07. Ghost of the Well of Souls by Jack L. Chalker Read Free Book Online

well. They had to slow down so as not to choke on the food they were consuming.
    Reminds me of Malacanus, Ming commented. Tropical but so bug-infested you needed a diving mask just to filter out the little bugs. Ever get there?
    No, but I know what you mean. Never thought I'd consider putting in a food screen across my mouth, though.
    Going slower was soon something they chose for other reasons as well. There was in fact less oxygen. They didn't really notice it at first, but swimming suddenly required more of an effort. They breathed harder to take in more oxygen, which, of course, meant that they also took in more of the microorganisms.
    They began struggling, and the thought in both their minds was that perhaps they should turn around and get back into Kalinda while they still could. They were about to do just that when they heard someone nearby say, "First time in Yabbo, I take it?"
    They could hardly reply, but Ari turned and saw a fellow Kalindan floating, who seemed to have no problems at all. Ari managed to nod.
    "Put your teeth together so they mesh but don't clench," the stranger instructed. "Let whatever is in your throat settle and go down a bit, and breathe normally through the teeth until you feel more like yourself."
    They tried it, and it did help, but it also seemed a temporary solution.
    "Once you're feeling better, close your mouth and relax it," the stranger went on. "Don't breathe through it. I know it goes against your instincts, but force yourself. You'll get used to it. Wait a little bit and see what happens. It's a trick they never tell you about."
    Little happened at first, and then their slitlike nostrils opened and began taking in water. Since these had heretofore only been used to breathe air into what passed for lungs when they were out of the water, there was a natural tendency to override and squelch this. At the stranger's urging they fought it and quickly discovered that indeed the nostrils acted as a kind of bellows, and the water intake went not to the chest but to the gills. It wasn't like air breathing; there was no exhalation. That function was taken over by the gills. Still, it worked. After a couple of minutes, they found the rhythm and it did seem to get much easier.
    "Thank you, citizen!" Ari called to the stranger.
    The Kalindan chuckled. "Just remember to swim only with your mouth shut and only speak when you're hovering, and you'll be okay," she assured them. "To eat, just do it the old way. Makes it real cheap and easy to get through here, which is a good thing since we couldn't eat anything the natives do anyway. Take it slow and easy, though. The nostril system does not deliver as much volume as the usual mouth method, and you're dealing with lower oxygen content here as it is."
    Ari managed another nod. "Are you going into the country?" he asked the stranger.
    "No, coming out. I've been here ten days, and that's more than enough in this boiling kettle."
    Ari was grateful to the other for saving them from retreat or worse right at the start, but Ming was already at the next level and took over. The personality differences between them even in casual speech sometimes threw people. If the stranger noticed, however, she was nice enough not to react, or more likely put it down to their recovering from the initial problem and panic.
    "Where did you come from, then, if I might ask?" Ming began.
    "Abudan," the stranger replied. "We've been designing a new transport line."
    "Transport line? I thought you couldn't use any fancy technology here." Both Ming and Ari were intrigued.
    "This must be your first time outside Kalinda," the other, an engineer, guessed. "Otherwise you wouldn't confuse innovation with high energy sources. This is a volcanic place, and it's very active. Our biggest problem with closed systems is dealing with seaquakes when lava shifts or steam creates new outlets. We can tap that energy, though—it's quite natural, and it's so steady in the volcanic fields that we