by Gadi Migdal
“Change course. Return to the beach station,” she ordered the hovercraft.
The hovercraft stopped where it was and turned on its axis, reorienting toward the direction from which it had come. Nikki sat back in the armchair and listened to the engines as they accelerated the hovercraft back up. Next time, let Gabi come down here, she would stay and supervise the control devices and enjoy the printers. She grinned sleepily to herself and closed her eyes; she had an hour until she would reach the surface again.
A sharp beep interrupted her hope of sleep. She sat up with a sigh of resigning herself to her fate and looked in the monitor beside her. Her fatigue disappeared instantly; the hovercraft wasn’t moving! The engines, which could cover the distance to the moon in six hours, were working at full capacity, and it wasn’t moving.
She leaned forward slowly, examining the monitor: there was no malfunction. “Shitty mud in a shitty world,” she cursed.
She hesitated for a moment, then made a decision, “shift to manual mode.” The controls came to life in her hands, transmitting neural feedback on the state of the hovercraft. She powerfully jerked the vehicle in every direction, trying to extract it from the clump of mud it had lodged in. To no effect.
“Okay,” she muttered to herself. There are other directions, for example the direction from which she had come. She shifted the hovercraft into reverse gear and activated the engines at full force. The hovercraft did not move. She changed the direction of the engines by five degrees and tried again to no avail. She shifted the angle five more degrees and tried to dislodge again, and again and again. “Ugh, Gabi! You are an idiot, and I am an even bigger idiot.” Why did she always agree to every idea or suggestion he made?
After a while she gave up and silenced the engines: the hovercraft was stuck.
She glared accusingly at the roof of the hovercraft and shook her head regretfully. “Enable optical sensing’” she ordered the computer and put on the control helmet that connected her directly to the millions of optical cells embedded in the shell of the hovercraft.
Darkness enveloped her immediately, pitch black and completely impermeable. “Enable night vision mode,” she ordered. The black blanket that surrounded the hovercraft suddenly became clear, revealing its mystery. Nikki looked around, searching for the reason that the hovercraft had stopped.
She located it immediately, a thick, dark mass gripped the hovercraft, and Nikki focused her gaze on it.
“Shitty mud, shitty world, and shitty seaweed,” she cursed again. It seemed that the enormous seaweed had managed to wrap itself many times around the hovercraft and halt it in its place. She checked the hovercraft from every direction, there were no other obstacles apart from the seaweed.
“Activate the engines,” she reached out her hand and took hold of the controls without opening her eyes. Slowly and carefully, she turned the hovercraft on its axis, testing the effect of the movement on its status. The seaweed grew tighter and went on wrapping itself around the hovercraft. “Other side,” she smiled triumphantly to herself as she turned the hovercraft in the opposite direction. The seaweed began to loosen, releasing the vehicle somewhat with each turn. Without rushing, Nikki continued making slow, careful turns, waiting for the moment when she would be able to move forward. Ten minutes later, the hovercraft, wrapped in a cloud of detached seaweed, was nearly entirely free. “Fold the wings,” she ordered. She waited for her instructions to be carried out and then, triumphantly, launched forward through the cloud of seaweed. A sharp thud interrupted her joy; something had halted the hovercraft once again.
“Ugh! What now?” Nikki was annoyed and scanned her surroundings once more.
The enormous seaweed, from which she had just disentangled herself, whirled through the water behind her, slowly sinking to the bottom. She focused the sensors on the body of the vehicle, something else had stopped them this time. A dense black mass rested on the back of the hovercraft, just above the cargo door, with thick tendrils unfurling from the dark depths below, fixing the hovercraft in place. She focused on the mass: ‘not seaweed,’ the sensors determined.
This was interesting. “Outer lights, on the cargo door,” she commanded. The white shafts pierced the darkness and illuminated the dark mass, a quick rattle passed through it, and it twisted and slid sideways, changing its position before she could focus on it. A living creature? That size? How did it survive in the Earth’s ocean? Curious, Nikki opened the craft’s chemical sensory channels. The concentrations of sulfur and methane were high, water acidity was 7.3. The creature sped up its sideways glide as if sensing that the ship’s sensors were scanning it.
How did it manage to survive here?
Her curiosity prompted her to take a risk. “Open the full sensory channels,” she ordered.
“Not recommended. It’s too dangerous,” the hovercraft protested.
“Permission Gabi seventy-two,” Nikki disregarded the objections.
The sea’s cold, the water pressure, and the acidity of the volcanic ash, hit her all at once as all of the hovercraft’s sensors transmitted information directly into her brain. Nikki ignored everything and focused on the living creature crawling towards the hovercraft’s engines.
“You don’t want to go there, little guy, if the computer starts up, you’ll be dust in a second,” she spoke to him without thinking. To her surprise, the creature stopped.
“Do you understand me?” she asked in amazement. The creature crawled back in the direction from which it had come. “I understand,” echoed a voice in the water, transmitted by the hovercraft directly to her brain. She looked at it in astonished silence as it crawled toward the cargo door again. This time it did not escape into the shadows, nor hide shyly from her view. He leapt from the shadows and landed on the cargo door, surrendering to her gaze with evident pleasure, the lights revealing his full shape. Nikki screamed. Fear gripped her all at once without warning, like ice.
“Thank you for the warning, that might have been very unpleasant for me. I will continue with my mission now, and soon I will come inside,” the creature explained calmly.
In her seat within the hovercraft, she pulled the flexible helmet off her head and inhaled deeply.
“Calm down, Nikki,” she ordered herself in a shaking voice. That didn’t help, the fear became paralyzing terror; whatever it was, it was clearly hostile.
She heard a creaking sound from outside; the creature began trying to open the cargo door.
“Gabi, I need help,” she shouted at the top of her lungs to the disconnected communication device.
The cargo door groaned under the pressure that the creature was exerting on it. Nikki looked back in horror. “What do you want from me?” she shouted toward the cargo door in frustration.
“Food,” the answer came immediately.
She froze. “Food? “Do you want something to eat?” she asked, confused.
“Yes.”
“No problem, I have enough cartridges here to print a meal for a thousand people, tell me what you like and I will send it outside right away,” Nikki said quickly.
The voices flooded her head and her stomach, rhythmic and thick, echoing inside her bones, like the huge drums she had once experienced in a dream. It took her a second to understand what was happening - the creature was laughing.
“What’s so funny?” she shouted angrily.
“My food is offering me food,” the creature answered as he renewed his efforts to dismantle the door.
“What?” she asked, astonished.
His reply remained calm and cultured. “I didn’t come to this world to eat printouts; I came here for the dome-dwellers. Soon the tunnels that reach the domes will be ready. But until then you will be great as an appetizer.”
Her breathing stopped for a moment. “What?” she muttered in confusion.
“Oh, the scent of terror, my favorite spice,
” the creature exclaimed.
Nikki was overwhelmed by a dizzy spell. “Gabi,” she sobbed quietly as she held herself and crumpled onto the floor of the hovercraft.
The creature’s laughter echoed through the hovercraft again. Nikki’s fear was soon replaced by fury. Really? The creature wanted to kill her? He would have to catch her first.
She stood firmly, “Activate engines, full power ahead,” she ordered. The hovercraft leapt forward and came to a stop immediately, slamming Nicki onto the floor. The sound of the creature’s laughter grew louder.
She stood back up. “Shitty, stupid world,” she shouted angrily and sat in the chair. “Dive downward,” she ordered. The hovercraft descended quickly without resistance. Nikki counted to ten, “full power ahead,” she ordered. The hovercraft leapt and was stopped immediately once more.
The terrible laughter reverberated again, “food coming to us, how nice of the food.”
“Us?” There was more than one. Her heart was racing with fear, they were on the ledge, she was heading straight toward them.
“Damn you, Gabi,” she cursed again, “Let’s build a dome on a rocky ledge under the sea, that will be the most economical, there are no pests under the sea, sure.”
The cargo door creaked again; did she imagine seeing it move slightly? She shook her head in anger, this was no time to imagine things. The creature was beside the outer door, even if it opened it, it would still have to pass through the cargo cell and open the interior door in order to reach her. In any case, there was no chance it would kill her, if it broke through the internal door, the water pressure and the poison in the water would kill her before it was able to. She scanned the hovercraft, there had to be some way to prevent the creature from breaking in. She needed a weapon, she needed a plan, she needed to find a way to stay alive.
Could she print some kind of weapon? A quick check made it clear that she could not. The printer on the hovercraft was only designed for food. There was nothing to help her survive, nothing on the hovercraft that could assist her in preventing him from breaking into the cargo cell. The sounds from outside left no doubt that the outer door was giving in. Nikki trembled; her body was going to be eaten by hideous creatures that lived on a rocky ledge in the depths of the acidic, muddy sea.
“Who would even think of establishing a dome on an underwater ledge?” she yelled angrily into the room.
She sighed and answered herself with a weary whisper, “Gabi, who else. Only Gabi could think that this was a good idea.”
The creature’s enjoyment of her situation reverberated through the hovercraft.
Her handsome Gabi; she was going to die without even being able to say goodbye.
Gabi, her beloved partner for the last sixty-eight years. Gabi, who would do anything for her. Gabi, the man who had convinced her that here, their love would flourish like in the old days. Gabi, the man because of whom she would die in this cold, gloomy darkness.
“A dome underwater! How could that be a good idea?” she yelled into the room in frustration. The creature’s laughter grew and splashed at her from the sides.
And then she understood. Gabi was right. It was a good idea. The laughter that burst from her filled her with confidence and joy all at once.
The squeaking by the door stopped. “That doesn’t sound like hysterical laughter,” the creature noted politely.
“You are correct,” she answered, smiling. “This is a victorious laugh,” she continued as she typed the release sequence commands.
“Victory?” the disdain and disbelief in its voice were evident. “What a shame, I didn’t think that fear would make you go crazy this fast.”
“Open the external cargo door,” she ordered.
“Very sensible of you, I promise that your end will be quick and painless,” the creature exclaimed gallantly.
“Activate,” she ordered.
“Activate what?” the creature wanted to know.
Nikki didn’t bother to answer him, let it find out on its own.
A heavy blow outside made it clear that the creature had indeed discovered her plans.
“What’s that?” he demanded. “What did you throw at me? Do you really think that a pathetic fishing net will stop me?”
Nikki activated the hovercraft’s speakers before answering him, it was important to her that it heard her, “It’s not a net, it’s a protective dome. You know, the kind your food uses to live here. It opened up on this rock ledge of yours, and in a few seconds, it will envelop all of you inside its defensive shield. But I made a small change, I reversed its polarity. Nothing can come in, and nothing can come out.”
“No! You’re not allowed to do that; I will make sure you die a slow death for this. You will scream for hours if not days...” It was interrupted suddenly as the dome landed on the ledge. Nothing could escape the dome, not even sound waves.
“Idiot,” Nikki snorted derisively.
She stood there for a long moment, trembling from relief and adrenaline. Then she took hold of the controls and guided the hovercraft until it was a few feet from the dense, sealed side wall of the dome. She hummed her childhood song to herself again as she placed the power generator beside the dome. In a final gesture of defiance, she changed the dome’s polarity again, allowing light to pass through it. The vile creatures were welcome to stare out. They couldn’t turn off or touch the generator. Nikki sat, exhausted, on her armchair. It had been a long day. “Open wings, return to beach base, full speed,” she ordered.
Gabi ran toward her the moment she exited the hovercraft.
“Where were you? I was going crazy with worry. What took you so long to get back? Didn’t you remember what we agreed to do in case of disconnection?”
“Gabi, you’re an idiot,” she interrupted his stream of questions.
Stunned, he was quiet for a moment. His eyes scanned the battered hovercraft behind her and the signs of crying on her face. A look of concern replaced that of astonishment.
“What happened down there?” he asked as he gathered her up in his arms.
Nikki placed her head on his familiar chest, “you are such an idiot, but that’s how I love you.”
He grinned, “I think you’ve already made it clear regarding my idiocy. What happened?”
“I’ll tell you at home, Gabi.”
“You want to return to the Athens Dome for a few days?”
“No, Gabi, I want us to go home. I want to go back to New Bangalore.”
“What? No! That’s not an option,” he protested. “Everyone there is asleep, that’s the reason we wanted to come here, remember? To be awake together.”
“If we stay here, we’ll die, Gabi. Everyone living here in domes is going to die.”
He laughed gently, “Sweetheart, you have nothing to worry about. These domes are completely secure. The inversion fields are very reliable.”
“Don’t condescend to me, Gabi. It’s not the domes I’m worried about. And it’s not open for discussion. I’m going back to Bangalore, and you’re coming with me.”
He looked at her for what felt like a long time. “You’re willing to give up the possibility of living a real life with me that easily?”
“Maybe. At least this way we’ll stay alive and we won’t have to live with the worry that some horrible alien will eat you.”
“Horrible alien? Did your imagination work overtime down there?” His laugh stopped instantly at the sight of her face. “I’ll take any risk, sweetheart, I want to live with you. Do you really prefer sleep over life with me?”
“No, I don’t. You know I don’t. But I thought about it on the way. Why not both of us get into a machine together and dream shared dreams?”
“Shared dreams?” he repeated after her.
“Yeah, think about it, both of us together in the same machine, with the same stories. The two of
us together, experiencing everything as one. That way, we can experience thousands of years together instead of just a couple hundred.”
He loved the idea, she saw it on his face, “but honey, do you really believe that if we stay here, we will die?” he asked her.
“Yes.”
“What happened to you down there?”
She shook her head, “No, Gabi, I’ll tell you at home. Not before then.”
He kissed her hair, “Alright, come let’s go home and dream together, but you’ve got to tell me what happened down below.”
She looked up at him, and their lips met, “I’m happy that we’re going to dream together, Gabi, I love you.”
“Me too, honey; me too.”
Chapter 18
Insights
The next destination was Prague III. The flight would last 14 days, and would require four worm hole jumps. Prague III was a planet that had been populated over 1,600 years ago. Its diameter was about 1.2 times that of Earth, very similar to the size of Neifar. The planet had three moons and was inhabited by around 480 million people. It was one of the poorest places in the galaxy. With no rare minerals or interesting animals, Prague III subsisted mainly on the sale of iron ore to industry.
Not a particularly exciting place.
“You know, General, if the Whole just wants to show us the damage done by the dreaming addiction, and what happens when humans lose their reasons for living and search for ways to escape their boring reality, I could recommend a few planets that are closer by,” Guy suggested when he heard where they were headed.
“Thank you, Mr. Guy, but the Whole has a good reason to want to travel there, of all places,” said the general.
He shrugged his shoulders and looked over at Nola. “Commander, Laura requested that I pass along her thanks for your tips and guidance. She expects a significant increase in the gardens’ yield in the next few months.”