by M. D. Cooper
Martin turned on the lights via the house system.
“Phew,” said Erin. “So here we are in Heliopolis, ‘the Sunniest City in the System’.”
“Technically, we’re outside the capital here,” Isa said.
“I know that, we’re on the coast of the Ithacan continent.”
“It’s good to hear you did your homework,” Martin said.
“I am building a five-hundred-kilometer-long station over this planet,” Erin protested. “I do kinda need to know what’s below it.”
“I know,” said Martin. “I’m only kidding. Messene Station is going to be spectacular. But I think Jude isn’t the only one who’s tired after our surprise diversion. What do you say we head to bed right away? I’ll be heading over to help Lindsey with the sinkhole first thing in the morning.”
Erin covered her mouth and yawned. “You bet.”
They climbed the sweeping staircase to the second story and walked the rug-lined hallway to the master bedroom. Inside the room were two more doors: one led to an adjoining, smaller room where a large crib awaited Jude, and the other led to the bathroom.
Jude was in the land of dreams. Martin carried him into his room and laid down the sleeping child. He pulled off his shoes and, not wanting to wake him to put him into pajamas, tucked a coverlet over him. Martin quietly closed the door behind him, and returned to the master bedroom, where Isa was changing into her nightclothes. Erin had gone into the bathroom.
“Glad to see you didn’t go for the traditional san, Martin,” she called out.
Isa smiled at him. “Gotta love how she always focusses on the basics.”
“Yep,” Martin replied. “That’s our Erin.”
Isa pulled back the covers and climbed into bed. “I’m so happy she’s back, though. Everything feels more complete with her around.”
“I know what you mean,” said Martin. “I think Jude has missed her while she’s been working at the outer rim, too. He just isn’t old enough to tell us.”
“It’ll do them both good to get better acquainted,” said Isa.
“It will,” Martin agreed. “Everything’s falling into place finally. Now if we can only stop Erin from working every weekend, life will be perfect.”
“Huh?” said Erin, appearing from the bathroom in her pajamas. “Are you two talking about me?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Isa replied. “Come to bed. I’m tired.”
“Not too tired, I hope,” said Erin mischievously as she joined Isa under the covers and snuggled up to her.
“Hmm,” Martin said. “Gotta love how you always get down to business.” He stripped off and joined the two women before turning out the light.
A few minutes later, Erin suddenly sat up and pushed down the coverlet. “Darn it!”
“What?” Isa asked, also sitting up. She brushed her hair away from her face. “What’s wrong?”
“We have shooting range practice tomorrow,” said Erin. “Didn’t you see the notification?”
“No, I didn’t,” Isa replied indignantly. “When I’m indulging in marital relations, I’m not checking notices at the same time.”
“I saw it as well,” said Martin, as he also sat up.
“Huh?” said Isa. “Am I the only one around here who was concentrating on what she was doing?”
“Such a bummer,” Erin said. “I guess that now we’re on Troy, we’ve been put on the Trojan invasion drill timetable. It doesn’t matter that we already did target practice on Carthage a couple of months ago.”
“It’s a bummer for you guys,” said Martin. “Not me. Fixing the damage from that sinkhole counts as an emergency situation, so I’m excused.”
“Well aren’t you the lucky one?” said Isa.
“Wait. He isn’t lucky at all,” said Erin. “Have you seen what we’ll be practicing with? They’ve got the AC9CR! It’s a new tri-mode e-beam.”
“Erin!” Isa exclaimed.
“What?”
“I can’t believe you’re still reading that notice. It would be nice if you could keep your mind on the job at hand.”
“Oh, yeah.” Erin smiled sheepishly. She lay down and pulled the covers over her shoulders.
Martin lay down too. He turned the window opposite the bed transparent. Starlight and moonlight filled the room.
“Did you do that?” Isa asked him as she also reclined.
“Uh huh,” he replied, drawing her into his arms.
CHAPTER SEVEN
STELLAR DATE: 04.12.8941 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Family home, eastern shores of Ithaca
REGION: Troy, New Canaan System
Erin and Isa were sleeping soundly when Martin awoke the following day. Canaan Prime’s bright beams were shining directly into the room. Martin changed the window setting to translucent and gently eased himself out of bed to avoid waking the two women.
He regarded them both in silence for a moment. Erin was lying on her back, an arm flung over her head. Her mouth was open, and she was gently snoring. Isa was curled at Erin’s side, her hair spread over her pillow like fine, ebony seaweed floating in the current.
Time was getting on. Lindsey had sent more details on the damage at the sinkhole, which was considerable. Martin quickly descended the stairs and walked across the hall to the kitchen. The service company who had installed the furniture had also, at his request, supplied a few groceries.
Martin set the coffee maker going and then opened the French doors to the terrace. The Sea of Marmara stretched almost to the horizon. A cool breeze drifted in and filled the kitchen. Martin strode outside and arranged seats around the stone table before returning to the kitchen to collect his breakfast of croissants, eggs, fruit, and coffee. He sat down and took in the scenery as he ate.
Martin smiled when Eamon said no more. It wasn’t often that his mental companion was at a loss for words.
The sea lapped the shore about fifty meters below the terrace, out of Martin’s sight. The sun was now streaming across the expanse. A dark line at its farthest edge marked the coast of Troy’s island continent, Syracuse. Lindsey had said the marine safari park stretched the entire distance below the water from Ithaca to its neighbor. Visitors could take an underwater maglev that would stop at significant places in the park, or they would be able to stay in underwater hotels for a longer vacation.
Martin was bursting with curiosity to see the safari site and the progress that Lindsey had made so far. The project was a massive seeding and engineering challenge. A few aspects, like coral reefs and tropical fish, sharks, and turtles were a given, but Lindsey had also told him about other plans: an octopus garden, a sea monsters area, a diatom spectacle, and a deep-sea dome full of organisms that dwelled in high-pressure habitats. Martin couldn’t wait to get started.
He was only a tiny bit disappointed that they wouldn’t be going to Athens. It would have been good to go tsunami surfing again—and to have a rematch with Usef. Yet Martin had also been relieved when it became clear they would have to postpone the trip. They could go to Athens any time, and Jude was still so young. Martin just wasn’t comfortable with leaving him with other people, even a family as trustworthy and responsible as the governor’s.
He finished his coffee and put down his cup. After returning to the hall to riffle through the baggage, he found his swimming shorts. He put them on and took off his robe, dropping it over the back of a chair. Unlike the beach house, their new home was serviced by servitors to keep it clean and tidy.
At the edge of the terrace, stone steps led down to a garden of salt-tolerant trees and plants. Martin walked down the stairs and then along a meandering path that ended at a gate in the garden fence. He was careful to lock the gate after passing through it. No barriers lay between the fence and the cliff edge, so it was important that Jude should never be able to escape the garden.
Martin walked to the drop-
off and peered over it, the breeze pushing him backward. A large natural cave opened at the base of the cliff far below. Martin couldn’t see the cave due to the overhang, but he could see where the water was deep.
The AI replied,
Aiming for the darker water, he dove off the cliff and brought his hands together over his head as the rock face rushed past.
He only had time to think, What an incredible commute, as he dropped toward the waves. Just before he hit the water, a nictitating membrane slid across his eyes.
Slicing into the water, Martin shot into the briny depths. Feeling like he was finally in his element once more, he leveled out and opened his mouth to breathe. The sensation of water passing down his windpipe and out from between his lower ribs had taken some getting used to at first, but now it was second nature.
The body modders had also offered him an aquatic respiratory system option akin to that of a marine mammal’s; rather than gill-like slits in his ribs, he would have only required a discreet blowhole in the back of his neck. But in the end, Martin had decided that if he was going to take the step of a full body mod, he might as well go all the way. Now he was equally at home on land and in water. The webbing between his toes certainly helped with his swimming too.
Eamon replied.
Martin was traveling parallel to the coastline at a depth of four meters. The water was comfortably warm, and visibility was good. He had already encountered several fish species and other marine life that were probably local to the area, but he expected to hit the outer reaches of the marine park soon and see the early stages of Lindsey’s work.
The complex that was the center of management for the marine safari was about a kilometer south of his new home. The underwater labs and offices were about fifty meters from the shore and five meters down. The water was so clear, Martin could soon see the low, regular blocks of the structure in the distance and he propelled himself toward it.
Small coral began to appear, as the level of the seabed rose. Within a few moments, Martin was swimming above tall, branching colonies, cushions, wave-like structures, and weird convolutions similar to the surface of a human brain. The coral Lindsey had seeded were growing strongly, and reef fish were already teeming over them. Small reef sharks rested on the shallow seabed.
A cool shadow passed over Martin. He looked up to see the underside of a large sea turtle, its massive flippers steadily paddling.
He guessed that visitors would have the option of swimming into the safari park, as he was. If so, the reef was a great entrance into an underwater adventure.
The safari project buildings sat in a wide, shallow hollow. The complex consisted of several single-story, hexagonal structures conjoined by tunnels. Now that he was close to the buildings, Martin could see that all the tunnels and some of the walls and roofs of many of the structures were transparent. Figures were even visible inside. He spotted his colleague and old friend Lindsey through one of the windows. Her head was down.
She must be working on something.
Rather than alert her to his arrival via the Link, Martin decided to give her a surprise. He swam right over to the window and rapped on it hard with his knuckles. Lindsey looked up and after a moment’s recognition, she smiled and waved.
Martin followed her directions and saw the entrance to the building, which was an open portal. Held back by a grav field, the water ended in a clear line that spanned the opening. Martin swam over to it, grabbed the handbars on each side, brought down his legs, and stepped inside. As soon as his feet touched the floor, a blast of warm, dry air blew at him from vents, and the water that dripped from his body disappeared into the matting beneath his feet.
Martin slid back his eye membranes, shunted the remaining water from his lungs, and switched to air breathing. Lindsey approached him along the corridor, grinning. When she reached him, they hugged.
“I’m so glad you agreed to come to Troy and help me out, Martin. I promise you, you’re going to love it here.”
“From what I’ve seen so far,” he replied, “I think I will.”
“Let’s get you a lab coat. I wasn’t expecting you to swim in. Most of us arrive the regular way, through the tunnel from the surface.” She opened a door and handed him a white coat. “Are you OK with working in bare feet?”
“That’s how I usually work.” He shrugged.
“Oh yeah,” said Lindsey. “I remember your beach house on the Med. OK, let me introduce you to the gang, then we’ll go straight out to the sinkhole.”
She led him through a tunnel toward a different building. Tropical fish swam overhead, and ripples on the water’s surface made the light dance.
As Lindsey entered the central building, she remarked, “So you finally went full-mod. What do you think?”
“Now that I’m used to it,” Martin replied, “I regret not doing it sooner.”
“So what you’re saying is, you wish you’d listened to me?” Lindsey shot him a sideways glance and a grin.
“Is that your way of saying ‘I told you so’?”
“Hmm…. Maybe.”
“OK, Lindsey,” Martin said. “If it makes you happy, you were right. I should have gotten modded the minute I graduated, just like you did.”
She chuckled. “Actually, I wish I’d waited a while. The mods I got then with my recent college grad’s salary weren’t that good; some of our upgrades here are really impressive, though. I’ll have to make the time to go and see what improvements the modders can offer.”
A door opened, and Lindsey ushered Martin ahead of her into a lab where a man and a woman were working. The two assistants walked over to Martin to shake hands. Lindsey introduced them as Pietr and Margot. Pietr was tall and rangy, and Margot was rounded and rosy-cheeked.
“I heard you seeded the Med on Carthage,” Margot said. “Nice job. I went whale watching on my last vacation and saw a blue whale. That was one of yours, right?”
“The blues are mine, yes, but my assistant, Malcolm, helped to raise them. I can’t take all the credit.”
“Still, that’s quite an achievement,” Pietr said. “I’m happy to have you working with us. Lindsey’s been running us off our feet for the last two months. Isn’t that right, Margot?”
“What Pietr means to say,” Margot explained with a wink, “is that we have been busy doing a job we love. And we’re very glad to have you on board.”
“Great,” Lindsey said, clearly eager to get underway. “Now that the introductions are over, let’s go out to that damned sinkhole.”
“I’ll stay here, if that’s OK,” said Pietr. “We won’t all fit in the Torpedo.”
“Are you sure?” Lindsey asked. “You could come along in a single seater.”
“No, I don’t mind. I have plenty to do.”
Lindsey opened a thick metal door. On the other side of it, a squat, dome-roofed, three-seater submersible sat in a waterlock. Two slim, single-person underwater vehicles were clamped to the lock’s walls.
“That’s the Torpedo?” Martin asked, eyeing the dumpy craft.
“Pietr has an ironic sense of humor,” said Margot.
They climbed inside, and Lindsey cl
osed the seals. Water poured into the chamber from several spouts. When the Torpedo became buoyant, Lindsey started the engine. The water level eventually reached the ceiling, and then wide doors opened at the end of the lock, and Lindsey guided the craft out to sea.
She piloted the submersible parallel to the seabed, following a gradual slope downward. The water grew darker, but Martin’s modded eyes compensated, so he hardly noticed.
“We hadn’t done a lot in this area, thank the stars,” Lindsey said, “or the damage would have been much worse. As it is, I hate to think how many organisms were dragged in and killed when the sinkhole opened.”
“What happened?” Martin asked.
“A minor earthquake,” Margot answered. “Tiny little thing. They hardly felt it on the mainland. But it was enough to trigger a collapse of the seabed. It was lucky none of us was working near the site at the time.”
The dark hole in the sandy floor was becoming plain to see. The sinkhole was roughly circular, and larger than Martin had imagined—over three hundred meters at its widest point. Sand was running steadily into it from the edges.
Lindsey cut the thrust of the submersible’s engine, and they coasted closer to the pit.
A diver was swimming up out from the sinkhole, the beam from his headlight cutting through the dim water. Martin noticed the diver’s line as the man gave them a wave.
“Is it safe to go near it?” asked Martin, eyeing the diver’s progress warily.
“Yes, it’s fine now,” Lindsey replied. “Oh, sorry. I forgot to tell Tony you’re here.” She added another person to the team’s channel.
Martin recognized the man’s name and ident, though he’d never met him face to face. He was the planetary engineer Isa had interviewed for her infomentary on Tyre.
Tony made an OK symbol with his hand and then gave a thumbs-up before he began swimming upward. A boat’s narrow hull bobbed on the surface above.