But they can help you to communicate--and perhaps a.s.sist you in other ways." Bandicut glanced around at the other sea creatures, who were pacing suspiciously. "May I ask--your name? What I should call you?"

The being hesitated, then answered. "I am called L'Kell. And by what are you called?"

"I am John Bandicut. I am a Human." Bandicut gestured to his companion. "My friend is Ik. He is a Hraachee'an. Our other friends, whom you took away, are Antares and Li-Jared." He hoped for some reaction to the mention of the others, but L'Kell's expression remained unchanged. Drawing a breath, Bandicut continued. "We came from beyond your sky. Do you know the sky? Above the water?" He gestured upward, wondering if these people knew anything at all about the world above the ocean.

L'Kell took a step backward, drawing himself into a crouch. It looked like a fighting posture, hands raised with sharp-nailed fingers curved outward. "From--" graaspaak "--above? From the land?"

He muttered something guttural, which the stones did not catch.

"Not the land--no!" Bandicut said hastily, wondering what bad a.s.sociation he had just triggered. "From above the sky. "He gestured expansively upward. "From beyond your sun."

L'Kell was silent a moment, absorbing Bandicut's words. "From beyond--our sun--?"

"It is hard..." Bandicut thought, struggling to think how to explain.

"May I ask--do you live just beneath the sea? Do you know the air?"

"Why are you here?" L'Kell demanded, ignoring the question.

He blinked. Why am I here?/Why am I here?/ "/The question has occurred to me, also."/ Bandicut shook his head./Does any of us have even the slightest idea? Ik?/He answered the creature finally, "I'm not sure. But it32 * .

is not.., our idea. We do not know why we are here." He cleared his throat. "However, if there is something we can do... to help?"

He glanced at Ik and shrugged.

L'Kell's eyes shifted to Ik, then to his fellow sea creatures. Then back to Bandicut. "I tell you this--you will not be permitted to endanger us. However, if you are innocent visitors, we may speak. I have questions I would like to ask you. But our leader will have ma: questions."

Bandicut breathed a little easier. "We can hardly ask any more.

We certainly do not wish to endanger or harm anyone." He spoke slowly, pausing to judge whether his words were understood. The translator-stones were doing well, but he feared misinterpretation.

L'Kell's gill openings seemed to pulse, and the creature stroked at the spot where one of the stones had lodged. "I know that our arrival must have been very confusing," Bandicut added. "And the stones', as well. The stones ... perhaps it will help you to understand--"

"Yes?" hissed the creature.

"--if I say that they are not of me, not part of my own body--and yet they work with me, and I am--" he hesitated "--grateful for their help."

L'Kell stroked again at the stones on either side of his head. It was a gesture that was familiar to Bandicut; he had seen Ik do much the same thing, on many occasions. But it was startling to see the gesture from so different a creature.

"May I ask," Ik interjected, with a glance at Bandicut that indicated that he understood at least some of the conversation, "if it is not too impolit$--by what name may we call your people?"

L'Kell was startled by Ik's sudden entry into the conversation.

He seemed to understand Ik's words, with perhaps a bit more difficulty.

But then, they were Bandicut's stones, and the stones knew Ik's speech. L'Kell seemed to contemplate the question, then said, "We are the--" graaa "--people of the sea, the seafolk." And he p.r.o.nounced a word that sounded through the translator-stone like "... Neri."

Bandicut blinked, aware that his stones had searched through his own memories for some a.s.sociative word. "Neri," he echoed.

Nereids? From mythology?

"And the Neri," continued L'Kell, "will want to know why you are here, bow you have come here, and what you want of us."THE INFINITE SEA * 33 '

"Yes," Bandicut murmured in reply. He wondered if L'Kell had even a glimmering of an understanding of his statement that they had come from another world--through s.p.a.ce, and not just s.p.a.ce, but from beyond the stars. Did the Neri even know what stars were?

It would be pointless to try to explain their flight here from Ship-world, an enormous artificial world orbiting outside the galaxy. He scarcely believed it himself.

"Hrahh," said Ik, rubbing his own voice-stones in his temples.

"For now, we want only to live.., and to learn about you. Perhaps when we know each other, we will understand why we are here--and what it is that you need from us."

L'Kell stared at the Hraachee'an for several long moments. He seemed to have understood the words--and they must have sounded as if they had come from a madman, or a visiting G.o.d: "--what it is that you need from us."

Bandicut was taken aback, too. Why had Ik said that--as if he were expecting these people to need something from them.

Shipworld had needed something from them, without ever quite getting around to explaining what or why. They had had to discover it for themselves, and risk their lives for it. Was that going to happen again here? Did Ik know something he hadn't mentioned?

"How would you know," L'Kell said carefully, "what my people need? And why would we need it from you?"

"I don't," said Ik. "I don't know. But there must be need."

He glanced at Bandicut. "Why else would Shipworld have sent us here? It must have been a tremendous expenditure of resources."

Bandicut could not think of an answer.

All the other Neri were watching them closely. They clearly had no idea what was being said. L'Kell turned and spoke for a moment with his fellows. Their conversation was raspy, noisy, and seemingly heated. Bandicut couldn't understand a word. Apparently the stones translated only when the Neri was actually addressing Bandi-cut or Ik--perhaps as a courtesy to their new host. When L'Kell looked back at Ik and Bandicut, his black, rubbery hands were clenching and unclenching, his great dark eyes inscrutable. "They are right. We must take you to Askelanda. Are you swimmers?

Water breathers?"

Bandicut gulped. "Uh--no." The thought of plunging into that34 , .

watery darkness made him shudder, not from fear of drowning so much as claustrophobia.

L'Kell gestured to one of the Neri. The Neri made a clicking sound, touched the exit spot on the floor, and when the circle turned shadowy, slipped down the well and away into the water.

"We will provide transport," L'Kell said.

"Thank you," said Ik.

L'Kell's eyes gleamed, as though he were trying to judge the tone of Ik's polite remark.

A moment later, Bandicut became aware of a shadow moving under the habitat. He felt a b.u.mp, and heard a soft whoosh. The exit darkened again, and a Neri climbed up, the same one who had just disappeared.

L'Kell rasped out a command, and Bandicut was nudged toward the opening. He peered down into the well and saw an air s.p.a.ce, in gloom but not total darkness. They were to be taken away as Antares and Li-Jared had been. "Before we go," he said to L'Kell, "can you please tell me--are our friends safe? Where are they?"

"They are safe," said L'Kell. "Board now."

Despite a harder nudge from behind, Bandicut resisted. "What about our vessel? It contains things we may need." Not least of which were his robots.

"It will be kept safe, too," L'Kell said. This time, the Neri behind Bandicut poked him sharply enough to hurt, and with a glance at Ik he climbed over the edge of the opening and dropped, feetfirst, into darkness.

It was cool but dry in the chamber. Bandicut felt a rounded floor beneath him, and rounded walls beside him. After a moment, his eyes adapted well enough to discern the visual contours of the little chamber. It was indeed a small submarine. He crowded to one side to make room for Ik. "Hmm," his friend muttered, landing beside him and folding himself with some difficulty into the s.p.a.ce.

A few seconds later, a pair of black feet and legs appeared between them, practically invisible in the gloom. One of the Neri dropped into the chamber. It was L'Kell. As Bandicut tried to make room, he banged his elbow against the wall. It echoed with a metallic bong.

"Metals technology," he murmured to Ik.*

THE INFINITE SEA * 35'.

"Yes," answered Ik. "A submarine."

"What did you think?" asked L'Kell, crouching between them.

"We didn't know what to think. We really know nothing at all of your world," Bandicut said. He glanced up as another Neri dropped down and crouched in the back of the sub.

"Perhaps," said L'Kell, "we can show you a bit on our way in."

L'Kell stretched out in a p.r.o.ne position, his head toward the nose of the submarine. Bandicut and Ik followed his example, which was not easy in the confines of the little vessel. There was barely room for three to lie side-by-side, Ik on the far left, and Bandicut in the middle, with the second Neri remaining crouched in back.

The sub's nose was a clear window, through which they peered directly out into the sea. What light there was in the cabin came mostly from a small array of instruments and controls just below the window.

"May I ask," Ik said, peering past Bandicut, "where do you make such things as this submarine? Surely you do not make them down here under the sea, do you?"

That drew an indecipherable look from L'KeI1.

Ik continued, "Do you have your factories above--on the surface of the water? Or on land?"

Bandicut sensed a reaction of displeasure from the Neri. "That,"

said L'Kell, touching the curved control panel, "is something I will not discuss now." A series of new lights came on near his fingers, as he peered forward out the window, preparing to pilot the sub.

In the close quarters here, the air seemed staler and full of a mixture of metallic tang and organic, almost fishy smell--perhaps the smell of the Neri. L'Kell caught Bandicut's eye for a tense moment, as though to say, Do not ask too much, yet. We are not certain we are not enemiea; you and I.

Bandicut nodded slightly and looked out the window. The underside of the habitat still loomed over them. Some light glowed into the water from the habitat, some from a headlight on the sub, below his view. Bandicut watched several shadowy swimmers move in and out of the region of illumination.

L'Kell called back toward the hatch. He was answered by a soft jolt and a slight change in air pressure. The hatch was closed.

L'Kell touched his panel, and with a soft vibration, the sub stirred into motion--first sinking away from the habitat, then driving forward. /Motors,/ Bandicut thought. /Quiet motors. Magnetohy-36 * .

drodynamic, maybe? No moving parts? How do you suppose they power them?/ For a moment there was silence in his head. Then: "/I don't know.

But I do know that this whole d.a.m.n place gives me the w.i.l.l.i.e.s."/ /Huh? You're the one who's supposed to be used to all these surprises./ "/Your other Charlies maybe.

Not me, guy."/ /But you said--/Bandicut swallowed, trying to remember what the quarx had said, back on Shipworld, not long after coming to life following the death of Charlie-Three./You said you thought it was your destiny, or something like that, to go where the star-spanner wanted you to go. Didn't you say that?/ "/ If I did, that was before I knew I was going to be on the bottom of some ocean, on some G.o.dforsaken alien world."/ /Mm./Bandicut couldn't disagree with the sentiment.

"/ I hate water, d.a.m.n it.""

/You hate it? You mean you're afraid of it?/Now, that was an unnerving thought; he had come to count on the quarx for quite a lot of a.s.sistance and support.

"/f.u.c.k you. Yes, I'm afraid of it.

I didn't ask to be."/ /Look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean--/ "/Yes, you did.

The last thing you want is some d.i.c.khead for a sidekick who's more afraid than you are."/ Bandicut winced and didn't answer. He couldn't. It was true.

Sighing softly, he peered out the nose window and tried to see where they were going. Some distance away, and a little deeper, he saw a much larger cl.u.s.ter of glowing bubbles. Was that the real undersea city? Probably they'd been held temporarily in some sort of outpost, by what amounted to a perimeter guard. Beyond those bubbles, he thought he saw the dark contour of a sloping seafioor.

So they really were at the bottom of the ocean. He wondered if this world had continental shelves, like Earth. If so, they were proba-*

THE INFINITE SEA * 37'.

bly beyond the shallow continental shelf waters, on the descending bathyal slope, headed for the abyss. He glanced and saw Ik peering just as intently. He wondered what the Hraachee'an thought. Was this just a new adventure to him? Did he already have some inkling of their purpose here? Was he scared?

There was something out there on the slope besides the habitats, though--just coming into view as they approached the outer city. It looked like reefs, illuminated by artificial lights, nestled into the dark, rocky slopes. Ik heard Bandicut's indrawn breath, saw what he was looking at, and remarked, "Artificial habitat for sea life?

For food, perhaps?"

L'Kell noted their interest and steered in a slow arc past the reef area, which was framed on the open side by spheroidal and tubular habitats. The reef was swarming with animals that looked surprisingly like Earthly fish. There were long, silver creatures that moved in quick, gliding bursts; and Bandicut saw occasional flashes of bright yellow, crimson, and iridescent blues and greens as other fish swam into the brightest areas of lighting. There were other things besides fish, too: rounded, jetting creatures and floating jellies that looked like flying saucers.

"The reef growth is natural, but transplanted," L'Kell said. "Most of this marine life, including the reef itself, would not survive at this depth if we did not bring light and favorable currents to the area."

As they glided past, Bandicut could see a great many light sources shining on the reef. He also saw a number of Neri working near the edge of the reef area, including several who appeared to be harvesting some form of kelp. A few of the Neri were smaller, and were wearing translucent hoods and ungainly backpacks. He pointed, and was about to ask, when L'Kell said, "Our young, learning to work the reefs. Until their--" hssss "--gills mature, they must wear breathing apparatus."

Scuba gear? Bandicut thought in wonderment.

"May I ask," said Ik, "how deep do these waters go, if you follow the slope down?"

"How deep?" said L'Kell. "If you go past the dropoff to the abyss, there is no bottom, because of--"

Clang-g-g/Clang-g-g/ L'Kell's words were interrupted by a sound like a distant bell, from outside the sub. L'Kell rasped out a sound that left Bandicut's stones buzzing in confusion, then spoke into something on the38 * .

panel--a comm unit of some kind. A voice spoke, in words Bandi-cut couldn't understand, and L'Kell touched another control. The sub accelerated downward toward the deeper habitats, with an abruptness that left Bandicut breathless. He had a feeling their visitor's tour had just been canceled.ASKELANDA I "MAY WE ASK what is going on?" Ik said quietly, as the small sub sped through the water.

L'Kell ignored the question, as his hands worked the control surfaces. It seemed to Bandicut, as he watched the Neri, that the controls were awkwardly designed for the Neri's hands; nevertheless, L'Kell was a skilled pilot. He steered the vessel on a breathtaking slalom course among six or seven immense, luminous habitats. Several times, as they pa.s.sed the glowing walls, Bandicut caught glimpses of shadowy Neri inside the habitats, moving close to the walls, and peering out.

He shivered. For a brief, hallucinatory moment, he felt as if he were gliding through the skyline of an eerie, celestial city--or diving into a virtual reality sim--or anywhere except in the perilous depths of an alien sea. Then he glimpsed the looming blackness of the sea-bottom slope beneath the habitats, and heard a distant rumble of venting air bubbles, and suddenly it all seemed far too real.

The sub dove beneath a large cl.u.s.ter of habitats and slowed.

L'Kell pitched the nose up, and Bandicut squinted as they rose toward an oval, mirrored surface which formed the underside of one of the structures. An air-water surface. There were two shadows in the mirror that appeared to be docked vessels. L'Kell steered between them. The sub bobbed, then rocked slightly, as it breached the surface. The top half of the nose window broke out of the water, and light poured in.

There was a whisper of air around Bandicut, and a popping in his ears told him that the cabin pressurization was increasing to match the depth. L'Kell ran his fingers over the controls, and most40 .

of the lights went out. Then he turned his head to stare at Bandi-cut and Ik. "There has been a very bad incident--many Neri hurt.

When Askelanda neets you, he will want to know everything that you know about it."