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.
The turtle's thoughts were fainter than ever and disjointed. Ronan carefully picked up the shell and balanced it between his front flippers and his body.
You can make it, Turtle, Murel coaxed. That's it. The tank's not that deep. Just a bit farther.
Finally, the water splashed just above Ronan's nose and the weight was lifted from his flippers and neck as Murel said, Gotcha!
The turtle's thought was something like the turtle equivalent of Ahhh.
Ronan thought he was making a lot of noise, or Murel was, clanking against the tank, when all of a sudden the turtle plummeted back into the tank and Murel fell in after, her body striking Ronan's and driving him downward with the force of her plunge. She changed shapes as she fell so that the fall turned into a less than graceful dive.
Looking down at them, where Murel's face had been a moment before, was the small dark face of Professor Mabo. She wore a gloating expression. "I do not know what I am going to do with that assistant of mine," she said. "I thought I told him to clean the tank, but although it is not growing algae, it seems to have grown two seals since I last looked. Hello, Shongili twins. I trust the water is fine."
Neither of them could answer her or ask how she had known they'd be there, but she told them anyway. "You couldn't resist trying to steal my specimen, could you, Ronan? You are too much your father's son. He wouldn't allow me to study the otters either. Perhaps he realized I'd rather be studying you. And here you are. I have my wish. Little Murel has even granted me some immediate gratification by changing shape before my very eyes. I know you thought you were being clever, Ronan, with your questions about the causative factors of transformations. Now you and your sister will have the opportunity to help me answer those questions and more, in earnest."
Ronan was exhausted from struggling to free the turtle. He had not been able to get a breath himself before Murel and the turtle came back down on top of him. But Murel was angry. He could feel her anger although she said nothing. But the anger spewed her upward like a slippery furry geyser from the bottom of the tank straight up to Dr. Mabo. Ronan saw his sister's sharp seal teeth snap and Dr. Mabo shriek and fall away from the ladder.
Murel dived back down into the tank with a big sealy smile stretched across her muzzle.
Did you bite her? Ronan asked.
No, but I scared her, didn't I?
"Thank you, Ronan or Murel, as the case may be." Marmion's voice reached the twins from beyond the tank. Actually her words were a bit garbled by the water, but they also caught her thought. It was clearly projected and easy to pick up, although they could not normally read people other than each other and sometimes their father.
The water in the tank quivered and the glass vibrated with what felt like a herd of moose galloping across the lab floor. Not moose, of course, but people! Help? The ladder clanked and groaned as someone clambered up it again.
"Get away from there!" Dr. Mabo's voice, muted by the water, was still nasty. "What are you people doing here anyway? Madame, I insist on privacy to conduct my experiments. You students have no business here without my permission."
Other voices, both male and female, obscured hers until they all sounded like they were speaking through layers of cloth.
Then Johnny Green's friendly face appeared at the top of the tank where Mabo's sneering one had been before Murel scared her off the ladder.
"Okay, kids, come along," Johnny said, holding out his arms. "You're safe now."
The man will lift you out, Ronan told Honu. He is a friend.
Honu shot to the surface while Ronan surfaced long enough to watch and catch his breath.
Johnny lifted the creature gently and handed him off to someone else standing behind and below him and blurred by the water.
Johnny was not strong enough, however, to lift either twin in slippery seal form. Pulling them out of the water and up over the ladder while they changed would be difficult.
The tank was small for two half-grown seals, and there wasn't much room to swim. Besides which, the turtle, having caught his breath, told them that he wanted to return to the water too.
Their rescuers had set the turtle on the floor beside the tank, and the weight on its flippers was more than it could bear. Ronan kept bumping the glass next to the turtle to try to alert Johnny and their other rescuers, whoever they were, of the turtle's needs.
Then Ke-ola, previously hidden by the rungs of the ladder while he stood at its foot, bent over, picked up the turtle and lifted it back up to Johnny.
"The sacred Honu wishes to return to the water," Ke-ola told him. Johnny grunted and shook his head but set Honu loose again inside the tank.
Ahhh. The turtle once more emitted the turtle equivalent of a sigh.
The people outside the tank looked in as the turtle dived back down toward the seals. Ke-ola had come in answer to the distress broadcast by the Honu. Johnny Green, Marmion, and Pet Chan were there because Rory alerted them to what his grandmother was doing to the twins.
"So," Johnny said. "The turtle is back but the kids aren't out. I don't see how we're going to do this unless we just break this sucker open." He gave the side of the tank a little kick.
"The children could be injured by fragments, assuming we found something strong enough to break the glass," Marmie said. "It is shatterproof, laser proof-"
"Etcetera. I understand. Very well then, what do you suggest? The kids can't stay in there forever."
"How about a crane?" Pet Chan suggested. "It could hoist them out of the water with no problem. I'll just call down to the hangar and have them send up a small one with a basket on it, shall I?"
"We don't have to do that, ma'am," Ke-ola said, kicking off his shoes. "I can help. If you'll move alongside there, Captain Green, sir, I'll just dive to the bottom and boost the seals up to you."
"Can you do that?" Marmie asked. "You have no diving equipment."
"Excuse me, Madame, but my people have been deep-sea divers for eons. We hold our breath almost as long as the sacred Honu. The water will make the seals light as long as we're submerged."
"Hmm," Pet said, "I believe I'll just get that crane anyway, in case."
Johnny climbed down and Ke-ola swarmed up the ladder in his bare feet. He wore only a pair of shorts. Like the turtle, he looked heavy and lumbering on dry land, but in the water, even so little water, he was strong and graceful. Blowing a fine stream of bubbles, he dived down to the seals, met their eyes, and jerked his head toward the top of the tank.
Ronan was reassured by Ke-ola's calm presence when he entered the water with them. As his classmate gave the signal, Ronan swam to the surface. Ke-ola boosted him up toward Johnny as effortlessly as an otter might heft a clamshell. Ronan was surprised that Ke-ola was that strong. He was also surprised to see Rory's face and his arms reaching for him along with Johnny's from the top rung of the ladder, which Rory now shared.
Johnny had a towel with him and began patting Ronan dry as soon as he was half out of the water. When Ronan's upper half began to change so that his hands were free to help himself, Rory scooted down the ladder. Then with Johnny's support, Ronan held on to the ladder with his hands, pulled his sleek flippered back end free of the water and let Johnny pat that dry until the flippers turned to feet again.
Rory was looking up at Ronan with eyes so wide, white showed around his pupils.