Within the Water

by Kelly Fallows

  ‘Soph said you might want to stay up on the bridge – something about interference and damn pirates.’

  ‘So how did that wind up with you running all over the sub hollering at the top of your voice? You know we have this really great comm. system – stands for communication; funnily enough, just for these kinds of situations.’ Duncan couldn’t resist “explaining”.

  ‘Hmph, I’d like to see you tell Soph that when she’s like this. While you may not value certain body parts, I most certainly do,’ Simon proclaimed.

  ‘I’m sure Sarah appreciates you preserving your ability to have children, Simon.’ Ben patted him on the back, ‘but now I’d better see what has got Sophie into such a fearful mood.’

  ‘She needs a reason now?’

  ‘Don’t know why you’re so cheerful, Dunc, you’re coming with me.’ Ben laughed, pushing Dunc up the central access ladder.

  ‘You all right, Zhe?’ Ben asked quietly as Duncan and Simon headed up to the upper levels.

  Zhe gave him kind of half a smile and nodded. Although not convinced, Ben gave a brisk nod and followed the boys, leaving Zhe to watch from the hatchway.

  ***

  ‘Captain,’ came the greeting as Ben, Duncan and Simon came into the control room. Simon just sent a look of “I told you so” to the other two and then found himself a comfortable spot from which to watch the hopefully entertaining drama.

  ‘Sophie, sweetheart, how are you?’ Ben asked jovially, causing a dramatic eye-roll from Duncan – why Ben always had to try and make the situation worse, he had no idea.

  ‘Hmph.’

  ‘Should I prepare an isolation room to be a mortuary?’ Simon offered helpfully.

  ‘Well, if that look’s anything to go by, I’d say our dear captain doesn’t have much time left at all. Oh well, looks like I’ll be captain before too long,’ Duncan commented, gleefully rubbing his hands together in mock anticipation.

  While Ben fought to restrain his mirth at their baiting of Sophie, the lady in question only shot another glare in their general direction, clearly unimpressed to be the only one appreciating the seriousness of the situation.

  ‘Oh, come on now, darling… I don’t think I’ve done anything to upset you…lately,’ Ben cajoled, placing his arm around her shoulders.

  ‘Oh really? No, nothing at all, unless you count leaving me here with no support, hundreds of monitors to watch and a boat to steer through some of the most treacherous waters in the entire ocean.’

  Ah, to the heart of the problem, Ben mused silently. Not only had they left her here unaided, but they had made her ask for help and thus admit she can’t do this by herself. Silently, he wondered if it was easier now that he could read her, or simply just another kind of difficult.

  ‘Well, here we are now.’

  ‘Hmm.’

  ‘You know, Ben, I’m getting the feeling you’re not forgiven.’

  ‘Hmm, that makes two of us… but what can you do?’ Ben asked, shrugging his shoulders as he settled himself into the co-pilot’s chair for a long watch.

  ***

  ‘Do you really think we’ll get any trouble?’ Simon asked, breaking the silence of their vigil.

  ‘Not really sure. I haven’t been in these waters for a long while and then…’ Ben tailed off, as Duncan snorted.

  ‘What?’

  Duncan responded to the look he was getting, ‘Well, come on, Ben. The last time we were here was quite an “experience”.’

  ‘I suppose that’s one thing to call it, but you could make allowances, Dunc.’

  ‘True, I suppose, given everything.’

  Simon just looked between the two, ‘No wonder Zhe is so confused.’

  ‘Huh? What’s she got to do with any of this?’ Ben asked in complete bewilderment.

  ‘They don’t even know they are doing it, Soph.’ Simon looked to the pilot for support.

  ‘Of course they don’t Simon; that would require some sort of brains,’ she commented dryly.

  ‘Just what are we doing and why does this have anything to do with Zhe?’ Dunc questioned.

  ‘Do you think we should put them out of their misery, Soph?’

  ‘Permanently?’ Sophie asked, somewhat hopefully.

  ‘Afraid I’m all out of lethal injections.’

  ‘Pity,’ Sophie commented as she turned back to her monitors.

  ‘Do you mind – we’re right here!’ Duncan exclaimed indignantly as the two of them discussed their demise.

  ‘Don’t worry, Dunc, they don’t mean it. Do you now?’ Ben lowered his voice in a mock threatening manner as he addressed Sophie and Simon.

  ‘No, of course not, Captain,’ Simon readily agreed.

  ‘And, of course, you were about to tell us just what Dunc and I were doing, and how it relates to Zhe,’ Ben continued in the same tone.

  ‘Right you are, Captain,’ Simon played along, knowing he wasn’t really in any trouble – hell, usually it was the captain who was playing these games; the key was, Simon acknowledged, not to go too far.

  ‘Well?’ Duncan questioned as Simon became a little too wrapped up in his thoughts.

  ‘We meant,’ Sophie began with a long-suffering sigh, ‘that you always have mini conversations with each other in the middle of discussions, conversations in which neither of you finish any sentence, which then leaves the rest of us poor mortals unable to work out what’s going on.’

  ‘Ah, that,’ Ben agreed in an infuriating manner.

  ‘What do you mean “Ah, that”? We don’t have private conversations in the middle of things!’ Duncan spluttered indignantly.

  ‘Of course we don’t but…’ Ben cast a sidelong glance at their pilot, ‘I think in this case it’d be better to agree.’

  Duncan followed his look and caught his drift immediately, Sophie was in a bad enough mood as it was. ‘Right you are, Captain.’

  Sophie just huffed in response, which was then drowned out by the captain’s laugh;

  ‘Don’t worry, Soph, I’ll let you in on the secret one day,’ he told her still chuckling, patting her on the shoulder.

  ‘“Yeah, right” springs to mind,’ the pilot muttered under her breath, turning her concentration back to manoeuvring the Coelacanth through the Abyss. There were only two ways to get to Abantos, through the Abyss or through Volcano Pass, and what an argument that choice had caused, Sophie thought.

  ***

  ‘We sail for Abantos then.’ For a moment silence greeted that solemn statement, made by their captain, as they each considered what this really meant for them.

  ‘What course shall I set, Captain?’ Sophie’s enquiry brought about another debate, one which was certain to be more fiercely contested than its predecessor.

  ‘We go north, Soph.’

  ‘Through the Abyss!’ Blue’s disbelief was palpable.

  ‘Yes Blue.’

  ‘Have you gone completely mad?’ Blue cried, jumping to his feet and shocking the others into momentary silence – never before had they seen their engineer like this.

  However, Ben simply gave him a tired one-word answer, ‘Possibly.’

  ‘No possibly in it. North is suicide.’

  ‘Blue, they’re looking for us; the south’ll be watched, we’re closer to the north anyway.’ Duncan stepped up to defend his captain’s reasoning.

  ‘I’m more concerned with what lies in the Abyss; sod Carrington and his goons, we can fight them.’

  ‘What’s down there then?’ Simon asked, still a relative outsider as far as sailing went; growing up in the more isolated colonies, subs’ tales never quite reached him.

  ‘Dragons lad, dragons.’

  Ash barked out a laugh at that solemn statement.

  ‘You can laugh now, but you won’t be when we’re getting attacked and dragged to t
he bottom of the Abyss, into hell itself.’

  ‘But dragons, Blue? Really, I mean… it is kind of difficult to accept,’ Simon hesitantly asked – no less incredulous than Ash just better at hiding it.

  ‘Hmph, you’d have thought that all that book learning of yours would’ve made you smarter,’ Blue huffed.

  ‘You’re forgetting, Blue, that the south has its own demons,’ Ben pointed out.

  ‘Demons too now?’ Ash could not help but ask mockingly.

  ‘Aye, but of a more scientific type – volcanoes, scores of them along the ocean bed, and if any one of those goes up while you’re in the Pass… well, let’s say dragons would be a welcome sight.’

  ‘Hmph, you’ll get us all killed.’

  ‘Ah, come on, Blue. They’re just tall tales told by those with too much alcohol in their gut and too loose a tongue.’

  ‘Then how do you explain the disappearances, huh? Boats go in and never come back out again?’

  ‘Probably decided they like Abantos better than the chance of a noose back in the civilised part of the ocean.’

  ‘Or those who have seen subs disappear into the depths of the Abyss for no reason and yet they sailed on unmolested?’

  ‘Trick of the light or imagination; most are so spooked when they enter, they’ll believe they’ve seen the sun itself!’ Ben countered angrily.

  ‘And just what light is there in the Abyss to play such tricks, may I ask?’ Blue asked smugly.

  ‘So, you’re suggesting we go the safest route then, Blue? Away from the perils of the ocean?’ Ash’s tone was reasonable, but there was something underlying it as he questioned the engineer.

  ‘I am.’

  ‘So, via Bedlam is your choice then, is it? After all, all these perils are to the north and south, but not east and west of Bedlam,’ Ash concluded smugly, smirking.

  ‘You’re not suggesting that are you?’ Simon cried out at this; he may not have known of demons and dragons, but Bedlam was a very real fear. Prison, some of the more charitable characters called it; a death camp was more realistic.

  ‘Don’t be stupid, Simon,’ Sophie chimed in, whacking Simon up the back side of his head. ‘Ash is just twisting things as always,’ she finished, glaring at Ash.

  ‘Hey, I’m just going by what the old man said. If he’s—’

  ‘I’m just saying…’ Blue cut across Ash’s latest acerbic remark, ‘that going north is suicide. Many a sub has lost her crew to those dark waters; there are too many unexplainable disasters, too many—’

  ‘Blue, you are blowing these stories out of proportion. Let’s be reasonable about this—’

  ‘So, you’re willing to go south then?’ the engineer interrupted Duncan's attempt at a peaceful resolution.

  ‘No.’ Ben's voice cut through the squabbling. ‘We are going north through the Abyss.’ He turned to stare at each of his crew, particularly Blue. ‘The Abyss is the quicker route, haunted only by stories. South will take us longer and is almost certainly haunted by Elite Troopers by now – a very real threat.’ Their captain's tone, final and unyielding, ended the matter.

  ***

  Daniels sighed; Sophie felt it was as if she were not the only one reliving the memories of Blue’s concerns. ‘I think shifts are in order,’ he stated abruptly.

  ‘Captain?’

  ‘We’re in for a long haul, Simon; no sense all of us sitting up here at once,’ Ben explained patiently.

  ‘Ben, do you want me and Soph to take the first?’ Duncan offered, knowing that, after Sophie, Ben was the next best choice for pilot.

  ‘Thanks, Dunc. Have Ash take over for you at the end of the first watch and have him wake me at morning watch,’ Ben agreed. ‘Soph, you good till then?’

  ‘Aye Captain,’ Sophie answered, thankful now for the enforced rest he had put her to earlier.

  ‘Simon, you’d best get some rest too; you’ll be joining me on the morning watch,’ Ben added as he left the bridge.

  Ben’s lack of comment about Blue in deciding the watches hung heavily in the air.

  ‘Dunc, do… do you know what passed between Blue and the captain after the meeting?’ Sophie asked somewhat hesitantly.

  Duncan shook his head saying, ‘Whatever passed between them, stayed between them.’

  ***

  ‘Urgh.’ Ben stretched out his aching muscles as he walked into his cabin; sitting for hours in the control room after a day spent hunched over ledgers and charts was not conducive to pain-free muscles, he decided.

  A movement in the corner of his eye drew his attention further into the cabin. Turning quickly, he saw that the unexpected figure was Zhe and gasped her name in relieved surprise. Not that he had forgotten about her, far from it. After her outburst some hours earlier, it had been all he could do to keep his mind on their mission and not let it stray to his sphinx-like passenger.

  ‘Are you all right?’ he asked suddenly, remembering her odd presence in the mess earlier.

  ‘Yes… I think,’ she answered quietly.

  For a moment, Ben could only stare; the fact that she chose once more to speak filled him with a relief so strong that he only then realised how much he had been dreading the possibility that her speaking that evening had only been a one-off occurrence. Then he truly registered her words:

  ‘You think? What’s troubling you?’ he asked gently, not wanting to spook her.

  ‘I…’ She tried several times to form the words that would explain how she felt, but she was at a loss at how to express it; wringing her hands together, she looked at Ben somewhat helplessly.

  ‘Hey, it’ll be okay,’ he told her coming to sit next to her on the edge of the bed, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

  ‘Just start from the beginning… is someone bothering you or…’

  ‘No. No, everyone has been so good to me.’ She interrupted him quickly, only then to pause and glance up at his face, still half worried that she'd angered him by interrupting.

  Ben gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze when he realised what had worried her. ‘You can interrupt me any time you like,’ he told her with a smile.

  ‘Sorry, things are…’ Zhe trailed off, biting her lip.

  ‘It’s all right; some habits are hard to break.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Zhe said suddenly, and with more certainty and feeling than anything she had said previously. ‘I really do mean it,’ she continued at his confused look, ‘for everything. Really, thank you.’

  ‘You’re welcome, little darling,’ Ben replied, dropping a kiss on her forehead.

  Sighing, ‘I’ve never felt so safe,’ she told him, leaning into him.

  ‘I’m glad you feel safe with me,’ Ben told her, feeling as though those words didn’t express enough, but they were the best he could do at that moment.

  ‘Can I… would you mind if I… slept here tonight?’ Zhe asked hesitantly.

  Chapter Nine

  ‘Well?’ Silence met his request for an explanation.

  ‘I said “well” Rose. What explanation do you give for this?’ Nathan demanded a second time.

  ‘There is nothing to explain.’

  ‘Nothing to explain!’ thundered Nathan. ‘Your dear Captain Daniels is nowhere to be found!’

  ‘A day late is hardly call for concern; he is not the most punctual of people.’

  Rose’s clipped reply was met with the slamming of a book onto the desk. ‘Do not take that tone with me, Rose,’ Nathan warned.

  ‘My apologies, Nathan. I merely meant that he’s a pirate and sailing back into Eckarna with stolen documents is not something that allows you to keep to a timetable.’

  ‘That has never troubled him before. Or so you told me.’

  ‘He will be here, Nathan.’

  ‘He should be here now. Especially as I have information he
was a day out from here, two days ago!’

  ‘What information?’

  ‘A sub of the Imperial Fleet questioned them. Fortunately, the captain in charge was less than bright and did not know them for who they really are.’

  ‘They passed?’ Rose questioned with no small amount of concern.

  ‘They passed. Which then begs the question: where are they now?’

  ‘He will return,’ Rose reiterated her belief.

  ‘Oh, of that I am certain,’ Nathan said coldly.

  ‘Nathan, what have you done?’

  ‘You’re questioning me, Rose?’

  ‘No… no, of course not.’ Rose collected herself before she could say anything else to anger the already infuriated leader of the Guild. While she may have been second in command, and that allowed her certain privileges, Nathan was undeniably the leader and not a man to be crossed, even by her.

  ‘Good. I would hate to think that your fondness for Captain Daniels was making you lose your senses.’

  ‘No Nathan.’

  ‘But, seeing that you are my second, you should be aware I have dispatched Marius and Hans to bring the dear captain back.’

  ‘Bounty hunters? A calculated risk,’ Rose mentioned cautiously.

  ‘Indeed, but far less of one than leaving Daniels to his own devices with those disks. Should he discover the contents… well not even you could say on whose side he would come down.’

  ‘But still Nathan, Marius and Hans?’ Rose questioned.

  ‘They are the fastest we have contracts with and two were needed, Rose – one for north and the other for south.’ Nathan explained, having regained his temper somewhat.

  ‘You don’t think that he’s going there?’

  ‘It is the most logical place. He won’t be able to read the disks on his sub no matter how good his pilot reportedly is at breaking encryptions.’

  ‘But, still, after we pulled him out of there – barely alive, no less!’ Rose exclaimed.

  ‘He’s going to Abantos; otherwise, he would be here already. You need to stop trying to protect him Rose or he will be your own personal downfall.’ With these ominous words of warning, Nathan returned to his desk and papers, dismissing Rose to ponder her path and that of Captain Benjamin Daniels, and just how entwined they really were.