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large and round, almost like a baby seal's. Drawing closer, the creature
gently nudged him.
"Air breather, friend?"
Startled, Mark could only swim down to look at the ladulta.
"Friend, airbreather kill Cresus?" Like a Tal, the ladulta was telepathically
communicating with him.
Smiling, Mark reached out to touch it.
"Friend," he thought, "never fight Cresus before. Will you help me?"
"Help good. I am Sul named; take hold my top fin. Cresus bad, kill our young,
try to smash cities of airbreathers. We teach them lesson today."
Tentatively, Mark grabbed Sul's dorsal fin and let the ladulta pull him back
to the surface. It came nearly out of the water, blowing air. Taking a throaty
breath through a breathing hole in the middle of its back, it dove slightly.
"Say, these things are like Tals!" Imada shouted.
"There's enough here for all of us," Tulana shouted, as the off-woriders
floundered around the water, getting oriented. "Trust their judgment; they
know this game better than you. We'll stick together as a group--if you get
separated from your ladulta, just call his name and keep calling it till he
picks you up."
"Worg, stay on the surface and direct the action up here. Mark and Ikawa, keep
track of your people and I'll call the commands in to you. Shift your crystals
accordingly."
The barrel-chested sorcerer mumbled a curse, but nodded in reply.
Tulana disappeared below the waves, then surfaced again. "I've got one. Follow
me."
"Hold tight," Sul commanded, and together he and Mark plunged beneath the
waves.
"Check in," Mark called through his comm crystal.
"Smithie here."
"Goldberg here. This is great, Captain."
"Walker. I don't like this underwater shit, captain."
"Kochanski here. Everything's all right."
"Kraut here. Captain, I'm sensing something really big up ahead--make that
two, no, four images forming."
Mark turned his attention forward and sensed a vast moving wall straight
ahead.
"Ikawa here. My people are all right."
"Hang on, my friend, something damn big ahead."
"I've got it, Mark." Sul surged forward with remarkable speed and Mark was
thrilled by this strange charge into the sea. Propelled by the ladulta's
powerful undulating action, Mark rode above the creature, hanging on with his
left hand so his right would be free to fire.
A dull flash lit the ocean ahead, followed an instant later by a deafening
roar.
"Tulana hit good," Sul whispered, and Mark could sense the delight in the
creature's thoughts.
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"I'm on to one," Tulana's voice roared through the crystal. "Close on me and
let's get him up."
Sul, as if having heard Tulana's voice, swam forward. In spite of the
shielding which protected Mark from the drag of the ocean, he found himself
struggling to hang on as the ladulta charged in.
Looking around, he could see the other ladultas closing in, each towing an
offworlder. More than one sorcerer was gripping his ride with both hands and
cursing wildly.
Suddenly the ocean before Mark turned a darker blue, and then went black.
"Hang on!" Sul called, and instantly he snapped over, diving straight down.
"Holy shit!" Walker screamed, and the comm crystal was suddenly overloaded
with shouts of panic, matched by Mark's own cry.
The ocean before him was a vast cavern of darkness half a hundred feet across,
surging in his direction.
The circle of darkness was rimmed with teeth, each of which was the size of a
man.
The darkness surged past, buffeting Sul and Mark. Behind the mouth was a great
dark bulk that seemed to stretch off into infinity.
Tulana appeared straight ahead, racing beside the creature. Turning, he swung
in next to Mark.
"I figured I'd stir him up for you first," Tulana roared. "It's just a little
one for you folks to break in on.
Now let's get him upset!"
"You crazy bastard," Mark yelled, but his words were drowned by the shouts of
his companions.
"Start fire," Sul whispered.
Mark pointed his hand at the massive bulk gliding above him and fired. His
shot was followed instantly by a score of others.
A deafening roar boomed through the ocean, and the Cresus kicked and rolled,
buffeting Mark and his ladulta.
"Again!" Tulana ordered.
Another volley laced out. Suddenly the creature's tail loomed straight ahead,
flukes slashing back and forth as the Cresus turned and started up.
"He's breaching!" Tulana shouted. "Everybody out of the water!"
Sul cut away from the Cresus and raced straight upward, rocketing past their
prey.
"Release," Sul called. "I wait in direction of sun."
Mark let go and, clearing the surface, he flew into the sky, blinded by the
afternoon glare. Around him the water seemed to explode as the offworlders
soared into the air. Several launches stood by not fifty yards away, their aft
catapults pointed to where the sorcerers had emerged.
"He's breaching," Tulana roared, exploding out of the water below Mark.
"Everyone get your asses
clear."
Directly beneath Mark the water suddenly turned black. A geyser exploded under
him, threatening to tumble him as he shot away.
And then the Cresus appeared.
The mouth, its teeth glinting wickedly in the sun, rose heavenward, higher and
higher into the air.
Transfixed, Mark floated above it.
Yet still it came upward--fifty feet, then a hundred feet, the water exploding
around it like a tidal wave.
A glint of light shot past, and the creature gave a bellow and seemed to rear
even higher.
Another glint, and a catapult bolt snapped past Mark to bury itself in the
creature's head.
A third bolt shot out, catching the creature in the middle of its body. A
geyser of hot blood sprayed the ocean in rivers of red.
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The Cresus shrieked and kicked, and then like a mountain it fell on its side.
As its body hit the water, a towering wall of water and foam kicked into the
air.
"Good shooting!" Tulana cried.
The Cresus rolled and kicked on the ocean's surface, while the three launches
crested the tidal wave and circled in, slamming three more shots into its
head.
Tulana soared to Mark's side. "Fun, isn't it?"
Stunned by what he had just witnessed, Mark just looked at the prince.
"Now let's go for a big one," Tulana yelled. Turning, he dove westward to
where the ladultas circled, waiting.
"Fun, he said," Walker called to Mark. "If I hadn't been swimming naked, I'd
still be cleaning the shit out of my pants."
"Well, let's get after them," Leti shouted, and Mark could see that she was
caught up in the excitement of the hunt.
"In and after them," Kochanski screamed, swinging in behind Tulana. "Thar she
blows!"
Shigeru roared with joy and dove past Mark. Finally caught up in the thrill of
the chase, Mark followed, plunging into the ocean and calling Sul's name.
Within seconds his companion appeared, joyfully spinning through the water in
a series of loops before coming up alongside Mark.
"Good kill," Sul called. "Now let's get big one!"
"Lead on!" Mark shouted.
As they dove, the world started to turn dark, the visible reds near the
surface shifting in the water through green and into an ever-darkening blue.
"I've got him," Tulana called through the comm crystal. "Tell your ladultas to
track on me!"
As Mark relayed the command, Sul made a sharp banking turn and raced away.
Mark turned his senses forward, probing, and picked up the images of Tulana
and Leti ahead of the group.
"Naga! It's him, damn it!" Tulana screamed.
The effect on the ladultas was electric: A series of throaty growls echoed
through the water in a strange harmonic chorus that shifted and wove itself in
a multivaried interplay of minor chords.
"What the hell is that?" Mark thought.
"Battle chant," Sul's thought returned. "Let Naga know we come, that we come
to kill. He take many young, many herd brothers, many mates. Now we fight
again."
"Thar she blows," Kochanski cried through the comm. "The damn thing's a
monster!"
Mark strained his attention forward, and suddenly the image formed. His first
instinct was to recoil, but the wild charge through the ocean and the ladultas
maddening song overcame him. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]