This is Harding, in one of the vessels now approaching. I am un- harmed. I bring important information. The amphibs--the Neri-- "'.

wish a conference. If you can hear me, flash a light."

There was a long silence, but no answer. Harding and L'Kell con- ferred. L'Kell turned up the amplification, and Harding spoke again, with exaggerated slowness, his voice ringing through the hull from the external speakers. "THIS IS HARDING--"

He repeated the message twice, before L'Kell said, "Over there-- a flashing light. Coming this way."

"Good," said Harding. He spoke into the comm again. "The Neri have no weapons. They wish to approach, and invite you to escort us."

A moment later, Li-Jared saw something speed past the side viewport. It was an Astari, riding some kind of propulsion unit that streamed a white cloud of bubbles. It was wearing breathing gear,and in that brief glimpse looked about as alien as anyone Li-Jared had ever seen. He supposed that was what Harding must have looked like in his diving suit.

Harding was making gestures through the forward window, and appeared satisfied with the reception. But Li-Jared couldn't help noticing, as several other landers sped past, that they all seemed to be carrying weapons. He thought of mentioning it to L'Kell, but sup- posed that the Neri had probably noticed it himself. Soon they were alongside the starship, surrounded by Astari. Li-Jared wondered where the Neri were who had stayed in the wreck. Probably still in hiding. There was a good deal of chatter on the comm, and it sounded as if they were talking about going to the su.r[ace to meet.

Li-Jared was excited at the prospect of open air, and sun; but at*

THE INFINITE SEA * 291'.

the same time, he knew enough to be terrified--as much for Harding as for himself. They had managed well, so far. But the deadliest decompression came last. In the final ten meters, the pressure would drop by half. If they had problems, that's where it would happen.

He didn't want to have come all this way with Harding, only to see him die just before reaching his world again.

He felt a tickle in his chest.

*It can be done. But go slow. Warn them.*

He blinked, hearts pounding. /Okay,/ he murmured. And he leaned foward to tell them. Because how would it look, he thought with a twinge of irony, to bring back an Astari guest and kill him right before the eyes of his people?

John Bandicut had similar thoughts about Harding's safety. True, he and Antares had gone to the surface without incident. But they and their stones were better prepared. Antares was looking at him, and clearly picking up his sense of unease. "I'm sure they'll be okay," he muttered, leaning to get a better look.

They were ascending now past the top of the sunken starship.

He noticed that the Astari accompanying them were gradually dropping away, to be replaced by others coming down from above. They were ascending faster than the Astari could decompress. He spoke into the comm to L'Kell. "Is Harding doing all right?"

Harding himself answered. "I am well, so far."

S'Cali seemed to read his thoughts. He blinked his wide eyes, and said, "We will ascend very slowly the rest of the way. Plenty of time yet before we reach surface."

Bandicut sat back and tried to relax.

It did indeed seem to take forever.

Bandicut wasn't sure, but he thought he saw some flashes of light coming from below. Imagination? he wondered. A trick of sunlight, playing off deeper layers of water? He glanced at Antares and S'Cali. "I saw it, too," Antares said.

S'Cali looked sharply at both of them.

/We'd better not plan on lingering too long at the surface,/ Bandicut muttered to the quarx.

Char agreed.

"That thing down there is what we really need to talk to, isn't it?"/ /You have any idea how? a.s.suming there's something down there capable of communicating?/292 * .

"/Not really.

But you get me in range, and I'll fi'nd a way."/ /Getting in range. That could be the hard part, couldn't it?/ Bandicut stared out the viewport, not really expecting an answer.

As they neared the surface, two Astari ships became visible as shadowy shapes overhead. S'Cali and L'Kell steered to one side, to breach the surface at a safe distance. In the final moments, the subs burst through the waves with a sudden rush, and began bobbing as sunlight streamed in through the viewports, which were now half out of the water.

A minute later Bandicut heard a thumping noise overhead.

He glimpsed a pair of suited, flippered Astari climbing from a small launch onto the deck of the Neri sub. They were attaching lines.

"What are we supposed to do now?" S'Cali muttered.

"I expect they'll tow us alongside one of their ships," Bandicut said. "Is that okay?" S'Cali didn't answer, but he looked extremely ill at ease. Bandicut wondered which was worse for him--being at the mercy of the Astari, or bobbing around on the surface of the sea. Soon half a dozen of the Astari were in the water, adjusting various lines--which drooped off across the water toward a surface ship, just visible over the waves. There was a jerk, and the sub began slewing from side to side as the lines were winched in, drawing them toward the Astari ship.

It was a b.u.mpy, seasick-making ride through the waves, and by the time they thumped up against the side of the Astari ship, Bandi-cut couldn't wait to get out of the sub and into the fresh air. S'Cali went first, to open the top hatch. After a moment's hesitation, he climbed out. Bandicut went next, followed by Antares.

The first thing Bandicut saw, shining down through the hatch, was the sun. The second was the silhouette of two Astari heads leaning over the top of the conning tower, peering down at him. He kept climbing, and they backed out of his way and allowed him to step onto the deck. He squinted in the light. On the starboard side of the sub, the hull of the Astari ship rose like a cliff face. L'Kell's sub was moored behind them. A head appeared in the hatch there.

It was Harding.

Bandicut waved and started to call out, but his voice wasTHE INFINITE SEA * 293 drowned out by half a dozen or more Astari voices shouting to Harding.

Bandicut gave up trying, turned to give Antares a hand getting out, then reached for a snaky ladder that was dangling down onto the deck of the sub.

From a look around the deck, Bandicut concluded that the Astari had a fair amount of industrial capability. The ship's hull was steel, the deck wood, and while he couldn't tell precisely how it was powered, he could smell hydrocarbons and steam, and saw a thin stream of smoke coming from a stack. It was not high tech, but impressive for a people who had crashlanded and been forced to carve out an existence on a new world. Probably they had brought some machinery out of their starship--maybe that's how they'd a.s.sembled their diving gear--and Harding had acknowledged that they'd taken some abandoned Neri machinery. But they certainly must have manufactured much of their own equipment. He would have liked a chance to see more of it.

All those who had come in the subs were now on the middeck area, under the watch of half a dozen armed Astari. Harding was surrounded by a group of his fellows, who were questioning him with a combination of solicitous concern and zeal. Li-Jared stood nearby, but was slowly being pushed farther and farther away from his friend. The Astari had shown some curiosity about the Neri and the a.s.sortment of otherworldly creatures, but they seemed far more interested in what their own had to say--as if they could trust only his answers, and maybe not even his.

Bandicut watched the Astari in silence, trying to gauge their reaction to Harding. It was like watching a gathering of tall, tailless foxes talking urgently--and yet not like that at all. They were alien, and having so many gathered together somehow made them seem even more alien. Their eyes, with those concentric circles for irises, were hypnotic and frightening. Bandicut could understand fragments of their conversation--though much went by too fast for his stones to pick up.

"--took you how deep? --how did you--? --those things in your neck--?"

And Harding was answering, or trying to. "Yes, they helped me ..

yes, a prisoner at first.., but later, it was different--"

And the others murmured, interrupting Harding and each other. "--learn about the amphibs? .... --and who are these others--?"294 *: "--people who helped me--" he struggled to explain "--gave me stones to understand--"

"Understand what--?"

"Everything--they helped me to survive."

"Then who--" "--what--" "--these creatures--?" Pointing at Bandicut, Antares, Li-Jared.

"Not from this world--listen to me!" he gasped, trying to silence his fellow Astari long enough to explain. He waved his arms, as if that might make them keep quiet.

But the questions came faster than his answers, and he was falling behind the pace of his fellows. It looked to Bandicut as if Harding was having some trouble getting his breath. Was there no ,'.

one in charge here? He wondered when the Astari would turn their barrage of questions on him or Li-Jared or Antares--or even the '.

Neri. It would be a relief, if they would let up on Harding. But they ,',}.

seemed to be showing a growing wariness of their returned fellow.

"/Theyprobably think he's' been contaminated by his visit with the amphibs, "/ Char murmured. She had been quiet throughout, but he could feel her concern that the reception of Harding was not at all what they had hoped for.

"/It would have been better if the stones had stayed hidden."/ /I think you're right./ Two and three at a time, the landers stepped close to peer at the stones glittering in the sides of Harding's neck. Then they crowded up to peer at the similar stones in L'Kell's head, and Bandi- cut's wrists, and Antares' throat. When the first landers looked sus-piciously at Li-Jared, he shrugged with a flick of his fingers and tapped his chest, then yanked the front of his suit open enough to show that he had them, too. "I think you'd better explain these stones," Li-Jared said to Harding.

"Of course. I'm trying," Harding gasped. "You must understand,"

he snapped to his fellows, finally getting a moment of silence, "that these stones are what let us speak with each other. It is how I un- derstand what they say, and how they understand what we are say- ing.'' He gestured toward Li-Jared and Bandicut, and some of the Astari pulled back a little, clearly startled by this statement.

One of them pointed to Bandicut. "You--understand--my words?"THE INFINITE SEA * 295'

When Bandicut spoke, his words reverberated in the Astari tongue: "When you speak slowly, yes. I hope that we can understand each other. And that we can tell you.., there is no need for this fighting to continue." The Astari's eyes seemed to grow wide, and he took a step backward in surprise, and said something to the others, too quickly for Bandicut to follow. "No need for fighting,"

Bandicut repeated. "Do you understand my words?"

"Your words?" the lander said, looking back at him. "We hear them, yes. But why should we believe them?"

"Because they're true," Bandicut whispered urgently. "You must speak with the Neri and understand, you can work together."

"We will speak to the amphibians--after Harding has told us what he has learned." The lander turned from Bandicut in what seemed a deliberate gesture of dismissal.

Bandicut said nothing more, and stood watching as the seemingly random examination of Harding continued. There was a tall, darkly dressed Astari observing from a shaded spot under the ship's superstructure. Who was that? Bandicut wondered. It seemed to him that the lander was standing with a self-a.s.surance that suggested authority, and yet he had made no move to step in. Maybe this was how Astari leadership worked: let the group snarl and snap in apparent aimlessness until a consensus emerged. After watching the Neri in their pacing discussions, that would not be too hard to believe. He glanced around for the Neri. S'Cali and Jon-til were keeping as far under an awning sunshade as the Astari would permit, perhaps to stay out of the crowd of landers, perhaps to block the enormous sky from their sight. L'Kell, however, had gradually moved toward the railing at the edge of the deck.

Two of the Astari guards were keeping an eye on him, but it was unclear what he was doing. Getting ready to jump back into the sea?

It took Bandicut a few moments to realize the answer. He began to edge that way himself, until he was close enough to the railing to angle a glance over the side. The sunlight flashing off the wave caps made it hard to tell. But he thought he knew what L'Kell had been looking for. Now he saw L'Kell peering at him with those enormous, sober eyes. "Eruption coming?" he murmured softly.

L'Kell nodded, just once, before the Astari crew members herded them back into the gathering.296 * *

Li-Jared was worried about Harding. He was looking uncomfortable, and not just from the intense questioning. Finally the Karellian squeezed his way forward through the crowd. "Excuse--" bw.a.n.g "--excuse me. May I speak with him, please? Thank you." The landers gave way with seeming annoyance, but no one actually stopped him from approaching his friend.

Harding was saying, "They have--told me much--and shown me the dangers--" He stopped and gulped air.

"Harding!" Li-Jared demanded, stepping directly in front of his friend. "Are you all right?"

"Uh--?" The Astari looked confused. Too confused.

Li-Jared glanced around for his fellows and saw that he was the only one close enough even to be aware of the problem. "Harding, did we decompress you too fast?"

The Astari's eyes seem to spin for just a moment. He seemed caught in mid-thought, and unable to restart. The muttering around them fell to silence.

"Are you in pain?" Li-Jared asked. "Are you having trouble breathing--or thinking clearly?" Inwardly, he screamed, /What's happening to him? Is he all right? Tell me something"

A silent voice answered: *Please touch him, if you can.* Li-Jared reached out a black-fingered hand and touched Harding's chest. Several of the Astari crew muttered, closing in. Li-Jared felt a tingle of contact.

Harding seemed finally to comprehend Li-Jared's question. "I am not.., sure," he said huskily, blinking his concentric-circle eyes. "I do not feel pain. But I--my thinking does not seem--it feels blurred. I feel blurred."

"Blurred," Li-Jared whispered, resisting as one of the landers tried to push him away from his friend. Blurred, as in oxygen deprivation?

As in bubbles in the tissues, blocking circulation?

*Decompression sickness. The daughter-stones cannot manage alone. He needs help.*

Help? Dear mighty stars above. Li-Jared ignored the Astari who were looking at him with suspicion, and wheeled around to shout, "John Bandicut, come quickly!"

He heard an uproar of murmuring--and spun back to see Harding wobbling on his feet, ready to collapse. "Must work--danger--together--"

Harding wheezed.

"What danger?" muttered a lander.*

THE INFINITE SEA * 297.

"It's the decompression, John Bandicut! The bends!" Li-Jared shouted.

"Must work with them--the Neri--" Harding gasped. And then he fell face forward to the deck.DECISION POINTS BANDICUT FOUGHT HIS way through the knot of Astari. He reached Li-Jared first. The Karellian was swinging his arms [to shake off the landers who were trying to pull him back from Harding. Two of the Astari crew were crouched near Harding, turning him over onto his back. Harding hissed; he was conscious, but just barely. One of his crewmates poked at the stones that were flickering frantically in his neck.

"Can you help him?" Li-Jared cried, looking up at Bandicut.

"What happened? I thought he was all right!"

"I thought so too! The stones must have been holding him together!''

The landers hissed suspiciously as Li-Jared waved toward the daughter-stones in Harding's neck. "But they couldn't keep it up. He needs help!"

"/Can you make contact--quickly?"/ Bandicut slipped between a pair of Astari and knelt close to Harding, who was blinking his eyes in a daze. Bandicut reached out a hand to touch him, to make the contact that Char needed--and felt a sudden, sharp, pincer-grip on his left shoulder, dragging him away. "OW/d.a.m.n it, wait/I'm trying to help him!" Bandicut struggled to pull free. He was tottering backward now, about to lose his balance, when another clawlike hand grabbed his right wrist,, and someone jabbed at his stones, with a loud mutter. As he was pulled from the wheezing Harding, he shouted, "If you can speak--Harding--tell them to let me--"

"Yesss--yessss--you mussst--" gasped Harding, struggling to rise. He couldn't, quite, and no one moved to help him.*

THE INFINITE SEA * 299.

"What--" called a loud, hollow voice "--have you done to our friend?"

Bandicut turned his head, trying to see who had spoken. It was someone behind him. There--it was the Astari he had noticed earlier, in the darker clothing, moving through the knot of people. Was this in fact the leader?