Chapter 9

Nine

Mira

“Fuck!” Mira screamed, kicking a sizable rock toward the water. It made a very large, satisfying splash, but that didn’t change her situation.

The fucking undine had kidnapped her. He’d followed her through that volcanic field, fished her out like she was nothing but a nuisance, and then left her here.

To die.

She was so deep underwater, there was no way she could sneak home. She didn’t have her flippers, so swimming would be far too slow. Her feet would freeze off, and it was only a small miracle that the undine put off an insane amount of heat around those waist fins of his. Otherwise, she’d have lost her toes on the journey here.

But now what? He’d left her in a cave, with nothing but the natural light that emitted from the strange pool. She had to sit here and wait for him? She’d die.

He’d left her to die.

Her heart thundered in her chest and the words played over and over again through her mind.

He’d left her to die. She was going to die here. This cave would be her tomb and no one would know what had happened to her. No one would really care, either. Engineers went missing all the time when they took on an out-of-Beta job.

She could have hit a strange current. She could have hit her head and then floated off the cliff. Maybe a couple of people would be disappointed that they’d have to take up her work, but no one would outright miss her. Mira didn’t even have a friend who would ask what had happened to her.

They all just did what they could. No one in Beta liked to make attachments because what if something happened to them? Just like what had happened to her.

She set her rebreather down on a nearby stone and then slumped down beside it. She couldn’t take her eyes off the contraption that had worked so well.

The others would think her design was flawed. That something in her rebreather had gone wrong, and that’s why she hadn’t come back up. No one would even give her the credit for creating something that worked. Her design was perfect, and it had not only given her air during the assignment, but under a lot of pressure beneath the ocean as well.

“You were perfect,” she whispered, her voice echoing a bit in the cavern. Ghosting her fingers over the device, she stared into the glowing yellow water.

It was pretty. The natural motion of the sea turned into soft, undulating waves. Barely noticeable unless she stared at the water. Then she could see the flickering sparkles that drifted left to right. It lulled her senses, setting her mind into something almost like a trance.

“You are safe,” she murmured to herself. “You are alive. You are not dead yet.”

Over and over, she repeated the words until some of the tension in her body had eased. Her heart eased upon the hammering in her ribs like an insistent child. I will relax, it seemed to say. But soon we need to run again.

And run where? She was only feet from the icy water, and the ground wasn’t entirely warm against her toes. Not cold, but definitely not warm.

“You have to get up and do something,” Mira told herself. So she stood.

Maybe she stayed frozen there for a little while longer. Her stomach twisted as she thought about drowning herself. It would serve that undine right to return and find that she’d done the work for him. If he’d wanted to kill her, he could have at least fought her.

Starvation was a horrible way to go.

Finally, though, she tore her eyes away from the glimmering lights and turned her attention to the cave itself. Maybe this would give her a little more details on where she was. She couldn’t be on the surface, no undine would bring her there. Besides, wouldn’t she be hearing a lot more thunder from the storms that never abated?

She had to still be underwater. He must have brought her to a cave system that... that...

“Is that a crate?” she asked.

It was more than just a crate.

There was an entire computer system here. All set up in the back of the cave. She’d recognize the look of that anywhere. The hardware was similar to the ones in the engineering section of Beta. Old, but not impossible to turn on.

Taking a staggering step forward, she paused and then scrubbed her eyes hard to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating.

“You can’t have nitrogen poisoning,” she muttered. “You weren’t breathing gas.”

But it sure seemed like she was hallucinating.

She took another step forward. Then another. Her body started moving of its own accord as she lunged toward the equipment. A few clicks here, a swift kick to the side there, and three bangs of her fist on the top of the old generator and voila. She was in luck.

Apparently, the energy was derived from the water. She heard a soft churn before lights flickered on above her head. There weren’t many, most of them were on their own stand and a few of the bulbs were broken.

But she had three lights. Three white lights that weren’t coming out of the ocean.

And an entire computer system at her disposal.

“Oh, you stupid undine,” she muttered as she grabbed onto the side of the computer. “Messaging system, turn on. On.”

There were two words on the screen, and they crushed what little hope she’d had to send a message.

Systems Offline.

So, she wouldn’t be able to tell anyone that she was still alive. But at the very least, she had lights. She had crates of stuff to look through, although most of them appeared to be empty. And there was a cot in the corner with a very moldy blanket that had sunk into the mattress itself. She’d have to get rid of that.

It wasn’t the worst place she’d stayed by far. Neither would this be a very comfortable stay. But maybe if she tried her best, she could get that computer working. The signal would be weak, and it would be really hard for her to do much other than send a single message repeatedly, but it was a start.

It was hope.

The sound of rippling water caught her attention. Mira turned and shrieked when she saw the undine floating behind her in the pool. Just the top of his head and his eyes showed, watching her with that black gaze that somehow was more unnerving out of the water than in it.

She hadn’t realized he had so many gills on the sides of his face. Maybe they’d been flat to his skull the few times she’d seen him, but now they stood out. Sharp spikes with webs, rounded curves and edges, all blue and veiny and really gross.

How some people in Beta thought the undines looked humanoid, she would never understand. They were monsters. They were terrible beasts who kidnapped people who were just trying to do their job.

“What are you doing back here?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest and keeping a large distance between them. Could he get out of the water?

She thought he’d survive it. He’d been in the hallway with her just fine, and then he’d done that strange vomiting movement that had expelled water out of his gills. So he must be able to live for a while outside of the water.

The undine lifted something and threw it at her. She sidestepped, avoiding whatever projectile he’d tossed.

“Real mature,” she muttered, looking around for something to throw back at him. “Two can play at that game, you know.”

Maybe they’d left a wrench. It wouldn’t be very smart to waste such a valuable tool, but, oh, it would feel so good to see it bounce off his thick skull.

Then something flopped against her foot and she realized with shock that he’d brought her a fish. A big one, too. With glittering gray skin and a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. But it was food, and there was definitely no food down here that she could still eat.

She fell on it immediately, putting her knee against its gills and reaching for the first heavy thing she could find. Unfortunately, that happened to be a very useful back up screen that she might have needed. She brought it down on its skull a little too quickly to think about it, though.

Waste of equipment in a trade for food. She’d take it.

The fish stopped flopping around, and she let out a relieved breath. The poor thing didn’t deserve to die like this. Some nasty human bashing its head in because an undine had decided it was the one worth being the fodder to keep her alive.

“Fire, then?” Looking at the creature, who for some reason was taking care of her, she wiggled her fingers in the air as she mimicked the movement of fire. “You must have seen us make fire before. Clearly you were a peeping tom for most of your life.”

He tilted his head to the side, clearly confused by her actions.

What else had he seen that made fire?

“Uh...” She looked around, trying to find something that might help her. And then she remembered he’d seen her welder. The torch wasn’t exactly easy to find, but who knows? Maybe she could ask for anything and he’d bring it to her.

Oh, god. Was he keeping her as a pet? Was she some strange science project that he’d brought to this cave to see how long she’d survive?

Grinding her teeth, she mimed pulling her welder off her hip and using it in the air. Just like he’d seen her the first time. “Welder?” she asked, pointing to her hand that was in the shape of the small handheld gun. “This. This is what I’m looking for.”

If anything, he only scowled at her even more deeply before sinking back underneath the waves.

“Right,” she muttered. “That was asking too much.”

She stared down at the fish and every part of her revolted. No one wanted her to work in the kitchens, and she’d never wanted to work there, anyway. Mira had eaten fish her entire life. It was practically the only meat they could get down in the depths of the ocean. Maybe Alpha had some secret red meat animals that they could eat, but in Beta they were lucky to get chicken when the birds eventually died. Even then, it was tough as nails and tasted a little... off.

But she’d never cut into a fish before. She’d never gutted one of the animals, even though she knew theoretically how it worked.

Damn. This was a learning experience, and she didn’t even have a knife.

Mira had no idea how long she stared at the poor creature, willing it to come back to life so she could just knock it back into the water and forget this had happened. And then the guilt stepped in. It had been so beautiful. Who was she to take a life when she wasn’t even hungry yet?

It was a lie. She was very hungry. But maybe whoever had been in this research facility had rations that would last however many years it had been since someone was in here. She hadn’t needed to kill the fish yet. And the undine...

The undine.

He was staring at her in the water again. How long had he been there this time? Watching her stare at the dead fish like an idiot?

She gulped and gestured at the fish. “I don’t know what to do with it now.”

Right, why had she expected any reaction out of him? He just hated her and wanted all of this to be over and done with.

Why had he brought her here?

His long dark arm lifted out of the water and again, he threw something at her. This time it was at her head. Mira had better reflexes than that, though.

With a hiss of disapproval, she caught what he’d thrown without knowing what it was. All she could feel was that it was cold, wet, and very hard.

Frowning, she brought it down to look at the ancient welder that he’d brought her. It was waterlogged, with barnacles growing along the handle. But it was definitely a welder.

She sat down hard on her butt next to the dead fish, flipped the welder onto its side, and yanked the cartridge out. Mira then sighed in relief. The sparker was still in it. Theoretically, all she had to do was clean it out and let it dry. Then she should be able to hit the same trigger, maybe have to fix a few things for that to work as well, and she’d have fire.

That was a life saver.

The undine made a sound like something of a hum, and when she looked back at him he gestured at the fish. Making a strange grabbing motion with his hands, she assumed he wanted her to trade the fish back to him.

“Sure bud,” she muttered, kicking it in his direction. “I’ll figure out how to get my own.”

And then, to her complete and utter shock, he didn’t swim away with it. Instead, he pulled himself halfway out of the water. And boy, he was massive. So big that outside of the water, he looked like the monster he was. Lean and long, his muscles rippled as he dragged the fish a little closer, balancing with his hip bones against the rock, before he then sliced the fish’s belly open with his claws.

She’d never guessed her life would take this weird twist. This massive creature was... cleaning the fish out for her.

He swirled the body in the water every now and then, and she could see organs and blood soaking through the waves. It made her a little nauseous to watch, but she couldn’t pull her eyes away from him.

The undine who kidnapped her was trying to... feed her?

“Right,” she muttered to herself, working on pulling the welder apart. “This is normal. Just another afternoon spent with my undine friend while he prepares dinner and I work on some lost trash that he apparently thinks is a gift. Nothing to see here at all.”

He looked at her, flicking those black eyes in her direction. She had no idea how she knew he was looking at her, but the sensation of his gaze was like a physical touch along her arms and legs.

Looking down at her suit, she set one of the welder pieces on top of a stone with the others. “Yeah, I know. I’m gonna have to figure this suit out so it can dry or it’ll rot right into my skin. There’s gotta be something in those crates to cover myself with if it survived.”

The undine finished with the fish, then laid it on the stones and slipped back into the water. Every movement was eerily and disturbingly graceful.

“Thanks,” she muttered, looking at the fish and then back at the creature, who moved like he intended to leave again.

She couldn’t let him go. Panic made her heart thunder in her chest again. She’d be alone in here. Completely and utterly alone, hundreds of feet below the surface, and what was she supposed to do? One fish wasn’t enough! What about water? Light? Energy? Heat?

“Wait!” she shouted, lunging for the water as he started to disappear.

At least he came back up at her shout. His brows furrowed and his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

What would keep him here? Maybe communication? Obviously, he’d kidnapped her for a reason. Maybe the creature had a little crush, she had no idea. All she could think to do was tap herself on the chest three times.

“Mira,” she said, tapping again. “My name is Mira.”

He watched her, and she swore he understood what she was trying to say, before he sank into the depths. She watched his tail flick through the golden light, then disappear.