Chapter 344: Sol’s Offer

Sol had the tide table open when Ren reached the Guild’s listing hall.

He moved his folder aside to make room and passed over the contract. Ren knew Adrien Sol from the Muster, where his paired entrants had made Ren’s squad work for their win. Since then, he had kept his promise to send useful catalog entries. The broodshell reference was already with Eira.

"A nursery," Sol said. "A cooperative of tide-shelf growers on Ebbmere. A storm broke the gate protecting their beds. The next great tide will come through the opening."

Ren read the listing beneath the cooperative’s seal.

"Workers?"

"Six on the upper platform. Safe and supplied, according to this report." Sol showed him the entry attached to the sketch. "Their ordinary way out is damaged. We can reach them during the low-water window, but the great tide will close that approach."

The sketch showed a growing shelf behind the broken gate, with the platform above it.

"The beds hold cultivated saltwater rootstock," Sol continued. "It binds the growing ground together. It can live under water. What it can’t survive is an unchecked current tearing the bed away."

"Our job is to get the workers and viable stock off before that happens?"

"Yes. The growers there will show us what can be lifted. They know the beds."

— • —

Three marks were circled on the tide table. Sol had written the travel connections beside the first.

That was their arrival window at the harbor. The second marked the start of work on the shelf as the water fell far enough to expose the beds. The third was the latest withdrawal, before the incoming great tide cut across their route.

The Guild’s listing closed before any of them.

"The departure fits this?" Ren asked.

"Through the transit hall here to Ebbmere’s port gate. We reach the harbor before the approach opens. The cooperative sends a boat and a guide; the land party walks the last stretch beside the channel."

"And the carrier?"

Sol opened the channel chart. "Water approach from the harbor. These are the depths at the working tide, and this is the loading reach."

Ren followed it with his finger. The chart gave him something to compare with Wake’s draft and turning room; they would still need to check the damaged stretch on arrival.

"Why me?"

"I watched your carriers at the Muster. You could turn them under load and have the bank ready when they arrived. My crew can lift and cut, but we haven’t anything that can carry those wet beds out."

"You could hire a barge."

"The loading stages are damaged. We’ll be working from wherever the growers can bring a load down. I need a carrier that can come alongside, hold position and move when the crew needs it."

Ren looked again at the loading reach. Wake had done that kind of work before.

— • —

Sol wanted a share of the young stock for beds on his own shore. The allocation was written into the payment terms; the rest of the recovered stock belonged to the cooperative.

"The fixed fee is separate," he said. "Half each, if that suits you. My share of the stock is listed here. For you, there are the salvage rights."

Ren read the clause. It covered designated damaged structures released by the cooperative after the recovery: gate piers, bed frames and other broken works they could no longer use.

"Old cultivated structures?"

"Most of them. The growers have worked that shelf for generations. I can’t tell you what condition they’re in now."

There might be useful material in them. Ren would have to inspect it before deciding what was worth taking, but the fee paid for the work regardless.

"Anything still supporting a bed stays until they release it," he said.

"Yes."

Ren checked the division again. "Half the fee works. Who are you bringing?"

"My line pair and a rootstock handler. Their names are on the attached roster. The pair’s deployment permissions cover this recovery once we accept it."

"And you?"

"I’ll handle stock selection with the growers and keep the lifting crew moving. You handle the carrier and the transfer from shore."

"Vesper will manage our loading side," Ren said. "Eira can check the living loads. If they agree, I’d bring them, Wake and Keep."

"One whale?"

"One. Keep rides in its cradle and sends reports through its spore network. They arrive late; it isn’t a live view of the whole site."

Sol nodded. "We’ll account for that."

"I need to speak to them and get the deployment permit."

"Send me word when you have an answer. I’ll be here until the listing closes."

— • —

Wake was in the cove’s deep channel with several of the other whales when Ren returned home.

He went down to the bank and waited. Wake turned toward him, coming alongside the shelf where they had unloaded after the Muster. Ren crouched at the water’s edge.

"There’s work on another world," he said. "A sea with a tide large enough to cover the ground we’ll be working on. We’d have to leave before it reaches the route out."

He described the broken gate, the growing beds and the workers waiting above them. The loads would be wet and awkward. Keep would ride in its fitted cradle, with space for the cargo arranged around it. Vesper and Eira would help at the bank, and another crew would bring the beds down.

He set the route sketch on the stone beside him and traced the channel from the harbor to the loading reach.

"This is what they sent us. I haven’t seen the current there. We’ll check the water before you take a load in."

Wake held its head above the surface while he spoke. When he finished, it turned along the bank and settled close enough for the displaced water to wash over his boots. Its back lowered within reach.

Ren rested his hand against it.

"All right. I’ll ask Keep."

He stayed a moment before standing. Wake moved away from the shelf, leaving the shallows clear behind it.

— • —

Vesper and Eira read the recovery brief before agreeing. Vesper wanted the tide table and channel chart; Eira asked for the growers’ handling notes. Ren also arranged for Keep and its cradle to be prepared for the trip.

At the Terrace, he found Lyra and Iris with the lake-survey listing between them. Lyra was still choosing her team. Iris had drawn a line beside one of the equipment entries and was explaining it when he came in.

He told them about Ebbmere and the damaged nursery.

"Do they lift the rootstock or cut it?" Lyra asked.

"I don’t know yet. Sol’s bringing a handler, and the growers will be there."

"Ask about the runners. Some stock won’t survive being divided that way." She wrote the world’s name on the back of her listing. "I’ll see what I can find."

Iris looked up.

"You still owe me an evening."

"I know."

"Good. Don’t fall in."

Ren glanced at the sea marked on the contract sketch. "I’ll try to stay on the carrier."

Lyra passed the sheet back to him, keeping her own listing on the table.

— • —

At the campus access counter, Ren submitted the proposed contract, roster and destination with Verdance’s registration reference.

The clerk checked the declarations for Wake and Keep, then read the deployment request.

"Registration lets you apply for this," she said. "The permission is for the named participants on this recovery. It takes effect with the accepted contract."

Ren waited while she checked the destination requirements. The issued sheet named Wake, Keep, Ebbmere and the cooperative’s contract reference.

He sent Dole’s office the proposed travel dates and expected return, asking that any questions continue to his correspondence address. Then he put the permit with the papers he needed to take back to Sol.

— • —

Before returning to the hall, he closed his door at the Terrace and checked Ouroboros privately.

Ebbmere was a main-plane world. He had never used a revival on the main plane in this life; the allowance he had checked inside the restricted realm did not apply there.

’What is available on the main plane?’

[MAIN PLANE: ONE REVIVAL PER TEN YEARS.]

[AVAILABLE: ONE.]

[REVIVAL POINT: MARK #1 — WORLDROOT.]

Ren read the last line again. If he died at the nursery, he would return beneath the Worldroot. Vesper, Eira, Wake and Sol’s crew would still be on Ebbmere, dealing with whatever had killed him.

A revival would not put him back beside the load he had been holding.

He drew the channel chart toward him. The recovery needed an arrangement that would keep working if he was cut off or incapacitated. Vesper could direct his group, and Sol already had responsibility for the lifting crew. Before they went onto the shelf, both needed to know how they would withdraw without waiting for him.

The growers would have to identify the usable refuge and the route to it. He marked those questions beside the loading reach, then closed the display. They belonged in the briefing whether he could revive or not.

— • —

Sol was still at the listing hall when Ren returned. A clerk was replacing notices on the board behind him.

"Wake agreed," Ren said. "So did Vesper and Eira. The permit’s issued for Wake and Keep on this recovery."

Sol checked the reference against the contract, then passed over the acceptance sheet.

They signed beneath the agreed division of payment. At the desk, the clerk recorded their acceptance and gave each of them a copy. Ren put his beside the deployment permit.

"My handler will need to hear when your reports change the loading plan," Sol said.

"Vesper can relay them. She’ll give their age with the report."

"I’ll have the handler work through her, then."

Sol gathered the papers, leaving the tide table until last. Ren checked the departure entry once more. There was time to prepare the cradle and brief the team before they had to leave.

"I’ll meet you at the departure quay," Ren said. "Bring the tide table."