He dared not speak a word of warning. Bandicut knew the risks.

Now he needed only courage.

The human raised his wrists to the lander's head. L'Kell and two other Neri were watching silently. Bandicut's attention had turned inward. Ik had watched him do this once before, on a train in Ship-world; but then, it had been a rash experiment, a demonstration, in a place of relative safety. Ik could only guess how much the human might be depending on the stones for his survival here in the crushing depths.

There were two small twinkles, one on each of Bandicut's wrists. Then answering flashes on the sides of the lander's neck.

Bandicut slumped suddenly, wrists dark. "John?" Ik called. The human was still conscious, eyes open, but obviously drained of energy.

The lander started, its breath rasping in its windpipe like a saw. It jerked its gaze around wildly, its eyes seeming to spin. It clawed at the sides of its neck, where the stones had imbedded themselves.

"John!" Ik said more loudly, and was startled to hear his voice sound distinctly unHraachee'an. His own voice-stones were transforming his speech into the human's language.

Bandicut blinked with difficulty, looking up at Ik, then at the lander as if for the first time. He raised a trembling hand. He seemed to realize that the lander might hurt himself trying to claw the stones out. Ik started to move to restrain the lander, then thought, better if Bandicut intervened. "Stop him," Ik urged.

Bandicut grunted, and leaned forward, reaching for the lander's hands. There was a flash of movement, and Bandicut's hands were caught in the lander's pincer grip. He howled in pain. The lander jerked reflexively and let go. Bandicut swore, bent over his bleeding right hand, and barked something that Ik's voice-stones struggled to interpret. The lander jerked his head--as if he had heard, and perhaps even understood, Bandicut's words. Or maybe the intent, if not the words. He brought his hands to his chest, away fromTHE INFINITE SEA * 233 Bandicut, away from his own neck. And he stared in astonishment.

There was no ambiguity now. Ik could read the astonishment in the lander's eyes.

"Can you hear me?" Ik asked.

"Whhhhum!" said the lander, furrowing his facial skin. He was still breathing with difficulty, and obviously fighting an urge to scratch at the stones. But as Ik watched, he saw the intensity of the expression slowly subside, and the lander's breathing grow just a bit easier. The stones were probably preoccupied with trying to ease the lander's physical distress. Ik decided to hold off a few minutes on trying to communicate.

Bandicut was looking worse--disconcerted by the loss of translation, no doubt, but probably more than that. Loss of the protective forcefields, for one thing. Normalized or not, who knew how much work the stones had to do to keep him healthy, if not actually alive. Bandicut was starting to shiver, and he looked a little frightened. "Are you all right, Bandie?" Ik asked softly. Human words again.

Bandicut looked puzzled, then nodded painfully.

"Whhhummll,' muttered the lander, looking from Ik to Band-icut and back. Ik felt his voice-stones twinging and tickling in his temples. "Uummlll. I...better...why...?" said the lander.

"Hrahh, it will become clear," Ik said. "You must be patient."

But there's hope. There's hope, there's hope...

For Bandicut, hope was gone. He'd thought he was prepared to lose his stones, but he was wrong. He was cold, he was frightened, he felt as if he'd been struck deaf and dumb, and the half mile of ocean over his head suddenly weighed on his spirit like nothing he had ever known. He felt a ma.s.sive loss of strength and will. He was still aware of what was going on, though, and understood what was happening to the stones. He was glad to see the lander look more alive.

But only a little glad. His hand where the lander had pinched it was aflame. Ik's voice, even transformed by the Hraachee'an's stones for his benefit, sounded foreign, garbled, alien. Alien, he thought. How long had it been since he had thought of his friend Ik as alien?

He tried to rea.s.sure Ik that he was okay, but in truth he felt half234 * .

dead, removed from this realm of being, as though he had just gone through one of the shadow-people's fractal shifts.

"/This feels very strange..."/ /You're here? Thank G.o.d you're here./ "/Oh yes. But it's not the same.

It's just not..."/ Bandicut closed his eyes./Don't you start. There's no room for .

both of us to be moaning, complaining, whin--/ "/Don't say it--not whining.

It's perfectly normal confusion."/ /Yah./ ;: At that moment, the lander leaned toward him, ears c.o.c.ked and .r , pointed, eyes brighter than he had yet seen them. The lander said lt:'

something incomprehensible.

17,( "Yes?" Bandicut grunted. At least this was progress.

Ik spoke in a rumbling voice. At first he was impossible to un- derstand; then his words changed to that alien-sounding English.

"It is working, John. The lander.., understands me. It says.., are :, the stones for it...

to keep?"

.,.. Bandicut blinked in confusion. Was that what he had just an- swered yes to? "Tell it no--it's just for the time being.

Just for now."

And what am I going to say if it doesn't want to give the stones back?

"/You can't worry about that.

That's the stones'problem."//Can't worry?/ "/Sbouldn't worry."/ "John,"

said Ik. "John!"

He raised his eyes.

"Li-Jared and Antares! They're on their way!"

"That's ... wonderful," he whispered. And he meant it, some- where down in the depths of his soul. But something else was happening down there, too ... something stirring in the darker, hidden places ... and now rising up, and beginning to gibber in strange voices...

Locking through to the sub's lower cabin pressure seemed to take forever. Antares and Li-Jared crouched together, decompressing, with no room to move or stretch. At last the hatch opened, and they climbed down into the cabin.THE INFINITE SEA * 235 Antares sensed at once that something was wrong--or at least different. Ik raised a hand in salute, and caution. An alien--the lan-der-sat on the other side of the cramped compartment. Between them, Bandicut sat reeling. Not visibly, but internally. It took her a moment to realize what was different; she felt it before she saw it. The stones. They were no longer glimmering in his wrists. She could feel his distress, the absence of the connection--and his physical discomfort, as well.

She suddenly realized just how much the knowing-stones had been doing to maintain his, her, all of their well-being and comfort down here under the sea, "John Bandicut," she said, crouching close to him. "Are you all right?" She hesitatantly reached out to touch his arm with her fingertips.

"John?"

Her words must have been reaching his ears as foreign sounds.

She felt a sudden sharp pang of regret for not having joined her stones to his when he'd made the offer. The stones were able to translate well, in concert with other stones, but alone, they lacked sufficient knowledge of the human's native tongue to reproduce the sounds.

Bandicut blinked at her, and c.o.c.ked his head. His eyes didn't look right. Something was definitely wrong.

Antares felt a twinge of her own fear and blocked it away from Bandicut. She looked up, turning. "What's happened, Ik?"

"He gave his stones to the lander," Ik replied. "The adjustment is proving very hard for him."

"This is more than just a hard adjustment." Waves of confusion and fear were welling up from the human. "He is having a very bad reaction of some kind." She placed her hand flat against his upper arm, her three long fingers pointed up toward his shoulder. "Bandie, can you hear me?" she said softly. "John?"

His eyes flickered. He groaned.

"He has," Ik said, "spoken on occasion of something called--" rasp "--'silence-fugue,' a difficulty of the mind that afflicts him from time to time. I wonder if this could be it."

Antares hummed in answer. The translation of the word was uncertain.

But it was clear that whatever was happening now was threatening to overwhelm her human friend. Perhaps there was something she could do. "Bandie," she murmured, "perhaps you cannot understand my words right now. But I hope I can help you236 * .

to calm yourself, to regain mastery over your inner self. I will do what I can."

She half-closed her eyes, and began reaching out with that unseen extension of her being, touching and soothing the human's raw emotions that were turning more and more to fear.STONES OF FiRE BANDICUT'S MINI) WAS afire with silence-fugue. The hallucinations were all inner visions now--not aliens attack- /.

ing from the outside, but creatures and vapors crawling through the pathways of his mind. There was no place to go, no place to hide. He was shivering, burning with fear. Char-lie was supposed to be here to help him, but someone had unplugged her. No, not Charlie. Char. Where was she? He heard a distant echo, and wondered if that was Char. He wanted her back, needed her.

"/I'm here, John, but I . . . "/ A distant voice./Please come back,/he whispered./Wherever you are./He wished he could see her in the flesh. Protect her from these voices, these beings. What sort of a woman would she be if she were human?

"/John, I can't seem to find-- "/ No no no, this was all wrong. All wrong.

"/It's as though--"/ The creatures were drawing closer; he was keeping lower, hoping to stay invisible to them./Trying,/he whispered./I'm trying to keep us safe. But can't you--?/ "/Spinning, John. I'm spinning.

I'm lost. I'm afraid."/ /Don't be afraid,/he whispered, with a flicker of lucidity./It's the fugue, there has to be some way.., some way... / In the midst of the turmoil, he felt a sudden tingle, like a trickle of electricity moving up his arm. Then it became more diffuse, a238 , .

warm flow, like a comforting bath coming over him. He couldn't quite figure it out; but in the face of it, the creatures of mist and vapor turned abruptly and fled. His eyes blinked open, closed; open, closed. He suddenly noticed Antares--when had she arrived?--and she seemed to be trying to say something to him. But he couldn't understand.

"/No stones..."/ /No stones? That's right.../ And then he realized that this feeling of warmth had something to do with Antares. But how could that be?/Can you hear me?/he whispered./Antares?/He shuddered, desperate for contact. He felt so lonely. So isolated. Except for that strange warmth. Was it Antares, reaching out to him?/Char? Char, is that Antares, trying to make contact?/ "/Antares?

Yes... she is touching us now..."/ The quarx helped him to refocus his eyes. To see Antares, crouched in front of him. She was gazing intently at him, her hand on his left arm. That was where the tingle came from, the empathic contact. His faculties returned a little more, until he was able to open his mouth and use his vocal cords. "I, uhh.., you came ..." And those hoa.r.s.e words seemed to pull him most of the rest of the way out of the fugue.

But Antares' reply was garbled. Was he still in fugue, after all?

Perhaps so. No. It wasn't fugue garbling her words, it was the loss of the stones. But he felt her presence distinctly now, touching him inwardly with the empathic balm of her connection. That was why she was here, why she was kneeling in front of him, calming him, trying to help him through the isolation and the silence-fugue.

He raised a trembling hand, and she took it in hers, and she touched the darkened spot on his wrist where the daughter-stone had been.

"/Yes,"/ whispered the quarx at last, in response to Antares' presence, and he sensed great relief in the single word.

Watching his friends cl.u.s.tered around the lander, around Bandicut, Li-Jared felt at a loss as to what to do, how to help. Antares was helping; he could not even get close. Bandicut had apparently given up his stones, and was suffering through some terrible trauma.

Li-Jared shivered, his thoughts distracted by memory. Memories ofTHE INFINITE SEA * 239 his homeworld: its night sky ablaze, the nearby plasma clouds lit by neighboring, energetically sputtering stars, beautiful and deadly.

And the meteorite blast near his home: the ionic halo pa.s.sing quickly, but leaving the stones of knowledge burned into his breast.

The disorientation, trying to understand the stones--the bewildering linguistics, the stones' intentions, purpose, origins. The language barrier had pa.s.sed quickly. The rest he was still trying to under-stand--the meaning of the stones' appearance, and their transformation of his life.

And now.., here was John Bandicut struggling to talk, to exist, without his stones. Why had he given them up?

The whole business made Li-Jared nervous as h.e.l.l.

Ik leaned close and whispered, "John Bandicut is in a very difficult condition. We must help him all we can. I do not know if he can survive without his stones."

"And the lander?" Li-Jared asked, looking at the alien. "Is it working?"

Ik squinted. "I think so. He was near death, until John lent his stones."

"But--if they both need stones--"

"Hmm. Exactly." Ik gazed at Li-Jared. "John's stones cannot split off new daughters, at least not yet." Ik muttered softly to himself.

"I asked my own if they would."

"And?" Li-Jared asked uneasily. He thought he sensed what was coming.

Ik answered in a grave tone. "They were unwilling. Apparently they think they're needed somewhere else--or for someone else."

Ik was no longer looking at Li-Jared now.

But Li-Jared knew exactly what his friend was thinking. Who else among them had not yet contributed daughter-stones to the cause?

He could feel the stones twinging in his breastbone.

The very thought made his twin hearts race, and in none too great a synch with each other. Was that what was expected of him?

It made sense, certainly; it was logical. So why did the thought scare him? It was true he had never quite made his own peace with the stones and their role in his life; certainly he had never come to see himself as their master. And yet they were crucial to his life now.

If he doubted it, all he had to do was look at John Bandicut. Suppose he asked his stones to split, and they left his body instead? That was it, he knew; that was the fear. He shuddered at the thought of all this alien ocean around him, without the stones to protect him.240 .

His two hearts banged seriously out of rhythm for a few moments before settling down again.

He glanced again at Ik, and knew that Ik knew what he was thinking. He felt ashamed. He wanted to cast aside his fears and offer his stones up to this lander, so that Bandicut could have his back. But he could not make himself do it.

The lander moved suddenly, and said something that he strained to understand. Groff"What do you--" homm "--want with--me-- here?"

Li-Jared glanced around to see who would respond. L'Kell was the one who should, but he was forward in the c.o.c.kpit, talking to someone on the comm. Ik finally answered the lander's question.

,ti We hope.., that is, the Neri and those of us helping them.., hope if that we can speak with you. With your people."

I!7 The lander's arms closed in front of its body.

"Who--" hroff "--are the Neri?"

Ik pointed to the nearest, one of the crew crouched in the en- trance to the pilot's compartment. "He is one of the Neri.

The sea- people." He cupped his hands. "L'Kell, I think you're needed." Ik brought his hands back to himself, pointing inward. "I am Ik, a vis- , itor to this world." He gestured around. "This is John Bandicut, who lent you his stones. Antares. Li-Jared."

Li-Jared gave a small gesture of greeting with his hands.

The lander clearly was struggling to follow. "I am--"