"God save us!" he said. "If we breed on this planet will our offspring all be deformed?"

Brett was caught first by the man's accent, an odd lilting in the way he spoke, then by the words. The man looked at Mermen and Islanders with the same obviously revolted expression.

Kareen, shocked, shot a glance at Brett and then at the cabin full of giant humans, the looks of dazed withdrawal slowly vanishing from all of those faces - those strangely similar faces. Kareen wondered how these people could identify each other ... except for the variations in skin tone. They all looked so much alike!

It dawned on her then that she was seeing Ship-normals ... human-normals. She, with her small stature and partly webbed toes, she was the freak.

Ship! How would these newcomers take to people like the Chief Justice or even Queets Twisp with his ungainly arms? What would they say on encountering the C/P?

The foil grated against rock then ... again ... again. It lifted slightly and was set down hard on a solid surface.

"We've arrived," Scudi said.

"And we're going to have to deal with GeLaar Gallow somehow," Panille said.

"If the kelp hasn't already done it for us," Kareen said.

"There's no telling what it'll do," Panille said. "I'm afraid Twisp was right. It's not to be trusted."

"It can be damned convincing, though," Brett said, recalling the touch of hylighters at the hatchway.

"That's its real danger," Panille said.

***

Twisp could hear Gallow's people talking down in the basin, a nervousness in their chatter that told him the strength of his own position. Gallow had brought him up a narrow trail cut in the rock and out onto a flat promontory that jutted seaward on the southeastern edge of the outpost. A breeze blew against Twisp's face.

"One day, I will have my administrative building here," he said, gesturing expansively.

Twisp glanced around him at the black rock sparkling with mineral fragments in the light of both suns. He had seen many days such as this one - both suns up, the sea rolling easily under a blanket of kelp - but never from such a vantage. Not even the highest point on Vashon commanded such a view - high, solid and unmoving.

Gallow would build here?

Twisp tried to catch snatches of the conversations from below them, but mostly it was words of nervousness that permeated this place. Gallow was not immune to it.

"The hyb tanks will be coming down soon," he said, "and I'll have them!"

Twisp looked out at all that kelp, remembering Nakano's words. "He needs your help."

"How will you recover the tanks?" Twisp asked, his tone reasonable. He felt no need to mention the ring of kelp around this rocky outcrop lifting from the sea. From this vantage, it appeared to Twisp that the kelp was even closer than it had been when he and Nakano had swum away from the foil.

"LTAs," Gallow said, pointing at the partly filled bags of three LTAs waiting on their pad. The Mermen working around the LTAs appeared to be the only purposeful figures in the basin.

"It would help, of course, if we had your foil," Gallow said. "I'm prepared to offer a great deal in return for that."

"You have a foil," Twisp said. "I saw it anchored next to the lee side of this place." He kept his tone casual, thinking how like so many other times this was - bargaining for the best price on his catch.

"We both know the kelp won't give passage to our foil," Gallow said. "But if you were to return to your foil with Nakano ..."

Twisp took a deep breath. Yes, this was like bargaining for his catch, but there was a profound difference. You could respect the fish-buyers even while you opposed them. Gallow revolted him. Twisp fought to keep this emotion out of his voice.

"I don't know that you have anything to offer me," he said.

"Power! A share in the new Pandora!"

"Is that all?"

"All?" Gallow appeared truly surprised.

"Seems to me the new Pandora's going to happen anyway. I don't see where you're going to have much influence in it, the kelp wanting your hide and all."

"You don't understand," Gallow said. "Merman Mercantile controls most of the food sources, the processing. Kareen Ale can be bent to our needs and her shares will -"

"You don't have Kareen Ale."

"With your foil ... and the people in it ..."

"From what I could see, Shadow Panille has Kareen Ale. And as far as Scudi Wang is concerned -"

"She's a child who -"

"I think maybe she's a very wealthy child."

"Exactly! Your foil and the people in it are the key!"

"But you don't have that key. I have it."

"And I have you," Gallow said, his voice hard.

"And the kelp has Chairman Keel," Twisp said.

"But it does not have me and I still have the means of recovering the hyb tanks. The LTAs will be clumsier and slower, but they can do it."

"You're offering me a subordinate position in your organization," Twisp said. "What's to prevent me from grabbing it all once I'm back on the foil?"

"Nakano."

Twisp chewed his lip to keep from laughing. Gallow had very little buying power. None at all, really, with the kelp against him and the foil in the hands of someone who wanted to beat him to the tanks. Twisp looked up at the sky. The tanks would be coming down within sight of this place, Gallow said. His people at the Launch Base had alerted Gallow. And that was another consideration: Gallow had followers in many places ... Islanders as well.

But the hyb tanks!

Twisp could not prevent a deep sense of excitement at the thought of them. He had grown up on stories speculating about the tanks' contents. They were a bag of prizes meant to humanize Pandora.

Could the kelp prevent that?

Twisp turned and looked at the LTAs. No doubt those things could move above the kelp's reach. But would the kelp let airborne humans pluck the prize from the sea? It all depended on where the tanks came down. There was kelp-free sea surface visible from this high point. A very uncertain lottery, though.

Gallow moved up beside Twisp to "share his view of the outpost's interior basin and its waiting LTAs.

"There's my fallback position," Gallow said. He nodded toward the LTAs.

Twisp knew what he would do now if this were bargaining for his catch. Threaten to go to another buyer. Get caustic and let this buyer know he had no status in the larger game.

"I think you're nothing but eelshit," Twisp said. "Concentrate on the facts. If the tanks land in kelp, you're finished. Without hostages, you're just a pitiful handful of people on one little bit of land. You may have followers elsewhere but I'm betting they'll desert you the second they recognize how powerless you really are."

"I still have you," Gallow grated. "And don't make any mistakes about what I can do to you!"

"What can you do?" Twisp asked, his voice at its most reasonable. "We're alone up here. All I have to do is grab you and dive off this place into the sea. The kelp will get us both."

Gallow smiled and slipped a lasgun from the pouch pocket at his waist.

"I thought you'd have one of those," Twisp said.

"I would take great pleasure in cutting you into pieces slowly," Gallow said.

"Except that you need me," Twisp said. "You're no gambler, Gallow. You like sure things."

Gallow scowled.

Twisp inclined his head toward the LTAs. The bags were beginning to swell. Someone was pumping hydrogen into them.

"Those are not a sure thing," Twisp said.

Gallow forced his features into a semblance of a smile. He looked down at the weapon in his hand. "Why are we arguing?"