The Watch Below (26 page)

"What he's really getting at, Commander," said the admiral drily,
"is when are you going to stop malingering in bed and go to work? Every
Unthan message we've received -- and your young people have translated
quite a few for us -- has asked how Wah-Lass is doing. They seem to like
you as well as trust you, for some odd reason. How did you do it?"
Wallis already knew that he was to be the human ambassador to the Unthans
on earth, that he would probably spend the rest of his life living under
the sea and talking to Heglenni and Gunt and the others and teaching
members of his own race to talk to them, too. He knew it and accepted
it. In fact, the truth was that he was horribly afraid of the open sky
and the tall buildings and trees, which always seemed to be about to
fall on him. Unlike the young people who had survived and who seemed
more able to adapt, Wallis was going back to the sea bed. But this time,
the admiral had assured him, he would be as warm and dry and well fed
as he was here in the Naval hospital.
And he knew that the admiral and the Army officer with the glasses were
not criticizing him in any way, that they were deeply concerned for him
and that their respect for him was quite embarrassing -- Wallis had listened
to too many people talking in absolute darkness for him to be mistaken in
a tone of voice. The question about malingering was simply a pleasantry
and the second . . . well, how
had
he done it?
"We had something in common," said Wallis. "Both our ships were at sea
for a long, long time. . . ."
The
Watch
Below
They were a handful of men and women trapped in
the hull of a sunken ship; they were miraculously alive and
horrifyingly imprisoned by thousands of tons of water.
There was little hope of rescue.
No chance of escape.
All they could do except die was survive . . . and they did.
Not just for hours, or weeks, but for years, for
generations. Exercising their minds to incalculable
degrees and never giving up, they forged an
impossible world around them -- unaware that in the
heavens above an alien race on its own desperate
odyssey was struggling for life.