Bony was willing to make another bet. Even with the Mood Indigo hovering less than fifty meters away from them, neither Friday Indigo nor Liddy would be able to think of any way to help the stranded Pipe-Rillas.
But Bony could.
First, though, he needed to talk to them. Normally that would be trivial for two ships so close together, but here in Limbo’s ocean the surrounding water damped electromagnetic signals. It had to be a direct cable connect, or something much more old-fashioned: talking in person.
Bony’s arrival had not gone unnoticed. One of the suited human figures was waving, but whether in greeting or irritation Bony could not tell. The bubble people, showing more sense than the humans, had retreated to the other side of the Pipe-Rilla ship and were peeping cautiously around the hull. They had the right idea. Even with low thrust, the auxiliary drives would be dangerous if you got too close to the exhausts.
With that in mind, Bony took the Mood Indigo sideways, away from the other ship, until there was a clear two hundred meters between them. Then he killed all horizontal thrust and gradually decreased the vertical drive. The Mood Indigo made a smooth and sedate landing on the flat seabed. When Bony was sure that it stood in a stable position he cut all thrust.
He had not removed his suit since first lifting the ship away from the seabed. All he needed to do was snap the helmet into position and move to the airlock. The usual nervousness as he waited for the lock to cycle and lowered himself into the water was replaced by impatience.
The sea bottom was quite different here. The sharp but fragile spears that had surrounded the Mood Indigo at its original location were replaced by fleshy pink fingers that reached to waist height and beyond. Bony assumed at first that they were plants — except that as he moved they had the disconcerting habit of reaching toward him, touching his suit, then flinching away. He picked his way carefully through them, across a narrow level plain and then up and down a sudden and unexpected incline. The fingers touched him delicately, in unexpected places, but always quickly backed off.
Friday Indigo and Liddy Morse had turned away from the Pipe-Rilla ship and were waiting for him as he approached. Direct speech would serve when they were within a few feet of each other, and Indigo didn’t waste time in getting down to business.
He bellowed, “I thought I told you to stay with the ship.”
“I did stay with the ship. It’s right there.”
“But I meant — oh, what the hell. We couldn’t get sense from the bubble-brains, but they led us to this.” Indigo reached out to touch the hull of the Pipe-Rilla ship. At the same time, Liddy grabbed Bony’s arm and gave it a welcoming squeeze.
“Are they alive?” Bony asked. He had taken a quick look through the port of the ship, and seen only an inexplicable whirlwind of movement within.
“Oh, they’re alive all right.” Indigo sounded more irritated than pleased. Bony could see why. Living Pipe-Rillas meant that the Mood Indigo was not the first Stellar Group to contact the Limbics. Therefore, Friday Indigo would have no unique position in the history books.
“How many are on board?”
“How many?” Indigo’s face was hard to see through the suit visor, but his voice was puzzled. “How the hell should I know? I don’t see how you could count them even if you wanted to. Thousands, I guess.”
Bony, after his own moment of bewilderment, understood Indigo’s answer. It was not just Pipe-Rillas. There must also be a Tinker Composite on board. Bony had never actually seen one, but he definitely wanted to because he had read about them for over thirty years.
More than ever, he was curious to see the inside of the Pipe-Rilla ship. But his bright idea for getting the aliens in and out needed review. Just how did a Tinker deal with an airlock? It had to be in terms of the whole Composite because individual components were not intelligent until they clustered. What sort of suit was right for a being with no stable shape?
He didn’t have to be able to answer that question himself. All he had to do was arrange things so he could enter the ship. After that, the Tinkers themselves would tell him how they managed exit and entry.
He turned again to Friday Indigo. “I assume they can’t get out.”
“Of course they can’t. Look at the position of their airlocks. Open the outer hatch, the air in it will go right up to the surface and the lock will fill with water.”
“I can solve that problem.”
“I know, I know. The Pipe-Rilla and the Tinker Composite must have already thought of it, and so did I. Roll the ship using lateral thrustors, until the outer hatches are on the bottom of the locks. Only I dare not try it. The hull of their ship probably isn’t as strong as the Mood Indigo , and I don’t think it could take a roll.”
“That’s all right. We don’t need to move the ship. All we have to do is add an L-section beyond their outer hatch, a wide tube that makes an airtight seal with the hatch and then turns downward for a few meters. That way, air can’t escape when they open the hatch, and the level in the vertical section of the tube will just fall or rise to equalize pressures.”
“If that would work, wouldn’t they have thought of it themselves?”
“Maybe they did. But there’s no way they could do it from inside. And there’s no way we could do it, either, without the machine shop and materials on board the Mood Indigo .”
“You’re just trying to justify disobeying orders and flying my ship over here.”
“I thought it was the best thing to do. Anyway, should I try what I said and modify the lock on the alien ship?”
“Oh, go ahead.” Friday Indigo waved a hand in dismissal. “Do what you like. I’m not interested in engineering details. I’m going back to my ship. I have other ideas that I need to explore.”
“I’ll let you know when I’m done, sir, and you can operate their airlock.”
“Don’t bother. When I told you I was going first, I meant to meet new aliens, not the pain-in-the-ass Pipe-Rillas and Tinkers sitting inside that garbage can.”
Indigo plowed away across the seabed, stomping pink fingers underfoot and raising clouds of silt with every step.
Liddy stood close to Bony, waiting. When Indigo was safely out of range she said, “I’m really glad you came when you did. You should have heard him after the bubble people brought us here, and he realized that we weren’t the first. He was so pissed he was like a crazy man. I was afraid he’d try something terrible.”
“What could he do?”
“I don’t know. But if there were a way to kill everyone in the Pipe-Rilla ship, I suspect he would have done it.”
“Oh, I don’t believe that.”
“I’m sure you don’t. You’re too nice, Bony. But in my line of work I’ve tended to see men at their worst. Let me offer you a warning. Don’t ever get into a situation where being rid of you might be to Friday Indigo’s advantage.”
While they spoke, something had been happening at the port of the alien ship. Bony moved closer, and realized that he could no longer see the interior at all. The port was shrouded by a purple-black sheet. He pressed his face to the window and saw that the shroud was composed of a mosaic of wings, each about as long as his finger. It was components of the Tinker Composite, clustering.
Why would they do that?
To learn the answer, Bony would first have to find a way into the ship.