Mermaidia: A Limited Edition Anthology

by Pauline Creeden

  "Talk to Denneer. But only him. If he thinks it can be done, and you can track the drones while flying, I don't see why not." he said, finally. Eli grinned and pounced up onto the table, then up the tube, climbing like a small monkey. "ELI!" Holloway called after him. After a few seconds, the curious face peeked back out of the hatch. "Find out what Zedec needs, and if he wants to do it there, or back."

  Scanner

  Eli was scanning the system, and though he'd been through here a few times, he was noticing subtle differences. The colour of the planet for a start, and the shadows passing over it. He watched, then sent probes in closer, through the atmosphere. His skin tingled as things heated, and the probes sampled everything. Definite changes. The atmosphere around him crystallised and solidified, an electric charge in the air, a static thump that tingled over everything that was the drones. Prior reports of the planet were an odd gaseous mix and H2O that could be purified to remove the extra condensates that couldn't be digested by humans when collected - silica minerals from a long lost life form maybe, or just a mix of the planet's gas and the water. But it was mostly water.

  Of course, with the water system, there was a cloud system - so, he went into the upper atmosphere, and started shutting down some external stimuli sensors he needed to sense density changes passing through, so wasn't really paying complete attention when he broke cloud cover.

  Two drones instantly shattered and went offline.

  What the...?

  He switched to two more, and saw the crumbling remains of his probe-based comrades, and realised they'd bounced off a crystalline structure. In the shape of a...

  A TRIDENT?

  He sent all of his remaining surveillance drones down, scanning the area. Sure enough, the two risen structures were tridents, and crackling with static power. Occasionally, a burst flung itself from one to another. Around the base of the tower, he saw a different crystalline structure....and...

  Is that...

  His eyes unglazed suddenly, and his head snapped up.

  "Eli?" Holloway asked. A slow grin was spreading across his face.

  "There's something on Calibri," he said.

  "What?" Jessi asked, putting down her book, and gazing over. "Cabiri is a water globe.... nothing more,"

  "Seems not," Eli said. "There's a small island and outcrop, rising as the path through the belt aligns,"

  "What?" Jessi said. "You're trying to say that the path through is linked to what? A location on the planet? And no one has noticed?"

  Eli shrugged. Holloway quickly scrolled the 18 recorded transits through the astrobelt alignment. "They were all coming from the other side, and none were anywhere near Calibri when they finished their transit," he said, softly. He drummed his fingers lightly on the table. "Eli, please monitor the situation, and send some probes. We want more information, as I think - I fear - that we may get to choose to investigate either the anomaly or use the path."

  "Why do you think that?"

  "Because... you never get both. That's not how life works. There's always a catch." Holloway said. "But...let's see what there is."

  "You may wanna sit down," Eli said, winking.

  They all gathered around the projector screen, though, Holloway was surprised to note that Zedec was holding back, even though he'd been brought here. He could see something was bothering him, though it was hard to tell if he was upset that Calliba wasn't what he'd been told to expect, or if it was something else.

  "So," Eli began and waved a hand. "As you can see, there's not much to see from above Calliba,” The viewscreen filled with a globe of blue and white, flickering softly. "But Holloway suggested sending down probes because the Scap couldn't dip that low. So, I did." He showed them the scans, and all around them, all he heard was 'holy cow' and 'oh my...'. Zedec uttered something high and ululating, and everyone looked towards him.

  "As the prophecy foretold!" he cried exultantly. "Those are the tridents of Essedi!"

  The Root of all Myths

  "If we go to investigate, he stays, right?" Jessi said, quirking her head towards Zedec. Holloway was ambivalent. He'd had time to look at the research and notes provided by Zedec and finally understood what his order was after. What they were trying to resurrect. Why. It was complete babble and nonsense.

  "At the root of the myth of the mermaid, is a story of love. Of a woman who could only come onto land when the stars aligned, and the symbol of her father appeared above her. And a man, who, when he saw the symbols appear in front of his shipwrecked boat, swam towards them. And fell in love. She bore him back to land, and he looked forever at the same time every year,” All of which had been a fairy-tale he'd known as a child. He looked at the things that reflected from that myth, in the holospace information around them, on his bridge. All that was missing were the lovers.

  "Everything stays here, except us four and the Scap. Hopefully, it'll hold out long enough to let us investigate,” Denneer looked over and shrugged. "I think I've fixed the part. Ultimately, the break in the containment field gives me access to more parts."

  Zedec spoke up.

  "No. Essedi needs to go down too,"

  "Not happening," Jessi said.

  "It. Needs. To." he said. His eyes burned fever bright. "This has been a project, years in the making. It was your bad luck that you filled the criteria," Holloway's heart sunk, and Denneer looked over. He snapped his fingers twice, and suddenly, the ship's lights flickered. "The ship is now under my control. Tali, Essia, and (name) are all mine. This has been in progress for 24 months. You can't fight it."

  Holloway stood, and before he could reach the door, there was a loud snap-thump. Every exit from the mess locked, all at once.

  Over the radio, Holloway heard one word

  'Axios!'

  The Vote

  Holloway sighed. The scuffle had been short, unexpected, and out of the blue.

  His small band of 'loyal' staff were gathered in the mess deck, chased and chivvied there by other members. One stood on the other side of the door, and now he was to discuss everything that had been revealed. Eli had broken the partition on Zedec’s device easily, and Holloway grew closer and closer to realising that the four of them had no choice, that he'd have to go down to the planet. Zedec controlled most of the ship.

  "I'd say 'we vote' right about now, but I think we all know that's pointless." Jessi was cleaning up Marek again, and making sure that Eli was sipping his water. Of the four of them, Eli had taken the hardest beating, being on the outside of the ship when it lurched the first time and coming in when it did the second. He'd bounced around airlocks.

  "No. But if we can dump him - and it - on the planet...."

  "The second shift crew are all his sect," Eli said quietly. Holloway swore softly. "all seem to also have some sort of low-level electromagnetic implant that has switched on since the plant went postal,"

  Holloway looked at Eli closely. "What?"

  "There's a low-level EM field on the ship. It has to be the plant. Nothing could break to give me that sort of tingle in my head. For all we know they *are* his sect, and they are as bonkers as they sound, but equally, can we be sure that once the plant and Zedec are off the ship, that we can't reason with them. Salazar has been my friend for 19 months. Tami 14. Either this has been planned, or they're sleepers. Sleepers can be put back to sleep sometimes."

  "Eli, they're not computers, they don't have restore points,"

  "No, you're right. What I'm more thinking of is a remote signal. It can't be that strong. If we break the signal, can we appeal to their better nature, or will they be disoriented enough that we can lock them in the ship's hold till we get to Themisa."

  Holloway paused, appearing to mull everything over.

  "It's worth a...."

  There was a sudden lurch, a loud screech of metal and Holloway was flying towards the nearest wall.

  A Random shift

  Holloway awoke to alarms. Groggily, he opened his eyes, a pounding headache making hi
m wince. He was looking at the broken recyc unit, which had, it seemed, vomited the sour liquid over him and around him. Alarms and klaxons howled and roared. He tried to push off the unit, and lift his head, struggling to move. He slowly heard groans and whines around him, and crew trying to raise one another.

  Another jerk and the gravity wasn't quite so hard to fight, so he slowly pushed himself upright. His head was spinning, but he could look around him. Leaves were slowly infiltrating the area around him, in more shapes than tails and shells. The vines wrapping around the doorway of the bay seemed to be seeking something. He flipped onto his back, to get a better view. It hurt to look directly up, so he didn't. His eyes were slightly unfocused and cold. The atmosphere felt wrong, and he knew they had to be missing plating. Or a part of the ship was exposed entirely to the atmosphere, right through to the spine corridor.

  "Catasrop system failure in 9...8..."

  All around him, globules of liquid floated or splattered, meaning the grav drive was making bubbles of gravity. He was in one, but others were empty, so various areas had globes of water. In one of the bigger ones, Marek floated, probably unconscious. He was definitely unmoving, one of his four feet attached to a vine. Zedec seemed to have been impaled on a large vine, his heart torn out, his chest hollowed. In its stead, a beautiful flower, vase-shaped and vibrant purple sparkled around it. It spread in three loops, three bunches of three, and tinkled like bells as they moved in the grav currents around them. Eli was unconscious, asleep, but guarded in his hand, was his globe map. Jessi was flailing in a bubble and screaming. For Marek, for Eli. Cursing Zedec.

  I'm guessing she can't see him yet, Holloway through muzzily. He looked around again, trying to reach the switches that would let him deal with the issues in hand. Lock down this room, fix the gravity, and then we can deal with whatever comes next. He tried to sit up. Weakly, and with a low scream, he finally managed it. He started punching a panel behind him - just punching, trying to breach the protective cover. Smashing that should trigger a full field around the room.

  "5...4...3..." He bashed panel, smacking them till his knuckles bled. Finally, one gave way.

  "Containment initiated... Viral strain Essedi Phase 1 detected".

  That's not what he called it, Holloway thought weakly. Slowly everything cycled up. The room rotated, and he slid, gently off the recyc unit and onto the floor.

  The tables and chairs reconfigured, then melted into the floor. Soon, everyone was in a heap, except Zedec, impaled in the doorway, and Marek, who was being held about six feet from him and was currently turned upside down, as vines crept up his legs. And then they began to squeeze, and Marek howled.

  Pulling out a knife, Jessi hacked away, trying to release Marek, while Holloway examined and then tried to wake Eli.

  Finally, Eli coughed weakly and looked around him muzzily when he finally opened his eyes. Jessi was weeping.

  "It won't let him go," she wailed. The rending cries coming from her chest and, Marek's weak protests were really hard to take, and Eli couldn't talk for the first few minutes after he sat up. He just stared, numbly at Zedec. Finally, with a scream, she slashed through the last vine at its root. She sawed through the thick creeper, and as she did, Zedec's body jerked.

  Finally, Eli said, "That's the first dead body I've ever been in the same room with…" and vomited violently between his legs.

  "Second shift!" Holloway barked. All he heard was static."Second shift, response required. I don’t care that you’re Marata, Matara, or barking mad. I offer clemency. Answer me!" he said again.

  Static.

  Slowly, his shoulders sagged as he looked around again.

  Apathy’s Maw was designed with two plating walls, covering a forcefield shell. Under certain circumstances, the forcefields could and would detach. Like the Quar-bay. And he realised that it probably was the quar bay command that had caused all the trouble. He looked up, into the endless void above him, directly out past a wet, shimmering, slowly vine creeper covered surface that stood between him and the stars.

  "I...I guess it could be worse..." Eli said softly before pushing up and off the floor and shakily standing, going to a console. He tapped a few buttons then gulped. Holloway thought he was going to be sick again. "Scratch that. It is worse. We need to find our way to the Scap, NOW". He launched himself towards his trapdoor. The only other exit was filled with Essedi. Holloway was angry, confused, and last out.

  Just as he left, there was a soft exhale from the side of the room. "Remember, this is a love story," Zedec said, hollow eyes turning to meet his, mouth hanging open. "Mermaids lure us, but only for love."

  The Reef of Souls

  As the four of them piled into the Scapula, they found Denneer, sitting at the cockpit seat. Around his throat was one vine, split ones running over each hand. A thick vine ran up the central corridor of the shuttle, between the benches, with some streamers trailing over the door, brushing them as they entered. With a susurrating shudder, the flowers all...shook themselves at once, and glittery pollen filled the air, the heady, but somehow unpleasant scent filled the air. Something was weird.

  "Den?" Holloway whispered.

  "The sirens are helping us. If we do as they ask, they'll set us free," he whispered. "The sirens. The contagion. For love," he said, then turned his head back to the view below him. Holloway queasily looked down, realising that the ship was more forcefield than metal plating right now and that he could see down to the planet below. The benign blue and white was now grey and silver, with flashes of pink. The asteroid belt off to one side was also shattering and sparking. He finally realised why no one had ever seen this. No one had survived it.

  Can we? Can we really?

  As if Denneer had heard him, he said, "We will release you. If you give for love, in love, as love. All we ask is that you bring the seed and the sprout, the flower and the pollen, the vine and the root. That's all we ask," he said. His voice was a susurrus. Insouciant, commanding, yet...somehow scared, shy. Tentative and uncertain.

  "Buckle up guys...I don't think this is going to be a smooth ride," Holloway said. Behind him, the ship disintegrated, a tether attached to the quar-bay brought it into place behind them and locked the bay behind them. Zedec seemed unconcerned for those that were lost, but Holloway was surprised to note that magnetised to the quar-bay were the boxes of vaccines. Strapping in, Holloway couldn't help but notice that Denneer wasn't the only one acting weirdly. Marek was scratching the leg that had the vine attached.

  Oh, I hope it's just the ichor.

  The only way down to the planet after everything jettisoned, was to land between the tridents, in an area of oceans marked 'the reef of Souls'. Countless drones, small shuttles and other items had wrecked there, and around it, a luminescent reef. Holloway wondered if those reefs were still there, with the trident crystalline structures that had sprouted, or if they'd constituted of the reef itself. He was feeling dizzy now, loose. Calm despite the fact he knew he should be angry. And as he looked around, he realised the bells of the plants were opening, pulsing glittery pollen around them. Soon, they were all dusted in it. And they were quickly all soporific and exhausted. As they entered the bumpy atmosphere, they slipped down into a soft, numb sleep.

  Den murmured to himself, "Yes, I will,” A siren's tinkle chimed through the room, each flower giving a sharp ring. "I'll land,". Another ring. "He was wrong. They were hurting you. But there is a price,” The rest of the way down, everything chimed and sang a deathly lullaby.

  Confronting the Mystery

  Holloway came around groggily, as thunder cracked overhead. The back bay of the ship was open and he, and the others of his crew, except Den, were being held over the water by vines. Flowers trailed and dumped pollen into the water, and it seemed as if straws had come from parts of the vines to collect water. There was a rending sound behind him, as the ship was crushed a little more. He turned his head and saw that the tridents were now a set of poles, vines strung between them, th
e ship, and them, hanging below the significant area of a large enclosed bulb, it's bulb-like scalloped shells. Eli was nearby, nearer one trident, as he watched, a vine reached into his pocket and took out his nav-marble. Eli remained mercifully unconscious.

  "Cap," a croak came from nearby. He turned his head creakily and saw Marek and Jessi, strung above the bulb. They were both unmoving. "Cap," the voice croaked again. He turned, and the vines released, almost obligingly.

  "Zedec displeased the Essedi. He tortured them. He lied. He was impure. They asked me to save you in his place, but I couldn't do it. I didn't have all of the material they wanted." Holloway's jaw worked, but nothing came out, and finally, Den continued. "Make and female. And Zedec let the initiates die. If you want to survive this, for someone to hear of this, as you wish in your head, let them have Jessi and Marek. They've already started on him. They are 'star-crossed' in your mind, after all. They could only meet yearly. They have the necessary elements in their heart,"

  Holloway slipped into unconsciousness again, just as a bolt of lightning shot from either trident up into the clouds, and into the asteroid belt. A loud, hollow rumbling sounded beneath him, the ship churned as waves splashed off it, and finally, he was gone again. Into dreams. Of mermaid tails, and siren's songs. The vines slowly lowered him, and as they did, the bulb opened, to accept Jessi and Marek. They had been promised more, but it would do.