CHAPTER 9
Softly I shut the hatch. Swiftly I opened the one in the floor and slipped into the water. Closing it behind me, I swam back out into the open sea and used my flight pack to drive myself quickly away from the end of the tube, back to the structures that could hide me.
If the trio suspected that someone else had been in the air lock, they gave no sign of it. They came out, with helmets and flippers back in place, gathered up their tools and swam back toward the Skorpis base. I waited awhile, then followed at a more leisurely pace, bobbing up to the surface every few minutes to gulp in air, rather like a dolphin.
There were underwater piers at the Skorpis base, too, but they were far smaller than the ancient ruins. Only two of them, and so new that hardly a barnacle had attached itself to them as yet.
I could see above me the shadow of a pier built over the water’s surface, extending out the same length as this underwater shaft. Cautiously I rose to the surface for a fresh swallow of air. So far so good. I was almost inside the Skorpis base. Almost. It surprised me that the Skorpis had not set out electronic security systems underwater to protect their base from any possible seaborne threat. And the trio I had seen in the water had been unarmed. It was as if they expected no enemy attack, almost as if this was not a military base at all.
And there was at least one human working with them.
The sun was sinking into the sea, throwing a reddish gold glow over the wave tops. I treaded water for a while, bobbing up and down as each fresh crest of the incoming tide surged past me. I was close enough to the enemy to hear them walking along the pier above my head, to hear their voices as they worked and talked and complained about their situation the way all soldiers do everywhere, in any era.
“Protecting a litter of humans,” one voice griped. “This isn’t the life of a warrior.”
“Maybe you’d rather have been with Second Battalion,” said its companion.
“At least they got to use their claws.”
“They’re all dead. Is that what you want to be?”
“We should’ve sent in both battalions.”
“No, we shouldn’t have sent in either one. We should’ve nuked those hairless apes in the first place, not wasted a whole battalion trying to capture their damnable transceiver.”
“Well, anyway, we’re stuck with guard duty.”
“Do you trust ’em?”
“Who?”
“The humans, who else? They say they’re scientists, but do you think we can trust them? Or are they really spies?”
“How the hell should I know? They all look alike to me. The gray furs make those decisions.”
“Like the decision to try to capture the enemy transceiver.”
“Yes. Just like that.”
There was more than one human in the Skorpis camp. And they were scientists, apparently. My head buzzed with the possibilities. Perhaps this was the way for me to penetrate farther into their camp.
I gave the matter a few moments’ thought. No sense waiting until dark. Boldness might work where stealth would be detected.
Hoping that all humans truly did look alike to these Skorpis warriors, I wormed my shoulders out of the flight-pack harness and fastened it to the underside of the pier. With some feelings of trepidation, I also unbuckled my gunbelt and left the laser pistol and knife there, as well. Then I reached up, grabbed the edge of the pier and hauled myself up out of the water.
“Who the hell…?” The two Skorpis on the pier were evidently sentries. They both had rifles, which they immediately unslung from their shoulders and pointed at me.
“Identify yourself!” said the larger of the two. Both of them were enormous, towering above my height and twice my bulk.
“Orion,” I said, trying to smile disarmingly. “I got separated from the others and just made it back.”
“I’ve never seen you before.”
“Just arrived a few days ago,” I said.
“There’s been no resupply mission here for months,” said the Skorpis. Both their rifles were pointed at my chest.