Fragment

9:34 P.M.

The hendropods sent up a chorus of shrieking whistles in the distance as Captain Sol disengaged the winch.

“What just happened?” Cynthea asked.

“I don’t know, but it wasn’t good!” Captain Sol growled.

Andy’s glasses flew off when he hit the water, but he could see the sinking glow of Hender through the murk and he dove down to grab his arm and pull him up. Hender gave a whistling gasp as his head emerged from the ocean. Andy spun Hender’s body around and began kicking to push him toward the raft, paddling with his size-eleven shoes as hard as he could.

“Reach, Hender, reach!” Andy yelled, and spluttered seawater.

Hender wheezed and shuddered.

“You’re close, come on, Hender!” Andy heard Nell shout, and it inspired the marine biologist to kick harder.

Nell saw the floating spiger convulse on the surface of the water behind Andy. “Reach, Hender!” she implored.

The hendropods shrieked and cowered at the bow, retreating from the spiger and the sloshing water in the raft.

The humans reached out over the edge of the raft and Hender stretched out one of his long, trembling upper arms.

Andy pushed Hender forward with one hand pressed against the thick silken fur of his back as he stroked the water with his other.

Nell dove in and grasped Hender’s trembling hand, while Geoffrey grabbed her foot and held on-but her Adidas shoe slipped off, so he grabbed her bare foot, and then all the humans grabbed Geoffrey around the waist and pulled to keep him in the raft.

Hender was torn from Andy’s grasp as the humans grabbed hold of his various hands. As soon as they hoisted him out of the water his entire trembling body twisted and shook the water from his fur violently. Andy treaded water for a moment, trying to catch his breath, then a wave crashed against the side of his head and he choked, coughing water. He popped his head up, disoriented, and turned to see a fuzzy patch of glowing colors moving toward him with a spreading blackness at its center.

Spasms contorted the stunned spiger as it kicked its legs and raised its head out of the water. “ANDY!” screamed Nell, as she and the hendros comforted Hender. Flexing open all four jaws in a final convulsion, the spiger saw Andy now.

“Turn around, swim, fast!”

Confused, Andy swam toward the spiger.

The other hendros all moved from the bow and waded into the water sloshing inside the raft. In the center of the Zodiac, they clung to each other and one reached out a long arm toward Andy like the boom of a crane.

“Turn around, Andy!” Zero hollered. “Damn, it -turn around!”

Suddenly, Andy realized the blurry glow was not Hender.

Andy swiveled in the water.

The hendro’s hand dangled in front of his face.

He grabbed it.

“Hit it!” Captain Sol heard Samir shout from the aft deck, and he engaged the winch at top speed as he yelled over his shoulder at the bridge, “Weigh anchor, Carl! Half-speed now!”

Warburton exhaled and nodded at Marcello as he picked up the radio, fingering it for a moment before speaking in his most casual airline pilot voice: “Enterprise, we fixed the problem and are now under way. Over?”

“Good news, Trident,” boomed the response. “God speed.” Warburton gave Marcello a low-five. “Thank you, Enterprise. God speed to you as well. See you at Pearl!”

The hendropods and humans scrambled from the half-swamped Zodiac onto the aft deck as the Trident picked up speed.

Everyone aboard was dumbstruck as their new passengers came aboard.

Cynthea videoed the event with her camcorder, her hand steady as rock as she reeled in the historic moment and came face-to-face with a drenched but determined Zero, who was videoing her.

Geoffrey and Nell were the last ones remaining in the Zodiac. With the rest of the crew’s attention on the hendropods, she took a deep breath and said, “There’s almost nothing sexier than a man who knows the right thing to say at a very scary moment.”

Drenched and weary, he grinned happily, handing the last case up to a waiting Thatcher. As she helped him up to the deck he smiled at her, and then frowned: “Almost?”

The shivering hendropods approached the humans repeating “Thank you!” to everyone they met. Copepod barked as he greeted the crew, who were too dazed by the hendros to be amazed by the miracle of his resurrection.

“Madone,” Marcello breathed as he stared out the aft window of the bridge at the scene, and he crossed himself hastily.

“They need showers,” Nell told the captain. “Saltwater isn’t good for them.”

“Good, get them below!” the captain said. “Let’s get them out of sight, damn it, until we figure out what to do!”

Nell and Geoffrey quickly led the hendropods below.

“I’m going to get Copey something to eat, Captain.”

“Good God, Andy, that damn dog made it! Will wonders never cease-yes, carry on, lad, get the little beast something to eat!”

“You are the captain, I presume?” Thatcher asked. He was hugging one of the aluminum cases they had brought aboard to his chest.

“Yes, sir, and you are?”

“Thatcher Redmond. I’m a scientist. Where should we store these cases?”

Captain Sol saw four others laid out on the poop deck. He frowned. “What’s inside them?”

“Just artifacts and belongings of the hendropods.”

“Hendro-?”

“Our guests.” Thatcher smiled.

“Oh, I see, yes! Samir, can you help Mr. Redmond stow these cases? Use one of the empty cabins in the starboard pontoon.”

“Right, Captain. This way, Mr. Redmond. I’ll take a couple of those,” said Samir.

Cynthea clutched Zero’s hand. “Tell me you have hours and hours of footage, Zero,” she crooned.

Zero tapped the NASA headband camera on the temple, turning it off, and placed it on her head like a tiara. Then he dropped a Ziploc bag full of memory sticks from one of his pockets into her hands. “Cynthea, I am your lord, master, and God Almighty, for all eternity. Get used to it, doll-face!” With a knife-edged Gary Cooper grin, he hauled off and gave Cynthea a mashing kiss, complete with a dip.

When he let her up for air she seemed ten years younger. “Now, now,” she purred, shaking a coy finger at him.

“A deal’s a deal,” he growled in her ear and she giggled in delight.