“And the hostages?” Ponu queried.
“Only two are on board,” Ala said. “Arak and Sufa are still with the secondary humans. Ismael and Mary were left behind and are safe.”
“Excuse me,” Suzanne said, trying to get her attention. What she was hearing seemed impossible. With all the powers and technology she’d imagined the Interterrans to have at their disposal, her erstwhile colleagues had apparently gotten away!
“I believe we must now deal directly with these people,” Ala said, continuing to ignore Suzanne. “Too much is at stake.”
“I think we should send them back and be over with this problem,” one of the elders to Suzanne’s left said. Suzanne swung around to face the woman. In contrast to the speaker of the council, this elder appeared to be in her midtwenties.
“What do you mean send them back?” Suzanne asked incredulously. She felt that, with such a simple solution possible, it was no wonder none of the elders appeared particularly distraught by the developments.
“I agree we must send them back,” an elder on the opposite side of the room said, disregarding Suzanne. Suzanne turned to look at the speaker, a boy of five or six.
“Do we have general agreement?” Ala asked.
A murmur of assent rose up from all the elders.
“So be it,” Ala said. “We’ll send out a clone in a small intergalactic ship.”
“Tell them to use the lowest power possible on the grid,” Ponu said as Ala spoke briefly into her wrist communicator.
“Such an unfortunate episode,” one of the other elders said. “It is a tragedy, indeed.”
“They aren’t going to be hurt, are they?” Suzanne asked. She refused to give up and, to her surprise, Ala finally responded to this question.
“Are you asking about your friends?” Ala asked.
“Yes!” Suzanne said with vexation.
“No, they will not be hurt,” Ala said. “Just very surprised.”
“I think Arak and Sufa’s sacrifice should be publicly acknowledged,” Ponu said.
“With full honors,” the boy child said. There was another general murmur of assent.
“Won’t Arak and Sufa be sent back, too?” Suzanne questioned.
“Of course,” Ala said. “They will all be sent back.”
Suzanne looked from one elder to another. She was totally confused.
“I see light out the view port!” Perry said excitedly. They had been running for several hours with no conversation and with the instrument lights providing the only illumination. Everyone was exhausted.
“Me, too,” Richard said from the opposite side of the Oceanus.
“There better be light,” Donald said. “According to the gauge we’re at a depth of a hundred feet, and it’s dawn up there on the surface.”
“Sounds reassuring,” Perry said. “How much longer do you think?”
Donald glanced down at his sonar display. “I’ve been watching the bottom contours. I’d say in a couple of hours at most we’ll be within sight of the harbor islands off Boston.”
“All right!” Richard and Michael cried simultaneously. They high-fived across the narrow aisle.
“How much battery time do we have left?” Perry asked.
“That’s the only problem,” Donald said. “It’s going to be close. We may have to swim the last hundred yards.”
“That’s fine by me,” Harvey said. “I’d swim all the way to New York if I had to.”
“What about my armor?” Michael said, suddenly concerned about his booty.
“That’s your problem, sailor,” Donald said. “You’re the one who insisted on bringing it all.”
“I’ll give you a hand if you share it with me,” Richard offered.
“Screw you,” Michael said.
“No arguments!” Perry said emphatically.
They traveled in silence for several minutes until Arak spoke up. “You have your freedom from Interterra. Why did you take us, knowing what would happen to us?”
“Insurance,” Donald said. “I wanted to be certain there would be no interference by your Council of Elders once we’d left Barsama port.”
“You guys will also come in handy if anyone is foolish enough to doubt our story,” Richard said.
Michael let out a guffaw.
“But we shall perish,” Arak said.
“We’ll take you to Massachusetts General Hospital,” Donald said. He smiled wryly. “I happen to know they like challenges.”
“It would be to no avail,” Arak said glumly. “Your medicine is too primitive to help.”
“Well, it’s the best we can do,” Donald said. He started to say something else, but then stopped. His smile faded.
“What’s the matter?” Perry demanded. As tense as Perry was he was particularly sensitive to Donald’s expression.
“We’ve got something weird here,” Donald said. He reached out to adjust the sonar display.
“What is it?” Perry demanded.
“Check the sonar,” Donald said. “It looks as if something is pursuing us, and it is coming very rapidly.”
“How rapidly?” Perry asked.
“This can’t be true,” Donald said with growing urgency. “The instruments are telling me it’s going over a hundred knots underwater!” He whirled about to face Arak. “Is this thing for real, and if so, what the hell is it?”
“Probably an Interterran interplanetary ship,” Arak said, leaning forward to see the display.
“They still know you are aboard, don’t they?” Donald demanded.
“Certainly,” Arak said.
Donald swung back around to the controls. “I don’t like this,” he snapped. “I’m going to surface.”
“I don’t think we can,” Perry said. “It just got dark outside. It must be hovering directly over us.”
The submersible began to shake with a low-frequency vibration.
“Arak, what the hell are they doing?”
“I don’t know,” Arak said. “Maybe they are about to draw us up into their air lock.”
“Harvey, do you have any idea what’s going on?” Donald demanded.
“Not the slightest idea,” Harvey said. Like the others he was holding on to the sides of his seat to keep from being thrown out of it. The vibration was increasing.
Donald snatched the Luger and pointed it at Arak. “Contact these bastards and get them to stop whatever they are doing! If not, you are history.”
“Look,” Perry called out, pointing to the side-scan sonar display. “You can see an image of the craft. It looks like a double-layered saucer.”
“Oh, no!” Arak exclaimed when he saw the new image. “It’s not an interplanetary ship! It’s an intergalactic cruiser!”
“What difference does that make?” Donald yelled. The vibration had increased to the point that it was truly difficult to stay in their seats. The heavy steel hull of the submersible creaked and groaned under the stress.
“They are going to take us back!” Arak cried. “Sufa, they are going to take us back!”
“It is all they could do,” Sufa sobbed. “It’s all they could do.”
The vibration stopped with a jarring suddenness, but before anyone could respond, there was a tremendous upward acceleration. All the occupants were pressed into their seats with such force that, for the moment, they could not move or even breathe, and they were rapidly brought to the brink of unconsciousness. The inertial force was accompanied by a strange light that enveloped the submersible’s interior. In the next instant, everything reverted to normal except for a yaw, suggesting a wave action that wasn’t present earlier.
“My God!” Donald groaned. “What the hell happened?” He moved, but his limbs felt heavy and sluggish, as if the air had become viscous. But the effect lasted only until he’d flexed his joints several times. Then he felt normal. Instinctively, his eyes scanned the instruments. He was surprised to see they were reading normally. But then he glanced at the battery level. To his dismay, the gauge showed the batteries had been drained of what charge they had had, indicating the submersible was on the brink of losing power. Then he saw something else astonishing: they were in only fifty feet of water! No wonder they were being buffeted by waves.