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contact with the kelp. Feeding their dead to the kelp?
"In a little while we'll go out and try to hear Zent's memories," Gallow said,
a new and deeply reflective tone in his voice. "Then we may learn what
happened to him."
Nakano, his voice more matter-of-fact, asked Keel: "How do you contact the
kelp? Does the kelp answer every time?"
Keel pursed his lips in thought, delaying his response and gaining time. Talk
to the kelp? He recalled what Ale and Panille had said about the Merman kelp
project -- teaching the kelp, assisting the spread of it under Pandora's
universal sea.
"We have to actually touch the kelp," Nakano prompted.
"Of course," Keel snorted. And he thought, Hear Zent's memories? What was
going on here? These violent men were suddenly revealing a mystical side that
astonished the pragmatic Keel.
Gallow suddenly laughed. "You don't know any more about it than we do, Mute!
The kelp takes your memories, even after you're dead. That's all any of us
knows, but you Mutes didn't think about what that could mean."
Green Dashers are kelp food when they die, Keel thought. And somehow their
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memories can be read by the living - through the kelp. He recalled the odd
stories out of human history on Pandora -- dashers talking with human voices,
a fully sentient kelp speaking to the minds of those who touched it. So it
was true! And the kelp, genetically rebuilt from the genes carried in a few
humans, was recovering that old skill. Did Ale know? And where was she?
Gallow glanced around the room and returned his attention to Keel. "Very
pleasant, this cabin," he said. "Ryan Wang's gift to Kareen Ale -- her
personal foil. I think I'll keep it for my command center."
"Where is Kareen?" Keel asked.
"She's busy being a doctor," Gallow said. "Something she should stick to.
Politics doesn't suit her. Maybe medicine doesn't, either. She didn't do
much for Zent."
"Nobody could've saved Tso," Nakano said. "I want to know what got him. Does
Vashon have a new defense weapon?" Nakano glared at Keel. "What about it,
Mr.
Justice?"
"What're you talking about? Defense against what?"
Gallow stepped closer. "Tso and two of our new recruits were given the simple
task of sinking Vashon," Gallow said. "Tso returned dying and in a damaged
sub.
The two recruits were not with him."
Keel was a moment finding his voice, then: "You're monsters. You would
scuttle thousands and thousands of lives --"
"What happened to our sub?" Gallow demanded. "The whole forward section -- it
looked as though it had been crushed by a fist."
"Vashon?" Keel whispered.
"Oh, it's still there," Gallow said. "Do I have to tell Nakano he must be
more persuasive? Answer the question."
Keel drew in a deep, trembling breath and exhaled slowly. Here was why they
kept him alive! Whatever had happened to the sub, he had no answer, but there
was something he could do. Forward section crushed?
"So it worked," Keel said.
Both men glared at him. "What worked?" Gallow barked.
"Our cable trap," Keel bluffed.
"I thought so!" Nakano said.
"Tell us about this device," Gallow ordered.
"I'm no technic or engineer," Keel protested. He put a hand up. "I don't
know how it's made."
"But you can tell us what you do know," Gallow said. "Or I will direct Nakano
to cause you a great deal of pain."
Keel looked at Nakano's massive arms, those bulging muscles, the bull neck.
None of that frightened him, and he knew that Nakano knew it. The reference
to death earlier, it was a bond between them.
"All I know is it's organic and it works by compression," Keel said.
"Organic? Our sub has cutters and burners!" Gallow clearly did not believe
him.
"It's like a net," Keel said, warming to his fiction. "Each surviving part
can behave like the whole. And once it's inside your defenses where your
cutters and burners can't reach it . . ." Keel shrugged.
"Why would you make such a thing?" Gallow asked.
"Our Security people determined that we were hopelessly vulnerable to attack
from below. Something had to be done. And we were right. Look what happened
to Guemes. What almost happened to Vashon."
"Yes, look what happened to Guemes," Gallow said, smiling.
Monsters, Keel thought.
"Tso must've done some damage," Nakano said. "That's why Vashon's grounded."
Keel tried to speak past a pain in his throat. "Grounded?" His voice was a
croak.
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"On the bottom and abandoning its downcenter," Gallow said, showing obvious
relish in his words. He reached out and tapped Nakano's arm. "Keep our guest
company. I will go out and prepare to commune with Tso's kelp-spirit. See if
the Mute here can tell us any way to improve our contact with the kelp."
Keel took a deep breath. His improvisation about a Vashon defense weapon had
been accepted. It would make these monsters more cautious. It would give
Vashon a breathing space -- if the Island survived grounding. He took heart
from the fact that Vashon had survived groundings in the distant past. There
would be damage, though, and economic losses. Ballast pumps would be working
frantically to lift and compress the bottom sections of the Island. Heavy
equipment would be detached in its own floaters. Mermen would be called in
for assistance.
Mermen! Would friends of these vermin be among those summoned for help? It
could take days for Vashon to lift its enormous bulk and refloat. If no storm
or wavewall came . . .
I have to escape, Keel thought. My people have to know what I've learned.
They need me.
Gallow had moved to the hatch, looking back thoughtfully at Nakano and the
captive. He opened the hatch and stood there a moment, then: "Nakano, he has
not given us every detail of their weapon. He has not told us how he communes
with the kelp. There are things of value in his head. If he does not reveal
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