But we hope, and Harding hoped, that a way can be found to stop it. That's why he risked his life hurrying to the surface!" Bandicut pointed to the stones that Morado held. "Those stones, and ours, might be able to help. But the Neri also require the help of your people. They need your cooperation. Materials. Machines."

"Materials. Machines," Morado repeated, his gaze flicking from one to another. "Can I use these stones to understand what you speak off"

"I don't know if that's for us to say." Bandicut glanced at Li-Jared for affirmation.306 * *

"We cannot tell the stones whom to serve," Li-Jared said. "They decide that for themselves." His eyes dimmed for a moment in thought. "I believe that they wish now to return to me."

"To you?" Morado said, in a voice that seemed to suggest disbelief.

"Yes. I am sorry."

Morado stared at the stones for a moment. "I do not think--"

he began, and then hesitated and opened his hand to look at the stones again. "I sense that there is--" He thought a moment longer, and finally said, "It is a pity. However, perhaps I will trust Harding in this, and honor his wishes. What is it that you want, exactly?" As he spoke, he held the stones out to Li-Jared. When the Karellian touched them, they seemed to brighten, flickering; and then a sudden wave of light enveloped Li-Jared's hands and arms, streaming up his chest. For an instant, they all stood watching in amazement.

The effect quickly subsided--but as Morado released the stones into the Karellian's hands, the wave of light suddenly reversed, and arced across to Morado's hands. He grunted harshly, but looked even more surprised when the two stones flew up and sank glowing into his neck.

Antares felt a flash of confusion, and then understood. The stones had been waiting to see if Morado would willingly give them up.

Once he had pa.s.sed that test, they went willingly to him. But the surprise of the transfer had shaken him; she could feel it. She focused, trying to reach out to the Astari leader.

This was a dangerous moment. If Morado felt threatened, he might turn on them. If the other Astari thought he was threatened--or worse, that his integrity was compromised--they might turn on him as they had on Harding. She focused her powers on just one thing: projecting calm, projecting fearlessness. Fearlessness and calm.

She felt the tension in Morado's thoughts and emotions as he struggled to cope with this new force in his body and his mind. He had to come quickly to some understanding or accommodation; he had to decide whether he was facing friends or foes. She could not sense his leaning; she guessed that he was teetering on the edge--infuriated by the intrusion into his privacy, the privacy of his own mind, and at the same time astonished by the newfound sense of power and knowledge, or the possibility of knowledge.

Fearlessness, she thought. Calm.*

THE INFINITE SEA * 307.

Something twinged in the Astari's emotional aura: a determination being made. A decision. Morado looked at her, looked at the others. "I... see..." he said, forcing his words. "I see. There is...

much need. But you have given this to me, yes? These stones? They have so much . .. I cannot see it all, but I sense ..." He blinked, and gave up trying to put it into words.

For a moment, there was only silence. Then Li-Jared said, "They are yours. To use, to keep. As long as they themselves approve."

Li-Jared's words, too, seemed halting. Antares suddenly realized that he was also trying to a.s.similate something new. The wave of light that had enveloped him: had that been a ma.s.sive contact between his stones and the stones that had shared Harding's thoughts?

The deck shook with a sharper rumble from below. Antares glanced out over the sea in alarm. The greenish light deep beneath the waves was growing in intensity. What was the Maw doing? What was happening on the seabed, and in the Neri city?

"We must get our divers up," Morado said suddenly, his lips pulled back from his teeth in a grimace. "Our salvage opera-tion--and .your people--" he looked at L'Kell as he said that "--may be in danger." He called to an aide. "Find out what's happening below! And get a message off to port: Eruption worsening.

Prepare for extremely high seas."

"I must contact our people," L'Kell said urgently, breaking out of the group into a sudden pacing walk. He held up his hands and spread his webbed fingers for emphasis. "They will almost certainly need our help, if this growg worse." He strode to the rail and gazed out worriedly over the sea, then strode back.

Morado gazed at him. "I understand," he said. "You may go whenever you wish." L'Kell made a clucking sound and waved S'Cali and Jontil toward the subs. "But wait a moment, please. You came to ask our cooperation."

L'Kell paused, turning his large Neri eyes upon the Astari. "Yes,"

he said.

Morado closed his eyes, opened them. "Ordinarily, I would have to seek--" haaa "--approval from my superiors ash.o.r.e. But there is no time. I will try to help you, for now at least. Perhaps these--" he touched the stones in his neck "--may serve as payment for what you wish to remove from our ship."

Antares felt Bandicut's heart leap a little, and she let her own breath sigh out in hope.

"But I must know," Morado continued, "just what it is that you308 * .

need for your effort. The stones have some understanding, but it is incomplete. It may be possible--if we survive this eruption--to supply some of the materials you need without having to destroy valuable machinery to extract them. But I must ask that you consider the safety of our people in your efforts to master this thing."

Morado turned to look out at the pulsating light in the sea. "But if you can find a way to subdue this terrible thing, then we might well find a way to work together, your people and mine."THE REGATHERING xS L'KELL'S SUB descended back through the depths, the light dwindled and finally faded altogether. Bandicut and [[ his companions were quiet, but L'Kell was quietest of all.

Perhaps he was worrying about S'Cali and Jontil, who had stopped at the salvage site to contact the Neri still inside--this time with Astari cooperation. But Bandicut guessed that L'Kell was mostly trying to absorb the connection he had made with Morado before their departure. The two had talked briefly but intensely, their stones flickering and flaring, just before the Neri and his companions had climbed into the sub.

L'Kell muttered something that Bandicut didn't quite catch, and he had to ask the Neri to repeat it. "I said I'd like for our cities to rise into the sun again one day," L'Kell said, adjusting the exterior lights.

"Eh?" said Bandicut.

L'Kell suddenly looked at him as if they were having a casual, late-night conversation under one of the big domes. Maybe, with all that was weighing on him, he needed casual conversation. "Parts of our cities used to rise and fall, you know, on long anchor tethers, moving much closer to the surface than they do now. Our people used to see the sunlight now and again, and weren't so shy of the surface. We also benefited from much larger populations of fishes around us."

"Was this in the recent past? What happened?"

"No, it was before my time. Our people grew wary of the lan-ders-wary and frightened, I think--even before there was conflict.''

L'Kell looked slightly embarra.s.sed; his eyes shifted back and310 * .

forth from Bandicut to the seascape gliding beneath the sub. "We began to work harder to hide ourselves, to be unknown to the landers.

The Astari, I mean. I think we felt more protected, hunkered close to the seafioor--and I suppose closer to the factory."

"Even with the factory not working?"

L'Kell did not answer at once. When he finally did, he seemed to change the subject. "You know, we Neri are a part of the sea, and the sea a part of us. Not just in life. When we die, our spirits return to the sea--are rejoined to it, and become a part of it forever."

He paused, adjusting the sub's course. "It has seemed to me that the greater our danger and desperation, the more we want to be not just in the sea, but with the sea. In some strange way, I think, the deeper we have moved our cities, the more closely connected we have felt with our--" Krrrlll. The stones seemed to have trouble, and he tried rephrasing. Khhresst. "With our G.o.d," Bandicut heard finally. "Factory or no. This was before the factory had finally failed, but it doesn't really matter. We might be in greater danger now, with all that threatens us, but we are closer to something we long for and need." He turned his dark gaze toward Bandicut. "I do not claim that any of this is completely logical."

Bandicut nodded without answering. He wasn't about to criticize the Neri. But it did seem a terrible shame that in seeking safety in the depths, or even some mystical connection, they had cut themselves off from the world of sunlight. Then again, of course, if the undersea cities had been detectable by the Astari diving forces . . .

The threat of the Maw was bad enough, he supposed.

The rumblings from below had subsided again, [)ut L'Kell had been unable to establish contact with the city. In the absence of information, they were trying not to speculate to6 much on what that might mean. It was possible that the comm failure was simply due to acoustic interference from the Maw's muttering stomach.

"On your world," L'Kell said, breaking Bandicut's reverie, "where do your spirits go when you die?"

Bandicut grunted, taken by surprise. "Well, I--don't really know.

I don't know if they go anywhere. There are lots of... beliefs ...

among my people. About G.o.d, and Heaven, and so on. They vary pretty widely."

"Yes? And your own beliefs?"

"Well, I... never really decided which I thought was right," heTHE INFINITE SEA * 311 confessed, suddenly embarra.s.sed by such indecision, or ignorance.

"/I have wondered myself why you seemed so unsure."/ /Why?/Bandicut asked in surprise./Do you know the answer?/ "/Not in the sense you mean.

I of course believe in the immortality of the spirit.

But I suspect that holds a somewhat difJrent meaning for me."/ Bandicut frowned./Yes, I suppose it might./ "Well," said Li-Jared from farther back in the c.o.c.kpit, "we know where our spirits go. We see it in the sky every night, at home."

"Yes?" asked L'Kell.

"We call our world Home with Green, Beautiful, Perilous Sky-- among other names. It is not like your night sky, L'Kell. It is filled with highly energetic, nearby stars and gas clouds. It is indeed perilous, and beautiful."

Bandicut looked back at him. "And?"

"It is the belief of most Karellians that our spirits ascend into cer- tain of the clouds or energy pathways that coil through the sky of Karellia. Some of those energetic clouds contain extremely complex holographic patterns." Li-Jared made a soft, thoughtful, gonging sound and added, "The Astari are not too different in their beliefs.

I spoke with Harding on our journey to the surface."

"What did Harding say?" Antares asked. She was hunkered in the back of the compartment with Li-Jared.

"Well," said the Karellian, "the Astari know they came here from the stars. That they are exiles here. Many of them are certain that their spirits return to the stars at the end of life. Harding believed this, also."

Bandicut thought of Harding's death, and wished that they could have found a way to pay greater respects. But would it have made any difference to Harding? Was his spirit now floating among the stars somewhere, exploring the galaxy? Or riding the great wheel of existence, waiting to step off on the next plane? Or awaiting his entry through the gates of Heaven?

"/An interesting question."/ /Interesting, yes. But I haven't a clue to the answer./ "/Or rather, you have many clues.312 * .

You just haven't figured out how to read them."/ /Maybe that's it./ "They return to the stars as we return to the sea," said L'Kell, and he somehow seemed satisfied with that notion. He reached to try the comm again.

This time he got an answer, scratchy and indistinct. Bandicut couldn't understand a word of it, and neither could L'Kell. But someone was still down there, transmitting. L'Kell tried again. This time he got no answer at all.

They finally got a signal, abruptly clearer, just as the lights of the undersea city were beginning to appear out of the night-gloom of the depths. "... Send Tandu and the other sub to the nursery complex.., need tools and patching equipment..." And then it faded, just as abruptly, to a hiss.

L'Kell focused intently on his piloting. "That wasn't for us," he said, but there was satisfaction in his voice. "It was local communications, scattered through the water. The sound-carrying channels must be scrambled by the turbulence and aftershocks."

Soon they were in sight of the outer habitats. They were relieved to find that the city was still there. Even so, Bandicut was shocked by the sight of several habitat bubbles partially broken from their moorings--swinging alarmingly, or jammed up hard against other habitats. L'Kell finally got through on the comm and was asked to make best speed to the main hangar. No time to make a survey sweep of the damage.

As they surfaced in the hangar pool, Bandicut had the feeling that they had returned to a city that had just survived a typhoon.

"No contact at all from the factory?" Bandicut asked Ik. He looked around at Neri hurrying about on various missions of damage control.

Their resources were strained, and everyone in the city was hard at work.

Ik, who had met them at the first level above the hangar, rubbed his chest with his fingertips. "We received a single transmission from Nabeck, saying that there was a lot of bottom instability. Then the transmission was lost--not cut off sharply, but gradually blocked, perhaps by interference."

"That's encouraging, then."THE INFINITE SEA * 313 "Yes. But we also heard from Kallan and Elbeth that they had picked up signs of crustal movement close to the factory--which is not." When Bandicut winced, Ik tipped his sculpted blue-white head. "But they weren't sure enough of their readings to know how bad it really was."

Antares spoke up. "Is there any way to find out, short of going down there?"

"I don't think so. Unless they transmit, somehow."

Bandicut saw L'Kell returning from a quick trip to report to Aske-landa.

"What did he say?" Then Bandicut saw the Neri behind L'Kell, and he drew a sharp breath. "Lako, is that you?"

L'Kell stepped out of the way to let the second Neri move in front. "I am feeling much better now," said Lako, bowing his head slightly before Bandicut. "I have come to offer whatever help I can."

As he raised his head, Bandicut could see some scarring on Lako's face where the blisters had healed. Lako's eyes looked clear, and while he seemed to be moving with some difficulty, it was a mira- cle that he was moving at all. "And to say thank you," Lako added.

"You're welcome. You're our first success story."

"But not," said Lako, "your last. When you have time, I know Corono would like you to come visit the ward--to see how many are recovering. Ik has been continuing your work, in your absence.''

"I would love to," Bandicut said.

"Askelanda will want to talk with you first, I think," said L'Kell.

"He was pleased to hear that we were back. But damage to the city is barely under control right now; he can't even spare a sub immediately for the factory. But as soon as he can, he'll approve a scouting and rescue expedition." L'Kell paused, taking note of Bandicut's troubled expression. "We're all worried, John. Let's just hope your robots and our people and our subs are okay. We can't afford to lose any of them."

Bandicut nodded agreement. And from Antares, he sensed, Patience.

Have patience, and faith. And he knew that she was just as worried as he was.

"John, we just heard from S'Cali," Ik said. "He's on his way back here, but there are still Neri needing help inside the shipwreck. And also injured Astari. I believe that's a place where I might be of help."

Li-Jared spoke for the first time, bonging softly. "You want to return to the starship?"314 * .

Ik's black eyes gleamed with inner light. "S'Cali is going to go back with the cargo sub, to load whatever materials the Astari can provide, as well as the remaining injured. I would like to a.s.sist him.

By the time we return, perhaps you will have your answers about the factory, and how to make contact with the Maw. And with luck, we will have the materials you need." Ik c.o.c.ked his head. "Lako intends to go, too."

Bandicut was startled.

"To help the Neri and the Astari," said Lako.

Bandicut saw L'Kell's silent approval, and thought, Lako might make a fine good-will amba.s.sador, as one sorely hurt who now wished to help build bridges. Bandicut knew it made sense to divide up their energy and resources; and yet, something made him wish that he could keep his company together right now. He had a feeling that that could be important, in the near future. But he could hardly object to the plan. "Be careful," he said.

"Indeed," Ik murmured. "But come. Let's not keep Askelanda waiting."

Askelanda listened intently as they described their meeting with Morado. He seemed genuinely saddened to hear of Harding's death.