But they were too angry, too embittered by the growing turmoil of their world. They didn’t deign to respond to his Selkie entreaties in kind, but Y’lira Modan had deciphered enough of their own language by now to get a rough idea of their response. “They say we corrupt the sea by being here,” she told Ra-Havreii from her seat behind him in the gig, studying her tricorder. “They object to our fouling the sea with any more of our devices.”
He sighed. “Yes, I could’ve guessed that. The fact that our devices are more squale-friendly now hasn’t changed their opinions, has it?”
“Apparently not, sir.”
“Of course not,” he muttered. “They’ve made up their minds.” Tapping he combadge, he called Vale at the base. “Commander, we’re not getting anywhere here, and we don’t have time to keep going in circles. I say just deploy the first probe. At least we explained first, whether they listened or not. Once they sense the magnetic field healing and the biosphere calming down over the next few days, maybe they’ll realize we were telling the truth.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”came Vale’s voice.
“I think we’re beyond having the luxury of good ideas. It’s what we’ve got.”
“Strangely, I can live with that. Okay, we’re deploying the first probe.”
Naturally, it didn’t prove that easy. According to the reports Ra-Havreii received from the base camp, as soon as the probe was released from the floater island, sensors showed a pod of squales racing to intercept it. They must have been ready for this, since they managed to catch it within a minute and proceeded to carry it to a barren, dead floater islet on the outskirts of the cluster, pushing it up and out onto the surface.
“I think they’ve made their point,”Vale said. “So you’d better make ours again.”
Feeling set upon, Ra-Havreii tried again. He explained to them why the planet’s magnetic field was causing them discomfort and how the probes would repair the problem. He promised them that Titan’s crew would gladly leave their world alone once the balance had been restored. He offered them medical help to tend their wounds, assuring them that Titan’s medical facilities could provide treatments they would find miraculous. Oddly, Y’lira reported that they reacted to that with amusement.
Finally, he lost his patience. “The simple truth,” he intoned in awkward Selkie, “is that you can’t stop us. You can’t prevent all our probes from descending. And what do you plan to do with the ones you catch and hold on the surface? Everything on this world sinks eventually, you know!”
Y’lira stared at him. “Doctor, I’m unfamiliar with this style of diplomacy.”
So am I,he silently confessed. But he was fed up with catering to their technophobic superstition. “Just let us do this,” he told them. “You’re only hurting yourselves and wasting your effort by trying to stop us.”
“Uh…Doctor?”
“Don’t worry, Modan,” he said, switching back to Standard. “I know what I’m doing.”
“Doctor!” Y’lira shoved her tricorder in front of him. Its proximity scan showed several new shapes coming in from a distance. Several very large shapes.
“Doctor,”came Vale’s voice from the main base, “we’re detecting multiple large creatures moving in. Eviku says they’re the same armored things the squales used to destroy our warning klaxon before.”
“They’re moving in on us, too,” Ra-Havreii told her. “I think we’d better get out of here.”
“Agreed.”
But that was easier said than done. The gig was surrounded by squales on all sides, in the center of a circle some thirty meters wide. “Oh, no. What do we do?”
“Could we ram one of them?” Y’lira asked.
“They’re heavier than the gig. We’d come to a rather abrupt stop and end up either in the water or in the tentacles of the next squale over. And I’d rather not kill any of them while the others are in a surly enough mood to begin wi—” He broke off, gazing westward.
“Commander?” Y’lira said.
A large ocean swell, a good dozen meters high, was approaching the gig from beyond the circle of squales. “I think I see a way out. Brace yourself.”
The swell soon reached the circle of squales, lifting the ones on the western side higher and higher into the air. The squales took it in stride (or in stroke), remaining in formation despite the warping of the circle. But as soon as the crest of the swell had passed under the squales on the western edge, Ra-Havreii gunned the gig’s engine and drove west at maximum acceleration. The gig rose up the slanted surface, using it as a ramp, and shot into the air as it crested the swell. The gig’s arc carried it clear over the squales, though Ra-Havreii could swear he heard and felt a tentacle slap against the rear of the hull. After a stomach-wrenching moment in free fall, the gig splashed down hard. Ra-Havreii banged his elbow and his teeth slammed together painfully. But at least they were free of squale encirclement. Not letting up on the throttle, he veered on course for the main base. As much as he hated the floater island, it was the closest thing to a safe haven on this planet now.
Any further thoughts were driven from Ra-Havreii’s head by the immediate need to vomit. He managed to get his head over the side before it came, which was small comfort as his entire digestive tract seemed to be trying to force itself out through his mouth for a good minute to come. When his heaves became dry and finally subsided, he gasped in exhaustion for a while, then looked back and croaked, “There, you damned squid. How’s that for contaminating your precious ocean?”
But then the water bowed up around a large, dark form, and a sharp armored prow cleaved out through the middle of it, tentacles writhing beneath the bow wave as it drove toward the gig. Ra-Havreii instantly turned back to the controls and pushed the throttle to its limit. “Y’lira to Vale,” he heard the Selenean saying. “We need assistance.”