I quickly find the settings and reduce it to stun while ducking into the doorway of my quarters. Light footfalls make their way down the hall. It’s too early for the guard— they’re on a strict schedule.
I freeze next to the inside of the open door and grip my weapon as the footsteps stop outside. A male clears his throat, and I prepare myself to fire the weapon, but when James pops his head through the opening, I shove the stunner into the pocket of my pajama pants.
He came.
“Oh, you’re up,” James whispers, looking nervous. Handsome, but nervous.
“I’m up,” I squeak, looking at the clock and knowing there’s not much time left to get the Sisters.
James crosses his arms across his chest, unintentionally showing off his muscles. “Can you come out for a minute?”
The sight of them forces me to suck in a breath. There’s not much to do here except work out when you don’t have people turning you into a mutant.
James’s lips quirk up into a shy smile. “Please?”
Longing to stay with him threatens to overtake me, but I hold back. It’s not as if I have any sort of experience with boys. I haven't even been kissed. But James’s full, brown lips compel me to remedy that sad fact right now. Especially since I’m leaving, and a kiss is never going to happen if we’re apart. I let out my breath and grab a quick look at the Sisters, asleep through all this.
“Sure,” I say, tugging up the collar of my pajama shirt to hopefully hide my gills. If I tried to get rid of him, he'd know something’s up.
He stretches out his hand to me, and I take it. A shiver races down my spine. He grips my fingers tightly and leads me into the hall. The gesture almost makes me forget I want to leave this place.
Almost.
“I only have a few minutes until security gets here, but I had to see you.”
The look on James’s face grows serious. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a tiny iridescent shell, pressing it into my palm.
“Happy Birthday, Arya. It’s not much, but I figured it was small enough that you could hide it.”
I stroke the ridges of the shell with my fingertips. “It’s beautiful.” I slip the shell into my pocket, next to the stun weapon. “But you risked coming here to give me this?”
James looks away and then at his feet. “No, there’s another thing, too.”
And with that, like something out of countless dreams, his hands gently cup the sides of my face, he leans down and his lips touch mine. I’m Not about to allow the moment to pass as I slip my arms around his body and bring him toward me. The kiss is soft and sweet, and I hope it never stops.
James inches back with just about the widest smile I’ve ever seen gracing his lips. “I’ve wanted to do that for so long.”
I giggle. “You’re not the only one.”
But then I remember what I’m doing. I can’t do this. No matter how much I want to.
“James, leave with me.”
Confusion crosses his face. “Leave with you? What do you mean?”
“I can’t stay here anymore. You know what Nerissa’s done to me, right?”
“Yes, I’m so sorry—”
“Then come with me. You shouldn't to be a part of this,” I plead in a hushed tone.
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m—”
“James,” a deep voice says behind us, making me jump. I look up to see Commander Thacher, James’s father; tall, with brown skin a shade darker than James’s, his bearded face stern as always. Even so, I’ve occasionally seen kindness left in his eyes.
It’s not there today.
“Son, you shouldn’t be down here.”
“Did you follow me?” James asks.
“Just come back up, and we can forget this ever happened.”
James looks at me, eyebrows furrowed. “But I want to remember.”
Commander Thacher squares his jaw and reaches for James, grabbing his shoulder. “Being with her is impossible. I’ve turned a blind eye long enough to your friendship, but not anymore. You’ve overstepped the line.”
James shrugs his father’s hand off. “You don’t understand. I … I love her.”
The words grip my heart. James loves me?
Thacher straightens his back, nostrils flaring. “Oh, I do understand, and I’m saying no.” He pauses and considers his next statement. “Arya is no longer even human. She’s another species.”
The truth rips at me. I’ve suspected this, but pushed away the truth of what Nerissa stole from me.
James shoots a look back at me and his scared eyes soften. “I don’t care.”
“You will care because I demand it.”
Thacher seizes James again, and without thinking, I pull the stun weapon from my pocket and thrust it into the tall man’s side. Immediately, Thacher falls in a heap. James wheels around on me, mouth agape. Behind us, a rustling comes from inside my compartment.
“What did you do?” James yells, falling to his knees by his father and touching his chest. “He’s barely breathing.”
I flip over the gun to check the setting. In my hurry, I didn’t get it turned down as much as I’d thought.
“What’s going on?” Una asks, rushing out the doorway, Talise and Marin tagging along. Thoughts of the escape, James, the kiss—that kiss—and then the fact the guard will be here on his rounds shortly tumble together in my brain.
I make a choice.
I shift away and lower the setting to stun. Then, as if my reality suddenly bleeds into slow motion, I round on James and push the weapon into his arm. The expression of shock on his face burns into my memory as he falls to the ground.
Chapter 1
Over Two Years Later - Present Day – Earth 2088
Arya
The craft rocks back and forth, taunting my heavy eyelids. I snap up and grab for my canteen of fresh water, take a swig, then splash some on my face in a feeble attempt at not falling asleep … again.
I one-eighty in my seat and let out a couple of clicks. Almost immediately, an echo comes back assuring me the Sisters are all snug in the sleeping compartment at the back of the Scylla. They’re not my blood sisters, but after the blood we’ve spilled together, we might as well be.
Outside the glass spanning the front of the command station and arching over my head, the smooth, onyx surface of the NeverSea shimmers with starlight. A lazy yawn escapes me.
Admittedly, the scene is beautiful, but I’d rather have not drawn the short straw and ended up on the night watch. When I lived below, all I could dream of was the surface. Not anymore.
Nerissa’s ships haven’t been near for days, but we know they’re out there, and letting our guard down when things get quiet is a bad habit. She wants us—especially me—back in her possession, and Nerissa is not the type to give up.
I run my hands over my gills. The texture of the ridges sends a chill down my spine and I yank up my shirt collar to obscure them.
I tap the navigation console, activating the sonar to search our surroundings, making sure not to confuse the occasional dot of a whale or a colossal Portuguese man-of-war with a ship.
Nothing.
I’ll never get accustomed to the fact that the same tech used on the ship for searching and navigating the water has become one of my own senses. The ship’s sonar just stretches farther. I sink back in my too-big seat and rake my fingers through my hair, pulling a loopy red curl from the side of my head and twirling it around a finger. Once again, my stubborn eyelids droop as I focus on the strands.
“Must stay awake,” I mumble.
Blip.
A spark of energy shoots up my spine and I suck in a breath.
Blip-blip.
A large, oblong shape glows on the screen. I press my finger to its outline. This is no sea creature.
Grabbing the controls with my left hand, I gently rotate the vessel while the fingers on my right hand dance over the display, activating the camera’s zoom function.
“That’s her alright,” I whisper. Well, probably not Nerissa herself—this particular ship is too small for her ego—but it shares the identical unusual sword-hilt shape as the rest of her militarized Syndicate fleet.
I punch in commands on the console and with a hiss, the windows of the Scylla blacken and seal. The vessel descends with a soft gurgle. The usual window view is overlaid with a digital, illuminated heads-up display. A blinking red icon shows our weapons are locked on Nerissa’s ship. The distance and time it will take to get there read across the bottom of the screen.
Taking a deep breath, I hit the emergency alarm, then fly out of the cockpit seat. The screeching of the alarm fills my mind as I fumble toward the weapons. Marin is the first from the sleeping quarters, of course. That girl barely sleeps, too busy talking most of her life. She pulls her white-blonde hair into a messy ponytail. Una pushes past Marin, her eyes squinting at the light.
“What’s happening?” Una demands, tugging on a shirt as black as her hair.
“Sea witch vessel. Dead ahead.”
Marin swings into the copilot’s chair, fingers flying over the command panel. She tilts her head back to us without looking our way.
“It’s her.”
“Of course it is, I know my stuff,” I say.
The alarm is still blaring, but I’ve almost stopped hearing it.
“Turn that blasted thing off,” Una snaps, “before you wake up the entire NeverSea.”
“I’m getting there!” Marin yells.
Una’s just crabby, as usual. No person or fish can hear the alarm outside the sealed vessel. At last, Talise and Derya emerge from the sleeping quarters. I disengage the alarm.
“Nice of you to join us, ladies,” I say, snatching a gun from the wall and tossing it to Talise.
She catches it and throws back a nasty expression.
I smirk. “Needed some extra beauty sleep?”
“Why yes,” Talise huffs. “That would be nice every once in a while.”
She tosses her mane of tight brown curls over her tank top, exposing an olive shoulder. Eagerly, she holds out her hands for a weapon. I hand her one and she gives me a wink.
“Thanks, love,” she says.
Even in the midst of a crisis, Talise can’t seem to stop flirting.
“Headed to the weapons station.” Derya motions Talise to follow. “Awaiting your orders.”
“Um, yeah, orders … Who put you in charge again, Arya?” Una asks. “You are the littlest. And the youngest.”
I pull open the collar of my shirt and show off my gills.
“There’s that.” She shrugs and walks away.
“To your station, Una,” I say, already on my way back to the cockpit.
“Yes, ma’am,” her voice echoes back.
Una knows I’m capable, but I think the five-year age gap always makes her want to mother me. Who needs a mother? Mine died when I was just a baby. I turned out fine—more or less.
I throw myself into the captain’s chair next to Marin, who’s engrossed in the data on the touchscreen.
“Whaddya got?” I ask, affixing a comm device to my ear.
“I did a scan, and the ship’s activity is pretty quiet,” she reports. “Looks to be only thirty or forty crew members on board. Most are in the lower levels, not moving … probably asleep.”
“That’s a small crew for that size of a ship. Weapons?”
“Same as usual. They could take us out. If they can find us, that is.”
A few months into a renegade mission, Talise was able to sweet talk some sucker of a guy at one of the trading posts. She convinced him to retrofit our Scylla with a scrambling system that makes us appear as a gigantic school of fish on Nerissa’s sensors. Her ships never know what hits them. It’s just like me—tiny, but it packs a wallop.
“Power up the hydrogen system,” I say. “We’ll be in and out. One more destroyed.”
“On it,” Marin replies.
I punch channel three on my comm. “You set, Derya?”
“It’s a go. I’m locked on.”
“Be sure it’s a kill shot. That ship has to go down fast.”
“I understand.”
I click from her channel to Una’s. “Una, you picking up communication from the vessel?”
“Yeah,” her voice crackles through the comm. “But you need to patch in. Something’s off.”
“What?”
“I’m not certain yet, but what I’m picking up isn’t standard for a battleship. Dial in and check it out.”
I enter the code on the console and strain to hear the faint communication from the vessel. I rack up the volume and set it to block out static, listening carefully to pick up the faint words.
“The package is on board … yes, ma’am … other passengers are secure …”
“What else did you pick up, Una?”
“More of the same,” she says. “They keep mentioning passengers. What if civilians are on that ship? Prisoners? We shouldn’t go in if there’s any doubt.”
“They don't carry civilians on warships. And prisoners? She leaves that up to the bounty hunters. You remember what happened to us. Those scoundrels probably got a fair amount of tech for that ruse.”
“Something’s not right, Arya,” Una insists. “I don’t like it. And come on, it’s been two years. We’ve done enough. We just need to disappear.”
“It’s just code to hide whatever nasty business they’re planning. And Nerissa is the one that should disappear.” Without giving Una a chance to answer, I flick on the network of comm channels. “Get ready, ladies.”
The panel display light representing Una’s comm goes black. I override the system and activate it a second time.
“You’re with me, Una?”
The line stays dead for too long.
“Yes. I’m sure you’re right.”
“Good,” I say. “It’s go time.”
Marin turns toward me and nods, her eyebrows raising in excitement.
I tap into Derya’s weapon’s navigation screen and check her coordinates. Perfect. She’s targeted the front, back, and the weapon’s fuel system. Should create quite a light show.
“Good job, Derya.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty much a work of art,” she says.
“Marin, pull us in closer.”
The warship enlarges on the display as we draw nearer to our target. A massive school of fish surrounds the Scylla for a few seconds, causing slight interference with our system, but it’s gone as fast as it appears.
“Una, anything else on audio?”
“No,” Una replies. “Just standard stuff now. They haven’t spotted us.”
I study the screen and reassess Derya’s coordinates. “Marin, evasive action immediately after the kill shot is confirmed. Listen for my command.”
“Got it,” Marin says, her stare intent on the data.
“Are weapons at one hundred percent?”
“Confirmed,” Talise replies in the comm. “Ready when you are.”
I steel myself, preparing for the choice I’m about to make. It’s the right thing to do. The Sea Witch will not win this war.
I scan the ship, visualizing the torpedo exiting the vessel and blasting our target. An excited tingling jolts up my spine. “Weapons, prepare to fire.”
Derya’s voice comes through crystal clear. “Ready on your mark.”
I clench my fist, nails digging into the meat of my palm. “Fire.”
With a jolt that rattles our vessel, the first torpedo shoots from the Scylla, followed by the second. The display lights up with the bulls-eye shots.
Take that, Witch.
Just as I let out a whoop, Una’s panicked voice fills the comm.
“Arya!” she cries. “There are civilians on that ship!”
Chapter 2
Peter
A deep, bellowing moan shakes the vessel’s hul
l, throwing me out of bed.
“What the—?”
An aftershock lifts the entire ship, slamming me into the rear wall of my cell before it settles. A searing pang runs down my neck and spine. The alarm sounds and the crew scramble outside my cell in the chaos. Since the guards aren’t paying attention, I wrench my fingers into the restraint around my waist, gritting my teeth as I try to tear the damn thing off. The metal belt somehow dampens my abilities. Without it, I could rip these bars open and fly out of here.
Well, if I could get some moron to open the door.
Heavy boots clattering on the metal floor force me to leave the restraint alone. That’s when I see him again.
“What hit us?” I ask, clutching the cell bars.
“I don’t have time for you, Pan,” he says, not even glancing my way.
“Thacher!” I shout. “You can’t let me die in this cell!”
“It’s Lieutenant or Sir, to you,” he insists, narrowing his unnaturally clear blue eyes.
I bet his stepmom had something to do with that. Nerissa tinkers with whoever she can get her hands on nowadays. His dark skin tone only enhances the artificial brightness of his irises.
“I’ll call you whatever you want if you get me out of here,” I reply with a grin, but he doesn’t look my way. “Come on, this isn’t you.”
He still ignores me, giving orders to his subordinates, or ‘lackeys’, as I call them. An older man rushes up to him and rests a hand on his shoulder.
“The new Echelon scanner is finally online,” the man says. “We’ve detected a craft. It’s one of hers.”
“Arya’s?” Thacher asks, staring at the tablet the officer presents to him.
“Yes, sir. The captain has ordered the Neverland transfers to the outer deck. She wants you up there with them.”
Every time I hear someone from the Syndicate say “Neverland” it boils my blood. It was ours. Mine. They have no right to be there.
Neverland is a massive, floating settlement, built by several nations during the early years after the oceans began to rise. Thousands of people call it home and I took good care of it. It is like a man-made island, full of life and hope. Once Nerissa took control, she moved it and I’ve been searching for it ever since. She’s nothing but an oppressive dictator.
NeverSea: Echoes of the Lost (Book One) Page 2