“Acknowledged. Hahn Ranch, out.”
Circling the border of the ranch farthest from Atlantis, Sera looked for a good landing site. Spotting a flat area, she brought the skimmer to a slow halt outside a massive dome on the edge of the rim.
Oeric almost pressed his nose to the glass. “Pacifica,” he breathed. “The lost city. After Earth’s sun died, the life-support systems were lost, and the scientists couldn’t save it. So it was abandoned.”
She focused on him, desperate to think of anything but Bretton and the fact that she was going to be confined in this skimmer with him. “Ever been this far out to see it?”
“Once as a boy—I was only able to look in the windows. A child can make the swim in a day, but most of us don’t leave the city region very often.” His eyes twinkled with excitement.
Keying the landing gear, she set them down just outside the city. “Well, you’re in luck. Let’s see if I can’t get us inside.”
“Are you serious?” A huge grin lit his face and made his gold and blue eyes dance.
“Of course.” Anything, anything to keep from being locked in this glass jar with Bretton. But Oeric didn’t need to know that.
His forehead wrinkled. “This area is supposed to have had some recent wild sea dragon attacks.”
“There’s a trident in the back as well as a small harpoon gun. Let me change, and then we can go.” She unbuckled the straps, hopped up to walk back to the shifting chamber, and shut the door. A year of practice made it a quick change to shed her jumpsuit and stuff herself into the silver wet suit. She hit the panel to open the door as she sealed the seam on the front of her diving outfit.
Oeric stepped naked into the tiny chamber with her. His clothes lay folded in a neat pile on one of the passenger seats. After a year of being around shifters, she’d grown used to the nudity, but she’d never really enjoyed flashing her ass in public.
“As an unaltered human, I have no way of communicating underwater. Keep any questions limited to those that have a yes or no answer.”
“There’s a kind of infopad sold at a shop near my grandmother’s that could be used to remedy that problem. You’d have to input the answers, but it’s an idea.”
She nodded. “I’ll look into it. Perhaps it can be modified.”
It was strange to speak of later dates of taking the young merman with her. Intellectually, she knew that was what having an apprentice meant, but she was so used to doing everything on her own.
Placing her rebreather in her mouth, she took a few deep breaths to get used to breathing in through her mouth and blowing out through her nose. Oeric punched in the code to allow water to fill the small shifting chamber while she strapped on her flippers.
The rush of seawater didn’t quite manage to cover the sickening suction and pop of bones as Oeric shifted into his merman form. The tips of his fins brushed against her hand while he grabbed the bars overhead to hold himself up while the last quarter of the chamber filled with water.
He went a horrible shade of pasty white. Her eyebrows arched, and she made a gesture to ask if he was all right. The big man nodded and closed his eyes. I will be fine. I don’t care for confined spaces.
She shuddered as the water level went over her head and she had to use the rebreather. Yes, she could see how even a mild case of claustrophobia would be a problem in this chamber.
Punching in the release code, she grabbed the harpoon gun and handed Oeric the trident before they exited the skimmer. The rear hatch opened wide, and Oeric snapped his tail to get out first. She wedged herself against the wall to give him room before she followed him out.
He jerked to a stop and lifted the trident, but she snapped a hand around his wrist before he let the weapon loose. Her dolphins had followed them out to Pacifica. The man’s muscles relaxed under her grip, and he nodded.
Sera. Oeric. Bretton’s smooth voice filled her mind and slid like rough velvet down her nerves just before he rounded the end of the skimmer. She shivered and closed her eyes for a moment.
Oeric bowed at the waist, his tail whipping to keep him at a steady level in the water. Ambassador. Doctor Gibbons has decided to explore Pacifica.
Before Bretton could respond, Sera flashed a hand signal to Sulis, wrapped her free arm around his dorsal fin, and let him swim her out to the dome. She held her harpoon gun at the ready while the mermen kept pace beside her. They all pressed their noses to the glass when they reached the central dome. She half feared to see ancient corpses floating in the water inside, but it looked empty. The windowpanes were crusted with purple algae.
Pacifica was roughly half the size of Atlantis. It had been incomplete when she’d left Earth, and she hadn’t looked into why it had malfunctioned, because there were so many issues in the populated areas of Aquatilis for her to deal with that Pacifica hadn’t been a priority.
As if in answer to her question, Oeric spoke to her telepathically. The backup systems had never been adequately tested before the survivors from Earth arrived and overflowed Atlantis. Pacifica was overloaded, and when the main system failed, there was nothing else. The unaltered humans drowned in the flood that filled the city.
Bretton nodded. It was a sad time for mankind.
I’ve always wanted to see the inside. What if the damage was reversible? A quiet yearning filled the young man’s telepathic voice. Then he grinned, embarrassment in his eyes that he’d revealed so much.
So he had a fascination for the lost city, did he? Interesting. His excitement was contagious. What if Pacifica could be restored?
Intense longing flooded Sera at the thought. What if she could escape some of the overachieving perfectionists of Atlantis? She’d considered moving to one of the rim ranches before, but they didn’t have the lab equipment she needed to work.
And Bretton wouldn’t be there.
She squashed that thought. Bretton didn’t want her. He’d made it clear in more ways than she could count. She’d just refused to pay attention to it. Until now.
A flash of red light caught her eye. She squinted to see if she could find the source. Nothing. Was it a reflection of some kind? Glancing over at the two men, she didn’t see anything red. Bretton was all turquoise and black, while Oeric’s tail was blue tipped with gold that matched his eyes. And nothing she wore flashed. The utility belt built into her wet suit held several instruments, but none with red lights and none of it should have been powered on.
She tapped Oeric on the shoulder and pointed down to indicate she was going to the base of the dome. He nodded and executed a neat flip in the water. Bretton frowned and followed suit. Compared to a merperson, Sera’s own movements were slow and ungainly, but she pushed away any impatience.
If Pacifica had the same architectural plan as Atlantis, there were ducts where the base of the dome met the corridors that spiked out. They were used to fill and drain the shifting chambers. There. The red light emanated from one of the duct’s control panels. She pulled from her belt a tool that would help her pry the cover from the duct and let her into the shifting chamber. Brushing more of the purple algae away from the control panel, she blinked when she saw the holoscreen light up at her touch. If the systems had failed at Pacifica, why would it have any power at all? The cold fusion that powered everything on Aquatilis was limitless, but if it had failed, there should be nothing left to generate this panel.
Pacifica should no longer have the capacity to generate this system. Oeric’s voice took on the intense curiosity she was used to from other scientists. She would have smiled if her mouth hadn’t been full of the rebreather.
She lifted her shoulders in an exaggerated shrug. She had no idea what was going on either. Punching in the disengage code that worked at Atlantis, she hoped it worked here, too. A series of lights blipped on the display and then went black. Damn. She was going to have to manually override the system.
The entire panel lit in blue and orange before the duct cover popped open. She glanced over at Oeric and Bretton,
motioning for them to stay put.
No. Bretton sliced a hand through the water.
Oeric shook his head. There may be sea dragons in there, Doctor.
She doubted that. The dome looked as though it had been sealed after the initial life-support had failed. Because she had no way of arguing with them, she measured the width of the duct opening and compared it to the width of Bretton’s shoulders. He might fit, but she doubted it. Oeric wouldn’t have a chance.
Oeric’s jaw clenched, and she would bet he was thinking about what it would be like to get trapped in that tunnel. She patted his arm and used the side of the duct to pull herself into it. Tucking the harpoon gun close to her chest, she made sure it was ready to use just in case she was wrong about the sea dragons. Her last experience with a tame one was more than enough to make her wary.
Her sex clenched at the memory of what had happened after the sea dragon incident. Heat lashed through her body, made her muscles shake so hard she had to stop swimming for a moment. God, the man was a menace to her mental well-being even when he was nowhere near her. It was unfair, because she doubted very much that he had the same difficulties. Her jaw tightened, and she forced herself to push forward and shove Bretton firmly from her mind.
The water inside the duct was dark and cloudy, so she flicked on the lights she’d built into the rebreather. Her heart jolted when something moved ahead. Just a few dangling optic cables. Her pulse still raced as she pushed them out of her way. The end of the tunnel lay ahead. This panel should exit into the shifting chamber where she could let the mermen in. Bracing her free hand on the side of the tunnel, she wriggled in the tight space until she lay on her back. Another control panel flickered above her. This time when she punched in the right code, it responded immediately, and the cover flipped open. She clutched the harpoon gun and kept her finger on the trigger, hoping nothing with sharp teeth awaited her inside.
Nothing moved. She blew a breath out of her nose, and a flurry of bubbles rose. Kicking with her flippers, she entered the wider shifting chamber. Within seconds, she had it open for the waiting Oeric and Bretton. They went through a series of what used to be air locks before they reached the main dome. All of it was filled with water, and all of it still appeared completely functional. Lights automatically flickered to life as they moved through the corridors. The dome would have the central control room that might give her a clue about what had really happened at Pacifica.
Because the systems had not completely failed.
The control room door stuck a quarter of the way open after she keyed the holodisplay. She wrapped her hand around the edge to push but couldn’t budge it.
Oeric’s fingers closed over hers. If I may?
Gesturing him forward and deliberately avoiding looking at Bretton, she moved back. Might as well let the young merman’s massive size and brute strength count for something. After a few minutes of struggle, his tail gave a hard kick, the muscles in his arms and neck stood out in sharp relief, and the door squeaked open.
Oeric and Bretton crowded into the small room with her. Oeric explored the holoscreens while Bretton stayed in the middle of the room, looking irritated. Because he couldn’t do anything to help, or because he didn’t want to be here? She couldn’t tell…and she didn’t care. Damn it.
She started from one end of the room and worked her way to the main controls, running diagnostics on every system in the city. Except for the water inside, everything was operational. She shook her head. It made no sense at all.
Oeric wrapped a hand around her elbow and tugged her over to a panel. He tapped his finger against the screen. The backup systems are reading incorrectly. To borrow your phrase, I have a theory. What if the backup systems did not fail? What if they never worked properly in the first place?
She nodded. Either the original systems never worked and someone had screwed up, or they’d been installed incorrectly…and someone had screwed up. Both situations could be remedied. Excitement kicked her hard in the gut. Pacifica might be saved. There should be labs and equipment here she could use. Pointing to a holoscreen, she showed Oeric that she proposed to start pumping the water out of the city. It would start in the main dome and work its way outward to the four quadrants. She pointed to Bretton and let Oeric explain her intentions to him.
Again, she didn’t meet that piercing turquoise gaze, but she felt it burn into her back as she swam to the front of the room. She keyed in the command that would push the water out of the city. A deep rumbling vibrated through the walls as the pumps kicked on. The initial drain should take a little over an hour. If the backups were working, she could make it happen in a fraction of that time, but she didn’t want to tax the mainframe. And she wanted to look at the backup systems before she left.
Glancing back, she made sure the men understood what they needed to do to prepare for the draining. Oeric closed his eyes for a moment as he shifted back into his human form. His legs kicked to keep him afloat. Fortunately his gill passages worked no matter what form he was in. Bretton’s eyes narrowed at her before he shifted as well.
She glanced away, pulled the city schematic up on the large screen in the control room, and pinpointed the location of the systems room. North quadrant dome. Turning, she led the way. The men could probably still swim faster than her, but she had no desire to stare at Oeric’s naked backside—among other things—the whole way there. And looking at Bretton’s nudity would just heat her to the point where she would be unsurprised if the water around her boiled.
It took them almost no time to assess the problem once they reached the systems room. Oeric’s eyebrows arched. Some fool installed this backwards.
She cut power to the backup systems so they could safely work with it. Everything on Aquatilis was specifically designed to survive water. She should know—she’d helped design it. If it was used properly. She shook her head at the mistake that had cost so many their lives. Whether the mistake was made out of laziness or sheer idiocy, there was no excuse for it. These people had been desperate after the sun had failed, but cutting corners with safety meant people died.
At her nod, Oeric reached in and reinstalled the system while Sera ran a battery of diagnostic tests. Everything checked out perfectly when Oeric was done. Damn, the kid knew his stuff when it came to working with the domes. The water level finally dropped low enough that she could stand and have her head above it. She sucked an experimental breath through her nose. O2 levels read as normal on the holodisplays, and she couldn’t smell any gases. Nothing read as odd either. Oeric met her eyes, and their faces stretched into triumphant grins. “Pacifica lives.”
Sera groaned, tugged off her flippers, and strapped them to her utility belt. “You realize this means I have to make a report to the Senate.”
“Yes, we will.” Bretton’s voice took on a silken, dangerous edge as he spoke into her ear. She shuddered, lust rushing through her with a force that should no longer surprise her but did. Her nipples beaded tight in her wet suit.
Oeric reached out to pat her back in consolation. “I’ll come with you. If nothing else, I’m so big I scare Senator Laddon. He turns and scurries away whenever I approach.”
“You’re joking.” Senator Laddon was one of Bretton’s father’s closest friends. Some would claim the senator was Cuthbert’s puppet.
Oeric gave a negligent shrug. “It might have something to do with a slight accident I had when I was younger. The senator felt the brunt of my fist.”
Bretton chuckled, his turquoise eyes dancing. Obviously everyone knew the story except Sera. She grinned. “A slight accident? Do tell.”
The young merman rubbed the back of his shaved head, and a flush raced up his face. “I’d rather not.”
She laughed out loud, adrenaline and triumph fizzing in her veins. “Okay then. The water should be completely drained soon, so let’s explore a little, check the control room one more time, and get back to the skimmer. We’re running late.”
Oeric met Brett
on’s eyes, and some silent communication went on between them. The younger man nodded, turned, and slogged through the waist-high water down the corridor. She angled a glare at Bretton. “You ordered my apprentice to leave?”
“He knew it was the healthiest choice for him. I gave no orders.”
She rolled her eyes at that sideways logic and pushed through the chilly ocean water to open the first door in the corridor. There was nothing in the room but a few metal crates. It looked like a storage area. The water was dropping rapidly now, wrapping around her calves as she walked to the next door. Bretton passed her to look in the rooms on the opposite side of the corridor.
“Sera.” She looked up when Bretton spoke. He motioned her forward. “This room was untouched. No water got inside.”
Wading through the ankle-deep water, she approached to see that he was right. Everything inside was dry except the floor where he’d let the water in. She nodded. “Hermetically sealed. We’ll probably find a few rooms like this in the city.”
Her shoulder brushed his chest as she leaned in, and desire raced over her skin. She swallowed and pressed her thighs together. She felt her sex dampen.
Every time she was near him, he pulled reactions from her whether she was willing or not. She choked on a laugh. When wasn’t she willing? She had no resistance when it came to him. Her nipples tightened and chafed against her wet suit. She sped past him, trying to get some physical distance, even if her ability to maintain emotional distance was nonexistent.
Chapter 5
Bretton watched Sera step over the threshold into the sealed room he’d found. Curiosity lit her gray eyes, made them sparkle. His hands fisted at his sides as she slid past him. The smell of her and saltwater caressed his nose. He pulled in a deep breath to capture the sweet scent. She’d not spared him so much as a glance the past hour—had hardly spoken to him.
“What were you doing with Oeric at the rim ranches today?” He bit back a groan when she bent over to examine something, her tight silver suit pulling taut across her lush backside. His nudity would do nothing to hide the effect she had on his cock.
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