A slightly older man standing next to a crewmember who looked to be frantically working one of the floating stations looked up. “We are returning fire!” He growled. “It doesn’t look like it’s doing anything. Is something wrong with our weapons?”
Professor Reivus scampered over to the console. Aiden hoped he’d push something and then nod, telling the man he had been doing something wrong, but the Professor just shook his head.
“No, nothing is wrong, Captain.” The Professor reached out and slid his finger against a small section of the terminal screen. “This tells you what our sensors say is happening to the target. I know you and your men aren’t used to some of these features, but here is their shield strength.” He indicated some fluctuating numbers, but they didn’t seem to be dropping fast. “Those ships out there are made for war, I’m afraid. We’ve got no hope of outrunning or outgunning even one of them, much less two.”
Everyone on the bridge looked at each other, fear plain on most of their faces. No one had been in a skimmer battle for thousands of years, and each of these men had grown up with the confidence that the Duke of Terek’s skimmers were the supreme power in their universe. Even more so once Professor Reivus had given them needlers. Now, they were suddenly running scared. It was sobering, to say the least, but none of these men were cowards or ready to give up.
“Okay, ideas,” The Captain said into the silence, looking around at everyone.
“Uh… uh, evasive!” Professor Reivus said, wiggling his hands frantically back and forth. “Evasive maneuvers! Uh, jerk us back and forth and up and down! Make it so!” The Professor cackled like a madman. “I’ve always wanted to say that!”
The Captain nodded, looking askance at the Professor but pointed at the helm. “Good idea. Do it. If they can’t hit us, they can’t knock down our shields.”
The helmsmen began to jerk and jig the ship around. Almost immediately, the shaking from shots hitting the shields became less frequent, though they did not stop completely. The whining noise from the shield generators dropped as well but didn’t disappear entirely. Aiden’s fears were confirmed when one of the other crewmen shouted out. “Shields are still dropping, sir. Their shots are just too powerful for us to take.”
“We’re still thirty minutes out from Reid. Can we go higher? Lose them in the clouds?” The Captain asked, turning to Professor Reivus.”
The Professor shook his head. “No, clouds won’t mask us at all, Captain.”
“How about underwater?” Aiden asked, suddenly remembering how the Skywitch had settled into the ocean after the Trench Serpent had attacked the docks at the fair. The shield had kept the water out though they had not submerged entirely, but hadn’t the Professor said he’d improved the shields on this ship?
The Captain looked horrified for a moment, but the Professor brightened, practically levitating off of the floor in his excitement. “Yes! Yes, that is it! They can’t fire their beams underwater. Ha! Aiden, my boy, brilliant!” He turned to the Captain. “It’s our only hope! You’ll have to slow before we hit the water, but it should work!”
“Won’t that let them hit us?” The Captain asked. “What happens if they take out our shields while we’re trying to submerge?”
Professor Reivus shrugged. “Then we get very wet very quickly, Captain, but we don’t have a choice. They're getting close to blowing us up as it is.”
The Captain paused, taking a deep breath before turning to the helmsmen. “Okay, take us down, helm. Let’s see what this girl can do.”
Aiden heard Markam began to mumble louder in the back of the bridge as the ship dove towards the murky water below.
They all felt the skimmer slow dramatically though the helmsman kept the ship moving erratically until just before they impacted the waves. Whether it was the shock of what they were about to do or something else, Aiden didn’t know, but the craft took several hits right before it hit the water. The whine from the shields increased followed by popping and the smell of ozone. Everyone that wasn’t sitting down was thrown brutally to the floor, and everything went dark as they crashed below the surface of the ocean.
Aiden felt himself slide and then crash up against one of the walls he heard a terrible rushing sound from outside the bridge. It only lasted for a moment, but coupled with the darkness and the horrible straining sound from the shield generators, it was a horrifying few second. At last, however, the rushing sound stopped, and the lights slowly flickered to life.
Aiden watched as Glowby bounced at one of the windows, obviously excited about something. He didn’t know what until he realized there was water running off of the glass. Springing up, he quickly looked out of the window. Everything, including his small skimmer, was gone. The shields must have failed for a few moments which was the rushing sound he’d heard.
“Captain? Were there any crewmen on deck, earlier?” When there was no answer, he turned and saw Gavin kneeling over the man shaking his head. The man’s neck looked bent at an odd angle, and his eyes were open and glassy.
“I think he had ordered all of the men below decks before you got to the bridge, Aiden, but there may be some injured. Markam?” Gavin asked, looking for his friend who was just standing from where he’d fallen. “Can you go check on the crew below? Make sure there’s no more injured?”
Markam nodded before moving to open the door. Aiden watched him hesitate for a moment, taking a deep breath but he did it and stepped outside, moving towards one of the auto hatches.
Gavin stood and looked around, frowning as he scanned the crewmen to see if any more of them were injured. Fortunately, most of them had been strapped into their seats and hadn’t suffered from the fall. The Professor was currently flailing and trying to get up, though Aiden had to help him since his legs were sticking up a wall with his back flat on the floor.
“What is our status? Where are we and which direction are we going?” Gavin asked, looking around the small bridge.
The crewmen all looked at each other before looking at the now-dead Captain until finally, the Helmsmen piped up. “Uh…currently, we’re underwater heading roughly east, I think.”
Aiden peeked out of one of the windows as he finished helping Professor Reivus stand. It was much quieter now that the shields had stopped straining against the shots from the other skimmers, but it had quickly gotten to be pitch black outside of the shields. “How come it’s so dark?” Aiden asked, turning to look at Gavin. “It was morning and bright out when we left.”
Professor Reivus paused, then peeked out himself. “Oh, well, depending on how deep you go, you would be surprised how quickly light is absorbed by the water, Aiden. It’s one of the reasons going into the ocean was protective. Water absorbs energy far more efficiently than air.”
“Still, that was awfully fast,” Gavin said, tapping his chin thoughtfully before turning to the helmsmen. “Are we still headed downwards? How deep is the ocean here?”
At that moment, there was a loud warning sound that caused the helmsmen to jerk and then tap his screen quickly, his face having gone pale. The skimmer jarred and bounced, and off to the port side Aiden watched a large outcropping of greenish-black stone loom by them out of the darkness, lit by flashes and bursts from the skimmer’s shields. It caused him, and everyone else, to jerk away from its sudden appearance while many of them let out startled exclamations.
“Uh… helm. Please, uh, come to a stop. We need to figure out where we are.” Gavin said nervously, his eyes wide as he watched the dark rock slow and then stopping next to them. What was more alarming still was when the rock began to rotate dramatically. Aiden realized they’d been moving downwards at almost a forty-five-degree angle without even realizing it.
When he had completed the maneuver, the helmsmen closed his eyes and took his fingers off of his control screen, rubbing his pant legs. “Okay. That was awfully close. My apologies, everyone.”
Gavin eyed the man carefully, as did most of the rest of the crew on the bridge but no on
e said anything. It had been a frantic few minutes, and no one could blame him.
After a few moments, Gavin cleared his throat. “Is there any way to tell what is out there? Or if those other skimmers chased us down here?”
Professor Reivus hopped up, attracting their attention and walking over to another station. “Yes, or rather there are several ways, but you don’t want to use all of them. Again, this is something you’ve never had to worry about before, but some of the methods available to you would simply attract their attention and lead them right to us. So,” the Professor pointed at several symbols on one of the crew’s screens. “This, this and this, don’t use those. They send out active waves and then interpret what comes back. Those are called active sensors and would most assuredly spell our doom. These here are called passive sensors that take information already traveling towards us and interpreting them, so we do not send anything out and thus, do not give ourselves away.”
The Professor pushed a few more symbols on the crewwoman’s screen, and suddenly a strange grouping of lines, circles, and slopes appeared in the large windows circling the bridge. Even as Aiden watched, those lines closest to the ship began to fill in and resemble real things like rock and sand. He noted almost immediately that the rock wall they’d stopped beside became as it had been before though it no longer faded into darkness due to distance.
With a start, he realized they were in a shallow trench and were quite close to the ocean floor. He saw the helmsmen swallow nervously and wipe his brow. It had been closer than they had thought.
Professor Reivus stepped up to the front of the bridge and turned to them all, assuming a stance Aiden had seen on more than a few occasions. His lecture stance. Amused, Aiden wished he had some chalk for the old man, but quickly shook the thought from his head. He needed to pay attention.
“This is not something you’ve seen before on a skimmer. It is, in fact, the information being put together to show you our surroundings. As each moment passes, Betsy is gathering more and more information from a variety of sources around us and displaying them here.” The professor turned, pointing towards the rock wall next to them. “This looks like a normal view outside of the window, because Betsy is recreating it, but it is not the same. It will show you far more detailed results.” The professor walked over to the window, and touched it, spreading his fingers wide. Suddenly the picture zoomed in, revealing all manner of detail and plant life living on its surface. They all gasped in astonishment.
Professor Reivus walked over to one of the workstations to the side and asked the crewman to get up so he could sit. When he did, he began manipulating the screen quickly, his aged fingers flying over the controls almost too fast to see. As he did so, one of the front windows began to enlarge into a top-down map of their surroundings. There was even a glowing image of their skimmer surrounded by a blue ring.
The astonishing images were impressive. It almost made Aiden forget about where they were until Gavin pointed, concern clear on his face. “What are those?” They all looked to where he had pointed and watched two more, blocky images appear quite a ways from them. Both of them had red circles, and as they watched they separated and began to search.
“That,” the Professor said dramatically, “is our enemy, dear Gavin.
When the door to the bridge opened, almost everyone was startled. The fact that the shields held the water out didn’t quite register, so everyone stared in horror when Markam came back from his task. They all watched as he quietly and deliberately closed the door, then walked over to Gavin and took a deep breath.
“There have been some injuries to the crew. Of the five that are below, one has a broken arm and another a concussion. The medic on board is seeing to them and doesn’t think it’s going to be too serious.” Markam said quietly and calmly, but all of them could see his eyes were a bit glassy.
Gavin put his hand on Markam’s shoulder apologetically. “Thank you, Markam. I will be sure to ask someone else to go next time.” When Gavin finished speaking, Markam only nodded before retreating to the back of the bridge and sitting on one of the small benches. Gavin watched him go, a sad look on his face for a moment before he looked back up at the two, slow moving figures on the screen. “How long will it take them to find us?”
“They may not,” Professor Reivus said slowly. “There’s every chance they will simply pass us by. We are in a good location, and those ships are not ideally equipped to search underwater. That being said, we do not know what capabilities the Mourning Lords can bring to bear.” The old man looked sadly at Gavin and Aiden. “I’m a builder, not a tactician, but from the way our friends are moving out there I don’t think they know where we are. My recommendation is just to sit and wait. Maybe even lower ourselves to the seabed. It’s not that far away, at least.”
Gavin nodded his agreement and gestured to the helmsman who complied, lowering the skimmer slowly towards the bottom. There was only a soft rustling sound as the shield settled into the sand, and then they came to a stop.
“What now?” Aiden asked, looking around. Almost everyone around him had the same look on their faces as he now felt; uncertainty and a bit of fear. Even the thousands of years old Professor was wringing his hands. They were deep under the ocean and trying to avoid an enemy that was relentlessly pursuing them.
“We wait,” Gavin said, sitting in the Captain’s chair and leaning back, his eyes resting on the two, slowly moving blips. “And we hope.”
Chapter 16
The hours passed slowly, and everyone was becoming overly stressed until Gavin began asking them questions about themselves. The Professor had switched the bridge lights to a muted red, which he said the water would absorb more quickly than white light. Still, it made their waiting almost worse, and the crew was showing signs of anxiety. Most of them were older then Gavin, Markam, and Aiden, but not by much and Gavin had been raised around his father’s court, so the knack of conversation came easily to him. Slowly, he drew out their individual stories which served to distract them from the ever-circling enemy.
About an hour in, Aiden had grown bored until he glanced at the screens outside. The images certainly looked real, but he wanted to see them with his own eyes so he stepped out onto the empty deck and looked around.
It was a very alien experience. Aiden could see many things swimming in the faint red light from the bridge. As Glowby followed him and moved freely out into the darkness around them, his friend cast a second, eerie blue glow onto everything around them.
The shield itself only extended about a foot beyond the railing, so Aiden reached out and ran his fingers along the pulsing, humming barrier. He remembered being on the Skywitch when it was busy rescuing people from the ocean, and that they could easily reach through the barrier to pull people onto the deck, but this time it was different. It didn’t quite feel solid, but if he pushed, it only gave a very small amount before stopping his hand. To him, it felt like an overly full water skin that vibrated against his skin.
Glowby came floating back and began moving along the rough rock wall they were resting against. It was a strange, otherworldly vision. There were odd plants that grew along the thick ridges of the rock. They moved back and forth with the flow of the water and fish of all kinds darted in and out of the crevices searching for food.
It was surreal, knowing he was standing well below the ocean’s surface and witnessing something most people would never dream to see. It was also very beautiful, and he lost himself for a while just watching Glowby play amongst the darting, multi-colored life.
The sound of the bridge door opening and closing broke him from his reverie, and Gavin came to stand next to the railing. “I couldn’t stand to watch anymore,” Gavin said, sighing softly. “The enemy is getting a lot closer now but still circling. I left Professor Reivus in there explaining more of the controls to the crew to keep them distracted. It amazes me that the skimmers could have done some of these things the entire time we’ve had them, but no one ever kne
w.
Aiden shrugged, watching a pulsating transparent something gyrate through the water. “Who would have thought to look? I mean flying was pretty amazing, and those floating screens would have distracted me for quite a long time. What amazes me is how much knowledge we’ve lost compared to what the Ancients used to have. I almost feel like I’m cheating with some of the things I do.”
Gavin blew out a breath and grinned at his friend. “Not enough to stop, I hope. They say that you are an idiot if you ever fight a battle fairly that you couldn’t fight unfairly.”
“That rather mercenary, isn’t it?” Aiden said, frowning as the ghostly little creature he had been watching disappeared into the blackness.
Gavin nodded. “Yes. It sounds terribly dishonorable, doesn’t it? I asked Father about it one time. He said that real wars are very different than the fairy tales. Your opponent isn’t likely to burn a farm and kill the children, or worse, in a fairy tale, but in real life, it can happen. He said that you had to harden yourself to use any advantage you can so you don’t have to see that happen.”
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