Part 27 (1/2)
Where were Rachael and Merced? Had they sneaked off somewhere? ”Rachael!”
”Over here, Mother!”
She turned a circle. ”Where?”
”I esppy thhemmmm.” Wenkoseemansa swung his seemingly weightless ma.s.s around, presented a black and white wall to her gaze. It occurred to her that he was offering her a ride.
”Theyy are a modest distance, byy your standards.
I will convey you to yourr offspring.”
She hesitated only a second before locking her gloved palms over the front of the towering dorsal fin.
Then the water was rus.h.i.+ng past her so fast it put pressure on her suit. In an instant (or so it seemed) she had traveled several hundred meters through the clear water.
Rachael was swimming alone beside a crystal cas- tle. It looked like an interlocked series of colored, spi- raled sh.e.l.ls that rose to within two meters of the surface. Several smaller constructs, miniature versions of the larger, grew from the reef base farther down.
”Isn't it grand. Mother?”
”Isn't what grand? Yes, it's beautiful, but-”
116 CACHALOT.
”I'm sorry. How could you know? Listen!” Rachael held a small metal sampling tool. She used it to tap one side of the growth. A distinct, mellifluous tone ran through the water. ”It must be partially hollow.”
Yellow and blue stripes ran around the sh.e.l.l spirals, a collection of unicorn horns. The sh.e.l.ls were pale green to transparent. In the center of each sh.e.l.l pulsed crimson organs, sending colorless fluid throughout the individual organisms.
”Okay, it's grand.” Cora glanced around, relieved to find that Merced was nowhere in sight. She still couldn't keep herself from asking, ”Where's Pucara?”
”Off somewhere, investigating on his own. Think he follows me everywhere?”
”Doesn't he?” Cora quickly added, ”I'm sorry, that's none of my business.”
”That's right. Mother,” Rachael agreed with dis- arming cheerfulness. ”It's none of your business.” She swam up a meter or so and tapped the spiral central cone where it tapered considerably. Again Cora heard the ringing, only an octave higher this time. ”I'll bet several people working in unison could play these.”
So that was it. For just a moment, Cora had be- lieved her daughter's scientific interests had been stim- ulated by the cone creatures. ”Must you always be thinking of music?”
”I don't see any harm in combining my work with my music.” Then, more seriously, ”There's something else here you probably ought to have a look at.” She arched her back, kicked downward. Cora followed.
Strewn between the crystal pinnacle and its lesser companions were several huge fragments of metal.
The battered pieces of coated stelamic still retained their sheen and even markings. The inscriptions showed that they had been components of some large structure; a warehouse, possibly. Several of them were a third the size of the Caribe.
Cora drifted over one, studying the torn edges. ”It
117.
doesn't look as if this has been severed-by an energy beam, for example.”
Rachael was inspecting another fragment nearby.
”Here's one that's badly dented, but it's still intact.”
Cora joined her daughter, saw that she was right.
Torn supports were still fastened to an unbreached container. The tank itself was bent almost in half, flattened in the center by some tremendous force.