"What creature has the largest brain of any animal that ever lived on the Earth?"

"Sperm whale," her daughter said promptly.

"They're going to talk to us?"

Cora looked back to Sam, ignored Rachael's wide- eyed expression. "I'll get the cameras. Think they'll mind?"

"If they do," he replied in a no-nonsense tone, "they'll let us know."

Time pa.s.sed. They remained together, leaning against the rail and staring to the west. There was no sign of the orcas, nor yet of those they would try to question.

Sam studied the miniature grid on the master con- trol. "Pretty far-sized pod, according to the sonarizer.

I'd guess between two and three hundred." He felt a hesitant hand on his arm, saw in surprise that it was Cora's.

"No, I'm not all that worried," he told her. "The catodons aren't openly hostile toward humanity. None of the great whales are. They just don't like our company. They're more indifferent than anything else, I believe. We annoy them. They're the most suspicious of the Cetacea, as well as the smartest.

"However, Latehoht and Wenkoseemansa can be persuasive. As to whether they can turn the pod to speak to us, that will depend largely on the mood the pod leaders are in. If they do consent to talk with us,

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it will likely be only to insure that we won't chase them in hopes of getting them to talk at some future date. They may try to get rid of us now, as soon as

possible."

"Not worried, then, but still nervous. I can sense it."

"You know me that well already?" he asked gently.

She pulled her hand from his arm. "I can tell when anybody's nervous. You learn."

"They're just so d.a.m.ned unpredictable," Sam said after several minutes had pa.s.sed in silence. "I said they're not overtly hostile, but that doesn't mean this bunch couldn't be covertly hostile. Without witnesses, they could do whatever they pleased to us without fear of retribution. The law here favors them every step of the way."

"Why take the chance, then?" Rachael wondered.

"Because what Wenkoseemansa said happens to be true. If any among the native cetaceans knows any- thing about what happened to the four lost towns and their inhabitants, it would be the catodons."

"Because they have morbid interests?"

"Because they're interested in everything, young lady-except maintaining a relationship with mankind.

I think it's a chance we have to take at least once, and we'll never have a better opportunity or meet a more likely placed pod than now." He studied the increas- ing darkness.

"Anyway, I trust Latehoht and Wenkoseemansa. If the pod appears irritated or cantankerous, if there's any significant mating taking place, they'll stay clear and not make the request."

"Shouldn't you be up in the bridge?" Merced won- dered.

"What for? To run our puny weapons system?" He waved the master control at the horizon. "There's two to three hundred catodons out there. If they do join us, they'll surround us in a minute. Most of them are likely bigger than this ship. If they're friendly, all's

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well. If they take it into their heads to get nasty . , .

well, we'll be up against twelve to twenty thousand tons of intelligent, carnivorous ma.s.s. Might as well pray."

It was almost dark and still no sign of any visitors.

Cora had believed herself well prepared, but she for- got all her preparations, fell back against the wall of the cabin. She let out a loud "Oh!" of surprise.

Rachael actually comported herself better because she was too stunned to move or speak. Even Sam took an involuntary step or two backward. Knowledge never eliminates all the old racial fears man retains for something bigger and stronger than he is. Knowledge can sometimes vitiate that fear, but on a strange world, in near night, it was hoping for more than mere fact could supply.

The head that loomed against the night was a good six meters long and weighed no less than twenty tons, probably more. A long, narrow lower jaw hung open beneath it, showing sharp ivory teeth bigger than a fist. An absurdly tiny eye, close enough to touch, glared over the railing and twitched as it regarded them with an unmistakable air of contemptuous bore- dom.

The catodon, or sperm whale, was balancing on its tail. Most of the gigantic, spermaceti-filled skull was thrust vertically from the water. The head itself weighed more than the entire suprafoil.

It slid leisurely back into the water, having had its look at the tiny humans on the ship. Gradual as the slippage was, it still threw enough water on deck to drench the dazed watchers.

Sam wiped back his hair, reminded Cora, "Switch on your headset."

"What?" she mumbled, still stunned by the proxim- ity of so much flesh.

"Your translator unit-switch it on."

98 CACHALOT.

She moved slowly to the railing, wondering if she had imagined the apparition. Her hands were shaking.

Stop that, she ordered herself. You're dealing with in- telligence here, and a mammalian intelligence at that. Not gross brute strength. She switched on her unit, stared over the side.

Around them the dark water was no longer flat and smooth. It had grown an instant topography, a field of brown hills. The hills moved slowly, filling the eve- ning air with explosive hisses and puffs, the exhala- tions of a colossal cetacean calliope. Dead breath made music in the night.

It was a relief to see two familiar black and white forms drifting lazily alongside the slowly moving hull.

The once intimidating torpedo shapes were dwarfed by the great bulks lolling around them.

"They've comme," Wenkoseemansa announced an- ticlimactically.

"They hawe come." Latehoht breathed easily.

"Come to talkk to the people from off this worrld. To listen to their words and taste of their thoughts. That is the rea.s.son they hawe come."

"I guess we should feel flattered." Cora giggled, nervously self-conscious.

They waited. The two orcas fluttered toward the bow. To make room. "One of the podd leaders commes," Latehoht said. "Onne of the Thinkers, whosse thoughts are rich as milkk."

I will not, Cora told herself, act like a schoolgirl this time! Both small hands clenched tightly around the railing. I won't back up. I will not allow myself to be shamed.

But it was not easy. A new head rose out of the sea.

It was half again as big as the first, deeply lined and dotted here and there with thick clumps of para- sites. It was streaked with long white scars, inflicted by some unimaginable adversary of the Cachalot Deeps.

Cora wondered what could do such damage to an in-

99.

telligent catodon, larger and leagues smarter than its ancient Terran progenitor who had warred eternally with the giant kraken.

Like the rest of the Cetacea, the catodonia had prospered on this world, growing to sizes unmatched by its persecuted and intellectually stunted ancestors.

Evidently there was ample local food to support the population, although, as evidenced by the terrible scars this individual boasted, that food did not quietly accept its place in Cachalot's newly revised food chain.

There was also a curious growth, a thickening of the lower jaw at the front end. It resembled a burl on a tree. The eye, small in comparison to the rest of the gigantic body, viewed Cora appraisingly. She did not have time to wonder at the herculean strength that kept the great head above water, because a voice re- verberated in her headphones. It was slower than that of the orcas, almost as if its orginator found the mere process of speaking boring beyond belief.

"My Little Cousins Say That Thou Wouldst Have Converse With Us."