CACHALOT.

Cachalot, she felt the cold kiss of fear. It occurred to her that whatever had obliterated four entire towns could probably dispose of a single boat and its occu- pants as easily as she could stifle a sneeze. She forced the worry aside. There was no point in wasting her time thinking about such a possibility. Death was merely a physiochronological abstraction she would have to deal with sooner or later.

Even at the Caribe's speed, it was many minutes before they had crossed the gigantic lagoon of Mou'anui and the first of the small outlying motus, or islands, came into view. No tall transplanted palms waved acknowledgment of their presence. They were almost on top of the low, sandy piles when she finally

noticed them.

Mataroreva had slowed their pace. While the pas- sage through the reef was reasonably wide, he took his time guiding the Caribe through. A thick acc.u.mulation of transparent hexalate could not harm the duralloy hull but might do damage to the more delicate, flexible

foils.

Only a slightly increased swell met the craft as it slipped free of the lagoon. No thunderous breakers to ride out here, except during a storm.

They were well clear of the exterior motus, and Mataroreva still held their speed down as he turned farther to the west. Cora watched interestedly as they approached a small atoll, a miniature version of Mou'anui complete with two gla.s.sy islets whose crowns barely broke the surface. Sam was leaning out of the bridge enclosure, hunting for something even the slight distortion caused by the transparent gla.s.salloy

chamber might hide.

Cora looked in the same direction, but strain as she did, she could not find a boat, a raft, or anyone on the islets. If they were supposed to meet their additional a.s.sistants here, she couldn't . . . What she did finally espy, and what broke her train of thought, were two

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huge dorsal fins moving straight for the Caribe. They were black with white markings. Orcas-killer whales!

"Rachael-Rachael!"

Her daughter joined her, her expression anxious.

"Mother, what's.? . .."

Cora was pointing excitedly over the side. Rachael and then Merced noticed the approaching fins of a pair of Cachalot's true colonists.

Cora called up to the bridge. "Sam!" He glanced down at her. "Can't you pull over for a better look?"

"Not necessary," he shouted down to her. "You'll meet them in a moment. They're the two other experts I told you about."

He pressed several switches inside the transparent bridge, climbed down to join the others. In one hand he held several ear-and-mouthpiece sets. The other held a thick black box-the heart of the ship, with which he could control most of the Caribe's move- ments and actions.

"Here," he said, handing the headsets around.

"These are a.n.a.logs of the speaker-receiver units in your gelsuits. If you want to listen in or join the con- versation, you'll need one of these." He was wear- ing one already.

Like two racing s.p.a.cecraft in a blue-green void, the orcas drew alongside the bobbing suprafoil. Cora studied the black and white coloring through the clear water. The sandy bottom was still only some fourteen meters below them, and the orcas hung within that medium, floating as if suspended in air.

Whistles and squeaks came from Sam, and she hur- riedly adjusted her own headset. His voice was dis- torted by the electronic diaphragm, but the words were now understandable.

"These are our lookouts and helpfriends," he was saying. "I've known them both for a long time. The big male is Wenkoseemansa. In orca that translates roughly as Double-White-Death-Scar-Over-Right-Eye.

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You can see it when he rolls to port. Got it when a calf in a fight with a sunmori fish. His mate is Late-

hoht-She-Who-Rises-Above-The-World."

"What is the origin of?-" Merced started to ask.

Before Mataroreva could reply, the question was an- swered by action.

Cora stumbled backward in spite of herself, in spite

of all her supposed scientific preparedness, and fell to the deck. Rachael gave a scream and ran into Merced, nearly knocking him over. Only Mataroreva wasn't affected. He ducked, bent over as much from expecta- tion as from laughter.

All seven meters and nine tons of Latehoht had

exploded in a geyser of salt spray. Cora lay on her back, staring in horror and fascination as the enormous body flew completely over the low bow of the Caribe, to land with a tremendous splash on the starboard side.

She fought the wildly rocking deck as she scrambled back to her feet, dripping water and shouting angrily at Mataroreva. "Why the h.e.l.l didn't you warn us?" He was laughing too hard to reply. She had to admit she was more embarra.s.sed than frightened. "Why didn't

you'.-"

"Awwwoman-awwwoman!" She was so startled by

the unexpected, mellifluous voice that suddenly sounded in her ears that she forgot her embarra.s.sment and Sam completely. In a daze she turned and walked to the starboard railing. She had studied many tapes of cetacean talk, both in the natural state and trans- lated into terranglo. But it was one thing to hear such an alien yet warm voice on tape, quite another to ex- perience it in reality.

A ma.s.sive blunt head protruded above the water.

Two tiny, almost imperceptible eyes of vitreous black were staring up at her as the head moved slowly from side to side. The mouth was open, showing startlingly white, sharp teeth. The sounds uttered from within

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reached Cora not as squirps and squeals but as rich, clean terranglo.

"You drop in fear. You worrry and wince with your body and soullll. She-Who-Rises-Above-The- Worid intimidates and does not plea.s.se you in herr greeting-time." Then, more quietly, "I do not knoww if I like this one-she, Sammm."

"I'm sorry," Cora said automatically. "Really I am."

She ignored the whistles and yelps that blasted from her headset speaker, concentrated on forming the words with her lips. "I was startled, that's all. Prob- ably," she continued more confidently, "I could do some things which would startle you."

"She of surprise, she of mystery haunts my dayyy.

Unknowwwn neww quality. Can it be that a female human has such capability, Samm?"

"I don't know," he said. "But in the case of this one, it is possible-thing." He grinned at Cora, then spoke again to the distraught orca. "You should not be up- set, little one."

A second, more ma.s.sive head emerged from the water next to Latehoht's, rose to the railing, and turned one eye on Cora. She did not pull back. White teeth were centimeters from her face.

"She did not mean to upset or displease," Wenko- seemansa rumbled. He sank back toward the water, no longer treading on his tail. "But onlyy to greeeet."

"I wasn't upset," Cora replied a bit defensively. She leaned over the railing. "It was a glorious jump, Late- hoht. I've swum many of the oceans of the universe and encountered much in them that amazes and de- lights me, but none that truly displeases."

"Know we fast ones nothingg of the otherrr oceans, though Samm tells us sometimes of them." Wenkosee- mansa did a neat little pirouette on his tail. "Know we much of the universe that isss this ocean. We will protect you frommm it. We sufferr you to live upon