“Everyone okay?” Raven asked. His voice, reassuring in the dark cold, came across clearly. She gave him a thumbs-up. “Remember we only have sixty minutes of air, so we have to make this quick.”
As she slid into the dark, she turned on the lights mounted on her helmet. The others did the same, and she glided down through the water until a shape loomed up beneath her. Strange white fingers covered it, and as she drew lower, she could make out more detail. A long, flat surface lay beneath a myriad of small tangled white shapes, some indeed shaped like fingers, others like small trees.
Raven drew up beside her. “It’s coral.”
She’d heard the captain use the term. It was something the Rovers in this area were trying to save, a living organism that formed reefs, which provided habitat for a number of marine species. She’d read about how warming oceans and unsustainable fishing practices had destroyed the reefs in antiquity, how warming seas had caused them to bleach and die. Slowly these coastal Rovers were trying to fix that, planting coral where it had once thrived.
H124 took in the expanse of the flat surface, stretching away into the gloom in both directions. She peered down at her feet, where the shape extended into the darkness in that direction as well. It was the roof of the building, covered in coral.
“All this coral is bleached and dead,” Raven breathed. “The sea here is too warm for it to survive.” From what they’d told her, the sea had been too warm for so many years that no one even remembered when the coral had thrived here.
As she drew closer and could make out the ocean floor, she saw that the coral wasn’t just bleached and white here. Much of it was broken and shattered, the original shape of the reef destroyed. “What broke all of this up?”
“Bottom trawlers,” Raven told her. “Back before the oceans were overfished and fishing was still economically viable, these seas were full of life. To dredge up bottom-dwelling fish, they dragged massive weighted nets along the sea floor, grinding up everything in their wake.”
She stared at him through her faceplate. “What?”
“They weren’t too good at considering the consequences. Just the immediate profit.”
Raven turned away, staring down at the destroyed reefs.
H124 touched down on the roof of the building, finding an old rooftop door leading down. It stood open, rusted solid on its hinges.
She took the lead, lowering herself into the building. She followed the schematics down a long hall to a stairwell. Everything inside the underwater structure was covered with white corals and dead sea creatures she recognized from books as barnacles. She reached an open elevator shaft and peered down into the darkness. If the elevator car still existed, it was at the bottom of the shaft.
She pulled herself facedown into the dark passage and kicked her legs, descending into the black. Her helmet beam shined over more bleached coral and barnacles. The water was murky with floating debris, and she was starting to really feel the cold through her suit. Light flashed on the walls around her, and she looked up to see Raven and Dirk following her into the elevator opening.
She reached what would have been the first subbasement of the building and paused at a closed elevator door.
Dirk floated down next to her and picked up a piece of rebar lying on a small ledge. Together they levered the door open, revealing a vast room filled with ancient office equipment. Chairs and desks lay around the room, all in states of extreme decay. Sand had sifted in through a broken window, creating a drift by one of the far walls.
Together they swam across the room. She looked at her PRD. The warehouse space where the A14 had been stored was just past this room. They arrived at a heavy set of double doors. Dirk still had the rebar, so they tried to lever it open, but it wouldn’t budge.
Raven swam up behind them, pulling a pocket pyro out of his dive bag. He went to work cutting a hole big enough for them to slip through.
He’d only cut through one foot of the metal when a deafening whump sounded behind them. H124 spun in time to see an AUV in the elevator opening, firing an explosive at them as bubbles filled the room.
Chapter 2
Kicking away from the door, H124 barely dodged the small projectile. It smashed against the door with incredible force, setting off a blinding explosion that rocked the entire room. The concussive wave threw her backward into a jumbled pile of old rusted metal. She felt a searing pain in her thigh, and sucked in a sharp breath as the freezing cold sea made direct contact with her skin. Crimson blood billowed outward. The bubbles around her dissipated.
Wincing against the pain, she stared out as the water started to clear. One section of the room remained a turbulent mess of water. She realized it was Dirk, physically engaging with the AUV, his suit giving off a torrent of bubbles. He had both hands wrapped around the craft, but it was too big to get a good hold on it. Raven joined him, and together they pushed the thing back into the elevator shaft.
H124 swam to the elevator quickly, her thigh screaming in protest. As they wrestled the AUV into the elevator shaft, Dirk started to swim upward with it.
“Get the door shut!” he cried.
H124 and Raven went to work sliding the doors closed, leaving just enough room for Dirk to slip back through.
Then he shoved the AUV toward the top of the shaft and turned around, kicking against the wall to propel himself downward. H124 grabbed his hand as he neared and pulled him through. Then all three desperately shoved at the door, finally managing to slide it shut.
“It won’t take long for that thing to turn around and start blasting at this elevator door,” Dirk said. He noticed the blood pouring out of her leg. She clamped her gloved hand over it. “Is it bad?”
“I don’t think so,” she answered, though she really wasn’t sure. They turned back toward the door that led to the warehouse. The blast from the explosive had crumpled it inward, closing off the little cut that Raven had managed to make. But small spaces had torn open at the top and bottom of the door now, and H124 could see through to the other side. It was too gloomy to make out any details, and they still couldn’t fit through.
Raven went to work again with the pocket pyro, cutting two feet before they heard another explosion on the other side of the elevator door.
“Hurry!” Dirk urged him, not that he needed to. Raven cut quickly, opting for a small hole just big enough for them to get their shoulders through, though not enough to accommodate the AUV.
The metal glowed red, and soon the cut was almost complete. H124 heard another explosion on the far side of the elevator door; it groaned and shot outward, the metal bent and forced. One more blast and the thing would be through.
Raven completed the circle and leaned back, kicking the metal with his foot. Dirk did the same, and it fell away. H124 looked down at her leg, pressing on the wound until it clotted. At least that was looking up. Quickly they filed through the small hole, Raven first, followed by H124 and Dirk.
Raven lifted up the cut away section of door and placed it back inside the hole, hoping the thing wouldn’t be able to see them on the other side of it. Dirk borrowed the pocket pyro and welded it in a couple places to keep it in place.
They turned, their helmet lights flooding the warehouse. H124’s spirits fell.
The space was empty.
At the far end of the room stood another door. They swam toward it, finding it rusted open, and moved into the next room, touring it slowly. H124 gently kicked her flippered feet behind her. Her thigh stung, but the bleeding had definitely stopped.
This room had been more protected from the sea than the others. It was still flooded, but not as covered with sediment. A few objects lay about the room, so largely disintegrated she couldn’t tell what they had been. Now they were just corroded lumps on the floor. She could guess that some of them might have been old computers. A tall, rusted rectangle might have been an ancient filing ca
binet or maybe even an old server. But it was damaged now beyond repair. Her heart started to sink further.
Dirk checked the schematics. “This was an old records room.” Bubbles rose from his suit, fanning out above his head.
Raven turned slowly, taking in the space. “It’s so empty. Maybe most things were moved before the building was inundated.”
“Moved to where?” H124 asked.
Raven met her eyes, his brow creased in worry. “I don’t know.” He swam in a slow circle around the room. “Maybe we could find some other records among the things we gathered at the aeronautic facilities.” He was trying to sound hopeful, but she could hear the note of despair in his voice. They’d been through those records countless times, scouring for any additional information they could find that would tell them how to stop the asteroid. If there was something in there on the location of the A14, they’d have found it by now.
“Didn’t you go through all of that?” Dirk asked, uttering the words that she didn’t have the heart to say aloud.
Raven turned to him. “Maybe it’s on some of the corroded parts of the data. We’re still repairing some of the disks.”
She looked behind them, to where several large rectangles had been mounted onto the wall. Sediment coated them. She thought of the similarly large objects she’d found in the university under New Atlantic. They’d been accounts of the past. Framed articles from newspapers. Posters that held information. When she’d been staying at the Rover camp just after the airship crash, she’d gone through the Rover books and discovered things like the “Periodic Chart of the Elements,” and knew that at least one of the rectangles in the university had been just that. Maybe the ones here held information.
She swam to the first one and dusted it off, the sediment momentarily clouding the water as it billowed out from under her glove. When it settled, she saw that it was an image printed on some kind of lightweight metal. Parts of it were corroded now.
The picture showed two massive brown tubes with fire blasting out from beneath them. Mounted on them was a small white object with wings. She recognized it from the data they’d scoured through. It was a space shuttle. The photo depicted the rockets blasting off, billows of smoke pouring out. “Look at this!”
They swam to her, staring at the image.
She moved to the next one and dusted it off. As the water cleared, she could make out an image of a metal pod of sorts floating in the ocean, a white parachute spread out on the blue waves next to it. On the pod’s side she saw an emblem of red and white stripes, and an arrangement of stars set against a blue background in the upper left.
Kicking her feet, she maneuvered to the next rectangle, clearing it off. This one showed a photo of a barren red landscape, rocks covering the ground into the distance.
The last image on the wall depicted scientists in white suits gathered around a probe covered in places by gold foil.
She spun slowly in a circle, taking in the whole room. More frames had been mounted to the opposite wall, so she swam toward them. Dusting off the first one, her heart suddenly soared. It showed a grey metal craft taking off from a runway, its front wheel already lifted off the ground. She instantly recognized it from the schematics they’d recovered from the disks. It was the A14. “Here it is!” she said.
The others swam over, examining the picture. A long silence engulfed them. “If only we had more than a picture,” Dirk said quietly.
Undeterred, she swam to the next rectangle, and the next, until she’d uncovered them all. The next showed a photo of a four-legged craft in a warehouse. Another showed the close-up of a man in a bulky white suit descending a ladder from the same vehicle, against the blackest sky she’d ever seen.
The next one shocked her. It depicted the same four-legged craft on a barren grey surface. Hanging in the sky was an incredible blue and white swirled moon. It was the most stirring, mysterious image she’d ever seen. She glanced back at the image of the four-legged craft inside a warehouse, and then at the one on the barren surface. She gasped. The blue marble wasn’t a moon. It was the earth, taken from the moon.
“What is it?” Raven asked, responding to her gasp of astonishment.
“Take a look at this!” she called out. “This is unbelievable.” They all stared as realization dawned.
“It’s our planet. Taken from space,” Dirk breathed.
“They were really up there,” H124 said, her voice almost a whisper.
Raven pushed off a corroded filing cabinet to take in all the pictures. “But we’re no closer to finding the A14.” He couldn’t disguise the sheer disappointment in his voice now.
She swam back to the photo of the A14 taking off from the runway. She saw white scratchings at the bottom of the photo, partially covered by corrosion. She noticed they all had the marks. She peered more closely at the one of the man descending the ladder and saw there was writing. “Neil Arms…” it said. She could also make out a few other words: “Eagle” and “Apollo XI.”
She moved back to the image of the A14, gently brushing off corrosion with her gloved finger. More words appeared. She couldn’t make out the name of the craft, but she already knew it was the A14. The rest of the words read “Museum,” “air,” and “Aviation Wing.”
Making a slow circuit of the room, she read as much of the writing as she could discern on the other images. At the bottom of the shuttle image, she read “housed in,” and again “Museum” and “air.” On the photo depicting the pod floating in the ocean, she read “Mercury,” “Museum,” and “Innovation Hall.”
She recognized the word “museum” from the Rover books she’d perused. They’d had one book about something called the “Smithsonian,” which had stood in “Washington, D.C.” and had held countless collections of cultural and scientific interest. She’d seen photographs of the bones of ancient creatures who had roamed the earth, paintings of important people, ceremonial and sacred objects belonging to various cultures. The museum had long since been inundated by rising sea levels, but the collections might have been moved to other areas of the country.
“I think all these vehicles were moved to a museum,” she told them.
Raven met her gaze. “Even the A14?”
She glanced at its photo and nodded. “Even the A14.”
“So now we just have to find out where they moved the A14 to,” Raven said, scrutinizing the pictures.
H124 turned toward the door, catching Dirk floating near the doorframe with a distant look on his face. His chin trembled, then he caught her gaze. Tears brimmed on his lower lids but hadn’t fallen. She wanted to reach out and squeeze his arm, but felt like she didn’t have the right. Astoria had died on her watch. She still felt she could have done something to prevent it.
Dirk blinked and averted his gaze.
Raven crossed to another door on the opposite side of the room. “Can’t go up the way we came down,” he said, wrenching this second door open. “That thing’s probably still in the elevator shaft. We’ll have to go this way.” He checked his schematics and pulled himself through the doorway. H124 followed.
Dirk took up the rear as they propelled themselves down a corridor on the right, looking for holes in the structure that led to the open sea.
The corridor led past numerous doors, some open, some still closed. They searched other warehouse spaces, hoping the A14 might be there. But all of the spaces were empty. It made H124 believe more in her theory about the vehicles being moved to another facility. They had to have gone somewhere.
As they swam, they paused in the open doorways, looking for breaches in the walls beyond, hoping for a different way out. Rusted metal lay twisted and covered with sediment and corrosion. At the end of a corridor, they came to a thick metal docking door. Crusted handles protruded from the base.
H124 checked her schematics. According to them, open ocean lay on the other side of the
docking door. She examined their oxygen levels. They only had twenty-four minutes of air left. She stifled the nervous pang that rose inside her. “Twenty-four minutes,” she told them.
At first she and Raven tugged on the handle of the docking door, but it had been corroded shut for too many years to budge. Raven pulled out his pocket pyro again, and started to cut a hole in the metal. The progress was agonizingly slow.
“Seventeen minutes,” she said quietly.
Dirk had swum up next to the door, where he floated listlessly, that faraway look on his face. She could hear his uneven breathing, holding back emotion. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like for him, to lose someone he’d known his whole life, who’d always had his back.
She looked back at Raven’s progress. He was almost there. Eleven more minutes.
He finished cutting the hole and punched the metal circle out of the door. Beyond, the dark blue of the ocean awaited them. “Let’s go!” He signaled for H124 to go through first, and she kicked over to the hole, then pulled herself through. Raven emerged next. Above them the bright surface of the ocean looked too far away.
Six minutes.
Dirk’s gloved hands appeared as he started to pull himself through the hole. She had just begun kicking for the surface when a dark, bullet-shaped body sped toward them through the water. An AUV. It launched a projectile, and an eruption of bubbles sprang forth from its nose cone. The mini torpedo barely missed her, screaming by in the water, pushing her back with its concussive wave. Raven was far off to one side, so it sailed past him. But Dirk was just fully emerging from the hole, right into the line of fire.
It connected with his body, propelling him backward. He slammed into the side of the building, the projectile lodging itself into the building wall beside him. H124 kicked away quickly. Sharp spikes dug into the building’s exterior. Dirk kicked away from it, but he was still too close. The torpedo detonated, sending them all reeling through the water. H124’s ears rang as she somersaulted backward in the water, being driven not up toward the surface, but down toward the seabed. When the bubbles cleared, she saw Dirk struggling in the water near the hole they’d cut. Crimson clouds streamed out around him. She kicked away from the sea floor, angling up toward him. Raven, who’d been blown far to the right, also propelled himself toward Dirk.
Shattered Skies Page 2