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submersible.
The star grew larger, split, subdivided into many different stars. All the
while it continued to grow, il-
luminating the darkness as it neared, growing massive beyond expectation,
beyond belief. It became so bright that they could see the last lingering sea
life race, terrified, past the windows of the submersible, their transparent
skins glassine envelopes holding
highly pressurized fluids and organs.
The huge bulk grew beyond imagination, beyond reasonable thought. Cora
wondered if Sam had been wrong, if they were being challenged by a machine,
albeit no submersible she had ever dreamed of.
But the instruments were not awed. They did not lie. If the object was a
machine, it was made not of metal or stelamic or duralloy but of flesh. As it
ap-
proached the final meters, it assumed some of the aspects of a machine. It was
easier to think of it that way; as a vast, organic machine. It was perfectly
spherical. Delicate fluttering cilia in the millions lined much of the
epidermis and propelled it rotiferlike through the water. The outer, jellylike
shell was per-
fectly transparent. Only its pale yellow glow revealed its presence.
Inside, they could make out a veritable metropolis of organs, immensely
complex structures that belied that outwardly simplistic shape. There were
growths moving freely in strange paths, others swinging like a pendulum, still
others rotating about one another or some unseen central axis. Each possessed
its own dis-
tinct color: faint pink, light green, purple, rose, and more. Most were light
pastels. Save for the purple, the only deep colors were occasional sparks of
crimson or orange that drifted around the multitude of other spe-
cialized internal structures like gem dust in a colloid.
The headache Cora had once experienced returned, stronger than ever. It
thudded remorselessly on her
CACHALOT 255
brain, threatening to pulp her skull. She fought back, determined that mere
bone would give way before consciousness again surrendered.
Outside floated something larger than any dozen whales, a ball of something
unknown that approached starship-size. It was bright as day around them, for
all that they hovered more than five and a half kilo-
meters below the surface.
Merced, studying readouts, swallowed and managed to say, "According to the
scanners, there are six of them out there. Of course, we can only see this
one."
The vast lagoon of Mou'anui could not have held the life that surrounded them.
Six creatures do not a galaxy make, Cora told herself, for all their size. She
found herself fascinated rather than fearful. Before her drifted the end
result of billions of years of coelen-
terate evolution, a collective organism of ummagined complexity.
On Terra similar creatures had developed spe-
cialized polyps to handle such tasks as digestion, re-
production, and feeding. Why not also polyps grown for mind control, or for
other unknown purposes?
For all its great size, the creature appeared limited in its locomotive
ability. It would need to evolve other means of defending itself. Terran
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coelenterates had developed specialized stinging cells to gather prey and
defend. What could be more efficient than the ability to simply order a
predator to look elsewhere?
But ignorant predators would be easy to dissuade.
Intelligent cetaceans would be more difficult to han-
dle. Very intelligent ones like the orcas and the cato-
dons might be impossible to control at all but short distances; and humankind,
uncontrollable except when dangerously near. An aroused or aware humankind,
such as Merced had been and they all were now, might prove uncontrollable
under any circumstances.
Somewhere within that line of thought, Cora sus-
pected, lay the reason behind the manipulation of the
256
CACHALOT
baleens and the destruction of the floating towns. She stared into the living
universe of organs. One of them, or perhaps many, must form the creature's
mind.
Then Rachael shrieked, Mataroreva cursed, and the submersible was tumbled over
and over as the creature bumped into it. A second came around from behind and
they began to squeeze. Mental control having apparently failed, they were
resorting to a far more basic method of attack. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]