Deluge Read Free Page B

all the time—or that’s what the stories say, at least.
    You do understand we’ll die if it doesn’t work?
Ronan asked.
I wouldn’t like to be the main late lamented character in the story you tell later about how it didn’t work after all.
    It is a slide,
Sky told him, his sleek body quivering with anticipation.
Slides always work.
    We have to try,
Murel decided.
We can’t come this far and then give up because we are too scared. Marmie may not be scared, but I bet the little kids from Halau are.
    Too bad Kushtaka doesn’t have a normal com system here that people could understand,
Ronan said.
We could just hail the station, tell them what’s happened, and go home.
    As they spoke, they were positioning themselves close to the pool of what looked like ordinary water. That was where the beam would start once Mraka and Puk activated it.
    The new ship is entering now,
Kushtaka told them.
This is the proper time. Mraka, Puk, now!
    The pool emptied into a swirling light-filled column that snaked past the hull of the other ship and into the station’s docking bay. It looked extremely insubstantial.
    Count to three,
Murel said.
    You going first or shall I?
Ronan asked.
    A sleek brown form shot past them both.
Hah!
Sky cried.
Good sliiiiide!
    Ready, set, go!
the twins said together, and jumped into the beam after him.
    It had its own gravity and its own temperature control, and was overall a much more complex instrument than the tame whirlpool it seemed back on Petaybee. It supported them until they slid onto the deck, wet from the beam, bumping up against Sky, who had slid to a stop next to an already docked shuttle.
    In the center of the bay, only one technician saw them as they flopped across the floor on flippers and belly to cover, where they could change into their dry suits.
    He blinked once, then was called to task by a coworker and returned his attention to helping the big ship dock.
    Peering around the docked shuttle, Murel saw Sky watching the big ship get berthed. Once more the little otter stood on his hind legs and did his cute back and forth examination of the people who had finally come to look at the adorable otter. He kept saying “Hah! Hah!”
    That was when the twins decided to run out into the bay yelling, “Sky! There he is! Bad otter, Sky, running away from us like that.”
    “You kids need to get yourselves and your animal out of here,” the bay chief told them, striding up. “This is no playground.”
    “We know that, sir. Sorry, sir.”
    “They got the otter, sir, but what about the seals?” the technician who had seen them asked.
    “What seals?” his boss demanded. “This is
Versailles Station,
Conrad. Not Sea World. Get a grip.”
    The chief walked away shaking his head over the way some people let their kids run wild, but Conrad watched Ronan and Murel suspiciously as Sky hopped onto Murel’s shoulder and they headed for the nearest com room to carry out their mission, rushing too fast to note the designation of the new ship or to see the first of the company brass disembark.

CHAPTER 3
    B Y THE TIME the
Piaf
docked at Gwinnet Incarceration Colony, the ship’s cat, Zuzu, and her mistress, Adrienne, had abandoned their attempts to have the cat act as morale officer for the Kanaka children trapped aboard the liner when the Company Corps impounded it.
    Zuzu liked the children and did not like to hear them cry, but she wanted to cry too, seeing the soldiers’ heavy boots stomp past and hearing them bark orders at her friends. She spent much of her time huddled beneath whatever bunk or chair Adrienne chose.
    When the ship docked and the soldiers clamped restraints on Adrienne’s hands and shackles on her feet before leading her and the other crew members away, Zuzu stayed huddled. A long time had passed without anyone returning before she crept out and slunk from one cabin to the next trying to find someone she knew.
    Only the lounge seemed to be occupied. The children were there, but