“Wally won’t even know what happened to us,” Beth said. “When he gets back in the area, we’ll just be missing.”

For a moment, Hutch thought Ken was going to throw his commlink at Derek. “You know,” he said, “if you were going to be cutting corners on the equipment, it might have been a good idea to let us know about it before we came on board.” His glare locked on Hutch. “Did you know about this?”

“She had no idea,” Derek said. “To be honest, neither did I. But I knew we might have problems. Look, I’m sorry. I just didn’t think anything like this would happen.”

“I guess not,” said Ken. “I’m inclined to wonder what else could go wrong, but I doubt it’ll matter now.” His eyes turned to Hutch. “You might have been able to make land if you’d tried a little harder.”

“I didn’t have control of the thing, Ken. I might have killed a bunch of them.”

“You’ve killed us.”

Derek asked for the plastic bag. Hutch handed it over and he opened it and took the couplings out. “At least they’re dry,” he said. “For whatever good it will do.”

Ken looked back at either the ocean or the group of islanders who were standing nearby. “The water might not have been too deep out there. Hutch, do you know how to install these things?”

“Yes. It’s simple enough.”

“Okay.” Ken took a deep breath. “Now, if we could get down there and do it, would it work? Or would the water be a problem again?”

She sat down on a fallen log, and the others joined her. “The water would be a problem. The couplings have to be kept dry. I think.”

“Maybe we could hire a ship with a crane.”

Nobody laughed.

•  •  •

The beach crowd was almost mingling. They had apparently decided that their visitors meant no harm. Both groups were making efforts to communicate, but they couldn’t get much beyond touching hands and pointing at each other. The humans delivered some smiles, and the islanders returned snorts and giant grins.

Ken looked overawed. “This is really off the charts. Is this the kind of advanced life form you get if most of a planet is underwater?”

“I was wondering the same thing,” said Derek. He was still standing, exchanging nonverbals with one of the islanders. “By the way, let me introduce my good friend Arin. He and I go way back.”

Arin extended his left hand to Hutch. She took it and was impressed by the gentleness of the gesture. “Hello, Arin,” she said.