by Ryk Brown
Reflections of light from one of Kohara’s three moons glistened off the ripples in the water rushing under them, growing closer as they fell toward the water. “Brace yourselves!” she yelled.
The jump sub slammed into the water, not nose first as planned, but rather belly first. Jessica felt herself being crushed downward into her seat, a sharp twinge of pain radiating through her back. At the same moment, she was thrown forward against her restraints, the belts digging into her shoulders and eliciting further pain. Her head jerked forward, feeling like it was going to separate from her neck, as the force of the impact caused the sub to decelerate considerably.
And then it stopped. Jessica glanced out the forward windows again. They were floating. Not on the water, but through the air, but only for a moment. They immediately began to fall once more, slamming back into the surface of the lake only seconds later.
Again, pain shot in all directions… Through her back, shoulders, and neck. She tried to cry out in pain, but nothing came out. As they bounced upward again, she could see lights along the shoreline. The lights were rapidly moving toward them… She glanced at navigation display. They were headed right for the shore, and they were traveling far faster than they had planned.
They slammed into the water a third time, bouncing upward yet again. We’re skipping along the surface! Jessica realized. Her mind raced as the sub reached the top of its airborne arc. We’re headed for shore… And fast! She glanced at her display, looking for a way out. As they began to fall toward the water again, her fingers danced across the touch screen display, calling up the docking thrusters control page. She manually fired the nose attitude thrusters that had been installed to aid in rendezvous and docking with the Scout ship. The nose of the jump sub was pushed downward by the tiny jet of thrusters spewing out of the topside of the jump sub’s nose.
This time, instead of slamming belly first against the water and bouncing upward, the nose of the jump sub pierced the glistening water and slid under the surface, diving downward toward the bottom at high speed. Jessica again was thrown forward against her restraints as she flailed her hands about, trying to grab onto the sub’s maneuvering controls. Alarms filled the cockpit, and the surface proximity warnings began to blare. She finally managed to grab hold of the diving planes control, but it was too late.
The jump sub slammed into the bottom of the lake, driving deep into the soft mud. The sound of the impact was deafening; twisted metal and alarms, and then the sound of gushing water. Jessica felt wetness at her feet, then the feeling of cold water hitting her back from above. She was still leaning forward, hanging from her shoulder restraints.
“Mask up!” she ordered as she reached for her face mask and pulled it down over her head. She hit the activation switch, and the mask pressurized and sealed to her face. “Sound off!”
“I’m good!” Naralena cried out of the mask’s underwater comm-system. Terror was evident in her voice.
“Sarge?” Jessica queried. The water was already at her waist and rising fast, but the sub was resting at a considerable nose down angle, which put her in the deep end. “Sarge!” Jessica reached down to her side and pulled the release handle along the right side of her seat, disconnecting the dive pack that she was strapped to from her seat back. She fell forward slightly, landing with her left side against the display console. She twisted around as Naralena also released her dive pack from her seat, fell forward, and landed against the back of Jessica’s seat. Behind her, Sergeant Weatherly was not moving, and he didn’t have his mask on.
Jessica quickly scanned the inside of the cockpit. Everything was out of place, giving the entire cockpit a slightly twisted appearance. Water was spewing forcefully from several places along the seam between the top of the sub’s hull and the walls and ceiling that the engineers had added. “Avakian! Get Weatherly’s mask on him!” she barked as the rising water reached her chest.
“Sergeant!” Naralena cried out as she reached back over her seat and grabbed the sergeant’s face mask from the wall next to his head. She shook his shoulder with her left hand.
The sergeant began to move his head, opening his eyes slightly, dazed by the impact. Naralena looked down, and saw a metal brace that had come loose at impact. The sergeant was bleeding badly where the brace had punctured his abdomen. “Oh, my God!” she exclaimed as she pulled his mask down over his head and activated it. The sergeant’s mask inflated, sealing to his face. She shook him again. “Sergeant!” She looked down again, this time noticing that the brace had also pushed his right leg over, pulling his hip out of its socket. “He’s injured, Jess! Badly!” she turned to face Jessica, whose face was about to be covered by the rising water.
Jessica could see Naralena as the water rose along her face mask.
“I don’t think we’re going to be able to get him out!” Naralena continued.
Sergeant Weatherly opened his eyes and began to cry out in pain inside his mask. The water was already covering his injured leg and was climbing rapidly.
“Is his mask on?” Jessica asked.
“Yes! Yes!” Naralena answered. “He’s awake, too!”
“Get ready to open the hatch!” Jessica ordered.
“But the sergeant…”
“I can’t do anything until you’re out of my way!” Jessica barked. “So get ready to open the hatch as soon as the water reaches the top!”
“Of fuck! It hurts!” Sergeant Weatherly cried out.
“Sergeant! Shut up and listen!” Jessica barked over the comms. “We’re flooding, but we’re all masked up, including you, so we’re good! You got that?”
“Yes, sir!” the sergeant replied.
“What happened?” Naralena asked as she stood up to get her hand on the hatch controls.
“We came in nearly parallel to the surface,” Jessica explained. Her end of the cockpit was now completely underwater, and dark, requiring her to fumble around to find the lever on the left side of her seat. “And way too damned fast! We were skipping off the surface and headed for shore.”
“How the hell did that happen?” The sergeant wondered as he struggled to keep the pain from overpowering his senses.
“Somebody fucked up, that’s how!”
“Oh, God,” Naralena exclaimed as the water climbed up over the sergeant’s face. She was now standing on her seat, her head and shoulders in the hatchway.
“Relax, Avakian,” Jessica urged. “Nothing’s changed. We exit the sub just like we planned. Then we get the sergeant out. Understood?”
“Aye, sir,” Naralena replied, her voice trembling. The water was at her neck and climbing. “Oh, God, Oh, God.”
“Enough with the ‘Oh, Gods’, already!” Jessica ordered.
“Sorry, sir,” Naralena replied as the water climbed up over her head. She bent her head backward to see the underside of the hatch. The water was bubbling over her face as it reached the bottom of the hatch, finally stopping with a small air pocket splashing along the hatch’s underside. “We’re full,” she announced as she released the hatch’s locks. She pushed upward on the hatch, releasing the air pocket into the lake, allowing it to make its way toward the surface. She quickly moved upward through the hatch and then turned to the side, still holding onto the rim so that she could turn around and look back inside. The inside of the sub’s cockpit was dimly lit by the waterproof emergency lighting, and she could see Jessica’s seat lay back so that Jessica could slide aft toward the sergeant.
Jessica moved over Naralena’s seat and pulled the lever, releasing the seat back and pulling it forward to give her room. She squeezed up over the seat back so that she could reach the sergeant. “How are you doing, Sarge?” she asked over the underwater comms.
“I’ve had better days, sir,” the sergeant replied, his voice trembling as he fought back the pain. Jessica reached into the utility pocket of her suit and pulled out her small dive light, shining it on the twisted frame that had dislocated the sergeant’s right hip and then impaled hi
s abdomen.
“How bad is it, sir?” the sergeant asked.
“Good news is you’re not bleeding that bad,” Jessica replied, trying to sound hopeful. “The bad news is that the frame broke free and is impaled in your right side.” She looked at the sergeant, staring at his eyes through their respective face masks. “There’s not enough room to slide you off that thing,” she told him. “Even if there was, you’d probably bleed out before we got to the surface.”
“How deep are we?” the sergeant wondered, his voice still trembling.
“I don’t know. Twenty or thirty meters, maybe. We’re close to shore, so it can’t be that deep. The only way we’re going to get you out alive is if we can find something to cut you out.”
“Fuck,” the sergeant replied, solemnly. He looked at her eyes again. “Where the hell are you going to find something to cut me out with, sir?”
“Hey, we’re in the middle of civilization. We’ll find something.”
“I’m underwater, sir,” the sergeant reminded her.
“You’ve got at least two hours of air in your bottle, sergeant,” Jessica said. “That’s plenty of time.”
Sergeant Weatherly looked at her like she was crazy.
“Come on, Sarge. There’s got to be a dock nearby. Some kind of boat repair shop or something.”
“Yeah,” the sergeant replied, trying to convince himself she was right. “Or something.”
“I’ll go topside and take a quick look around.” Jessica turned to head up, but the sergeant grabbed her wrist.
“You’re coming back, right?”
Jessica turned back to look at him. “Damn right, I am.” She smiled at him. “Besides, I’ll leave Naralena behind to keep you company.”
“Yes, sir,” the sergeant replied, obviously relieved.
Jessica turned and ascended through the overhead hatch out into the lake above, floating up past Naralena. She flipped back around and opened a compartment on the top of the sub, just aft of the hatch. She pulled out a pair of swim fins and quickly placed them on her feet. She then turned to face Naralena. “I’m going up to take a look around and assess the situation,” she told her over the underwater comms. “Keep him company.”
“Yes, sir,” Naralena replied over the underwater comms.
Jessica looked upward. The water around them was pitch black, filled with the contents of the lake bed that had been stirred up by their impact. Without any frame of reference, and no view of the surface, she had no way of knowing her depth. However, she did know that the average depth of the lake within one kilometer of the shore was about thirty meters, and she was quite sure they were no more than two kilometers out, if even one.
Jessica pushed off against the top of the jump sub and began to slowly rise to the surface. The weight of the breathing apparatus on her back was enough to compensate for her body’s natural buoyancy, and she drifted slowly, and motionlessly to the surface. Less than a minute later, she was through the cloud of dirty water that surrounded her impact site. She could see the faint shimmering of the surface above her as she continued to rise. She glanced back downward, noting that the cloud of dirt that surrounded their impact site appeared to be unmoving. With luck, there would not be any currents at the surface, either, and she would be able to locate the sub again without having to use the remote device in her thigh pocket.
Jessica began to push her arms outward and upward to slow her ascent as she approached the surface. Her head touched the surface of the water, rising slowly into the atmosphere of Kohara. The waterline slid down her face mask, revealing the glistening surface of the lake. The shore was nowhere in sight. Jessica used her hands under the water to slowly rotate herself around, taking great care not to make any sudden movements that might alert onlookers to her location. As she rotated, the distant shoreline came into view. The land stretched up and away from the edge of the lake. It was dotted with the lights of buildings. Businesses, residences, marinas… All the elements of civilization one would expect to find around such a body of water.
As she continued to rotate, the shoreline rapidly grew closer. She had come up with her back to the nearest point of land, and now she was facing that land directly. A marina, along with a long pier, was directly ahead of her, not quite a kilometer away. She could see activity. Men scurrying about in haste… And a boat. A boat was pulling away from the pier.
Something else caught her eye. Lights, high in the sky, coming toward the lake from the other side of the city. At least two separate sets of them, both flying relatively low. She watched them, and the boat for a moment. The lights were not gaining in altitude, and the boat now appeared somewhat motionless except for one thing… It was getting bigger. They’re headed this way, she realized.
Jessica used her hands again to push herself downward, submerging her head beneath the surface once again, taking great pains not to make any abnormal ripples on the surface that someone on the approaching boat might notice. A few more pumps with her hands and she was able to descend enough to flip over and swim downward toward the bottom.
Jessica’s mind raced as she descended, analyzing her options, none of which she liked. She pulled the remote out of her pocket and turned it on. She had precious little time, and she did not want to waste it groping along the bottom looking for the sub in the murky water. She wanted to call and warn Naralena, tell her to get ready to leave, but she knew that the underwater comms had an extremely short range.
Soon, she was back in the murky water. She moved the remote in front of her face as she continued swimming downward through the muddy water. She was on course for the sub. However, there was something else. The sub was transmitting a message, but she had no way of knowing what the message was, as the remote was not a communications device. It was only designed to perform two functions, one of which was to lead her back to the ship.
Jessica reached the sub, nearly running into it as the muddy water suddenly parted and revealed the ship directly in front of her and approaching rapidly. She flipped over, her feet moving in under her. “Avakian! Exit, now!” she ordered over the underwater comms.
Naralena popped up through the sub’s overhead hatch, her eyes wide. “What’s going…”
“Put your fins on and grab your gear bag,” Jessica ordered. “We’re leaving.”
Naralena looked panicked. “How are we…”
“Now!” Jessica barked, cutting her off again.
Naralena quickly moved upward, clearing the hatch and moving aft. Jessica stuck her feet down into the jump sub hatch and descended into its cockpit, facing aft. As she moved into the cockpit, she could see the sergeant’s face clearly through his face mask. He was terrified.
“What’s the situation, sir?” the sergeant asked.
Jessica could tell he was fighting hard to control the fear in his tone. The man was in pain, and he had to know by the tone of her voice over the underwater comms that something was wrong. “What’s your first name, Sergeant?”
“Fuck,” Sergeant Weatherly replied, her question confirming what he already feared. “Don’t blow smoke up my ass, sir.”
“I asked you your first name, Marine,” she stated sternly.
“Jerome,” he answered. “My friends call me Jerry.”
“I’m not going to lie to you Jerry; the situation sucks. There’s at least one boat headed our way, and probably more to come. There are two airships on their way as well. Shuttles, or something. I’m not sure.”
“The Jung?”
“Maybe. Not sure about the boats, but the shuttles are a pretty good bet.”
Sergeant Weatherly was fighting to stay in control of his emotions as he spoke. “Options, sir?”
“Call me Jess, Jerry.”
The sergeant gave her a half-hearted smile. “Options?”
Jessica found it hard to form the word. “None,” she said in a tone barely above a whisper. She felt herself overcome with sorrow, and had to fight it back to carry on. “You know what I have to do
, Jerry.”
Sergeant Weatherly’s face cringed, his eyes squeezing closed forcefully as he fought back the tears. “I know,” he replied. From behind his dive mask, he looked in her eyes. The interior emergency lighting was minimal, and he could barely make out the features of her face. “What the fuck happened, Jess?”
“Somebody screwed us, Jerry.”
“You mean…”
Jessica showed him the remote. “The sub is transmitting its location to the Jung. Someone sabotaged this ship in order to get the jump drive to the Jung.”
“Fuck!” the sergeant exclaimed, finally losing control. “Fuck!”
“Sergeant!” Jessica yelled over the underwater comms. “I know! I know! This fucking sucks! But it is what it is!”
“Fuck!”
“Do you understand?”
The sergeant squinted his eyes together again, his face cringed in an expression of anger and fear. “Yes, sir,” he replied softly, his eyes opening again and looking around in a vain attempt at acceptance. He looked at Jessica again, peering through both their face masks to look in her eyes as he struggled to fight back the tears. “You’re gonna find him, Jess. You’re gonna find him, and you’re gonna kill him.” The sergeant was not asking a question.
“You bet your ass, Jerry,” Jessica promised, fighting back her own tears as well. “I’ll make the bastard suffer,” she added, her hand reaching out to touch the side of his head. “I promise.”
“Give me the remote,” the sergeant said. “I’ll do it myself.”
Jessica felt herself about to lose control. “I can’t do that, Jerry. If you might pass out, or something…” She looked at him. “I have to be sure.”
“If I pass out, it will just blow up when they try to open the hatch, right?”
“What if the message included the disable code?” she explained, tears streaming down her cheeks as she sniffled. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, Jerry, but I can’t take the chance. It’s my responsibility.”