Stranger Tides

by Jack Castle

  What George didn’t know, was the moment he turned away, the leviathan scooped up the dead accountant in his jaws and swam off.

  George exited the causeway and entered a new complex. The inside was wide open, with ceilings at least four stories high. Representations of giant sea creatures hung from every ceiling and large window panes afforded generous views of sea life outside.

  Along the walls and scattered about the main floor were several interactive displays depicting underwater life. One life-sized diorama was of a diver in one of those antiquated diving suits with the large round helmet. Other life-sized suits were also on display. It appeared to be a timeline on the history of diving equipment. The first being the antique diver, his knife drawn, and doing battle with a giant squid, that had its tentacles wrapped around his waist and arms.

  George began to wonder, Was this merely a history of diving suits or was this an adventure you could sign up for? In Stranger World, you never knew what to expect. Were it not for the dire circumstances, he certainly would have been impressed by the notion.

  He continued to explore more of the massive open area. Whereas the lavish resort complex had seemed unscathed, this new area was a torrent of a mess, like there had been some sort of battle. Several ceiling tiles were hanging down from water damage, and in many places the beige carpeting was sopping wet. He noticed several sets of tracks recently made in the moist carpet.

  The submarine crew must have come this way.

  His footsteps made squishing sounds as he walked through the puddles and past a nearby gourmet seafood restaurant. He made a note to check it out later for some food.

  Because many of the overhead lights were burned out in so many places, shadows lay everywhere. It wasn’t until George reached the center of the gigantic room that he saw her. A mermaid. At first, he thought his imagination was running amok, which was saying a lot considering where he was.

  Under normal circumstances, seeing a mermaid was enough reason to give any sane person pause. But here in Stranger World, George had seen mermaids before. Well, technically, those weren’t mermaids. Those darlings with sharp teeth had been shape-changing river-nymphs on the Fantasy River. But, the thing that bothered George the most was this mermaid wasn’t swimming outside the windows in the ocean, where any self-respecting mermaid would be. No, this mermaid was inside, swimming through the air.

  He had first spotted her at a distance, but now she was aware of him too. Slowly, but with purpose, she propelled herself toward him.

  He took a few steps back, unsure of where to go. He could see she was smiling the entire time, so that was at least something positive. She had long purple hair, tied back with a seashell and a bikini top comprised of two yellow starfish. When she caught his eye, she offered him a friendly-little wave as if to say, ‘Hi there.’

  George found himself waving back. He didn’t know what else to do. Out of the corner of his eye, he spied one of the divers on display. The early scuba diver (battling a shark) was holding a knife the size of a machete. Even if the blade was real (and sharp), George doubted he could get over to it in time. He took another few steps backward.

  When she arrived, she blurted out, “Hi there, my name’s Kelpi the Helpful Mermaid. I’m here to assist you.” George couldn’t help but notice that when she spoke her words were dripping with enthusiasm and her speech even had an annoying happy rhythm to it.

  “But you’re a mermaid.”

  As she levitated up and over the gift corner walls, Kelpi nodded enthusiastically, “Yes, yes, that’s right, Kelpi the Helpful Mermaid. How may I assist you today?”

  How may I assist you? This is new, he thought. What to ask her first? Where am I? No, she’ll just say something coy like, ‘You’re right where you’re supposed to be.’ No, instead he decided to ask her, “Have you seen anybody else come through here recently?”

  Kelpi the Helpful Mermaid hesitated before answering then said, “No. I… have… not… seen… anyone… come… through here.”

  Wow, that was an award winning performance, he thought, and said, “You’re lying.”

  The Helpful Mermaid blinked a few times and surprised him when she asked, “Whatever do you mean?”

  George responded reflexively by saying, “You hesitated way too long before answering. Plus, most people, when they access information from their memory, look up and left. You looked straight up. So, either your either lying, or you’re a psychopath.”

  “Huh, you figured that out a lot faster than the others.”

  The others, George thought. Does she mean the submarine crew? “What do you mean the others?”

  “Oh, you’ll see. When you get down there.”

  George was confused. Others? Down… there? Down where?

  Kelpi flicked her tail and she swam around him.

  “Can I assume you already know about the prison?”

  “Prison?” George asked, “What Prison?”

  Kelpi turned her head to the side. “Nobody told you about the prison?” When George shook his head to indicate that they didn’t, she put her hands on her hips. “Now Mr. Stapleton, what is it you’ve been doing with yourself all this time.”

  George thought about this before answering. “The only people I’ve met were those crewman on the sub,” he was growing impatient now, “We were a little busy trying to not get eaten by an aquatic dinosaur.”

  Kelpi made a pouty face and spoke in baby talk, “Did that bad ole dinosaur, Mister Croney, try and eat you again?” She swam to a nearby window. “I really do need to have a talk with management about him. It isn’t as if you didn’t have enough problems already.”

  George couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He blurted out, “Ya think?”

  He was about to ask her another question when she turned from the window and said, “Well, “I’m afraid the rest of you took all of the other good equipment. There’s not much left for you to use.”

  George shook his head, “Kelpi, what the devil are you talking about?”

  “Oh right. They were supposed to brief you on the submarine.” What she said next came out half-serious. “I swear, I have to do everything myself. I’m going to have to have a talk with management about those bumbling land dwellers when this all over.”

  “When what’s over?”

  Kelpi put a finger to her chin and thought it over before answering. “Okay, here goes. There’s a whole presentation. A slide show and everything. They actually did a very good job putting it all together...”

  “Kelpi!”

  Her shoulders jolted from being startled. Composing herself, she said, “Right.” She drew in the air with her finger and lines magically appeared out of thin air. As she spoke, a stick version of a man in a diving suit pantomimed her words.

  “It’s really quite simple. I don’t know why so many of you have failed before. All you have to do is dive down to the prison, navigate the gauntlet and free the prisoner.”

  George didn’t like the sound of that. The last thing he wanted to do was go diving with Mister Croney swimming around out there. But he was curious, so he asked. “What prison, is it here?”

  “No silly,” she gestured over toward what appeared to be an indoor swimming pool, and added, “Down there. You’ll need to swim out through the moon pool.”

  They crossed over to what appeared to be a modest-sized swimming pool, but once next to it, George could see an opening in the floor of the swimming pool with a gentle-grade ramp allowing easy access to the ocean outside. As an Air Force Rescue Ranger, George was familiar with moon pools and their uses. Normally moon pools were used for marine drilling platforms or underwater research facilities. Here, he suspected this moon pool was used by tourists to gear up and go on scuba diving expeditions, like the ones he saw on the moving paintings outside the hotel rooms.

  George recalled how the young, blond submariner had gotten gobbled up in one bite.

  “Yeah, I’m not going anywhere, especially not down there.” He hiked a
thumb toward his chest. “I have to get topside and reunite with my daughter and friends. I don’t have time for some suicide rescue mission. I’m sorry.”

  Kelpi blinked a few times before answering. “Do we really have to do this every time?” She straightened her posture. “Okay, skipping to the end, it’s like this. There is no way back up to the surface. Not without the help of the…” she hesitated and searched for the right word, “…the prisoner. If you don’t rescue him, you’ll never get topside.”

  George shook his head, and then shook it some more. “Even if I did agree to this suicide mission, I don’t have any gear, or air. Besides, I wouldn’t get two feet with that thing swimming around out there.”

  “Mr. Croney?” she asked.

  George nodded, “Yuh-huh.”

  Kelpi waved him away with her hand. “Oh, he won’t bother you down there. He prefers to stay closer to the surface.” She then took in her surroundings.

  “My, my, this place certainly has been picked over, hasn’t it?”

  George was fairly certain she was being rhetorical and allowed her to continue.

  “I’m afraid you’re right. There isn’t much left in the way of diving equipment.” Staring back at him and smiling. “You just might be stuck here… with me… forever.” She brightened up at this new train of thought and spoke rapidly, “Ooohhh… we could talk for hours. I know where they keep all sorts of board games. We could visit the library. We could go on diving expeditions together.”

  “Uh…” Spending the last of his days with Kelpi, the Annoying Mermaid, had about as much appeal as being eating by the kronosaurus. Staring at the diving suit displays and moving over to them, George asked, “What about this stuff?”

  Kelpi’s happy grin dropped. “Aww…” Pouting, she swam over to him. “I’m sorry, but those are museum pieces and you couldn’t possibly… and he’s stepping over the velvet rope.”

  As George inspected the dive gear, he said over his shoulder, “Let’s call this an emergency.” He removed the spear gun from the diver’s hands. He was thankful the diver didn’t come to life and start making him balloon animals or something.

  Empty. No spears. He tossed it to the side, where it clanged on the floor.

  The other dive suit had a sheathed knife strapped to its chest. George removed the leather binding holding the blade upside down in its sheath. Because it was a museum piece, he didn’t expect it to be sharp. But in inspecting it, he found the blade would have cut paper floating in midair.

  His bolstered confidence was quickly shattered at the thought of the leviathan attacking the sub. Although formidable, using the knife would be like trying to fight a tiger with a toothpick. Still, it was better than nothing. He sheathed the knife back in the harness and began removing it from the mannequin.

  After about an hour of both of them searching the open area, nearby locker rooms, and gear shops they found nothing. Out of options, George returned to the first display with the antiquated diver. A dive suit like this would normally have hoses that ran up to a compressor that fed down air, but this one had none.

  “I don’t see any air hoses or support system. What am I supposed to use for oxygen?”

  Kelpi shrugged. “It’s like I told you. There’s not much left around here.”

  George spied some cylindrical yellow tanks on the wall. “What about those?”

  Kelpi shrugged, “Those are oxygen tanks for the window cleaners, but they’re just air tanks. I don’t see a suit.” George used a knuckle to knock on the old-fashioned helmet.

  “Oh… right.” She laughed. It wasn’t entirely annoying.

  It had taken him nearly three hours and a bit of spot-welding, but by the end, he had a pretty good suit. It was a hodge-podge/hybrid suit that was a combination of the old diving suit and the futuristic modern tanks.

  About an hour ago, Kelpi had brought him some deli sandwiches and raspberry iced tea. He found it odd that she knew his tastes so precisely. Furthermore, she seemed to converse with him as though they had known each other for weeks and not just the past few hours.

  As George began pulling on the dive suit, Kelpi swam over to him and dropped a pile of gear. “Here. You’ll need some flares.” She tsk-tsk-tsk’d several times and added to herself, “We’re running out of those too.” Studying him again she added, “You’re gonna need a flashlight. You forgot that last time.”

  She’s insane. That’s the only logical conclusion.

  George picked up a roll of duct tape out of the pile. “What do you want me to do with this?”

  “Attach the flashlight to your wrist. You came up with that a few times ago. I thought it was pretty good idea.”He decided to play along with her insanity. The last thing he needed was another leisure-bot situation.

  He nodded. “Alright, thanks Kelpi.”

  Kelpi beamed. She scrunched up her shoulders and said, “You’re welcome, George.”

  Knife, flares and flashlight in place, he took his absconded helmet from Kelpi.

  “Alright, here we go.” She helped him don the helmet and as soon as it snapped into place, he became very aware of his own, very loud breathing.

  Alright, George. Slow and steady. You’ve got to conserve your oxygen.

  His feet were heavily weighted down with blocks, and it was difficult to move in the suit, but he managed to lower himself down into the moon pool.

  At the top of the ramp, the water was only about waist deep. In addition to his breathing he could hear the thick boots clunking as they hit the deck.

  “Wait a second. How do I get back up?”

  Smiling, Kelpi seemed confused by his query. “With the aqua sled, silly.”

  “And where do I get that?”

  Kelpi pointed to the far side of the pool. George turned in the direction and said, “I don’t see anything.”

  “Look where I’m pointing.” It was the first time she had a tone with him.

  Turning all the way around in the pool, George saw something about the size and shape of a moped hanging on hooks. He lifted the sled off its hooks. It splashed as it hit the water. He didn’t see any signs of propulsion, little blades connected to motors or even an engine. It was only a frame. “Where’s the engine?”

  Kelpi blinked those ridiculously oversized-eyes at him. “What do you mean? The throttle? It’s on the handlebars.”

  George shook his head. “No. I mean the engine, the propulsion unit. What makes the thing go?”

  She swam around him and examined the device again.

  “Oh. I see. You really do have to stop thinking in twenty-second terms. There is no propulsion system. It’s a fusion-based magnetic frame that operates off the magnetic pull of the earth’s core.”

  “Sure, okay. I must have missed that in my future-planet physics class.”

  Standing in the moon pool, he slowly slid onto the sled.

  She swam over his shoulder and hovered there. Kelpi definitely had no concept of what personal space meant. Extending her finger, she punched a button and a holographic display appeared over the handlebars. He could see five bars that grew in ascending order. Only half of the bars were light green. “You only have about a half charge, but that should be more than enough to get you down there and back.”

  “Down where?” He still had no idea where he was going.

  Kelpi tapped the holograph display once more. A large green arrow pointed the way. It seemed overly-simplistic, but then he remembered it was probably originally designed for tourists and not Air Force Rescue Rangers.

  She sighed. “Well, that’s it. You’ve used up every last bit of our resources. I’m afraid you’re the last one, George.” Seeing that he was staring up at her, she raised a fist and gave a half-hearted, “Carpe Diem.”

  “Seize the day,” George said automatically.

  “Ah, a man who knows his Latin.” She tilted her head to the side, “Then again, all of you did.”

  “All of you? There’s that phrase again.”

 
“No time for that now. You really need to get going. But, I have a good feeling about you, George. I think you just might be the one.”

  “Um, thanks?”

  “Of course, I also thought that about the last one too. The one before that, and the one before that.”

  “I get the idea.”

  CRASH!

  George and Kelpi both turned toward the sound of a door being smashed off its hinges. He could barely see it through the circular faceplate in his helmet, but he glimpsed the heavy door as it finished skimming across the floor.

  The leisure-bot, now fully revealed as the cyborg she was, scanned the room until she found him. “George!” she screamed, then held her hands to her ruined face. “Look at what you’ve done to me, George. Look at what you’ve done!” She began limping on her ruined leg toward him. “I’m coming for you, George! We’ll never be apart again.”

  He and Kelpi exchanged a glance. “Awwww, you’ve made a friend.”

  “Buy me a few minutes?” George asked in a tone a lot meeker than he intended. Kelpi smiled down at him and nodded.

  “I’ll try, but once the leisure-bots latch on to someone, they can be pretty tough to shake.”

  “I’ve noticed.”

  “Get going. I’ll buy you as much time as I can.” Switching to her happy smile again she added, “And George… have a super-duper-funtastic day!”

  “Thanks, Kelpi,” George said as he pulled back on the throttle and drove the sled down the ramp and into the watery depths.

  “Hi there. I’m Kelpi the Helpful Mermaid. How can I assist you today.”

  George could hear the leisure-bot screaming behind him, “George, I’ll never stop chasing you! Do you hear me? I’ll never stop chasing you. Never!”

  Chapter 14

  The Last Dive

  No sooner had he cleared the underwater base’s moon pool ramp, George heard a splash above him. His first thought was Mister Croney had instantly found him. But then he saw the leisure-bot falling toward him like an underwater skydiver. Fortunately, she swam like a rock. With a gentle twist of the sled’s throttle, he easily avoided her outstretched grasp.