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"You know, very few humans have been to a Rayeth colony," Lyra noted as they neared the shoreline.

"I know. Isn't it exciting?"

She gave him one of her scowls. "We don't know what we're walking into."

Taz looked calmer than she expected. "I don't sense any hostility from them. They're wary, but that's probably because their children were abducted by people like us."

Gan handed one of the gelatinous blobs to each of them. He made a motion like he was donning a crown. Taz copied him, setting it on top of his head. Immediately it began flowing over his scalp. Lyra expected it to stop at his neck, but the clear gel continued, covering his torso and arms, and finally his legs. He looked surprised for a moment, but then he smiled and gave her an assured nod.

He spoke, but Lyra could only make out a few stifled sounds. "Well, you're not dead," she mumbled and put the thing on her head. It felt clammy and smelled of the sea. When it flowed over her nose and mouth she had an instant of panic. Getting air into her lungs was hard work. The jelly-like blob enveloped her arms, chest, stomach, hips, and legs. As soon as it passed her knees and made contact with the water, the effort to breathe became normal again.

She grinned in relief and took a deep breath. Tiny tendrils of the— whatever it was— had expanded into her nostrils. It made her nose itch for a moment and she thought she might sneeze, but after a second or two the sensation passed and she felt only a vague, cool moistness down the back of her throat.

"Are you alright, Lyra?" Taz's voice sounded clear to her.

"This is amazing," she announced, looking at her hands and arms. They glistened in the sun from the thin gel.

"You said their tech is bio-engineered, right? I can feel something. Not quite sentience, but these organisms we're wearing, they're aware of us."

«We will take you to Thrymenoly-Riv, now.»

Gan's voice was as clear as Taz's had been. She could also hear the other Rayeths quite clearly as they made preparations to return.

The newest arrival pulled more items from her bag— Lyra was sure now that she could tell the males and females apart. The Rayeth gave them each an object with a spiral body, like a smooth seashell. Less than a meter long and cone-shaped, each had a pointed apex that was capped by a flat disk, with a narrow channel encircling the rounded base.

The female indicated ridges on the sides. «Grasp it here.» Her voice was particularly mellifluous, like a thousand tiny chimes moved by the wind. Lyra thought it was one of the most beautiful sounds she'd ever heard.

The Rayeths stepped farther into the ocean, moving with no more difficulty than if it was air. Lyra waded after them, but Taz came slowly behind. When she looked back, his eyes were wide with angst.

«Wait!» she called to the Rayeths, then turned to Taz. "Hey, what's wrong, Oktos?"

"I— I've never been in water like this." He was breathing hard and fast.

«We should not delay,» Gan responded.

«Taz doesn't swim. His... home colony is a place with no water.»

Gan gave her what could only be a look of utter disbelief. «Is such a thing possible?»

Lyra sighed. «It's a big galaxy, Gan.» She turned her back on the skeptical Rayeth and splashed back to Taz.

Lyra smiled, remembering her father teaching her to swim in the ocean when she was only three or four. "Take my hands." Amazingly, the membranes covering them merged together when they clasped hands. "Relax, Oktos. Regular, easy breaths. That's it," she encouraged, taking small steps backward until she started to float.

She drew in her arms and brought him close. "Take a few more steps and you'll float." Lyra backed further into the water. Taz followed hesitantly, the angst still scrawled across the desert-worlder's face. She smiled reassuringly. "You're safe with me, okay?"

"Y-yeah, okay," he stammered, working to calm his breathing and his bounding heart. After twenty or thirty seconds, he'd relaxed a little.

"That's good," she encouraged. "Just kick your feet easily, like this." She let go of him, slipped backward, and paddled with her feet while she moved her arms back and forth with lazy oscillations. "See?" As soon as she released his hands, the gelatinous membrane resealed itself.

A low wave pushed toward the shore. Lyra glanced over her shoulder as it approached. "Don't turn your back to the sea like I am," she said wryly. " You never know when a big one will come. Understand?"

Taz gave her a nervous nod.

"Seawater makes you more buoyant. You'll float with the waves. Come out a little more."

Taz followed her example, bobbing in the water as the inbound wave lifted him. His anxious expression didn't go away, but after a while he looked a little less like he was on the verge of full panic. "O-okay," he said after another few seconds, "I think I've got it. It... feels a little like zero-G."

"That's a good way to think of it," she agreed. "Just keep doing that. I'll grab those— whatever they are."

He brightened up a little. "They're called pekluu. Pretty sure they're for propulsion."

"Oh. Makes sense." Lyra kicked prone and crawled through the water. The strokes came back to her almost immediately. She'd been a decent swimmer as a girl, and she'd even been told she had the makings of an athlete, but she lacked the discipline and inclination to pursue it. No wonder they thought I was a layabout.

She tucked the pekluus awkwardly under her arm and side-stroked back to where Taz was still getting the hang of free-floating. "Just stay beside me and stay calm, okay?" Taz nodded and gripped the ridged portion of the spiral shell.

Ahead of them, Gan alone remained above the water. «Point the pekluu where you want to go. Tighten your grip to go faster.»

Clever, she thought, and leaned forward, pushing the pekluu out in front of her. As soon as her head went beneath the waves she found she could see clearly. A gentle current of water discharged from the annular gap at the back of the device, pulling her forward. Clever.

After a second, Taz floated beside her. She was surprised when she heard him utter an amazed "wow!"

"Hey, I can hear you!"

"This is... unbelievable. Different than anything I've ever experienced," Taz said, wonder crowding out his anxiety.

Lyra felt their speed increase, even without changing her grip. The Rayeths started moving faster through the water and the pekluus followed, pitching down at a shallow angle until they skimmed over the ocean floor. She felt none of the pressure on her ears or chest that normally accompanied an increase in depth. With each breath it was almost like the gelatinous skin was pushing the air into her lungs. She laughed and squeezed the sides of her pekklu tighter. "Come on, Oktos, let's fly."

Taz looked a little reticent, but he followed her. As they drew within a meter or two of the Rayeths, they accelerated too. Their spindly arms were angled behind them, stretching the membranes between their heads and hands tight. The lower membranes undulated faster as they gained speed.

Soon they passed through a gap in the reef and the ocean floor dropped away. The Rayeths dove deeper, Taz and Lyra right behind. The sunlight fell off until they were in bare twilight, but Lyra was surprised to find that she could still make out their forms. The Rayeths were limned in pale luminescence that was bright enough to keep them in view. Taz too, glowed in his jellied encasement, and she imagined that he must have seen her glowing as well. The water pressure should have crushed them, but she felt only a minor constriction.

«We will now evipeeg.» It was the voice of the female, who'd moved behind them. Apparently her job was to make sure they didn't get lost.

"Evipeeg?" Lyra didn't know what that meant.

"I think it means we're going to move really fast," Taz offered.

No sooner had he uttered the words than their pekluus began dragging them at a terrific pace through the water. A rush of bubbles surrounded Lyra, obscuring her vision, but after a few seconds they formed a single, long bubble that enclosed her. She could just make out Taz's glowing form beside her, and the female Rayeth's even less distinctly below. After she got over the shock of the sudden change, she took a moment to listen to the rush of passing water. The bubble enveloping her created some kind of slipstream. Her ears were filled with crackling and occasional squealing sounds.

After a minute she said, "Hey, are you still there, Oktos?"

"Yep," he answered immediately. "It's unbelievable."

"Yes it is." She had a million questions, not the least of which was how the Rayeths could move so quickly on their own, or why they would have this kind of technology when they didn't need it themselves and didn't seem like they wanted Inusagasa among them. But for now, she relaxed and let the pekluu pull her through the depths.

After some time, the female who'd been pacing them spoke up. «How do you fare, land-dwellers?»

«Call me Lyra. What's your name?»

«Vindkii,» answered the female.

«How long until we reach Thrymenoly-Riv, Vindkii?»

«Two of your hours, plus a portion more.»

Taz's whistle was clear in her ears; he'd done the math just like she had. "That means we're moving close to a hundred eighty klicks an hour," Lyra said, her voice full of awe.

"Unbelievable," Taz repeated.

"I thought you said you only learned a few words of Ka-rayet?"

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Their thoughts are easy to pick up," he answered, "and I think this... membrane, whatever it is, is making it easier for me to understand."

It was pitch black now, darker even than interstellar space, where at least the pinpoints of the galaxy's billions of stars provided a sense of the universe's volume, if not any real light. Here there was just the embrace of the water, the crackle and pop of the bubbles, and the barely perceptible glow of the Rayeths. Lyra found a strange kind of comfort in the solitude and the sense of isolation. She'd heard of people enclosing themselves in zero-g capsules as a form of relaxation, cut off from light and sound, totally deprived of sensation. It had always struck her as an odd thing to do, but she thought she could start to understand the appeal. She relaxed even more and let her mind wander.

Then, suddenly it seemed, they were there. The bubbles surrounding her faded away as they shed velocity. A lighter haze amid the darkness soon resolved into a huge... Lyra wasn't actually sure what to call it.

Superficially, Thrymenoly-Riv looked like a massive rocky island jutting from the sea floor, for what must have been thousands of meters. It formed rough, dome-like shapes with scores of tall spiraling stalks stretching above the primary corpus.

As they came nearer she could make out uncounted openings, doorways and windows, with dim illumination showing behind them. Rayeths moved all around the perimeter, tending expansive beds of swaying vegetation. Echelons of pike-armed sentries in fives and sevens swam patrol patterns above the colony dome. Seeing it brought a grin; their formations looked like the ones she'd flown in her TIE trainer that first year at the academy.

The sea around them teamed with life. Fish of every size, long sinuous winged eels, and skittering spiny arthropods shared the ocean with the colony. Just at the edge of visibility, she spied an enormous lionskate slowly moving with gentle swishes of its twenty-meter cartilaginous tail. Lyra turned toward Taz,but his head was swiveling every which way, trying to take in the strange spectacle just like she was.

Vindkii swam ahead of them. She flipped so her back was to the sea floor, and they slowed even more, heading for one of the stacks. «Evipeeg can be disorienting for land-dwellers,» she sang. «Are you well?»

«We're fine. Where are you taking us?»

«To the Sotvollar.»

Taz asked, "What is that?"

"No idea," answered Lyra. "You okay?"

"Great," he answered, sounding awestruck. "This is... unbelievable."

"Find a different word, Officer Oktos," Lyra chided.

"Right, Ensign Nimor." She could hear the smile in his voice.

They swam through an arch in one of the stacks, then down into the warrens of Thrymenoly-Riv. Rayeths passed them by the scores. Their stares made her feel a little self-conscious. They probably feel the same when they come ashore.

The walls were the same dark material she saw outside, with a rough texture that reminded her of coral growths or volcanic rock. The surfaces glowed with subtle greenish light. Swimming close to the wall, she found that the small pores in the rock each held an infinitesimal pinprick of light. Alone they'd have been nearly imperceptible; multiplied by millions, they gave off dim but usable illumination.

The shaft ended in a spacious dome with every manner of protrusion growing out of the walls, floor, and roof. Rayeths came and went from them, and Lyra imagined they must be the equivalent of buildings, houses, offices— all the kinds of structures she'd see on land.

A disturbance overhead made her look up. Two groups of Rayeths swam chaotically pointing their lances at each other. She thought she might have seen distortions in the water where the lances were aimed, but she couldn't be sure.

Taz had noticed the action too. "Some kind of practice?"

Their Rayeth escorts stiffened. Gan glanced back at Vindkii, then he and the others jetted toward the vault's roof.

Vindkii swam between the Humans. «I will take you the remaining distance.»

«What's going on?» asked Taz.

«Nothing of concern to land-dwellers.» She collected their pekluus and put them into her bag, then removed a short, barbed rod that had a cylindrical bulge near the end. It looked like a shorter version of the guardians' lances. She laid it along her slender leg and it stuck there. «Come,» Vindkii urged, glancing at the scrum overhead. Her lyrical voice was strained.

Lyra exchanged a concerned look with Taz as they kicked along with Vindkii. Lyra reached ahead and stroked with her arms while she kicked. Surprisingly, she moved much farther than the stroke should have carried her. "I think these—"

"Avorts," Taz offered. He kicked his feet and floated beside her.

"They're helping us to swim."

"This technology is unbel— amazing. It's all alive. I can feel... information, circulation, energy transmission, even senses. It's alarmed at whatever's happening up there."

"You're feeling that?"

He nodded and made an encompassing motion with his hands. "All of this is like one enormous organism. Or maybe a bunch of individual ones in some kind of cooperative symbiosis. It feels our presence. I think these avorts we're wearing, even the pekluu, they're all communicating with the colony. Thrymenoly-Riv isn't a place, it's a... sentient animal."

"Sentient?" Above them the melee looked like it was drawing to a close. Dozens of Rayeth guards had converged, surrounding the smaller group. The guardians bound them in a way that prevented them from using their arms or feet. One Rayeth floated, unmoving, and some others looked injured.

"I can sense its thoughts," Taz said. "They're totally alien to a Human's way of thinking, but I'm picking up abstract concepts that make a little sense— barely."

"What kind of concepts?"

He chuckled. "Would you believe amusement? I think it finds us amusing. Caution, too. I have a feeling it's aware of the impact of the Humans who've been abducting the Rayeths' children."

Vindkii herded them toward a bulbous protuberance high up on the dome's wall. «Do not tarry, land-dwellers.»

Lyra was about to ask more questions but Vindkii motioned more urgently to them. She wasn't sure, but the Rayeth female might have been annoyed. They kicked to catch up and floated to the archway at the outcrop. Vindkii led them through a round entrance lined with fine cilia that glowed a warm yellow. Once inside, she slowed and seemed to relax.

The ten-meter chamber was full of light, much brighter than it appeared from outside. Scores of Rayeths worked at bulges in the walls, pressing their hands against flexible, fleshy-looking objects that grew out of the rock. The water seemed to be shimmering, forming complex patterns in front of each worker.

They floated toward a male Rayeth who held out cupped hands and angled them toward one or another of the work stations around the chamber's perimeter. Instead of a smooth head, this one had a bony crest that began where his nose would have been and swept over his skull, forming a fin-like point at the back of his head.

When they were three or four meters away, Vindkii motioned for them to halt. «I will present you.» She circled around the male, moving her hands in a way that Lyra decided must be some kind of formalized greeting.

The male came forward, Vindkii at his side. «These are the land-dwellers called Lyra and Taz.» To the Humans, she said, «This is Rokuu, Sotvost of Thrimenoly-riv.»

"Sotvost..." Lyra strained to recall the Ka-rayet vocabulary lessons she'd had.

"He's a..." Taz tilted his head. "Something like a chief of police and a judicial officer all rolled into one."

«Thank you for seeing us, Sotvost,» Lyra opened. She couldn't think of what kind of greeting he might be expecting, so she settled for a nod of her head. «What was that disturbance?»

"Malcontents. It is a matter for the colony," answered the sotvost in Basic with a precisely intoned Sajoku accent. "The substance found by our guardians is poison?"

Lyra got over her surprise quickly. "Yes."

Taz added, "A drug, meant to addict those who take it."

"It drives Humans insane and gives them incredible strength," Lyra added with a shudder, unable to keep the horror of the Hrakian's death out of her voice.

"What has it to do with the Rayeths?"

"I don't know," Taz began, "but it's possible that your children are involved in its manufacture."

"The Revered Mother I saw yesterday said many of your children have been taken," Lyra added. "How long have the abductions been going on, and how many have been taken?"

"Forty-one from Thrymenoly-Riv. We have no numbers from the other colonies."

"I think we can assume it's a similar number," Taz posited. "How many other colonies?"

"Several." The sotvost said.

"Could you be more specific?"

"No." The sotvost sounded suspicious, or maybe annoyed. Lyra couldn't be sure which.

"Look," she said, letting a little exasperation creep into her voice, "we came here to help, Sotvost. We need you to trust us."

"Rayeths have no reason to trust land-dwellers."

Lyra screwed up her mouth. "We're here because your Revered Mother thought we could help. Why won't you let us?"

"The Revered Mother acted without authority," Rokuu pronounced simply.

"She's trying to protect her offspring," Lyra challenged, "or don't your children mean anything to you?"

The sotvost was impassive except for his narrowed eyes. "It is a matter for the colonies. Land-dwellers should not be involved."

"Humans are taking your children!" she exclaimed through clenched teeth.

"Lyra," Taz said quietly. She glared at him, but he gave her a calming look. "Sotvost, we're not here to interfere in the colony's affairs. We just want to stop the abductions of your children, and stop this poison from being made."

"We both have something to gain, Sotvost Rokuu," Lyra injected, recovering some calm. "Cooperation benefits us both."

"Perhaps," Rokuu said after a pause.

"I might learn more if I could speak with some of your children," Taz suggested.

"That cannot be allowed." stated the sotvost without elaboration.

Lyra opened her mouth to protest, but Taz's gentle pressure on her arm stopped her.

"Then perhaps we could speak to the Revered Mother again?" he asked in his most solicitous tone.

"That also cannot be allowed."

Now even Taz looked exasperated. "What about a record of the abductors? Do you have any recordings, a description of them, their numbers? Equipment? Anything we can use to identify them."

Rokuu crossed his arms. "Our technology is not compatible with yours, land-dwellers."

That's him saying we can't have it. Lyra's scowl deepened. "You're making a mistake, Sotvost Rokuu. I don't know what's happening in Thrymenoly-Riv or the other colonies, but from what I can see no one else on the surface was willing to help you, even your ambassador. You could've at least let us try." She looked at Taz. "Come on, Oktos. We've wasted our time here."

Sotvost Rokuu indicated the arch they'd arrived through. In Ka-rayet, he said, «Vindkii will return you to the land.»

The Rayeth female swam to the entrance and beckoned to them.

Audience over. Lyra aimed a derisive look at the sotvost and kicked away. After a second, Taz followed.

They swam in silence to the top of the dome and entered one of the spiraling stacks. «Your Sotvost is making a mistake,» Lyra said to Vindkii, though what she really meant was that he was being an idiot. The Rayeth looked over her shoulder and blinked her eyes, the only indication that she'd even heard Lyra. Then Vindkii turned away and kept swimming.

At the top of the stack they stopped. Vindkii reached into her bag for the pekluus. Another Rayeth appeared from around the stack and swam over. As it drew closer, Lyra recognized Gan. He and Vindkii exchanged hand signals, then held a brief, animated conversation that Lyra couldn't hear. Vindkii moved about in the water, seeming to vacillate. Finally, she swam away, dropping the big bag. Gan snatched it up before it fell too far. Approaching them, he handed out the pekluus.

Lyra and Taz shared confused looks. «What's going on, Gan?» she asked.

«I will return you to your home. Come.»

They followed behind the Rayeth as he swam over the colony. They turned, making a gradual circle, then he dove, heading for an enormous kelp bed.

Taz glanced at Lyra with a furrowed brow, then addressed Gan. «Farming?»

«Yes.»

He shrugged at her. "I think there's something he wants us to see."

"We should be careful."

"I sense no hostility in him."

"What about Rokuu?"

"He was suspicious. And annoyed."

"You forgot obtuse and stupid," she carped, still irked by the meeting.

They dove right into the kelp, which stood higher than two meters and waved in the currents. The tops of the broad, flat leaves were covered in round nodules. Lyra supposed they were air sacs that kept the kelp floating upright. With the total absence of light, she wondered how it grew.

They stayed close to Gan; the kelp was easy enough to move through, but it was so thick that he'd easily be lost to sight. After a couple of minutes, he stopped.

Lyra let the pekluu drop to her side. «What's happening, Gan?» she demanded. She'd had about enough of the Rayeths and their contrary, opaque motivations.

A dim glow appeared in the kelp behind Gan. The drifting leaves parted and another Rayeth joined him, then swam slowly, hovering close to Lyra. It took her a moment to recognize the creature. "Revered Mother!"

She nodded to Gan, who jetted up and swam a circular patrol pattern over their heads. "I regret your journey here was not fruitful," the Rayeth opened. She looked at Taz. "This is the man you spoke of?"

"I'm Taz," he answered with a deep nod. "What do you call yourself, Revered Mother?"

"I am Brondvin."

Lyra scowled. "Revered Mother Brondvin, what's going on? You asked us to come, then when we do, we get nothing." She crossed indignant arms. "How about some answers?"

"There is disagreement at the colony regarding this matter and the manner in which it should be addressed, Lyra Nimor."

Lyra shared a look with Taz. "We're no strangers to politics. I take it you're acting against the wishes of Sotvost Rokuu?"

"His faction holds sway with the colony's council. They believe involving land-dwellers... will only lead us to misfortune." She looked up at Gan, who gestured to her with his hands.

"Time is short. Your pekluus can be... tracked by the colony." She took a small round object from her pouch and held it out to Lyra. "This is what we know of the abductor." It was light in color with a rough texture, a little smaller than her palm.

"Some kind of recording?"

"Yes. When you return to land, go to a dark place and open the shell. What you find inside, place in a vessel of seawater." She gestured and Gan descended. "You must go." With that, Revered Mother Brondvin retreated into the dark, sinuating fronds.

«Come,» urged Gan, who began swimming away.

Lyra stuffed the object into her pocket and looked at Taz. Despite the dimness, she could see his sober expression. "Let's go." She raised the pekluu above her head and started after the Rayeth.