before she had, and had frozen into immobility. There were two or three Dessites standing by their hatch, presumably about to exit the station.

  Ledin slowly drew out his sword, as best he could in the cramped conditions. He wasn’t sure exactly how much use it would be to him if the Dessites decided to open that particular hatch, but he was determined to protect Grace for as long as life let him. He found himself catching his breath, his heart thumping in his throat, as he waited.

  But they were lucky. They could hear the faint scraping of metal on metal as the Dessites opened their tubes, and Ledin breathed again as he realized that they had taken the first three consecutive tubes, and thanked Sacras that Grace and he had picked the middle one of the seven hatches.

  He waited until they had gone, until the rumble of water had happened three times, and then he scrambled to reopen the metal rod.

  Pausing only to check that there were no more Dessites around, he pulled himself out of the tube, and turned back, his head now on a level with Grace’s, still inside the tube.

  “You will have to close this hatch,” he said. “You only need to get one rod across, and that need only just catch onto the hatch. Remember, though. It must hold long enough for us to be able to get free. If it doesn’t the higher pressure outside will push us back in again, and they will realize that it hasn’t been an accident.”

  She nodded, a serious expression on her face. He bit his lip, and then examined the tube. It was not going to be easy to pull himself inside without hurting Grace. He considered, and then hooked his legs over the hatch, leaving himself dangling upside down for a few seconds. Then he twisted his head and torso, and threaded them down the tube. With his legs already at the same height, it was easier to force his way past Grace without causing her too much damage. At last he was in place.

  “Change your mask-pack now,” he said. “I will do mine too. We should have as much air as possible available for the ascent.”

  They scrambled a bit to change the packs. Grace had a horrid moment’s panic when her clumsy fingers fumbled too much and she couldn’t fasten hers. She began to shake, but then she managed to find the clasp, and press it into place. She forced herself to breath more slowly than she would have liked. Now was definitely not a good time to block the mask pack and leave herself without air. Just the thought of that made her feel faint. She looked at Ledin’s boots, now at a level with her mask pack, and felt just slightly encouraged. At least she was not alone. Perhaps she would never have to be alone again. She felt suddenly humbled. What right had she to wish for something like that? She would just have to take whatever Almagest was
handing out, like anybody else.

  When the pack was on, she turned her attention to the metal rods, lifting both hands above her head to try to get a firm grasp on the one she had chosen to pull across. For this job she really only had two thumbs and three fingers at her disposal, and that was counting both hands. Still, it should be enough. She positioned her remaining digits as well as she could on either side of the bar, and began to tug.

  Nothing happened. She gave a gasp of exasperation, and pulled again. Still nothing. Grace closed her eyes. If she didn’t succeed in this then they would both either die or be captured by the Dessites. That simply was not going to happen. She screwed up her face and put everything she could into the straining against the metal. Finally she felt two things give. One was the metal bar, which she slipped across until it just caught on the latch. The other was the index finger of her left hand, which snapped with disappointing ease.

  The pain took a few moments to travel along her stressed neurons, and when it came was rather less than she expected. But then, it was only a finger. Just one more finger. She was used to that sort of pain. And this time it would heal, so it wasn’t really important at all, was it? All the same, she bit her lip.

  Her part done, she was able to relax her muscles slightly. She could hear muffled breathing from behind her, and the scrape of metal against metal told her that Ledin was managing to move the rods. It took him longer than she thought; the Dessites must be quite effective with their strange appendages. She knocked twice against his legs, to tell him that her part was done.

  Just as she was wondering if they were going to be entombed forever inside the tube, there was a sharp crack, and an inrush of water – so strong that it threw her bodily against the back hatch. She knocked her head against the metal rod and – for a few long moments – saw stars.

  Then the tube was full of water; she was aware of somebody tugging hard on her feet, dragging her out backwards, pulling her towards relative safety. She scrabbled to push against the sides of the tube with her hands to help, and gradually felt the metal fall behind her as she came out. As soon as she was clear, Ledin pulled her upright, and signaled frantically to her to follow him upwards, away from the hatch which could give way at any moment. They kicked hard to get as far away as possible, and then kicked again, this time to the right, to get back into the lee of the island, to find some cover amongst the floating rock.

  Grace put a hand out to feel the rock. It was smooth to the touch, but full of holes too, which were permeated with strands of black. That must be the carbon nanographite. It must be astonishingly light if it could make rock float in water– even if it was salt water. Hmm. She would have to ask Arcan. He would be bound to know.

  Ledin stopped and made signs to her to wait. They were starting the decompression protocol. She nodded her understanding, and spent some time looking about her. Although Ledin had the flask in his hand, ready to release the liquid that would mask them, there was no movement whatsoever nearby. They waited.

  BACK INSIDE THE underwater facility, Six and Diva were waiting too. It seemed a long time since Ledin and Grace had left, and they were both getting restless; they were more accustomed to movement. Six glanced over at the Coriolan girl. She was alert, but tense. It was easy to see that every cell in her body was ready for action. Six knew just how she felt.

  Still they crouched in their hiding place, silently quelling their impulses and trying to be patient. Six found himself wondering if the other two had been captured. But surely, if they had, there would have been some sign from the Dessite guards who were standing in their way? No, all must still be well. He reached up to rub his eyes, and then realized that he still had a mask pack on. It must be nearly time to change the packs. He nudged Diva, and signed to her to change to a new pack. She intimated that she was perfectly capable of knowing when to change her own mask pack, but obeyed anyway.

  Suddenly there was instant reaction from the guards. One moment all was quiet, and they were absolutely inactive. The next – they had gone. In one fluid leap they had disappeared to the port side of the facility.

  Six finished fastening the catch of his mask pack, and then they raced together towards the door where they knew that the visitor bimorph was being held. It took a few moments to force back the three heavy bolts, but then they were inside.

  The bimorph was looking very different. His colour was putrid, and he pulsated weakly. Diva found herself staring at the small shape, horrified.

  “I … I am very glad you c-came,” he said.

  “Can you move?” she asked.

  “Not just now; you will have to carry me.”

  Six grabbed the bimorph and tucked him inside the carry-all he had been toting everywhere. The visitor went more than willingly. In a flash, they were outside the door and edging the bolts carefully back into place.

  Then they were weaving their way as fast as they could in the direction of the starboard wall of the facility. They hoped they would find some exit tubes there; that Six had not been wrong in his estimation of the lay-out of the island.

  At last they reached the side of the chamber, and were very thankful to see that there were some exit tubes set into the wall. Six raced up to the first and began to tug the metal rods out of place.

  “Come on, Diva, get in!”

  She pursed her mouth. “How are we going to open the other end?” she demanded.

  “We’ll just have to … oh!”

  “One of us will have to go in head first, the other feet first. That would be you.”

  Six shook his head. “No. I am physically stronger than you are. I will open the outside hatch. You can close the inner one. It doesn’t matter so much if you can’t close all the rods – in fact it will be better to sabotage this side too. That way the Dessites might be too busy to think about whether the visitor is still in his cell. We are still going to need a lot of time to get the shuttle off the planet, even if Arcan can pick us up as soon as we are off the ground.”

  Diva wasn’t too happy about going feet first into the tube, but finally agreed, letting Six help her up with only a small complaint. In a moment Six was inside the tube and they were both busy closing and opening hatches.

  At last the welcome rush of water told Diva that she was about to find the relative freedom of the ocean. She propelled herself backwards, not wanting the ignominy of being pulled out by Six, and they both began to shoot upwards towards the surface. Six had pulled out the flask, and he was glad, for he saw two Dessites almost immediately, and it was needed. The compound with titanium oxide covered their withdrawal, blocking out their retreat with pure colour, and they were long gone by the time the Dessites might realize that there had been any life-forms there in the first place.

  When they stopped for their first decompression, Six put his hand inside the bag, and drew out a sorry-looking visitor. He made signs to it, and the bimorph managed a lack-lustre shimmer. Six asked it if he could transport away now, and the bimorph gave a weak mental nod.

  “Then leave now, please. Arcan and the trimorphs are waiting for you in the Independence, behind one of the moons. You should be able to feel the trimorphs. You are only increasing our danger here. If they get hold of you again, we would never get you out. We have only managed it this time because they weren’t expecting us. Please go. Go!”

  The visitor wobbled, winked momentarily out of and then back into existence, and then obediently disappeared. Six stared at the empty microcubits of water he had left behind, and hoped fervently that he still had enough energy to reach Arcan safely. Then he turned back to Diva. They changed mask packs again, before continuing their ascent.

  WHEN DIVA AND Six finally got to the surface of the ocean, they still had quite a distance to go. They had to get to the other side of the island, and then scale the porous cliffs up to the ledge where the shuttle was waiting. They got their bearings for a moment, swimming on the spot, and then made their way to the shore.

  Six knew that their chance
s of discovery were far greater in the water. It was the native element of the Dessites, and so they would have a much greater advantage. And if the Dessites were mainly in the water it stood to reason that they would not be examining the lower reaches of the crag with very much interest. That, together with the red colour of the new bodywraps, should keep them safe.

  But the way along the shore was not going to be easy. After the first, smooth overhang which marked the shore line, there were multiple boulders, and the rocky surface was pitted with sharp points and holes. Their boots were solid, but even so the going was very rough.

  At last they came to the beginning of the ledge, and Six motioned to Diva to start the climb. She stared up at the sharp rock and grimaced. Lacerating her hands on knife-sharp rock was not her favourite pastime. But she knew there was nothing else to be done. With a glare at Six, as if to make it all his fault, she started the ascent.

  Six gave a hurt shrug, proclaiming his innocence, and then followed.

  It took them two hours to make their way back to the shuttle, and when they got there it was to find the pod empty. There was no sign of Ledin and Grace.

  WHEN THEY GOT to the surface of the ocean, Ledin suddenly realized that he had another problem. There was no way that Grace was going to be able to climb all the way up to the shuttle. It was even further than the original ascent had been, since the rocky shelf was over halfway up the cliff. He stopped, dismayed.

  Grace followed the way his eyes had run up the rock, and her spirits sank. Now she even had an extra broken finger; she was going to need a strong rope to make it up there. And they had left the rope right at the top of the cliff, in case they hadn’t been able to get into the island facility. She didn’t think there was a spare in the shuttle. She sat down, choosing a rock which was still in sporadic contact with the sea, and therefore worn smooth enough not to hurt.