No need to discuss Dag Korin with them. They would have plenty of time to learn the General’s little ways on the way to the Geyser Swirl.

5: ABOARD THE MOOD INDIGO

“I don’t believe you. You’ve made a mistake.” Friday Indigo nodded toward the cup in Bony’s hand. “That’s water. What else could it be?”

“I don’t know.” Bony sniffed at the cup. “I agree, it smells like water and it looks like water. But it’s fifteen percent denser than the drinking water we have on board.”

“You’re missing the obvious, Rombelle. As usual. Don’t you see what this is? It’s brine — salt water. If you had ever been on Earth, as I have, you would know.”

“I have been on Earth.” Bony cursed to himself. In his irritation with Friday Indigo he was doing what he never did: giving details of his own background.

“Then even you should have heard of the Dead Sea.” Friday Indigo took the cup from Bony’s hand. “The Dead Sea has so much salt in it, a person can’t sink. If you step into it, you just bob around on the surface with your shoulders out of the water.”

“I know that, sir.” Bony made a decision. He might be self-taught, but he had a near-perfect memory and he had taught himself a lot . If they were all going to die in the Geyser Swirl, he wouldn’t be talked down to any more by a nitwit like Indigo. “The Dead Sea is close to a quarter salts by weight. Mainly sodium chloride, magnesium chloride, and calcium chloride. Its density is twenty percent higher than ordinary water, even more than what we have here.”

“So this is obviously somewhere between ordinary seawater on Earth, and the Dead Sea.”

“No. The taste of water so full of salts is reported to be absolutely disgusting by anyone who has ever sampled it. This is a bit salty, but quite drinkable. Try it for yourself.”

Friday Indigo did not seem keen on the idea, but he cautiously raised the cup and took a minute sip. “It tastes like water. Ordinary water, salt and carbonated.”

“That’s right. Although I’m not sure the dissolved gas is carbon dioxide.”

“And still you say it isn’t water? What that tells me, Rombelle, is that you don’t know what you’re talking about. And while you stand here and debate the mysterious properties of perfectly ordinary water, let me remind you that we remain stuck at the bottom of the sea. I don’t want a discussion. I want to take the Mood Indigo back into space. So get to work.” Indigo put his hand on Liddy Morse’s arm as she seemed ready to follow Bony toward the lower level of the ship. “Not you, Liddy. It’s been a tense few hours, and I think I’ve earned a little rest and recreation. Let’s go.”

Liddy, to Bony’s annoyance, bowed her head submissively. He descended the ladder alone, heading for the tiny room that served as his combined study and workshop. On the way he stopped at the galley and grabbed a double handful of candy bars. He wasn’t sure that he would be able to work while Friday Indigo cavorted with Liddy above his head, but these might help.

In the study he stuffed a whole candy bar into his mouth and pulled up data on the airlocks of the Mood Indigo . There were three of them, one at the front end of the ship and two at the rear. All of them presented problems. The forward one faced vertically upward, while the other two might have been damaged on impact with the seabed. He would have to make an inspection, but before that he wanted to know if they could be used as sea-locks, even in principle.

He called up detailed schematics. It must be nice to be rich. Friday Indigo had bought a ship equipped with the best of everything, hardware and software. On the other hand, most of the test equipment had never been taken from its protective covers, and he could see from their access history that he was the first person to use these data routines.

Bony studied the airlock geometry and mechanics and gradually lost himself in his task. The first part would be easy. You put on an ordinary space-suit and moved into an airlock. You closed the inner hatch, exactly as usual. Then you opened the outer hatch. Instead of air gushing out into vacuum, water came in. Depending on the airlock position and your own density, you either floated into the sea or you walked out onto the seabed.

And then did what? Bony examined the characteristics of the suits. The air supply and air circulation were self-contained and would operate exactly as in space. The main question was thermal balance. The suit had to lose the heat generated internally by its occupant. That ought to be easier in water than in space, because you could lose heat by conduction and convection as well as by radiation.

Easier in water. In spite of anything that Friday Indigo might say, it was not ordinary water. So what was it? Bony became aware of an idea that had been wandering around the fringes of his consciousness. He called for access to a completely different data base, and for on-line assistance. The next ten minutes flashed by as he and the ship’s computer looked up basic physical constants and did calculations.

At the end of that time Bony smacked his hand on the desktop. Yes! He still had to perform a couple of tests, but the ship carried a small mass spectrograph for use in calibrating the fusion drive, and that should be all he needed.

He had been right; and so, oddly enough, had Friday Indigo. Bony decided he didn’t want to think about Friday. He helped himself to another candy bar and forced himself back to his main task.

So you were in your suit, wandering around in the sea outside the ship. You were making engineering modifications designed to allow you to use the auxiliary thrustors underwater — another design task to be solved — but you couldn’t stay outside too long. You had to come back in through the airlock to replenish your suit supplies. Normally, that was straightforward. You simply entered the lock, closed the outer hatch, and flooded the lock with air to replace the hard vacuum of space.

But it would not be a vacuum in the lock. It would be at least partly water, the water that entered when you opened the hatch to go outside. Therefore, you could not close the outer hatch when you flooded the lock with air. You had to leave the hatch open . The hatch could not be at the top of the lock, either, otherwise the air would just bubble up toward the surface and be lost. The hatch must be at the bottom of the lock, so new-pumped air would force water out. When all the water had gone, you could at last remove your suit, open the inner hatch, and enter the ship.

Bony turned to the lock configurations. Given the present orientation of the Mood Indigo … forward lock, outer hatch faced upward, no good … aft lock Number One, outer hatch facing upward, no good. Aft lock Number Two, outer hatch facing downward — and it was slightly higher, which ought to mean it was clear of the seabed.

Bony leaned back in triumph and was shocked to see Liddy Morse standing in front of him. He had been so engrossed in his work that he hadn’t heard her come in.

If she was here, it meant that she and Indigo … “Liddy. Are you all right?”

“Of course I’m all right. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You and Indigo. I thought — did he — did the two of you—”

“He’s asleep. Stop worrying. He’s not my favorite person, but I owe him something. He did buy out my contract, you know. You’re not from Earth, so you can’t imagine what life is like in the Gallimaufries. Believe me, I’ve had to put up with a lot worse than Friday Indigo.” She was studying him. “You don’t like to hear about him, do you?”

“Not especially.”

“Then let’s not talk about him. Tell me what you were doing before you knew I was here. You looked so happy and pleased with yourself.”

“I was working. Deciding how to get outside and come back inside. Liddy, I’ve figured out what’s outside! What the liquid is.”