Stranger Tides

by Jack Castle

  Cheeves, quickly recovering from his pouting session, perked up at some new thought, “What about goggles? Do I get to wear goggles thhhiiisssph time?”

  “No, Cheeves,” Traxx said. “I could shove a screwdriver in your eye and it wouldn’t hurt you. Besides, you broke the last pair. Remember?”

  Maddie tossed her head over to Henry. “If you haven’t figured it out yet, Cheeves is practically indestructible.”

  Spotting Henry, Traxx asked Maddie, “Why’s he here? Henry can’t go. He’s not checked out to do map surveys. We barely are.”

  Hearing an opportunity for escape, Henry piped up with, “Maybe he’s right, Maddie, maybe I shouldn’t go. After all, I wouldn’t want to get anyone in trouble.”

  Maddie smiled at him. “Don’t worry about it. Back in the galley, you said so yourself, you wanted to get off this ship and explore.”

  Henry shook his head. “No,” he began slowly. “No. I don’t believe I ever said that. In fact, I’m fairly certain I said the exact opposite of that. I distinctly remember telling you how big the ship is and how I keep getting lost.”

  Maddie tilted her head and lifted an eyebrow. “You sure? I’m pretty sure I remember you telling me how you were looking for an excuse to get off the ship and get out to explore.”

  Henry stammered, “I literally have never said that, not even once. I know, because I don’t think it now.”

  Maddie shrugged. “Well, look at it this way, this is a much smaller vessel. No way you’ll get lost in here.”

  Henry gave a dour smile, “Hardly comforting.”

  “Oh, c’mon!” Traxx complained, snatching a newly-broken pair of goggles from Cheeves.

  Finally realizing Traxx wasn’t going to let him wear any expedition gear and spotting her, Cheeves exclaimed, “Oh, hi Maddie! So nicethhhh to see you. Do you have any…”

  Maddie cut him off with a curt wave and asked him, “Cheeves, did you remember to bring your cat?”

  Cheeves eyes went wide and his ears perked up at this. “Muh Cathe?”

  Maddie switched her focus from the gargoyle to Traxx, “You didn’t tell him?”

  Traxx shuffled his feet and stared at the floor. “Maddie, I don’t think we should leave him behind. Maybe we should take him with us like Rick told us to.”

  Maddie’s brow furrowed and through gritted teeth she growled, “Traxx...”

  The younger boy sighed and spoke directly to the gargoyle. “Yes, Cheeves, that’s right,” he began, giving a less than stellar performance, “I almost forgot to tell you. We found a kitten in The Factory, and I brought it back to your quarters and hid it there.” Now that he was committed to the ruse, his acting was beginning to improve. “It was supposed to be a surprise for you. Did you get it?”

  Henry doubted the gargoyle would believe this. Nothing was ever wasted in The Factory. Any animal unfortunate enough to stray out onto a work floor of starving workers rarely lasted long. Despite knowing this, he kept silent for fear of incurring the wrath of Mad Maddie.

  To Henry’s surprise the gargoyle asked, “You have a Cath?” His head shook from side-to-side with excitement, “And it’s a kitt-ton?” Cheeves lips pursed closed as he spoke in baby talk, “A cute, little, adorable, kitt-ton?”

  “That’s right,” Maddie sang, “and he’s all yours.”

  Cheeves face suddenly looked skeptical. “Wait a second. You guys are puttin’ me on. There’s no kitt-ton in my quarter-thsss.”

  “O-kaay…” Maddie responded, stretching out the word to a full measure. “I guess Sue Sablan will probably just adopt him, and we’ll never see him after that.”

  “WHU-UH-TTT?” Cheeves asked, and then complained, “Not Sue. She’s the quarter…” he struggled with the word, “…quarter-quartermasth-ter. I’ll never get to play with it then.”

  Traxx jumped in with an enthusiastic, “Or eat it!”

  Bouncing on his taloned-toes Cheeves gasped and quickly said, “I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere withhhppp-out me.”

  Maddie assured him, “We’re not going anywhere until you get back.”

  “You promise-thhpp?”

  Traxx crossed his heart. “Promise and hope to die.”

  Henry thought that sounded a bit ominous.

  Cheeves nodded vigorously. “Kay, I’ll be right back.”

  Cheeves nimbly bounded out of the Hopper and down to the launch play floor. After a moment of preparation, that involved some butt-waggling, he leapt mightily into the air and cleared the railing of the upper catwalk, a good twenty feet above the main floor. The gargoyle stopped for a second to make sure they were still there and hadn’t left yet, and then vanished into the hatch.

  “Okay, we haven’t much time before he gets back.” Turning toward Henry, Maddie held up one of the uniforms to his frame and then another. Deciding on one pair, she roughly tossed him a pair of overalls. “Here, this is about your size, put it on.”

  “Uh, alright.”

  As Henry climbed into the thick leather trousers, she explained, “Once we get where we’re going, we’ll give you a quick crash course on your survival suit.”

  Alarmed Henry’s raised his eyebrows at this. “Perhaps I should wait until a full class becomes available.”

  Ignoring this, Maddie removed some gloves and a soft, leather helmet from a shelf and tossed them to him. “Aw quit your griping, Snowflake.”

  Henry was so busy shouldering the rest of the way into the (one piece) uniform that he missed the catch as it sailed past his head.

  Maddie chuckled slightly and waited for him to finish and recover his helmet.

  Henry placed the soft leather helmet on his head, but couldn’t see anything. After a moment he heard Maddie giggle and Traxx say, “Uh, Henry, you’ve got it on backwards.”

  Henry removed the helmet and began to say, “I really don’t think this is such a good idea,...” But, Maddie cut him off by saying, “We don’t have time for this. We’ve got to get out of here before Cheeves comes back.”

  Hearing this, Henry asked, “Wait a minute, aren’t we waiting for Cheeves?”

  “Uhmmm…” Maddie began. “Yeah, about that. Cheeves isn’t coming.”

  Henry was confused. Cheeves was their protector, their bodyguard. Leaving such a formidable bodyguard behind absolutely made no sense. “What do you mean he isn’t coming?”

  Before she could answer, not that she looked as though she were about to, Traxx asked her, “Do you think we’ll need the spare generator this trip?”

  “No,” Maddie replied. “Get rid of it. We only need the one charge. We’re not going that far, and I’d like to lighten the load as much as possible in case we find something really worth bringing back.”

  “Copy,” Traxx said coolly. He reached up and opened a bulkhead overhead and removed two discs with handles on them. He magnetically attached the discs to the generator, one on each side, hit a button on each of them and the massive generator suddenly floated six inches off the floor. The younger boy walked around the heavy generator, placed himself between it and the wall, raised up his legs and kicked it. The generator shot out of the Hopper, as if floating on Aladdin’s magic carpet.

  These people. Their technology was far beyond anything he had ever seen in The Factory, or had ever read about. Yet, these two teenagers seemed to have no problem with operating it.

  Henry jumped slightly as things began CLANGING to the floor. Maddie was roughly tossing things out of the Hopper she didn’t deem mission-worthy.

  Henry held up his hand, and immediately felt foolish. “Uhmmm… why are we doing this again exactly?”

  Maddie answered him as she worked. “We’re in unexplored territory. We’re on a mapping expedition.” Maddie made a face and added, “Duh.”

  Traxx, now standing on the launch bay floor, reached up into the Hopper’s payload area and began removing Maddie’s discards, too heavy for her to fling to the floor. Traxx explained, “Not only that, but we could be sitting on top of a huge p
ile of foodstuffs, medical supplies or ammo and not even know it. All we’re going to do is take a quick poke around, see what we can scrounge up, load it into the Hopper and bring it back.”

  “And you’re sure it’s safe?”

  “No, it’s not safe,” Maddie shot back, but she must’ve seen something in his face because she quickly added. “Stop worrying, Snowflake. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred we never see anyone or anything out here in the Madlands.”

  “And the other one time?”

  Traxx took the last of Maddie’s castoffs. “Don’t worry, Henry. The Hopper’s fully equipped with automated defenses. As long as we don’t stray too far from it, we’ll be perfectly fine.”

  As he worked, he explained to Henry, “It’s a good thing we’re making room. One time we left behind so many crates of canned chocolate pudding. You wouldn’t believe it.”

  Henry was confused. “I thought your machines on board The Dauntless could replicate any food?”

  “Oh, they can, but there’s nothing like the real thing; especially when you know what the food really is.”

  Henry was more confused. “What’s the food?”

  Maddie interjected, “Don’t tell him that, he’ll never eat again.”

  “What’s the food?” Henry asked, now wanting to know more than ever. What could it possibly be?

  Traxx patted him on the back. “Henry, you seem like a nice kid. Trust me when I tell you that you don’t want to know.”

  Henry nodded that he did indeed want… to… know.

  Traxx stuck his tongue out and made a flagellant noise.

  Henry finally figured it out. “Oh, gross, really?”

  “Traxx, I told you not to tell him.”

  Traxx shrugged in response.

  Immediately Maddie announced, “Okay guys, let’s go.”

  Maddie led him and Traxx from the payload compartment, through the accordion causeway and into the cockpit. They had to go down a short set of stairs because the cockpit sat a bit lower than the payload compartment. Henry saw four captain’s chairs, two in the front, and one in back. A fourth seat was situated near a wall of monitors. Traxx and Maddie immediately dropped into the two seats in front, donned headsets and commenced flipping necessary switches Henry couldn’t even hope to understand. Below their feet, he could see that they had a clear view of the ground through the clear re-enforced Plexiglass floor plating.

  Concern bubbling up inside him, Henry asked again, “Wait a minute, where’s the pilot?” he spotted Maddie and Traxx as they shared a look between them. Henry raised his eyebrows toward her and asked, “You’re telling me you’re the pilot? You’re just a kid.”

  Traxx adjusted his headset on his head and sighed. “Oh boy, here we go.”

  Seeing Traxx do this, Maddie offered, “No, no. It’s okay. He’s new around here and doesn’t know any better. He’s just a stupid kid.”

  Henry took offense to this. “Hey, I’m at least one year older than you are.” In truth he figured he was at least two or three years older, but he figured he would be polite.

  One of the switches must’ve activated the payload compartment door, because Henry could hear the stairs tucking underneath, and the door sliding shut with a hiss. This was followed by a pneumatic THUMP sound as the door sealed closed, and the cabin became pressurized.

  Seeing how Traxx was obviously the one with some semblance of reason, Henry asked him, “Don’t you think Cheeves will get mad when he finds out we left him behind?”

  With practiced hands, Traxx flipped several switches in rapid sequence. As he did, numerous things came on: The front lights, spinning yellow strobes announcing their departure and various hissing sounds. The boy had obviously driven this Hopper many times before. Without slowing down in the slightest Traxx answered, “Nah. Cheeves is easily distracted. The first thing that’s going to happen is he is going to get to his quarters and tear apart his room trying to find a cat that isn’t there.”

  Henry swallowed. “He’s going to tear apart his quarters?”

  “Yep,” Traxx answered, “He’ll literally shred pillows, tear stuff off the wall, rip up everything trying to find a stupid cat that doesn’t exist.”

  Wait, what? Henry thought. As of last night, Sue had reassigned him to another berth to give the refugee family their own quarters. “But I share a room with Cheeves.”

  Traxx let out a hearty laugh. “Oh yeah, I forgot about that.”

  While checking things off her pre-flight checklist, Maddie asked him, “How do you put up with his snoring?”

  Henry’s face fell. “I don’t. He keeps me up all night.”

  Traxx offered, “Try hitting him with your boot.”

  “What?”

  Maddie grinned. “Yeah, bean him in the head with your shoe. Usually he’ll turn over on his side, and he’ll stop snoring.”

  Traxx chuckled again, “Or he’ll tear your arms off in his sleep.”

  Henry recalled the way Cheeves had leapt up onto the balcony twenty feet in the air.

  “Yeah, I don’t think I’m doing that.”

  Maddie laughed. “He’s just kidding… sort of.” Switching to a very serious voice, much more serious than Henry would have thought her capable of, she spoke into the microphone of her headset, “Dauntless bridge… Dauntless bridge… This is Charlie-Zero-Four, all systems are in the green and we are requesting a go for launch.”

  Henry knew this was a lie. All systems were certainly not in the green, because even as she said it one of the buttons overhead was a fire engine red. Maddie kept flicking it until the bulb popped and was now dead.

  The comm system crackled and a man’s voice came back over it. “Copy that, Charlie-Zero-Four, you are cleared for immediate launch.”

  “Copy that Michael, and tell Sue thanks for fixing my suit.”

  “We’ll do kiddo. You kids be careful out there.”

  Henry leaned forward and searched for an exit. “So how do we get out?” he began, when without warning the platform dropped out from beneath them. Henry could hear loud motors working as the platform began lowering them down out of the belly of the ship.

  Traxx laughed. “You should’ve seen your face just now.”

  Another, deeper, more disgruntled voice came over the intercom speaker. “Maddie, you and Traxx read me?”

  “Yes Uncle Rick,” both she and Traxx chimed back together. Henry was unsure as to whom this Uncle Rick might be, but it was very apparent that Maddie and Traxx were not brother and sister.

  “I want you to let Traxx drive.”

  Maddie shot out her hands and splayed her fingers like a nervous cat, “What?” she questioned. “Traxx drives like a grandma. He drives slower than a grandma. In fact, he drives slower than a great-grandma who is dead.”

  Rick radioed back, “That’s the point.”

  Traxx nod his head back at him and said, “It’s true, compared to Maddie I do drive pretty slow.”

  “Four hours, Maddie. No more. I mean it.”

  “Yes, Uncle Rick.”

  “And Cheeves,” Rick added, “You keep a close eye on them.”

  Maddie and Traxx stared at each other wondering what to do. Maddie gestured for Traxx to do something, but he shook his head. Maddie punched him in the shoulder, hard.

  Traxx rolled his eyes, lifted his headset microphone to his lips, and in a pretty good facsimile of Cheeves’s voice said, “Do you have any cathhssppp?”

  With the Dauntless landed, Henry could see that the airship’s large metal struts did not match the color or design of the rest of the ship. I wonder if those were added later?

  The Hopper shuddered as the platform reached the ground.

  Maddie switched to her command voice again, “Dauntless Bridge… Dauntless Bridge… we are go for disembark.”

  “Copy that, Charlie-Zero-Four. Good hunting.”

  Chapter 13

  Kelpi’s Moon Pool

  George passed through another door and gently closed it behind h
im. He wasn’t sure how long he had been walking around the underwater complex, or base, or resort; he really had no idea what to call it.

  The first area, where he had met the leisure-bot (he shivered involuntarily from the memory) had seemed as though it was more like a lavish hotel. After searching for hours, he finally found a stairwell marked EXIT and left the hotel section.

  He then traveled through a tubular causeway that connected to other underwater complexes. Guests didn’t even have to walk. They rode on conveyor belts while listening to soothing music and whale songs. Despite this, the tube-way made George extremely nervous. At any moment he expected the leviathan to swim out of the shadowy depths and crash through the glass.

  The causeway had given him time to think. He hadn’t encountered anyone else since escaping the leisure-bot. Nor did he come across the crew of the submarine that had brought him here.

  He recalled how one day, he and Tessa became separated from each other in one of those brand new super stores. They were young back then and these were the days long before everyone had a cell phone. He had been on one side of the store in camping equipment, while she was on the grocery side. Then, when they went to find one another, they had swapped sides. At one point, they had even taken turns waiting out at the truck in the parking lot, only to miss each other again. It had been maddening. George found it ironic as he was a search-and-rescue pilot. So, it was no surprise to him that he had not stumbled across the submarine crew in a place that was easily fifty times bigger than any super-store.

  George also noted that he hadn’t seen any more dead bodies, at least not since the one in the bathtub. Not that he wanted to, he just expected to. Oh, there was that one body floating outside one of the causeway windows. The waterlogged corpse was wearing a cheap blue suit, like something a shady accountant might wear. He sported a thin mustache and a floating comb over. Fish had been picking at the poor man for some time, rendering his flesh all kinds of gooey. Despite being a gross mess, George almost felt as though he recognized the man. In the end, George tore his gaze away from the watery cadaver and pressed onwards.