“Edgar!”
The vision disappeared, the water molecules melting back into her hand. He was okay, though. That’s what was important.
“Apparently your small friend communicates better than you do. News of your departure, and ability to carry a portion of our ocean, has spread.”
But most of these creatures would be ticked off by that news. He better be careful, wherever he was.
Another clear watermelon swam out from behind a larger female, and another.
Pairs. Dozens and dozens of pairs. Had Edgar figured out the secret of the kinetic energy? Had he been rallying recruits to our cause?
“Apparently you weren’t the only one that has been sneaking through the rift.” David said.
“They want to go with us,” Ruby said.
David rubbed his face. “With that many, we could make it rain everywhere on the planet.”
“But what about this planet? Don’t we need to keep it raining here on Earth?”
Ruby turned to me. “The numbers are not too great to hurt our world, and remember, this is not the only place in the ocean deep enough to be a home for my kind.”
I guess that made sense.
“There’s a little problem though,” David said. “I was worried about two of you living in the lower section comfortably. There’s no way to fit all of you.”
She straightened. “Discomfort is a small price to pay for freedom.”
“There’s just no way,” David said, “unless you can shrink yourselves.”
Maggie’s image became still. The creatures outside fluttered, their lights pulsing. The males entwined themselves among the long tendrils of the females as the larger creatures circled like some strange aquatic animal show at Sea World. After six complete revolutions from the group, several pairs drifted back.
Maggie jerked up. “Eighteen have agreed to stay behind. They will try to foster peace between our kinds and communicate the truth.”
I shivered. That probably wasn’t going to go over too well. Better them than me.
Ruby’s people broke their formation.
“There’s still too many,” David said.
“We will make do,” Ruby whispered.
The last of the glowing creatures floated from sight, sinking beneath the ship.
David continued to check the console. “Let me know when everyone is inside.” Or you can’t fit anymore. His hesitation scurried across our bond: the weight of the water, pressure containment, and his ability to keep them alive once we got them to Mars … if we got them to Mars.
But we needed to focus on the now. We had more pressing problems to deal with.
“Is anyone else worried about why the ones chasing us haven’t followed?” I kneaded my shoulders. “I mean, they were pretty adamant about drowning us before.”
“That is why we can waste no more time,” Ruby said.
Several blue, a few green, and a yellow creature swam away from the ship, along with their ovoid partners.
Ruby lowered her gaze. “They were unable to fit into the ship. They will return with the others.”
David stretched across the panel, and the windows before us flickered and turned into video monitors. The screens focused on a swarm of glowing colors twisted together like bright scarves squashed into a box four times too small.
He turned to Ruby. “You can barely move in there.”
“Let us worry about ourselves,” Ruby said.
The pictures faded back into the windows. Beams of white light shot out from both sides of our ship, the only illumination to guide us through the depth’s obscurity.
“Thank you,” Ruby whispered, “for giving them a chance.”
My heart clenched. Them, not us. Maybe it was worse for her, now, surrounded by her own kind—all pairs seeking the same freedom to love that she and Silver had hoped for.
Instead of being alone by herself, she now had to deal with being alone among others. Happy others—a constant reminder of her loss.
I reached over to hold her hand, but as usual my fingers went right through hers. I held them where her hand would be, even though she probably couldn’t feel me. I wish I could coax a smile from her. Anything.
I knew how hard it was, losing someone. After my mom died, the emptiness had twisted inside me for months before receding to the background as a dull, ever-present specter. It changed me. I couldn’t imagine the pain of losing someone you’d chosen to give your heart to. What was going through her head? How did she stay sane?
“We’re here,” David said.
The lights grazed across the rocky ceiling and then vanished within the small fissure that had brought us here. David swayed his palm over the panel, and the walls around us buckled and brightened before dulling to a pale gray.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I’m changing the shape of the ship so we can fit through without getting stuck again.”
The illumination reflected off the shiny rock walls as we approached the crevice. I leaned forward, marveling at how easily we passed through when the ship had the power to flex at will.
Tiny, spider-like creatures flittered from the beams, some leaving an inky trail behind them. Thistles of tangled plant life swayed, while others sucked into their foundations as we approached.
Despite pointing straight up, I clutched the arms of my chair and pushed back. My heart thumped as if we were breaching the top of a roller coaster. My hands dampened like we were banking a turn, and I didn’t know where the car might go next.
The unknown ate away at me. My world lay up there, waiting. But we didn’t just have to get to the surface. We had to get all the way to Mars and then, hopefully, Ruby and her friends could make it rain. There were no positives in any of this plan. Only hopes. For now, that was all I could hold on to.
“We’re almost out,” David said. “But it looks like something big is following us into the rift.”
“How big?” Ruby asked.
“Big enough to make a disruption cloud for our sensors to pick up.”
“Can we go faster?” I asked.
“We can, but whatever is down there keeps matching our speed.” He sank back into his chair. “Here comes the top of the rift.”
We exploded out of the dark into a blinding array of color. David muttered something in his own language, banking the ship to the right, away from the brilliance.
We lurched forward and jolted as if hitting something, before shifting into reverse. I crashed back onto the headrest as we stalled. David sprang to his feet, but didn’t manipulate the console.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
He turned to me, the crease in his brow mirroring the fear already bubbling through our tether. “We’re surrounded.”
23
The glare surrounding us stung my eyes. I held up my hand, blocking enough of the glow to see the long, scrawling tendrils drifting together, burning like embers in the sea. This was why they hadn’t chased us. They’d been waiting here all along.
Ruby’s hands splayed, her gaze fixed on the windows. “Run through them.”
“There are too many, and they’ve secured the rift behind us. We can’t go up, and we can’t go back down.” David flopped back to his chair.
A green creature swam closer, its bulk taking up the entire window. Several of its tendrils hung loosely below her main frame. The edges of two tentacles swayed limply in the current, rough and darkened along their edges as if recently severed.
Green Goon. It had to be.
The walls and ceiling vibrated. Clear water droplets flew through our cabin, swirling and joining into a larger, malleable form that settled over the console.
My wet hair lifted and drew forward. The moisture swished from my bangs toward the front of the ship and splashed into the larger form. The deluge continued, forming a translucent column that rolled, pinched, and elongated. Arms and legs oozed from the main form before a beautiful,
friendly face appeared. Matt Samuels. Our visitor reclined on the console, eerily reminiscent of Matt lounging on Columbia’s Alma Mater steps just before David’s ship arrived.
But this being was not Matt Samuels. I knew better.
The warm smile that always graced Matt’s face faded to a scowl as he leaned toward David. “You said you didn’t come here to steal, yet you have stolen.”
“We’ve taken nothing. They asked to come with us.”
“But leaving is not their right. You have taken what is not yours. Drop your cargo.”
“Never,” Ruby spat. “You have imprisoned us. Lied to us. You have done unspeakable things.”
Not-Matt pointed at Ruby. “And you will be dealt with most harshly. A Red, with all your responsibility … ” His lip twisted. “Appalling.”
“We’re only taking the few who asked to leave.” David stood and circumvented his chair. “You need to understand that the fate of the surface depends on this.”
Goon waved Matt’s hand. “I care not for matters of the air-breathers. I care only for my own kind, and every one of them is precious. They stay here. There is no more discussion.”
David’s hands fisted. “No.”
Not-Matt reeled up from the console, inhumanly sliding to the floor and meeting David’s rigid gaze. “Drop. Your. Cargo.”
They stared at each other, David trembling slightly. I sensed apprehension and fear flooding through our bond. A bead of sweat shined atop his brow.
His voice boomed through my mind. Not real. Not real. Not real.
What wasn’t real?
I cringed. The last time this creature manifested in our world, I’d seen Matt, but David had seen his father. Was that his struggle? Did he see Sabbotaruo? What could have happened between David and his father in the past two years to make David terrified to even stand in his presence?
A deep seeded anxiety trickled across our bond, a fear that hadn’t been there the last time David and I had been together. If Goon had the ability to poke around in our heads, and something had happened between David and Sabbotaruo, I couldn’t take the chance that Goon had taken the perfect form to force David to give her what she wanted.
“Lay off, jerk!” I shoved Not-Matt out of the way.
Well, I tried to, anyway. There was nothing to shove, and I stumbled through the creature’s liquid form.
Not-Matt splashed to the floor, drenching me, then rematerialized next to David. His watery nose flared. This overgrown octopus was seriously getting on my nerves, and we were running out of time.
I shook the drops from my arms. “We’re not giving up, and you and all your friends are going to swim your asses out of the way so we can leave.”
Not-Matt’s blank stare turned toward me. I struggled not to close my eyes or turn from the vicious scrutiny, before the left side of his lips turned up in a satisfied grin.
The glow around us heightened. “I tire of this,” Green Goon said. “Release my people, or we will tear this vessel apart to free them ourselves.” Something thumped on the side of the ship, followed by a lot of somethings.
David gripped the back of his chair. “You’re bluffing.”
Not-Matt drew his finger across the edge of the console. “Your technology is fragile. At this depth, all we need is a small tear. The pressure will take care of the rest.”
The adrenaline running through my veins melted to a frigid frost. They had ripped us from this ship once already. What would stop them from doing it again?
“The bodies of your people are even more fragile,” David said. “The force of the ocean rushing into the artificial pressure in this ship will rip apart everyone in the cargo hold.”
Not-Matt sneered. “You are lying.”
David leaned toward him. “Then go ahead and try it. Let’s see how many of them die.”
Ho-lee-crap. Please tell me you’re the one bluffing.
No answer. Yikes.
Not-Matt turned to Ruby. “Are you ready to take the blame for the death of your friends?”
Her gaze darted between Green Goon and David.
“Not enough influence, I see. Maybe a different creature’s execution will encourage you.”
Matt’s face turned to the windows, where a blue and a yellow creature floated into view, their colors flashed, creating an eerie emerald glow between them. Their largest tendrils curled and poked into the clear, quivering hide of a smooth, translucent oval creature held between them.
Ruby gaped. Her hands fell to her sides.
Holy cow. That had to be Silver.
Not-Matt’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t worry. I will make sure his death is excruciating.” Matt’s form froze as Green Goon moved her green bulk away from the ship.
Silver whirled and tugged against his captors as she approached. The larger creature extended one of its tentacles and lanced Silver, jabbing until the tendril poked straight through the other side.
“No!” Ruby screamed.
“Leave him alone!” I tried to punch the simulated Goon standing beside me in the face. My knuckles flew right through Matt’s liquid head. When was I going to learn?
The blue creature jabbed Silver from the other side. Shimmering fluids mixed about them and dissipated in the sea.
“Stop!” Ruby fell to her knees. “Let the others go. I will stay. Just please, stop hurting him.”
Matt’s apparition laughed: a simple, melodic sound. I shivered. It wasn’t right, seeing Matt’s face on someone who’d done something so horrible.
He walked toward Ruby and folded his arms. “I want them all.”
Ruby blinked her glossy eyes. “You don’t need them. I can bear more than all of them combined. Let them go. I will come freely.”
An orange rift dweller swam toward the ones holding Silver, and stiffened one of her legs to a point.
“Nooo!” Ruby lunged toward the window.
I moved forward, hitting the console. How could they …
The orange creature baulked, rotated, and retracted its sharpened leg before it was able to penetrate Silver’s trembling hide. The creature thrashed as if covered by ants.
David punched the fuchsia corner of the console. A whomp echoed through the ship and a line of bubbles shot out past the window, bashing the yellow creature holding Silver and forcing it back. Its arm retracted from Silver’s puckered frame before the yellow bulk curled in on itself and floated away.
The orange creature, still struggling as if the water burned her, darted to the left and out of sight. The blue rift dweller holding Silver twitched and jittered back before releasing her captive.
Goon hissed through Matt’s lips and splashed into a puddle at David’s feet. Her real body out in the sea spiraled like a dog trying to itch its back. She withdrew her lance arm and whipped it through the water as if fighting off a phantom attack.
Silver drifted, moving only as the current from the thrashing animals jostled his lifeless form.
One after another, the creatures that remained shimmered and pulsed. David pressed the fuchsia button again. The whomp took out a yellow reaching for Silver.
Green Goon somersaulted through the ocean. A dark shape blasted through the glow, then disappeared. Goon flailed her tendrils as if trying to catch the fleeting figure.
The blue that had been holding Silver retreated, leaving only Green Goon to face the spectral attacker. The black mass centered on her, driving the creature closer to the ship. How could anything that small threaten such a behemoth? Unless …
The phantom spun, slamming against the larger creature before ten spindly legs jutted out from the round, hairy subdivisions and sunk deep into green flesh.
“It’s Edgar!”
Ruby’s glistening hand reached toward the glass, toward the bent and broken oval hanging motionless behind his would-be arachnid savior and his executioner.
My stomach twisted. Come on, Silver, move.
Edgar’s three long,
white fangs caught the ship’s illumination before disappearing into Green Goon’s flesh. Green lights flashed and gyrated before she convulsed and scurried from sight, leaving a long, trailing stream of darkened sea behind her. Edgar moved to follow.
David leaned over the console. “Edgar, that’s all we needed. Let’s get out of here!”
The giant spider turned and sliced through the water toward us. He stopped by Silver’s drifting, limp form and moved his nose over the Uptider’s prone bulk.
Sweet Lord, please tell me he’s not going to eat him!
All ten of Edgar’s legs sprang out as if he’d been petrified and flattened like a pancake. He hovered over Silver before he clasped down, smothering the limp Uptider.
24
Edgar flexed his back segment, propelling his body through the water and dragging Silver’s lifeless form toward the ship.
Ruby held her hands to her lips, her gaze fixed on Edgar’s precious burden. Silver had been tortured and stabbed. What chance could he possibly have?
Edgar ducked below the ship and out of sight.
“How will we know when they are on board?” I asked.
The image of Maggie beside me splashed to the floor leaving a puddle running toward the back of the ship. The walls flashed yellow four times.
“Like that.” David smiled. “Nice to have you back, Edgar.”
David swirled his hands over the console. Twin beams of light cut through the dark as we ascended. I took a deep breath and released it. Now to get all these creatures safely to Mars. No biggie. Just a ride through outer space.
A dark, wet mass wiggled up out of the tiled floor. Edgar shook himself off, jumped into my lap, and cuddled into my arms.
“Dude, I was so worried about you.”
He warbled as his prickly hairs nuzzled my cheek.
I pulled him back to my lap and faced David. “How long will it take to get us to Mars?”
Embers in the Sea Page 17
