by Naomi Lucas
“We’ll just have to be more careful. Smarter,” Janet said, laughing under her breath. “More cunning.”
“We’ll take extra precaution. We’ll send two waterships to every lot, so no one is alone out in the ocean,” Rylie suggested as the girls clung to their father, who ruffled their hair.
“Yeah, it could be like old times when Rylie and I had to work together in our training. Let the competition commence.”
“We can reinstall the turrets on each boat and keep enough firepower on each ship to take down a serpent. It's not like we have enough work to go around as it is right now and I'm sure many of the workers would like companionship during the hauls.”
Netto watched the exchange even after the girls released themselves from the embrace. He wondered what a hug felt like. Warm, he assumed.
“You girls are going to do just fine,” Montihan said as he turned back to the destroyed ship. “But your Ma and I hope this is merely a fluke. So far, it's been the settlements north of us that have been affected.”
“I know what's wrong.”
Everyone turned to Netto.
“He doesn't know but he has an idea,” Zeph said, a little competitively.
“Well?” Janet prompted.
“What do you know?” Montihan asked, the tired grooves over his brow a little less deep.
“The oceanic seawall has been damaged.”
“That's impossible.”
“What's the oceanic seawall?” Rylie asked.
Montihan continued, “That sensory barrier, I was told, is supposed to last hundreds of years. It's only been several dozen... The coastal inhabitants of Kepler were promised.”
“You were.” Netto nodded, feeling the strain of the endeavor ahead. “But this,” he pointed at the rubble, “wouldn't have happened otherwise.”
Zeph laughed. “Sure, it could if the guy really wanted to kill himself and take the boat with them. Like Montihan said, he could've been drunk. It could've been a storm. Fuck, the man could've brought a bomb on board, drove the ship straight through the jetty walls and then blasted himself to all the high heavens. Maybe he pissed off the broodmother of some beast in the ocean.”
“No, I helped set up the oceanic seawall many years ago. We made sure that it was set so the largest monsters couldn't come within five hundred miles of the shoreline, and we used planetary sensors to help drive the creatures out into the ocean. The noise it projects reconfigures to drive the worst ones away. It worked.”
“I don't understand? We see large creatures out in the ocean often enough. Wouldn't a wall disrupt their habitat?”
“No,” Zeph answered before he could.
Netto shook his head. “No, it wouldn't. The barrier emits the noise through a shield, it's invisible to the naked eye, but there are gaps that smaller creatures can easily get through. Creatures not deemed aggressive in nature by the scanners.”
Zeph rubbed his lips, and Netto knew the other Cyborg was weighing the likelihood of his suggestion. He knew the Croc would agree with his rationalization eventually. He looked at Rylie; her face had gone ashen, sallow despite her bronzed skin. The whites of her eyes were startling and her lips parted slightly on a shallow breath. Montihan was looking at his eldest daughter as well.
“Rylie...” Her dad placed his hand on her shoulder.
She licked her lips and shook her head, her gaze unfocused. Netto stepped forward and threaded his fingers through her hair. “It's okay,” he said. “It's okay to be scared.”
“There are bigger sea creatures out there?”
“There are always bigger creatures out there, Rylie. We have no idea what's out there. What's one leviathan to another?” Janet choked out with not a little bit of fear of her own.
Netto’s nostrils flared as the breeze quieted to a whisper and the smell of the ocean and dead fish were replaced with the rusting metal of the wreck. Zeph joined their group, his attention on Janet.
Netto focused on Rylie. “You didn't know there was a wall?”
“No,” she whispered.
“I told them that nothing could come close to shore and that they were safe. Not that there was a wall out there with monsters behind it. There is no point frightening my children when the wall was promised to last well beyond their lifetimes,” Montihan said with a hint of rising anger.
“So, there are bigger monsters out there?” Rylie looked out toward the ocean. Tiny wisps of her hair—dried by the elements—curled around her face. Netto wanted to pull her against him, hide her eyes from the water, and erase the blank fear. But it wasn't his place.
“Yes,” he said. “Much bigger than anything you might've seen.” Her dad shot him a look that could kill. Netto ignored him. “But I could be wrong as Zeph said. The ship could have incurred its damage elsewhere. But the grooves...” He stopped as she looked up at him, and pursed her lips. Her color came back slowly and the fear diminished in her eyes.
“So what's the plan now?” She turned away. Netto and Zeph shared a look, then Zeph spoke up.
“We’ll investigate the oceanic wall. The sooner we fix it, the sooner the creatures will be locked away.”
“Yes, we’ll head there after we drop you guys off at the homestead.”
“Like hell, you will!” Janet took a step toward him, her finger out and pointing at his face. “You're not leaving us behind.”
Rylie responded with grim determination. “There is no way I'll allow you to take one of our waterships without us.”
“Montihan will be with us.” Zeph shrugged then walked back toward the rocky bend and the anchored boat. “It'll be dangerous and you'll be a distraction,” he said before he disappeared around the corner.
“He's right,” their dad interjected. “I'll take them out. You guys should stay at the homestead and run the shop.”
“No.” Rylie shocked them all, the one word filled with authority. “It would take us hours to get back to the homestead and you wouldn't be able to make it to the outer wall if it's past the farthest lots until nightfall.”
Netto wanted her; he breathed in her scent and filtered out everything else. He could taste her on his lips, he could feel the silk of her hair over his body, and the burn of her kiss against his cheek. The preserved memory of it was now in the forefront of his thoughts. It made him harden.
He stepped back and turned away. If his erection sprang forward, there would be no way to hide it. The plates throughout his body, back, chest, and legs shifted and expanded as his muscles grew under the immediate need.
Control. I command control. I command it now. He ran the codes through his systems, close to putting himself into temporary lockdown.
Rylie sucked in a breath and continued. He hoped that she hadn't noticed the change in his demeanor.
“If we leave now, without making a detour we can at least get back to the far lots before this evening. And like Da said, the likelihood of another attack has to be minimal. We don't even know if this barrier is broken. The watership is mine and although my Da owns the business, this boat goes nowhere without me on it. We’re not going back to the homestead. We’re not going to lose that time. Let's figure out if this is an issue, and if it isn't, we can go back and you can interview the other farmers—but you won't take my ship without me.” She shot her dad a look. “And my ship is the best one we have.”
Rylie stormed past him and followed after Zeph.
“Well, that settles it. Gotta love her when she lets that fire rage.” Janet laughed and took off after her sister. Netto looked at Montihan.
“I'm not okay with this,” he said. “Is there another way?”
His host looked old, older with each passing day, and Netto wondered if there was something more plaguing the man besides stress.
“We can always take another ship, but Rylie is right, the one we’re on now is the best. I gave her ownership on her twenty-first birthday, nearly seven years ago. She lives on that boat. It's her home away from home. She would never let it go out
to sea without her on it.”
“She's afraid of the sea beasts,” Netto said.
“She's not afraid of much but she suffers from social anxiety and hates the unfamiliar. Unlike Janet, Rylie respects the ocean for what it is, and that respect comes with fear but also with love. I should have never given her that boat.” He chuckled softly, the sound a throaty rasp.
Netto had seen some of those creatures long ago and they were monstrosities that he did not want Rylie to see. “It'll be dangerous.”
Montihan sighed. “Yes, even if the seawall isn’t broken. The nights alone, so far away from land, will be bad enough. How will you know?”
They trekked back to the watership, which had since been unanchored and hummed with life.
“Know what?” Netto asked.
“Know if it's broken? And even if you knew that, how will you know where?”
“I’m a Cyborg.”
Chapter Eleven
The day moved on in silent preparation. Rylie brimmed with anger and she knew if she wasn't, she would be brimming with fear.
How could he keep it from me? She glared at her da. I wish he had more faith in me. When did everything change?
Everything had changed, but it had been too slow to fully realize, and now that she looked back on the past several years, the changes were obvious. What were once merely inconvenient incidents now blasted through her memories with lightning bolts of clarity.
When the first lots died. When they didn’t renew several contracts. Her objections when her da accompanied her on many of the hauls. When the disappearances began. The deaths.
Rylie spent the afternoon cleaning the ship, hoping that the work would keep her mind off the Cyborgs and off the deep blue sea. It helped, but it didn't last long when her sister joined her and insisted on talking.
The Cyborgs had gone below, carrying the supplies from their quarters to the interior lounge and kitchen. She hadn't seen them since and she appreciated having the time alone with her family, although her sense of safety felt shaken when Netto wasn't around.
“You did the right thing,” Janet mumbled under her breath as she swiped a disinfectant beam over the seating. “I'm proud of you, you know.” One of the cleaning bots trailed them, catching whatever was missed.
Rylie bit the inside of her cheek as a lump in her stomach formed. Having Janet be proud of her made her feel uncomfortable and a little guilty.
“I would never let them take my ship without me. It has nothing to do with the issues at hand,” she lied. It didn't alleviate the tension in her jaw.
“Yeah, well, I’m glad you're my older sister. When I rage everyone ignores me.” Janet shrugged. “But when you get angry, everybody pays attention.”
“Maybe you shouldn't get angry so often. It would add shock value when you do.”
Janet let out a small laugh. “I don't think that's possible. If I don't let what’s inside of me out, I end up a worse person for it. Steven says I'm a bitch, but I’m not hurting for suitors. Maybe if I was I’d try to hide it a little better.”
Rylie looked up as she tidied the tables of all of their drink cans and food wrappers. “Isn't a bitch a female canine? Is it derogatory? Who cares what Steven thinks?”
“Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is, but if that's what I am, that's what I am. It's never stopped men from approaching me so it can’t be all that bad.”
Rylie kept her mouth shut. She loved her sister like she loved the ocean, but loving someone didn't always mean you liked them. Janet was a hard person to get along with at the best of times, and it didn’t help they were so different, so at odds, that it was a miracle that they still spoke amicably. Sometimes, when Janet let her guard down and opened up to her, a different person came to light, but those moments were rare and Rylie had stopped looking for them years ago.
“Whatever floats your ship,” she said.
“Zeph wants me.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, typical man.” Janet changed the setting on the scanner and cleaned the tables now that the garbage was gone. “They're so predictable. Thought a Cyborg would at least be interesting, possibly a slight challenge, but no. If I wanted Zeph's cock I could have had it a day and a half ago. No challenge at all.”
“Isn't that your end goal?” Rylie asked, shaking her head. “What's stopping you?”
“I don't know, he seems so full of himself. I expect that from a human but from a Cyborg? He wants me. I can have him if I want. But the disappointment has made it boring for me. Netto on the other hand...” Janet fanned herself. Rylie bit down on her tongue, holding herself back from saying anything. “He doesn't want me and that's intriguing. Do you think Cyborgs come in every shape, size, and orientation, or is he just playing hard to get?”
Rylie disintegrated the trash, which flared up right alongside her hope. He doesn't want her. She had to tell herself again. He doesn't want my sister. The revelation almost made her giddy and temporarily forget the dangerous circumstances they were facing.
“I don’t know...”
“Yeah, the Shark is immune to my moves. I’ve done everything short of dowsing myself in a bucket of chum and walking around naked. I even sat on his lap yesterday but he disengaged himself and moved away. I would've been embarrassed if it hadn’t made Zeph so damned mad. If I say Netto's name in front of him, it's like I shot a bullet into his heart. That guy does not handle competition well.” Janet laughed. “Not like I'm a competition at all, would happily do both of them and not make a fuss about it. But it is nice to see a man want me so bad that he's willing to bloody his friend to get some of what's between my legs.”
What does she mean ‘the Shark?’
Rylie heard the term over the past several days in reference to Netto but wasn’t able to connect the dots between the sea beast from Earth and the man. Sharks were giant predatory fish as far as she knew, and had gone extinct many years ago on the Earthian homeworld. Sharks were also selfish pricks who took over other businesses with seedy practices.
Netto didn’t seem like a corporate shark to her.
“You don't know, do you? That's what he is: a shark. Zeph told me he and Netto are different because they're part animal. Zeph is a saltwater croc and Netto, well, he's a shark. I can't believe you haven’t figured that out. I mean, look at his skin!”
Rylie put down her tools and thought back, there had been no mention about why the Cyborgs were different compared to the typical Cyborg. She remembered asking but she didn't remember an answer.
Janet pointed to her teeth. “That's why he's got those dangerously freaky incisors and that taut blue skin. Those’re traits of the shark, at least the type of shark inside him. Zeph said that all he really is a saltwater croc, with a little bit a caiman—whatever the fuck that is. He wouldn't shift into his other form for me unless I did him a favor so I haven't seen what these other forms look like, yet.”
Rylie didn't know if she believed Janet, but she had an inkling that it was the truth. Janet had never lied to her before. In fact, her sister often gave her too much information. Way too much information.
“You know you're better than all these men,” changing the subject and catching her sister's eyes. “You're better than every single one of them. Ma and Da and Lily love you more than the world itself, and I couldn't live without you. You're proud of me for getting angry? Well, I'm proud of you for being so damn loyal, for being trustworthy, for being the best younger sister anyone could ever have.” Rylie didn't know why she felt the urge to say this, but as the ocean drew out and expanded before them and the many isles fell away and were lost in the distance, the world didn't seem to matter anymore. Not while they were so far out. She wondered if outer space was the same way.
Janet’s face quirked up, making her look like a little girl again shooting her first bulls-eye. “I love you too.”
Rylie glanced at the door to the interior and wondered if the Cyborgs could hear them.
The sounds of her sister cleaning pi
cked up behind her as she pictured Netto as a shark but could only see a weak Kepler fish in her mind.
No, she pictured one of the leviathans, blue-grey with razor-sharp teeth. She couldn't stop the thought, nor the shiver that coursed through her body and gave her gooseflesh.
“You know,” Janet spoke up again, “I think the shark wants you. I think the reason my charms don't work on him is because he's obsessed with you. If I know anything, I know how to read a man. And that one,” she smiled, “wants you more than his next breath.”
Rylie stiffened as her breath caught in her throat and her goosebumps faded into her skin. Suddenly all she could smell was Netto and the ocean, and the feel of his hands on her skin, cupping her waist, his fingers in her hair. The heat of his body penetrating her flesh and taking over her senses making her want him. Making her crazy.
“Too bad I think he’s a virgin,” Janet continued as she threw nugget shells overboard.
A virgin? The thought thrilled her even though she didn’t believe it.
“Girls! We’re passing the farthest threshold of our agri-lots,” Da yelled from the other side of the ship, at the helm of the boat. “There ain't anything on my radar but one of you should go tell the Cyborgs below.”
Rylie looked out over the ocean in the cloud-filled sky. It made the water black, stygian, a deep dull blue that screamed of deepwater, that conjured images of the menacing things that could be within: right below, out of sight, and as hungry as she imagined them.
What was bigger than leviathans? What could even be bigger than leviathans? She peeked up at the sky where the Kepler sun hid behind the clouds, casting her world in grey.
Nighttime would fall in a few short hours. She had never been this far out past dark and thought she never would be. Now here she was, and her fear gave way to exhilaration. She could taste the adrenaline; she could feel her misgivings in the pit of her stomach, cramping up her last nerve.
“Will do!” Janet yelled back, startling her She stood and wiped her hands. “Time to face our fears.”