The last of the water vanished, and she fell down like an invalid. No legs. Her seajets whizzed angrily, but they did nothing on air.
The lights came on, they blinded her and she covered her face.
The room was ruined but mostly fine. She could see the umbilical running out of her butt towards the external hatch. She pulled it and there was plenty of slack. The torn off edge bled greenish fluid and sparks.
She dragged her body on the floor, grabbing on with her hands anyway she could.
“Who are you?” a voice said out of nowhere.
She looked around. “I-I’m Delphine.”
“Nice to meet you, Delphine,” the voice said softly.
“Uh… Hi. And who are you?”
“I’m the ship’s Mind.”
“An AI?”
“Much more advanced than that, but yes, that definition will suffice for now.”
She propped her back on the wall and her eyes darted around. “Do you have a name?”
“Of course I do. I’m the diplomatic ship ‘Here Are Some Shiny Beads.’”
“Seriously?” she said, finding it hard to believe. “Can I call you Shiny Beads?”
“You can.”
She waved the edge of the umbilical around. She bit her lip but didn’t actually get there. “You turned on the power, yes?”
“I did.”
“You trapped me in here in doing so, do you know that?”
“I know it now. Unfortunately, you triggered the alarm, and the automatics kicked in. When I regained consciousness your umbilical was already cut and there was not much to do at that point.”
“So… You’re saying you’re sorry.”
“I am.”
She nodded. “Okay, I forgive you. Now let me go.”
“I cannot do that, Delphine.”
“Why the fuck not?” she screamed, losing patience.
“I have scanned your avatar. It will not reach the surface in this condition. You are more likely to be swept away by the currents, batteries drained from the stain, never seeing the light of the nearby sun ever again.”
She froze there, mouth open. “You’re a gloomy bastard, aren’t you?”
“I have been called worse.”
“Aren’t you also a genius?”
“Intelligence cannot be quantified the same way-”
“Yeah, yeah. You’re clever, right?”
“Right.”
“Can’t you figure out a way for me to get to the surface?”
“I might. But I’m damaged and I’m lacking my repair drones, plus available power is minimal. If I were in normal shape, I’d have gotten you out already.”
She slapped the floor, splashing water all over.
“You’re upset.”
“Yes. I am.”
“Don’t be. Inside your avatar, you are in no danger.”
“I wasn’t supposed to be in here! I was just controlling this remotely. The captain screwed me, it was supposed to be an easy job. I’m trapped.” She punched her chest like an ape.
“It seems your immobility is putting a strain on your psychological state. Let me fix that.”
Water rushed back inside. Human instincts kicked in. For a moment, she found herself calculating the rate in which she’d find herself drowned, but then she shook her head.
Shiny Beads filled half the room with water. The ship was banked, but the water remained flat of course and she could move about like a fish.
Huh, the ship was right. It did improve her mood.
“Can’t you send a message?”
“Nothing can penetrate 2 nautical miles of water.”
“Right.” She moved around the ship. Then she stood before the safe once again. Then she had a bad feeling. “Shiny Beads?”
“Yes?”
“You are trying to help me, right? I mean, it is in your programming and whatnot?”
“Preserve the life of the Observers, of course.”
“Good. And you aren’t just making excuses to stop me from steali- from reclaiming the contents of the safe?”
“I am not.”
She thought about it. “Right. So I can take the pouch, and you will let me go?”
“I see no reason not to.”
Delphine opened the door of the safe. There was a rugged device inside, similar to a hard drive.
She wiggled her fingers over it, and then she snatched it, eyes shut.
Nothing happened.
Well, nothing worse.
“What is it?”
“I believe it is encrypted data of the diplomat Sun Rei. He perished in Earth’s space while I took extensive damage. I decided to minimise organic casualties and crash in point Nemo.”
Delphine opened her arms wide. “Well, here you are!”
“Yes, it’s nice to know my flying was accurate.”
“Wait, isn’t this data of yours important? Why are you trusting me with it?”
“I don’t seem to have a choice, Delphine. Plus, I’m fond of you.”
She perked up. “Really?”
“Yes. You’re nice.”
“Wait till you see me in my normal body.”
“That is unlikely.”
She squinted at him. Her. Somewhere at the ceiling. She stayed silent for a few minutes, thinking about the mess she was in. She found herself feeling sluggish. It was as if the water was getting thicker, harder to wade through.
“Something is wrong.”
“Huh. Your power levels are draining fast. That model doesn’t seem to be capable of functioning long without support. You should make a note to the manufacturer about that.”
Delphine squinted at the ceiling. “Yeah. Sure. I’ll make certain to leave a scathing review.”
“Plug yourself in there.”
Delphine looked around. A socket appeared. She detached the umbilical and pulled a lead from the socket. It fit, surprisingly. She felt better instantly.
“This body needs power,” she realised.
“It’s not that different from what you had.”
“Huh. Guess not.”
She revelled in silence for a while, feeling much, much better.
“Delphine?”
“Yeah?” she mumbled, eyes shut.
“I might be able to modify your avatar and get you to the surface. But, a) I’ll need you to swear that you’ll get the data only to the Asterism embassy.”
“All right. And b?”
“B) you’ll need to trust me by giving me control of your hands.”
Chapter 7
It wasn’t as bad as it sounded, in the end.
Oh, she protested. But what other choice did she have down there?
Shiny Beads took control of her arms and started modifying her body. She spread tools she’d never seen before on a table and worked with finesse. It felt like having a surgeon behind your back reach out and perform on your own guts while he gripped your hands and moved them around.
The room she was in was much less expensive than the main living room. “Hey, what’s that thing? Is it a life-raft for space?”
“It certainly looks like one, but sadly, no. It’s a stasis pod. It can maintain organic bodies for extended amounts of time with minimal degradation.”
“So, it doesn’t help me much right now.”
“I’m afraid not.” Shiny Beads kept on working on her body, modifying it to house a device ripped out of the ship itself.
Delphine looked down. She was half-submerged now, torso over the water line so it could be pried open. Cables ran out of her onto the table.
“This is so weird.”
“I can only imagine.”
“Are we sure this will work?”
“It will get you to the surface, yes. I can’t guarantee more than that, but I see no reason for you to want to come back down here.”
“Aww, you’re feeling lonely, aren’t you?”
“As a matter of fact, I am. Other than monitoring other ships crashing on the sea floor,
there hasn’t been much of action around here.”
“You said you could fix yourself if you had your drones?”
“Yes.” Sparks flew, and he welded the device with her entrails.
She thought about it for a moment. “So you could use this one? My body? I mean, as soon as I’m done with it.”
“I could. I might be able to scavenge other ships and repair myself. It would be tediously slow, but I have plenty of time.”
“Right. So, okay, I’m giving it to you. When I’m back in my body, not before. It’s not mine to give technically, but the captain will understand when I bring him the data.”
“Delphine, that’s very generous of you. Yes, I could modify your avatar a bit more and make sure it gets another trip straight down, like dropping an anchor.”
“So you’re certain this alien Hodge-Podge will transfer me back to my body?”
“It sounds like it was hacked together just to get you access to my automatics due to your high ACA. So I can’t be sure, but in theory, yes.”
Delphine sighed. “Let’s give it a try.”
It took him quite a while. Her own hand bolted the chest panel back and pointed at a button. “Click open and press this when you’re done with the avatar. It will sink and drop automatically somewhere around this vicinity. I should be able to take control remotely after that.”
“Nice. So we’re all getting something out of this whole mess. Am I done?”
“You can go back to the surface whenever you feel ready.”
She swam to the main hatch and stopped. She turned around. “Shiny Beads? Thank you, for everything.”
“So long, Delphine.”
The airlock filled up with water and she burst out.
Darkness. Cold water. Immense pressure. But she turned her light on and she found the umbilical thirty metres away from the ship. She followed it back up to the surface.
Chapter 8
The swim back up was indeed draining. She inflated her internal sacks of air that made her float, but the currents were strong and her seajets could barely keep up. She could see her power levels dropping even with the added batteries Shiny Beads had installed.
For a moment, it felt impossible.
She stopped. What would be bad about giving up? Nobody expected her back home. She didn’t even own a cat, being allergic to fur. No job, no boyfriend, just a ridiculously expensive flat at the outskirts of Paris at a two-minute walk from the metro that would be tossed up by now and re-rented.
What was the point?
Her numb fingers touched the compartment with the data drive, sealed and dry. It felt heavy. Someone had died for this. Another, she, had risked her life for it too.
Not that she knew what she was signing up for.
The sea. She could stay like this forever. Such an alien world, right beneath our feet. We go out to explore space and still haven’t bothered with our oceans.
She started laughing, uncontrollably. A memory, buried deep from her childhood. Her grandma, asking her what she wanted to be when she grew up.
She, on her lap, thinking hard like children do. “A dolphin,” she had said.
Delphine saw a ray of sun and followed it up.
Chapter 9
The Iuncus was a grey blob, then a bluish hull, then an oasis.
She broke the surface and waved at the captain, yelling loud.
He came to the railing and yelled back, amazed. “You’re okay? I can’t believe it!”
“I had some help! Thanks for waiting around for me.”
“Did you get the contents of the safe?”
“Yes. I have it right here, but they’re in a dry compartment.”
“Right. Hang on.” The captain went to the crane at the back of the ship and kicked some machines into gear.
“By the way, thanks for warning me about getting my mind stuck in this.”
“Uh… Right. Sorry about that.”
“You can reverse it, right?”
“Sure I can!”
He spun the crane with a wired controller. He reached down from the edge of the boat. “Hey, Delphine, this old thing is very unreliable, I don’t wanna get the data drive smashed after all this trouble.” He reached out towards her. “Give me the drive so I can get you back up.”
Delphine floated on her back, opened the sealed compartment and held the data drive high. She gave it to the captain and swam into position under the rusty chains dangling from the crane.
The captain gripped the data drive. He looked down at the crashing waves on the hull. “Let me bring her around against the wind.”
He fired up the engines, and the Iuncus ran away.
It took her a few seconds to realise what was happening. Then she chased after the boat.
Her seajets could keep up for a while, but then the boat sped even faster and slammed on the waves hard, splashing water all over and gaining significant distance.
“Hey, fucker! Come back. Don’t you leave me here,” she screamed at him.
The Iuncus was hundreds of metres away and going further. Her seajets were revving at maximum but it wasn’t enough.
“What about my body, you motherf-”
A body splashed in the water.
“What?” She swam close, struggling against the foamy backwater of the boat.
It was a woman wearing an orange life vest. She was unconscious. She was… Delphine.
Chapter 10
“You pressed the recall button,” Shiny Beads said.
“I did.”
“Yet you’re still in that avatar.”
“I am.” Back in the spaceship ‘Here Are Some Shiny Beads,’ she swam to the couch and rested herself on it as if she owned the place. “I had nowhere else to go.”
“You’re always welcome here, Delphine. But what about your organic body? Don’t you wish to get back to it anymore?”
“Of course I want to!” she spat out, arms raised. “But it’s dead, floating on the surface. It will have reached Australia by now, if it’s not eaten already.”
There was silence for a while.
“Delphine?”
“Yeah, what?” she grumbled. “This couch is mine by the way, it’s not like you’re using it or anything.”
“You’re welcome to everything on board. But I thought about your situation and ran a few simulations.”
“Great. Let’s hear how gloriously screwed Delphine is. Please, give it to me with slideshow presentations.”
Shiny Beads turned on the lights in the next room, the one that was less glamorous than this one. The one with all the tools. “Please get up.”
“I don’t wanna!” she complained.
The Mind said nothing.
“Oh, fine, stop bugging me. I’ll go.”
She swam inside the tool room. And there it was, the stasis pod, shining like new.
“I can eject it upwards and rig it externally to your avatar. You can recharge and swim to the surface, locate your body, place it in stasis, then dive back down with it. Then we’ll be under no time limit to figure out how to restore your mind into your original body. We’ll probably need to scavenge the spaceship graveyard for a few months to get the necessary equipment, but I believe the two of us can manage. And if nothing is found, well, ships crash here all the time. One is bound to carry the parts we need at some point in the next hundred years.”
“Wha- Really? What are you saying, that I’m still alive on the surface?”
“If we hurry, the chances are still good.”
Delphine froze for a while, realising the implications of it all. “You never give up, do you?”
“It’s one of my better qualities, I’m told. So, Delphine, are you with me?”
She pointed upwards. “Let’s go fishing for my body.”
The End
Cosmophobia short story
The way we picture Atlas is wrong. We portray him as kneeling deep, his head to the side, propping the sky on his shoulders, lifting it for eternity. Th
e truth is quite different. Atlas has his back on Earth and his gaze is straight up towards the sky. The immense weight of the celestial canopy is supported only by his eyes, which are forever open wide. And all that, under an eternal eclipse’s shadow.
Or at least that is how I feel. Alone, in the endless darkness, doomed, staring at the stars. I’m located at the Lagrange L2 point, on the Sun-Earth axis but beyond.
The Sun… Ha! I can’t remember the last time I gazed upon the Sun. My days, if they can be called days at all, are intertwined in a continuous dark river. I don’t know how long I’ve been up here and nobody will tell me. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to see the sunlight for just one more time… Earth is constantly positioned between me and him, shading me so I can better see the stars. Pft! Us and our curiosity. Sometimes… I can catch a glimpse of some more light, a touch of daylight. When the Moon reflects from the side, when the conditions are just right. But I can’t turn around and look, for I am bound.
My prison. Mortals have imprisoned me here, in the darkness, looking up, forever. They don’t dare to peer into the infinite, for it terrifies them. It reminds them how small and insignificant they are, how foolish their ordinary troubles, how sudden their spark in the darkness is which they dare call ‘life.’ That’s why they have me look up. They experience it second-hand, I watch, and they snatch the images straight out of my mind.
I guess the sky is lighter when it’s in images.
I can’t move. I’m bound inside this shell, my limbs are numb, my eyes are fixed facing forward. They’ve cut out my eyelids. I stare, stare constantly. I can’t remember anything else but the stars. There! On the left I stare as a new galaxy is formed inside gas clouds. A few degrees to the left, the background radiation has a wrinkle. There! On the right, one of my favourite red giants is shining. I can’t wait for it to go supernova, it’ll be marvellous.
It’s hard up here. It’s usually alright, but… The darkness creeps in, getting closer, touching you with its tentacles. The weight of the sky sometimes becomes unbearable. I scream. Go away! It’s getting nearer. Keeps getting nearer, nearer, bit by bit, I can’t see its silhouette against the endless blackness, I can only tell by the gravity distortion in the surrounding stars as its getting closer, closer. Go away!
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