Rorqual Station Towne, the last attacked, was the nearest to Mou'anui. Its proximity was both conven- ient and ominous, for that hinted to Mataroreva, Hwoshien, and the others responsible for keeping Cachalot's citizens quiet and secure a growing bold- ness on the part of whatever was behind the a.s.sault.

As the town most recently destroyed, it was also the most likely to yield any clues to research. And if any trouble arose, skimmers from Mou'anui could reach the Caribe more rapidly than if it were to anchor at the town site of, say, Te iti Turtle, which lay a thou- sand kilometers farther out in the ocean.

Thinking of destruction as she slipped into her bunk made Cora think of Silvio. And of her breakdown.

Rachael had been five at the time of her father's death and her mother's collapse. She knew of both only

112 CACHALOT.

vaguely. Someday Cora would have to explain both, explain what had truly happened.

Mataroreva was at work on the bridge.

"What are you doing?" Cora asked as she ap- proached him.

"Oh, good morning. Beautiful." He glanced up momentarily from the console and smiled hugely.

"Just plain Cora will do."

"Okay. Good morning, just plain Cora." He touched a contact switch. "I'm setting the stabilizers. Wouldn't be much fun if we spent a few hours diving and sur- faced to find that the ship had drifted out of sight."

"Stabil-we're here, then?" She looked around in surprise. The ocean looked no different from what they had crossed in days of traveling out from Mou'anui.

"More or less. I'm picking a spot. Have a look over the side."

She did so, moving to the upper railing to peer at the water. She almost blinded herself in the process.

Several hexalate formations grew almost to the sur- face, and their reflected glare made her blink. The in- tensity was not as bad as that from the sands of a motu, however. By not looking directly at the upper- most growths and by squinting hard, she could gaze into the water without protective goggles. She could not see any end to the reef. The Caribe hovered above it, adrift in a sea of emerald and yellow. "This is where the town was located?"

He nodded. "The position was fixed by the first ves- sels that returned here after the destruction-the sur- vivors of the town, those who'd been out working." He pointed, and she noticed several widely s.p.a.ced, floating blobs of red: polymer marked buoys, each containing its own directional transmitter.

"What was the town doing here?"

"This is a fairly good-sized, well-known fishing reef.

113.

The Rorqualians had it staked out for organic mining purposes. The survivors indicated that the town had taken its limit and was preparing to depart only a cou- ple of days after it was. .h.i.t. But they were primarily the fishermen. They weren't sure precisely what was being stocked in the town's holds."

"And, just like the others, they didn't find any bod- ies?"

He shook his head. "Not so much as a finger. You would think at least one or two would sink, or be trapped under falling debris and pinned to the bottom.

But nothing."

She stared at the water. "It's hard to believe anyone ever lived around here."

"Oh, the town was here." He started for the ladder.

"Get into your suit. I haven't explored the area myself, but records say there's still plenty of evidence around."

He finished setting the stabilizers and the automatic warning network. The latter was engaged as a matter of procedure more than anything else, since the two patrolling orcas provided a far more efficient advance detection system than anything composed of circuitry and transceivers.

Cora was first in, followed closely by Rachael, Mataroreva, and Merced. Pristine beauty she had an- tic.i.p.ated. The reef did not disappoint her. Great hex- alate heads like crystal trees rose from the sandy bottom, while diamond tunnels pierced labyrinths of frozen cloud.

She did not expect the nudge from behind. It com- pounded her shock when she spun and encountered ma.s.sive jaws lined with even white teeth. A dense whistling filled the air around her, and a moment pa.s.sed before she remembered to switch on her suit- mask translator.

"Sorrry iss this one to hawe starrtled you-she,"

Latehoht said. "It was not meanntttt."

114.

CACHALOT.

CACHALOT.

115.

"That's . . ." Cora caught her breath, relaxed.

"That's all right." She kicked easily, enjoying the fa- miliar freedom that came with being underwater.

Latehoht barely flicked her flukes as she spiraled over and around the tiny swimmer, keeping her right eye always on her smaller human companion. The gelsuit had already turned comfortably warm. Cora grew lazy within her transparent armor.

"To thhis placce has comme a sadness," the killer whale moaned. "Inn the waterr lingers still the effluvia of deathhh."

"Don't believe a word she says."

Cora looked around, saw the graceful bulk of Mataroreva moving up to join them. "Latehoht revels in the rhythms of languid depression."

"I doo notttt!" the orca whistled indignantly. "Thhe smmell iss herre. It does too linnger." She left Cora, twisted to charge Sam. At the last second he ducked below her rush. She swatted at him with her tail, but he antic.i.p.ated the swing and clutched tight to one fluke. He hung on for several seconds until she flipped free, came up and around to b.u.mp him in the belly.

Cora heard him grunt. Kicking around, he s.n.a.t.c.hed at her dorsal fin.

There followed several minutes of violent ch.o.r.e- ography as she half tried to buck him off, but he was not as easy to shake from her back as he had been from her tail.

"Pilay theyy well together, well annd frreeee."

"Yes, they do." Cora managed not to jump this time, although Wenkoseemansa's approach had been stealthy.

"Hawe I enjoyed to thhink, in momments of quiet contemmplation, in timmes of idle speculation, thhat the humman Sammm would hawe made a pa.s.sable

cetacean."

"Certainly," she admitted, unsure of how to inter-

pret the orca's observation, "he's built more like you than like most of us."

"Iss he? You mmust underrstandd, and carreful I amm not to sayy thhis with derrogatorry intent, thhat you hummans arre so smmall thhat to us any phhysi- cal differrences of sizze orr shhape arre so superrfi- cial as to makke us strrain to notice them."

"Yet for all our smaller size, we have a greater va- riety of features."

Wenkoseemansa considered. "Thhat only adds to ourr confusionnnn."

She looked back through the clear water, trying hard to ignore the wondrous diversity of alien pisca- torial life swarming about her in order to concentrate on the problem at hand.