by Simon Archer
“How will we keep a low profile when we know nothing about where we’re going?” Cindra asked, which was a fair question. “I mean, we have no idea what these people are like, or what they do, or how they’re going to react to us. We don’t even know how strict their security is around their ports!”
“Yeah,” Malthe said glumly, finishing up with his set of cans and resting his chin in the palm of his hand, his elbow propped up on the counter. “I hate not knowing what we’re getting into. And even more, I hate not having any way of figuring it out.”
“Same,” I said, furrowing my brows together in concern. “I really do hate it. Hey, what do you think about trying to tap into some of their signals with your E-pad? That way, we can try to figure out something about them. It’s better than going in blind, and they’ve got to have some kind of digital presence, right?”
“We’ve always assumed they didn’t,” Lin said with a shrug. “But I guess they have to if they’re so advanced that some of them were able to break Achilles out of the Void.”
“My thoughts exactly,” I said, giving her a smile.
“I thought about that, too,” Malthe said, a skeptical look on his face. “But I’m not sure that I want to risk it.”
“Risk it?” Clem asked, giving him a confused look.
“Yeah, I mean, think about it,” Malthe said. “These people are good enough to escape our detection. So they could be good enough to identify my own signal when I tap into theirs, even when I’ve done my best to cover it up.”
“But no one can get a read on you,” Clem said, punching him in the arm playfully. “Not even Achilles and the other tunnel people. And they supposedly work with these people from the outside world, right, so isn’t it safe to assume that they’re not any more advanced than they are?”
“I don’t know about that,” I said. “I actually think Malthe’s right, now that I think about it. The tunnel people were using archaic technology because they didn’t want us to be able to find them, not out of some kind of political commitment to not use tech. Which means that they could very well use it and probably do if they can do crazy shit like melting our security cameras.”
“But they use whatever that weird-ass machine is to communicate with the shippers,” Clem argued. “And that can’t be modern technology, can it?”
“No, I don’t think it is,” Malthe agreed. “But that doesn’t mean Nic still isn’t right. The shippers are citizens of Termina, and they work and operate mostly on Termina. So it makes sense that they would still use tech to escape our detection that way.”
“But the shippers never told us about those things,” Clem reasoned. “They’re so detached from the rest of the city--” But Kinley interrupted him before he could finish his thought.
“They’re detached from the north side,” she corrected him, giving him a pointed look. “They’re not detached from the rest of the south side. And most of the south side is detached from the north side as it is, or at least it was before you all came along to fix it.”
“Well, doesn’t that just go to my point?” Clem asked, getting a little annoyed now.
“No, it doesn’t,” I said gently. “The shippers never even thought to tell us all this stuff because it was so normal to them. Like Jami and Iggy kept saying, it’s always been that way for them. Just like everything we always thought about the outside world has just always been that way for us. It never occurred to us to question it until now.”
“But we did question it,” Malthe continued for me. “And it had to occur to the outside world and whoever’s running things, whether it’s Achilles or someone else entirely, that that might happen at some point. So they used more dated technology and vague communication, so if we did figure some things out, we wouldn’t be able to figure out everything.”
“Which is why we’re flying blind,” I finished. “Which really fucking sucks.”
“It really fucking does,” Malthe lamented as he rested his chin in the palm of his hand again.
“But all is not lost,” I said with a smile. “Things could turn out okay in the end. We’ll have a chance to reevaluate things once we sneak on that second ship, the one that belongs to one of the other continents’ shippers. Who knows, maybe there’ll be something worth finding there.”
“That’s possible,” Malthe said. “It’s not completely outside the realm of possibility that their ships have some kind of booster that allows them to use tech on them, especially since they’re not drifting all that far from the shore to collect the cargo.”
“No, it’s not,” I agreed. “So we could still have a chance to gather more information. If all else fails, we grab one of their shippers and interrogate him, then kill him if we have to to keep him from blabbing about us.”
“Okay,” Kira said, nodding and letting out a long, deep breath. “I feel a bit better now, at least. Not that I want us to have to kill some random guy, but that we have a plan of sorts. I hate going in blind like this.”
“Eh, it’s not like we haven’t done it before,” Clem shrugged. “We’ve walked into all kinds of situations pretty much blind lately. Like the tunnels, for instance. And you guys with TelCorp when you first figured out that Elias Berg was some big bad guy.”
“That’s true,” I said, nodding slowly. “But we can’t deny that this is way bigger than that.”
“No, we can’t,” Clem admitted. “But if we did all that, we can sure as hell do all this.”
“I’d drink to that,” Malthe said.
“We can, actually,” Kinley said with a grin, pulling open one of the cabinets beneath the sink and revealing a whole lot of beer and liquor. A grin spread across my face to match hers.
“Now that’s more like it,” I said. “I can take all the canned and dried food if I can wash it down with that.”
“What d'you expect?” Kinley laughed. “Shippers not to be harboring a ton of alcohol? Please.”
“Fair point,” I laughed, taking a beer bottle from her and popping it open on the counter. She passed more out to the rest of us as Cindra and Kira prepared our plates. I had to admit it, it was starting to smell pretty good in our cozy little cabin beneath the sea. The foxgirls might just have managed to manufacture something edible out of all that junk.
“Man, either I’m really hungry, or this actually looks mouthwateringly good,” Clem said, echoing my own thoughts and rubbing his stomach in anticipation as he took a plate from Kira. I took one of my own from Cindra and looked down at it. Sure enough, she’d come up with some kind of oily squash dish that smelled almost as good as butter, along with potatoes dripped in more oil and fish and steak that smelled smoky and deliciously salted instead of full of preservatives.
“Yeah, this actually looks amazing, girls,” I said, smiling at them. “I never would’ve been able to manage it myself.”
“Oh, I know damn well you wouldn’t,” Cindra joked, giving me a coy smile as she crossed over to the sofa, her own plate and beer bottle in hand. The rest of us followed her, clustering on the couch, a nearby chair, and on the carpeted floor around a long coffee table that substituted as a good dinner table. I took a big bite of the steak and groaned in pleasure.
“Damn,” I managed. “This is good, Cindra.”
“Did you ever doubt me?” she asked, but she was still smiling.
“Not for a second,” I said, grinning at her.
I moved to the squash and potatoes next. They were just as good. Honestly, the olive oil was a far better replacement for butter than I ever would’ve expected.
“I agree, I’m impressed,” Malthe said.
“You’re impressed with dollar store coffee,” Cindra said, punching him in the arm playfully. “Hey, did you tell Avil that we were going somewhere for a while? Like, before the news broke? I just realized I totally forgot to tell anyone in the family.” Avil, Cindra’s sister, was engaged to Malthe for reasons that no one could quite understand, but we were happy for them, anyway.
“Oh yeah,
I’ve got you covered,” he said, nodding to her.
“Oh good,” she said, breathing a sigh of relief.
“You forgot to tell your family?” Kira asked, incredulous.
“Well, yeah,” Cindra said sheepishly. “I’ve had a lot on my mind today, okay? Haven’t you?”
“Yeah, but I still told my family,” Kira grumbled, turning her attention back to her plate.
“I can’t have been the only one who forgot,” Cindra said, throwing her arms up in the air. We all laughed at her.
“Looks like it,” Kinley said with a shrug. Cindra gave me an exasperated look.
“Hey, everybody I consider family is in this room,” I said as I finished off the last of my squash.
“Awe, that’d be sweet if you didn’t all just undermine me,” Cindra said, though she looked pleased with this. Kira was blushing, and if I didn’t know any better, I could’ve sworn that Kinley was, too.
“I said goodbye for you, don’t worry,” Malthe assured Cindra. “They’re more worried about me than they are about you, anyway. I’m the moneymaker of the family.” He sat up very straight and important like as he said this, though he couldn’t keep a straight face and burst out laughing before he even got out the last word.
“That’d be true if you’d actually take advantage of your talents,” I told him for what felt like the millionth time. “Lots of companies in the financial district would pay good money for your skills, not just TelCorp.”
“Eh, I’d never work for the likes of them,” Malthe said, swatting away the notion with his rusted old fork. Unlike the kitchen appliances, it looked like Iggy had resisted updating the cutlery for whatever reason.
“Fair enough,” I chuckled as I finished off my beer and the last of my meat and potatoes.
“Anyone ready for dessert?” Cindra asked, clapping her hands on her thighs after she finished off the last of her plate. “And maybe a second round of drinks while we’re at it?”
“There’s more?” Clem asked, clutching his stomach as if he couldn’t imagine taking another bite.
“Weren’t you just starving half an hour ago?” Lin asked him with a laugh.
“Yeah, but that was a lot of food,” he groaned, still clutching his midsection. “And rich food, at that.”
“Well, you don’t need to have any,” Cindra said as she and Kira picked up our empty plates and beer bottles and made their way back to the kitchen.
“Like hell, I don’t,” Clem said. “Give me double.”
We all laughed again, and to my delight, Cindra and Kira came back with more beer, along with some kind of delicious smelling pumpkin dish.
“What is that?” I asked, peering over the side of the dish at it as Cindra handed some to me.
“It’s just canned pumpkin, olive oil, and a whole lot of brown sugar,” Cindra said as if it was nothing. But as I took a bite, I groaned again.
“Just?” I asked, staring at her. “This is amazing. You’ve been holding out on us, Cindra, letting us get takeout all the time when you could make a five-star meal out of a bunch of canned goods.” She blushed again.
“Well, don’t get used to it,” she said, shaking her head, but the corner of her mouth turned upward, which showed she was more than enjoying the praise.
The beer went spectacularly with the pumpkin dish. It had a kind of banana-like aftertaste to it, which was the perfect match. After finishing my first helping, I went to get more, and then more, and then I decided what the hell and got seconds of the main meal, and then I got two helpings of dessert again. By the time I was finished, I really did feel like my stomach was going to explode, no joke. And I was more than a little tipsy from all the beer.
“Well, that was amazing,” Clem said, his words slurring together as he rolled over on the couch next to Lin. “The perfect way to start off our great voyage!”
“I don’t know about great quite yet,” I said, but I nodded in agreement. “The food was damn great, though.” Cindra blushed again.
“Well, someone else can give it a go tomorrow,” she said. “I’m not all that special.”
“Like hell you aren’t,” Malthe protested. “That was amazing, and there’s no way we’re letting anyone else cook for us after all that. Especially with all those canned goods. You’re stuck.”
“Agreed,” I said. “There’s no way anyone could get even close to these results.”
“All right, all right,” Cindra relented.
“Yeah, I’d probably set something on fire,” Lin agreed.
“Oh, but, dear, you order a mean pizza,” Clem said, leaning in and kissing her on the cheek. She rolled her eyes, and we all laughed again.
“Well,” I said, clapping my hands on my knees and rising from my position on the floor, which was surprisingly soft. “I should head off to bed. I need to change my bandages, anyway.”
“I’ll help you,” Kinley said, getting up and clearing up the remainder of the dishes.
“How’s your head?” I asked Kira, the room swimming around me like the sea outside the window from all the alcohol I’d had.
“Better still,” she said, giving me a warm smile. “As good as new. And your back?”
“Getting there,” I said. “And I’m glad to hear it.”
“Me too,” she said, stifling a yawn.
We all crawled off to bed after that. Well, except for Malthe, who just kind of stayed on the couch and didn’t move, not even bothering to change out of his street clothes since he was so drunk and in some kind of food coma.
I wandered into the room I’d chosen for myself, and Kinley followed shortly after me with my bandages. It was hard for me to reach all the way back there for myself, so it was good that the foxgirls were there and always willing to help.
“Here,” she said, pointing to the bed. “Sit down.” She was always firmer, less soft, than Kira or even Cindra. But I liked her that way. She was unique, and it was a nice change. And I knew better than anyone that beneath all that gruff exterior was a kind, good-natured person who cared deeply for the few people who she really let into her life.
I looked around the room for the first time. There were two of those little oval windows looking out into the sea across from the left-hand side of the bed, which I liked. The bed itself was small, but not too small, with sea blue bedding. Matching blue carpet covered the floor. There was a small bedside table with a drawer for some belongings and lamp, and no overhead lights, giving the whole room a kind of natural greenish-blue hue from the water. Other than that, the room itself was completely barren.
“It’s actually kind of cozy in here,” I remarked as I pulled off my shirt.
“Yeah, it’s not too bad, actually,” Kinley said, sitting down next to me and pulling out the bandages. “I feared the worst when we decided to shack up with Iggy, to be honest.”
“Me too,” I laughed, wincing as she pulled off my old bandages to replace them with new ones. Her hands were warm against my skin, in contrast to Kira’s cool ones. But it was still nice.
My back ached less as she worked on me, pulling off the old bandages and replacing them with new ones and medicine. A kind of contradictory warm but cooling sensation ran up and down my skin. When she was done, I groaned in contentment and leaned back on the pillows.
“You can stay here tonight if you want,” I told her, though I knew she already knew that. She was here, after all.
“I’d like that,” she said, giving me a small smile. Then she pulled off her clothes and lay down next to me and stared up at the curved wooden ceiling for a while.
“It’s not claustrophobic at all,” I remarked after some time.
“I know,” she said. “I was expecting it to be, but it’s not too bad after all. It’s good to be among friends and… more.” Her voice trailed off as she turned on her side to look at me. Our eyes met.
“Exactly,” I said, leaning in and pressing my lips against hers. Much like her touch and her demeanor, her lips were firmer than the other
foxgirls, but still more than pleasant to converse with. After a few moments of this, she rolled over on top of me and crouched down around my waistline.
She pressed her lips against the tip of my dick and ran her fingers up and down my shaft. I grabbed hold of the back of her head, running my fingers through her hair and helping her along the way.
I stiffened almost immediately at her touch, and every time I thought I was about to blow my load, she softened up just a bit so that I would last longer. Then she would move faster and faster until finally, I didn’t think I could hold on any longer.
Then she sidled back up my body, and I reached down between her legs. She was already wet. I moved my fingers in and out of her slowly at first and then faster, getting her ready for my member. She groaned and leaned in to kiss me again, softly moaning as our lips met. Her back arched, and she came, shaking in my arms. I pulled her closer to me, not breaking the kiss, and then flipped her over so that she was underneath me now.
She wrapped her arms around my neck, and I spread her knees apart with my hands. Then I pressed myself inside her, also slowly at first but then quicker and harder. We both groaned so loudly that I couldn’t imagine the others wouldn’t be able to hear.
I lasted longer than I even usually did, and Kinley came three more times before I came myself, filling her up inside. Both of our bodies quaked, and we each groaned as I did this. I didn’t pull myself out of her afterward, opting instead to keep going gently, until she came one final time and collapsed into my arms.
We held each other for quite a while after that before falling asleep. I watched more fish and other sea creatures pass us in the window, with algae and other sea plants dancing around them and clinging to the ship. Kinley fell asleep in short order, her breath calm and measured, pressing softly against the back of my hands and forearms. I nestled my face in the crook of her neck, her hair soft against my chest.
I’d never been this far from home before. Almost no one in Termina had. But somehow, I’d never felt quite so at home as I did here, beneath the sea, far from any danger, safe with all of the people I cared about most in the world.