The Farpool (53 page)

“This argument is both curious and
troubling,” she began, twitching at Poklu. “We find no solution in
the pods that can be deciphered. That doesn’t mean Shooki has no
answer—only that he conceals it from us now. That is
Vish
. But Puk’lek is a different
matter. Here, the Voice is ambiguous, telling us in one instance
that she is to be feared and respected, a shield against the
intrusions of the aliens, and in the other instance, that she may
serve us in ways both great and small. There is room for either
interpretation. It’s clear, though, that what you desire, Kloosee
ank, does exist. The Voice speaks quietly and eloquently of the
value of maintaining
shoo’kel
. Your method, a way of talking and
persuading and convincing and even debating, the Voice is convinced
that this is the way. Understand me: the Voice is firm in saying
that no kel, nor single kelke, may possess what the Umans have.
That is
Vik’t
. But to engage
the aliens, to talk with them, offer help to them…this the Voice
finds appropriate.” This young
mekli
now darkened when she addressed Poklu and
the Ponkti contingent. “On the other hand, the Voice cannot allow
the waters to be disturbed. Poklu lin, what you do, though done
through bonding with your superiors, cannot continue. The Pillars
are for thought, reflection, tranquility. The Voice cannot be
misinterpreted on this: disturbances must be smoothed out, they
must be dampened out quickly…or no one will hear anything. Puk’lek
will have these kelke now—“she swept her armfins in an arc,
indicating all of the Ponkti captives.

Even before Poklu could respond, the
guards had moved in and thrown a large mesh netting over the group.
Someone shoved Chase out of the way…it was Kloosee, backing away
from the circle of
mekli
which now closed on the doomed Ponkti. There was a swirl of
thrashing and struggle but it was useless. Poklu fought briefly but
was stung into silence by a
mekli
who administered a sting from a small creature she kept in
her hands. The rest of the Ponkti glared out from behind the mesh,
sullen and grim. Guards secured the net and began hauling it toward
one of the translucent walls. Beyond and below them, at the foot of
the Pillar, seamothers trundled back and forth across the icescape,
butting heads, bellowing and honking, feeding, sensing a meal. A
light snow began to fall, softening the scene.

Chase hadn’t seen it before, but the
wall had a small hatch embedded in it. The guards positioned the
netting with all the Ponkti inside in front of the hatch. One of
the
mekli
came up and spoke
to the captives.

“Kesh, ke t’shoo’lee opmah…Tekmah puk’lek
vish tchuk’te.”

Chase’s echopod tried to translate.
“
Shhkkrreah
…judgment is
final…the seamother keeps our waters undisturbed.”

With that, the seams of the hatch split apart
and the hatch opened. Water flowed briskly into a small outchamber
beyond the wall, almost like a pouch made of rock. The guards
shoved the netting with the Ponkti inside through the hatch and
into the outchamber. Then the hatch was closed.

“What’s happening?” Chase whispered to
Kloosee, who waved him silent. Still mystified, Chase watched as
the
mekli
stuck her beak into
a round horn-like opening beside the hatch, whistling and clicking,
issuing some kind of strange commands.

At that moment, the outchamber opened to the
Notwater. The netting plummeted from view and slid down the outside
of the Pillar, rolling and tumbling and bouncing all the way down
to the ice below, directly into the gaping mouths and salivating
jaws of the seamothers gathered there.

The seamothers flailed and thrashed and
bellowed and churned almost as one in their efforts to consume this
unexpected dinner. Chase shuddered at the sounds issuing up from
the icecap…teeth clicking, claws slashing, cries and screams and
then…silence. Only the sounds of ravenous eating.

The seamothers had begun to consume the
doomed Ponkti.

The
mekli
turned back from the hatch. Her face was
sad, but set with a hard edge of determination. “So it is that
disturbing leads to disturbing.
Pak’to
Shooki is now satisfied.”

“Jeez, she killed them, dumped them right
into the seamothers’ mouths—“ Chase could hardly believe his eyes.
“Why did—“

Kloosee murmured to Chase quietly,
making sure to show only a pleasant demeanor to the
mekli
, “They violated the holy
waters by attacking us. They disturbed
shoo’kel
. Keep quiet,
eekoti
Chase—“

The
mekli
now took an interest in this unusual
creature of the Omtorish. She whipped her tail and came to float
directly in front of Chase, then reached out her arms and hands and
felt his face. “You are not Omtorish…tell me, talkative one, from
what kel do you come?”

Chase looked helplessly at Kloosee and Pakma.
He didn’t know what to say. Kloosee tried to intervene.

“He is
eekoti,
ke mekli
. Not of these waters. He visits us through
the Farpool. In fact, we were on our way to talk with the Tailless
People…their machine is destroying everything…even here, I see the
effects. We want to make an offer to the Umans…help them dismantle
and relocate their machine.”

This made the
mekli
sad. “This is true. Shooki tells us
that
ak’loosh
is coming. A
great wave will circle the world, and all will be destroyed.
Perhaps the Tailless are his instruments.”

Then Chase had an idea. “Hey, maybe
the
mekli
could help us. You
know, like talk with the Umans.”

The very mention of the aliens chilled
the waters in the Judging Chamber. All the
mekli
were too disciplined to react carelessly
but Kloosee sniffed a distinct odor of dismay at the
idea.

The younger
mekli
hissed at them. “Do not say this before
Shooki.” Her tail curled in scarcely controlled anger. “Shoo’kel is
the measure of all things. If the currents have brought us
visitors, then we are bound by the Voice to extend
Ke’shoo
to them…” she glanced back
at the walls, where below the carnage was continuing “…The Echopods
say that all intelligent beings are Seomish, that they are due our
respect, even our affection. Yet you speak to disrupt
this.”

“The
eekoti
wants only what’s best for the kels,”
Kloosee tried to explain, throwing a dark glance back at
Chase.
Keep quiet, my friend, before we
all get in trouble.
“He is Uman himself…we think he
can talk with them, explain to them why they must move their
machine.”

Now the older
mekli
weighed in. “It is the aliens who have
upset shoo’kel. Yet we are bound here to remain in serenity and
dignity. To venture into the Notwater…as you’ve described, to talk
with these Tailless People of the Notwater…no, that is proscribed
by Shooki. We’re all life-bound here, bound to serve the One Who
Makes the Currents Flow. To venture into the Notwater upsets the
balance. Yet, to stop these destructive effects, you say you must
venture into the Notwater…the Umans are creatures of the Notwater.
You would restore balance by upsetting it further…this is a
paradox, a flaw of logic. This reasoning is absurd, is it
not?”

Her words upset the other
mekli
and now they were divided on
whom and what to believe. One of them went to a niche in the floor
and put her head to it; inside, an Echopod murmured its recorded
wisdom. She manipulated the knob on the pod head, tuning it,
advancing it several tracks. Immediately, the tone of the Voice
shifted, fading to nearly inaudible sibilants. The other
mekli
detected the change and
crowded around the pod, straining to ferret meaning from the
sounds. They listened for a time, expressionless, then argued over
what they had heard. Other parts of the Voice rambled on,
discoursing on ethical problems and history, but the
mekli
ignored them. What they wished
to know was there, in that one pod, and they debated it for many
minutes.

Finally, the older
mekli
spoke to Kloosee and Pakma. “We are
troubled by all this, as you can see. But we should not detain you
any longer. The judging is done, Shoo’kel is maintained…serenity
for you and success in your journey. The guards will show you out.
We know that in his time,
pak’to
Shooki will tell us what he wants us to know. In the
meantime, we’re confident that Shooki is even now readying the
great
ak’loosh
, the great
wave that will re-make everything, change all the waters, destroy
all who bring disturbance. From this, in its time, new life will
grow.”

At a subtle signal from the
mekli
, the guards escorted Kloosee,
Chase and the entire Omtorish contingent back through the twisting
labyrinth of tunnels and caves, spiraling out and down and back to
the outer doors of the Pillars. The trip took an hour.

Outside, in numbing ice-flecked waters,
Kloosee was finally able to locate their small fleet of kip’ts,
strewn about on the seabed. Minor repairs were needed, some
adjustments made and provisions laid in from the rich
ertleg
beds that were abundantly
huddled around a hot vent a few beats away from the
Pillars.

The expedition got underway, somber at what
they had witnessed, grimly determined to reach Kinlok and present
an ultimatum to the Umans.

Chase wanted to talk, but both Kloosee and
Pakma seemed distant, even sad.

Jeez, just when I thought I had these guys
figured out…they talk about balance and tranquility and shoo’kel
and all that…but their form of justice is pretty harsh. Tulcheah
gets banished to the surface…the Ponkti thrown like meat scraps to
those serpents. Angie would probably throw up seeing all this…

Suddenly, Chase was overwhelmed with an
aching need to see Angie again. He knew the Farpool was near. Maybe
there was a way—

The expedition slowly but steadily made its
way on toward Kinlok, not sure of what they would find there…or
what really they could do.

Angie’s Journal: Echopod 4

“Well, so here I go again, Gwen…I’m trying
this echopod thing…I hope it’s working. Sometimes, this pod thing
goes haywire but I think I’ve got the hang of it.

“Oh, Gwen, you won’t believe what’s happened
to me. I came back. No, really, I did. I came back through that
Farpool…man, that’s better than Space Mountain. Definitely an
E-ticket ride. At least I made it.

“Only problem is I wound up
in the wrong ocean…and I have
no
idea what time this is…

“Oh, yeah…one other minor detail…I still look
like a frog on steroids. I hope we don’t run into each other.
You’ll faint dead away…these scales are worse than any acne we ever
had. But it is me…Angela Haley Gilliam.

“Once I landed or splashed down or whatever
you call it, I realized I didn’t know where the hell I was…I
managed to hook up with some whales…that was cool, and then I ran
into a whaling ship. They shot me, Gwen…some kind of stun gun or
something. I was their prize catch, can you believe that? Hauled me
onboard and I wound up in some aquarium…that’s justice for you…just
like Kloosee and Pakma…they’re our friends from Seome.

“So here I am, in a big pool in an aquarium
swimming around in circles….BORING. I wish Chase was here. He knows
everything…he’d know what to do. I tried to tell ‘em I was a human
being---just a real bad case of acne, but they shot me again…I
guess that’s what humans do when they find something they don’t
understand.

“Their stun guns make you sleep and make your
head hurt for like two days. I’m better now. But not really. I’m
stuck here. I have no idea how to get out or make them understand
me. Every time I try to talk, they shoot me. It’s like they don’t
want to know anymore…they made up their minds I’m a monster and
that’s that.

“Gwen, I don’t know if you’ll ever get these
messages. If there was a way I could drop this echopod off in the
ocean, you know like a bottle, maybe you’d get it.

“Hey, that gives me an idea…what if I
‘accidentally’ drop this pod thing on the side of the pool. Maybe
one of the staff here will see it and pick it up…maybe that’s how I
can communicate with them.

“Hey, thanks Gwen…I’ll get started right away
on putting together some kind of message…introduce myself and all.
Of course, who knows if they’ll believe me. I don’t believe me
myself…when you think about where Chase and me have been, what all
we’ve seen.

“By the way, I wonder how the boy genius is
doing…probably setting up a T-shirt shop on Seome…that would be
just like him…once a beach bum, always a beach bum.

“I do miss him though. Chase…I actually do
love you. I had to do this…wait, I’m talking to Gwen, not Chase.
Sorry about that.

“Gwen, if you get this
message, start googling all the aquariums. One of them has a new
star attraction. It’s
me
.