“You don’t want to trust her,” the girl told me. “She’s mean. She controls the fish but if you upset her she’ll let them attack you. My mother stays away from her and you should too.”
“Thank you,” I said, taking her warning to heart. I considered retreating to the boulder, but didn’t just yet. “Where did you come from?”
“I’ve been watching from over there,” she said, pointing at another of the rocks further out in the water. “We live in the caves but I like to swim around the island.”
“Caves?” I asked cluelessly. To be fair, I hadn’t been on the island for all that long.
“Underneath the dirt,” she said, pointing down toward the sand.
I nodded, finally understanding. I hadn’t noticed any when I first arrived, but they were probably more accessible from other parts of the island.
“They’re all underwater?” I asked, wanting to learn what I could of the environment there.
“Not all of them are.”
It made me wonder how much I didn’t know yet about the island.
“How many of you are there?” I asked, figuring I should gather what intel I could. The young girl seemed quite happy to talk to me.
“Oh there are lots of us and more further away.”
“I see,” I said, wondering how many there were. Hundreds? Thousands? Maybe even millions? I could’ve asked, but I figured it might be better not to for now. Besides, it wasn’t immediately relevant.
“So your people can’t walk on land?” I asked.
I’ll admit, part of my reason for asking was so I would feel safer knowing I had a place to retreat to if it was necessary. The girl was friendly, but other merpeople might not be.
“No, not at all,” the girl replied. “What’s your name?”
“My name’s Cole. Cole Zorenn.” A name I’d never expected to speak nor hear again.
“I’m Aquiara,” she said, dipping under the water, before bouncing up again.
“That’s a lovely name. What’s the other lady’s name?”
“Salia,” she said, screwing up her face. “How did you get here?” she asked as she splashed around.
“My ship crashed.” I knew it was only a partial explanation, but I was reluctant to say too much just yet.
“Was it small?”
I nodded. “Yes it was. Did you see it?”
“No, but others have come here before, a long time ago. People who weren’t wanted anymore. Is that why you’re here?”
I thought hard about how I should answer her question. All of those who had been dumped on the planet were prisoners and they might not have made the best impression. I didn’t want their behaviour to reflect on me, but I didn’t want to lie either.
“There might be someone back home who still wants me but I don’t know if she died.”
“That’s sad,” the little girl replied. “What happened?”
“Some bad men took her, and made me do things I didn’t want to do. I did and got in trouble, but I don’t know if they let her go.”
“Can’t you find out?”
“Not anymore. I’m here and there’s no way to find out. I’m stuck here with no way to get home.”
She thought it over for a long time before she replied. “You could try the shamaness. She can’t help you leave but she ought to be able to show you the truth.”
I envisioned an elderly soothsayer, but the truth was I didn’t know for sure what to expect or whether she could help me. Obviously I wanted to find out the answer; my worry for my daughter was consuming me, but I also didn’t know who I could trust.
“How would I see her? Would she see me?”
“You would have to swim down to see her,” the girl replied. “She doesn’t leave her cave.”
“Is any of it not submerged?” I asked, wondering if there was any real possibility of getting an answer. I didn’t want to get my hopes up if they’d only be crushed.
“Some isn’t,” Aquiara replied. “I saw it once and some of her cave has land . . . uhh without the water.”
“Can you show me now?” I asked.
I wasn’t feeling the best, still covered in fish slashes, but I needed to know the truth. If the need to swim too deep was a problem, I knew I’d find out soon enough.
“That would be a bad idea,” she said. “I will ask and come back this time tomorrow to give you the shamaness’s answer and her price. She always has one.”
I sighed when the girl spoke of a price. I had almost nothing to my name. Perhaps in time I would if she asked for something attainable.
“I’ll be here,” I promised her, as I made my way back through the water toward the beach. There was little I could do for now except recuperate. My fishing skills obviously left a lot to be desired.
It occurred to me that I could ask the mermaid to catch a fish for me, but when I turned around she was already gone. It was about time I tried some more plants to find out what I could safely eat. I didn’t want to starve to death and it was up to me to ensure that didn’t happen. I might not be much of a fisherman, but there were wild grasses in abundance. Perhaps I could weave a net or trade with the merpeople. They likely had a lot of things.
After some more rest and a meal of leaves, some berry-like fruits I’d found and fresh water, I felt more decent than I had since landing on Dorphus Five. I’d made inroads into creating a net, but it would take time, so I left it to sit while I set about exploring more of the island. I didn’t want to go so far away that I couldn’t make it back in time for my meeting with Aquiara, but the days were long on the planet and I needed to know more about my new home.
I knew the crystal monoliths could serve as landmarks so I could gauge my direction and distance. I considered following the coast along, but I needed to know what else was on the island and how safe it was.
I couldn’t tell which direction was which, but if I viewed the second sun as moving in a westerly direction, then I travelled toward the east. That put the monolith to the north or at least, my perception of what north should be.
The low grasses gave way to sparse trees and then a deeper forest. They weren’t like the alien trees I’d discovered near the beach or even those close to the stream. These were woodier rather than succulent, and I noticed movement among the branches. I thought I’d spotted birds, but as I got closer, I realised they were different. They seemed more like bats or the pterodactyls of ancient times. I’d never seen either first hand; only in books, but there were notable similarities. They were more leathery than feathered.
I wondered if they might be edible and hoped they wouldn’t think the same thing of me. They didn’t seem big enough to do me any harm, so I ventured further into the woods, until I encountered what I could only compare to a massive gash in the landscape. It took me a moment to realise what it was. A shot had been fired from the ship and struck the ground.
I climbed down into the crater and ran my fingers through the charred sand. This was recent. A chill ran down my spine as I climbed out and backed up against the nearest of the large trees. The island felt far safer than I was around my own people, and I didn’t like how I felt about that. Some of the ship’s crew knew the truth of what had happened to me and yet this had been allowed to happen. And they called me a criminal.
I considered returning to the remains of the shack. It seemed early as the second sun was high in the sky, but I was tired from my walking and the ordeal I’d been through. Then there was the stress, because I didn’t know what I might encounter that could be dangerous to me. I hadn’t seen any land animals other than the alien bats since arriving; not even ants, and I wasn’t sure what to make of that. A far larger bird in the distance drove me into the trees, and then I just kept on walking until the forest ended abruptly.
I stood before a cliff, looking out over the water. It was a long way down but the cliff was rocky and I thought there might be a way. I squinted but no matter how much I tried, the view didn’t look quite right. If it had just bee
n the ocean then that wouldn’t have been so strange, but it wasn’t. It was like an optical illusion. It seemed as though I was looking at a hologram at just the right angle to find its flaws. On one side there was empty ocean with the waves rolling in. Then there was something, like a hint of a rainbow and the sun shining in my eyes, only it wasn’t that. Something was there, but I couldn’t tell for certain what it was.
On the right side I saw boulders. Not small like those strewn over the beach, but several larger ones assembled together. They were about thirty metres out from the beach and I wondered if they formed the base of a small island or something like one. There was a hint of a wall that might’ve been the edge of a building, but there were few details to go on and it seemed to blur into the light and the ocean beside it.
I wasn’t reckless enough to jump into the water from the clifftop; not with all those rocks below. I found a safe way down. It took me almost an hour to reach the beach, and I walked through the cool water to soothe my feet. I wasn’t wearing shoes, and walking and climbing had taken its toll.
A swig of water from the bottle cooled my throat as I studied the view from my new vantage point. It hadn’t changed much but I was sure I saw the back of a building. I wondered if there was some kind of cloaking field and if some sections of it might have failed.
If it had, then there was likely more to the planet than my people knew. The only other intelligent beings on the planet that I’d seen were the merpeople, so for the time being, I assumed they might have had something to do with it. The Kerathi Empire supposedly didn’t use cloaking technology anymore; it was outlawed by their treaties. I wasn’t ruling out the possibility that they had a base on the planet. I knew not to underestimate them.
The water between the beach and the rocks seemed quiet enough and I hadn’t walked all that way for nothing. There could be defenses that I didn’t know about, but I didn’t want to risk drawing attention before I could make it across. I considered taking my staff, but I decided against it because I knew it would be awkward to swim with it.
I trudged deeper into the water, taking my time as it washed around my ankles, then up to my knees. I waited to see if I was attacked, but the slashes didn’t come. The water was almost clear, and when I spotted a small rock, I picked it up and threw it as far as I could toward the island. It passed through the cloaked portion and promptly disappeared.
“Crazy.”
There were no obvious threats that warned me away, so I moved quickly. My singular goal was to cross the water as fast as possible and reach the questionable safety of the rocks. I swam with the sound of my heart beating in my ears. The salty water stung my eyes, but I barely noticed. Colourful rocks lay beneath the water, but there was no sign of the darting fish. No mermaids either, and I breathed a sigh of relief the moment my hand touched the nearest boulder. I climbed up on top of it, dripping with water.
Only then did I take another good look at my location.
“This is insane.”
I could see what I hadn’t before. It wasn’t just the tiny island I’d believed it to be; it looked at least fifty or maybe a hundred metres long. There was a building that towered high, as alien and beautiful as any I’d seen before. It was pearlescent grey and seemed to circle around like a spiral staircase or maybe a giant seashell, though I couldn’t see any door to enter it from where I sat. It was possible that there might be one around the other side of the building. It was entirely different from the monoliths, but I planned to investigate them too.
I climbed to my feet and carefully walked toward the alien structure. Without my staff, I felt vulnerable—not that it would probably have done much to protect me, so I gathered up a handful of small rocks and threw one at a time ahead of me before venturing ahead. I probably looked foolish, but no one else was watching. I didn’t know what I was dealing with and I didn’t want to make a potentially fatal misstep.
I noticed a strange box sitting amongst the rocks. It was a perfect cube around a metre wide, with a tan surface weathered by the elements. When the small rock hit its surface, the pebble all but exploded. I felt significantly less foolish after that. The message was clear: stay away from that! Whatever it was, the owner of the tower wanted to protect it from interference. That probably made it something important.
It occurred to me then that if humans or a similar alien species wanted to protect their assets from merpeople, a tower would be one way to do it. The merpeople couldn’t reach it without walking; but then, why put it so close to the water if that was the case?
The island was off limits to the merpeople, other than the caves the young girl, Aquiara, had told me about. I wondered if the caves might have been a secret she was meant to keep from outsiders like me.
I quickly discovered a door to the tower, and it wasn’t protected by a forcefield. I wouldn’t have put it past its original owners to have some kind of scanner, but I didn’t meet any resistance as I nudged the door and walked in. There was a staircase leading up along the wall and a massive hole in the centre of the floor that wasn’t part of the original architecture.
Someone had smashed their way in from the ocean below, and I was fairly sure I knew who, or rather which species, had done it. The question was why. The stairs were still stable, so I began to climb. I’d run out of pebbles, and I was paranoid there was some kind of trick step, but if so, I didn’t trigger it.
It was strange—the way the building grew narrower the higher I climbed. I must’ve been close to the top, and I’d climbed a lot of stairs, before it opened into a small room. I knew at once I’d likely found my new home on the island. It was well-protected and well-hidden from some threats, though I wasn’t certain where the nearest fresh water or edible plants could be found, so those were still wrinkles to iron out.
The room had many monitor-like screens—over ten of them. A pillar at the centre of the room was marked with grooves and indentations. My instincts told me it was some kind of data core, but I wasn’t certain because the pillar’s technology was unfamiliar to me. There was a broken chair and some rubble from one of the walls, but the room wasn’t exposed to the elements.
I was certain it was some kind of observation post that the original inhabitants had left behind, whether willingly or not. Some of the screens were blank, as though the cameras feeding them images had been destroyed, but others were still operational. Two were looking down on the island from high above, and I realised then that they must’ve been positioned at or near the top of the monoliths. The others looked to be underwater and in one of them I saw something quite unlike anything I’d seen before: it looked like an underwater city.
There was a cluster of buildings—dozens of them, and as strange as it might sound, it seemed they were encompassed by a phosphorescent web with many breaks in its surface. I could see the glitter of hundreds—maybe even thousands—of distant lights, and figures swimming through the web between the buildings.
“So that’s where you are,” I murmured as I took a step nearer the screen.
I reached out my hand and tentatively touched it, and it responded by zooming in further. There was a dark shadow above it, and I soon realised it was land. If I found the entrance to the caves, they might lead down to the same city. No wonder they were patrolling the waters around the island. They lived beneath it.
It was a reason to become more reclusive but I also knew I wanted to start off on the right foot with them. What was more, they understood this world and its politics, past and present.
As a visitor to the tower, especially if I lived in it, I could be very easily associated with the aliens who’d inhabited it before. I didn’t know if they were still on the planet or if they might come back, but it seemed they’d been gone for a long time.
The other monitors showed different locations. One camera was positioned in a cave entrance, and from there I had a good view of four mermaids who were talking amongst themselves, though I couldn’t hear what they were saying. They all wore scaled t
ops and two had necklaces strung with seashells. One was eating sea life from larger shells in a bowl, while holding it above the water. I zoomed in and took careful note of the shells’ appearance, as it meant they’d probably be safe for me to eat too.
The sight reminded me of my hunger, not that my stomach had allowed me to forget, but I decided it was time to go. There was no way I’d forget the location of the tower. If I was going to move in, I’d need to investigate the surrounding area to find the food and water I’d need. At least it might be a good place for fishing.
It was a fair walk to get back to the beach where I’d first encountered the mermaids, and this time I followed the shore along, because I knew it would take me there eventually. I arrived with time to spare. When Aquiara arrived, as I knew she would, I was surprised to see that she wasn’t alone.
Three mermaids waited in the water, floating just out from shore. Aquiara was smiling, and she gave me a wave as I waded into the water. I hadn’t met the other mermaids before. The younger of the adults looked in her twenties and was quite beautiful, and the older was in her fifties or maybe her sixties and lovely too. They wore scaled tops like Aquiara’s, only theirs were blue instead of green. The younger woman had plants woven through a braid in her hair.
I wondered if the elder mermaid might be the soothsayer Aquiara had told me about. She didn’t have the look about her of a shamaness, but then I didn’t really have a clue what she’d look like if I saw her.
The women seemed wary of me and the feeling was mutual. I remained vigilant because I knew the attacking fish could strike fast. I stayed close enough to the shore that I knew I should be able to make it back to land in time if I had to.
“Hello there,” I said as I approached, instinctively showing both of my hands so the mermaids knew I didn’t carry any weapons.
“Cole Zorenn,” Aquiara said, remembering my name.
“That’s right, Aquiara,” I replied.
“Stay close, daughter,” the young woman said.
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