by Chloe Garner
“Why aren’t you trying to save the caretakers?” Jesse asked.
Benth leaned against the wall, rolling his head back onto the skin and looking up at the ceiling.
“The Conspiracy,” he whispered.
“Keep going,” Jesse said, going to sit on Benth’s cot. Cassie stayed standing. Benth shook his head.
“In the beginning, no one knew what we planned to do with the caretakers. The Commander put together a plan to send them away, keep them safe, and at the same time cut our fins, publicly, and catalyze the people into action. He could order anything he wanted, after that. No sacrifice was too great, because we’d already given up our caretakers. Dissent to the war was considered equal to dishonoring the memory of the caretakers.”
He ran his fins over each other, long snake-like motions, and looked at Cassie as he spoke next. It was a confession.
“When the soldiers found out that the caretakers were fine, being well cared-for, far out to sea, there was a backlash. Those of us who knew were part of the original Conspiracy. Around us grew up the anti-Conspiracy. These were people who thought that we owed it to ourselves and our mission to finish the job of killing the caretakers. That the reason for sending them out to sea was right. Everyone kept their own opinions close, so no one ever really knew who was a Conspirator and who was an anti-Conspirator, but everyone knows that the two sides wrestle for power. It’s been an open secret for a while that Cartan is an anti-Conspirator. Your Palta delivered the command into the fins of an Adena Lampak who wants to see the caretakers dead. And there’s nothing anyone can do abut it.”
Jesse had been pacing for maybe an hour, hands behind his back now, shaping something invisible in front of his face now, peeling and sticking the electronics on his arm, now. Benth had settled back into his cot and he and Cassie watched the Palta, waiting. Cassie started to speak to him at one point, but Benth held up a fin.
“This is how Palta think,” he said. “I’ve seen Mab do it many times.”
Cassie shook her head.
“I’ve never seen him do this before.”
Benth smiled.
“Maybe because you’ve never made him think before?”
Cassie scowled at him and rolled back onto her back, crossing her ankles. The sun was setting, and orange light seeped in between the skins making up the walls. From the sound of it, the ocean was kicking up more spray under a steady wind. She wondered which side that helped.
“No,” Jesse said.
“Need more context than that,” Cassie answered, without turning her head.
“I won’t let it,” Jesse said. Cassie rolled.
“You have a plan?”
“Not even a little,” Jesse said. “Too many unknowns. But I’m doing it, anyway.”
“Doing what?”
“I’m going to save them, despite their own best efforts for extinction.”
Benth sighed.
“I can’t let you,” he said.
“Oh, but you’re the key to the whole thing,” Jesse said.
“I have my orders,” Benth said.
“I won’t argue with that,” Jesse said. “I heard them, same as you. You know what they mean. How long do your caretakers have before the predator wave hits?”
“Midday, maybe dusk,” Benth said. Jesse nodded.
“Then we need to leave now.”
Benth looked at Cassie.
“Is he deaf?”
“Selectively,” she said.
“Even assuming I would help you, how do you plan on getting a pair of weak swimmers such as yourselves off the tower?”
“Haven’t worked that out yet,” Jesse said. “We’re going to need water. I can go without food, but Cassie probably needs provisions there, too. Will they have food stored there?”
“Yes, but we’re…”
“They destroyed the breathing equipment. Do you have spares, or … tools. I’m going to need tools,” Jesse said.
“He just assumes I’m going to help you,” Benth said, coming to sit next to Cassie.
“He does that,” Cassie said. She looked at the Adena Lampak for a moment. “You are, aren’t you?”
“You didn’t kill the Commander,” he said. She shook her head.
“The anti-Conspirators are taking a gamble with our species,” he said, watching Jesse. “It’s true we were as successful killing the Centralists’ caretakers as they claim we were?”
“That’s what they told us,” Cassie said, taking a risk. She didn’t like giving away information that had been given to her in good faith, but she saw few better options. “And that’s how they acted.”
“The predator wave comes with the dusk,” he said. “My own caretaker and the caretaker who would have raised my children are out there, waiting for them. There is no argument, Cartan intends to let them die. They believe that only if we are properly motivated can we come to a solution.”
“That’s a yes, then,” Cassie said. He nodded.
“Wait here,” he said. “And try not to let him draw attention.”
“I’ll do what I can.”
Benth cast one last look at Jesse and left.
“You’re useful,” Jesse said, throwing himself into the cot next to hers.
“What does that mean?”
“Take it as a compliment,” he answered.
“So you have a plan?” Cassie asked.
“Parts of one,” Jesse said. Cassie waited. Blinked. Shook her head.
“How are we going to get there? After we get there, how are you going to get them to talk to you? After you get them to talk to you, how are you going to convince them to leave? After you convince them to leave, where are you going to take them? How are you going to protect them? Elsa tried to get their caretakers out, and they all died.”
“You worry too much,” Jesse said.
“You don’t worry enough,” she answered. He shrugged, then winked.
“This is how I work,” he said.
She frowned at him, but settled in to wait silently.
Benth returned in a few minutes with another Adena Lampak. Cassie glanced at Jesse, who seemed unconcerned.
“This is Pane,” he said. “He is my…” The word was one that Cassie failed to translate. She sent Jesse a confused eyebrow and he leaned in.
“Mate. They have the term, but it’s about as used as it would be for you. That’s the word they use, instead.”
She nodded.
“Benth says you’ve made a convincing argument,” Pane said. “And that we have to leave now if you’re going to be successful.”
The Adena Lampak sounded displeased.
“We’d have a hard time causing trouble at sea, given we don’t swim very well and we have no idea where we’re going,” Cassie said. “We don’t stop being prisoners just because we leave the tower.”
Pane looked sideways at Benth.
“That’s what Benth said,” he said. Cassie wondered which of them was female.
“I told you he thinks like us,” Benth said.
“I’m going to drown them at sea,” Pane said. “The first moment I get a bad feeling about this, they’re dead.”
“We need provisions,” Jesse said.
“Right, because the death threat isn’t worth the time to talk about,” Cassie said.
“I have them,” Benth said.
“Something inflatable for us to sleep,” Jesse said.
“Didn’t think of that,” Benth said.
“You stay,” Pane said as Benth turned to leave. “I’ll see what I can find.”
They watched the Adena Lampak leave, then Benth turned to them.
“He isn’t happy, but he’ll go along, so long as you really do what you say you can do,” he said.
“I know I’m asking you to take a big risk,” Jesse said. “If that helps.”
“I’m not doing it for you,” Benth answered.
And so they waited.
An Adena Lampak brought them dinner as the sun began to
set. Pane returned as they finished eating.
“Anything else, Palta?” he asked. Jesse shook his head.
“Have you eaten?”
“I ate with the rest,” Pane said. “We should leave at the watch change.”
The Adena Lampak produced a breathing tube out of a small satchel and handed it to Cassie.
“We’ll have to swim underwater for as long as we can. The Palta can drown, but Benth says you’re a real soldier. I’ll do what I can to keep you alive, for now.”
“They destroyed mine,” Cassie said, recognizing the difference in fiber quality of the plants used in the construction of this tubing.
“Mab used one, from time to time,” Benth said.
“We should go,” Pane said. “This is our best chance.”
“Cassie, you’re with Pane,” Jesse said.
“Gutless,” Pane muttered. Jesse shook his head.
“No. I’m trusting you,” he said. “Sure, you’d have a hard time killing me if you tried, but we all know he’s fragile. This is my show of good faith to match yours.”
“Glad you ran that one past me first,” Cassie said. Jesse shrugged.
“I could suggest the two of you wrestle first, so that you’d all be friends, but we’re a little tight on time.”
Pane looked unamused and Benth looked uncomfortable.
“Let’s get this over with,” Cassie said.
Pane led the way, signaling Benth to get them out of the holding room and little by little down the tower.
“It’s going to be cold,” Jesse said. “You just have to brace yourself for it.”
Cassie nodded. She’d done cold-water training, as part of her standard preparation for being an Agent, but that had been a while back, and there was this shadow of doubt that she could still hold up to it. They’d said she wasn’t good enough anymore, hadn’t they? She ignored it. It wasn’t important. She could survive anything for a few days.
“What about you?” she asked.
“Shouldn’t be a problem,” he told her, then nodded to Benth as they skittered across an open room and down a staircase.
The ocean noises grew louder.
The light was orange and red as they hit the water, the waves rolling up and down the submerged staircase in ten foot swings. Pane and Benth slid over the railing, each carrying a backpack-sized satchel that rode under their long abdomens. Cassie took a last look up at the tower, black and gold above her in the long light, and resisted the instinct to hop back up the stairs as a cold wave hit her waist-deep.
Pane and Benth dropped back down with the trough of the next wave, then Cassie pushed herself out and over the railing at the next peak, swimming away from the disturbance around the base of the tower and treading water as Jesse followed on the next surge.
“Why is the water so high?” Cassie asked as Pane’s head emerged from the water next to her.
“The moons pull it around the planet as they go,” Pane answered. “It causes all kinds of weather disturbances like this.” Pane looked up at the tower and shook his head. “The guards will be back at attention soon. We need to go.”
Cassie wrapped her arm around the Adena Lampak’s thick neck and shoulders and made sure the breathing tube was clear, wishing for goggles, then closed her eyes and tucked her head into the concavity where Pane’s fin met the ridge down his back. A moment later they were underwater, gaining depth until her ears hurt. She plugged her nose with one hand and breathed as evenly as she could against the forces on her shoulders.
They swam.
The world was dark, even for closed eyes, and the rush of water was audible. It tugged at her streamlined clothing in little currents that sent quick shockwaves down her sides and her legs. She felt her skin rise in bumps as the cold took firmer hold, and the water created an even more complex texture along her skin. She tucked in harder against Pane, but the Adena Lampak gave off almost no heat. When Cassie’s hand slipped an inch, the creature’s flesh under her own was as cold as the ocean water. She wanted to curl up, to try to preserve as much heat as she could, but the cold water was merciless, stripping away heat in a constant supply of new cold.
They swam under water a long time, much longer than she’d ever known Adena Lampak to wait to breathe. The breathing tube gave and took in slack as they passed under waves, until it jerked short. Cassie knew what it meant, but her body still wasn’t prepared for the column of water that filled the tube. She pushed it out of her mouth, turning her face away, and started to let go of Pane, looking for the surface. A firm fin grabbed her wrist and held it in place. The surge of suffocation panic didn’t give her a chance to consider. She jerked harder, trying to get free. Pane held on tighter, swimming maybe even faster than before. Cassie’s lungs fought, trying to pull air against a closed mouth and she looked for traction with her feet, but it was like trying to run up a waterfall.
Finally they began a slow assent, and Pane let her go. Cassie thrashed away, swimming for the surface. Pane, Benth, and Jesse surfaced near her as she gasped.
“We can swim closer to the surface from here,” Pane said. “But you need to learn how to pull the water out of the tube.”
Cassie wiped her face.
“You need to learn how to not drown me,” she said. She looked back toward the tower, but it had vanished below the horizon. They were in the middle of a rapidly-darkening ocean.
“Are you recovered?” Pane asked.
Cassie wiped her face again, finding her fingers were a bit numb. She took a moment to empty the tube, then nodded.
“Let’s keep going.”
She came up sputtering again hours later. The moons cast deceptive light along the surface of the tall waves, leaving the troughs in starry darkness. It was terrifying to her child brain, like a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from. The cold, at least, assured her she was awake.
“You make too much noise,” Pane said. “Swimming at night is dangerous enough without the two of you.”
“Give him a minute,” Jesse said. Cassie rolled onto her back, looking for a more calm posture where she could float without fighting the water.
“Why don’t you just hunt down the predators?” Cassie asked. She was short-tempered and not feeling too terribly diplomatic. “It’s what we did.”
“They belong here, same as us,” Benth said.
“But they’re just fish,” Cassie said. “And they kill you. You have to teach them fear.”
“Your people are running out of space, aren’t they?” Pane asked. “Space and resources.”
“We do okay,” Cassie said. Jesse snorted. “What?” she retorted. “People are more important than animals. You have to own that, or else…”
“Live like we do?” Pane asked. Cassie turned her head toward the voice, getting a silver reflection in the next crest where Pane’s head was.
“You’re hunters,” Cassie said. “And you enjoy it. You don’t live like you do out of a sense of mutual respect for the natural world.”
“While one doesn’t naturally follow the other, you aren’t wrong,” Pane said.
“It’s because then migratory predators reproduce too quickly and move too fast for them to form any sort of knowledge to tell them that we’re scary,” Benth said. “They kill each other more often than we kill them. What we have done is make clear zones around our cities, which the territorial predators tend to avoid.”
“And which we left some time ago,” Pane said. “We need to keep moving.”
“We will eventually need to sleep,” Jesse said.
“Too cold,” Cassie said, wiping the spray off of her face again. “Let’s just keep going.”
“We’re in a cold current here,” Pane said as Cassie got her arms arranged around the Adena Lampak’s neck. “It won’t be like the central waters, but it should get better soon. How much can your body take?”
“Soldiers have a hard time identifying their limits,” Cassie said. “It’s forward or die, anyway. Let’s go.”
They stopped again a few hours later to eat. Cassie was ravenous, but the cold, raw fish was hardly satisfying, even when her stomach was full. Jesse again asked her if she wanted to sleep, but as numb as her mind was, she was too afraid of not waking up to let herself drift on purpose. During the next shift, Cassie lost her grip on consciousness during one of Pane’s barrel rolls for air. The turbulence and the cold and the weariness were too much, and the dark world went flat.
She came to coughing up water with Jesse’s arms around her chest from behind. He was squeezing water out of her. There was no light. She struggled away from him, an instinctive reaction to clear the space around her and establish a context before anything else happened, but there was nothing but the surge and drop of water and sounds that she was too befuddled to translate. Jesse caught hold of her again, the way they’d been taught in their classes. Hold on from behind, make sure the arms can’t get hold of anything, control body mass.
“Be still,” he said. The calm of his voice was a life line and she obeyed as she would have as a six-year-old. His skin was warm against hers.
There was a noise and something bumped against them. Jesse put his arm out and pulled an inflated skin against them. Cassie put her arm over it for a moment, but the breeze was even more punishing than the water.
“You should have said something,” Jesse said.
“You’re warm,” Cassie answered. She felt him nod against the back of her head.
“I have more control over my core temperature than you do,” he said. “There are Palta who have taught themselves to hibernate.”
“Good for you,” Cassie said. He laughed.
“You need to rest.”
“Won’t wake up,” she said.
“Just relax,” he said. “I’ve got you.”
Another skin bumped against them on the other side and he let her go. She winced against the cold water as she was on her own again to swim, but the slight improvement had helped clear her mind.