Part 46 (1/2)

”You think they'd go native like us?”

”It wouldn't matter, would it? Earth would have no report...”

He smiled. ”Yeah.”

”And if they were stranded here, maybe they'd come to see it our way. Maybe they'd settle, turn human. That female -- she could bear children.”

”Yeah,” he repeated, mulling it over.

”Three men, two women -- that might be a viable nucleus.” There were aspects to it that disturbed her, but it was a far more positive approach than murder.

It was a daring plan. They set it in motion when one agent was on land, tracking down the moving nest.

Veg set sail with Hex on the old raft, the Nacre. He was a decoy, to draw off one of the two agents on the s.h.i.+p. ”And Veg,” Aquilon said as he left. ”If it is the female who comes after you, smile at her.”

”Yeah, I know,” he muttered. ”Use my delicate masculine wiles to subvert her superior feminine force.” He spat eloquently downwind. ”The day I ever cater to the likes of her...”

”You're a handsome man. You don't want to have to kill her...” But he was already on his way, and she felt like a procuress. Was she prepared to follow the same advice when she encountered a male agent?

She took one more look at Cave, sleeping in the nest-cart, guarded by the three other mantas and two birds. Yes -- to save him, to save the eggs, to save the enclave, she was prepared. If they succeeded in stranding the agents here, it would eventually come to that, anyway: crossbreeding. Better that reality than the loss of everything she had fought to preserve.

Then Aquilon raided the s.h.i.+p. She stripped and swam, hoping that in the night her motion would be mistaken for that of an aquatic reptile. If not -- that was the risk she had to take. The agent aboard would not kill her out of hand; he would let her board, then subdue her -- and the test of her commitment would be at hand. She was a buxom woman now because of nursing her baby. If she could seduce him, or at least lull him into carelessness so that she had a chance to scuttle the s.h.i.+p, then it would be done. The vessel was anch.o.r.ed in deep water and would not be recoverable.

Of course, then the water predators would close in... but she was ready to die. Perhaps the agent, realizing that he could no longer report to Earth, would be pragmatic and join her, and together with the mantas they could make it to sh.o.r.e.

She had smeared the juices of a vile-smelling root over her body to repel the water reptiles, and it seemed to work. She reached the s.h.i.+p without event and climbed nimbly to the deck.

To be met by the alert agent there. ”Welcome aboard, Miss Hunt. I am Tama, your host. Kind of you to surrender voluntarily.”

The female -- the worst one to meet! ”I've come to sink your s.h.i.+p,” Aquilon said, knowing the agent was well aware of her intent.

Tama ignored this. ”Come below decks.” It was an order, not a request.

Aquilon thought of diving back into the bay. Once she went into the hold, captive, she would never have a chance.

Tama moved so quickly she seemed a blur. ”Do not attempt to jump,” she said from the rail behind Aquilon. Whatever had made her think she had a chance against an agent? Sheer delusion!

”Yes,” Tama agreed. ”But you amaze me. too. You have indeed borne a child.”

”Nothing amazing about it,” Aquilon said. ”You could do the same if you chose to.”

”Yet you have been on Paleo only three months -- and your Earth physical showed no pregnancy.”

Aquilon stiffened. She had been on Paleo a year and three months. Surely the agents knew that!

”We shall have to plumb this mystery,” Tama said. ”You are not trying to deceive me, yet we can not explain -- ”

She was interrupted by the sound of a bell. She brought out a tiny radio unit. ”Tama.”

”Tanu,” a male voice returned immediately. ”Male acquired, one fungoid destroyed.”