by Meg Ripley
****
As soon as the water started to rush into the sub, Allie sprang into action. Her body was on autopilot as she wrenched open the emergency compartment and fumbled for the diving suit, the remaining air in the sub filled with the sounds of bone crunching through metal as the creature bit into her craft. She slipped to the floor twice, and the sub started to pitch and roll as the creature tipped its treasure, but she had her suit snapped and fastened by then. All that was left was the helmet and the air tank.
One of the creature’s arms punched through the wall just to the left of her head, and she screamed as saltwater sluiced down her throat and into her ear canal. She fought to stand and lifted her helmet, bringing it down so hard and fast against the collar of her suit that she was afraid she might crack it. Allie twisted the enforced glass bowl to the right and heard the slow hiss as it sealed, and the final snap once the mechanism locked into place. The diving suit looked flimsy, but it would let her survive for at least an hour, maybe even two if she could calm down fast enough. Then her train of thought was halted when the beast’s club-like limb whacked against her helmet, and Allie struggled through the waters to push herself out of the collapsed porthole, now facing away from the translucent monster.
The creature was so bent on destroying the craft completely that Allie was able to swim for a full minute without hearing the crunching sound pause. When it did, she looked back and was startled to see that she’d propelled herself so far away it looked almost like a toy jellyfish was attacking a tiny submarine. It looked so harmless at first that she felt a wave of relief wash over her, then she watched in muted shock as the sub’s electrical and nuclear system finally caught up to what was happening. A muffled boom reached her, and she watched her sub explode in a swirling cloud of foamy seawater and spit the creature upward, emitting a high-pitched screech as it sailed toward the surface of the ocean. What’s going to happen when it gets to the top? she wondered. Then: How did I get so far away?
Allie realized that even though her limbs had stopped moving, she was still travelling swiftly away from the scene. What the hell? Allie fought to stay calm as she looked around her and realized she was encased in some sort of bubble that was steering itself to safety. It was almost completely transparent, but she could tap the sides of with her gloved hands and feel the invisible barrier there. She couldn’t stay in contact with the sides of it, but it was still pushing her steadily forward—and she could now see that there were other bubbles racing beside her, carrying pieces of debris and plant life along with her. Allie saw something take shape up ahead, and as the bubbles rolled over the sea floor, it slowly began to materialize as an overturned Galleon, likely from the fifteenth or sixteenth century. Her heart raced for a different reason now, and she saw huge gaps in the rotting wood where some of the bubbles were starting to hop inside—a huge piece of her own ship entered the ancient armada from the bottom-most and largest hole. There was a soft light emanating from the ship, visible through all the slats and spaces, and Allie wondered if there were rogue deep-sea divers lurking inside. If they had the treasure, she wouldn’t stop them; they were likely armed, and not afraid to use lethal force if they felt cornered.
But what do they have to do with these bubbles? Allie couldn’t answer that, and the question stirred the bile in her stomach. Her bubble finally shot through the biggest hole in the ship—but it stopped short, and Allie crashed against the side and went ricocheting backward. Her nose slammed against her glass helmet, and she looked through her bleary eyes to see that her bubble had stopped short against another, larger bubble that was protecting much of the ship from the water around it. The space inside the bubble was filled with what looked like spare parts from various naval ships and from crafts she’d never seen before. There were books and blankets strewn around the space, and the light proved to be coming from the bubble itself—the whole dome was throwing off a gentle white light that was oddly soothing to Allie.
Less soothing were the two men crouched over the amalgam of parts, tinkering at the structure and talking to each other as they worked. Their voices were getting clearer and clearer, and Allie couldn’t figure out why—until she realized the smaller bubble was beginning to be absorbed into the larger bubble, pulling her into the ship’s dome of protection.
“I don’t think this contrast geode is compatible,” said the man with caramel skin and shaggy brown hair. He was wearing what looked like a cloak, as was his companion, who was broader-shouldered and short, black hair. “Do you think the electric system will recognize ours?”
“I don’t know, Araimeer.” The second man’s voice was far deeper, hitting her ears like a bass drum being struck in an empty room. “It didn’t work so well on our last test run. If we lose more time, we risk failing this one. And we’ve never failed.”
“That was last time,” Araimeer said lightly. “We hadn’t found the bio-diverter yet, and we’re better prepared for the kick-back, in case I’m wrong. Come on, where’d all your daring nerve go all of a sudden?”
“It got knocked out when the fission drive shot out and punched me in the gut on our last test run,” Viseer said wryly. “Just trust me. Hand me the light wrench?”
“You’re the boss.” Araimeer tossed Viseer a slim device that looked very much like a novelty jumbo pen, but done in glossy black. Allie watched Viseer tap it against part of their project, and the U-shaped part glowed blue for a moment. He paused, then made a soft noise of contentment.
“Okay. Let’s give it a go. I think you’re right.”
“What? Just from testing the U-cycle? How can you tell?”
Viseer turned to Araimeer and laughed. “You’re so knowledgeable about transporters, but you don’t know the answer to that?”
Allie’s bubble finally finished dissolving, and she fell to the sea floor with a tremendous thump. Neither of the men moved at first—they were both too engrossed in their work— but then her eyes zeroed in on a crack in her helmet, and she gasped in terror. The noise was far sharper, and she saw them freeze when they heard it.
Both men spun and stood at the same time, and their eyes fell on her at the same moment. Araimeer’s gray eyes lit up as they fell on her, and Allie felt a frisson of longing shoot through her body that had nothing to do with her fight or flight response. He smiled, and it warmed his boyishly handsome features so much that her heart actually skipped a beat—then her eyes were pulled to Viseer’s, and his outraged expression snapped her out of the moment and plunged her back into a state of fear.
Allie clutched at her suit, too panicked to focus on their reactions anymore. There’s a crack. I’m going to die. “Help me!” she shouted, but she didn’t know what they could possible do for her; she was going to drown to death in the hull of an ancient ship that no one would ever find. Her heart crashed against her ribcage, and the men drew nearer to her. Then she realized that neither of them were wearing helmets, and she remembered the dome.
Allie looked up and to both sides of her, seeing that the current was visible outside of the dome, but inside really did appear to be air. The men had stopped about fifteen feet away, and she could hear them speaking to each other in hushed voices.
“Did she come in a transpo-sphere?” Araimeer whispered.
“She must have,” Viseer replied. “She fell, I heard her thump, just like the rest of the debris we pick up.”
“Hey!” Allie said angrily. Neither of them reacted to her outburst.
“Well, what do we do with her? “Viseer asked grimly, and her heart stopped.
Araimeer frowned. “What do you mean? We send her back.”
As their eyes met again and she felt the heat in his gaze, she realized that didn’t make her feel any better. Who are you?
Allie was gazing at both of them as they whispered, unable to speak just yet. The brown-haired man continued muttering under his breath for so long that Allie thought something was clogging her ears. Finally, her panic won over, and she couldn’t hold it i
n.
“What the hell is going on?”
The men stopped talking. Araimeer’s face took on a look of shame, and the depth of his emotion was startling. “I’m sorry, we meant no offense in keeping you in the dark. It seems you got picked up by one of our transpo-spheres.”
“Those bubble things?” Allie asked.
Araimeer nodded. “We use them to scavenge for usable material. They pick up anything within the guidelines that we’ve programmed into it, and I guess you fall within the parameters.”
Allie took a deep breath, then remembered her helmet. “Can I take this helmet off?” she asked.
“Of course!” Araimeer said, nodding his head vigorously. “Sorry, we should have told you. We need air too, so this dome is airtight, and the air is self-replenishing.” Viseer shot Araimeer a look, and he blushed. “What’s your name, by the way?”
Something about his earlier phrasing was off, but she had other questions to ask first. “I’m Allie. What were you looking for with those bubbles?”
Araimeer gestured to the amalgam of parts they had been tinkering with. “We need to rebuild our teleporter. It was destroyed when we came down here, along with our water pod. Luckily, we had our emergency light dome—”
“Araimeer,” Viseer said abruptly, and the other man fell silent. Allie looked between the two, their words tumbling through her head and helping her form a conclusion that couldn’t be true. They were down here without suits, using terms she’d never heard before and using strange, advanced technology that went well beyond her knowledge, despite the fact that she’d seen several classified weapons being used for warfare in the United States. What had Araimeer said? We need air too.
“What are you guys doing down here, exactly?” Allie asked, and her voice sounded tinny and breathless to her ears.
Viseer narrowed his eyes at his partner and sighed. “Dammit, Araimeer. You said too much.”
Araimeer’s cheeks flamed scarlet, and he rounded on Viseer angrily. “It’s not like we can just zap her back to the surface when we’re ready, Viseer. She’s stuck here as long as we are, and that will be too long without contact with her people. Look at her suit. How do you think she got out of her ship? She didn’t just stroll away.”
Viseer’s brown eyes widened, and he turned back to Allie. “You met the jellyfish?”
Allie gasped. “So, it was a jellyfish.”
Viseer nodded. “Correct. Was.”
He seemed content to leave it at that, but Araimeer was too excited to let it go. He crouched beside her, and Allie had the urge to reach out and touch his cheek; she actually pulled her gloves off before she realized what she was doing. “It was normal when we found it, anyway. Did it shoot any beams at you? Were its teeth still sparkling? Did it have more teeth than it should have had? Did—”
“Araimeer!” Viseer shouted. He put his hands over his eyes and sighed again, and Araimeer’s face grew gloomy.
Allie couldn’t hold it in any longer. “So, you guys are…aliens?”
The brown-haired man’s face sprang back into happiness so fast, Allie wondered if she’d imagined his sour expression. “Yes! You do understand!”
“No, she doesn’t,” Viseer said angrily, and he stood and began pacing the floor, stepping over piles of books and extra parts as he moved. “She’ll be down here with us, and if her people know her ship was destroyed, they’ll think she’s been destroyed, too. How can we just beam her back when the teleporter starts running again and not expect anyone to make a fuss? How, Araimeer?”
Araimeer’s face was deep in thought as the darker haired man spoke. “We’ll figure something out.”
Allie laughed, and Araimeer looked startled. “Sorry,” she said. “You just reminded me of my best friend. He’s relentlessly optimistic, even in the worst of times.” It seemed odd to be comparing the two, especially since she was far calmer than she normally would have been, but their similarities gave her comfort instead of the creeps.
Araimeer grinned at her, and it made his plain face charmingly handsome. He leaned forward slightly, and Allie had to fight the urge to plunge her hands into his hair. “Sounds like I would like this guy. I love cheery humans.”
“You love all humans,” Viseer said bitterly. He was bent back over the jumble of parts, tinkering away with an unseen tool.
Araimeer chuckled. “He’s good to have in a crisis, because he works when he panics.” His voice was as soft as his gaze, and Allie could see they’d been partners for a long time. His hand was right next to hers; she couldn’t resist her urges any longer, and she brushed her fingers up against his. There was a flare of energy between them, and he swung his face toward her, his lips dangerously close to hers.
He smiled. “It’s weird to say it’s nice to be stuck with someone, but…I think it’ll be nice to be stuck with you for a while.”
Allie giggled, then swore at herself internally. What is wrong with you? But she really couldn’t help it— and worse, she was curious despite herself; her Navy training had taught her to push past her discomfort to get to the meatier parts of life, and Allie wasn’t willing to stay on the sea floor with two incredibly humanoid aliens without asking a few questions first—even if one did seem oddly drawn to her.
“So, why did you guys come down here in the first place?”
“We could ask you the same thing,” Viseer grumbled from his place at the teleporter.
Allie looked at him bemusedly; he was so much more wound up than Araimeer. How did they work together on missions? She decided to try to mollify him to speed up her questioning. “I’ll tell you what I was doing,” she said.
Araimeer’s face lit up with joy, and Allie felt a sudden rush of warmth for him. “Oh, tell us! Tell us!”
She grinned and slipped her hand into his, intertwining their fingers as she spoke. It was far more comforting than it should have been, but she forced herself to ignore how surreal the situation was. “My ship sent me down to look for an old galleon—a ship from the Spanish Armada—called the Isadora. It probably has a ton of gold on it, or some rare spices, or—”
“An ancient artifact?”
Allie looked at Viseer, who was standing and staring at her now, his brown eyes narrowed but his expression far more open. “Yeah…or an ancient artifact.”
Araimeer looked stunned, but Viseer smiled at her genuinely for the first time since they’d met. It made his hawkish face striking, and his gaze was almost hungry. Where did that come from? “Well, what do you know? Maybe we’re not so different after all.”
Allie’s heart started to race. “What do you mean?”
“We’re down here looking for an artifact, too,” Araimeer said. “And we can’t leave until we get it.”
“What is it?”
Araimeer sighed. “It’s a chunk of a rare element that is, essentially, concentrated electricity.”
Allie blinked and then shook her head in disbelief. “That doesn’t sound possible.”
Viseer scoffed. “You’re talking to two alien travelers at the bottom of the ocean who rescued you from a murderous mutant jellyfish, and you’re having trouble believing electricity can be concentrated into something tangible?”
Allie blushed, and Araimeer laughed in surprise at Viseer’s bluntness. “I guess you’re right, but why would you even need that?”
“Our job is to jump around the galaxy and retrieve artifacts our people lent to one lifeform or another. Our artifacts are sought after because of their nature, though we can use them far better than humans. We’re actually partially electric,” Araimeer told her. He picked up a slim silver tool that looked like a wand and tapped it against the unfinished teleporter; a golden spark shot from the tip of the instrument to the blocky engine of the machine, and it emitted a short buzz that set Allie’s teeth on edge. “That’s only a little example of what we can do with any conductive material. But with the lightening stone, we’re far more powerful.”
“It’s like an enhancement,” Vis
eer supplied, and he looked so annoyed she almost laughed; Allie guessed he didn’t like sharing information with humans. “We’re at our weakest right now, which is why we appear so human. With the stone, we’re less humanoid and we can manipulate any form of electricity in any condition.”
Allie gaped at him. “Any amount of electricity?
Viseer looked thoughtful. “I think humans had a figure called Zeus who could throw lightning bolts, right? It’s like that.”
“What?” Allie squeaked, her heart in her throat. What would happen if they got out into open water?
Araimeer saw her panic and poked Viseer’s shoulder to silence him. “It’s not what you’re thinking! We can control it completely. It’s not all that scary. We’re not monsters or anything. We’re more like…”
“Gods,” Allie finished for him, and her voice was a whisper. Viseer and Araimeer exchanged a long look; Finally, Viseer closed his eyes and sighed, while Araimeer bit his lip and slid deep into thought. Suddenly, Allie had the feeling that this wasn’t the first time a human had come to this conclusion. Maybe that was why Viseer was so eager to keep her in the dark. Allie thought about Collin, and how quick he’d been to slip back into a subordinate role when he thought she was upset with him. What would it be like to have every person you met treat you that way? If she felt lonely on the ship sometimes, how must two aliens travelling the galaxies feel?
Her heart swelled with compassion at the same moment her sense of unreality finally settled in. Allie decided that there was one thing to do: move forward. They needed the artifact, and she would help them get it; they’d figure out the rest later. She remembered what Viseer said earlier, about her ship assuming she was dead; she felt a rush of gut-wrenching pain as she thought of Carter’s reaction, but she shoved it away before it could take hold of her.
“So, this artifact. Do you know what it looks like?” Allie got to her feet and started to look at the bowels of the ship, staring into every exposed nook and cranny in case the two aliens had left something behind during their scavenge. “Or where it could be?”