Deluge
- Автор: Маккефри Энн, Скарборо Элизабет
- Серия: The Twins of Petaybee #3
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «Deluge». Краткое содержание книги:
Meanwhile, the powerful and avaricious Company is making another attempt to take over the world of Petaybee for its resources, and the twins parents, Yana and Sean, along with the entire planet, must fight for the independence of their sentient world once and for all...
Night came upon them quickly. It seemed they had just dived below the surface into the darkness of deeper water, and when they surfaced the sky was nearly as dark as the water. The stars out here were enormously bright. If only they knew what the usual positions were supposed to be, it would tell them a bit more about where they were and how to proceed.
It doesn’t actually matter that they’re different stars, though, does it? Ronan said. We know where they are now, and we ought to be able to gauge our position relative to them wherever we go.
Murel hated to admit she didn’t understand all that much about it. Ronan had had a crush on First Officer Adrienne Robineau, so he’d paid closer attention during their navigation lessons than she had.
However, he proceeded to talk himself out of it. The only problem is that we don’t know which direction this planet rotates.
Shhh, she said. Hear that?
It was a boat’s motor roaring in the distance. It did not sound like the same one that had captured and released them earlier. According to their sonar, it was a good distance away.
It must be leaving the island, headed back to the mainland, Ronan said. There doesn’t seem to be any other place for it to go. Probably a supply vessel.
Maybe, she replied.
If we find it, we should be able to get our bearings from it, at least, Ronan told her, and she began swimming beside him, toward the boat. Before long they intercepted its wake and from it were able to backtrack-or back-paddle-until they found the island again and the beach containing the children’s compound.
The rock will be around that way, Murel said, relieved to be back in familiar territory, even if it meant being closer to captivity.
Yes, but look-there’s a light on the other side of the beach.
It could be a trap, Murel said nervously.
Maybe, but I don’t think anyone who is out to get us would think a little light like that would be a good way to trap us. I mean, we’re selkies, not weremoths. Ten to one it’s Rory trying to get our attention. I’ll swim in. You stay out here in case there is a trap and you need to help me out.
But he found no nets, no traps, just a miserable-looking, bald-headed, scantily dressed Rory, holding a glow light.
When Ronan flopped onto the beach, Rory walked down the slight, sandy slope to meet him, speaking softly. “Ronan? Murel? I was hoping you’d come. I seriously have to talk to you two. I’ve had a visit from my loving gran.”
Murel swam in and they both dried off and slipped into their dry suits.
“Want a cake?” Rory offered. “They’re a little squooshed, but I saved you guys some. I had to bribe the beach monitor to look the other way, and another kid to get me the glow. I think the beach monitor will keep up her end of things, but you’d better stay close to the water all the same. She thinks I just needed to come out here and be alone to brood about suddenly being an orphan.”
“You’re an orphan?”
“Yeah, me and just about everybody else, according to dear old Granny. She told me my parents were killed trying to escape and the only thing left for me to do is join the company Cadet Corps.”
“That’s harsh, Rory. I’m so sorry,” Murel said.
“You ought to be. She claims they’ve captured your village and your folks and everybody is being brought here. But she knows you’re here too, or at least suspects it, and I’m pretty sure she’s lying, trying to draw you out.”
Ronan and Murel, recalling their mother’s plans, exchanged stricken looks. “Yeah, but what if she’s not?”
“She had to be-her mouth was moving,” Rory said bitterly. “But I was thinking, maybe it’s not such a bad idea if I play along and try to join up. I could find out stuff we need to know.”
“Do you think you might get into their com shed and contact Marmie’s friends to tell them what’s happened to her?” Murel asked.
“Oughtn’t to be a problem,” he said, sounding a bit brighter.
“Because if you could do that, it would solve everything. They’d get her released and she’d free everyone else.”
“That settles it, then. I’ll do it,” he said. “Maybe I can borrow their com system and maybe not, but I’m far more likely to get a chance as a recruit, aren’t I?”
The twins agreed.
“Too bad they don’t have a submarine corps you two could join,” Rory joked. He sounded absolutely bubbly now. He felt bad about his grandmother being such a villainous old bat, so if he could be the one to free everybody else, Murel reckoned it would help him feel better.
“Just make sure you remember you’re just playing a part,” Ronan said. “You don’t want to actually become one of them. Not that they’re all bad, of course-take Mum or Rick O’Shay. But you don’t want to end up a total bossy git like that Austin guy.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t. So we’ll rendezvous again tomorrow, same time, same place?”
“Say,” Ronan said, “do you reckon if you’re over there you might be able to steal us a printout of a chart of this ocean?”
“I thought you guys could navigate by instinct.”
“On our world, sure, but this ocean is so empty and the stars are all wrong. If we could even get a look at the layout of the landmasses, we’d have a better idea about where to go.”
“Fair enough,” Rory said.
An adult female called out, “You there, on the beach. You’re in violation of curfew.”
“Just admiring the moonlight, miss,” Rory said, while Ronan and Murel stripped off their dry suits in one well-practiced motion, packed them into each other’s pouches, and dove into the water.
“Who’s that with you, then? All of you come up here where I can see you.”
But by then the twins were underwater, swimming toward the rocks.
CHAPTER 14
YANA WAS SO numb she could not feel the hands that grasped her arms to haul her out of the river.
She thought she was probably dying already. It was said that the cold began to feel almost warm when one was truly freezing, and the water beneath her had suddenly begun feeling that way. It was a relief.
Then there was the olfactory hallucination that told her she was smelling the sulfurous odor of the communion cave. She had the oddest sensation of something slipping between the legs of her snowsuit, bearing her up. Perhaps that was the case, since she didn’t fall back into the river even though her stiff and iced-over mittens could no longer maintain a hold on the ice. Her arms simply lay splayed in front of her like a pair of useless logs. Though she vaguely felt that she needed to survive for Sean, the kids, and even Kilcoole, she was so drowsy she couldn’t be bothered to care about all that at the moment.
The brightness of the snow dimmed beneath the shadow of a large form that reached down and grabbed her arms, while her parka was jerked upward by the hood.
“Well, well, we seem to have caught a big fish,” a gruff male voice said, and the part of Yana that was still alert to her surroundings knew she was not out of trouble. This was one of the troops from the ship.
But then another voice, a familiar one, said, “Yes, well, she’ll need tending to, and so will some of your people, so we’d best return to the village and then we’ll see who’s caught whom.”
Yana was facing the wrong direction to see the speaker, but she could almost feel Sinead’s rifle leveled at the ship’s crew. At any rate, she was pulled more gently upward and back. She felt almost weightless, as if buoyed up toward her rescuers.
Then the ice chose to break under her and splinter back under Sinead’s feet, forcing her sister-in-law and the village rescuers to retreat.