The Lazarus Effect

"We need him alive for the time being," Gallow said. "Get the Mute his medication."

Nakano went to a small storage locker in the rear wall and removed a pocket case of cured organics - dark brown and with a tie string closure.

Keel accepted the case thankfully, found a bitter green pill in it and gulped the pill dry. His intestines felt knotted and it would be long minutes before the pill brought relief, but just the knowledge that he had taken it removed some of the discomfort. Another remora, that was what he needed. But what was the use even of that? His rebellious body would only make short work of another remora. Shorter than the last, and the one before that. His first one had lasted thirty-six years. This last one, a month.

"You can always tell," Nakano said. "Someone who isn't bothered by dying, that one knows about the kelp."

With difficulty, Keel kept his face expressionless. What was the man saying?

"It wasn't something we could keep secret forever," Gallow said. "They contact the kelp, too."

Nakano looked piercingly at Keel. It was one of those looks that made a big man like Nakano swell even bigger. "How many of you know?" he asked.

Keel managed a noncommittal shrug, which irritated the seating of his brace.

"We'd have heard something before this if it was out," Gallow said. "Probably just a few of the top Mutes like this one know anything."

Keel stared speculatively from one Merman to the other. Something important to know about the kelp. What could that be? It had to do with dying. With contact with the kelp. Feeding their dead to the kelp?

"In a little while we'll go out and try to hear Zent's memories," Gallow said, a new and deeply reflective tone in his voice. "Then we may learn what happened to him."

Nakano, his voice more matter-of-fact, asked Keel: "How do you contact the kelp? Does the kelp answer every time?"

Keel pursed his lips in thought, delaying his response and gaining time. Talk to the kelp? He recalled what Ale and Panille had said about the Merman kelp project - teaching the kelp, assisting the spread of it under Pandora's universal sea.

"We have to actually touch the kelp," Nakano prompted.

"Of course," Keel snorted. And he thought, Hear Zent's memories? What was going on here? These violent men were suddenly revealing a mystical side that astonished the pragmatic Keel.

Gallow suddenly laughed. "You don't know any more about it than we do, Mute! The kelp takes your memories, even after you're dead. That's all any of us knows, but you Mutes didn't think about what that could mean."

Green Dashers are kelp food when they die, Keel thought. And somehow their memories can be read by the living - through the kelp. He recalled the odd stories out of human history on Pandora - dashers talking with human voices, a fully sentient kelp speaking to the minds of those who touched it. So it was true! And the kelp, genetically rebuilt from the genes carried in a few humans, was recovering that old skill. Did Ale know? And where was she?

Gallow glanced around the room and returned his attention to Keel. "Very pleasant, this cabin," he said. "Ryan Wang's gift to Kareen Ale - her personal foil. I think I'll keep it for my command center."

"Where is Kareen?" Keel asked.

"She's busy being a doctor," Gallow said. "Something she should stick to. Politics doesn't suit her. Maybe medicine doesn't, either. She didn't do much for Zent."

"Nobody could've saved Tso," Nakano said. "I want to know what got him. Does Vashon have a new defense weapon?" Nakano glared at Keel. "What about it, Mr. Justice?"

"What're you talking about? Defense against what?"

Gallow stepped closer. "Tso and two of our new recruits were given the simple task of sinking Vashon," Gallow said. "Tso returned dying and in a damaged sub. The two recruits were not with him."

Keel was a moment finding his voice, then: "You're monsters. You would scuttle thousands and thousands of lives -"

"What happened to our sub?" Gallow demanded. "The whole forward section - it looked as though it had been crushed by a fist."

"Vashon?" Keel whispered.

"Oh, it's still there," Gallow said. "Do I have to tell Nakano he must be more persuasive? Answer the question."

Keel drew in a deep, trembling breath and exhaled slowly. Here was why they kept him alive! Whatever had happened to the sub, he had no answer, but there was something he could do. Forward section crushed?

"So it worked," Keel said.

Both men glared at him. "What worked?" Gallow barked.

"Our cable trap," Keel bluffed.

"I thought so!" Nakano said.

"Tell us about this device," Gallow ordered.

"I'm no technic or engineer," Keel protested. He put a hand up. "I don't know how it's made."

"But you can tell us what you do know," Gallow said. "Or I will direct Nakano to cause you a great deal of pain."

Keel looked at Nakano's massive arms, those bulging muscles, the bull neck. None of that frightened him, and he knew that Nakano knew it. The reference to death earlier, it was a bond between them.

"All I know is it's organic and it works by compression," Keel said.

"Organic? Our sub has cutters and burners!" Gallow clearly did not believe him.

"It's like a net," Keel said, warming to his fiction. "Each surviving part can behave like the whole. And once it's inside your defenses where your cutters and burners can't reach it ..." Keel shrugged.

"Why would you make such a thing?" Gallow asked.

"Our Security people determined that we were hopelessly vulnerable to attack from below. Something had to be done. And we were right. Look what happened to Guemes. What almost happened to Vashon."

"Yes, look what happened to Guemes," Gallow said, smiling.

Monsters, Keel thought.

"Tso must've done some damage," Nakano said. "That's why Vashon's grounded."

Keel tried to speak past a pain in his throat. "Grounded?" His voice was a croak.

"On the bottom and abandoning its downcenter," Gallow said, showing obvious relish in his words. He reached out and tapped Nakano's arm. "Keep our guest company. I will go out and prepare to commune with Tso's kelp-spirit. See if the Mute here can tell us any way to improve our contact with the kelp."

Keel took a deep breath. His improvisation about a Vashon defense weapon had been accepted. It would make these monsters more cautious. It would give Vashon a breathing space - if the Island survived grounding. He took heart from the fact that Vashon had survived groundings in the distant past. There would be damage, though, and economic losses. Ballast pumps would be working frantically to lift and compress the bottom sections of the Island. Heavy equipment would be detached in its own floaters. Mermen would be called in for assistance.

Mermen! Would friends of these vermin be among those summoned for help? It could take days for Vashon to lift its enormous bulk and refloat. If no storm or wavewall came ...

I have to escape, Keel thought. My people have to know what I've learned. They need me.

Gallow had moved to the hatch, looking back thoughtfully at Nakano and the captive. He opened the hatch and stood there a moment, then: "Nakano, he has not given us every detail of their weapon. He has not told us how he communes with the kelp. There are things of value in his head. If he does not reveal them willingly, we will have to feed him to the kelp and hope to recover the information that way."

Nakano nodded, not looking at Gallow.

Gallow let himself out and sealed the hatch behind him.

"I can't protect you from him if he gets angry, Mr. Justice," Nakano said. His voice was casual, even friendly. "You had better sit down and tell me what you know. Would you like some more water? Sorry we don't have any boo, that would make things easier - more civilized."