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unobstructed.
Sleds coming, Dan! Three of them.
His voice said something she didn t catch. Off to the right, less than half a
mile away, the black hull of the Parahuan command ship lifted glistening from
the sea. Rounded back of a giant sea beast. Nile tried to speak again and
couldn t.
Wind roar and sea thunder rolled about her. Out of the west, knifing lightly
through the waves like creatures of air, the three sleds came racing in line
on their cannon drives. On the foredeck of the one in the lead, the massive
ugly snouts of spaceguns swiveled toward the Parahuan ship, already a third
clear of the water and rising steadily. Pale beams winked into existence
between the sled s guns and the ship, changed to spouts of smashing green fire
where they touched the dark hull.
The following sleds swung left, curving in; there were spaceguns there too,
and the guns were in action. About the spaceship the ocean exploded in steam.
Green fire glared through it. A ragged, continuous thundering rolled over
Nile. The ship kept lifting. The sleds beams clung. There was no return fire.
Perhaps the first lash of the beams had sealed the ship s gunports. It surged
heavily clear of the sea, fled straight up into the sky with an enormous
howling, steam and water cascading back from it. The beams lifted with it,
then winked out in turn, ceasing their thunder.
Nile s ears still rang with the din. Lying back in the water, she watched the
ship dwindle in a brilliant blue sky.
Run, Palachs, run!
But see, it s too late!
Two thin fire lines converged in the blue on the shrinking dot of the Parahuan
ship. Then a new sun blazed in white fury where the dot had been. The fire
lines curved away, vanished.
Federation warships had come hunting out of space. . . .
She swung about in the water, saw a section of a broken floatwood bough twenty
feet away, caught it and clambered aboard. A wave lifted the bough as she came
to her feet, sent it rushing south. Nile rode it, balanced against a spur,
gaze sweeping the sea . . . a world of brilliance, of dazzling flashes, of
racing wind and tumbling whitecaps. Laughter began to surge in her, a bubbling
release. One of the great sleds knifed past, not a hundred yards away, rushing
on humming drives toward the island. A formation of CA patrol cars swept above
it, ports open. Jet chutists would spill from the ports in minutes to start
cleaning the abandoned children of Porad Anz from the floatwood.
Details might vary considerably. But as morning rolled around the world, this
was the scene that was being repeated now wherever floatwood drifts rode the
ocean currents. The human demon was awake and snarling on Nandy-Cline. . . .
Nile
Dan! Where are you?
On the surface. just spotted you. Look southwest. The aircar s registering.
Dr. Cay s all right. . . .
Flick of guilt
I forgot all about Ticos!
Her eyes searched, halted on a swell. There he was.
She flung up an arm and waved, saw Parrol return the salute. Then she cut in
the rig, dived from the floatwood, went
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down and flashed through the quivering crystal halls of the upper sea to meet
him.
Chapter 10
You are not
, said the blonde emphatically, Dr. Ticos Cay. You are not
Dr. Nile Etland. There are no great white decayed-looking monsters chasing you
through a forest!
Rion Gilennic blinked at her. She was an attractive young creature in her
silver-blue uniform; but she seemed badly worried.
No, he told her reassuringly. Of course not.
The blonde brightened. That s better! Now, who are you? I ll tell you who you
are. You re Federation Council Deputy
Rion Gilennic.
Quite right, Gilennic agreed.
And where are you?
He glanced about. In the transmitter room.
Anybody can see that. Where s this transmitter room?
On the flagship. Section Admiral Tatlaw s flagship. Oh, don t worry! When I m
myself, I remember everything. It s just that I seem to slide off now and then
into being one of the other two.
You told us, the blonde said reproachfully, that you d absorbed recall
transcriber digests like that before!
So I have. I realize now they were relatively minor digests. Small doses.
She shook her head. This was no small dose! A double dose, for one thing. A
twenty-six minute bit, and a two minute bit. Both loaded with emotion peaks.
Then there was a sex crossover on the two minute bit. That s confusing in
itself. I
think you ve been rather lucky, Deputy! Next time you try out an unfamiliar
psych machine, at least give the operators straight information. On a rush job
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