A sharp sting hit me through the collar, and I realized I had hurt him. Damn it. I didn’t want that either.
I sighed. “I’m sorry, Surnen. Mate. Please, I’m all right.” I looked around, took in the expanse of reddish water all the way to the horizon on my right, lush foliage with a mix of shrubbery and trees meeting the edge of the beach. I felt like I’d been shipwrecked on a deserted island.
“There are six huge warriors working on the beach. They’ll protect me, and there’s not another soul in sight. Rachel is setting up the equipment. Thank you for checking on me, but I’m exactly where I need to be right now.”
“Are you sure?” Surnen asked warily.
“You have your work conquering sickness. This is what I do. What I’m good at. I need to be useful.”
I heard him growl, and it made me laugh. “More useful than in your bed.”
“Yes, mate. You are quite useful there.” I felt the blast of arousal through the collar, and I squirmed, rubbing my thighs together to ease the sudden ache.
His silence stretched, but the sting coming from him had faded when I used the word mate. “Very well, but you will follow protocol to the letter. Do not remove your helmet and do not take any unnecessary risks. I will not see you hurt.”
Well, he was bossy and protective and kind of adorable in his gruff way. What a worrier. Sheesh. Maybe it was a doctor thing, always expecting the worst.
“I won’t.”
“I will monitor your progress as I am able.”
“Of course you will.”
“Mate, continue to defy me and you will be over my knee upon your return.”
That made me hot. “You promise?” With that teasing remark—and, I was sure, my desire for exactly that kind of play winging across the stars to him through whatever miracle of quantum physics made these collars work over long distances—I ended the comm and walked over to Rachel. “So, tell me what we’ve got.”
She was shoving sample collection rods into the sand along the edge of the surf. The waves here were small, perhaps only two or three feet tall. As I scanned the water, I had to assume there was no coral or offshore drop-off to form larger waves.
“Well, we’ve got new data since we last spoke. The Coalition telescopes picked up an anomaly in the atmospheric temperature here. Rapid changes for no apparent reason. The planet has been warming, the clouds are thinning, and AI analysis shows a dangerous decline in the planet’s ability to support life if the trend continues.”
I pointed to the wall of bright, brilliant flowers and foliage lining one cliff face. “Clearly this issue hasn’t been going on for long. The plant life is still thriving.” I inspected the water, what I could see of it. “And I don’t see any abnormal blooms in the water here.”
She turned her head. “Right. No dead animal carcasses either. We need to figure out what’s going on before the shift endangers all life on the planet. I don’t want this planet to die like The Colony.”
“That’s what happened there?”
She nodded. “There was an imbalance and everything died off. Maybe a couple thousand years ago, maybe a million. We don’t really know. That’s why we can’t walk around outside of the bases without helmets for very long. The atmosphere sucks.” She rapped her knuckles on the glass of hers. “But there used to be water on The Colony. Lots of it. They have fossils all over the place.
“And all the water just what? Disappeared?”
“Apparently.”
“Wow. Okay. So, is it just hydrogen levels that are off here?”
“Hydrogen is low. Oxygen is high. The ocean’s salinity level is fluctuating. It’s like everything just went crazy. Weird, right?” I could see her frown, even through the helmet. “As if something is stealing hydrogen. The amount of water on the entire planet is down nearly two percent since we first received the disturbing data.”
“Holy shit.” That didn’t sound like a lot, but when an entire planet’s ecosystem was involved, that two percent would make a huge difference.
I took several of the sampling sticks and walked to the edge of the beach, looked out over the water. I wanted to go out there and swim. Feel the… wetness against my skin. The buoyancy. The shift and movement of the water. I couldn’t deny it. But I wasn’t a complete idiot. “Is it fresh or salt water?”
She thumbed toward the water. “Using Earth as a comparison, the water here is halfway between the two. Data shows freshwater streams, rivers and lakes that feed into this cove, and a vast body of salt water about the size of the Atlantic out there. So, in this cove, it’s about half and half.”
“Brackish. Got it.” I smiled and tried to breathe it in, but the helmet didn’t let me.
“So, no huge sharks out there?” I asked. Sharks, at least Earth sharks, lived in salt water. Alligators went for fresh water. But then there was Captain Hook and the giant Seawater Crocodile that had taken his hand. Crocodiles loved brackish water on Earth. And they had no qualms about helping themselves to a tasty human. “Crocodiles? Giant squid? Any sort of space beasts out there that might eat us if we get too close to the edge?”
Rachel laughed. “Oh, yeah. No sharks. Squid, they’d be deep so I’m not really sure. As for here, I’ll say probably not. The water is only about thirty or forty feet deep until you get out past the rocks. But animals aren’t my turf. Giram!” she called.
A huge guy turned around, strode over. He was slightly taller than Surnen and Trax, and his shoulders were broader. Rachel introduced him to me as an Atlan. Holy shit, the guy was huge. “Any dangerous creatures out there in the water?”
His piercing dark eyes met mine. “None, my lady.” While he was answering Rachel’s question, he was looking at me. I realized then that both of us were to be called my lady. “I have been monitoring these coordinates for a week in preparation for our visit. No underwater data indicates any kind of life form that would be considered dangerous.”
“Thank you,” she replied. He bowed and returned to his task—which appeared to be watching over us while we worked—and I buried my disappointment at not being able to come face-to-face with a Valuri version of a dolphin or whale.
I helped Rachel with collecting samples, then watched as she analyzed them with some fancy space-age machinery. We worked over an hour and allowed the computer to process the data. As a team, we stared at the results.
“We were right. This planet is losing hydrogen. There is more oxygen in the atmosphere than there was a week ago,” she said, then looked around. “The question is, how? Why?”
“There’s no data that indicates a specific location at issue,” Giram replied. Two others in the group agreed.
“How can a planet just lose water? Is that even possible?” I asked, looking out over the murky color. “Unless…”
Everyone faced me, silently waiting for my possibility.
“I know you said you were monitoring the water level, but did you test the salinity or carbon dioxide levels in the water itself? What if it’s not just hydrogen? What if, somehow, the ocean is actually losing water? Is the planet forming new, larger ice caps? Glaciers? Is the humidity higher? Something’s wrong with the water cycle. I assume this planet has trackable weather patterns, and this close to water, the weather would be impacted by the water itself.”
“You’re saying that water is going where? Into a new North Pole?”
“I don’t know yet, but would that account for the fluctuations in your readings?”
Rachel was quiet, then nodded. “It’s an option to consider.”
Everyone turned to face the ocean. “My expertise was in water contamination. Finding imbalances and cleaning up messes made by humans. But if this is some kind of natural planetary cycle, like an ice age or changing temperature in the planet’s core, I’m not sure we can do anything to save the animals here.”
“At least the planet is not inhabited. That would a much larger problem,” Giram said.
I shrugged, not wanting to argue with a huge ali
en I barely knew. But to me, an extinction event on this planet—on any planet—was a large problem. “Can I go and collect some samples from the water?”
Rachel nodded. “Absolutely. I’ll run some data on ice formation and temperatures.”
“I want to go under and look around.”
“Under?” Giram asked, wide-eyed.
I nodded, tapped the glass of my helmet. “It’s just like scuba.”
The other scientists glanced at each other, clearly confused by the Earth abbreviation.
Rachel understood perfectly. “Great. I could do it but I’m a terrible swimmer and I don’t like to get in water I can’t see the bottom of.” Rachel went to retrieve some sample vials and handed them to me.
She looked my space suit over from head to toe and grinned through her own helmet’s visor. “Go ahead. Just don’t take your suit off. We haven’t done a full pathogen workup on this planet yet, and I don’t want your skin peeling off or something.”
Giram piped up. “As far as predators, there’s nothing dangerous for at least half a mile from shore. Not here. That’s why we chose this location for transport.”
“Got it.”
As the reddish water rolled up over the pink and white sand, it looked normal. Clear. Perfect. But the ocean that spread out before us was shades of red and orange. The depths that I could see in the distance looked a deep, dark purple. The water was unlike anything I had ever seen before, but it was stunning. Truly beautiful. The water was calm and smooth, the small waves barely cresting with tiny whitecaps as they moved onto shore.
Feeling lighter than I had in months, since the day I’d realized what an idiot I’d been helping my so-called friends destroy those whaling ships, I carried two of the sampling sticks in one hand and waded hip-deep into the water. It wasn’t the same as being in my wet suit dragging a longboard, but it felt glorious all the same. Just below the surface, giant white and yellow flowers floated like oversize lily pads the size of small cars. Tiny, sparkling fish darted under, over and around them, giving off tiny flashes of color that looked like twinkling diamonds had come to life. They swam around me, curious, swarming my legs so that I could no longer see my own feet as I stepped deeper into the calm water.
“You’re sure I can go under in this thing?”
Rachel didn’t even look up from what she was doing. “Yep. Full-on rebreather built into the suit and lights in the helmet. That suit is made to keep us alive in space, so the water is no big deal. We’ve got at least four more hours of air before we have to transport back.”
“Sweet. And nothing that will eat me for at least half a mile.”
“Well, unless Trax or Surnen shows up,” Rachel called. “But I doubt you’d mind that all that much.”
“You did not just say that out loud.” I glanced over my shoulder as I stood waist-deep in the water to find Rachel completely unrepentant, a huge smile on her face.
“Did. And you know I’m right.”
Refusing to answer, I appreciated the fact that the two Atlan warlords and four Prillon guards with us pretended not to hear our banter. They knew I was Surnen’s mate. Knew I’d just arrived. I was big news. They were monitoring the perimeter, checking the sky, looking for danger and ignoring the fact that Rachel had just teased me—within earshot—about having Surnen’s or Trax’s mouth on my—
“Mate. Are you well?” Surnen’s voice echoed in my comms again, and I wanted to curse Rachel for the visual I couldn’t get out of my head. “The readout on your suit shows abnormal external temperatures.”
“I’m still fine, mate.” Hungry for more hot sex, but other than that, completely normal. “I’m going to collect samples in the water.”
“Is that safe?” he asked.
Giram spoke up, offering Surnen data he’d collected about the water. I was thankful he was trying to reassure him that I was fine.
“Very well,” he replied, clearly appeased by the scientific data. “I am here if you need me.”
Rachel cleared her throat. “Oh, she needs something, all right, but you can give it to her later, Doc. Along with that spanking you promised.”
I could feel myself blush as I continued to walk deeper into the water. I turned around, faced the shore. “Good God. Could you at least pretend not to be listening, like the others?”
Rachel looked over her shoulder at the guards trying very hard to look anywhere but at the two of us. “Nope. I call it like I see it. And believe me, Maxim and Ryston don’t like it when I go off world either.” Her laughter chased me deeper into the water, and I turned back around and dived under, coming face-to-face with a large, shimmering eel-like creature with golden eyes and pink scales. The creature froze, terrified, before flashing away in a move I didn’t even have a dream of following. Was I the first human they’d ever seen?
I drifted under the water, weightless once more, and I floated, truly free for the first time since I’d been arrested. I pressed a button on the vial and collected one sample, then tucked it into a pocket at my waist, then swam on. I had no flippers, so I kicked hard, my leg muscles working overtime. The burn felt good. Familiar. I was loving the helmet, the ability to breathe normally without anything in my mouth, without having to clear any water from goggles. Normally I had to stop at about eight feet, swallow hard and try to clear my ears of the pressure before I swam. But with the space suit, the pressure inside my suit remained constant. It was a scuba diver’s dream.
Deeper and deeper I sank until the water’s color was murky from the depth. I glanced up, guessing I was about thirty feet down. I wasn’t sure if going any deeper would compress the air in my suit and use it up faster, as happened in scuba tanks on Earth. I doubted it, but I wouldn’t risk using up all my air, so I didn’t go any deeper. I didn’t want to be sent home early like a misbehaving child on the playground.
I saw a fish that reminded me of a barracuda, long and thin, and followed it.
That was when I heard something unnatural, a rumble that had no place underwater. It was the hum of some kind of machine. Mechanical, like the sound of a pump on a fish tank. I knew what the water was supposed to sound like, the crash of waves, the sound of currents moving around rocks or coral, the quick, whiplike tail of an eel or a fish. I had even heard whales and dolphins speaking to one another back on Earth. Otherwise, below the surface the only thing I was supposed to hear was my breathing inside the suit. With a rebreather, there weren’t even any bubbles floating back to the surface. I was a fish down here. Quiet as they were.
Nothing living was making that sound. I turned toward it, swam, then realized it was coming from the other direction, then whipped about. Paused.
“Rachel, can you hear that?” I asked, using my arms and legs to dive deeper into the water, swim a bit farther out. I didn’t want to risk the oxygen, but I had to find out what was causing the noise.
Giram said I had half a mile until anything with big teeth would show up, and I was taking him at his word. I’d spent enough time in the water to know I was maybe a hundred meters from shore. The currents were stronger here, the water deeper, but not frightening. Nothing I couldn’t handle. As long as the pressure this deep didn’t affect my air supply.
“Hear what?”
“Listen. Can you hear that through my helmet?”
All chatter stopped between the guards and Rachel as they all listened. I held my breath so not even the sound of my breathing would interfere.
“It’s a machine of some kind. Giram, you checked the water, right? You didn’t discover this?”
“No, Lady Syrvon. Nothing shows on our equipment.”
“Well, there’s something down here. I can hear it.” Or maybe I could feel it thrumming through my body like an echo? In the water, sound was different.
“Remain in position so we can scan.” The Atlan ordered me to hold still, but that was pretty much impossible as I was floating in water at least three body lengths deep and the current was gently pulling me along the coastline aw
ay from Rachel and the team. It was nothing I couldn’t handle, not like a riptide. The current was peaceful. Gentle. A short swim and I’d be back to them, or I could swim directly to the beach and walk back to their position.
“It’s getting louder. Can you hear that?” I asked again.
“We hear it, Mikki,” Rachel responded. “Come back to shore, and we’ll adjust our scans for it. It should be easy to identify now.”
I moved then, laying out flat and swimming for shore. I wasn’t in a full-out sprint, but fast enough to get the hell out of the water. And I was out of shape. Seriously freaking out of shape. My lungs burned and so did my legs. I really should have done some more serious exercising the last few years.
“Why here?” I asked as I breathed hard. “Why this location? Extend your scans beyond this area.”
“Already on it,” Giram replied. “Scanning indicates a power source in the area of Lady Syrzon,” Giram said. “By the gods, it’s huge.”
“That’s not all, Warlord.” Another voice came through the comms. “Similar pings throughout the water at even intervals. For hundreds of miles. There are thousands of them.”
“Are you shitting me?” I asked, still trying to figure out what I had just kicked. My leg made contact with something, but when I looked, there was nothing but water and sand. Empty space. Whatever it was, the loud ping was like metal on metal and the reverberations traveled up my leg to my spine. Ouch.
“Mate, evacuate the water now.” Surnen’s voice in my ear was like a whip, startling me.
“Go. Go get her!” Rachel gave the order, and the ragged breathing of at least two of our guards came at me through the comms. I heard the panic in her voice. That was what had me giving up figuring out the object I’d hit and getting the hell out of the water.
“None of us can swim, my lady,” Giram said.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” she snapped. “You survived the fucking Hive and you can’t swim?”
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