Journey Beyond the Sea - 5. Chapter 5

Vespris moved slowly through the water beneath darkening gray skies, her AI auto-navigation gear in charge of their course, her every sensor scanning the depths ahead and behind, as well as the air above. It was just before the evening meal, and two days since the attack near the pack ice.

The meeting room just behind the bridge was filled with the buzz of quiet conversation. That an announcement of importance was in the offing had been made plain. Master Terpin had promised to keep the crew of Vespris informed, and now Jem was certain that the mystery of the strange orx behavior was about to take a new turn. All members of the crew were present save for Til Majors, who was participating via the room's large display view from his bunk in the dispensary.

Master Terpin rose from his seat at the head of the table, and held up a hand. The conversations immediately quieted, and all eyes turned forward. Jem smiled. The master looked relaxed and in control, as always.

"I know everyone has been wondering what is happening with the orx. We've found ourselves squarely in the middle of a new and rather frightening show of aggression from a species we have hunted very safely for the best part of four lifetimes. It's a behavior that has puzzled and perturbed all of you - all of us - and which has given rise to much speculation."

Mister Sharples grunted, and patted the tabletop with one hand. "That's certainly an understatement."

People smiled and nodded, and Jem was right there with them. Nico, who sat beside him, leaned a shoulder against Jem's, and grinned at him when he turned to look, his mood quite plain to see within his sparkling eyes. Isn't this exciting!

Jem could only smile, and give a little sigh of happiness, and lean his own shoulder back. Yes!

Master Terpin 's eyes crinkled just barely, and he nodded again. "Mister Sharples expresses the mood of all of us very well. For the past two days, we have only been able to wonder, waiting on some real facts to be determined. Well, we are here now to discuss the recent events, and to lay out some of the new facts that have resulted from our investigations."

His gaze moved among them, almost as if he could look within their minds and see their thoughts. Not everyone had been thrilled with the decision to continue the voyage. But while some held the opinion that returning to Nocksic Bay would be the best course of action, no one would dream of doing more than making that opinion known. Nor would they ever dream of in any way acting to counter the success of the voyage and the safety of all aboard Vespris. Shipboard discipline was not something that was considered flexible by these people.

Master Terpin was the master, both under the law, and by mutual consent of those that worked and lived under his authority. His experience and his ability to make good decisions with the facts on hand had clearly been demonstrated over time, as well as his intuition on what to do and where to go when those facts were actually lacking. No one would ever consider placing their own doubts or fears ahead of their loyalty to that experience and judgment.

Humans on Benteen held know-how and ability in high regard, and the idea of cooperation for mutual survival was a matter held very closely to their hearts. Without such a mindset, the colony might not have made it on their own once contact had been lost with distant Earth. Certainly, Vespris would not hold the reputation she had, without the guiding hand of her master to take her there.

"I know you all want to hear what we have, so I'm going to turn the table over to Deera and Nita, and sit down like a good fellow, and listen along with the rest of you."

That produced more smiles, and then a sense of anticipation as the master sat down and those two rose to their feet. Everyone leaned forward just a bit as the two women traded glances, and Nita nodded to Deera to proceed. That woman gently cleared her throat, and gazed around at the rest of them.

"Nita and I have examined the five orx we have aboard. The two we captured first, and the three that remained on deck after the attack. As you all know by now, we discovered a strange life-form attached to the head of one of the orx we hunted, which had been pierced by a drogue lance and therefore anchored in place. We also found remains of identical creatures on the heads of the three orx that remained on or partially on deck after the battle, and which were harvested as a result. What you may not yet know is that we found markings on the head of the second hunted orx, which suggests to us that that orx had also born a rider quite recently."

Mya raised a hand. "Have you figured out what they are?"

Deera frowned. "Yes, and no. We'll get to that in a moment. What I wanted to say is that it would appear to us that the rider on the second orx we captured in the initial hunt simply dropped away after that orx was of no further use - after we had put capture lances into it. Had the rider on the first orx not been speared by the drogue shoot lance it probably would have done the same, leaving very little evidence that it had been there at all. Imperfections on orx hides are legion due to their combative lifestyles, and we tend to ignore anything that doesn't seem to be an actual puncture which might introduce bacteria to the layers beneath. The tendrils these riders use to anchor themselves and penetrate orx hides exude a kind of chemical binder that fuses cells and closes the wounds after retraction. They simply look like faint scars then, and are not particularly noticeable."

There was a grunt from the big display to one side of the room, which showed a bird's-eye view of Til, flat on his back in his bunk. "So these things could have been around for a while, and we just didn't know it?"

"Very possibly, yes." Deera laid a hand against her jaw, thinking. "I have added the rather unmistakable patterns that these penetrations leave behind to the data matrix, and my drones will look for them from now on. But my suspicion is that we're going to be seeing a lot more of them on other orx."

"Why?" Til demanded. "What are these things doing attached to the orx?"

Deera turned and looked at Nita, who frowned at the display. "Our best guess is that these riders are able to control the orx. As in direct them to their own ends."

The room was silent for a long moment. Jem simply stared along with the rest of them, floored by this revelation.

"You mean it controls their bodies?" Nico finally asked, looking horrified at the idea.

"Yes. These riders extrude a large number of filaments that not only serve to anchor them in place, but which also have the ability to penetrate both flesh and bone. They literally drill into the orx braincase, invade the motor centers of the orx brain, and take charge of the animal's movements."

Jem turned to look around the table, and found that everyone else was doing the same.

"How do they get there?" Til asked. "Sneaking up on an orx is not exactly easy, and that green blob didn't look like it could swim very well."

The biologist frowned. "The riders also propel themselves with a water jet. I am only guessing, but by their structures, I think they elongate in order to move through the water, and only return to a round state after they're attached."

Til grunted. "Still, getting close to an orx would not be easy. Those big eyes of theirs don't seem to miss much, and they hear everything that goes on around them for great distances."

"The riders may have a method that allows them to get close," Nita returned. "There are several organs within this creature that I still have not determined a function for. But one seems to empower a sort of biological transducer that looks very capable at emitting acoustic signals in the water. There have been studies of Benteen life that have found that many sea creatures here react to certain frequencies and tempos by relaxing, or even going to sleep. Many creatures respond to sound, both on land and in the sea. It's possible the riders have a little tune of some sort that relaxes orx, or even tranquilizes them, long enough for them to get close and attach."

Til made a frustrated sound. "Oh, come on. Music soothes the savage beast? That's a little old, isn't it?"

"Maybe. But it is quite demonstrable, scientifically, and the evidence here points to it as a distinct possibility."

Mya made a little startled sound. "Why haven't we ever heard of this before? Such sounds would certainly assist in the hunting of orx, don't you think?'

"Yes. But we have never had a live orx specimen long enough for these sorts of studies. The adults basically refuse to be captured alive, and the young do not survive long once removed from the care of their parents. Most orx habit studies have been conducted with remote observers, and physical studies by chemical and biological inspections of their bodies after death. Orx are just like all Benteen wildlife, in that they operate under the primary rule of trusting no one. Even well-disguised observer drones cannot get close to an orx for long. So it's not like we have ever been able to play classical music for an orx to see if they prefer concertos to chamber music."

That caused some more smiles, and a noticeable lessening of the tension in the room.

Nico shook his head though, and turned back to Nita. "So you're saying that it wasn't the orx that attacked us at all?"

"No. We were attacked by the riders, using the orx as mere weapons of destruction."

"Then the orx are not more intelligent than we suspected," Kel MacAfee blurted, sounding both surprised and relieved at the same time.

Nita shook her head. "No. We are not at war with the orx. But we are at war with someone else."

Mister Sharples smacked his hand down on the tabletop. "Oh, come now. Being attacked by a violent species and being at war are two entirely different things."

Pora Unguda, seated across from Jem, shook his head. "Hard to believe there has been an intelligent species here all along, and we are only just now meeting them."

Master Terpin, who had been listening to the back and forth quietly, now nodded at Nita. "Yes. How is it we have not encountered this species before?"

Deera and Nita looked at each other, and it was plain that the catch supervisor wanted Nita to be the one to voice the opinion on that.

Nita took a breath, and blew it out. "Well, I suspect we have not met these creatures before, because...because they were not here before now." She looked around at the people seated before her. "I am quite certain that these riders are not native to Benteen."

Jem sat back in his chair, along with everyone else.

It was Til Majors who spoke next: "You're saying that these are...aliens? That they've come here from another system, and have decided to make war on us, using orx? Isn't that a little farfetched?"

Master Terpin rubbed at his chin, his eyes on Nita. "You have something to back this up?"

"Yes, sir. The DNA of these riders is not native. And it would appear to be purposed."

"And that means?"

"It means that the DNA of riders was assembled to create one and only one life form, and that that DNA shares no similarities whatsoever with the DNA structures found on Benteen. Even the nitrogenous bases are different."

Master Terpin smiled. "And that means?"

Nita blinked. "Oh, I'm sorry." She also smiled. "Terrestrial life has only four nitrogenous bases that code DNA for all life on that planet, or two base pairs. Lined up in specific orders, they code for all twenty of the amino acids found on Earth. Benteen life uses the same four bases, and also creates twenty codons for amino acids. But only eighteen of these amino acids are the same as found in terrestrial life forms. Benteen life lacks two of the terrestrial components, and has two unique amino acids all its own, which is what led to the problems with humans surviving on a diet of entirely local flora and fauna."

Deera nodded. "Human colonists here have been altered to accommodate these differences." She laughed. "We're all aliens, as far as Earthers are concerned."

Mister Sharples frowned. "As an engineer, I understand some of the principles of building bio-structures to perform certain tasks. Some of the ship's systems use bioelectronic components, in fact." He shook his head. "That's a far cry from building a siffle from the ground up. Who possesses this sort of technology?"

"Earth, of course, though really only in the past. The Compact on the Right to Life restricts the creation of artificial lifeforms to microorganisms used in health and longevity technologies, and certain non-evolving organisms used in your very own bioelectronics."

"And you say that the DNA of these riders doesn't match either our own or that of Benteen life?"

Nita shook her head. "No. DNA is similar on all the worlds that humans have visited or colonized, but each world has its own variations. Some are slight, like Benteen, and others are more pronounced. The end result is the same - life - but that life is not all identical in construction. And, the evolutionary paths of each world are different, and those differences are reflected in the DNA. The base for this rider DNA, if we go as far as to assume that it is based on natural DNA from somewhere, at some point, would suggest another genetic line completely than any in my database. My database covers all seventeen worlds humans had cataloged at the time of the last ship from Earth." She rolled a shoulder, but looked firm in her judgment. "That suggests to me an origin on an as yet uncataloged world."

"You suppose that natural DNA was used as a base to build these riders?" Jem asked. "Like our genetic engineering people take the DNA of something that already exists, or several somethings that already exist, and blend it or reconstruct it to make something new?"

Nita grinned at him. "Exactly, although at this time these procedures are only used in the farming industry. All artificial bio-constructs ever created by humans have begun with basic terrestrial DNA, which is then blended or altered to create specific results. All terrestrial life shares common factors in their DNA, which has always suggested a common ancestor for all Earth life." She shook her head. "Rider DNA not only has a different base than terrestrial or Benteen DNA, it has almost no non-coding sequences to it. The DNA of most creatures includes a great deal of non-coding DNA, amassed during the course of evolution, but which is not necessarily needed in the current model. Rider DNA, after the base, codes only for exactly what you see, and nothing else. There are no apparent mutations of any kind to suggest a long-term evolutionary process. No substitutions, no deletions, no insertions. I compared the rider DNA from all four of the specimens we have on hand, and they are all identical, down to the last line. These are identical copies - clones, if you will - incorporating DNA whose sole purpose is to blueprint this very creature, and nothing else." She shook her head. "These riders are not natural beings at all. They're artificial. They're the results of specific genetic engineering, designed for the one purpose of doing just what they do. Controlling orx."

"So that means someone had to have made them," Til said, from his bed.

Everyone started talking at once, and Master Terpin listened to all of it for a moment before raising a hand. The room quieted, and everyone looked to him, even as his eyes appraised Nita Frees.

"So these riders are intelligent, or not?"

"I don't believe they are, no. Their brains are small, and seem designed for certain purposes that would preclude self-awareness. The riders appear to act as an interface - a receiver, if you will - for instructions sent to them from elsewhere."

The master actually smiled. "Like a remote control, for orx?"

Mister Sharples rolled his eyes. "And how, I ask, does it work? The thing would need to act as both transmitter and receiver, in order for someone else at another location to control them. An operator would need to see, as well as instruct."

Nita nodded. "Like I said before, I am still examining the various organs within the rider, some of which are like nothing I've ever seen. I think, however, from what I have discovered thus far, that there is an ability here to both send and receive data. Some of the rider's tendrils plug directly into the visual cortex of the orx brain. I can see no purpose for this other than to collect visual processing information."

Master Terpin leaned closer. "Could these riders have been created by humans?"

Nita looked at Deera, who just shrugged. "This is totally out of my knowledge sphere."

Nita nodded, and turned her eyes back to the master. "This is...radically different from anything I have ever heard of, Master Terpin. Human genetic engineering is well advanced, as we ourselves prove. Humans on Benteen have subtle alterations that allow us to process the different organic chemistry here and survive on it. Genetic flaws in the human line have more or less been eradicated over time, ridding the race of the maladies that nature once rather capriciously inflicted upon us. We all carry designer microorganisms in our bodies that bolster our health and longevity." She shook her head. "But designing a high-order living creature from the ground up...no one has done this in a very long time."

"The Compact on the Right to Life prohibits it," Moira Hata said. "Or, at least, it did on Earth."

"No colonist made these creatures," Nita insisted. "The DNA is not based on either terrestrial or local genomic structures. It is totally new to my experience, suggesting an origin that is also outside of my knowledge base. It is possible to synthesize new base pairs, and it's been done before, but only as additions to the two known base pairs, not entirely new models. For such technology to be developed here, without others becoming aware of it, is virtually impossible to believe. The support technologies alone would make such an effort highly visible."

Master Terpin watched her a moment longer, and then sat back in his chair and nodded. "That only leaves outsiders."

"You mean aliens," Til repeated, still sounding unready to believe just yet. "If these riders are just tools, someone has to be using them."

Nita licked her lips, and nodded. "It would not be the first time we've run across another intelligent species."

Mister Unguda chuckled. "It would be the first time we ran across one able to travel the stars. The small number of other intelligences we have met thus far have been quite behind us, technologically."

"I know. That does not mean that others do not exist, that are on a technological par with us...or even superior."

"Why?" Mila Stern asked. "Why would aliens come here and do this to us?"

"For the same reason we're here?" Jem wondered. "To colonize Benteen?"

Nico looked at him, and immediately nodded. "Maybe. Maybe they came here, hoping to find a world to place their people on. And they did. But they also found that someone had beaten them here first."

Mister Sharples grunted. "If humans happened on a new world, and found that others had beaten them to it, they would at least say hello before moving on. But they would move on, and find somewhere else to colonize."

"Maybe," Deera said. "And maybe not. Suppose the first human ship to come to Benteen had nowhere else to go? Suppose it had been a one-way trip for us, with no option to move on? What would we have done then?"

"It was a one-way trip, after the first two hundred years passed, anyway," Mya reminded. "Once the Righoff lines shifted, we were stuck here, and no one else could visit."

The room was silent at that, as everyone considered the idea.

"Could they have been here that long?" Jem asked, into the silence.

Master Terpin narrowed his eyes, and Mister Sharples leaned forward to stare at him. "For three centuries, ever since the Righoff lines shifted? That's a very long time to do nothing. Why wait all that time to act against us?"

Jem licked his lips. "If they got here just before the Righoff lines shifted, they might have been trapped here, just as we were. Maybe they were waiting, hoping the lines would shift back, or a new route could be found to leave here, or that help would come from home." Jem shrugged. "That hasn't happened, and now they're faced with having to remain here forever."

"I would watch for a while," Kel agreed, nodding at Jem. "See what the aliens were up to."

"Three centuries?" Mister Sharples repeated.

"Time spans are relative," Pora Unguda pointed out. "That's a long time for us. Almost two lifetimes. But aliens could be longer-lived than us."

"I would want to watch," Kel reiterated, nodding. "I'd want to see what the competition was like."

"And where they had located their colony," Mya added. "If it was somewhere other than where I wanted to locate mine, I would consider the idea that we could coexist."

Mila shook her head. "New Australia is the only continent on this planet where humans can survive."

Pora chuckled again. "So it would be a contest then, to see who would wind up with the available living room."

Master Terpin gently drummed his fingers on the tabletop. "There is something not right about that. If aliens wanted to take New Australia from us, why attack us at sea? Even if they intended to cut off part of our food supply, they would have to know we could still survive easily on what we produced and hunted on land." He frowned. "If they wanted us off New Australia, they would be trying to push us off from the land side, not the sea side."

"Maybe they want us out of the seas," Nico suggested. "Maybe they're sea life, and they want to colonize the oceans."

Master Terpin smiled. "A very good suggestion, Mister Cyrus. And it would account for the facts as we know them just now."

Pora turned to the master. "If they wanted to colonize the oceans, they could do that easily enough without ever coming into contact with us. This planet is seventy percent ocean."

Master Terpin nodded. "But most of that ocean is as unsafe as are most of the continents. The seas south of about fifty-five degrees north latitude are teeming with some very voracious, very unpleasant hunters. The southern polar waters are colder than what we have here, the southern polar ice cap is quite large, and there is comparatively little open sea to inhabit. The northern polar seas are much more friendly to life, with the orx being the top predator here. They're far from harmless, but they are nothing compared to the beasts that inhabit warmer waters."

Moira shook her head. "Well, if these aliens could make these riders to control the orx, couldn't they make something equivalent to control the predators down south?"

"Maybe, given time. Maybe they don't have that time." Master Terpin looked thoughtful. "Or, maybe these aliens cannot inhabit warmer waters. Perhaps the northern sea is just right for them."

"There's the other side of the planet," Moira pointed out. "The entire northern hemisphere above fifty-five degrees north latitude is pretty much vacant there."

"Yes, but the sea life there is also considerably different," Nita said. "The ecosystem around New Australia requires a sea environment close to land in order to thrive. The shallows play an important role here. The food chain in the other hemisphere lacks a lot of the basic creatures we find here, close to New Australia, that form the underpinnings of the food-chain. There is a consequent lack of many of the higher-order food fish in the other hemisphere as a result."

"This is all conjecture," Til argued. "We don't know that any of this is true yet."

"This is just a discussion, Til," Mya said quietly. "I know you're mad, and I know you're hurting. But just calm down, okay?"

The master nodded. "Agreed. This is a discussion, Mister Majors, an arena for ideas. And it has been a good one, thus far. All ideas are food for thought. Which ones we eventually dine upon remains to be seen."

Til gave a short laugh, which sounded somehow relieved. "Oh. In that case, I'll shut up and listen. I was just worried that we were making some snap decisions here." He sighed. "I guess the pain suppressors are making me stupid."

Master Terpin's eyes crinkled deeply, and he turned to Moira Hata. "How about that? Could the pain suppressors being used to make Mister Majors more comfortable also make him stupid?"

Moira grinned. "Well, not any more than usual."

Everyone laughed, and Til groaned over the com connection. "Oh, okay, I'm sorry. I hate being stuck in bed. I feel slightly more excitable just now than my normal calm, rugged demeanor usually allows."

The laughter repeated, and Master Terpin smiled at the display. "Think nothing of it, Til. You have certainly earned a right to be slightly cranky just now."

Mya brought her hands together, and gently applauded, and soon everyone at the table had joined in. In the display, Til looked embarrassed, and held up a hand and waved it at them. "I'm sure there's more to say, isn't there?"

Master Terpin nodded, and the room quieted again. "There has been some good thinking expressed here, yet other than the science related by Deera and Nita, we cannot as yet say how much of it is true. But we have looked at what we have, and laid out some options for thinking about how to deal with all this." The man gave a small sigh. "I still think our best course is to continue the hunt, and observe and explore as much as we can in the process." He looked around the table. "I want to lay out another thought for all of you to consider."

Mister Sharples grunted. "One more incredible thought certainly cannot hurt, after the previous fusillade." He patted the front of his uniform and allowed a small smile. "Are any holes showing?"

There was more laughter, and Master Terpin nodded. "I want everyone to consider this thought, based upon the possibility that there are aliens here, and that they have been using the orx against us offensively: What will be their next move, now that they have reason to suspect their presence here has been discovered? Had the attack at the pack ice gone as planned, Vespris may well have suffered the same fate as Chregar, leaving behind just another mystery. But we escaped, and if there are intelligent foes behind this, they will have to consider that we are now aware of them."

The master stood, and motioned to the chief engineer, and then to Mila Stern. "If you two would accompany me back to the bridge, I would like to discuss some things with you." Then he turned back to the table. "We all have some things to think about. We shall get together tomorrow and talk again."

He left, taking the two techs with him.

Nico immediately turned to Jem. "What do you think?"

Jem gave out a low whistle. "Too much, just now." He grinned, and patted his friend's shoulder. "Let's get some dinner, and then go back to the cabin and talk."

They stood together, and as they turned to go, Nico gave Jem a slight poke with his elbow. "Just talk?" he whispered.

Jem laughed. "Talk first, play later!"

* * * * * * *

Jem lay back in the sofa, Nico under one arm and resting against him. They had turned the sofa on its pivot so that it faced the transparent hull, and were watching the final moments of daylight as it faded away. Beyond the transparency a series of whitecaps paraded past, which had been growing in size for the last hour. Vespris moved noticeably upon them as she cut her way northwest, her bow rising and falling rhythmically. An announcement had been made that they were veering west to avoid the brunt of the storm that was generating these taller waves, but that moderate to rough seas could still be expected during the night.

Jem found the motion of the ship pleasant. Her stabilizers countered some of the agitation that otherwise might have become additive and caused the vessel to plunge about more in the sea, and the steady rhythm that did come through was slow enough to be very restful. Jem was tired after the long day. They'd had sonar contacts with orx twice after dinner, but the rough seas had decided Master Terpin on caution rather than action. Before the current situation had unfolded they would have gone after them; but the master now felt that hunting required a bit more of the advantage to be on their side, and so had passed on the opportunities. The lives and welfare of the crew came first in his mind, and the danger was now sufficient enough with possible alien invaders guiding the orx, without adding rough seas and high winds into the mix.

"It's a beautiful world we have here," Nico said softly, snuggling a little bit closer. "I've always known we had to watch out for the wildlife, but to think there may be some kind of strange new people here intent on taking Benteen away from us...it's scary."

Jem nodded, already having decided that if a fight was needed, he was up to the task. Earthers might have found Benteen's mysterious gray skies gloomy, and perhaps even depressing; but those that had been born on this world saw the beauty of another nature than that of the homeworld, one that had painted a tapestry equally beautiful to that of Earth, if perhaps in different ways. Beauty belonged to the one who claimed it, and what defined that term was as individual and varied as the human race itself.

Jem loved Benteen. It was home. And no one was going to take that away from him.

"I still hope we don't have to fight these people, if they really are here. I don't like the idea of killing people, no matter what they look like."

Nico nodded, and snuggled against him. "Me, either. Not without even knowing why they're attacking us, anyway." He sighed. "This isn't Marksman."

"No." Jem gave his friend a fond squeeze. "This voyage is turning out to be a lot more interesting than even I thought it would be. I wanted to come to sea to see more of the world, and what was in it." Jem laughed, and turned his head and kissed Nico just in front of his ear. "I wound up with you and aliens. What a great surprise!"

Nico laughed, too, and smiled at him. "Mmm. I know exactly what you mean. And my dad thought I was being silly, wanting to go to sea."

Jem pulled back and stared at the other boy. "He did?"

"Uh huh. He wants me to take over the family business one day. But I told him I wanted to go, and he just said, well, I might as well get it out of my system."

Jem smiled. "Is it out yet?"

Nico gave his head a little shake, and pushed his face into Jem's cheek. "Not even close."

Jem closed his eyes, and allowed Nico to nuzzle him. It was warm and pleasant, and he could feel the radiance of the other boy's fondness. How amazing that was, to meet someone new, and then to find them so special that just being close to them took on a completely new meaning. To feel the weight of their thoughts and their dreams, almost as much as his own. And to be so comfortable that no action was now too personal, no touch beyond welcome.

Jem sighed. "Everything about you is fascinating."

Nico gave a small laugh, and pushed closer. "Everything about you is wonderful."

Jem pulled back, and they grinned at each other. "Do you think we might fall in love?" Jem whispered..

Nico's grin widened. "We just might."

"Are you okay with that?"

Nico leaned forward and deposited a kiss to Jem's lips. "Yes."

They turned together, and watched the last of the daylight vanish. A new glow spilled down from above as the ship's deck lights came up, to accompany her running lights in advertising her presence there in the new darkness. There was no chance of collision, either with ice or another vessel, as the sensory array that Vespris carried was more than up to the task of keeping her safe. The added lights were a simple security measure, to provide a good view of the deck in every direction.

And...in Jem's mind, there was perhaps something of a dare in them, as well, and perhaps a warning, even. We know you're there. Better stay away!

"Do you think he's worried?" Nico asked then.

Jem knew exactly who his friend meant. "Not like you and I, maybe. But...yes, I think he's worried. Anything that affects his ship and his people is something I know he considers."

Nico gave his head a gentle shake. "He was scary, the first time I met him. He looks like he's a lot tougher than he is."

"He is tough," Jem returned, knowing it to be true. "He's just very decent beneath the tough."

The other boy's eyes filled with smiles. "That's a very good way of putting it, Jem. It's one of the reasons I like you."

Jem laughed. "Because of the way I talk?"

"No. Because you see the best parts of everyone around you."

Jem grinned, and dropped a hand and patted the crotch of Nico's sleep suit. "I wouldn't mind seeing this again."

The other boy's eyes danced with laughter. "Are you saying that's my best part?"

"Uh uh. But it's certainly one of your nicer parts."

Nico sighed softly, and ran a hand up Jem's thigh. "I'll share, if you will."

Jem leaned forward and offered a kiss. "It's a deal."

* * * * * * *

Later, they lay in Jem's bunk together and listened to the wind and the water as they joined together to batter the hull. The sea had gotten her back up now, and the ship's motion was quite pronounced as she rode the waves to their crests, and then descended into their troughs. The unique solidity of the ironwood hull made each rise and fall smooth and soundless, the stresses absorbed before they could be transmitted to the interior. Jem had seen ancient vids of ships on the seas of Old Earth, where storms such as this one caused the entire vessel to creak and groan. The idea that men would sail in such fragile containers made him shake his head with wonder. But then...the seas of Old Earth were several orders of magnitude safer than the seas of Benteen. To have a ship go down under you on the mother world was not necessarily the end.

And...Jem was not certain, but he thought that the steady rise and fall of Vespris felt to be lessening in pace. "The storm seems to be dying down."

"We're probably skirting the edge of it now," Nico guessed. "It's why we went west, remember?"

Jem reached over and activated the small display above the bunk, and asked for a map of their current position. It appeared, showing them now midway across the breadth of New Australia. "Wow. We're just north of the ironwood forests now."

Nico rolled onto his back and gazed upwards. He smiled, and squeezed Jem's hand beneath the light cover. "This is the farthest from home I've ever been."

"Oh, me, too. The most I have ever traveled inland from Nocksic Bay is about a hundred and fifty kilometers. After that, the mountains become too steep for the snow rig to climb. It's like a wall there, and it's justly called the Barrier. It stretches all the way across the corner of the continent." He laughed. "Without it, though, our little part of New Australia would be a lot less safe."

"I know. That mountain wall keeps the beasts of the inlands away from us, doesn't it?"

"Yes. That, and the cold. Those are even better than the walls the southern ports have built to shield themselves from the inland. Nocksic Bay and Port Kenney are the two safest towns on the continent, because the Barrier Range stands between their coastlines and the interior."

Nico frowned at the map, his eves moving as he took in the human settlements all along the coastline of the continent. "All the towns are open to attack from the sea, though. If these aliens had a mind to throw orx at the coast, they could come out of the water and into the towns without much trouble."

Jem imagined Nocksic Bay crawling with orx, and the picture that formed in his mind was not an encouraging one. "We'd survive, I think, though it wouldn't be pleasant. Orx are too big to get inside the buildings, and the way those are all built, there'd be no knocking them down, either. Everyone carries a sidearm, and we've already seen that we can take out an orx with one."

"Still scary to think about," Nico returned. He sighed. "My family is there."

"So is mine, although in the hills by the nearer mountains." Jem patted the other boy reassuringly. "We're not under attack there, so let's not start worrying."

"I'm still going to mention it at the next discussion. Someone needs to at least consider the idea of defending our towns if they're attacked."

Jem looked over at the chronometer. It was still only mid-evening. "I wonder if Nita has learned anything else?"

Nico shrugged. "Can't wait for the next discussion? Call her and ask."

"No. I know you're kidding, and I'm sure she's busy. She and Deera went off together after dinner. I'll bet they're still working."

Nico sighed. "Well, then...what do you feel like?" He waved at the big display in front of the sofa. "There's always Marksman."

Jem considered that, and shook his head. "Somehow, I've lost my desire to shoot at things right now."

The other boy sighed at that, and then nodded. "It's more fun when it's just a game."

Jem was about to reply to that when he heard a sudden commotion in the corridor outside their cabin. There was a loud bang, and then the sounds of several people talking.

"Something's up!" Jem threw the cover off them, and slid out of the bunk. He grabbed up a pair of shorts and stepped into them, and sensed Nico right behind him as they reached the door to their cabin and pulled it open.

Pora Unguda, Kel MacAfee, and Nita Frees were standing in the open doorway of the storage cabin - the one full of everyone's extra things. They were staring inward, and Pora was pointing at something inside the cabin.

"It's behind those stacked containers," the cargomaster was saying. "You'll have to go into the cabin to see it."

Jem and Nico joined them. Pora and Kel were also dressed for bed, but Nita still wore her working clothes, suggesting that she had only just returned.

"What's going on?" Jem asked.

Pora turned to look at them, and waved a hand into the storage cabin. "I came in here to get some of my things, and discovered something attached to the hull outside this cabin."

There was more sound behind them, and Master Terpin appeared, accompanied by Mister Sharples.

The master quickly noted who was present, and nodded at Mister Unguda. "What have you discovered?"

The cargomaster repeated his claim, that he had gone into the cabin to get something, and had discovered an unusual object attached to the hull outside. The storage cabin, like all the others, had a transparent section of hull serving as its outer wall. "It looks like it's attached by some kind of suckers."

Cabin doors opened across the corridor, and then Mila Stern and Mya Omari had joined them. "What's all the ruckus?" Mya asked.

"We're about to find out," Mister Sharples said, pushing his way past the others. He stepped into the cabin and peered at the outer wall. "Whereaway, Mister Unguda?"

"To your right, behind that stack of gray containers. You can see it in the light coming down from the deck."

The engineer grunted, and pushed his way into a narrow aisle between the indicated containers and something larger, covered in an opaque plastic wrap. They could see him look behind the containers, and for a moment he did nothing but stare. But then he looked over his shoulder, and gently bent a finger at the group. "Miss Frees? If you will."

Nita followed the engineer into the cabin, and he made room for her to get past him. The biologist also stared at something behind the containers, and then shook her head. "I'll be damned."

"Let's hope not," Master Terpin said drily. "What have we got?"

Nita squeezed past the engineer again, and came back to the group. "There's a green blob, very much like the riders that manipulated the orx, attached to the hull outside this cabin. But this is much larger, and has suckers at the base, and I think this is something else, altogether."

For a moment no one said anything.

"Why attach to the hull?" Mister Sharples said then, coming back to them. "It can't get through the ironwood, of that I am certain. What is it doing there?"

Nita frowned, obviously thinking about it. "At a guess...I would say its purpose is to observe us...or maybe even to track us."

Master Terpin watched her a moment, and then looked into the cabin. "Why there, then? It certainly cannot observe us from out on the hull."

"Maybe it listens. The hull will conduct sound. Or, maybe it's tracking us somehow." Nita shook her head, and then frowned again. "Although I still haven't figured out the communications angle yet." She looked into the cabin again, and nodded. "The best place for such a tracker would be underneath the ship, well out of sight. But, maybe...the seas were so rough in this storm...maybe they thought the thing would be dislodged by the wave action, and so they moved it temporarily up above the water line."

Master Terpin gave a soft grunt. "This is a best guess, correct?"

Nita smiled at him. "Certainly. For all I know, it's the alien equivalent of flowers, and it's a peace offering." She shrugged. "I'm trying to consider it as yet another device in a military strategy of some sort."

"A device?" Nico asked. "You mean it's a machine?"

"Maybe." Nita nodded. "These people apparently build biological devices just like we build inanimate machines to do our work for us. There has to be a purpose to this thing, a reason it is with us. Observation and tracking are the two most obvious."

"Why do you think it was moved, and not just placed in that spot originally?" Pora asked.

Nita turned her eyes to him. "It had to come from the water originally. Where it is now is well above the waterline." She smiled. "And while I was just looking at it, it appeared to be on its way back down the hull."

Master Terpin nodded. "You saw it moving just now?"

"Yes. The suckers are at the end of short pseudopods, which seem limitedly flexible. This thing cannot move quickly, but it can move." She looked at Pora. "It's really quite amazing that you chanced upon it when you did." She turned back to the engineer. "Mister Sharples, where is it now?"

That man turned and went back to the containers and looked behind them. "It's much lower now, almost down to the deck. It is moving downward, though slowly. Amazing."

Nita tapped a finger against her chin. "The seas have calmed a lot just in the past few minutes. It's probably safe for them to return the thing to below the waterline."

"We've reached the edge of the storm and are passing into calmer waters," the master agreed.

"What do we do about this?" Mister Sharples asked. "If it's a tracker, it needs to be removed."

"I agree." The master smiled at Nita. "It was fortunate that someone at Marine Biology saw fit to send you to accompany us. I am considering the idea that a full-time biologist might be an asset to have aboard."

The girl laughed. "I'm flattered that you think so." But then she frowned again. "The first thing to consider is that there might not be only one of them. We will need to inspect the hull carefully, from stem to stern. I think Deera's drones would be up to the task. But we'll need to reequip them before sending them down."

"They are already armed," the engineer pointed out. "No blob is going to get the better of a catch drone, believe me."

"I know. That's not what I had in mind." Nita turned to Master Terpin. "I'd like to capture this creature, if at all possible."

The master's craggy face did not move a single muscle as he considered that request. "You think it important to do so?"

"Yes. The more we learn about this technology, the better we will be able to deal with it. Capturing one of them alive would be a real boon to my studies."

"If this is some kind of spy, how does it communicate?" Kel asked, shaking his head. "There has to be some kind of two way transmissions, and the master has already had me search the entire spectrum of com frequencies. I couldn't find anything but human traffic."

Nita nodded. "That was a good idea, but I never suspected that these creatures were using radio frequencies to communicate. They must be using sound."

"Sound?" Jem asked. "As in talking?"

"Yes. Most life in the sea makes sounds of some kind. The ocean life of Benteen is incredibly diverse, and the water is simply teeming with sounds. So much so that humans have only recorded and studied a fraction of the sounds the native life here makes, in the five centuries we've been on this planet. The alien communications would scarcely stand out from such a voluminous background noise. What's several more sounds in the ocean?"

"Wouldn't that be slow?" Mya asked. "The speed of sound, even in water, is not very fast."

"Agreed. The speed of sound in water is four times faster than in air. I've examined the transducer on our original green blob, and just by its physical properties, have determined that it can easily emit and detect sounds as high as two-hundred kiloHertz. That's far above the human range of hearing, but well within the range of the sea life around us. Such frequencies are used by Benteen sea creatures primarily for echolocation, with communications frequencies running no higher than about half that. A rapidly modulated signal at seventy-five to a hundred kilohertz could quite easily transmit a lot of information back and forth. Also, emitting signals at one-hundred-fifty kilohertz or above as echolocation, and then analyzing the bounce-back, would allow riders to move about in the absence of sight. In case no one noticed, they have no eyes."

Mister Sharples nodded. "Yes, it's quite possible. There would be just one drawback to this method of communication: it's range would be very limited. The energy of high-frequency sound drops off fairly quickly in water, and especially in cold water. Given the limited power of a biological transducer, and the ability of water to bend and divert sound waves, I would say that a receiver would have to be no more than about a half-kilometer away."

Nita laughed. "That is exactly the problem I've been having with this whole thing. I can see the obvious physical means of communication, but I cannot see how it could be used at any distance. I initially considered the idea that they were using a string of such creatures, trailing out behind Vespris, each one receiving the broadcast and then passing it on, like relay stations. But there is no way that these creatures, with their water jets, could keep up with us under sail, let alone under steam."

Master Terpin looked slightly amused. "So where does that leave us?"

Nita sighed. "Back where we started." She shook her head. "I can account for the movements of eyeless riders by echolocation, but I cannot account for how they might communicate with their masters over distance. It is, as yet, a conundrum."

"And one we will not solve standing here, tonight." Master Terpin nodded. "This seems a task for daylight, if for no other reason than that we all need a good night's sleep. So we'll come to a stop in the morning, and send the drones down to see if we can capture this thing. Miss Frees, I would appreciate it if you would get together with Mister Sharples and Miss Stanper and see what modifications are needed for the drones. You can do that after first light, as I do not wish to halt Vespris until we are actually ready to proceed with the capture."

Nita nodded, and turned to the engineer. "If you have a few moments now, it's still fairly early. I only left Deera about a half hour ago, and she was still in the catch room. Maybe we can meet with her and decide what's needed tonight, and get right to it in the morning."

The engineer smiled. "First time I've been asked out in the evening by a lady in many a year."

Nita looked surprised, but then smiled. "I find that hard to believe."

They went off together, laughing, and Master Terpin gave a sigh. "I guess I'll turn in, then. First light comes early. Goodnight, all."

Jem doubted very much that the master would just head off to bed. But he and Nico returned the goodnight, and the rest of the group broke up then and started back to their cabins. Kel paused a moment beside them, and smiled at Jem. "Are we having fun yet?"

Jem laughed. "This voyage has far exceeded my wildest dreams!"

"Mine, too," the ordnance man admitted. "It's better than any adventure drama, I must say." He smiled at that, and then nodded. "Hey...maybe I can write an adventure novel based on our voyage." He winked. "I'll change the names, of course." He grinned at them, and started off, whistling.

Nico took Jem by the arm and led him back to their cabin. He closed the door, and put his back to it. "This just gets better and better!"

Jem laughed, and went to his friend and leaned up against him. "I can make it even better yet, if you want."

Nico looked surprised, but then excited. "So soon?"

Jem nodded. "Can you think of a better way to work off all the nervous energy we have, now that we know that alien invaders are spying on us? We'll never be able to sleep, otherwise."

Nico sighed, and offered his hand, to be led back to the bunk. "No. No, I can't."