Maelstrom

by Anne McCaffrey

  You again, the orca said grumpily. I suppose you don’t want us to eat any of this new herd of seals either.

  You’re on your own with that, as long as none of them are my kids or their otter friend, Sean told them. Ask before you bite, though. Murel is out here somewhere. She was on an iceberg but I don’t hear her now.

  WHEN SHE SENSED the large group of finned creatures approaching, Murel first feared the sharks were coming. Then she knew it couldn’t be the sharks. They were unaccustomed to water this frigid. Maybe later Petaybee would change them so they could live in more of the sea, but they were new here. They would have returned to the volcano-warmed waters. That left the orcas. They were being helpful again. Surprising, considering their pointed remarks about being used to fetch and carry for her. Nevertheless, this time they scared off her menacing relatives. She owed the orcas yet again.

  It is good whales want to eat the otter-eating seals instead of us, Sky said, clarifying the situation. He was right. The orcas weren’t doing her another favor—they were feeding. No sense getting carried away with gratitude.

  Right you are, she replied. Let’s follow those deep sea otters and see if they take us back to Ronan.

  She broadcast her sonar signal and picked up the retreating creatures. They did not seem to be in a hurry. Sky was refreshed enough to catch fish and frolic beside her. Sooner than she had dared hope, they entered Perfect Fjord. Along the bottom was an area of the undersea chimneys and plant life similar to that near the big volcano. Black chimneys, sulfurous waters, red-mouthed vents. Over a glowing rift in the sea floor lay the city of the deep sea otters.

  To her surprise, two of the city’s inhabitants—and she supposed it had to be the same two she had been following—lingered outside the shield until they saw her.

  Hah! one of them said. You got away. That is good. That will show those seals not to bother our little cousins the river otters.

  Sky otters, Sky corrected.

  Of course. Come. The other seal is waiting.

  Can you bring him out here? Murel asked, suddenly scared. Kushtaka must have been very angry to whisk her city away the way she did and to keep Ronan.

  But the deep sea otters didn’t reply, just rubbed their paws across the shield and entered. Sky followed closely behind them, and there was nothing for Murel to do but follow. As they swam toward the ground level, Ronan and Kushtaka swam up to meet them, while Tikka came from another direction.

  Kushtaka said, Good, you’re back. It took you long enough.

  Tikka started toward Murel too but Sky swam up to the youngster and climbed onto her shoulder, chirruping and purring like a happy cat, though his were actual otter noises, and they had the charming and distracting effect on the child he had surely intended.

  I tried, Murel told Kushtaka before Jeel’s mother could say anything. Misery swept over her again as Jeel’s death came back to her. I know I said the sharks would listen to me and I thought they would, but they didn’t.

  Ronan swam between his sister and Kushtaka. So what? he demanded of the elder. If Murel and I hadn’t said we could stop the sharks, what would you have done? Gone out yourself or sent some of your other people out there to get eaten too? At least she tried. You want to blame someone because Jeel got killed doing something he wasn’t supposed to, but it’s not fair to blame us.

  And yet you brought the monsters to this sea, Kushtaka said.

  Maybe so, but everything got brought here by someone at some time, as you should know, Kushtaka, Ronan replied. I heard how even your people came from someplace else, and they must have messed up too, because while you were living on Petaybee, it died. You had to leave, and while you were gone, our people came and revived the world so it survived for you to return to. We did you a big favor and you’re quibbling about a few sharks. I know, I know, they killed your kid. They’d have killed us too at one point. Killing is what they do.

  Killing is what a lot of things in the water do, Murel said, thinking of the seals and the whales as well as the sharks. It’s how things work. You hide from people as if we’re the worst things on the planet. But all most of the animals are interested in is eating other animals. If you can’t deal with it, then you’d better go back where you came from.

  Ronan interrupted her defensive tirade, directing a private thought at her. Actually, sis, they’ve been here longer than we have and are as much Petaybean as we are.

  Is that so? Well, they don’t act very Petaybean to me. They’re snooty, for one thing.

  Kushtaka, waiting until they ran out of things to say, answered their preemptive tirades, surprising them both then by continuing, in a softer tone, I am not glad you returned in order to punish or blame you, Murel. I am glad you returned because I wanted to thank you for trying to save my child. I was angry, but all that you say is true. I had intended to keep your brother with us so that your parents would endure something of what I endured, but that would help no one. But it is good that you returned so both of you can have your memories wiped and we can send you back to your people before we leave this planet to search for a new one, with fewer predators.

  With an apologetic look at Puk and Mraka, who floated nearby taking in the scene, Ronan told Kushtaka, But all of this mistrust and wiping people’s memories, that’s part of the problem. You saved our father’s life. He wouldn’t have wanted any harm to come to you if he’d remembered about you. He and Mum both try to make everything better for everyone. If you hadn’t erased his memory, Da would have taken you into consideration before releasing the sharks and figured out a way to protect you. You swore Murel and me to secrecy, so all we could do was try to warn you.

  Perhaps, Kushtaka said, but nevertheless, your memories must be wiped. No one must know about our colony.

  Sorry, Murel said, I’m afraid it’s a little late for that.

  WITH THE HELP of one of the orcas, Sean got Ke-ola back to the ice, though he had to drag him through the water until the ice would support him. Then, with a whale supporting the boy from beneath the ice, Sean changed into his dry suit and pulled Ke-ola the rest of the way up. He retrieved the extra dry clothing from the survival cache farther back on shore and helped the cold-numbed boy strip off his clothing. Ke-ola could never have done this alone. His hands were like clubs. Sean feared the newcomer to Petaybee might lose fingers or even his hands to frostbite if he was not able to warm up quickly enough.

  Sean wrapped the thermal blanket around the boy while he redressed him in warm clothes, then helped him the rest of the way to the dropoff point, the closest place where it might be safe to start the heater. Because of the warmer currents from the volcanic activity, even this far north, the ice was thinner than usual. When it was six feet thick, it didn’t hurt if you built any sort of campfire on it, but now it was only three feet in the thickest spots.

  The stowed gear included a heat generator powered from a very small canned flame easily ignited with a mechanical clicker. Once this was going, Sean was able to make some snow tea with herbs that had a restorative effect on hypothermia victims. He instructed Ke-ola to stick his bare hands between his dry pants and his bare stomach, since his trunk would be the warmest part of his body. Then he put the teacup—actually a heat-proof fiber tea bag—to Ke-ola’s mouth and had the boy swallow.

  The lad’s teeth were chattering so loudly that it wasn’t until he swallowed that Sean actually heard the awful din the seals were making. He looked up and saw seals rapidly advancing until they were only about twenty meters from the fire, with still more back down on the beach. There was a great herd of them and they were very upset indeed.

  Sean picked up the mobile, hoping it would work, but found he couldn’t hear himself speak much less anyone answer over the barking of the seals.

  “Shut up, you lot!” he hollered aloud, but with no noticeable effect.

  Those closest to the campsite moved in, flopping forward on their flippers and barking their heads off.

  You, the part-time seal with t
wo legs, make them go away! the foremost seal demanded.

  Make who go away?

  Them! Those black-and-white seal-eating bullies you’re so friendly with. We noticed they don’t eat you.

  He told them they could eat us, another seal said accusingly. I heard him! He doesn’t care. Fine kinsman he’s turned out to be, loosing monsters on his poor little cousins just because we’re full-time seals, not changeable like him.

  Sean sighed and keyed the mobile off. He scanned the horizon and saw the orcas at play just offshore, sounding and blowing and generally having a good time. I can’t see why you have your flippers in such a twist, he told the seals. It’s not as if the orcas can come ashore.

  No, and it’s not as if we can catch our suppers with them out there. And there are a lot of us to feed here, in case you hadn’t noticed.

  Almost had us that fat little otter if that stupid lass of yours hadn’t been so selfish, another seal said accusingly.

  We’d have had him too if those finny fiends hadn’t showed up, a third seal added.

  Murel? You saw Murel and Sky? You tried to eat Sky?

  He’s an otter, part-time. Get over it, the first seal said. Seals eat otters. Seals try to escape orcas, except for yourself, of course, and your pesky pups, and you’re all just plain peculiar.

  Rude too, another seal added. No idea of fair play in your family. We guide the seal-lass here, keep an eye on the underwater otter den where your laddie is, and she won’t even share her so-called friend. Then here you come siccing killer whales on us. I don’t know how you come to be a seal but we never had the likes of you on my side of the family.

  Sean took a deep breath and reminded himself that calm and clear communication was necessary here. This herd of seals might contain or even be led by a few of the most annoying members of the species he’d encountered so far, but they were, to some extent, his people. He owed them his attention and patience as much as he did the people of Kilcoole. Especially if they knew where Murel and Ronan were. He could scarcely blame them for being angry that he had turned to their predators for help. He supposed he had been callous about the cost to them, but he’d been angry. It wasn’t good for a biologist to be so intimately involved with his subjects. He’d lost his perspective because of his concern for his kids, but these fellows evidently had been trying to help his family, except for Sky, who was not a seal. Of course, it was perfectly true that seals often ate otters—sea otters anyway. So he cleared his mind and made his thoughts soothing and logical. Let me get this straight. You know where my son is and led my daughter to him but in exchange you wanted to eat our otter friend? Is that about right?

  The seals conferred and all agreed that it was.

  So where is he? Did she go after him? Sean asked.

  How should we know? the first seal asked. We were too busy avoiding massive jaws to pay much attention to seals and otters who don’t have to worry about killer whales.

  You found the underwater city Murel mentioned, though? Sean asked in a way that showed he was impressed. And Ronan was definitely in it?

  Definitely. He definitely told us to go away. Rude again.

  I’m sorry about that. Pups. No manners. They’ve picked up some bad habits at school offplanet.

  At least they didn’t tell those killers to go ahead and eat us, the second seal complained. Traitor to your kind, you are, even if you are only part-time.

  Sean sighed. I never told them to eat you. I told them not to eat my children or their friend.

  You could have said us too. They listen to you. Don’t think it escaped our notice that one of them helped you with the big two-leg pup there.

  Very well, I’ll tell them. Then will you take me to the place where you spoke with my son?

  They agreed, or at least three of them did, so once he reassured himself that Ke-ola was warming up nicely, he went back to the ice and addressed himself to the whales.

  You orcas are going to be dead bored hanging about this place, Sean told them.

  Bitfin answered, no doubt feeling he and Sean had a personal connection since Sean’s daughter had bit off part of his fin. Like being involuntary blood brothers by proxy? Sean wondered. He was a biologist, but he had yet to understand all of the ins and outs of marine life behavior and attitudes. But then, he could say the same of human behavior and attitudes. We’ll be grand once your furry friends get hungry enough to come back in the water and feed us, Bitfin told him.

  Not that likely to happen, mate, Sean replied.

  And that would be why?

  Because they’re just hanging around here to talk to me, then they’ll be heading for that saltwater lagoon fed by the hot springs. It’s always open, connects by a narrow underground channel to the sea itself, and is teeming with tasty fish. There are so many that the people living hereabouts can’t catch them fast enough to keep them from overcrowding the lagoon, so they’ll be happy for these fellows to thin the population.

  You’re full of bubbles, seal-man, Bitfin told him, and turned to his pod. Any of you ever heard of a warm water lagoon with fish?

  Sean shrugged and seemed to study the gray-and-white snowflake pattern knitted into the top of the mittens he now wore, along with other winter clothing, atop his dry suit. Ah, but then you’re not from around these parts ordinarily, are you? Usually swim a bit farther south, right? And both the channel and lagoon in question are far too shallow for your great selves, so why would you hear of a place that’s of no use to you? Doesn’t matter, does it, when you can swim wherever you want in Petaybee’s great sea? I only mention it so you’ll be aware that the seals—we seals—have another way out. Pity for you to waste your time here with those other pods gathering to mate. It’s highly disappointed they’ll have such great handsome beasts as yourselves lacking for the mating.

  Mating?

  Oh, aye, saw it on the copter’s radar, which covers more area than my sonar or even yours. A superpod is forming up south of the volcano, about halfway between the cone and the southern landmass. Looked like twenty or thirty pods headed that way.

  Now it’s you thinking we’ve bubbles for brains, to believe that sort of tale. The senior whale had taken an interest in the conversation. Even a seal-man should know that we pods have our ways of keeping in touch. We’ve sweethearts in those southern pods. They’d have let us know about the party.

  Yes, they would have, and I feel badly about that, which is why I’m telling you now, Sean said. You were busy helping my folk recently, weren’t you? Not exactly alert for distant signals? Not been your usual relaxed sort of lifestyle lately, has it? The pods were still at some distance from your feeding grounds too, so you mightn’t have heard them anyway, but I reckon if you swim hard and fast you can meet up with the others just before the fun starts.

  Black tails waggled back and forth in the air and water as the pod consulted. Sean wasn’t sure if the waggling indicated indecision on their part or derision. He also had no idea what had possessed him to come up with such a load of blarney, and him usually so partial to the truth. It had just come to him all of a sudden. He stifled his amazement at his own invention lest the pod pick up on it. He whistled a bit and tried to look unconcerned as he waited.

  Bitfin separated from the pod and swam south, then suddenly leaped in the air, making a perfect arc in the water. There it is! The invitation! They are calling us, brothers and sisters, just like seal-man said. Do you hear it now? Another whale also left the pod, leaped, and confirmed Bitfin’s impression, and then it was twos and threes, and finally the whole pod, and away they went.

  The power of suggestion was a wonderful thing, wasn’t it? Sean wondered to himself. Then he realized that his own hearing, less acute as a man than as a seal, seemed to be picking up distant whale song, though of course he couldn’t be sure.

  The last black fin disappeared from view, which wasn’t very far in the dark waters and at night, despite the full moon. The aurora had faded to a wash of pale green diluted by the vastne
ss of the sky. Sean turned back to give the seals the all clear and saw not a thing but Ke-ola warming himself by the heater.

  “Where’d the little buggers go?” Sean asked. After that great load of codswallop he’d dispensed on their behalf, he at least expected them to be there to answer his questions.

  Ke-ola shrugged and took a hand out of his clothing long enough to point inland. “While you were down there starin’ at the whales, the seals suddenly scooted off in that direction.”

  “I’ll go have a look. Are you warmed up enough yet? Want to come along?”

  “Bettah I start movin’ my feet before they fall off,” Ke-ola said, nodding.

  They had pulled out of the water at the extreme point of the fjord, which was the only relatively low flat area. The rest of the shoreline was steeply ridged with glaciers. Looking back from their camp across the snowy expanse leading inland, the terrain appeared to be an unbroken level expanse. However, before they had walked another two hundred yards, the ground fell away into a steep dish filled with steamy water and seals.

  Sean touched his mitten to the back of his parka hood, as if to scratch his head. “I could have sworn I was lying about this,” he told Ke-ola.

  Ke-ola shook his head. “Man, I know this wasn’t here when we flew in here. I’d have noticed this kinda thing.”

  The lagoon was sizable and clear, with a shimmer of steam rising from the surface. The seals were having a wonderful time catching fish and tossing them back and forth in the air.

  “I didn’t see it either,” Sean admitted.

  “Then how’d you know it was here?”

  Sean thought about that. “Scientific intuition?” he asked lamely, the two terms being mutually contradictory as far as offworld science was concerned.

  Ke-ola had had enough science classes to guffaw at this, so Sean felt he had to provide some basis for his remark. “What I mean to say is, with all the renewed volcanic activity in the sea, warming has been occurring all over, and we know that. So it isn’t unlikely that this sort of lagoon might have sprung up, or perhaps melted down. Of course, it could be the result of a glacial rift. They’re always shifting and changing their topography. Knowing that, I postulated something of the sort to the whales. It’s just a coincidence that there actually is such a place here.”