"What can we do? Ride back to Earth?"

             "I had thought to catch the vessel which now approaches."

             She saw through the dome a smaller version of their Jonah, arcing up from one of the portal holes in the air layer. Seeker had said the Jonah was one of the indentured of its species, caged in an endless cycle between Earth and moon. The smaller Jonah dipped into the lunar air, enjoying some tiny freedom. She felt a trace of pity for such living vessels, but then she saw something which banished minor troubles. A great mass came into view, closing with them from a higher orbit.

             "What's . . ."

             "We approach a momentary mating."

             "Mating? They actually ... in flight?"

             "They are always in flight."

             "But . . . that thing, it's so huge. "

             "It is a Leviathan. Jonahs are its spawn. As it swoops closest to the sun, desires well in it, as they have for ages past. We shall simply take advantage of the joy of merging."

             As the great bulk glided effortlessly toward them she surveyed its mottled blue-green skin, the tangled jungles it held to the sun's eternal nourishing blare.

             Cley could not help but smile. "I think I prefer my lust in smaller doses."

29

             Grand beings communicate through emissaries. Slow, ponderous oscillations began to course through the Jonah. Cley saw a watery bubble pop into space from the Jonah's leathery skin nearby. It wobbled, seeking definition, and made itself into an ellipsoid.

             "Hurry," Seeker said. "Departure."

             Seeker adroitly tugged her along through green labyrinths. When they came to the flared mouth of what seemed to be a giant hollow root, it shoved her ahead. She tumbled head over heels and smacked into a softly resilient pad. Velvet-fine hairs oozing white sap stuck to her. A sharp, meaty flavor clung in her nose. She felt light-headed and realized that the air was thick with vapor that formed and dissolved and met again in billowing, translucent sheets. Seeker slapped away a rubbery blob as big as a man but seemed unconcerned. A hissing began. They were drifting down the bore of a narrowing tube. The walls glowed with pearly softness and she felt the sap cloaking her feet and back.

             Seeker snagged a shimmering plate and launched it like an ancient discus toward her. The sticky stuff" wrapped around her and Seeker slapped the other end against a denser strand. They gathered speed in a swirl of refracting light. Cley held her breath, frightened by the hectic hiss around them.

             "What—" she began, but a soft cool ball of sap caught against her mouth when she breathed in. She blew it away and felt Seeker next to her as the wall glow ebbed. The ribbed tube ahead flexed, bulged—and they shot through into the hard glare of space. The Jonah had blown a rubbery bubble. A sap envelope enclosed them, quickly making a perfect sphere.

             "The Jonah is making love to the Leviathan," Seeker said, holding her firmly.

             "We're seeds?"

             "So we have deceived it, yes."

             "What happens when something tries to hatch us?"

             "We disregard the invitation."

             Such politeness seemed doubtful; they were closing with the broad speckled underbelly, the Jonah already dwindling behind. The speckles were clusters of ruby-dark froth. The Leviathan was at least ten times the size of the Jonah, giving the sex act an air of comedy. As they approached she felt new fear at the enormity of it; this creature was the size of a small mountain range.

             This time they donated momentum to their new host through a web of bubbles that seemed to pop and re-form as they plunged through, each impact a small buff^eting that sent Cley bouncing off the elastic walls of their own seed-sphere.

             When they came to rest a large needle expertly jabbed at their bubble. The ruby light gave a hellish, threatening cast to everything. The needle entered, seemed to snifl" around, its sharp point moving powerfully and quite capable, Cley saw, of skewering them both— and Seeker raised a leg and urinated directly onto it. The needle jerked back and fled.

             "No, thank you," Seeker said. Their bubble popped, releasing them.

             Again Seeker led her through a dizzy maze of verdant growths, following clues she could not see. "Where're we going?"

             "To find the Captain."

             "Somebody guides this?"

             "Doesn't your body guide you?"

             "Well, where's this Leviathan going?"

             "To the outer worlds."

             "You think we're safe here for now?"

             "We are safe nowhere. But here we hide in numbers."

             "You figure the Mad Mind can't be sure where I am? It tracked me pretty well so far."

             "Here there are many more complex forms than you. They will smother your traces."

             "What about this talent of mine? Can't this Mind pick up my, well, my 'smell'?"

             "That is possible."

             "Damn! Wish Seranis hadn't provoked mine to activity."

             "She had to."

             Cley had been following Seeker closely, scrambling to keep up as they bounced from rubbery walls and glided down curved passageways, deeper into the Leviathan. Seeker's remark made her stop for a moment, gasping in the sweet, cloying air. ''Had to?"

             "You will need it. And the talent takes time to grow."

             Cley wanted to bellow out her frustration at the speed and confusion of events, but she knew by now that Seeker would only give her its savage, black-lipped grin. Seeker slowed and veered into crowded layers of great broad leaves. These seemed to attach to branches, but the scale was so large Cley could not see where the gradually thickening, dark brown wood ended. Among the leaves scampered and leaped many small creatures.

             She found that without her noticing any transition somehow this zone had gained a slight gravity. She fell from one leaf to another, slid down to a third, and landed on a catlike creature. It died in her hands, provoking a pang of guilt. The cat had wings and sleek orange fur. Seeker came ambling along a thin branch, saw the bird-cat, and with a few movements skinned it and plucked off gobbets of meat.

             The goal of finding the Captain faded as both grew hungry. It slowly dawned on Cley that this immense inner territory was not some comfortable green lounge for passengers. It was a world, intact and with its own purposes.

             Passengers were in no way special. They had to compete for advantages and food. This point came clear when they chanced upon a large beast lying partly dismembered on a branch. Seeker stopped, pensively studying the savaged hulk. Cley saw that the fur markings, snout and wide teeth resembled Seeker's.

             "Your, uh, kind?"

             "We had common origins."

             Cley could not read anything resembling sadness in Seeker's face. "How many of you are there?"

             "Not enough. Though the numbers mean nothing."

             "You knew this one?"