Страница 20 из 107
She quickly stripped and stepped into the swimsuit. Then she stopped in front of a mirror and tugged at the strings until the bikini was comfortable. De
She tested the mirror with a smile. The image was instantly transformed. Strong white teeth brilliantly balanced her dark brown eyes.
She let it lapse. Dimples made her look younger, an effect to be avoided at all cost. She sighed and carefully pushed her jet black hair into a rubber diving cap.
Well, let's get this over with.
She checked the seals on her notecase and entered the lock. When she closed the i
De
Warm bubbling wetness climbed her legs. De
The mask worked. Of course, it always did. It felt like inhaling in a thick ocean mist, but there was enough air. A bit sheepish over her fearful little ritual, she stood up straight and waited for the water to rise over her head.
At last the door opened, and De
Usually one or two fen were in this outer dressing room, wriggling into or out of equipment. Puzzled by the emptiness, De
The great cylinder was only twenty meters across. The vista wasn't as impressive as the view from the hub of one of the space cities of Sol's asteroid belts. Still, whenever she entered the central bay, her first impression was one of vast and busy space. Long radial shafts stretched out from spine to cylinder wall, holding the ship rigid and carrying power to the stasis flanges. Between these columns were dolphin work areas, arrayed on supports of resilient mesh.
Dolphins, even the Tursiops amicus, didn't like being cooped up any more than they had to be. In space, the crew worked in the weightless ope
The bay shimmered with a barely suppressed effervescence. Here and there tiny streams of bubbles rose toward the curving ceiling. The waters of Kithrup were carefully filtered, solvents added, and oxygen forced in to make oxywater. Neo-dolphins had been gene-crafted to be able to breathe it, though they didn't enjoy it much.
De
Motion caught her eye. Above the five-meter span of the central spine, two dolphins and two humans swam rapidly toward the ship's bow. "Hey!" she shouted. "Wait for me!"
The facemask was supposed to focus and amplify the sound of her voice, but to De
The fen stopped at once. In unison they swooped about toward her. The two humans swam on for a few moments, then paused and looked about, moving their arms slowly. When they caught sight of De
"Hurry up, honored biologissst!" A large, charcoal-gray dolphin in heavy work harness swooped past De
De
A stocky black man gri
"Now, wouldn't we have heard alarms, then, if there'd been ETs cumin'?" The black man kidded her as they swam above the spine. Why Emerson D'Anite, with his dark coloration, chose at times to affect a burr was a secret which De
She was relieved to hear they weren't under attack, but if the Galactics weren't coming to get them yet, what was all the fuss?
"The prospecting party!" The fate of the lost patrol had completely slipped her mind, so caught up had she been in her own problems. "Gillian, have they come back? Have Toshio and Hikahi returned?"
The older woman swam with a reaching, long-limbed grace that De
"Yes De
De
Gillian Baskin didn't slacken her pace. She answered over her shoulder. "We aren't sure how… When Brookida made it back, he mentioned Phip-pit and Ssassia… and told the rescue party they'd probably find others beached or killed."
"Brookida… ?"
Emerson jogged her with his elbow. "And where have you been? It was a
"I… I must have been asleep at the time." De
Dr. Baskin had already pulled ahead with the two dolphins. She was almost as fast a swimmer as Tom Orley, and none of the other five humans aboard could keep up with her when she hurried.
De
Emerson quickly summarized the story Brookida had told — of a killer weed, of a burning, falling star cruiser, and of the savage waves that followed its crash, setting off the desperate cycle of rescue fever.
De
Emerson then told her the most recent rumors — about an island rescue during a midnight storm, and aboriginal tool users.
This time De
They now were only ten meters from a great open hatch at the bow end of the central bay. Through it came a cacophony of high squeakings and chitterings.
Emerson shrugged. The action shook a coating of bubbles from his shoulders and the rim-plates of his facemask. "De
From ahead there came a sudden, high-pitched whine of engines; then three white power sleds sped from the outlock hatch, single-file. They veered, one by one, around De