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"I can sometimes," Mary A
They're alive."
"By God," Sylvia said. "She's right. It means—"
Mary A
"They don't travel far from the water," Jerry added. "They'd cook themselves. We've seen how much heat their bodies give off when they're on speed. There's more than hope—as long as we don't panic."
We're a lot bigger than Joes. More meat.
"Now then," Zack said firmly, "it's time to make some decisions. If we're going to have any chance of surviving, we need total cooperation. We can do this, but only if we operate at peak efficiency. No holding back, no dissension. There's no time for that. First of all: Colonel Weyland will take charge of defense, and we're on a war footing. If you have any objections to that, make them now. Do I hear objections?"
"What do you mean, take charge?" Omar demanded.
"I mean, he says ‘Frog,' you jump first and ask how high afterwards,"
Zack said. "If you want justification, look in the contracts we all signed. It isn't even fine print. It says that in the event of a threat to Earth or the Colony as a whole the normal rules are suspended and the Administrator has plenary authority. Anyone still think we don't have a threat to the Colony?"
Someone smothered a lone giggle.
"So. You signed a contract that makes me God. I'm handing that to the archangel Cadma
"Thank you. People, this meeting is too large to get anything decided. Some things are obvious. We'll have to evacuate this place. As soon as you leave this meeting, go pack. Divide things: essential, important, frivolous, waste.
"Jerry, you're in charge of the technical stuff. Mary A
"Why your house?" someone demanded.
"It's the most defensible place on the island," Carlos said. "Cabron," he added softly so that only Cadma
"Stu Ellington takes charge of the Minervas. They're the most important things we've got. Stu, we'll need to work schedules, evacuation versus power requirements for the Colony, but the most important thing is that we don't risk one Minerva and for God's sake we never risk both."
"Right," Ellington said.
"We'll want power as long as possible, but the first threat to a
Minerva and that ship is off, " Cadma
"Whew. Right," Stu said. "That's not the most pleasant thought you ever gave me."
"Donovan. We'll need a communications link between the Bluff, the town, and Geographic. Maintain constant input from Geographic's telescope and the Skeeters."
"Got it."
"In your spare time, keep the Skeeters charged up, and on patrol.
Ferry the wrecked one off to the Bluff." Cadma
"Only one," Zack said. "I'll ask it for all of us. You're talking like we have to abandon the Colony. Are you sure of that?"
"Sure, no. But it's the way to bet it," Cadma
There was silence. They knew more now, and Cadma
Interesting, Cadma
"We don't have a lot, and the Minervas will need it. Containers.
Transportation. I like the notion, but there are problems."
"Think about it," Cadma
"Come on, citizens, they're only animals," Terry said. His hands were clenched, white-knuckled, on the wheelchair arms. He wants to be standing up, Cadma
Carolyn cried, "You can say that? You?"
"I'm not the first man in history to be mauled by an animal. We're still king of the beasts."
Good for Terry. Cadma
Jessica looked so terribly fragile. For an instant he recognized the very real possibility that nothing they did would be enough. That their defenses would crumble before an onslaught of grendels.
"As long as they don't chase us off the planet." Zack came back to the podium. "Cadma
Look, people, I know it's a shock—"
"Shock!" Jerry exploded in laughter. "Zack, how many shocks do we get?"
"Fortunately, this was the last," Zack assured them.
"Heard about Zacky's Comet?" Harry Siep called. "Boils the oceans every four hundred years. Oops, three ninety..."
Cadma
"That's better," Zack said. "We'll make it. Look, we all know this won't be cut and dried. So what? Before we left Earth we didn't know what we'd face. Now we know the worst, and it's not as bad as some of us thought it would be! They are just animals."
Carolyn giggled hysterically. Everyone could remember: Carolyn and four others standing outside the corrugated-metal building, four generic warriors firing into a single demon.
"We just have to trust each other. We're each proficient in at least two vital skills. Some of us can handle three or four. I expect you to keep a ru
"But get permission from Cadma
"Enough, then," Zack said. "Staff meeting in half an hour. The rest of you go pack."
Chapter 28
MARABUNTA
There's a price for too much arrogance, a price for too much greed, And in complacent ignorance we've sown the whirlwind seed!
DON SIMPSON, "Serpents Reach" (song)
Changes came with disorienting speed. Everything about the swimmer's new world was stimulation and strangeness.
There was a heat within its body. Its mouth ached. Its balance had changed, become awkward. Swimming was clumsier now.
There was nothing to eat. The green strands it had eaten all its life no longer smelled like food. In all of the swimmer's life it had thought of eating nothing else. The question had never even arisen. Now, confusingly, the flavor had gone flat.
The water itself had gone flat. Something was missing. Some feeling—powerful, dominant, a discomfort growing to panic and pain—was driving it out of the water.
It found itself trying to swim across mud.
The mud flat swarmed with its siblings.
It writhed in place. New muscles flexed and compressed, released, and fire flowed into its new lungs. The panic receded.
The fins which had grown clumsy now revealed new purpose. With great effort, what had been a swimmer thrust against the ground and rose up on unsteady legs, balancing. Its sides heaved, pulling air in and out. It looked at the world above the water.
This place was totally foreign to a swimmer's world of suspension, of placidity and constant pressure. Smells were different, weaker, stranger. Its tear ducts ran with oily fluid, keeping its eyes moist. It found the squeeze that would change its vision, and infinity jumped into its sight.