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ice. No icerug was in sight, and soon the still-falling sleet and snow covered
the stiffening carcass.
On the way back, Deirdre's long sight glimpsed another large object
some distance away, and she hurried over to examine it. A little closer she
slowed down; the object was evidently another coelashark, but this one was in
poor condition.
"Must have been ejected a few weeks ago," thought Deirdre. "Decay is
advancing nicely." The body of the fish had softened in outline and looked
pulpy. There was a sort of greenish-brown, seaweed-colored pus oozing from
several places in the flesh, and only a biologist would have used the word
'nicely'. She looked at the spectacle with detached interest and curiosity,
and then the hair on the back of her neck tingled with the strangest of
thoughts; how, in this land of perpetual snow and frost, could the coelashark
be decaying? With scrupulous care, she collected a sample of the pus and a
portion of the less rotten flesh, and returned to the others. As they hurried
back to _Victoria_, she presented them with the question that was baffling
her: why was the coelashark decaying at all? The bits and pieces of the one
they had dissected were already freezing solid, but the isolated specimen she
had found, untouched for some time, was rotting. Cinnamon was as puzzled as
Deirdre by the phenomenon, but Katrina put it aside.
"We'll know a lot more when I can get these samples under the tunneling
array microscope," she assured them confidently. "We'll get all the answers
then."
Deirdre shook her head. "It's a touching faith you have, in your
equipment, Katrina. And terrible good it is, too, on showing us _what_. Yet
it's at a bit of a loss, is it not, at telling us _why_?"
David monitored their transfer through the airlock. Deirdre handed him
her collection of sample bags to store in the Christmas Branch's cold storage
container while she took off her exploration suit.
"This looks like a bag of gacky pus," remarked David, holding it up to
the light. "I've never seen an uglier color in my life."
"It _is_ pus," said Deirdre coolly. "And to a biologist, no color is
ugly."
* * * *
As the time for the expected largest eruption neared, the three biologists
talked with the flouwen about the advisability of another expedition to the
sea bottom.
"We'd like to have you watch the behavior of the coelasharks," said
Cinnamon. "To try to understand how many of them are affected by the worms and
commit suicide. The parasites can't make _all_ the coelasharks do it, or soon
there would be no hosts for future generations of worms. There must be some
coelasharks that are resistant and engage in reproductive behavior -- and the
time of the highest tides might be the trigger -- as it is for many ocean
dwellers on Earth. Perhaps you can catch them in the act."
"But it's really dangerous," worried Katrina. "The big coelasharks are
very strong, but _they_ get caught in those eruptions and killed."
*Coelasharks DUMB!* scoffed Little Red.
#Yes, they are,# agreed Little Purple. #Mean, and strong, but stupid.#
"You must keep in contact through the sonar-radio transponder link at
all times," insisted Katrina. "And take extremely good care not to get into a
battle with the coelasharks. Even if you didn't get hurt, it might distract
you from the danger of the eruption."
"Besides, you've a serious job to do down there," said Cinnamon
soothingly. "We want you to watch the coelasharks who _don't_ go near the
geyser, and see if any of them are pairing off, or chasing each other without
trying to bite, or producing eggs, or small replicas of themselves."
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The instructions and warnings continued all the time the flouwen were
suiting up. Thomas and Josephine had calculated that the Dragonfly had just
two hours to take the flouwen to the lake, put them in the water, and fly to
safety beyond the reach of this highest eruption.
Arielle was adamant about the timing of this mission: "Fish, rocks,
seaweed, all _kinds_ of junk fall out there! I not like dents in Dragonfly!"
The flight to the seashore was uneventful, and as the humans and flouwen
exited the airlock, they paused briefly, to look at the flat dark water. Its
surface was covered with brash ice, pocked with small irregular plates of
frozen sleet. A fine, powdery mist of ice-dust blew around them in the wind,
and when a small clot of the stuff hit the water, it melted slowly and
reluctantly. There was no fresh snow falling, just then, but the eruption
would change that. Still chattering cautions, Katrina helped the others ease
the flouwen into the sluggish water, while Shirley and Sam threw an expendable
sonar-radio transponder out into the lake.
"And mind you keep sending those reports! I want to hear your voices
every minute!"
*Tired of hearing _yours_,* said Little Red rudely, but Little White
said, ^We understand. Report begins when we get there,^ and Katrina was
satisfied with that.
The flouwen checked their communications link through the transponder,
and then headed for the depths. The humans reboarded the _Dragonfly_, which
headed off to a safe distance, with the biologists keeping contact with the
flouwen through the commsat link to the transponder.
* * * *
Back at _Victoria_, Richard suited up and went out across the basalt knob to
visit Pink-Orb, who had moved out near the knob to be closer to his human [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
