Tsh't replied, "Dr. Makanee has pa.s.sed at least forty common varieties of local sea life as both tasty and nutritious, so long as we sssupplement with the right additives."

Still, Bulla-jo groused.

"Everyone favors the samples we got earlier, from the upper world of waves and open air. There are great schools of lovely things swimming around up-p there."

Then Bulla-jo lapsed into Trinary.

Where perfect sunshine Makes lively prey fish glitter As they flee from us! *

He concluded, "If you want fresh f-food, let us go to the surface, like you p-promised!"

Tsh't quashed an exasperated sigh over Bulla-jo's forgetfulness. In this early stage of their Uplift, neo-dolphins often perceived whatever they chose, ignoring contradictions.

J do it myself, now and then.

She tried cultivating patience, as Creideiki used to teach.

"Dr. Baskin canceled plans to send more parties to the sunlit surface," she told Bulla-jo, whose speckled flanks and short beak revealed ancestry from the stenos dolphin line. "Did it escape your notice that gravitic emissions have been detected, cruising above this deep fissure? Or that someone has been dropping sonic charges, seeking to find usss?"

Bulla-jo lowered his rostrum in an att.i.tude of obstinate insolence. "We can g-go naked . . . carry no tools the eatees could detect-ct."

Tsh't marveled at such single-minded thinking.

"That might work if the gravities were far away, say in orbit, or pa.s.sing by at high alt.i.tude. But once they know our rough location they can cruise low and slow, ssseeking the radiochemical spoor of molecules in our very blood. Surface-swimming fins would give us away."

Irony was a bittersweet taste to Tsh't, for she knew something she had no intention of sharing with Bulla-jo. They are going to detect us, no matter how many precautions Gillian orders.

To the frustrated crew member, she had only soothing words.

"Just float loose for a while longer, will you, Bulla-jo? I, too, would love to chase silvery fish through warm waters. All may be resolved sh-shortly."

Grumpy, but mollified, the messmate saluted by clapping his pectoral fins and swimming back to duty . . . though Tsh't knew the crisis would recur. Dolphins disliked being so far from sunlight, or from the tide's cycloid rub against sh.o.r.e. Tursiops weren't meant to dwell so deep, where pressurized sound waves carried in odd, disturbing ways.

It is the realm of Physeter, sperm whale, great-browed messenger of the ancient dream G.o.ds, who dives to wrestle great-armed demons.

The abyss was where hopes and nightmares from past, present, and future drifted to form dark sediments-a place best left to sleeping things.

We neo-fins are superst.i.tious at heart. But what can you expect, having humans as our beloved patrons? Humans, who are themselves wolflings, primitive by the standards of a billion-year-old culture.

This she pondered while inhaling deeply, filling her gill lungs with the air-charged fluid, oxy-water, that filled most of Streaker's residential pa.s.sages-a genetically improvised manner of breathing that nourished, but never comfortably. One more reason many of the crew yearned for the clean, bright world above.

Turning toward the Streaker's bridge, she thrust powerfully through the fizzing liquid, leaving clouds of effervescence behind her driving flukes. Each bubble gave off a faint pop! as it hiccuped into existence, or merged back into supercharged solution. Sometimes the combined susurration sounded like elfin applause-or derisive laughter-following her all over the ship.

At least I don't fool myself, she thought. I do all right. Gillian says so, and puts her trust in me. But I know I'm not meant for command.

Tsh't had never expected such duty when Streaker blasted out of Earth orbit, refurbished for use by a neodolphin crew. Back then-over two years ago, by shipclock time-Tsh't had been only a junior lieutenant, a distant fifth in line from Captain Creideiki. And it was common knowledge that Tom Orley and Gillian Baskin could step in if the need seemed urgent ... as Gillian eventually did, during the crisis on Kithrup.

Tsh't didn't resent that human intervention. In arranging an escape from the Kithrup trap, Tom and Gillian pulled off a miracle, even if it led to the lovers' separation.

Wasn't that the job of human leaders and heroes? To intercede when a crisis might overwhelm their clients?

But where do we turn when matters get too awful even for humans to handle?

Galactic tradition adhered to a firm-some said oppressive-hierarchy of debts and obligations. A client race to its patron. That patron to its sapience benefactor . . . and so on, tracing the great chain of uplift all the way back to the legendary Progenitors. The same chain of duty underlay the reaction of some fanatical clans on hearing news of Streaker's discovery-a fleet of derelict ships with ancient, venerated markings.

But the pyramid of devotion had positive aspects. The uplift cascade meant each new species got help crossing the dire gap dividing mere animals from starfaring citizens. And if your sponsors lacked answers, they might ask their patrons. And so on.

Gillian had tried appealing to this system, taking Streaker from Kithrup to Oakka, the green world, seeking counsel from impartial savants of the Navigation Inst.i.tute. Failing there, she next sought help in the Fractal Orb-that huge icy place, a giant snowflake that spanned a solar system's width-hoping the venerable beings who dwelled there might offer wise detachment, or at least refuge.

It wasn't Dr. Baskin's fault that neither gamble paid off very well. She had the right general idea, Tsh't mused. But Gillian remains blind to the obvious.

Who is most likely to help, when you're in trouble and a lynch mob is baying at your tail?

The courts?

Scholars at some university?

Or your own family?

Tsh't never dared suggest her idea aloud. Like Tom Orley, Gillian took pride in the romantic image of upstart Earthclan, alone against the universe. Tsh't knew the answer would be no.

So, rather than flout a direct order, Tsh't had quietly put her own plan into effect, just before Streaker made her getaway from the Fractal System.

What else could I do, with Streaker pursued by horrid fleets, our best crew members gone, and Earth under siege? Our Tymbrimi friends can barely help even themselves. Meanwhile, the Galactic Inst.i.tutes have been corrupted and the Old Ones lied to us.

We had no choice.

. . . I had no choice . . .

It was hard concealing things, especially from someone who knew dolphins as well as Gillian. For weeks since Streaker arrived here, Tsh't half hoped her disobedience would come to nought.

Then the detection officer reported gravitic traces. Starcraft engines, entering Jijo s.p.a.ce.

So, they came after all, she had thought, hearing the news, concealing satisfaction while her crew mates expressed noisy chagrin, bemoaning that they now seemed cornered by relentless enemies on a forlorn world.

Tsh't wanted to tell them the truth, but dared not. That good news must wait.

Ifni grant that I was right.

Tsh't paused outside the bridge, filling her gene-altered lungs with oxy-water. Enriching her blood to think clearly before setting in motion the next phase of her plan.

There is just one true option for a client race, when your beloved patrons seem overwhelmed, and all other choices are cut off.

May the G.o.ds of Earth's ancient ocean know and understand what I've done.

And what I may yet have to do.

Sooners Nelo ONCE, A BUYUR URBAN CENTER STRETCHED BEtween two rivers, from the Roney all the way to the faroff Bibur.

Now the towers were long gone, sc.r.a.ped and hauled away to distant seas. In their place, spiky ferns and cloudlike voow trees studded a mora.s.s of mud and oily water. Mule-spider vines laced a few rounded hummocks remaining from the great city, but even those tendrils were now faded, their part in the demolition nearly done.

To Nelo, this was wasteland, rich in life but useless to any of the Six Races, except perhaps as a traeki vacation resort.

What am I doing here? he wondered. I should he back in Dolo, tending my mill, not prowling through a swamp, keeping a crazy woman company.

Behind Nelo, hoonish sailors cursed low, expressive rumblings, resentful over having to pole through a wretched bog. The proper time for gleaning was at the start of the dry season, when citizens in high-riding boats took turns sifting the marsh for Buyur relics missed by the patient mule beast. Now, with rainstorms due any day, conditions were miserable for exploring. The muddy channels were shallow, yet the danger of a flash flood was very real. Nelo faced the elderly woman who sat in a wheelchair near the bow, peering past obscuring trees with a rewq over her eyes.

"The crew ain't happy, Sage Foo," he told her. "They'd rather we waited till it's safe."

Ariana Foo answered without turning from her search. "Oh, what a great idea. Four months or more we'd sit around while the swamp fills, channels shift, and the thing we seek gets buried in muck. Of course, by then the information would be too late to do any good."

Nelo shrugged. The woman was retired now. She had no official powers. But as former High Sage for all humans on Jijo, Ariana had moral authority to ask anything she wanted-including having Nelo leave his beloved paper mill next to broad Dolo Dam, accompanying her on this absurd search.

Not that there was much to do at the mill, he knew. With commerce spoiled by panic over those wretched starsbips, no one seems interested in buying large orders.

"Now is the best time," Ariana went on. "Late in dry season, with water levels low, and the foliage drooping, we get maximum visibility."

Nelo took her word. With most young men and women away on militia duties, it was mostly adolescents and oldtimers who got drafted into the search party. Anyway, Nelo's daughter had -been among the first to find the Stranger from s.p.a.ce in this very region several months ago, during a routine gleaning trip. And he owed Ariana for bringing word about Sara and the boys-that they were all I right, when last she heard. Sage Foo had spent time with Nelo's daughter, accompanying Sara from Tarek Town to the Biblos Archive.

He felt another droplet strike his cheek . . . the tenth since they left the river, plunging into this endless slough. He held his hand under a murky sky and prayed the real downpours would hold off for a few more days.

Then let it come down! The lake is low. We need water pressure for the wheel, or else I'll have to shut down the mill for lack of power.

His thoughts turned to business-the buying and gathering of recycled cloth from all six races. The pulping and sifting. The pressing, drying, and selling of fine sheets that his family had been known for ever since humans brought the blessing of paper to Jijo.

A blessing that some called a curse. That radical view now claimed support from simple villagers, panicked by the looming end of days- A shout boomed from above.

"There!" A wiry young hoon perched high on the mast, pointing. "Hr-r ... It must be the Stranger's ship. I told you this had to be the place!"

Wyhuph-eihugo had accompanied Sara on that fateful gleaning trip-a duty required of all citizens. Lacking a male's throat sac, she nevertheless umbled with some verve, proud of her navigation.

At last! Nelo thought. Now Ariana can make her sketches, and we can leave this awful place. The crisscrossing mule cables made him nervous. Their boat's obsidiantipped prow had no trouble slicing through the desiccated vines. Still it felt as if they were worming deeper into some fiendish trap.

Ariana muttered something. Nelo turned, blinking.

"What did you say?"

The old woman pointed ahead, her eyes glittering with curiosity.

"I don't see any soot!"

"So?"

"The Stranger was burned. His clothes were ashen tatters. We thought his ship must have come down in flames-perhaps after battling other aliens high over Jijo. But look. Do you see any trace of conflagration?"

The boat worked around a final voow grove, revealing a rounded metal capsule on the other side, gleaming amid a nest of shattered branches. The sole opening resembled the splayed petals of a flower, rather than a door or hatch. The arrival of this intruder had cut a swathe of devastation stretching to the northwest. Several swamp hummocks were split by the straight gouge, only partly softened by regrown vegetation.

Nelo had some experience as a surveyor, so he helped take sightings to get the ship's overall dimensions. It was small-no larger than this hoonish boat, in fact-certainly no majestic cruiser like the one that clove the sky over Dolo Town, sending its citizens into hysteria. The rounded flanks reminded Nelo of a natural teardrop, more than anything sapient-made.

Two pinpoints of moisture dotted his cheek and forehead. Another struck the back of his hand. In the distance, Nelo heard a sharp rumble of thunder.

"Hurry closer!" Ariana urged, flipping open her sketchpad.

Murmuring unhappily, the hoons leaned on their poles and oars to comply.

Nelo stared at the alien craft, but all he could think was dross. When Sixers went gleaning through Buyur sites, one aim was to seek items that might be useful for a time, in a home or workshop. But useful or not, everything eventually went into ribboned caskets to be sent on to the Great Midden. Thus colonists imagined they were helping cleanse Jijo-perhaps doing more good than harm to their adopted world.

"Ifni!" Nelo sighed under his breath, staring at the vehicle that brought the Stranger hurtling out of s.p.a.ce. It might be tiny for a starship, but it looked hard as blazes to move by hand.

"We'll be in for a h.e.l.l of a job draggin' this thing out of here, let alone gettin' it down to sea."

Again, off to the south, the sound of thunder boomed. from the too-timid Poa, completing the final stages of our Uplift.

Those same Oailie who designed new master rings to focus and bind our natures.

Without rings like Me, how could our race ever have become great and feared among the Five Galaxies?

AND YET, even as I learn to integrate your many little selves into our new whole, I am struck by how vivid are these older drippings that I find lining our inner core! Drippings that date from before My fusion with your aged pile of rings. How l.u.s.trous clear these memories seem, despite their counterpointing harmonies. I confess, existence had intensity and verve when you,we were merely Asx.

PERHAPS this surprise comes because I,Myself am so young, only recently drawn from the side of our Ship Commander-from that great one's very own ring-of-embryos.

Yes, that is a high heritage. So imagine the surprise of finding Myself in this situation! Designed for duties in the dominion caste, I am wedded, for pragmatic reasons, to a haphazard heap of rustic toruses, ill educated and filled with bizarre, primitive notions. I have been charged to make the best of things until some later time, when surgery-of-reconfiguration can be performed- AH. THAT DRAWS A REACTION FROM SOME OF YOU? Our second ring of cognition, in particular, finds this notion disturbing.

Fear not, My rings! Accept these jolts of painful love soothing, to remind you of your place-which is not to question, only to serve. Be a.s.sured that the procedure I refer to is now quite advanced among the mighty Jophur. When a ring is removed for rea.s.sembly in a new stack, often as many as half of the other leftover components can be recovered and reused as well! Of course, most of you are elderly, and the priests may decide you carry other-race contaminations, preventing incorporation into new mounds. But accept this pledge. When the time comes, I, your beloved master ring, shall very likely make the transition in good health, and take fond memories of our a.s.sociation to My glorious new stack.

I know this fact will bring you all great satisfaction, contemplating it within our common core.

wasx WE JOPHUR ARE TAUGHT THAT IT IS TERRIBLE TO BE traeki-a stack lacking any central self. Doomed to a splintered life of vagueness and blurry placidity. ALL SING PRAISES to the mighty Oailie, who took over PATHEDRAL-LIKE STILLNESS FILLED THE BOO Forest-a dense expanse of gray-green columns, towering Uto support the sky. Each majestic trunk had a girth like the carapace of a five-clawed qheuen. Some stretched as high as the Stone Roof of Biblos.

Now I know how an insect feels, scuttling under a sea of pampas gra.s.s.

Hiking along a narrow lane amid the giant pillars, Lark often could reach out his arms and brush two giant stems at the same time. Only his militia sergeant seemed immune to a sense of confinement infecting travelers in this strange place of vertical perspectives. Other guards expressed edginess with darting eyes that glanced worriedly down crooked aisles at half-hidden shadows.

"How far is it to Dooden Mesa?" Ling asked, tugging the straps of her leather backpack. Perspiration glistened down her neck to dampen the Jijoan homespun jerkin she wore. The effect was not as provocative as Lark recalled from their old survey trips together, when the sheer fabric of a Danik jumpsuit sometimes clung to her biosculpted figure in breathtaking ways.

Anyway, I can't afford that, now that I'm a sage. The promotion brought only unpleasant responsibilities.

"I never took this shortcut before," Lark answered, although he and Uthen used to roam these mountains in search of data for their book. There were other paths around the mountain, and the wheeled g'Keks nominally in charge of this domain could hardly be expected to do upkeep on such a rough trail. "My best guess is we'll make it in two miduras. Want to rest?"

Ling pushed sodden strands from her eyes. "No. Let's keep going."

The former gene raider seemed acutely aware of Jeni Shen, the diminutive sergeant, whose corded arms cradled her crossbow like a beloved child. Jeni glanced frequently at Ling with hunter's eyes, as if speculating which vital organ might make a good target. Anyone could sense throbbing enmity between the two women-and that Ling would rather die than show weakness before the militia scout.

Lark found one thing convenient about their antagonism. It helped divert Ling's ire away from him, especially after the way he earlier used logic to slash her beloved Rothen G.o.ds. Since then, the alien biologist had been civil, but kept to herself in brooding silence.

No one likes to have their most basic a.s.sumptions knocked from under them-especially by a primitive savage.

Lark blew air through his cheeks-the hoonish version of a shrug.