Changelings
- Автор: Маккефри Энн, Скарборо Элизабет
- Серия: The Twins of Petaybee #1
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «Changelings». Краткое содержание книги:
CHANGELINGS
They are Ronan Born for Water Shongili and Murel Monster Slayer Shongili. Twin brother and sister. Children of Yana and Sean. Children of Petaybee. As such, theirs is a destiny deeply intertwined with the sentient planet that is their home. For Ronan and Murel are more than human. Like their father, each can transform into a seal and converse telepathically with the planet’s creatures–such as the friendly otter whose life they save one day from a pack of ravenous wolves.
But the twins’ bravery has unforeseen results when a visiting scientist witnesses their startling metamorphosis and becomes obsessed with their capture. To protect their children, Sean and Yana send them to stay with a powerful family friend on an orbiting space station. But no one realizes that Ronan and Murel hunger to discover the origins of their shape-shifting talent–and that their search for knowledge will place them squarely in the path of peril.
Meanwhile, Petaybee is changing–and much faster than an ordinary planet’s natural evolution. It appears that portions of the sea are heating up and a landmass is suddenly rising from the depths. To investigate the startling occurrence, Sean heads out to the open water in his seal form. But the newly unstable region holds untold mysteries–and the potential for disaster.
Sean considered. Apparently, while he could converse with the otter who was with him, he was not sufficiently attuned to the species to share long-distance inter-otter telepathic communications.
And how many men- can she say what each man there is like?
After another pause, the otter said, There is man with wind like dead things, man with chin fur, man with wet nose, man with longer chin fur, man with lip fur but no chin fur, young female and old female.
Is that all?
Mother says yes. Hah! Mother is growling. Man puts hands on her.
Can't have that, now can we? Sean said, and made a sweeping gesture with his arm ending with a point in the direction the track cats were following. The dog teams and the curly coat swung in behind.
Sean took several more strides forward and saw Nanook's tail whipping back and forth across the trail in front of him.
Here, Sean. Otters are here, Nanook told him.
That was immediately evident, as from beyond Nanook came otter chirpings and jabberings and explosive "Hah!" "Hah!" sounds in the voices of, if not a hundred otters, at least fifteen.
And human voices called out suddenly too. "What's with these specimens all of a sudden?
They sound like someone stuck a pin in them and let the air out."
"Omigod, I see what the problem is. They see that big old house cat there. Here kitty kitty…
kitty like otter meat?"
Nanook growled low in his throat, but Coaxtl let out a roar that sounded as if it came from deep inside a cave instead of a snow leopard's chest.
Sean caught up with the cat. "Slainte. What are you doing with these otters?"
"Uh, studying them."
"Yes, we have seen some unusual creatures on this planet and we want to make sure these otters are the ordinary kind and not some strange Petaybean hybrid."
"What if they are a Petaybean hybrid?" Sean asked. "I don't believe we've met. I'm Dr. Sean Shongili. My grandfather collected and adapted the creatures here on Petaybee. I don't think he'd appreciate it if you attempt to reverse-engineer his otters."
Sinead stepped into the clearing as well. The men kept the otter cages in the open but they had puff tents for themselves. The puff tents were first cousin to the Nakatira cubes. You set them up, opened a valve, and they inflated themselves with a foot of air in walls, floor, and ceiling. Furthermore, they were totally fireproof, so a heating device or even cooking equipment could be used inside them if the occupants were very careful about how they moved. Four of these tents were set up among the spindly trees that were part of the landscape on this part of the planet. Because of the deep ice, even very mature trees reached no great girth. The otter cages were on a table in the center of the clearing, where they would be in full view of the occupants of each puff tent.
"I am Sinead Shongili, and I'm the game warden for this area. I don't recall issuing you an otter-molesting permit, folks. If our creatures need taking care of or keeping track of, my rangers and I see to it. I'll thank you to release the creatures you have in custody. If any of them have been injured or killed while in your care, you must turn them over to me in the name of the Kilcoole Wildlife Council."
"What is it with you Shongilis, coming out here to throw your weight around?"
Liam Maloney stepped forward now. "Dr. Sean and his wife are the co-governors of Petaybee. I am Sheriff Maloney, and you are in violation of ever so many serious statutes. Do as Warden Sinead says and release the otters or we'll be lockin' yourselves up instead."
"I believe I can clear this up, sirs and madam," said the small wizened woman with the dark brown skin and heavily chiseled broad features of an aboriginal New Adelaidian. "I am Dr.
Marie Mabo of IGISI, the Inter Galactic Institute of Species Identification. My team and I are here by their authority, so naturally I assumed that our presence and mission were known to and approved by local officials as well. We have been observing these creatures in their wild state for some time and two days ago were privileged to see them interacting peaceably with a pair of seals who seemed to be accompanied by a pair of children who fended off a wolf attack."
"You saw the wolves menacing the children and you did nothing to help?"
"It looked like the wolves were doing fine to me," said the man the otters had identified as the one with fur on his chin.
"That will do, Eric!" Dr. Mabo said. To the Petaybeans, she said, "I apologize that my colleague chooses to display his rather sardonic sense of humor at such an inappropriate moment. I do realize the children must have been yours, Warden, since you and your canines and felines came to their rescue. Had you but known it, we were right behind you, ready to intervene ourselves. We hesitated only because we truly had no wish to shoot the beautiful wolves encircling the children and it seemed we had no alternative. You proved us wrong."
"Did, didn't I?" Sinead said. She stepped forward, her rifle over her arm, and opened an otter cage. There were only three otters in it but they seemed to explode all over the clearing in their haste to get away, and looked like at least ten times their number. No wonder the otter thought he had a hundred family members.
Sinead signaled her rangers to continue opening cages while she opened the puff tents. An anesthetized pregnant female otter lay on a folding table. Her belly was shaved and a needle fed into one of her paws. She was shivering either from shock or hypothermia. Computer equipment in an enclosed thermal shell lined one side of the tent.
Sinead picked her up and folded her inside a special pouch she carried next to her body. She carried the otter in the pouch over to the curly coat where Deirdre Angalook, Clodagh's student, received her, bundling the injured animal to her as if she were a baby. The only other otter to be seen by the time she emerged was the one who had accompanied them from Kilcoole.
"I'm guessin' the only reason you put this little one out was so she wouldn't bite your hand off, right?" she said to Dr. Mabo.
"Actually, we wanted to preserve the specimens as long as possible for more testing," Eric the Whiskers said.
Dr. Mabo whipped around so fast the hood from her parka fell away from her face.
"Somebody gag him," she said.
"Nobody will be gaggin' anybody else," Liam Maloney said. "But we'll be cuffing all of you and then taking you back to Kilcoole for deportation, at least until your institute sees fit to consult with us before conducting a study on our four-legged friends."
Deputy Tukaluk walked around the tents and into the forest. "They got a snocle over here, Sheriff. Big one. I never saw one this big. Musta brought it with them when they landed."
"How many will it hold exactly?" Sean asked.
"Six and a driver," Tukaluk said.
"Very well, then. I'll drive and Dr. Mabo can ride in Sinead's sled on the way back."
"Ought to make them walk, Sean," Liam said.
"That would slow us down too much," he replied. "I've business back in Kilcoole. I must tell my children, for one thing, that the otters have been released and are safe."
"Those were your children, then, Dr. Shongili?" Marie Mabo asked, but not as if she didn't already know.
"They were. And like my sister the Game Warden, they are extremely protective of the other species on this planet."
"I'd very much like to talk to them and apologize for worrying them," Dr. Mabo said. "They're the age of my grandchildren, and we certainly didn't mean to frighten them."
Sean's heart pounded extra loud for a couple of beats before he said, "I'm afraid that won't be possible. They've gone to visit a friend offworld. I'll relay your apologies."
After the cuffed prisoners had been loaded into the snocle, Sean took the helm. Sinead had already strapped Dr. Mabo to her sled. Deirdre and the injured otter took off on the curly coat while the other sleds followed. Nobody remembered the single otter that had not run away.