My Dearest Read online

  Megere paused to smile at this prevarication.

  "State secrets?" she said, as she recalled what was real compared to what was told.

  "Why me?" Megere demanded. "I would rather you send someone else into the water."

  Admiral North turned an outraged look on her that didn't soften for several moments - when she didn't cower under it. It took him a while, but she saw him finally remember that she was a civilian contractor and he had to ask rather than simply order her to do anything not covered under her contractual obligations.

  It was a good thing for her that he had brought her back to their quarters before telling her, "I want you to do it."

  Had he said this in front of all the officers and crew who crowded onto the deck to peer down at the dark water where the octopi waited it would have been hard to defy him. Impossible, actually. One did not undercut the fleet's most senior officer's authority in front of his people. As things had turned out, Megere was able to say no, or at least she didn't have to jump into the water without trying to convince him otherwise first.

  "You've talked to them before," he said. "You're not likely to have a fit of screaming hysterics, before or after."

  "I have not talked to them. She and I did not have a conversation. Very few people can communicate with them, you know. They take our thoughts, but--"

  "You said she. How do you know it was a female if you didn't talk to it?"

  Megere considered for a moment before answering. "I felt it was a female. I dreamed about octopi babies floating around me afterward - but those dreams were only a reaction to having my mind read."

  "Are you sure?"

  "No."

  She always told him the truth. As usual, he seized upon her honesty.

  "Perhaps you have the rare gift."

  "I do not."

  "Did you try talking to the octopus."

  "It never occurred to me to try. I do not wish to try now. Surely someone on your staff can interpret octopi thoughts."

  "Yes. But it's a tricky business to interpret the meaning of something so different than we are. Our two species have managed to work out some mutual concepts over the generations, but the exchange is so very -- " He waved his hands as he searched for the right word.

  "Fluid?" Megere suggested.

  He pointed a finger at her. "Exactly. You have great empathy, my dearest, and an open mind. I need your insight."

  She was not impressed by his flattery. "You suspect that this time the octopi want something other than the usual reading our minds for the sake of learning about us. You want to know why and what they want before you consult your staff."

  He gave her one of his wide, infectious grins. "Clever gel!"

  It had taken her a while to realize that gel was the North Isles idiom for girl.

  She thought about it, and paced around the cabin as she did, until he reached out an arm and snagged her to him.

  "We don't have much time," he said. "You'll do it?"

  Megere rested her forehead against his shoulder, sighed. "I will," she agreed. "But not in my good black dress."

  She was not lowered down in the small boat by herself. She had certainly expected the pair of seaman and the marine to come along to protect and aid her. That was standard procedure for an octopus encounter. She had not expected Admiral Lord North to take the seat beside her in the boat. She had never been happier for his company, though all she could do was give him a swift smile and nod to show her pleased gratitude. She would have liked him to hold her hand, or place a protective arm around her shoulders, but such familiarity was out of the question in a public setting. Decorum must reign, as everyone on board was looking down on them and they were well lit by the moons and the flashing Passing lights overhead. He'd announced that he was officially along as the Ang Empire's ambassador to the undersea inhabitants. He'd drawn smiles, and a few laughs when he added that if he could do nothing else, he could at least properly salute whatever creature rose from the depths.

  Since he was still wearing the dress uniform he'd put on for the captain's party, Lord North certainly looked ambassadorial. Megere was the one dressed for business. She was wearing a seaman's tunic and trousers. Her feet were bare and her hair in a long braid down her back. There were towels and blankets in the bottom of the boat, waiting to dry and warm her on her return. She also wore the harness and rope that would secure her to the human world while she ventured away from it.

  At least she knew how to proceed once the boat was in the water. She was grateful the Ironbound was not sailing in cold, northern seas. The warm evening sea would be a welcoming embrace. Lord North gave her hand a quick squeeze. She gave him what she hoped passed for a brave smile. She stood up and jumped into the sea. The bell on the ship rang, calling the octopi to come talk to a human.

  Megere thought that perhaps she would be lucky and the octopus would merely want the usual exploration of a human's thoughts.

  "I don't know how to talk to you, well, listen to you," she said as several very large tentacles rose out of the water and wrapped themselves gently around her floating body. Megere tensed, but only momentarily. "I've done this before. I've done this before." She took deep breaths, and looked up at the brilliant night sky where the strange new lights sizzled by overhead.

  She rocked on the water, held by soft, strong alien arms. "Hello," she said. After waiting for an answer for a while she recalled that octopi did not speak, they thought. Somehow, they read thoughts, and to a lucky few they shared thoughts. She didn't think she was one of this few, but she had told Admiral Lord North that she would try - although the promise had really been to her beloved Adrew Osprey. She would never have let herself get into this sort of situation for the sake of the Admiralty, and Adrew well knew it.

  Men, she thought at the sea creature. They're nothing but trouble, are they?

  Not that the octopus would understand anything she would say. No more than she would understand their language, if they had one. Which they must have. But not like human language. Megere thought hard about what she ought to do.

  Maybe thinking hard was what she ought to do?

  She closed her eyes and looked inward rather than at the sky. After a while it was concepts and images and emotions that filled her mind - that she tried to push toward the octopus.

  It was then that things started happening.

  "This is the best whisky in the world. Take a good swig of it, gel."

  A flask was held to her lips, and Megere did as she was told. She didn't know if it was the potent spirit or the boat being hauled up the side of the ship that worsened her dizziness. The world already whirled when she was brought out of the water.

  World. Whirled.

  She chuckled.

  Just before she threw up.

  Fortunately, one of the seaman working on toweling her off had the presence of mind to aim her head over the side of the boat in time.

  "Pity about the whisky," North said.

  Megere grabbed onto him, buried her face against the fine wool of his coat, wetting it with seawater and tears, and held on tight until such time as he pried her fingers from the cloth and forced her head up with his fingers under her chin.

  "You're safe. You're fine. We're alone."

  She understood the words. She opened her eyes, and opened her mouth. She could not remember how to form words.

  Images still flooded her brain. How could she -- ?

  Draw them. Yes, of course! Paper! Pencil! Where?

  Megere's head whipped around. Looking for something, something, word, remembering - paper! Yes!

  It took her a moment to recognize where she was and what all the solid, dry square-cornered things were. Furniture.

  There. That was desk.

  She dashed around - bossylovedthing - Adrew - to the desk.

  She turned over a squigglemarked - words - page, snatched up a stick and began to feverishly draw. Adrew came to stand behind her. He watched over her shoulder but silently left her to her wo
rk.

  Megere was covered in sweat that added to the already salty dampness of her skin and clothes when she stepped back to show him her drawings. The odd ovoid creature she'd drawn was fairly detailed. The rest were stick figure drawings.

  "Is that a whale?" Adrew asked.

  She shook her head.

  "Do the cartoons indicate that the octopi wish us to set sail to have a look at the thing that is not a whale?"

  She nodded.

  While she did the concept of speech snapped back into place so strongly it left her with a sharp pain in her head. She took a deep, gasping breath, then spoke, feeling as if she had not done so in years. "They say it fell from the sky. They don't know what it is. They have a guess, but don't want to say until we've had a look at it too. They are very - upset, confused." She grew dizzy with the near-panic of the octopis strained world view. "Humans are hard enough for them to believe in."

  As the cabin whirled around her, Lord North noticed. He picked her up and carried her into their bedroom.

  "We have to hurry!" she told him.

  "The ship has to hurry," he said. "I'll inform Ram of our new course in a moment."

  He stripped her clothes off her, laid her naked on the bed and put a blanket over her. Star jumped up to keep her company.

  The responsibility was the admiral's. She could rest now.

  "May I express a concern, sir?" Captain Ram asked.

  Megere and Lord North were standing at the rear rail of the quarter deck, looking out to sea. She'd slept a few hours, then worked a while in the sickbay before coming up to join him in the wait to reach the octopi's designated destination. Late afternoon sunlight sparkled off the water and the ship's foaming wake.

  They turned at Ram's question. North walked over to join the captain.

  "Please continue, Captain," North said.

  Ram nodded gravely. "As you know, sir, I am not comfortable with the idea of humans interacting with the inhabitants of the oceans." There was an ominous tone in his voice when he added, "They interact with our Framin enemies as much as they do with us."

  Megere kept quiet, but her belief was that the octopi interacted with whoever sailed the ocean, be they Ang, Framin or from the many other countries that made up the island world.

  "It is my belief that the octopi are neutral in our conflict," Lord North responded. "I know of incidents where they have rescued sailors from both sides. They do seem to have a concept of battle among themselves, so they are not ignorant of why we sink each others' ships."

  "What if they are now taking sides? What if they are leading the Ironbound into a Framin trap? The Ang Empire cannot afford to lose this ship."

  "I loathe the idea of losing any ship," North answered. "But I do not think we are being lured into danger from the Framin. Some other danger, perhaps," he conceded. "But my interpretation of the matter is that the octopi want our opinion of some phenomena they have never encountered before. I do appreciate your concerns, captain. Keep on the crew on the alert for any sign of danger."

  "Aye, sir."

  Captain Ram did not look completely satisfied, but he accepted his commander's words.

  Megere chose to return to her own part of the ship. There were only two patients at the moment, both on the mend. So after a quick check of the sickbay, she settled down with Doctors Redcat and Vine for the three of them to go over and discuss recent entries in the medical journals each of them kept.

  "Anyone listening to us would likely be bored," she said after an hour of so. Half of her mind had been on the familiar sounds and movements of the ship. She could tell when the Ironbound's anchor dropped into the water.

  "I can't think why anyone would be bored," Dr. Vine replied, a humorous sparkle in his eyes.

  There was a knock, and Admiral North's yeoman came in. He said, "They are ready for you now, Dr. Cliff."

  Megere did not like the sound of that. It only now occurred to her that she would be required to go into the ocean again. Should she swear at the octopi or Adrew North? North, she decided, he would understand the anatomy concepts with far less trouble than the sea creatures.

  "And he's going with me," she muttered under her breath as she followed the yeoman. Not that she had any way of fulfilling this decision.

  She didn't have to worry about it because the first thing she saw when she came onto the main deck was Adrew North, stripped down to his shirt and trousers. His feet were bare.

  He turned his wide, infectious grin on her as she approached. "Don't stare at me, gel. Look over the side."

  She approached the rail with some trepidation and looked down at the water, and then up, and up. There it floated, a shining black teardrop at least three times the size of the Ironbound, which was the largest ship in the Fleet. Deeply indented swirls and squiggling patterns indented the creature's ebony skin.

  "Your drawing of it was quite accurate," North said, coming up beside her. "Except you did not manage to convey that its markings have a faint silver glow to them."

  "The light is not so bright as I remember - as the octopus remembered." Megere was quite in awe of the creature now that she saw it with her own eyes. "I really had no understanding of how truly huge it is."

  "There are octopi waving at us," he said. "Calling us to join them."

  Megere sighed. "I've noticed that."

  He put a hand on her shoulder. "What's happened to your sense of adventure, Dr. Cliff?"

  "I think I might have left it in the sickbay."

  "Or in your other sailor suit?"

  She had taken the time to change into an outfit for swimming.

  "We best get this over with," he said, and led her to the boat waiting to be lowered into the water.

  And down they went.

  The sailors on the oars rowed them as close to the creature as the octopi would allow, which left them closer to the Ironbound than to the beast. The glowing black sides of the thing loomed up over them. The amazing sight reminded Megere of the high cliffs from which her family took their name. Except the south eastern cliffs of Ang's main island were made of bright white chalk, not black glowing - flesh?

  A large octopus rose from the water. It tapped a tentacle on the side of the boat.

  "Sounds impatient," Lord North said.

  He stood, and gave Megere a hand up. Sailors gave their harnesses a quick, thorough check. After getting a thumbs-up from a crewman, she and North jumped into the water. They were clasping hands.

  The octopus grabbed hold of them and towed them within a few feet of the towering black bulk of the creature. Looking up at it, Megere tried to calm the compulsive fear that it was going to roll over, crushing them like the sinking hull of a foundering ship.

  "Well, doctor?" North asked. "What is that thing?"

  Despite the fact that they were chin deep in the ocean, and their bodies firmly circled by large tentacles, she managed to give him a scathing look.

  "Why don't we ask the octopus?" she said.

  The octopus agreed. Megere wasn't sure how she knew this, but she did. She might have thought communication between their species was getting easier, if pain slashing through her head didn't accompany the knowledge. She lived with the pain, as it came with the apologetic knowledge that the octopus did not have the time to be gentle.

  The star whale was dying.

  Could the airswimmers do anything? Did they know what it was? Why was it in the water? Had they seen the fall? Did the airswimmers make the whale fall from the sky? Why?

  The questions came at her like a cannon bombardment. Megere shook and shuddered in the tentacle's grasp.

  She had no answers to the questions. What she had was her own knowledge. I am a healer. Perhaps I can help it.

  Too hot to touch. Too strange to touch. We tried. We died.

  Their grief at their own losses flowed through Megere.

  Megere tasted the salt tears as they ran into the salt water already wetting her face. This was her last awareness of self. The whole world b
ecame seeinthedark octopus images.

  Too angular. Hard inside. How to move with angles?

  "Dr. Vine, her eyes are open."

  Airswimmer meaningsounds.

  Translate.

  No. Remember.

  Know.

  Dr. Vine. Face popped into memory.

  Soundmaker who?

  Blink. Blink. Airswim. Move angledhardlimb.

  Megere sat up. She turned her head, and recognized Dr. Redcat standing next to the bunk.

  "Ah," she said, and knew that she said, and what the sound meant though it meant very little.

  Dr. Vine's hand passed in front of her face. "Dr. Cliff? Can you see? Can you hear?"

  She managed to say, "Yes." Though the sound came out in a rather bubbling way. She raised her hands, looked at them, then rubbed her temples. Though it took her three times to find them. "I will not go through this again," she said. "He cannot make me do this again." Speaking of he. "How is Lord North? Where is Lord North?"

  "In the bunk beside you," Lord North answered for himself. "Whisper if you must speak, my head is being hammered from the inside."

  Megere looked at Dr. Vine. "How long has he been awake? And himself?"

  The next thing she knew North was pulling her to her feet.

  "Nooo...!" she complained. Her wail trailed after her as he pulled her from the sickbay.