by R. E. Weber
Theo pulled up beside her and coughed up some salty water from his throat. Then he turned to look at the mass of water, which was perhaps fifty metres high and bearing mercilessly down on them.
‘So what do we do?’ wheezed Theo.
‘Take a deep breath.’
‘That’s it, that’s your great plan?’
‘Theo, it’s on top of us,’ yelled Larissa. ‘Do it now or we’re dead.’
Just as they swallowed their lungful’s of air, the water around them rose as the pressure wave from the approaching creature struck them, and they felt themselves thrown nauseatingly upwards as if riding a giant aquatic rollercoaster. Then the swollen mass of water suddenly dropped away and the ocean surface dipped down again before levelling out.
Theo released his breath, relieved.
‘It’s diving. It’s gone down. We’re safe,’ he spluttered.
Larissa looked back at him, terrified. Somehow, she wasn’t convinced. Then, almost as if they had been tethered to the enormous beast by invisible ropes, they were yanked under water by the suction from its sudden dive. Theo swam hard against the powerful current, desperate to make for the glimmering surface above him, but it was fruitless. The grip from the wake of the massive beast was far too strong and continued dragging him deeper into the ever darkening water. Realising that resistance was futile, Theo stopped swimming and looked down. Then his heart almost stopped. The rear of the enormous creature was clearly visible as it continued to dive. It had what looked like two long, twin fluked tails, as if two gigantic whales had been welded together, side by side. In between the fluked tails, which were moving up and down in perfect synchronisation, there were two large holes.
As Theo stared at the enormous, graceful creature, a torrent of bubbles burst from the holes, while at the same time its tails ceased moving. Then, with startling speed, the creature disappeared into the depths and was gone.
After a brief, hard tug downwards, the suction from the wake of the beast began to ease, so Theo turned towards the surface and began swimming with renewed enthusiasm. As he continued to rise, the bubbles from the rear of the creature surrounded him, further lifting him, and within a minute or so he broke the ocean surface, gasping as his lungs found the cool, clean air. For a moment, he floated on his back, breathing deeply to control the dizziness that had almost overwhelmed him. Then he opened his eyes and righted himself in the water to see Larissa swimming towards him, clearly exhausted but happy to see him.
‘Thank god,’ cried Larissa breathlessly as she looked into his eyes, which were bloodshot and stinging from the salty water. ‘I thought you’d drowned.’
‘Tha…that was close,’ said Theo wheezing. ‘I thought I was never going to come back up. Di…did you see that thing?’
‘Yeah, it was incredible.’
‘What was all that with the bubbles?’
‘Teracomars have two ways of moving. They’ve got two tails like the ones whales have. They use them for feeding and mating. Th… then they have these giant tubes running the entire length of their bodies. Th…’ Larissa stopped for a moment to catch her breath, before continuing. ‘They use special muscles to pull in water at high speed and spit it out of the back. It’s like jet propulsion. They can move at a hundred and twenty kph.’
‘Th… thank you, David Attenborough,’ said Theo, coughing as he spoke.
‘I never thought I’d get that close to one though. I mean, I hoped we’d catch a glimpse of one from the skimmer, you know, the swell and all that. B…but I never thought we’d see one underwater.’
‘Yeah, it was a little too close for my liking.’
‘OK, fair enough, I’m with you there. But anyway, are you sure you’re OK?’
‘I think so. What about you?’
‘I’m fine, Theo. I learnt to swim when I was three. I swam a mile when I was eight. I’m OK, although I admit it’s harder to swim here with the low oxygen.’
‘What do you think we should do next?’
‘Well first I think we need to rest and get our strength back. Then we could have a look for one of those floating islands. This ocean’s a dangerous place in case you hadn’t noticed.’
‘Yeah, I know. That sounds like a good plan.’
After a few minutes floating on his back, breathing deeply, Theo’s dizziness had begun to subside, so he righted himself and started scanning the ocean with his companion on full zoom. Then he spotted a thin green line, close to the horizon.
‘Over there, Lari,’ said Theo pointing towards the green streak. ‘I think that’s one of them. Think we can make it?’
Larissa zoomed in on the island.
‘I’d say it’s about a kilometre or so away. We’ll have to take it slowly and keep stopping. But yeah, I think we can make it.’
‘That’s if we don’t meet another teracomar on the way.’
‘Not likely. They’re solitary and there aren’t many of them. We were lucky to see one, you know.’
‘You call that lucky? We nearly drowned.’
‘Stop whining, will you? We need to save our energy for the swim. You ready, stick insect?’
‘Stick insect? That’s pure muscle, that is,’ said Theo squeezing his bicep. ‘No wastage. I’m a lean, mean, fighting machine.’
‘In that case, muscle man, let’s get going.’
And without waiting for Theo, Larissa began swimming front crawl towards the distant green slit, with a puffing and panting Theo splashing away behind her. Despite everything that had happened to them, Larissa appeared to be in her element, and the panic that had gripped her on the station had evaporated.
*
It was exhausting work, but about thirty minutes later, they had almost reached the floating island. For a moment, they stopped swimming and stared at the amazing structure, which was about a hundred metres away from them. Despite the fact that it was floating on the surface of the ocean, it didn’t seem to be bobbing up and down in the current. There appeared to be a multitude of different types of plant, matted together in a huge tangled mass. Surrounding the floating island, to a width of about twenty metres, were a series of giant, floating gas bag like leaves, interspersed with metre-long, green stalks jutting out of the water and hanging heavy with clumps of yellow tube-shaped flowers.
Beyond the swollen leaves, there was a very definite shoreline where clumps of tentacle like roots grew down into the ocean. Further back, taller tree-like plants, with brown twisted trunks and flattened, droopy leaves, stretched to a height of about fifteen metres. The entire island was perhaps five hundred metres from one side to the other, but generally flat aside from the trees in the centre. Although the bloated leaves surrounding the island were like nothing Theo had ever seen, the centre was populated with plants which bore a striking similarity to jungle plants on Earth.
‘Nearly there.’
‘Yeah, I know,’ said Theo breathlessly. ‘Just give me a minute to catch my breath, will you?’
‘OK, no probs.’
Floating upright in the water, Larissa started rubbing her ear through her hood.
‘Think I’ve got something stuck in there.’
She pulled down her hood and shook her hair. Then she stuck her fingers in her ear and pulled out a brown slug like creature, wincing as she yanked it free.
‘What’s that?’ said Theo, looking at the tiny creature in disgust.
‘Dunno. I’ve never seen one before.’
Theo checked his companion. ‘It’s a taltat. They’re like, well, leeches I suppose.’
‘Uuugggh. I’d better check to see if I’ve got any more on me. You should do the same.’
Theo pulled down his hood and checked around his head. He found one of the creatures stuck to his cheek, so he quickly pulled it free and slung it away as far as he could.
‘Sick of this bloody hood, anyway,’ said Larissa. ‘Come on, let’s get going.’
‘I’d keep that on if I was you. You never know…’
‘Theo, I don’t think a
hood’s gonna protect me from a teracomar, let alone a taltat. Now come on, let’s get going. I just wanna get out of the water, I…’
Larissa stopped talking as she stared out into the ocean. She seemed to be squinting as if she couldn’t quite make out what she was looking at.
‘What is it, Lari?’
Larissa’s eyes flicked around in their sockets for a moment. Then she stared ahead, focusing on whatever it was she had seen.
Theo span around in the water and stared in the direction of Larissa’s gaze. For a moment, he saw a distant shimmer just above the ocean surface. But as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished.
‘What was that?’ said Theo.
‘I… I don’t know. My companion can’t identify it.’
Turning on his zoom, Theo stared in the direction of the disturbance, watching intently. Then he spotted it once more. A light burst of ocean spray was followed by a shoal of what looked like narrow, silvery fish, which arched through the air and plunged back into the water. Repeating Larissa, Theo selected identify and focused in on the disturbance, hoping that his Star Agency issued companion enhancements might have better luck than Larissa’s. But as the fish leapt in unison through the air once more, his companion reported the same result.
Subject: Unknown
‘I think,’ said Theo calmly, ‘that we need to get out of here – the water, I mean.’
‘Agreed, let’s swim. Whatever they are, I don’t want to take any chances.’
Theo kicked again and began to swim as fast as he possibly could, fighting the dizziness that came in waves as he powered through the water. He was about twenty metres from the edge of the island, with Larissa just ahead, when there were suddenly splashes just behind him as hundreds of needle-shaped fish rained down into the water.
Theo stopped swimming and looked at Larissa, who had also stopped and was looking frantically around to see where the disturbances were coming from. For a moment, there was silence as the pair of them drifted motionless in the gently lapping ocean. Then beneath him, Theo saw a silvery shimmer as hundreds of the creatures appeared from the depths. Several of the fish struck him as they tried to leap from the water, but his suit instantly hardened to protect him. Some of the creatures bounced off him and sank back into the depths either stunned or dead, while others slapped back down into the water and swam quickly away. Once the fish had vanished, Theo checked himself all over to see if any had penetrated his suit. Luckily, they hadn’t.
Just as Theo was about to start swimming again, the creatures burst out of the ocean between him and Larissa, arched through the air and rained down all around her. Screaming, she pulled her arms over her head and squeezed her eyes shut to protect herself from the dagger-like fish. Then she let out a blood-curdling scream and flopped to one side in the water, clutching her neck. One of the fish was stuck in her neck, with blood pouring out all around it.
With a burst of adrenaline, Theo swam as fast as he could to Larissa. He pulled up beside her and stared in shock at the rigid fish, which was wedged into the base of her neck. Was it dead or just not moving? Blood was pouring into the water, turning it a grim red colour, and Larissa herself was barely moving. Her arms were now flat out beside her, flapping up and down in the gentle current, and her eyelids were flickering erratically. Theo grabbed the silvery rigid fish, ready to yank it out, but then paused. Pulling it out was only going to make it worse because it would leave an open wound in her neck. He released the fish, pulled himself around behind her, swung his arm around her and pressed hard at the base of her neck to try and stem the blood flow. Then he began to kick with his legs, dragging her slowly towards the island.
It was exhausting work, but he finally pushed his way through the floating gas bag leaves and reached the shoreline. He pushed Larissa up against the wall of intertwined plants and then hooked her arm under a root to stop her slipping back into the water. He yanked himself out of the ocean and wedged his feet against another thick root next to her. Using all his remaining strength, he hauled Larissa free of the water and onto the island. He sat for a moment as a wave of dizziness swept over him, resisting the urge to vomit. Then he opened his companion, selected the bio scanner and focused on Larissa’s neck:
Warning: Life signs below recommended levels.
Blood pressure: Below recommended level and falling.
Heartbeat: Slow and irregular.
Blood toxicity level: Beyond safe margins.
As Theo read the report, he felt sick. Larissa was dying. He pressed his fingers against where the fish was embedded in her neck and tried to stem the blood flow, but all that happened was that the blood seemed to ooze out between his fingers. As he stared into her beautiful face, which had turned sickly and pale, a single tear formed in the corner of his eye. After everything they had been through on the station, surviving a death defying plunge from orbit, hitting the ocean at high speed and then escaping the jaws of the gigantic teracomar, he couldn’t believe that she was going to die here, on an island like this. There had to be something he could do – there had to be.
OK, first things first. The biggest danger to Larissa was blood loss – her low blood pressure and irregular heartbeat stemmed from that. So he had to find a way to seal the wound. If he had been injured, his field nano-medics would have sealed the wound, but that was no use to Larissa because she didn’t have any. They were issued to Star Agency operatives only. If only there was some way to instruct his nano-medics to repair Larissa’s wound. He knew that his control system had been recently modified to allow him to override their default behaviour, which was to repair the most heavily damaged tissue. But how could he use that to help Larissa? How could he get them to operate on her?
Theo looked into her eyes, which were half open and no longer flickering. Then he looked at her pale lips, which seemed to be turning blue. Her lips. For several seconds, he raced through the menus on his companion. Then, with his heart thumping hard, he pressed his lips to Larissa’s and kissed her.
*
After about a minute or so, Theo pulled his lips away from Larissa and looked back at her. She didn’t seem to be breathing. He looked down at where the fish was embedded in her neck. Suddenly, it went limp and fell out, slapping lifelessly to the ground. It seemed to be dead. For a moment, Theo panicked, expecting the blood to begin spurting from the hole. But instead, the wound was dry. She was no longer bleeding to death. As he cradled her head in his arms, her chest convulsed. Then she opened her eyes and gasped.
‘It’s OK, you’re safe.’
‘W…what happened?’
‘One of those fish hit you in the neck. You were bleeding. You passed out.’
Larissa lifted her arm weakly and touched the wound. It was dry, hard and mostly sealed over.
‘My neck, h… how? How did you…?’
‘A handy bit of technology called nano-medics. They repair damaged tissue. I… well I sort of sent them from my body into yours. They made their way to the wound and sealed it up. Then they restarted your heart.’
‘You put them in my body? How?’
‘Well, through your mouth. It was the best way in. I…’
‘You put them in my mouth? How? Was it a pill or something?’
‘Not exactly, no. They… they came out of my mouth into yours.’
‘From your mouth into mine? You mean, you kissed me?’
‘Well, kind of. But it wasn’t like that. I…’
Larissa looked up at Theo and a tiny smile curled around the corner of her mouth.
‘Do you realise that was our first kiss, Theo?’
Theo sighed and looked back at Larissa.
‘OK, no need to sound so enthusiastic,’ she croaked.
‘No, I mean, it’s not that I didn’t want to, I just wanted it to be different. I wanted…’
Theo stopped talking as a wave of dizziness overtook him. It was so powerful that he almost fell over sideways.
‘Theo, are you OK?’ said Larissa as she loo
ked up at his rolling eyes.
‘Yeah, I’m fine, I…’
Warning: Life signs below recommended levels.
Blood toxicity level: Beyond safe margins.
Heart rate: Below recommended level.
Larissa tried to sit up, but a sudden wave of dizziness overtook her as well, so she lay back down.
‘Oh god, what’s happening to us? Is it the oxygen?’ said Theo as he lay down to control his spinning head.
‘I… I think it’s those taltat things. I think they’ve poisoned us.’
‘It… it never said they were poisonous when I read… Oh god, I feel, oh…’
They both lay still on the ground, their heads spinning and stomachs churning. Theo closed his eyes hoping that it would control the dizziness, but it didn’t seem to help. He then opened them and looked up into the cloudy, sunlit sky through a haze of salty tears.
As he strained to focus, a large black shape passed overhead and a shadow flicked briefly over them. And just before he drifted out of consciousness, he thought he saw a huge, black hand reaching out of the sky towards him.
16 – She’s the One
The events of the past week or so on Ch’Dath had left Ruby somewhat unnerved to say the least. It had begun in earnest about eight days previously when she’d been taking her daily morning walk around the grounds of the government residence known as the Ten’ha Mak’h – a spectacular thousand-year-old building constructed from a vibrant, rust coloured, sandstone like rock. Like humans, the H’th’hka cultivated a variety of plants for ornamental reasons, and the ancient palace was surrounded by a multitude of gardens containing a huge variety of flowering plants and organically themed stone carvings.
Ruby had found that an early morning stroll around the gardens had been a good way to instil a sense of calm in her mind, and had undertaken to make such a walk a regular part of her day. When she had begun, she’d found that her morning stroll seemed to be a uniquely human activity and had scarcely if ever come into contact with others. However, as time had progressed, things had changed.