Deluge Read Free

and a few friends, and finally Tikka and Sky, gathered together while Mraka operated the chute.
    During a previous encounter with the two fishers, Ronan had taught them to balance fish on their noses and to juggle them. Now Mraka flung a fish to Puk, who caught it and quickly tossed it so Ronan caught it on his nose. The three of them juggled more and more fish, gathering a crowd that seemed to have nothing better to do than watch a couple of big otters and a frivolous seal play with their food. Sky ran from one to the other, wanting to catch a fish for himself, but he couldn’t leap as high as the jugglers could throw. Finally, Murel had had enough and joined in the juggling circle to show them how it was really supposed to be done.
    Every third catch, she threw a fish to one of the other onlookers so that the meal was being served rather than wasted.
    There was no night or day in the flying city either, but the twins in seal form weren’t especially disoriented by that.
Piaf
and
Versailles Station
both had waking and sleeping watches during which individual quarters or sections could be darkened or brightened to simulate dirtside conditions. However, deep undersea it was all much the same. The twins had learned that in seal form their eyesight, including night vision, was exceptionally good, besides which they had sonar. The city’s lights were bright enough to see everything they needed to, and if they wanted to sleep, they had only to go into any of the rooms. The city had far more rooms than it had citizens, so although some of the deep sea otters preferred certain rooms, or dens, as Sky said, many just ducked into the hole nearest wherever they happened to stop when they were tired.
    Most of the twins’ hosts had specific duties. Some were particularly skilled at a particular function of the city, but all at least took turns doing most tasks.
    The twins observed their hosts in several of the jobs but were never invited to help. They had tried asking tons of questions, but finally Kushtaka had asked them not to, because they were interfering with the work. Murel told her that they only wanted to know about the jobs in case they could help, but Kushtaka pointed out that as seals, they would find working many of the controls difficult, if not impossible.
    When Murel and Ronan first arrived in the city, they were surprised to find that they did not change into human form. Kushtaka had explained that it was due to the extreme density of the air in the city-ship. Both the alien “otters” and the twins could breathe it as well as swim in it: although it contained enough oxygen to sustain them, it was “wet” enough that the twins retained their seal form while within the city’s bubble and did not change as they normally did when out of the water. They didn’t fully understand her explanation, but as long as the unusual atmosphere kept them alive, that was all that counted. However, not being able to help out was rather dull, so after the novelty of living as seals in a bubble in space wore off, the twins slept a lot, unless their particular friends among the alien crew were available.
    The deep sea otters’ city-ship must have been much faster than the
Piaf,
because it seemed to take them far less time to reach
Versailles Station
than when they’d traveled with Marmie on her ship.
    The station looked just as it had when they’d first arrived. Like the deep sea otters’ vessel, it had lights, but instead of swirling in spirals, they were gridded and symmetrical. They knew the top level was Marmie’s main home, with its comfortable mansion, adjustable climate, and the artificial river and pool she had installed just for them. It was hard to imagine going back there and seeing the place without Marmie, Pet, or Johnny.
    How are we going to dock?
Murel asked.
    We can’t dock in a dry place,
Mraka told her.
But our hunting device is actually a modified transport beam. We have reconfigured it to perform its original