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...
As she surfaced, she felt a paw on her hind flipper and looked back to see Sky.
Tag! he said.
She took in her air, and as she did, saw the boat. It was almost upon them, and Zuzu was sitting like a figurehead on the bow. As Murel dipped back beneath the surface, the ship lowered its net. She tried to swim away but felt confused-she didn’t want to be alone again, to leave Sky and Zuzu, and that, coupled with her exhaustion, caused her to dither in trying to decide which direction to swim. By the time she decided to dive below the net, it was touching her nose. She twirled around and around in it, trying to get out, but Sky held her with his paws saying, Be still, Murel river seal. These men save cats and otters and feed squids. I think they will save a river seal too.
As they were hauled into the air, Murel recalled that the men had let them go before. So why had they netted her a second time? Did they know what she was now? Were they trying to catch Sky again?
A long heavy metal hook came straight at her through the net. She flinched, but it only threaded itself over two sections of the rope that made the net and pulled the entire thing toward the boat’s deck, where it was lowered, then opened, dumping her and Sky hard onto the wooden planks that smelled of death. At least the boat was not presently hauling its customary cargo.
Zuzu, we are here! Sky announced, jumping up, ready to scamper off.
So I observed, Zuzu said with a yawn. Did you perhaps bring fish with you? I am once more famished.
Murel hoisted herself onto her front flippers and started to shake herself dry, then thought better of it.
Perhaps she could jump overboard again before the sun dried her, and the men would never know of her dual nature.
But the sun was hot and there was no place to hide. Sky, who had watched her transformation countless times, ran around her, trying to obscure the process with a blur of otterly speed. Zuzu was not so helpful.
To Murel’s chagrin, the cat stalked the transforming bits.
Qu’est-ce que c’est? the cat exclaimed. Where did the fur go? Alors! Un nez! And fingers!
Zuzu, please stop making such a big deal out of it, Murel begged. I’d like to finish my change and dive back overboard before the men notice.
But this is so interesting! How do you do this thing? Zuzu asked, sniffing at Murel’s shins, where the flippers were just narrowing and pinkening into feet.
I do it all the time. So does my brother and my dad. We’re selkies. I thought you knew.
Non, the cat said, sitting back and washing a paw. Me, I mind my own business. What is it to me who turns into seals and who does not? Or who turns into humans or does not, for that matter? To me it has been much better to be always the cat.
The clomp of heavy, smelly boots and a shadow fell across Murel and her friends. The captain hunkered down beside them. He reached out a hand to touch her and she flinched. “So you’re the dangerous alien escaped prisoner with seagoing superpowers we were all supposed to watch out for. How about that?”
Murel didn’t know how to respond. She wanted to say she wasn’t dangerous, but then thought it might be better if he thought she was. Finally she said, “I’m just a kid. My guardian was sent to prison and they rounded all of us up. I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“You were one of the seals we caught earlier, weren’t you?”
“Yes, and you let us go then. Let me go now. My brother needs my help.”
“He was the other seal?”
Again Murel didn’t know if she should admit that or not. While she was hesitating, the captain turned around and bellowed to his mate, “Lloyd, dig my civvies out of my sea chest so our catch of the day doesn’t get herself a nasty sunburn.”
When Murel put it on, his T-shirt, in shades of blue intended to blend with the sea and camouflage him, came past her knees and elbows. Sitting with her knees to her chest, she pulled it down to cover all the rest of her too. The captain slapped a visored uniform cap on her head.
“Your nose was getting a little red,” he said. “Now then, you want to tell old Cap’n Terry all about it, or shall I just call into the base now and let them tell me what to do with you? Or maybe I should wait and see what the otter and the cat turn into?”
The reassuring thing about him was that although he was smiling, he didn’t look or sound overly nice, the way adults did when they were trying to cajole a kid into doing something, all soft smiles and gentle eyes and even baby talk till they were ready to pounce. He looked at her like he expected an answer, needed an answer, or he’d do exactly what he said and report her. Whereas if she answered? “You already know my secret,” she said. “But I don’t know anything about you. What’s the point in telling you how we got here or where we’re from if you’re just going to turn us in? I’d be wasting my breath.”
“I’m curious,” he said. “And the last time I boned up on interplanetary law, there wasn’t one against little girls turning into seals or vice versa.”
“Yeah, but you work for the company. You throw the dead bodies to those squids. Anyway, I hope all the bodies are dead.”
“Me too,” he said. “I can’t figure out how you killed those two we saw yesterday.”
“We didn’t,” she said. “They attacked us and we fought back, but then they started fighting with each other and we got away.”
He nodded. When he spoke again, she thought he was going to ask a question, but he said, “Fair enough, you want to know about me-and Lloyd too, I guess. We used to have a space vessel, but I had a slight dispute with a company official over my fees and whether or not he should pay them, and the next thing you know, my ship was confiscated and Lloyd and I were arrested.”
“So you’re a prisoner too?”
He shook his head. “Nah, though we could still be. Later that year there was some new blood in the Federation court system and on the company board, and all of the cases were reviewed. Anybody could see the charges against us were pure fumes, but by the time we were released, our ship had been chopped up for parts.”
“Didn’t the new court offer to pay for it?”
“Honey, letting prisoners go and letting money go are two totally different issues to a corporate entity.
They did give me some compensation, and later I invested part of it in this boat. And they offered me a job.”
“This one?”
“No, I worked as a locksmith for a while early on, then later helped set up security systems. Gwinnet was the last place I worked on.”
“But-how come you’re working out here now?”
“I didn’t like it inside. I saw stuff that turned my stomach.” He gestured to the boat’s deck. “At least the stiffs I throw to the squids aren’t suffering anymore.”
His voice was bitter, with a fierce edge that rang more true to Murel than any gentler pity. He sounded like her mother might have if she were doing the same job. Da, he would try for scientific detachment from what he couldn’t help, but when Mum said how she felt about something, you knew that for her, that was how it was-the long and the short of it, as Aunty Aisling might say. Da was the family diplomat.
Mum, with her long career in the military, was more inclined to direct action, and if that was not possible, frustration. And in some cases subversion, the kind she had been plotting when Ronan and Murel decided they needed to take matters into their own appendages.
“Couldn’t you leave?” she asked. “Do you have to do this?”
He took a deep breath and gnawed the end of his fluffy white mustache, which reminded Murel a bit of one of Sky’s sea otter cousins. “I tried to transfer offworld again, but there was never space for me on the transport ships, somehow or other. I think they’re afraid I’ll blow the whistle. But I couldn’t just stay inside and watch. I knew that sooner or later I’d go nuclear on one of those bastards and end up back on the wrong side of the bars. So when this boat was brought in as part of a seizure from a big drug bust, I bought it. Then I put on my cheery corporate guy face and convinced the brass to let me transport the bodies out to the deep part of the ocean instead of dumping them right offshore, where they were creating a health hazard for the guards and admin personnel, as well as the other prisoners who, you know, didn’t actually count.”