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.
They made it through the garden without arousing Pet or the security staff, and reached the utility stairs leading to the next level. Stairs and elevators honeycombed the vast station, though most people chose to use the flitter fleet.
The stairs were metal, grated, and zigzagged back and forth in a seemingly endless sawtooth between Marmie's deck and the next one. Every step the twins took clanked and clattered, but it didn't make a lot of difference since most of the station's nonresidential areas operated continuously, were brightly lit, and had people coming and going at all hours.
The third level, where the school and Professor Mabo's science lab were located, was an exception. The white-tiled hallways that were so brilliantly lit during school hours were now dimly lit tunnels demarcated by strip lighting running the length of the hallway where the floors met the walls.
Each footstep seemed to them to echo as loudly as a blacksmith's hammer on an anvil as they tried to creep forward toward the lab.
When they reached the lab door, Ronan pulled out the keys. This is it. You keep lookout.
Out here? By myself? The whites of Murel's eyes seemed very white indeed as she peered down the maze of hallways.
Sure, what are you afraid of? If there are any wolves around here, you can trust Professor Mabo to have them locked up in cages.
Professor Mabo makes the wolves look gentle and friendly as sled pups, Murel said. I don't mind admitting I'm a hit afraid of her. What if she decides to come hack?
Oh, she won't do that, Ronan said with more certainty than he felt, once he had a moment to think it over. She doesn't plan to do any more work until tomorrow, when she tortures the turtle.
Well, go on then. And make it snappy, will you? We have a lot of stairs to carry a turtle up before it's time to get ready for school again.
Ronan fitted the key, gave Murel a thumbs-up sign, opened the door and let it snick gently closed behind him. The lights in the lab immediately flared into brilliance. They did that when anybody walked in. It wasn't so-sudden-during school hours, but now he felt as if a spotlight had been focused on him. He shook himself a little, as if misgivings, like water, could be dispersed that way.
The lab seemed huge now, the tables with the chairs upended over them for the custodian to clean the floors, the racks of beakers and bottles above each table. His footsteps and even his breath sounded unnaturally loud., He had not pulled the curtain over the front of the water tanks again, but even so, he couldn't see much but the ladder at the top of the tank and the glint of water among the chair legs and beaker racks as the light sparked white from its surface. As he drew nearer, he could see more of the tank walls, and expected to see the turtle by the time he'd drawn close enough to touch the tanks and could see their bottoms. To his surprise, however, both tanks appeared empty.
"He couldn't see the turtle at all. True, the saltwater tank did seem a bit murkier than it had before, the sandy bottom stirred into the water making it cloudy, but that shouldn't have kept him from seeing the turtle. He checked the freshwater tank and the tank in which the Honu had been housed to begin with, but both were empty. Turtle? Honu? You there? Where are you? It's me, Ronan. I came to-
Heeeelp, a feeble thought reached him. The turtle sounded weak and frightened. Help me, Ronan. I'm stuck.
Stuck? Where? Ronan pressed his face to the glass, cupping his hands around his eyes to try to see into the tank more deeply without interference from the lights in the room. They cast his reflection back at him so that he got in his own way when he tried to see.
Down here. In this cave.
Cave? The tank was glass, not natural landscape. Why would there be a- Oh, you mean a drain, I bet. How did you get in there?
Tried… escape… but … I… am too big. No air here. Need air.
Sea turtles, like seals, needed to breathe every few minutes, Ronan knew. He and Murel had done a search for the Honu's species in the station's extensive computer databanks. They'd learned some other interesting things about the Honuian sea turtles too, while trying to figure out what they would feed the turtle and where the best place would be to keep him once they rescued him.
Hang on, Ronan said, and began stripping off his clothing. Murel, the turtle got stuck in the drain. I have to dive in and full him out. I'm not sure how I'm going to do that, of course, when all I have to use are flippers, so you may have to come into the room and help us.
Now?
No, wait till I tell you. Keep lookout meantime.
He climbed up the ladder to the top of the tank, poised over the edge for a moment, and dived in. His vision underwater and in the dark was much better as a seal than as a human. Diving to the bottom of the tank, he spotted the back half of the turtle's shell and its tail and rear flippers sticking out of a round hole in the rear wall.
Ronan swam all around the drain and the turtle, wondering why the hole hadn't been covered.
He tried the claws on his flippers to tear at the portion of the drainage pipe farthest from the turtle's body. It was made of much sterner stuff than ice and he quickly gave it up.
I'm going to take hold of the edge of your shell and pull, he told the turtle. Your tail doesn't look sturdy enough to withstand my claws or teeth.
Oooh, I should say not! The turtle's thought came out with a sort of squeak. Be careful to bite only the shell. I'm quite tender underneath. And ticklish.
That was a problem. Ronan couldn't get his teeth to lock tightly enough on the turtle's shell to pull at it. His teeth kept sliding off the slippery carapace. He tried first one side, then the other. Once he thought he felt the turtle slip a little and intensified his efforts, but Honu remained as stuck as ever.
Okay, let's try one more thing. I'm going to ram, er, nudge you from each side and hope to jar you loose. I'll try not to hurt you.
The turtle winced. Ronan felt it, though he neither saw nor heard any physical change in the trapped creature. Backing up as far as the small tank allowed, he swam at the turtle from the left, bumped into the back of the shell and felt it move a little. He did it again. When there was no further movement, he swam up under the trapped creature and butted it from below.
Then he attacked from the right and started over again. Gradually, the vibrations his movement set up caused the turtle's shell to separate from the lip of the drain. The turtle felt it too and its tail began to bob like a rotor warming up while its rear flippers started to backpaddle.
Someone's coming! Murel sent a warning thought.
We're allllmost there, Ronan told her. But you're going to have to come in now. I need you to lift him out and help me out of the tank so I can change back enough to climb down the ladder.
Before he finished the thought, he heard the clanking of feet knocking the rungs of the ladder against the side of the tank. As he pulled the turtle free, he looked up to see Murel peering down at them.
Come on. Hurry, she urged.
The turtle popped loose of the drain and lay on the bottom of the tank for a moment, the movements of its tail and back flippers twitchy instead of purposeful. One of the front flippers looked like it had a small tear. Ronan hoped he wasn't responsible.