Humanx - Cachalot Part 51

Gradually the water calmed. The ship ceased rock- ing. Cora slipped her translator back on her head. "So the whales are apparently not responsible. Someone is directing them."

"Whoever it is can compel them to attack a town,"

Merced murmured thoughtfully, "but we can't compel a single one to explain his actions."

"I still don't see how you can compel something that weighs a hundred tons," Rachael insisted. "Let alone dozens of them."

Cora snapped at her without meaning to. "Thoughts don't weigh much. I think it's pretty clear we're up against some kind of mind control. Something that can force the cetaceans, but not people. Otherwise who- ever's behind this could simply direct the inhabitants of each town to blow themselves up. The Common- wealth watches anything having to do with central- nervous-system or mental-modulation research very tightly. But as isolated as the cetaceans have been in their mental development here, by their own choice -that would make them a perfect subject for anyone wishing to try out such a control system."

"Not only doesn't it affect humans," Merced ob- served, "I would guess it doesn't affect the toothed

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whales, either. Certainly not the orcas and the por- poises, probably not the catodons and their relatives."

"Not yet it doesn't," Cora said grimly. "Maybe it's not perfected yet. Maybe the catodons will be the next subjects, together with the orcas-and then us.

We can't break this precious Covenant, can't even chance it, but I can think of some that ought to be ready to risk it, for their own sakes."

"We can't," Mataroreva protested immediately.

"We tried it once and got nowhere."

"We know more now. I should think the catodons would be interested. They ought to be, if they know what's good for them."

"I keep telling you," he said tightly, "they don't think the way we do. No matter what we've learned, regardless of what we might say, they'll see it first and foremost as another attack on their privacy, on their thinking time. We might try another pod-"

Cora shook her head. "It has to be the same one we talked to before. We can't take the time to estab- lish a relationship with a new pod, even a.s.suming we could locate another one, and we can't take the time to go over old ground again. It has to be Lumpjaw's pod."

"They could consider a second attempt a provoca- tion," he warned her. "They as much as told us so."

"Do you have a better idea?"

"No, I don't have a better one!" he shouted angrily at her. "But I don't have any as dangerous, either!"

Legally they were now subject to local administra- tive directives. So the question was formally put to Hwoshien.

"Let us try it," he finally told them. "It offers us the best chance of obtaining a solution fast."

"It also offers the best chance of eliminating our now experienced research team," Mataroreva argued.

"If we get in among the herd and they then decide on a

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unified attack, we won't have a prayer of getting out alive."

"I am willing to trust the Covenant," Hwoshien re- plied. "I do not think they will break it this time merely to protect their right to privacy. And our new information may indeed, as Ms. Xamantina says, in- trigue them."

"There's no telling," Mataroreva muttered. "You know people, Yu. I know cetaceans. A group of peo- ple wouldn't react violently to the mild intrusion we plan, but we're dealing with different moral standards, with a different scale of values. I'm certain of nothing except the catodon's unpredictability. Maybe it's the smartest of the Cetacea, but it's also the most volatile."

"I have an obligation to protect the living,"

Hwoshien said firmly. "We not only require a solution to this, we require one now. I cannot risk another town in the name of caution." He adjusted his own trans- lator and walked to the railing.

"Wenkoseemansa-Latehoht-pack leader." Two familiar shapes instantly flanked the ship. They were soon joined by a larger third: Kinehahtoh. Hwoshien , explained what they wished of the orca's. When he had finished, Kinehahtoh spun distress in the water.

"Bad timing is thhis, a woefful prroposal you makke. Not at all goood. "Hs bitter to thhe taste of the packk.

"Like we not the catodons oven-much, like they us still less, and saltted is theirr irrritation with con- temmpt. But theirr dislike of us is as swweet schools of golden madandrra to the taste comparred with theirr dislike of hummans. Dangerrous, woefful dangerrous is this idea." He stopped spinning and splashing, gazed up at the humans lining the low rail.

"Knoww you thhat if the catodons choose to vent theirr discontent, wwe cannot prrotect you. Know you thhis welll Even did wwe wish to, wwe could not. Arre

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firrst among the Cetacea the catodons, whho alone in the sea arre strronger than the orrcas."

"We understand your position," Cora said, "but we have no choice. We've come to a dead end."

" 'Deadd end'?" a puzzled Kinehahtoh echoed.

"A place that cannot be swum through, like the bottom of the sea," Mataroreva explained helpfully.

"Awwwh. Underrstand wwe noww yourr posi- tionnn."

"Can you find them, then?" Mataroreva asked ex- pectantly. "The large pod we conversed with so many days ago?"

"Can find prrobably, cann overrtaaaake."

"Then do only that much for us," Hwoshien put in, "and the orcas are released at the moment of contact from any obligation to us." Mataroreva whirled on him, gaping.

"This Kinehahtoh has already restated their posi- tion, Sam. Close your mouth. There's no point in ask- ing them to risk their precious interspecies Covenant.

As he told us, the orcas couldn't protect us even if they wanted to. I don't want them holding any bad feelings against us if this doesn't work out." He turned back to the water.

"Take us to them. That will be sufficient. We will do our own talking."

"Fooolish thhing is thhis," Wenkoseemansa said, leaping clear of the surface and landing with a tremen- dous splash. "Fooolish. Arre therre not otherr ways, otherr means, to learm the answwerrs you requirre?"

But no one could think of any, though all tried as best they could as the suprafoil sped northwestward, following the pack of coursing black and white shapes.

By spreading out, the orcas were able to search a tremendous volume of ocean, backed by the long- ranging sonarizer of the suprafoil. Even so, they lo- cated the pod sooner than even Hwoshien might have hoped. The catodons could be leisurely travelers, often

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following schools of food rather than any straight course. Also, they' were hindered by the presence of many calves, which the hunting orca pack had left safely behind.

Cora, Hwoshien, Mataroreva, and Dawn moved to the bow of the ship as they neared the herd. Cora found herself wishing the other, younger woman had remained behind. She still had not accepted Dawn's insistent claim that she had no permanent designs on Sam, less so that Sam held no interest in her. Cora had too graphic a proof of the latter.

A call came to them from inside the cabin. "Twelve kilometers and closing."

"Thank you, Mr. Asamwe," Hwoshien replied crisply. His attention was also directed forward. "Yes, I can see the spouts." Cora strained, could make out nothing against the sea and sky. Whatever Hwoshien's age, there was nothing old about his eyes.

"I don't see them."