Ben Archer and the World Beyond

by Rae Knightly

  CHAPTER 20 A Risky Plunge

  “Ben?” Kimi called him from somewhere far away.

  He could hear the fear in her voice as he struggled to regain consciousness.

  “Ben!” she called again.

  He blinked and found himself alone, lying on the metal passage he, Jeremy, and Kimi had used.

  How long have I been out?

  “Ben! Don’t listen to them! You can escape!” Kimi’s voice burst through a speaker that echoed into the vast basin room. “Don’t lis-” The speaker whistled, making Ben covered his ears.

  Silence followed.

  I can escape?

  His mind whirled. Quick! What had she been trying to say before the ceiling opened? Something about a ding.

  What’s a ding?

  He lowered his hands, standing on wobbly legs. He picked up Jeremy’s waterproof bag, passing the strap over his neck and shoulder, then leaned over the railing to take in the contents of the basin below. Millions of silver fish lay sprawled within, motionless.

  The speaker crackled, and the captain’s voice reverberated against the walls like a mummy speaking from the entrails of a tomb. “Vreak boy. You listen now to Ivan, da?”

  The pause that followed lasted long enough for Ben to realize he was breathing way too fast. He swallowed through his dry throat and listened.

  “Ivan not in mood for SOVA search. Time is money. Customer vaiting. Ivan deliver chop-chop.”

  A strange whooshing sound came from the speaker, making Ben jump. But then he realized the captain must be smoking. He could picture the cigarette dangling from the man’s lips.

  “Vreak boy chase away vhales. Ivan lose business. So, Ivan make deal to deliver vreak boy instead. Train vhales. Understand?”

  Ben shut his eyes, wishing he could unhear the captain’s words.

  Come on, Kimi! What were you trying to say just now?

  “Ivan give ten minutes to meet at back of ship. Ten minutes, or vriends vish vood…” He let the phrase hang. “You understand, vreak boy?” The speaker squeaked, then went dead.

  Ben uncurled his hands, his knuckles white from having gripped the railing too hard.

  Ten minutes!

  He had ten minutes to save Kimi and Jeremy.

  * * *

  Finding the way back took Ben a full five minutes.

  His heart raced at the rhythm of his hurried footsteps as he backtracked through the corridors and up to the next level. He spotted another door with an EXIT sign on it and opened it a crack.

  Finding the coast clear, he stepped onto the deck once more. Cold wind whacked at his cheeks. Rain battered his hair and face. Lights flickered on around the ship. The SOVA rested on the dark ocean with its motors at a standstill.

  Voices reached him. Searching left-and-right, Ben found rungs which he used to heave himself onto a roof. He rolled flat on his stomach just in time as the captain and a sailor walked by below him. The captain stopped and blew a cloud of cigarette smoke that caught in Ben’s nostrils. He stuffed his face into the cradle of his arm, fighting a sneeze.

  When he looked up again, the men had moved away towards the back of the ship.

  Ben straightened, fully conscious that he was out of options. He climbed down the rungs, shivering under the enormity of their failed escape.

  But that’s when he saw it, suspended by ropes and hanging over the side of the ship.

  The dinghy!

  Of course! ‘Ding’-hy... That’s what Kimi had meant! She wanted him to take the SOVA’s inflatable dinghy and escape.

  He caught his breath.

  No way!

  He couldn’t leave Kimi and Jeremy to their fate, could he?

  * * *

  They were waiting for him by the railing at the back of the ship: the captain, a sailor, Kimi, and Jeremy. Jeremy sat on the floor, rubbing his head.

  They hadn’t seen him yet.

  The captain checked his watch. “Is late,” he observed, clenching his jaw, so that cigarette smoke escaped through the slit between his lips. He shoved Jeremy in the back with his boot. “Not good vriend, dis vreak boy?”

  Ben crept up a set of metal stairs leading to a ramp overlooking the stern side, located just behind the gantry. Rain pelted his face. He puffed his cheeks. Here goes nothing…

  He stepped under a bright neon light, casting a shadow below him.

  The captain caught the movement and removed the red cigarette stub from his lips. Smoke billowed from his mouth into nothingness. “You late. Come down, now, vreak boy.”

  Ben shook his head in defiance. He had to gain some time.

  Please, please, let this work!

  The captain flicked the cigarette over his shoulder and into the black water behind him. “You not make Ivan go up,” he threatened.

  Ben stepped closer to the railing. “I’ll come down. But first, let my friends go.”

  A look of fake surprise crossed the captain’s face. “Go?” he asked, looking around him. “Go vhere?” He spoke to the sailor, who laughed loudly.

  Ben stood his ground. “I mean it!” he yelled. All he needed was to give Kimi and Jeremy a bit of space. He focused on Kimi, holding her gaze as long as possible. Would she understand, when the time came? Would she trust him enough to do what needed to be done?

  The captain shrugged, looking amused. “Vhatever.” He gestured with his hand for Ben to come down.

  The sailor let go of Kimi and Jeremy, who stepped away. The reporter clung to Kimi’s shoulder, his face ashen.

  This is too easy. Where’s the second sailor?

  As Ben stepped down to the deck, he searched with his eyes and spotted him. The second sailor was climbing a parallel set of stairs leading up to the ramp. If Ben didn’t hurry, he and his friends would be cornered. He had no choice but to walk towards the captain. Even if his plan didn’t work, at least his friends would be out of these men’s hands for a while.

  He and Kimi crossed paths. She stared at him with wide eyes that said, What are you doing?

  Out of the corner of his mouth, Ben whispered, “Jump!”

  Her head snapped his way, eyes popping. Her mouth opened in silent disbelief, Are you mad?

  Ben whirled, standing steadfast between the captain and his friends. “DINGHY! GOOO!”

  Kimi blinked at him once. Things moved in a flash. She grabbed Jeremy by the arm and ran straight for the railing. Jeremy’s eyes widened in terror. Then, in less than a heartbeat, both disappeared over the side.

  The sailors dashed after the two fugitives, blocking Ben’s escape. The captain lunged, his fingers wrapping around Ben’s wrist. But the man slipped on the rain-soaked deck, bringing Ben down with him hard.

  Ben slid out of the clasping fingers in the nick of time. He jumped to his feet and ran towards the containers. His feet splashed through rivulets of water as he dashed between them. He gasped.

  Three against one.

  They would catch him for sure. Ben’s heart palpitated so hard he thought it would bounce out of his chest. He had to act now, or he’d miss the dinghy. He ran straight to the other side of the ship through pouring rain.

  But one of the sailors had foreseen his move and was waiting for him by the railing. Behind him, the captain huffed as he barreled between the containers after him.

  Trapped! Unless…

  The ramp he’d been on a moment ago lay to his left. Desperate, Ben dashed up the steps, two at a time, clambered over the railing at the top and peered at the dark, swirling waves below. His brain swayed at the height.

  Too high!

  Thudding footsteps approached behind him.

  Way below, to Ben’s right, Jeremy was pulling himself out of the sea into the dinghy while Kimi was unfastening the last rope that held it to the ship. She glanced up at him.

  Ben shut his eyes and jumped.

  CHAPTER 21 The Pillars of the Sea

  Ben’s body slammed into the ocean. It swallowed him into an oppressive silence. Freezing water seeped into hi
s wetsuit. For a split second, he thought he was tumbling down the abyss at Motu Oné. Only, Mesmo wasn’t there to catch him this time.

  He thrust his arms around in a panic. His head popped out of the water as he caught the trough of a wave. He gulped in air just before the crest caught him and sent him under again.

  A deafening rumble almost made his heart stop. Something dark passed near his head.

  The SOVA!

  Churning water from the ship’s wake sent him even deeper, almost making him succumb to terror.

  Is this it, then?

  He stopped thrashing, giving in to the weightlessness, listening to his heartbeat – the only sound left in the universe. His body slowed to a stop, suspended in the cold liquid as if it were suspended in space. His heart rate decreased, and as it did so, his thoughts cleared.

  T-H-U-D.

  His heart beat once, loud and slow. He felt the ocean current brush against his skin; a giant, invisible waterway in constant movement. He knew where it came from and where it went as if he had known it all his life.

  His body drifted to the surface again, and he breached the waves in slow motion, taking in a fulfilling gulp of air this time. His eyes briefly took in the black night. His radar senses picked up the hard hull of the receding SOVA, a dinghy bobbing up and down not far off, the smell of land miles away. He could pinpoint its location with precision because he had travelled these waters year after year, generation after generation.

  He closed his mouth and let himself sink again.

  T-H-U-D.

  His heart must surely be bigger than his entire body. His senses slowed almost to a stop, becoming ever more receptive and acutely aware.

  The water wasn’t that cold after all. The depths weren’t that dark. Instead, he sensed the shape of the ocean bed below him: its chasms, mountains, valleys and creatures. Millions of creatures. Some big, some tiny. Some with sharp teeth, some without. Scaly, wiggly, soft-skinned, hard-skinned, hiding under shells or scampering across the seafloor. He knew them all because his kind had roamed these waters for millions of years.

  He rested his mind on the ocean current that carried his thoughts many miles away, then swerved deep down to the Earth’s bed. He travelled through a rift made from a colossal corridor of rock. Ghostly sounds bounced against its walls, brushing by him like invisible tentacles, and when he broke into a vast opening, he found the source of the creatures that had connected with him.

  T-H-U-D.

  The dark outline of five blue whales towered before him like giant pillars of the sea. They hovered, immobile, with their tails pointed down and their heads facing up to the distant surface like massive submarines, and though they seemed to be sleeping, Ben knew this was far from the case.

  Their song reverberated far and wide through the ocean, amplified by the repetition of each others’ vocalizations.

  The biggest whale in the circle addressed him defiantly. You should not be here.

  Ben cringed. I don’t understand. Then why are you showing yourselves to me?

  Because we were curious. No two-legged creature from the world beyond has spoken our tongue before.

  Ben hovered in thought in the midst of them – a speck facing giants. While only the biggest blue whale addressed him, the others never ceased to cast their songs out into the ocean, as if they were sending a universally understood call. And, in response, Ben sensed many sea creatures approaching the circle.

  What is this?

  It is The Gathering…

  No sooner had the biggest whale spoken, than one of the others spun on itself, its car-sized flipper causing a whirlpool around it, and let out a deep warning note to end the conversation.

  In response, the biggest whale slowly broke off the connection with Ben, as if it suddenly realized it had said too much.

  But Ben wasn’t ready. His mind spun.

  An ocean gathering! That’s exactly what I need!

  For… for what? He couldn’t remember. The whales’ overpowering presence paralyzed him, and the memory came from another part of his brain that he was not connected with right now.

  T-H-U-D.

  His heart beat in unison with that of the five blue whales. He clung to the last mental threads connecting him to the biggest whale.

  I must be at this gathering! There is something I need to tell you. It’s important!

  He’d have to figure out what it was, and quick!

  The biggest whale reprimanded him:

  You are not welcome here. You must return to the girl.

  The girl? Ben’s mind reeled. What girl?

  He could see her: dark eyes, flowing black hair. He wished she would stop yelling at him; he couldn’t concentrate.

  The whale repeated: You must return to her, or you will drown.

  Why would I drown?

  The whale released his mind without answering.

  T-H-U-D. Thud-thud, thud-thud...

  Increased heartbeat. His senses reconnecting with his brain. Body screaming for air. Ben opened his mouth. Water cascaded into his throat. Burning!

  Can’t breathe!

  Kimi screamed, “BEEEN! Please! I can’t hold on much longer.”

  Ben vomited water. He coughed, wheezed, and coughed again.

  She had his arm pinned to the side of the dinghy, hanging on to him for dear life. “You’re too heavy!” she shouted.

  Waves slapping his face. Legs flailing aimlessly below the sea. Ben blinked the drops from his eyes. He flung his free arm and hooked his hand to the side of the dinghy.

  Kimi groaned as she strained to pull him on board.

  He didn’t have an ounce of energy left in him, yet he knew he must do something. He inched his way up and over the side, then landed heavily on the bottom.

  “Are you crazy?” Kimi yelled, furious, as Ben struggled to a kneeling position. “Don’t you ever do that to me again!”

  The part of Ben’s alien mind that still lingered below the waves connected sharply, and he realized with a jolt who he was and where he was. He took in the girl in the wetsuit and remembered…

  I asked her to throw herself blindly into the middle of the ocean!

  The realization made him woozy. What a cruel thing he had asked of her! She had almost drowned in a frozen lake not so long ago.

  He shook his head, dumbstruck. “Never again. I promise.”

  She threw her arms around him and squeezed hard.

  He glanced over her shoulder and took in the pinpoints of light from the SOVA through the drizzling rain.

  “I’m sorry,” he mumbled, horribly aware of the dangerous feat they had just accomplished in the dark.

  If any of them had missed the dinghy…

  “Do you think they’ll come back?” Kimi asked.

  Ben realized she, too, was looking at the receding SOVA. “I don’t think so,” he said, hoping he was right. “They’ll never find us in the dark.” Ben caught his breath. “How did you find me, anyway?”

  Kimi pulled back, her face pale, her eyes wide. “Are you kidding me right now?”

  Ben blinked, then glanced down at his glowing body.

  “You were like a lightbulb down there. I could see you for miles.”

  Ben brushed at his arms. “What’s happening to me?” he whispered.

  Kimi looked at him, pale-faced. “Are you ok?”

  Ben thought about her question. “Actually, I feel great!”

  Like a charged battery.

  The thrill of communicating with the sea creatures still lingered in his mind. But this new phase in the alien skill also meant trouble. It was one thing to hide his glowing hands, but his whole body?

  I need to have a word with Mesmo.

  His skin prickled as his blood cells absorbed the skill again.

  “You are crazy! You know that?” Kimi said with a nervous laugh.

  Ben broke into a grin. “I know, right?” Then he remembered Jeremy and whirled. “Where’s Jeremy?” He hadn’t heard the reporter since he ha
d climbed aboard and now found him lying curled up in a ball at the front.

  “I don’t know what’s wrong with him,” Kimi said, eyebrows creasing. “He’s only half-conscious.”

  Ben placed his hand on the young man’s front, which felt cool enough. At least he wasn’t running a fever.

  Jeremy groaned and tried to open his eyes.

  “Jeremy,” Ben called anxiously. “What’s the matter?”

  The reporter moaned and flopped to his side. He opened his mouth to say something, then instead crawled hurriedly to the side of the dinghy and retched.

  Kimi held on to the man’s arms to sustain him and glanced at Ben with a quizzical look. “I think he’s seasick,” she mouthed.

  Ben sat back, puffing air out of his cheeks.

  Seasick!

  Suffering from seasickness felt awful, no doubt, but at least it wasn’t deadly.

  Jeremy kept surprising him. Had he been seasick the whole time he had been on the SOVA? Ben felt a pang of guilt mingled with new respect towards the reporter. He was tired of getting everyone into trouble. It was time to put things right.

  “Ben?” Kimi said, pulling him out of his thoughts. “I think we’re ready to go home now.”

  CHAPTER 22 The Gathering

  They didn’t have enough fuel. Ben knew this for certain because the blue whale’s lingering thoughts about the underwater mountains gave him a precise indication of where and how far they were from the shore. He felt like some kind of sorcerer looking at a dome-sized map of the area, with the location of boats and land drawn on it.

  “I don’t even know which way is home,” Kimi said, worry reflected in her eyes.

  “It’s ok,” Ben reassured her. “I do.”

  He didn’t tell her about the fuel, and she didn’t ask, although he was sure the thought crossed her mind. He asked her to check around for anything useful.

  Under a pile of wet towels, she uncovered two diving air tanks and two small bottles of water. She also found Jeremy’s camera bag, which Ben had tossed into the dinghy before facing the SOVA captain. And from a pouch of the boat, she pulled out distress flares.