The Infinite Sea

In an alien sea...
John Bandicut and his company of friends have journeyed from the mysterious Shipworld back into the galaxy. The star-spanner bubble which carried them has brought them to an ocean world...and left them underwater, and sinking rapidly. Caught by mer creatures, they are brought to an undersea city, where the race of sea-people known as the Neri live in perpetual night. The Neri roam the ocean at will. But they face multiple dangers--ranging from an inimical race called the landers, to a failure of their irreplaceable deep sea factories, to a terrifyingly powerful object in the deep abyss, now stirring back to life.
Is this why the company was brought here--to help the Neri, as alien powers helped save Earth? For Bandicut, the discovery that the Maw of the Abyss is a stargate--perhaps a stargate gone wrong--is only the beginning of an answer.