"There isn't any other way."
Reginri motioned seaward. "You could put something automated inside. Plant a sensor."
"That will transmit out through thirty meters of animal fat? Through all that meat? Reliably? With a high bit rate? Ha!"
Reginri paused. He knew it wasn't smart to push Sasuke this way, but the rumors he had heard from Kaufmann made him uneasy. He glanced back toward the lifeless land. Down the beach, Vanleo had stopped to inspect something, kneeling on the hard-packed sand. Studying a rock, probably--nothing alive scuttled or crawled on this beach.
Reginri shrugged. "I can see that, but why do we have to stay in so long? Why not just go in, plant the tappers and get out?"
"They won't stay in place. If the Drongheda moves even a little, they'll pop out."
"Don't make 'em so damned delicate."
"Mister, you can't patch in with spiked nails. That's a neural terminus point you're going after, not a statphone connection."
"So I have to mother it through? Sit there up in that huge gut and sweat it out?"
"You're getting paid for it," Sasuke said in clipped tones.
)
Reginri was just trying to make some extra cash, doing some off-planet work. He knew the risks, but he didn't know how his life would be changed forever by his contact with the huge aliens on a watery world.
