Chapter 19

Nineteen

Mira

Not for the first time, Mira was a little overwhelmed.

And by a little, she really meant a lot. Getting stranded in the middle of the ocean with only her prototype rebreather to keep her alive was a little more than she expected to handle right off the bat. She might have hyperventilated the first night, certain that she was going to die. But at least the bell had more air in it than she had expected. It hadn’t run out of oxygen through all her crying and panicked heaving, which was a reassuring start.

The plant did eventually run out of air, though. And then she moved onto the next one. By the time the water had turned into that crystalline blue again, which she assumed was daylight, she had gotten a hold of herself a little better.

Her stomach eventually grumbled for food, and she’d convinced herself that she could do this. Even if the undine didn’t come back for her, she was capable of taking care of herself.

Her father had always said she was a force to be reckoned with, and now was her time to prove that.

So she had settled her rebreather back on her face, made sure that her goggles were clear with spit and wouldn’t fog up, and then she dove to investigate her new... home.

The kelp forest was surprisingly diverse with creatures. She’d known it would have some kinds of sea creatures in it, obviously, but she hadn’t expected there to be quite so many of them. All the fish she’d seen, even the ones that Arges had told her to catch, came in every color she could imagine. They swam around her in tiny schools. Swirling like she’d used to do with her mother’s scarves, trailing them around herself as she spun in circles.

And then there were the octopi that called this place their home. She’d counted three of them, very different in color, although they were constantly changing. She’d tried to poke at one, only to have it ink at her in frustration before it moved on.

Snippy little things.

She’d spent what must have been an hour sitting on a rock at the bottom of the ocean floor, holding another rock in her lap to pin her in place, and just… watched. Two turtles swam by, eyeing her with curiosity before they kept going. All the fish eventually ignored her and drifted off. She even got to watch a crab catch a meal and then slowly eat it.

This place was... otherworldly. She didn’t even feel like herself sitting here. She was warm enough, and she’d learned to tuck her toes into the backs of her knees, sitting cross-legged so she didn’t get too cold. Otherwise, she’d pull herself into the strangely warm bells and anchored her feet to the sticky walls.

But when she sat on this rock, she didn’t feel like Mira. She felt like some sea goddess who watched her entire kingdom move in slow motion. After a time, she’d even foolishly taken off the hood of her wetsuit just to feel her hair billowing about in the water.

It was a fantasy, and one she would likely pay for if her hair never dried. But something deep in her soul wanted to experience this like the undines. She wanted, for just a few moments, to be something other than what she was.

She couldn’t get her hood back over her head. So she left it down, instead, focusing on getting herself something to eat. Unlike Arges, she still refused to eat mystery fish raw, even if they were easier to catch. Once she’d cupped one in her hands, watching the tiny thing swim around in circles like it had no other care in the world, she just couldn’t kill it.

But she’d had raw oysters before. And she knew what they looked like.

It took a bit for her to find the right kind of rocky outcropping. Mira was hesitant to leave the bell plant area for very long, or even to go very far. It would be too easy to get turned around in this kelp forest that looked the same from every angle. However, she found the oysters not too far from where she was.

Surprisingly, there was enough to satisfy her for a while.

The only problem was that she didn’t have a knife. Not even something sharp to open them with. So she returned with an armful of oysters to the bell shaped plant with a plan. Some of those bags that held fresh water could be emptied. So she did that quickly, then filled them with air from inside one of the nearby bells. Bringing those into the bell, she used them as a simple flotation device and then plopped Byte onto them.

Still not in the water, and therefore it could open up its metallic plates without injuring the delicate wires inside of it. Precarious? Absolutely. But did it work?

It sure did.

“Byte,” she said, letting her rebreather drop into the water at her chest. “You’re okay to open up now.”

The top panel cracked only slightly before she heard an angry voice mutter, “This is too dangerous. You’re going to kill me.”

“I’m not going to kill you. I just need you to open these oysters for me and then you can seal yourself back up.”

“No.”

“Yes,” she replied with a laugh, holding one of them up. “I need to eat.”

“Figure out something else.”

“I don’t have a knife. There’s nothing else for me to eat. I will starve, and you’ll end up on your own again.”

Though the robot grumbled, it extended one tiny arm and pried the oysters open for her. One by one, she slid the sweet meat into her mouth and rolled her eyes into the back of the skull. They tasted so much better than any other oysters she’d had before.

Maybe that was some byproduct of hunting them on her own. Or maybe they were better this far from Beta. With no human waste to contaminate them, the oysters were absolutely divine.

“You’re enjoying this too much,” Byte said, and she swore it was somehow glaring at her. “This is a terrible situation for us to be in. We probably won’t make it out of this alive.”

“We’re alive now, aren’t we?”

“That doesn’t mean we’ll be alive in a few hours. Let alone days. The undine has left you to your own devices, and soon you will realize that humans and robots aren’t meant to live in the sea.”

“I think I’m doing all right.” She sucked down the last oyster, making a face as she let the empty shells drop to the bottom of the ocean floor. “If he doesn’t come back in a couple days, we’ll figure out something else.”

“Like what?”

Shrugging, Mira refused to allow the anxiety to come back into her mind. “I don’t know. Somewhere else. There have to be other cave systems like I was in before. Clearly, people were mining or researching something down here. There has to be more.”

“And you’ll be able to find them so easily in an entire ocean’s worth of space to search.” Byte chirped, the sound almost like a snort. “I don’t think so.”

“Well, I know someone who has spent a lot of time on the ocean floor.” Arching a brow, she tilted her head so she could peer into the box. “Care to share any of your vast knowledge?”

“No.”

“But you do know something.”

It sealed the box shut with a very loud snap, and Mira rolled her eyes. Of course, it knew somewhere they could go. But that was perhaps also dangerous, and droids were always the type to pick the easiest route. If there was too much danger, they simply wouldn’t do it. Which was the reason it had remained on the ocean floor for such a long time. Too much danger, therefore, it froze and did nothing at all.

Placing her rebreather back over her face, she sank out of the bell and left Byte where it was. If the bags popped, it was easy enough for her to find the box. It sank like a stone, and there wasn’t much to compete with that shape on the bottom of the ocean floor.

Once she got down there, the only thing she wanted to do was sit on that rock again. She ran her fingers through her hair, and they got stuck in the snarled strands. Already the ocean was causing tangles that she might have to cut out if she didn’t brush them.

And what better way to feed her undine fantasies than to sit on a rock in the middle of the ocean, brushing her fingers through her hair?

When she was a little girl, she’d used to dream of undines doing this. Their graceful tails all folded up beneath them, humming a haunting song through the water. She’d thought they would look so beautiful, even if everyone told her to hate them.

A little euphoric thrill ran through her veins that she could do this. She’d feed that inner child who had always wanted to live in a fantasy world. This exciting, this... beautiful.

She didn’t know how long she sat before she saw the shadow in the kelp forest. It was very long, and a different shape than anything she’d seen thus far. But she wasn’t going to move. Nothing so far had been dangerous.

Then the shadow lunged out of the kelp, so quickly it was hard for her to even get an idea of what it was before it struck her. Her ribs screamed in pain, but the water seemed to cushion her wild slide before she hit rocks.

Shark, her mind screamed. There’s a shark and there is nowhere for you to hide.

She grabbed onto the stones with her hands, shoving herself farther away from the creature and kicking her feet. But she wasn’t a fast enough swimmer, not even slightly.

Black water bubbled around her, and she didn’t have time to wonder where all the ink was coming from. Perhaps it was an octopus trying to help hide her. She didn’t care. Again it struck her, shoving her into the kelp forest and away from the safety of the bells. Away from Byte.

Away from anywhere Arges would find her.

Panic swirled, making it hard to focus on anything but the terror that ran through her veins and the way her mind screamed to hide.

She turned her body in the water, forcing herself to look, even though that was the last thing she wanted to do. She didn’t want to see the giant shark, the sharp teeth, or the nightmare that likely waited for her. But when she turned, she saw nothing. Not even the dark shadow before she bumped into something equally hard.

She screamed. Her rebreather sent out a wave of bubbles that obscured her vision. She kicked and fought against the tentacle wrapped around her waist, completely lost to her panic as she swore she felt sharp teeth breaking through her skin.

But then...

Then a voice rumbled in her ear. Like a song of peace and quiet, insisting that she settle in his arms.

And oh. It was Arges.

She relaxed in his grip, easing her spine against his chest and feeling the flare of his gills against her ribs. She shouldn’t find such relief knowing that it was him. He was still a dangerous undine who had attacked her people countless times and she shouldn’t want to find comfort in him, but... she did.

At least in this place, knowing what she did, she knew he would keep her safe.

That was a strange enough feeling without the shadow that loomed in front of them. Not a shark, after all. Another undine.

Yet again, she wished she could ask him questions. Had he stolen her without the knowledge of other undines? Did this one want to get rid of her? What reason did he have to kidnap her and then hide her from his people? Because his arm was banded around her stomach, and he dragged her even closer into himself, like he could wrap his body around her and keep her safe.

The undine in front of them was badly wounded. She felt her face crease in worry as her eyes skated down his missing arm that leaked black blood sluggishly into the waters around them. And he seemed to be struggling to breathe. His gills were flared far wider than she’d ever seen Arges’s, and his eyes kept closing for longer times than a blink needed.

Tapping her hands on Arges’s forearms, she said, “Arges, he’s injured.”

The arms around her waist flexed, tightening at the sound of his name. The other undine lurched forward, rocking at the name as well. They said short words to each other, the farthest from song she’d ever heard from an undine.

They were angry? At each other or at her?

Mira felt like this was a rather important bit of information that she needed to know. If this undine wanted to kill her, then she had to get out of here. Arges could protect her, but he shouldn’t fight this injured undine on her behalf. She didn’t want him to...

More shadows joined them. Two others who floated down from above. One with bright yellow slashes, another with purple lines like veins throughout his entire body.

Then they were all talking. Saying so much that it made her ears hurt. But some part of her said yes, talk more. Byte had to be listening to everything being said, and this was a good amount of conversation for it to translate.

Please, she thought. Please be listening, Byte.

Finally Arges jerked her behind him, and she floated into the kelp. Maybe he didn’t mean for her to get so far from him, but she wanted to put some distance between herself and the wall of angry undine that all glared at her like she was an invasive species of algae.

She supposed to them she was. A new and disgusting plague upon their people.

They all gestured to her often. Their claws slashing through the water so quickly they became a blur. Colorful tails whipped behind them, carrying them closer and closer to Arges, who seemed to be more than ready to meet them in the middle. She’d never noticed he had spines down his back, but they rose now and she couldn’t help but fear that they were raised in her defense.

She didn’t want anyone else to get hurt because of a stupid engineer who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And then it just all... stopped. The undine missing an arm seemed to faint. Of course, they were in the water, so he just floated up. His tail drifted toward the surface while his body hung there, strangely graceful, almost upside down, as though he were asleep.

The other two were quick to gather him up, and then they all disappeared into the kelp.

Shoving the billowing mass of her own hair out of her face, she stared at Arges in shock. He looked back at her, those odd features seemingly conflicted before he snapped his tail and then he was upon her.

His claws scooped underneath her chin, and she was certain this was the moment he killed her. Obviously, he’d told the others he would follow them after he dealt with her.

But he didn’t snap her neck. He didn’t sink those claws into her skin, either. Instead, he turned her head from side to side, searching for... injuries? Why would she be injured?

Arges turned her face left and right again, moved her around so that he could run his hands down her spine and waist, making sure she was well before he leaned back and stared down at her. Then that melodious voice, singing to her and saying something that she had no idea how to decipher.

“Arges!” she said, hissing out a breath when she finally took a second to look at him.

There was black blood coming out of him, too. His shoulder looked like it was a mess, all ragged looking meat and sharp edges. She hovered her hand over the injury, not touching in case there was some rule against that or if her suit would make him sicker.

“You’re hurt too.” She looked up at him through her stupid goggles and tried to convey her worry.

But he said nothing in response. He just looked back at her, and she felt something inside her click into place. She cared that this strange creature was injured. Even if they couldn’t understand each other, she now considered him a... friend.