He tamed away, moved in a manner that might have signified anything, an indecipherable gesture.

But at least he had responded to the question-affirm- atively, she preferred to think.

"That was caused by fear," she argued with him.

"The universe is full of otherwise benign creatures that can be induced to kill out of fear. They must be, can be, studied." She looked back over her shoulder.

271.

"I don't know what I'm going to do. Mother." Ra- chael glanced over at Merced, who regarded her en- couragingly. "I don't know what I'm going to do. Not now."

"Think about it. Take your time," Cora urged. "I rushed you, maybe in the wrong direction. Maybe in the right. If you decide to continue on your present course of study, I could still use an a.s.sistant."

"We'll see." She was still looking at Merced.

Natural light, fresh and invigorating, poured through the submersible's ports. Huge shapes swarmed pa- tiently around them as the catodons escorted them the rest of the way to the surface. Their great bulks came close to, but never actually touched, the rising craft's hull.

Then a black and white shape was pressing against one port. Mataroreva pressed his own face against the gla.s.salloy from the inside, whale and man separated by a modest transparency.

Cora watched them closely.

"I think it's admirable," Merced said to her.

"What is?"

"Your willingness to remain here to study so dan- gerous a life-form. I'm sure Commonwealth Adminis- tration will concur, and will give you all the support it can. The CunsnuC are as alien as any life we've yet encountered. You'll need funding."

"I can provide whatever modest resources-" Hwo- shien started to say.

Merced cut him off. He did not have to speak only as a mere biologist now. "You can do what you wish, Mr. Commissioner, but it's not necessary. I'll see that sufficient credit is provided."

Cora looked at him appraisingly. "Thank you. For all their size, these creatures fear us more than we fear them. What is needed here is understanding."

Th submersible broke the surface. Mataroreva hur- ried to the double lock, opened the bottom one, and

272 CACHALOT.

squeezed his bulk through. Merced glanced out the port a last time, was surprised to see no sign of the catodons. Perhaps they already knew what had hap- pened in the Deep below and had gone on their nomadic way, indifferent to whatever the surviving hu- mans might have to say. So they had departed, secure in their vast, contemplative indifference that the CunsnuC now posed no threat to their way of life.

Had left to think their thoughts and to advance then- migratory civilization in whatever manner they thought best. Who are truly the strangers? Merced mused. The CunsnuC, or these huge, wallowing creatures related to us by blood and evolution?

Hwoshien followed Mataroreva out. Cora was next, then Rachael, cradling her neurophon. Merced watched them ascend, enjoying the sight of Rachael climbing and smelling the fresh, oh so sweet air above. A faint splash reached him and he turned to the port.

Sam Mataroreva was cavorting with the two orcas, twisting and turning like a seal outside the submersi- ble. He clutched Latehoht's fin as she darted past, hung on as she bucked and squirmed in the water, trying to throw him off. There was more here to report on besides the CunsnuC, Merced mused. Cachalot was changing its inhabitants, as any world did. This aque- ous globe offered more than exports and oceanog- raphic studies. Changes in ways of thinking were tak- ing place here that might have far-reaching effects on all humanxkind. It might be well to encourage this trend.

"Hey!" Rachael leaned down and in. "You going to stay down there forever, Pucara?"

"Be right out." He watched her withdraw, leaving the flash of an inviting smile lingering in his memory.

He thought of their previous weeks together and of how the CunsnuC had almost destroyed the friendship he had worked so diligently to build. Intimacy was easily attained, but friendship-that was a rare find.

273.

He grinned. This was a world for enjoying oneself, for relaxation as well as research. It was time for some of the former.

Confident in himself and in the report he would file with his bureau, he started to climb out of the sub- mersible. Waiting was the bright sun of Cachalot.

Nearby drifted the suprafoil, anxious faces crowding its railing. Soon Hwoshien would make a broadcast of his own, and anxiety would vanish from the faces of this world's citizens for the first time in months.

His wave was for those on the ship, but his eyes were for Rachael.

Far below danced vast spherical forms that pulsed and glowed. They were akin to planets in their shape and motion, yet they orbited not a sun but a common thought. They conversed in a manner incomprehensi- ble to man or cetacean, conversed in a manner fash- ioned by darkness, shaped by pressure and isolation.

They were discussing the development of a new kind of specialized internal polyp, much as any manufac- turer might discuss an addition to his plant.

They knew it would take time. That could not be helped. They would work and wait, until the new polyp was ready to perform its function. Until then there would be enforced tolerance of Those Above.

Afterward ... afterward, they would see.

Having thus decided upon a biologic course of ac- tion, the CunsnuC commenced an addition to the in- ventory of their minds.

Above and far distant floated a life-form that thought in a manner incomprehensible to man or CunsnuC. Lumpjaw, whose water name was DeMalthiAzur-of-the-Maizeen and who was elder among his people, had slipped away from them to think quietly on portentous matters. And to consider.

More men would come, and the free-thinking

274.

CACHALOT.

CACHALOT.

275.

stretches of sea would shrink still further. Not that he felt they would break the laws (at least not right away), but mankind had displayed a disconcerting tendency throughout his history to circ.u.mvent them.

And the men of today were not the men of tomorrow.

Who could tell what changes they might propose?

Then there was the matter of the CunsnuC. Their control over the baleen had demonstrated a disturbing capacity for dangerous mischief. In the sanctuary of their Deeps they might concoct further trouble for the Cetacea.

DeMalthiAzur-of-the-Maizeen let pa.s.s the catodon- ian equivalent of a sigh. Why must existence be so complicated, he mused, when all one desired from life was time to think? Of the men he had no worry, for the cousins the orca would stay near them, professing friendship for them and dislike for the catodon, and report whatever they were about. Smartest of all was the catodon, he thought, but cleverest was the orca.

The CunsnuC were more of a problem, and were likely to present the greater problem for all that they were confined to their abyssal home. So the people of the sea had much progress to make, out of sight of humanxkind and CunsnuC, out of sight of even their ma.s.sive but slow-thinking relatives the baleen.

Perhaps that progress would be part of the Great Journey. Perhaps it would const.i.tute only a digression.

But it was necessary to insure preservation of the peace.

Time, the old whale thought. Never enough time.

So much wasted time. But it was vital, this digression.

Of all the creatures of Earth, only man had mastered the ability to travel through environments hostile to his kind. That was ever his great advantage. That, and manipulative digits. The Cetacea had only their minds. They could not match the simian flexibility of man, nor the mental approaches of the CunsnuC.

Oh, well. Perhaps in time. For now, the Cetacea,

led by the catodons, would have to find another path, would have to improve the path they had chosen to insure their survival and their way of life.

It was time to practice, he thought. Straining his enormous brain and nervous system, DeMalthiAzur- of-the-Maizeen made the Shift.

How strange it makes the world look, he mused.

There was much new to think about, much that might be learned to surprise both man and CunsnuC when the time came. The effort was easier this time, grew simpler with each successful Shift.

Better to return now to the pod, to think with them.

Thinking alone cleared the brain but became lifeless and dull all too soon. He longed for the mental com- panionship and the joint progress made while sharing the Great Journey. He levitated a little more, regard- ing the water below and the startled icthyomiths that soared in his shadow.