Hell Divers

by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  TWELVE

  X knocked on his apartment door and prepared for another night of awkward, resentful silence. So when Tin opened the door, he stumbled backward in surprise. The boy had never done this before.

  “Hey,” X mumbled. “How you doing?”

  Tin shrugged and continued through the living room and into the kitchen. X hurried after him, cradling the bowl of fruit and noodles under his arm. He hesitated when he saw two plates of leftovers sitting on the kitchen table. Tin took a seat and started wolfing down the food.

  X put his cargo down in the middle of the table and glanced down at the day-old noodles Tin had set out.

  “For me?” X asked.

  Tin nodded.

  “Thanks,” X said. “You must be feeling a little better.”

  Another nod.

  X had hoped the tour of the farms would improve the boy’s mood, but given all that had happened afterward, he expected Tin to be traumatized. Hell, what he’d seen in the medical ward this afternoon had rattled him, and he was not a man easily rattled.

  “How’s your head?”

  “It’s fine,” Tin said.

  X dropped his chopsticks in surprise. Tin had actually spoken to him, and not just with a monosyllabic grunt. Real words!

  Tin took another bite, then said, “I saw the farms this morning … but you probably already knew that.” A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

  “I thought you’d get a kick out of it.”

  “We saw two dogs. They were magnificent. Eli said they’re called huskies. Silver and Lilly …” Tin’s eyes drifted with his voice. “I hope they’re okay after the storm.”

  “I’m sure they’re fine,” X said.

  “Did you know they’re the last two dogs on the planet?”

  X shook his head. “Nope. I’ve actually seen the farm only a few times, would you believe it?”

  “I think I want to apprentice there,” Tin said.

  X felt his own smile. It was the first time in years that he felt … What was it called? Oh, right: happy.

  Tin scratched under his hat. “I’ve never seen anything like it. I can’t imagine all the things that keep the farm running. I mean, I can, but …”

  “Only a few more years until you’re eligible to apprentice, right?”

  Tin clutched his plate and stood. “They’re taking younger recruits now. Maybe they’ll take me early. That would be great. I’d even have my own room assigned to me!”

  X’s heart ached. The boy was only ten years old. Ten goddamn years old and talking like an adult. As with most kids these days, he hadn’t had a childhood.

  X folded his hands on the table. “Tin, I want you to know something. Will you please sit back down?”

  The boy placed his bowl on the table and readjusted his hat. He eyed X skeptically, then sat.

  “Your mom and dad would be very proud of you. I’m proud of you. You’re going to keep this place going. Kids like … Young men like you will keep the Hive flying.”

  Tin rewarded him with a half smile. “Thanks.”

  X put a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “No, thank you, for finally talking to me!”

  “I’m sorry …”

  “Don’t be,” X said. “You’re a good, smart kid. Strong, too. Just like your dad and mom. Someday, long after I’m gone, you’ll probably be running this heap of metal and helium.”

  X realized that he was talking as if the ship had a future when, in reality, its continued existence had never been more uncertain. But Tin knew what was what. He had grown up knowing that every day might be the last—not just for him, but for all humankind.

  “Tomorrow I have to do something to see that you have a future,” X said.

  “A dive?” Tin said. His jaw continued moving, but no other words came out. “I was hoping you’d be around for a while.”

  “Me, too,” X said. “But I’ll be back.” He didn’t have the heart to tell the kid how bad things really were. Not now, not after they had just started talking again.

  “Okay,” Tin said. He got up again, grabbed both their plates, and took them to the sink.

  X could see the wheels turning in the boy’s head. After losing his parents, the kid had built up walls. He had just lowered them for X, and the last thing X wanted was to see them go back up.

  “Hey, why don’t you show me what you’ve been working on,” X said. He took a seat in the cramped living room and patted the faded place beside him on the couch.

  “The vacuum cleaner?” Tin asked. He knelt on the floor, pulled a multitool from his tool belt, then grabbed the dismantled vacuum cleaner on the floor.

  “Yeah, that thing’s a heap of junk,” X said. “Hasn’t worked in years.” He hardly remembered the feeble groan the thing had made when Rhonda pushed it back and forth over the thin carpet.

  “I’ll get it to work,” Tin said as he twisted off a screw and pulled off a panel.

  X watched with interest as the boy worked on the machine. Memories coalesced into images in his mind, and he remembered a time just like this when Aaron had sat by his side, watching Tin work on one of his projects. Rhonda was there, too, knitting X a new pair of socks.

  There was something absolute about it all—something final. A lump of anxiety formed in X’s stomach at the thought. Normally, he suppressed such feelings by numbing his senses. It hurt to be sober.

  But no matter how badly he wanted a drink, X decided to enjoy the moment with Tin, even if his gut ended up being right and it proved to be one of the last they ever shared.

  A few minutes later, and the vacuum cleaner whirred to life. Tin glanced up with a broad grin on his face.

  “See? Told you I could fix it.”

  * * * * *

  Maria Ash’s alarm clock went off at five a.m. Somewhere ten thousand feet above the Hive, the rising sun was setting ablaze the tops of the clouds that covered Earth.

  She kissed Mark on the cheek, put her feet on the floor, and got up. Their schedules had conflicted since their last conversation on the bridge, and in the chaos of the past several days, she hadn’t had much chance to talk to her husband. She hadn’t even told him about the dive yet.

  “What time is it?” he mumbled.

  “Early. Go back to sleep for a bit.”

  “I never even heard you come in last night.” Mark sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Did you think about our conversation again?”

  Maria threw on her uniform and pulled her hair back into a ponytail. “My mind hasn’t changed, love. Besides, we have more important things to think about right now. In a few hours, I’m sending Team Raptor to the surface.”

  “What!” He stared at her with wide eyes. “The ship was damaged that bad?”

  She nodded.

  Mark rested his head back on a pillow decorated with cats. “Just promise me one thing.”

  Maria straightened her cuffs, waiting patiently.

  “If Raptor returns and Samson fixes the ship, and, by some miracle, you do find a place to put the ship down …” He paused to search her eyes. “Promise me you’ll resign and accept treatment.”

  “Raptor will return and Samson will fix the ship,” Maria replied. She leaned over the bed and kissed Mark on the lips. “And I will find a place. Then I promise to accept treatment. I’ll see you tonight,” she said with a smile.

  “See ya,” he whispered.

  Maria drew in a breath and opened the door to the corridor, where two soldiers stood guard. Tucking the promise she had just made into the back of her mind, she walked with them to the bridge. Though she had slept only a few hours, she was filled with energy.

  Jordan was already waiting for her in the command center.

  “What’s our status?” Ash asked. She strode to the communication station and stared at the comm link button. With a push of her fing
er, her voice would feed to every intercom in the Hive. Every one of the 513 citizens would hear her voice. The new number had been confirmed after the storm. When the final tally had reached her desk, the ship had suffered thirty-three deaths.

  Now she was about to share with the survivors the most difficult message she had ever relayed in her command. Her throat burned at the thought.

  “Captain, we have another problem,” Jordan said.

  “Enlighten me.”

  “Ty said there’s a problem with the launch tubes. The reentry bay is working, but the launch tubes aren’t. Something about an open circuit or something. We’re going to have to delay Team Raptor’s drop.”

  “No, we won’t,” came a voice at the top of the bridge.

  Ash knew that cold tone. It was X. She turned to see him leaning on the railing.

  “Captain, give me access to the roof,” he said. “We’ll jump from the top of the ship. I’ve done it before.”

  Jordan joined Ash at her side. “I’ve already got a team of engineers working on the launch tubes,” he said. “We can delay the drop for—”

  “We don’t have time to delay the launch for a single minute!” X said, his raised voice drawing the stares of several officers. “The clock is ticking. We have to jump now.”

  “He’s right, Jordan; we don’t have time,” Ash said. She prayed X knew what he was doing.

  X moved away from the railing and hurried down the stairs. “I want to see the storm for myself.”

  Ash joined him at the nav station. She nodded at Ensigns Hunt and Ryan.

  “You heard the commander,” she said.

  Ryan put on a pair of glasses and took a seat. “Tapping into the cameras on our stern.”

  While they waited together, it dawned on Ash that X didn’t reek of booze from last night’s celebrating. Unusual for him, but she wasn’t going to ask questions.

  The main display at the front of the bridge flickered to life, and a striking image of the electrical storm over Hades came into view.

  “We’re six miles east of the storm, Captain,” Ryan said. “And all sensors show the skies are clear below.”

  “Looks clear,” Hunt added.

  X nodded, satisfied. “Ah’ight, I’ll have my team back in a couple hours.” He turned to walk back up the stairs. “Hopefully, with everything Samson needs to keep us in the sky.”

  “X,” Ash said.

  He paused and turned halfway.

  “Be careful.”

  “Roger that, Cap,” X said, throwing a haphazard salute. His lips formed what could almost be considered a grin, his pearly white teeth showing for a fleeting instant. Then he was gone, bolting up the stairs and racing out into the hallway. She wasn’t sure how to take his change in mood. She hadn’t seen him like this for years.

  “Jordan, give Ty access to the roof,” she finally said.

  Ash imagined what the new members of Raptor were feeling. She could picture the black clouds swirling around the Hive, and the deep fear that the vast emptiness evoked. The thought made her bow her head in shame—only minutes ago, she had indulged in self-pity at having to deliver a difficult message.

  A message, nothing more.

  She shook her head. She had bigger worries, and X and his team were about to risk their lives.

  Ash cleared her throat and punched the comm button. The ancient speakers chirped. She repositioned the microphone and said, “Citizens of the Hive, this is Captain Maria Ash. This morning I am tasked with sharing dire news. Yesterday, we reached the edge of Hades after receiving a distress call from Ares. I don’t know how to say this easily, so I’m just going to tell you. Ares has been destroyed.” She paused, herself still shocked that it was true. “Our ship,” she continued, “our home, was severely damaged in the electrical storms.”

  Ash scanned the bridge. Officers she had worked with for years stared back at her, their eyes pleading for some reassurance.

  “We still have hope,” Ash said. “I’m deploying Team Raptor to the surface, to search for the parts that we need to keep our home in the sky.”

  The comm crackled, and Ash waited for the interference to clear. “In the meantime, engineering will divert all power from noncritical areas of the ship, including the living quarters in both upper and lower decks.”

  Ash looked down at her watch and added, “In two hours, those circuits will go offline. I ask everyone to remain calm during this time, and for all nonessential personnel to stay in their quarters. In addition to your cooperation, I also ask that you think of our divers. To those of you who pray, these brave men and women could use some. The future of the Hive now rests in their hands. Thank you.”

  A strong hand gently squeezed Ash’s shoulder. It was the first time in her career that Jordan had tried to comfort her—or touched her at all, for that matter.

  “X will come back,” he said. “He always does.”

  Ash sighed. “I hope you’re right.”

  * * * * *

  X was first to arrive at the HD facility. He stood in the darkness, savoring the solitary moment and listening to the ship speak through its creaks and groans. It helped him relax before a dive.

  After a few minutes, he flicked the lights and walked over to the wall of lockers. The rusted metal was decorated with the faded graffiti of previous owners. Skulls, bullets, extinct animals no living person had ever seen—each symbol had once held meaning for its user. X had drawn the head of a raptor on his locker: yellow eyes and hooked beak, a black head crested with white feathers. The bird was more than the icon for his Hell Diver team. It also symbolized the essence of what diving embodied. He, too, was a predator, but like the memories of the divers before him, the raptor’s image was already starting to fade.

  One hundred and five, he thought. That was how many divers had perished. X was the most senior diver aboard the Hive—and, he now realized, in the whole world. The idea was numbing. So many lives lost over the years. He closed his eyes for a moment to acknowledge the men and women who had dived and died before him. Then he opened his locker and started pulling out his gear.

  Ty’s voice boomed across the room as he came in. “You sure this is a good idea?”

  X nodded. “I’ve dived off the roof before.”

  “Your team hasn’t.”

  “We don’t have any other choice. And you don’t have to remind me.”

  Ty took a half-chewed herb stick out of his mouth. “You’re right. Sorry, Commander.”

  Before X could reply, he heard the footsteps of his team approaching. Watching Magnolia, Murph, and Sam walk across the room, he realized that beyond what he had read in their files, he knew only what they had told him over dinner last night. He was about to dive—and possibly die—with people he didn’t know and, therefore, couldn’t fully trust.

  The three new Raptor members joined X and Ty in the center of the room. “Launch tubes aren’t functioning, so we’re going with plan B,” X said. He pointed up to an aluminum ladder. “That gets us to the roof.”

  “The roof?” Magnolia said. “Please tell me plan B doesn’t mean—”

  “Means we’re jumpin’ from the top of the ship,” Murph said.

  Sam looked up at the ladder. “That’ll be a new one for me.”

  “Come on,” X said, motioning to the lockers. “We’re wasting time. Let’s suit up.”

  Team Raptor spent the next fifteen minutes checking and double-checking equipment. Ty had chutes laid out neatly on the deck. He crouched next to them and went over each one slowly and deliberately.

  When gear malfunctioned, it was easy to blame a technician, but X never blamed Ty. He was a perfectionist, and when things broke, they broke because they were fossils, like everything else on this dinosaur.

  X pulled his armor from the locker. It was the only piece of his gear he always trusted. Time aft
er time, the tough black matte polymer had saved him during dives.

  He sucked in his gut, zipped up the front of his suit, and donned the armor. All around him, his team was doing the same thing. Sam, the first to finish, came and stood beside X. They turned to watch Murph struggle with the clasps on Magnolia’s armor, grunting as he finally snapped them into place.

  “You guys good?” X asked.

  Magnolia turned stiffly. “This damn stuff has never fit me.”

  Ty walked over to her and said, “Breathe in.” She did, and he worked his finger under the right side of her ceramic plate. “If you can breathe, you can dive.”

  The squeal of metal drew their attention to the front of the room. Jordan walked in with two guards, each carrying a metal case.

  “All set?” Jordan asked.

  “Just waiting on those,” X said.

  The soldiers set the cases down, and X bent down to open them up. He pulled out a pistol, extra magazines, and a vest stuffed with flares and shotgun shells. Then he grabbed a blaster and holstered it.

  “Eyes and ears,” X said. He waited a few moments for his team to finish with their gear. “Once we get on the surface, we’ll have approximately two hours to search for the building Lieutenant Jordan has identified as a potential location for the cells and valves. Check and double-check your weapons. I don’t want any self inflicted malfunctions on the surface, especially if we do encounter Sirens down there.”

  Magnolia’s blue eyes widened, but she didn’t say a word.

  The other divers loaded their blasters with shotgun shells and flares. X slapped a magazine into his pistol and pulled back the slide to chamber a round, then pushed the safety lever up. The chorus of final preparations filled the room as the other teams arrived.

  Tony, Cruise, and the other divers gathered inside the facility to say their goodbyes. They sized the members of Raptor up from across the room.

  X twisted in his extra-snug suit and cracked his neck from side to side, then slipped on his helmet and inserted the battery unit into the chest slot. His HUD powered on. All systems were green.