Humanx - Cachalot Part 47

he explained. "Brrotherrs and sisterrs patrrol much distance away in watch forr thhem. But it is good newws thhey giwe nowww."

Cora was angry that she hadn't thought to suggest such a lookout, consoled herself with the knowledge that her thoughts never took a military bent. Some- where behind all this, she thought furiously, lay minds as cold as they were efficient. It was harder to believe them cetacean than human.

Another vessel soon hove into sight: a long, sleek suprafoil. It was considerably larger than the ruined craft they waited on or the long-since sunken one that had carried them out from Mou'anui a short eternity ago.

They made preparations to meet it, moving the in-

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jured catchership alongside the catamaran. None of Hazaribagh's crew appeared to challenge them. They remained huddled below, mindful of Mataroreva's threat to unleash the orca pack against them a last

time. S The four anxious researchers and single survivor ( waited on the empty deck of the factory ship to greet

their rescuers.

Moving quickly up the ladder and the first man on deck from the larger foil was Yu Hwoshien, not the least embarra.s.sed at revealing most of his elderly form in a pair of swim briefs. His eyes swept the deck, not- ing the absence of any but the five survivors.

Somehow the absence of clothing on an individual Cora had come to think of as the epitome of dignity was more shocking than expected. Divested of his black uniform of office, he was at once more and less human than he had seemed back on Mou'anui.

A host of armed, grim men and women followed him onto the deck. Cora recognized none of them, but they greeted Sam with a mixture of relief and defer- ence. He directed them across the ship. The number of peaceforcers was sizable. No doubt additional as- sistance had been brought in for this rescue from other

sections of Cachalot.

While Sam was directing the counting and record- ing of the factory ship's sullen, disgruntled crew, Hwoshien joined the other survivors. His attention went first to the one person among them he had not

yet met.

"What of the town?" he asked Dawn simply.

She shook her head.

"You are the only survivor?"

"And that only because I wasn't in the town at the time it was attacked." She gestured limply to Cora and the others. "I was on the reef, guiding these peo- ple."

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"We know the first cause now," Cora said. Hwo- shien turned to her. "It's been baleen whales all along, at every town. They attack in military formations, as if they've been drilling for such a.s.saults all their lives, and after each attack they disperse and disappear."

"But we still have no idea why they're doing this,"

Merced picked up for her, "or if they're doing so on their own or under the direction of someone else."

Hwoshien put both hands behind his back, wan- dered to the railing that had not been flattened by whale weight. "Another town," he finally rumbled.

"Another population lost, more financial disruption and distress." He looked back at them. "The baleens are responsible, you say? That's bad. Very bad. We had already been told as much, but I wanted to be certain. Transmissions can be garbled and-" He stopped, breathed deeply. "Not that I doubted the source of the information, but I wanted to hear it di- rectly from you."

"How could you have been? . . ." Rachael looked surprised at her mother's forgetfulness. "Oh, of course.

Latehoht and Wenkoseemansa told you."

"The pair of orcas who operate with Sam, yes.

Since whales were involved, and since in a thousand years no human has harmed one of the Cetacea, we thought that despite the severity of the situation it would be best to have one cetacean inflict an injury on another, if any had to be injured at all.

"There are always several pods of orcas hanging around Mou'anui, waiting for the chance to play with or inspect or work together with people. Latehoht and Wenkosee-whatever his name is-put out a call as soon as they told us what had happened. Locals put out the greater call to others of their kind."

"What do you think would have happened,"

Merced asked curiously, "if they had found the town intact but still under siege by the baleens?"

"I don't know," the old man admitted. "While hu-

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CACHALOT.

mans and cetaceans no longer fight, the same is true ten times over for cetacean and cetacean. But even if they had elected, in such a case, not to interfere phys- ically, they still could have talked to their cousins more effectively than we."

"It's all so frustrating," Cora burst out. "You make a dent in the problem and it makes a bulge on the other side of the same problem."

Hwoshien had turned to inspect the piles of un- stored salvage on the factory ship's rear deck. "At least we know now what happened to so much of the valuable electronic equipment that disappeared from the area of the vanished towns. We suspected it had sunk into the abyss." He sniffed. "I would not expect such discrimination from people of this type, like this Hazaribagh."

"You know him, then?" Cora was surprised.

"Only by records and tapes. I recognized this ship readily enough. I know every ship and town on Cach- alot. It's my business to know their business. But I would never have suspected such a modest operator and his crew to be tied into anything so extreme. He is not controlling or operating with the baleens, then?"

Merced nodded. "That's what he's said. We haven't had the opportunity to discover whether he's been telling the truth, but according to what we've seen and what you've just said, I would tend to believe him. So extraordinary an enterprise seems utterly beyond his capability. He's an opportunist, not a genius."

"We concur, then," Hwoshien said, "though, like you, I'm certainly not going to leave the matter at Hazaribagh's word."

"If he's lying," Cora said, suddenly concerned, "and he is after all controlling the baleens in some fashion, it's possible that . . ." Her gaze traveled nerv- ously to the horizon.

"No, it's not." Mataroreva rejoined them, a beamer dangling from and almost lost in one huge hand.

203.

"Latehoht and Wenkoseemansa's friends and relatives are patrolling far enough out to warn us in plenty of time if a single whale comes within ten kilometers."

Cora relaxed only slightly. The dozen peaceforcers looked very competent as they wrist-sealed the crew.

But their suprafoil displayed only a single energy can- non at the bow. She doubted it would last very long under the a.s.sault of, say, twenty blue whales. The orcas were they best defense-a.s.suming they would actually interfere with an a.s.sault by their larger cous- ins. If not, she reminded herself, the suprafoil below could outpace the fastest whale in the sea. So they were fairly safe.

Or were they? They had learned much. But Vai'oire had thought itself safe, too.

Only one thing kept Cora from asking then and there for transfer back to Mou'anui. While her fear was enormous, her curiosity was greater. That was ever the case with the scientist in the field, whose courage was born of brain and not of brawn.

"If this Hazaribagh person was controlling or direct- ing the whales in any way, to any degree," Hwoshien was saying, "I should think we would have been at- tacked long before now."

"Yes, that makes sense," she agreed.

They followed the Commissioner of Cachalot as he walked over to confront Hazaribagh. The scav- enger looked even smaller with his head bowed and his wrists sealed together. The chemical handcuff could not be removed except by a special solvent.

The rest of his crew was similarly bound.

Hazaribagh looked up at Hwoshien, tried to a.s.sume an air of defiance.