Deluge Read Free Page A

function, so it can insert you into the station once the hatch is open.
    If we can get them to open the docking bay,
Ronan said. One thing that made this whole mission so awkward was that the city-vessel was truly
alien
in a galaxy whose people and technology all reflected post-Terran human colonization. The deep sea aliens couldn’t communicate with regular humans, and had no devices that would allow the twins to do so either.
    They are your species, are they not?
Kushtaka said.
Can you not speak to their minds and tell them you need access?
    We don’t do mind control,
Murel said indignantly.
We only use telepathy to talk to other creatures when we’re in seal form.
    You are now in seal form and they are certainly other creatures,
Kushtaka pointed out.
I see no problem.
    We haven’t tried to use telepathy with other humans except Da and sometimes Mum,
Ronan told her.
Usually we just talk to them. I suppose it’s worth a try, isn’t it, sis? If you and me and Sky and maybe even Kushtaka’s people focus on the idea of the hatch opening, maybe someone will decide it’s time for routine maintenance.
    Kushtaka’s people weren’t interested, however, and weren’t sure what was being asked of them. Ronan and Murel tried to concentrate, but it gave them a bit of a headache to try so hard to send to some unknown person over what was still a considerable distance, through the city’s force field and the space station’s hull.
    Sky sat on his hind legs, shifting his upper body from side to side as he peered at the closed hatch, watching it closely to make sure it didn’t open without him seeing it do so.
    I hope nobody sees us and decides we’re hostile and fires on us,
Murel said.
    I don’t think they have any long-range weapons on the station,
Ronan told her.
If they do, nobody mentioned it. And if they send a shuttle out to investigate, we may be able to use telepathy on whoever is aboard.
    Or wave at the robot cameras in a friendly fashion at least,
Murel said, flapping her flipper up and down.
Yoohoo, we’re sentient seals lost in space and could use a lift, thanks ever so much. I don’t see how we’re to manage this one.
    You need not concern yourselves over that,
Kushtaka told them.
We have been cloaked since we first approached. Unfortunately, this does make it difficult to convey to the space station that we require them to open their shell so we can deliver you. Perhaps if we could take you somewhere that had a sea like our own? We cannot linger here long.
    Alert!
The otter in the sursurvu announced to the city at large,
All personnel return to your duty stations. Another vessel approaches.
             
    I T PROVED TO be a large luxury liner, and it sailed right past the hovering home of the deep sea otters.
    They could not intercept the communications between the new ship and the space station, but as soon as the ship was in position to dock, the hatch opened to admit it. The city-vessel followed right on the liner’s tail, ready to insert the twins and Sky into the hatch with the whirlpool hunting/transport beam.
    Couldn’t you just zip past the other ship and enter ahead of it?
Murel asked nervously. The idea of riding the beam seemingly unprotected through open space alarmed her.
    There are several reasons why we cannot,
Kushtaka told her.
We would have to accelerate in order to pass the ship but would have insufficient time and space to decelerate for a safe landing. Even if that were not a problem, there is the difficulty that the ship might ram us or land on top of us, though we would have to decloak when we land. But last and most important, if we go inside the station with the large ship behind us, we will be trapped there. The beam is the only way we can effect your entry.
    But how can it work?
Murel wondered.
With no gravity or suits or anything? Won’t the water freeze in space?
    The beam was originally designed for space, as we told you, sister seal,
Puk assured her.
Our people use it