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...
We could just free everybody, Murel said.
I don’t think we want to do that. There are probably a lot of real criminals mixed up with the people who’ve been falsely accused like our friends. If we release the wrong people, it could do us more harm than good.
I don’t think we’ve time to be that picky, Murel argued.
Sky somersaulted through the water and proffered the keys to Mrs. Fogarty, who unlocked her cell and waded out.
Ready or not, otters are coming! Sky’s thought declared while he verbalized a lot of chitters and squeaks and swam a brown streak back through the water.
“They took Madame and her first officer to the dungeons,” Mrs. Fogarty said. The twins knew she was actually addressing them but trying not to give away their secret. “It’s said that is where the worst things happen to people. They go down there and don’t come back.”
“Sorry, love,” said the woman whose cell she was unlocking. “Your friends will be goners by now.”
I wish we could tell her not to worry about them, Murel said.
Yeah, but there may be other people down there who need help, Ronan replied.
You think they’d have survived this long?
Maybe, maybe not, but there’s the male crew members from the Piaf and the station to free yet.
I’ll lead Mrs. Fogarty and the key ring over there, sis. You go help Sky. He won’t be strong enough to drag anybody out of danger if necessary.
I’ll go too, Tikka volunteered.
Sky, have you found the dungeons yet? Murel asked.
Yes! This way. It is a good slide.
Murel was afraid of what she might see, but at least she knew it wouldn’t be Marmion and Adrienne drowned. She dived down the triple flight of stairs, Tikka right behind her. The water had forced the door open so it hung twisted to one side of the frame.
Using her sonar, Murel swam around the floating uniformed bodies. She could see fairly well. There were high windows around the top of the walls and these had also been forced open when the water flooded the floor.
There is air! Sky told her. At the top, there is air. Up high.
She followed him through the rooms, searching as she went, then heard the otter exclaim, Here are humans! Live ones! They are hanging from the ceiling.
Puzzled, she sought Sky out and found him swimming circles around three people hanging limply from their wrists, their chins barely clearing the flood. Two young men and a female. Oddly, they wore the tattered remnants of guard uniforms.
Tikka swam closer and examined what held them up. Then she dived toward the floor and came up again, clutching something in one forepaw. I will cut them down.
I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Murel said. They can breathe where they are now, and if we take them with us, we’ll have to carry them back up the stairs, and there’s no air in the stairwell. We might kill them instead of save them.
But I found them! Sky protested, as if they were fish he was being denied the chance to eat.
I know. But I don’t know how to free them without doing more harm than good. And we don’t know who they are. They could have been hung here for brutality to prisoners, for all we know.
She didn’t think that was true, but it could be.
This one, Sky said, circling one of the men. The cat and I saw him through the holes. He came for Marmie and Adrienne. They did not smell afraid with him. The little otter paused and studied the man’s face for a moment before adding, Yes, I think it is him. He was dry when I saw him before.
Once the water drained away and the people on the roof realized it wasn’t going to rise any higher, Murel knew they’d climb back down into the prison and resume business as usual. Then these people, who were evidently being punished or tortured, would wish they hadn’t survived. If she didn’t move swiftly, she, Ronan, Kushtaka’s people, and everyone else they were trying to rescue would all be captured as well.
Sky patted the man’s face with his paw. Wake up. Time to go!
The young man’s eyes opened, then he groaned and closed them again. He looked to be in terrible pain.
Tikka swam up to him and looked questioningly at Murel.
Go ahead, Murel told her. If he’s conscious, he can swim. Pat him again, Sky, and see if you can rouse the others.
The man opened his eyes again and stared at Murel curiously, then at Sky. He tried to flinch away from Tikka, but he had no room and no strength. The alien otter cut the restraints binding him to the ceiling, and he sank like a stone, his eyes wide open. Murel dived and caught his shirt in her teeth, but it tore away. However, he was awake and surfaced again.
“So you’re not here to eat us after all?” he asked aloud. She wished she could answer him.
Sky splashed him. “Silly! Otters do not eat humans. Seals sometimes eat otters, but not river seals.
Humans sometimes eat otters and seals, but not the other way around. Otters like delicious food like fish and clams. Humans do not smell delicious.”
Still, Murel could tell that in spite of his attempts to reassure the man, he was pleased to be mistaken for a ferocious man-eating otter. She, on the other hand, was appalled at being mistaken for a ferocious man-eating seal.
The man helped Tikka free the other two people, holding each of them up until they awakened enough to swim on their own. Now it was time to leave the safety of the air pocket and lead these people up to the ground level.
There was no way to tell the humans what they wanted to do, though Murel tried sending calming thoughts to them. Finally she swam up between the first man’s legs, inviting him to ride her back, and he turned to the others.
“They want to give us a lift through the flood. Hang on however you can. They can swim out of this faster than we can alone. Deep breath now and-”
He ducked his head down and clasped his arms around Murel just above her flippers. She shot back through the water and spiraled up the stairs as quickly as she could, keeping her movements fluid and yet stable enough not to throw her passenger.
Have you got them? she asked Tikka.
Yes. Hurry! These creatures are fragile, Tikka replied, her thoughts full of anxiety.
They reached the surface in time to see some of the prison walls shaking. Ronan, bare as the day he was born, his skin full of terrible bruises and sores, was running down the stairs toward them. “Our people are loose on the lower level and I just released Marmie’s crew who I found on the upper one. Did you feel that? There’s a quake starting.”
He jumped back into the water, resuming his seal form. The prisoners Murel and the others had rescued were too busy breathing to notice his change.
The newly rescued prisoners began swimming toward the entrance to the prison. Up the corridors and coming down the stairs were others, also fleeing. Murel hoped they knew where they were going and what they were going to do, because she had no idea.
Kushtaka told her, We will swim out and return to the ship now. Will you come, too?
We can’t just leave them, can we? she asked Ronan.
I don’t see what more we can do to help, he replied. And there’s Marmie to think of. If we can manage saving her, she can help everyone else.
They could see the flooded prison yard through the doors when they heard the shots ring out and shouting. They dived under and swam out into the moat, twisting to look up.
The guards are firing from the roof! Ronan exclaimed. The prisoners will be shot like ducks in a barrel.
Murel had reached the door by then. The prisoners were under the water, swimming for the entrance.