Return to Rocheworld by Dr. Robert L. Forward; Julie Forward Fuller

Author:Dr. Robert L. Forward; Julie Forward Fuller
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 0671721534
Publisher: Baen Books
Published: 1998-07-01T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT - DROWNING

Cinnamon met Carmen and John on the engineering deck of Falcon where the exploration suits were stored. The three began the routine checkout procedure that preceded each foray outside the safety of the ship. Richard joined them, and together they double checked each other's tell-tale lights inside the panel doors on their chestpacks and backpacks.

"The regulator indicator on my neckring telltales was flickering there for a while," John told Carmen over his shoulder. "Make sure that it's working okay will you, Carmen? Carmen!"

"What? Oh. Yes, I'm sure it's fine," Carmen answered distractedly. She reached for his backpack, opened the access door to the panel, pushed a reset button, and closed the door again.

Cinnamon, busily punching Richard's backpack buttons, glanced over at Carmen. She didn't understand the way that Carmen had been acting lately. Cinnamon couldn't see anything wrong with Carmen, but when she looked at her old friend, Cinnamon felt as if she had suddenly lost one of her senses. Like she was suddenly colorblind. A jazzy song tickled the back of her mind, but she couldn't remember the words. Still, it was a happy tempo, so it could hardly be foreboding.

"You check out fine," Cinnamon assured Richard and she patted his huge back. "Do we have enough sample bottles?"

Richard laughed. "I can hardly carry any more!" he said, holding up the collection of sampling vials that Jupiter had provided for them. "Once we fill these we'll need the flouwen to haul all the samples back to the ship."

They cycled through the lock and climbed down the stairs to the beach. Striding boldly into the surf they sank beneath the waves as their suits compensated to the proper volume. Almost immediately they were met by Clear«»White«»Whistle, Roaring*Hot*Vermillion, Sour#Sapphire#Coo, and Warm§Amber§Resonance.

Roaring*Hot*Vermillion flowed his red body about them and examined the bags of bottles that the humans were carrying, looking for signs of the suits that would let the flouwen walk on the land.

*Where are our drysuits?*

«If you had bothered to monitor the Sky¤Talker at Agua Dulce you would know that today the humans plan to collect live samples of our food so they can feed us during our stays on the Flying¤Circle, the lightcraft Prometheus.»

White Whistler had embraced human technology and phraseology with a vengeance. Sometimes the white flouwen reminded Cinnamon of her old hydroponics professor. Although he had dropped way behind in his field as it moved out into space, he tried to cover his ignorance with glib jargon picked up from trade journals. Often it was possible to predict the subject of his next lecture by reading the latest edition of Leviponics Monthly.

§Most of the time the Sky¤Talker is being used by Clear=Yellow=Chirp. We have found the best way to teach the youngling is to promise it a new song every time it masters a theory. This is the oddest youngling I have ever taught! Normally the solving of the problem is the reward.§

"Maybe it would be better to let it only work on the things that interest it," Richard offered.

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