Xiantha (The Ammonite Galaxy Series, Book 3)

Chapter Four

SIX WAS NOT particularly optimistic about this swim. He thought the chances of finding traces of Arcan in the lake were slim to none, but he also felt that they had to try. It would be terrible if they were to leave part of Arcan trapped down here without trying to rescue him.

He sank down into the watery fluid, and began to swim strongly towards the centre of the lake, taking care to disturb the liquid as little as possible. It was ironic, he thought, that his life would probably come to an end here – 30,000 light years from home, in a dungeon on a windswept planet. He had fully expected to die during the battles for Kwaide, and yet he had come through all that virtually unscathed.

He saw an amorph just in front of him in the liquid and swerved to avoid it. It accelerated suddenly, swept past him at a high speed and disappeared towards the centre of the lake, overtaking him easily. His hand detected a slight wave of heat the amorph had made as it passed, and he drew his arm back, surprised. After a moment, he investigated a little more, and found that it was quite possible to track the little creature, simply by following the flashes of heat which swept through the lake. The amorphs could travel quickly through the fluid, then, but left a distinctive pattern of heat when they did.

As fast as it had started, the heat trail dissipated into the surrounding liquid, leaving no trace. He looked around him, until he spotted another amorph cruising past, and then went quickly over to see if that, too, was leaving a heat signature. It was. Being hyperfluid, the ortholiquid simply transmitted the heat in a wave through the lake, but it was definitely detectable for a short time. Six remembered that the Sellites had called the phenomenon second sound. And the amorphs were moving much more quickly in this medium than they had on land. They were clearly very used to traveling in this way.

Slowly Six began to approach the centre of the lake. The roof of the cavern lowered at this point, almost touching the surface of the liquid, so it was relatively easy to see where to go. As he got nearer, he found more and more of the amorphs, until he was touching them as he swam. These, however, were barely moving, though they seemed hotter to the touch, leaving a strong residual heat signature in the lake. Nowhere was there any sign of Arcan, or of the bracelets. He began to lose hope of ever finding the orthogel entity in this enormous area. The lake itself covered macrocubits; there was simply no way he could hope to explore all of it. And he had already dived beneath the surface a couple of times, to find that the lake was too deep for him to be able to touch bottom.

Just swimming in the ortholiquid was a strange experience. It felt almost as if he were swimming through air, due to the lack of friction. Yet for some reason, there was buoyancy, and if he rested his arms momentarily he found himself floating. It was strange.

Well. At least it hadn’t ejected him – yet. He rested for a few moments to catch his breath, and then swam on firmly, pushing the amorphs aside, and hoping that they wouldn’t burn him.

Finally he reached the lowest point of the roof, at the centre of the lake. He found to his surprise that, instead of being deeper here, it was more shallow, and close to where the ceiling dipped into the ortholiquid of the lake he was able to stand, although his head almost touched the smooth rock above him. He relaxed slightly, and took stock of his surroundings.

The amorphs were thickly congregated here in the middle of the lake. There must have been hundreds of them, and they seemed not to want to notice his presence. And yet . . . Six blinked. There were three of the creatures right in front of him that seemed to be trying to get his attention. He blinked again. No, he wasn’t imagining it. Three amorphs in particular were bobbing under his hands, trying to encourage him to move. They were quite insistent; the pressure they were putting on him was enough to make him lose his footing on the floor of the lake, and he found his legs beginning to float to the surface again.