The Neri responded by speaking to the other Neri pilots, and nosing his sub lower and closer to the silt-covered bottom. "Unable to confirm that reading," he said after a few minutes.

"We are now coming directly over the juncture," Copernicus said.

"Are you sure?" Outside Bandicut's sub, there was a straight ridge that appeared to slope down toward one of the smoking volcanic vents. There was nothing to suggest an entry port.

"I'm certain of the presence of the structures, Captain. But I cannot state their purpose, nor tell if there is any kind of outer access."

"I believe," said L'Kell, "that we are looking for units large enough for one of the subs to dock with, or at least make connection.

However, the entire structure may have transmission lines running through it. Just knowing that lines are present isn't enough."

Bandicut spoke to the robots. "What we need is probably a larger structure--something we can nose right up to, or even go inside.

Probably you've found some kind of secondary node. It might help to trace those lines, to see where they lead."

The subs continued gliding, their headlights probing the night.

The sea was clearer than it had been on their previous visit. Most of the silt had either settled out or been carried away by the currents.

The current was gentle now, and according to L'Kell, normal for this place--following the lines of the natural ridges, parallel to the orientation of the abyssal valley, rather than down into it. The Maw was quiet for now.

The search continued.

The first sighting came from sub three, scouting downslope of them. L'Kell steered toward the location. All they could see was the glow of the other sub's lights, just beyond a minor drop-off. But the glow was bright; the other pilot seemed to be directing a search-beam toward them, against the underside of the drop-off. With a146 * .

soft whir of motors, they crossed the ridge and maneuvered to come alongside the other sub. "Ah," said L'Kell, shining his own light up under the ridge. It was hollowed on the underside--and looked artificial, not natural. The headlight shone, through a blizzard of silt stirred up by the sub's jets, into a dark cavity that seemed just large enough for the nose of a submersible or two.

Bandicut had a sudden memory of being a child standing under a sports stadium, beneath a seating section that sloped upward overhead.

It was a dizzying, claustrophobic image, and for a moment, he felt himself beginning to slip away into a daydream. A rumble of bubbling air--or maybe rock movement--brought back a sharp awareness of the ocean over his head, and the pressure squeezing in against the hull of the sub. "Is this it?" he murmured.

"Possibly," said L'Kell. "We must explore carefully." Indeed, though the area under the ledge was less heavily silted than that above, there was still enough sedimentation to obscure the details of the structure--including anything that might have indicated the presence of a docking port.

L'Kell touched the controls, and the sub shuddered as a jet of water shot forward from the thrusters, kicking up a tremendous, blinding cloud of silt. Bandicut swallowed, holding back a sudden rush of fear.

Do you want me to help quiet that reaction?"/ /Not yet. I've got this instinct for a good reason./He took a deep breath, and waited for it to stop, for the silt to clear.

L'Kell moved the sub with exquisite care. Bandicut glimpsed the other sub to their right, looming out of the murk. He tensed, saying nothing. Working together, the two pilots were sweeping the area of acc.u.mulated silt. Gradually the murk dissipated, carried away by the slow-moving current. L'Kell called for sub two, with the robots, to move in.

Bandicut heard the whine of the robots' sub before he saw their lights. Nabeck, the Neri piloting the sub, asked L'Kell what he wanted them to do.

"Can you scan anything in there?" L'Kell asked. The headlight beams beneath the overhang now illuminated contours that suggested the possible presence of mechanisms--indentations and protrusions that might have been control surfaces. Or entrance archways. Or who knew what.*

THE INFINITE SEA * 147'.

"Scanning," said Copernicus.

And then: "We think we've got something. Can we move in closer?" That was Napoleon.

"Carefully," said L'Kell.

"Always," answered Napoleon.

Nabeck did as the robots asked.

Nabeck's sub had been motionless for a while. It looked like a large, foraging bottom-feeder against its own lights. It was impossible to tell what was going on, until the call came from Napoleon: "We believe we are detecting--correction, we have penetrated an air cavity with the probe. Inserting further. I believe I've found a point of electrical contact. Testing ..."

Bandicut's heart pounded. Were Napoleon's circuits being fried, or had they found what they had come for?

"Definitely a signal input/output."

"And--" Bandicut swallowed "--is anyone home?"

"Indeed ..." said Napoleon, in a preoccupied tone. "There is activity. Attempting to make out the language."

Bandicut glanced at L'Kell. The Neri was staring intently out the front port, as if by staring hard enough he might penetrate the haze.

Bandicut had a feeling that it was all L'Kell could do to keep from parking the sub and swimming out there to see for himself--except that he might not survive the experience.

"Yah," said Napoleon.

"Yah, what?"

"There's someone here. A control system. But it's ... I don't know exactly how to explain it, Cap'n." The robot's voice was tinny and cold through the comm.

"Try, Nappy."

"It seems very confused. As though.., it's been working with some kind of malfunction, or handicap, for so long ... that it doesn't remember exactly what it's supposed to be doing. Or how it's supposed to run the facility. I don't think it knows exactly what's wrong."

"Napoleon, hold on a minute. It this thing a person--or a mech- anism? Or a program that needs reconfiguring?"

"Captain--""I'm trying to understand. Copernicus, are you hooked in, too?"

"Roger. Captain, I think there's more wrong here than just a fail-148 * .

ure of the self-repair mode. I have a sense of deprivation, of starvation.

I do not know what it is deprived of, however."

Napoleon spoke, with a voice that seemed more attentuated, as though he were speaking from a greater distance. "Could it be...

lonely, do you think?"

"Napoleon? Is that your answer?"

"I believe it is something else," said Copernicus. "But we cannot tell for sure without surveying the processing layout, the memory, the stored histories ..."

Bandicut drew a breath. "Can you do that?"

"We are having to redraw some of the pathways, Cap'n," said Copernicus. "Since the failure of the self-repair functions, many of the pathways have atrophied and failed, and alternate pathways must be called up--within the physical limitations, of course."

"Okay."

L'Kell finally broke in. "What are they doing?"

Bandicut shook his head. "I'm not sure if they're repairing it or reinventing it, but it sounds as if they're deep inside the control system, so I think we'd better let them work."

L'Kell muttered softly to himself, but did not argue.

It was not long after Bandicut had departed when Ik became aware of a commotion outside their guest room. He had just finished describing Bandicut's healing of Lako to an anxious Li-Jared, trying to rea.s.sure the Karellian that their present situation was perhaps not so hopeless as it seemed. There were things that they could accomplish here.

"What's all that--" bw.a.n.g "--racket outside?" Li-Jared cried, as they both turned at the sound of Neri running past the curtained entrance to their room.

Ik rubbed his chestbone and tugged the curtain aside to look out. Now the Neri were shouting on a lower level of the habitat. "I guess we'd better go see."

His Karellian friend uttered a tw.a.n.g of annoyance, but hurried after him. They followed the short pa.s.sageway to a platform that overlooked an open room below. A dozen or so Neri were engaged in rapid conversation; some were running in, and others were running out. "Can you make out what they're saying?" Ik asked Li-Jared.

The Karellian was springing up and down lightly on his feet,THE INFINITE SEA * 149 leaning forward over the bar that const.i.tuted a railing. "If you can't, how do you expect me to?"

Two of the Neri looked up at the sound of their voices. Ik called, "Is something wrong?"

A Neri named Jontil, who had a.s.sisted them in their room, called up agitatedly, "A problem with the landers. A raid on a site. I doubt that it's anything you can help with."

"Hrah," Ik said, "perhaps we could help with our experience--" And then he hesitated. Their experience?

Jontil replied, "If you want to come down and join us in council with Askelanda--"

"Urr, coming," said Ik. Only after he had turned to climb down the ladder did he realize the fear that was showing in Li-Jared's electric-blue eyes. "I spoke without thinking. Li-Jared, do you think we shouldn't go?"

"No choice now," Li-Jared gulped. "It's just that--"

"Is it the landers you're worried about?"

"Not the landers. Don't care about the landers," mumbled the Karellian. "It's the whole thing of..." He angled his eyes, and then Ik understood. It was the ocean over his head, the thought that they might have to venture out into the turbid depths. If only the normalization had taken away Li-Jared's fear of the water!

"Hmm. Let's go, then," Ik said softly, and dropped to the floor below.

Jontil escorted them into the adjacent habitat, where a group of Neri were gathered around a troubled-looking Askelanda. The elder Neri noted the presence of the visitors without comment, and paced as he spoke. Ik and Li-Jared stepped off to the side to keep out of the way.

"Our people at the salvage site are being openly attacked by landers.''

"Attacked? How?" cried one of the newcomers.

"They're wearing breathing gear similar to our neos'--and by all reports are overrunning the site. They've got vehicles of some kind, and explosive weapons. Our people are mostly in hiding within the site right now. Many are wounded." Askelanda paused in his movement.

"We've sent nine swimmers, but they might well be on their way to disaster. We have at most one or two vessels available to send more help. Will any here swim to the aid of their fellows?"

In answer, the movement of Neri around him changed, and there150 * *

was a folding-in of ranks, and a rising murmur, as virtually all of the Neri present declared their willingness.

"You must be cautious," Askelanda said, "of the poison that killed Th.o.r.ek and the others and almost killed Lako. That may be what has harmed many at the site already." He wheeled and ad- dressed Ik. "If I may ask our visitors--"

"Yes, Askelanda, Ik replied.

..... Do you have knowledge of these poisons, knowledge that could help our people to avoid them?"

Ik hesitated. "I have some little knowledge. Unfortunately, the poison is invisible--to me, as much as to you. Do you have any instruments that can detect radiation?" He sensed, even as he said it, that his voice-stones were having difficulty translating radiation into something that the Neri could understand. They simply had no words for the concept. "Without the proper equipment, I don't know if I can help you avoid it." He closed his eyes for a moment; the pacing Neri were making him dizzy.

Askelanda paused in front of him. "I know of no such instru- ments.'' He seemed almost to sigh. "Perhaps ... the obliq might iii: know of such things."

Ik looked at Li-Jared. "Could you work with Kallan on that question?"

The Karellian looked simultaneously dubious and relieved. "I could try," he murmured.

"And you?" the Neri leader asked Ik.

"I--hrrm, could go with your brave people to help those in trou- ble. If you have a vessel that can carry me.".... '

Askelanda bowed and turned in a sweeping turn. "Shall we grant s.p.a.ce in our vessel to our courageous guest? To Ik?"

The response was a rumble of approval.

Ik wasn't sure whether to be glad or sorry.

"Take care, my friend."

"You also, Li-Jared. Give my regards to Antares and Kallan." Ik sighed through his ears and stepped out onto the deck of the little sub. He turned back. "And keep your eyes closed on your ride back to Kallan's!"

Bwong. "Don't think you're the only one to go fearlessly into the deep, Hraachee'an! I'll spot more fish man you . With a wave that hid his nervousness, Li-Jared strode away.

Ik dropped down into the sub. He was greeted by his pilot, aTHE INFINITE SEA * 151 Neri named S'Cali, and took up the pa.s.senger position on the left.

They were joined by a second Neri, Delent'l.

Soon they were gliding through the depths lit green and yellow by the sub's lights. From time to time, in the edge of the illumination, he glimpsed a formation of Neri swimmers flanking the sub in its course. Remarkably, it seemed that they were capable of moving as fast under their own power as by submarine. They were truly well engineered for the sea. And that was what they were, he had gathered from S'Cali--creatures engineered for the sea by a now-vanished race of air-breathers.

The habitats of the city dwindled behind, and he settled in for the trip, listening to the hissing and creaking sounds of ascent--not straight up, but on a long course following the bottom slope toward stallower water. The sub was depressurizing as they climbed through the depths, and he made his own sinus adjustments and prayed silently that the stones and the normalization could protect him from the decompression as they had from the effects of depth.

In time, he was startled to see one important change outside: natural illumination, not from the headlights but surrounding the sub. It was sunlight from overhead, diffused through the depths. Thank the moon and stars, he thought. Whatever the risks of this trip, at least he was going to see sunlight. Real sunlight--not that they would be going all the way to the surface. Their destination was a wrecked ship, sunk in comparatively shallow water--shal-low enough that the air-breathing landers could reach it.