World of Water Read Free

maintaining depth.
    Some kind of swim bladder, he assumed. A gas-filled sac which expanded or contracted according to the ambient pressure, standard in most fish.
    His feet were webbed as well as his hands. Even the gentlest of kicks thrust him along faster than he would have expected. Hard kicks, coupled with arm-strokes, propelled him through the water like a torpedo.
    Somersault. Barrel roll. Pirouette. He was immensely agile in three dimensions.
    Dev the fish-man. Freaky, but he liked it. The bonuses outweighed the essential weirdness.
    Handler swam up beside him. Dev accessed the host form’s commplant in order to talk to him.
     
    Offline. No signal.
     
    He tried again but got the same error message.
    The commplant didn’t work underwater. It couldn’t get through to any of Triton’s telecommunications satellites or insites.
    So instead Dev shot Handler a big cheesy grin and gave him a thumbs-up.
    In response, a pulse of light rippled across Handler’s face, starting at the jawline and ending at the hairline. It was blue-green in colour, with hints of yellow at the edges.
    Bioluminescent display.
    Wonders would never cease.
    What surprised Dev most, however, was that he understood what it signified. It wasn’t simply a show of light; it had meaning.
    It was saying: See? Nothing to worry about.
    Dev nodded, then looked quizzically at Handler and gestured to his own face. The implication was obvious. Can I do that too?
    Colour swirled across Handler’s brow, more blue than green this time, stippled patterns interleaving.
    Of course you can , the ISS liaison was saying.
    Dev made an exaggerated shrug. How?
    Don’t think, just feel , was Handler’s bioluminescent reply.
    Dev frowned. It seemed easier said than done.
    There . Handler pointed to Dev’s face.
    Dev had been conscious of a slight tingle accompanying the frown, a sensation akin to blushing.
    Result , Handler said.
    Success made Dev exultant, and his face tingled again, more intensely now. He saw the glow of his own bioluminescence reflected in Handler’s eyes. It had a pinkish tinge.
    The lights were as much an expression of an inner state as a method of communication. Tap into whatever you were feeling and it would show on your face. Combine feelings and you could generate concepts, phrases, sentences, the subtleties of which were fleshed out by their context.
    It was a foreign language, but the easiest foreign language to learn, ever. You could translate it without effort, because the vocabulary was universal: emotions.
    Dev conveyed to Handler that he was pleased to have mastered his host form’s planet-specific adaptations, but now he was eager to head back to the surface and get on with his mission, whatever it might be.
    Handler’s answer was an incongruous flare of bright red with purple streaks.
    Alarm. Fear. Horror.
    The ISS liaison gesticulated.
    Something behind Dev.
    Dev spun round.
    A dark shape was moving through the water, ascending from below. With purpose.
    It was large, with a streamlined profile. A creature built for speed. For attack.
    An apex predator.
    And it was heading straight at them.

 
    5
     
     
    D EV FELT THE buffeting turbulence of frantic activity at his back. Handler, beating a hasty retreat.
    He followed suit, hardly needing to think about it. If Handler was scramming, so should he.
    They thrashed towards Tangaroa. Handler was the more adept swimmer, by far the quicker. He scooped his way through the water as though boring a tunnel for himself. Dev was lagging behind.
    He darted a glance over his shoulder. The predator was still in pursuit.
    He made out a tapered head, questing back and forth. Twin ridges of erect dorsal plates. Crocodile-like limbs. A mighty, sinuous tail.
    The beast seemed ancient, a reptilian thing from some long-gone geological epoch. Unchanged by evolution because it was fit for purpose already and could not be bettered. Perfectly suited for the catching and killing of prey.
    Teeth glinted like