Solbidyum Wars Saga 6: Defeat of the Tottalax (28 page)

The viewing lounge on the lower level of the sub was impressive to say the least, and I felt like I was living inside my giant aquarium on the
NEW ORLEANS,
only on a much larger scale.  Through the transparent hull, I could see schools of fish swimming about in the crystal clear waters on the planet.  I thought about what I had been told earlier concerning the diet of the Zenandu being plankton, but with the clarity of the water, I couldn’t imagine there being enough plankton in the water to feed them.  As I was staring out into the water, I heard a pleasant female voice beside me ask, “Excuse me, Admiral, my name is Truath, I’m the ship’s marine biologist; you look like you have a question.  Might I assist you in some way?”  I turned looking at her and found myself staring at a beautiful lady with light honey-blond hair, and of a similar build and height as Kala.  She also shared many of the facial features similar to Kala, including the same incredible blue eyes.

“Ah, yes, ah, nice to meet you, Truath.  I was just wondering about the Zenandu.  I was told they were plankton eaters, but the water here is so clear, I can’t imagine that there is enough plankton out there to feed them.”

Truath laughed, “Well to be honest, nearer to the shores there are not a lot of plankton, and you will note there aren’t any Zenandu swimming about out there, either.  The plankton on Irribis tends to live in a cloud-like swarm further out from shore, and generally range at a water depth of five to 40 meters.”

“So the plankton are capable of swimming and don’t merely float with the currents?”  I asked.

“Correct, though their swimming abilities aren’t all that great.”

“How do they manage to school?  Do they have eyes?”  I asked.

“No, but they do sense light.  At night time, they drop down deeper in the seas and then at light they rise up to about five to 10 meters below the surface.  How they manage to school and form swarms is one of the mysteries we’ve been working on for years, but we’re no closer to finding answers than we were when we started.”

“So this ship is some sort of research sub then?”  I asked.

“No, not really, though it is chartered frequently by research teams,” she answered.

“If you forgive my curiosity, why are you working on this sub then; why not with a research team?”

Truath blushed for a moment before she replied, “Irribis is overrun with marine biologists. We have five times more of them than the planet really needs. This sub takes a lot of wealthy clients out on site seeing adventures, and most of them want to know all sorts of trivial things about what they see.  I was fortunate enough to get a job aboard as an official marine biologist capable of answering their questions.  It’s not the most interesting job a marine biologist could have, but it pays well, and I get huge tips from the wealthier clients.  I earn more working here than I would on a research team, but to be honest, I would much rather be working on research.”

By now, the sub had gotten underway, and we were slowly descending as we moved away from the pier and the island.  Nearby several large fish swam that looked much like manta rays from Earth only their wing-like bodies were longer, and shaped into more of a “V” shape than the delta shape I was accustomed to seeing.

“Those are garus,” Truath said as she noted me watching them.  “They can accelerate to incredible speeds, leaping out of the water and then diving back in and descending rapidly from above to capture their prey.  They are quite intelligent and hunt in groups of three to five, often herding other fishes to points of ambush by members in their group.”

“Intelligent?  You mean like the Zenandu or the Uhangi?”

“No, nothing on that level, but they do communicate with their own species in a primitive language of sorts, at least enough that they can coordinate their hunting.  No one I know of has ever been able to communicate with them; the Zenandu and Uhangi are not able to communicate with them, and both do not think very highly of the Garus.”

“Have you ever communicated with any of the sentient life forms on this planet?”  I asked.

“I’ve had the opportunity to communicate with both a Zenandu and Uhangi.  I've not had the opportunity with a Robalas, though we did try once, but we were ignored,” she replied.

“What’s it like?  Talking to the Zenandu and Uhangi?”

“Very different.  You are never sure if you really are talking about the same things.  Their way of thinking and speaking is hard to follow, and they use lots of metaphors, or at least, the translator translates them that way.  You are always wondering if you interpreted things correctly.”

“I understand the Uhangi like music,” I said.

“Like is an understatement; they seem obsessed with it.  On one visit, in the area we are going today, we played some music.  Several Uhangi appeared and performed what I can only assume to be dances.  Either that, or it was some sort of mating ritual set to the music we were playing.  We have recordings of it if you would like to see it,” she said.

“Maybe later.  Right now, I am interested in communicating with the Uhangi.  What can you tell me about them?"

“Well, they tend to be shy creatures, and though they have an outer shell they can retreat into, they can swim.  They prefer to hide at the bottom during the day and generally only swim about in the night.  They will make short forays during the day, but never more than a few meters from where they spent the night.”

“You said that the place we are going has several Uhangi; I thought they were solitary and didn’t like having others of their own species about.”

“That was the thinking up until recently when smaller colonies, like the one we are going to, were discovered.  Now many of our scientists believe that they may all live in small groups, and we just never saw the others.”

“What do the Uhangi have to say about it?  Surely they should be able to tell you.”

“That’s one of the problems in communication with them.  They don’t seem to have any words for town, city, gathering, etc. and as far as distances you could have two Uhangi living three meters apart or 30 kilometers apart, and to them, it’s all the same.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said, “ we were hoping the Uhangi might be able to provide us with information that could help us locate something under the seas here on Irribis, but if they have no way of communicating distances it will be useless.”

“What are you looking for?  Perhaps I can help,” she said with an earnest look.  I pondered her offer, wondering if I could trust her.  How did I know she wasn’t a Brotherhood sympathizer?

“Perhaps,” I said.  “Would you mind taking a Federation loyalty test before I ask you?”

“Is it going to hurt?”  She asked.

I chuckled, “No, and it will only take a minute or so.”

“Then I don’t mind,” she answered.

“Marranalis,” I said to him as he was standing nearby, “do you have one of the loyalty testing headbands with you.”

“Yes sir,” he replied, “There is one in the gear we brought aboard.  The security team usually carry one along on all missions.”

“Have one of our team administer the test to Truath.”

While Truath was being tested, I found a seat near the bow of the submersible and sat where I could watch our course and see the aquatic life passing by.  The bottom sloped off gradually from the beach, and the sub followed it, traveling at a distance of about eight meters above the ocean floor.  I saw many varied colored coral type structures and numerous fish of all shapes, sizes and colors.  I saw one particularly large creature that resembled a giant ugly toad, with a huge toad-like mouth, that must have been nearly half the size of a human.  It didn’t seem to swim but instead shuffled about on the sea floor with large feet-like fins that stirred up huge puffs of sand and silt as it moved about.

“That’s a basiff,” Truath said as she came up beside me.  She had just completed her testing.  I glanced at the trooper who had administered her loyalty test, and he gave me an affirmative nod, indicating she had passed the test.

“Is it intelligent?” I asked, thinking that something that large might be.

Truath laughed, “It’s as dumb as a rock.  In fact, it sort of eats rocks.”  Just as she said this I saw the creature move up to a clump of the coral and take a huge bite out of it, smoke-like clouds of the fragmented coral puffing from its mouth as it chewed.

“See,” Truath said, “It actually eats coral.  The basiff has very powerful jaws and crushes the wossaf with them and then digests the small living creatures within.”

“Wossaf?  Are they the creatures that build those rock-like structures?”  I asked.

“Yes, there are three species of animals that eat the wossaf, of the three the basiff is the largest.  Fortunately for the wossaf, the basiff are not great in number and are slow breeders.

“Interesting,” I muttered.

“So, Admiral, now that I have passed your test, what is it you are looking for?”

“Before I tell you, I need your word that you will not repeat any of this, and that you treat this information as top secret and highly classified,” I added.

“Yes, the sergeant who administered my test already had me take an oath of secrecy, recorded my oath, and did a retinal identity scan,” she said.  “I am guessing this mission must have something to do with the ship that was rumored to have crashed into the sea several months ago.”

“What?  Where?  When did this happen?  We’ve heard nothing about that,” I stammered.

“Several months back, I’m not sure how many to be exact, but it’s less than a year, I am sure of that.  There was a fishing boat came in and a crew member aboard claimed he had seen a spaceship crash into the sea.  I believe the coastal patrols sent out a search vessel, but they found nothing.  Furthermore, as I recall there were no reports of any spaceships going missing in the area, and it was assumed the sailor may have been drinking at the time of the incident.  I’m sure if you check with the coastal authorities, they can provide you with all the details.”

“Thanks, we’ll do that.  That may be related to what we are looking for.  We have reason to believe that there may be an underwater base somewhere in this region of the planet.  It would be in deep water, or else highly disguised.  The enemy has spaceships that can also submerge and travel under water and their hulls are pressurized; so it’s not impossible that a spaceship may have landed in the water and submerged while heading to their base.”

“I see,” Truath said, “I’m assuming by the way you worded it that this base is not a Federation base and belongs to an enemy like the Brotherhood?”

“Something like that,” I answered.

Then she gasped, “You don’t think it could be the Tottalax, do you?  There is a Tottalax living here on Irribis.  Did you know that?”

“Yes, we’re aware of the Tottalax here, in fact, he is in our custody now, but we don’t think this base is a Tottalax base.  Most likely, it’s a Brotherhood base.”

“The Brotherhood!  Here on Irribis?  I wouldn’t think Irribis would be of much interest to them,” she said.

“We don’t think they are, at least not as far as wanting to occupy the planet.  Most likely, they intend to trade it to the Tottalax in exchange for their help.”

“So you think the Tottalax here on Irribis is an advanced scout of some sort?”  She asked.

“We don’t know at this point.  That's part of what we are trying to determine, but that’s not what we are interested in at the moment.  We’re hoping to find out if there is a Brotherhood base here.”

“So then you aren’t really looking for an Uhangi to communicate with and are just using that as a ruse to explain the trip.”

“No, we really are looking for an Uhangi to communicate with.  We’re hoping, since they are known to venture into deeper waters, that they may know something about an underwater base in this sector of the ocean.”

“This ought to be interesting,” Truath said, “Just what do you plan to ask the Uhangi?”

“If they have seen any new or unusual being built on the sea floor in deep water,” I said.

“Admiral I don’t mean to upset your plans, but you must realize that words like ‘build’, ‘ship’, and ‘deep’ don’t exist in the Uhangi vocabulary.  They are unknown concepts to them.  They do not have a word for ‘manufacture’ either.  I think you are going to need my services more than you realize if we find an Uhangi.”

“I hadn’t thought of that.  However, if they are so hard to communicate with, how was a treaty ever made with them and how did they qualify to be admitted to the Federation?”

“Hmm, that’s a bit difficult to answer.  First of all, of the three intelligent species on Irribis, the Uhangi are the middle in intelligence.  The Zenandu are least in intelligence, and the Robalas are the most intelligent.”

“We were told the Robalas are very hard to locate and to talk with.” I responded.

“That is true, but they are the most intelligent and have the best communication skills.  However, little that surface dwellers have to say is of interest to them, and they seldom stay around to talk.”

“How was a treaty ever made if that’s the case, and what do they trade or have to offer to the Federation?”  I asked, feeling somewhat frustrated by the new information.

“I can’t say about the treaty, but as far as trade is concerned, I know there are some rare minerals on this planet that form in nodules on the sea floor.  The sentient citizens of Irribis allow the subsea mining of some of these nodules in exchange for music.  The Robalas and the Uhangi will occasionally bring pieces of these nodules to collection points where they trade them in for the opportunity to listen to a piece of music.”

“What about the Zenandu?”  I asked.  “How do they benefit?”

“There are some areas on the sea floor near the polar regions that have large concentrations of the nodules, the Robalas and the Uhangi don’t like this region for some reason, but the Zenandu do.  In exchange for allowing mining companies to harvest the sea floor of the nodules in that area, the Zenandu receive payments weekly in the form of underwater concerts.”

Suddenly, I began to laugh, and Truath gave me a funny look.

“What do you find funny about that?” she asked.

“I just remembered an old expression from my home world.  They used to say when someone worked very cheaply and was underpaid that they were
working for a song
.  I guess that’s what the natives here are doing,” I chuckled.

“Oh, no, they don’t work for a song.  They hate humans’ singing; they just want the music,” she said quite seriously, which only made me laugh harder.

It took us nearly two hours to reach the location where we were told we might find an Uhangi.  The area was deep enough that the light was considerably dimmer, despite the clarity of the water.  Even so, wossaf still appeared to grow in number, as well as long, stem like plants, or animals that reminded me of crinoid fossils back on Earth.

“So now what do we do?”  I asked to no one in particular.