Metamorphosis Alpha 2

by Craig Martelle

  Karl hissed in disgust and turned away.

  “Proceed to the gangway and follow Johan’s instructions. Enjoy your stay, and remember to look out for keepsakes from our gift shop while you are down there!” shouted the Keeper enthusiastically gesturing towards the nearby wharf.

  “I’m going to leave a keepsake in his boat when we’re done,” snarled Karl.

  The vessel was of an unfamiliar design, and appeared to be in severe disrepair. The boat was covered in barnacles, seaweed and slime. Most of the boat was not visible, with a large part being below the waterline. The only areas that were not filthy on the visible part of the lower part of the boat were clear panes that provided a view into the shadowy interior of the boat. It had a single stubby tower surrounded by a small walkway sticking out from the roof. The tower was painted in peeling bright yellow paint. A narrow gangplank provided access to a solid looking door which was mounted on the side of the tower. From somewhere below, a deep, heavily accented voice echoed out of the open doorway, “Vell, hurry up den! “Ve can’t vait all day!”

  Each of the group walked across the sagging gangplank. Karl was the second last, and it took all of Falwark’s strength to wrestle him across the gangplank and cram him through the open hatch in the tower, forcing him into the submarine. As she pushed him ahead of her, Karl could hear music coming from below.

  Karl shouted as Falwark pushed him, “You want me to get into that thing!?! Most of it has already sunk!!!”

  Falwark kept pushing. Behind them, the hatch shut, and the gangplank was winched up and out of the way. The submarine untethered its moorings and started toward open water.

  Part II.

  Karl sniffed the air, with obvious disapproval and he jumped when the boat changed direction, resulting in a small amount of water washing across his paws. To set his nerves further on edge, music seemed to be coming from above his head somewhere, playing softly until it finally faded out and stopped. Every bit of his visible fur was raised and the claws on his hands were fully extended. Karl was not a happy cat.

  Karl became even unhappier when a grating announcement crackled through the ship, “Prepare to dive!” followed by an old-fashioned klaxon alarm and then “Dive! Dive! Dive!”

  A fish darted past a nearby window and Karl could not resist pressing flat against the glass, in a parody of an ancient Garfield car window toy. Karl’s unhappiness was momentarily forgotten.

  Edwud looked around the small cabin curiously while everyone else was distracted. He asked aloud, “Who is controlling this boat?”

  A voice from the ceiling above his head replied, “I am. I am Johan de soobmarine boot. Your Keptin, if you like. In fact, to zelebrate, zis calls for some music.” Johan paused, “I hev jus ze ting! A Valk in ze Bleck Forest.”

  Softly, the music that had been playing earlier began again, accompanied by Johan humming.

  “Where are you taking us Johan?” asked Edwud.

  “Oh! Um. Virst, ve goes past ze dive sites, de kelp gartens und seaveed forest and zen ve schtop at de prosussing komplex. Den ve go back to ze Kiosk avter you hev seen ze komplex,” replied Johan helpfully. “I vood like it very much if you could all be sittink down and enjoyink ze view.”

  The volume of the music increased slowly and subtly as the boat sped up. Johan continued to hum along, slightly out of tune.

  The group took Johan’s advice, except for Karl, who still had his face pressed against the glass.

  “This is travelling in style!” exclaimed Edwud.

  Ahead, long strands of giant kelp swayed ever so slightly, dwarfing the submarine. The kelp extended as far as the eye could see to either side of them, and all the way to the surface, hundreds of feet above. The little submarine entered into the kelp and seaweed forest, and the cabin of the submarine darkened immediately as ambient light was blocked. The submarine lit up its frontward spotlights, illuminating the giant kelp in front of them, and started forward, weaving between the giant strands of kelp. A school of fish, about a foot long each, darted past the submarine. Karl caught a glimpse of large menacing teeth on each of them, and shuddered. The destination of the fish became apparent, as above the submarine and to their left, the carcass of a giant whale became visible, tangled in the thick kelp. Thousands of fish of many types, and a number of larger predators, such as sharks were swimming around the giant corpse in a frenzy of activity.

  The submarine continued through the giant kelp, unmolested by any of the otherwise distracted predators, much to everyone’s relief. This was followed by half an hour of uninterrupted music and humming, until Johan trumpeted, “Your attention please!”

  Ahead, through the front viewing ports, lights slowly became visible in the distance, and the volume of the music decreased. Johan announced, “If you vood kindly look to ze front, you vill see ze wreck of ze Pamella Anderson. Ve also have ze David Letterman beink prepared for diving as vell, vich ve can see later. Ve have sunk ze Pamella Anderson here as an artificial reef for divink lessons, available every veekday, if you are interested in our divink packages.”

  Once again, the music faded out and eventually stopped.

  The sunken ship was majestic, sitting upright in the water with running lights and spotlights lit up to allow visitors to appreciate the graceful curves of its hull and the massive funnels that loomed out of the darkness. The submarine again listed to one side, as it deftly weaved between the twin funnels and looped around and lower to allow a view of the giant screw propellers. As the submarine passed the open side of the sunken ship, the massive engines were visible, and something large stirred in the depths of the wreck and emerged to follow an interesting bit of prey.

  “Hey look!” exclaimed Falwark, pointing in excitement.

  A group of five giant seahorses sped past, with what appeared to be a man riding one, carrying a trident. The man raised his trident as if in greeting or warning, and the whole group of seahorses suddenly scattered in different directions, quickly lost to sight in the murky waters.

  “Wow! A Mer-Man! That was unexpected!” said Foran, clearly amazed. “Your father always said that there was a whole village of them living down here!” Foran said to Edwud.

  “I wonder why they scattered like that?” asked Edwud.

  The submarine continued for a few seconds before the music started to get louder, and Johan announced, “Do not be alarmed. I have put on A Valk in ze Bleck Forest to help vith ze oopcooming stress.”

  Again, the same music began to play, but ominously Johan did not start to hum.

  Foran looked to the ceiling to nervously ask Johan, “What upcoming stress?”

  The submarine lurched with a sudden impact, and several large tentacles wrapped themselves over the viewports of the submarine. The main viewport developed a hairline crack and a few drops of water leaked in. The hull of the submarine emitted a metallic screech as the metal started to buckle under the grip of the hostile creature.

  “Zis vood be it,” replied Johan belatedly. “Strap yourzelves in. It vill getz a beet boompy”, Johan warned.

  Luckily, the group moved quickly to follow Johan’s advice and quickly strapped themselves in. The submarine lurched and lolled from side to side as the giant squid’s tentacles struggled to retain their purchase. The submarine dove and rose before weaving back between the massive funnels, striking the soft flesh of the unwelcome predator and dislodging it from the hull. The giant squid sprayed a cloud of ink in frustration and sped away.

  Finally, the music began to fade out, and finally stopped.

  The struggle with the giant squid resulted in a sudden leak springing at the rear of the passenger compartment of the submarine, eliciting a howl of displeasure from Karl, as he was sprayed with water. “Worst. Trip. Ever”, the wet cat growled miserably.

  “I know vat vill lift your spirits!” announced Johan cheerfully. Once again, the music started, accompanied by Johan’s happy, off-tune humming.

  Edwud yelled at Johan, “It will take more than this
music to make me happy you insane, tone-deaf, leaking tub!”

  “Ja! Not vun ov my better trips, I vill confess,” responded Johan. “Ve vill hav to cut dis vun short und get you to the komplex straight away,” Johan added.

  “And the music isn’t helping,” added Karl.

  “You should put dat in ze suggestion box!” suggested Johan helpfully.

  After half an hour Johan and several more replays of the same music, Johan announced, “Ve are aprooching ze complex, if you vood care to look to ze froont again, you vill see ze lights ahead.”

  Out the front viewport they could see a large structure consisting of a cluster of six spheres around a larger central sphere on a pole, with another smaller sphere at the top. At one time, the structure was likely gleaming white and blue, but much of the surface was covered with barnacles, seaweed and silt. Bright lights were visible in the portholes on half of the spheres, while the remainder were dark and appeared to be damaged.

  The submarine started to approach one of the spheres that had a large door on it, but stopped short when the door did not open.

  “Dat’s unusual!” remarked Johan. “Dey’s always opened before. But it has been eighteen years since I last drooped by.”

  “Eighteen years!” Foran thundered incredulously, looking and sounding much as his father did at village elder meetings.

  “Ja!” affirmed Johan, “Business has drooped off a lot.” The AI paused momentarily. “Ve wvill check ze oother airlock and see if we can dock dere.”

  A few minutes later, the submarine completed a circuit of the underwater complex, and it seemed that at least three of the six spheres had been damaged and were likely to have flooded. Fortunately, the second airlock on the other side of the complex appeared to be intact.

  “Ja! Dis is gut!” announced Johan, as the airlock door in front of the little submarine started to open. ‘I hev tried to contact the main computer, but it is not answering, but the systems are still operatink!” Johan guided the vessel into the open airlock.

  The submarine surfaced inside the sphere, to an area that was only partially lit, and dimly at that. “Vat gives?” asked Johan in surprise. “Dis place is always lit up like Christmas!”

  Suddenly several thuds reverberated through the submarine, and something, or several somethings started making tap-tap-tap noises as something, skittered across the upper deck of the submarine.

  “Vell here ve are den! I’ll see all of you in an hour. Don’t forget to check out ze gift shop. Der kinders loves the gifts!” chortled Johan. There was a clunk above them which was the sound of the hatch opening automatically.

  “Oh great!” muttered Karl. “This demented tub has just invited whatever that was on the roof, to come in and pay us a visit!”

  Foran stormed up the steps, activating his vibroblade as he charged out the hatch to face whatever awaited outside. Falwark and Karl followed. Edwud came out last, clearly flustered by needing to clear the hatch through such a narrow bottleneck.

  Foran’s shout of “Die you ugly thing!” was followed by the immediate sounds of battle. Falwark’s war cry echoed in the cavernous area in which the submarine had docked.

  Johan emitted a cry of “Success!!!” and lights across the interior of the sphere began to glow, illuminating the tableau before them.

  The light made it possible to see that they were in a large cavernous space with two other larger submarines tethered to the wharves. Both of the other vessels appeared to be in good repair, better than Johan in fact. Foran and Falwark were engaged in battle with three giant crabs, while several smaller, but still ridiculously large crabs were darting in and out between the larger creatures to attack.

  Karl looked at the giant crabs and knew his sword would not end this fight quickly, nor would his poisonous claws. The crab’s carapace was too tough. Then he recalled the Shaman’s “gift”, the flesh disruptor, and drew the weapon from its holster.

  He quickly examined the device and noted that it was shaped like a crossbow with an obvious trigger. He pointed the weapon and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened.

  Around him the battle raged. The hum of Foran’s vibroblade and the agonized squeal of one of the giant crabs encouraged him to hastily figure the weapon out. Karl pressed a button on the butt of the weapon, and a power cell dropped to the deck at his feet! He had to kick one of the smaller crabs away to retrieve the power cell, and suffered a wicked cut from the creature’s pincer for his troubles. He kicked the vicious crustacean over the side of the submarine and was satisfied to hear it crunch heavily onto the wharf below.

  He quickly placed the power cell back in the recess from where it had dropped. While he did this, there was a flash and another agonized squeal as Edwud fired a laser into one of the giant crabs. It ceased fighting immediately, and emitted a cloud of sweet smelling steam.

  “I wish I had some lemon to go with this!” gushed Edwud excitedly.

  Falwark’s battleaxe severed one of the great claws of one of the other giant crabs, and Foran’s vibroblade was whittling the other giant crab down to a more manageable size. At last, Karl managed to get the flesh disruptor to light up and pointed the device in the direction of the largest of the surviving crabs. There was a whine as the weapon discharged, and the crab stopped still, before exploding, spraying hot chunks of sweet smelling flesh and shell in all directions. The blast shocked the remaining giant grab, Edwud shot the creature with his laser and Foran pressed his advantage, driving his vibroblade hilt deep into the creature’s upper torso, killing it. The smaller creatures hastily scuttled away, leaping into the dark waters beside the submarine to escape.

  Cooked flesh dripped off Karl’s face, and his stomach rumbled as the smell of cooked crab wafted around the dock. “What I would give for a napkin!” he muttered darkly through clenched teeth.

  The crab-scented smell of victory was interrupted by Johan’s announcement; “Good News everyone!” The speakers around the entire sphere suddenly cracked into life and “A Walk in the Black Forest” began to play, echoing around the dock. “You seemed to like the music zo much dat I found a vay to play it all over de komplex for you. It vill akoopany you everywhere you go vile you are here!” Johan paused, “No need to thank me, all a part of ze service!” he intoned graciously, oblivious of the moans and curses of his disembarking passengers.

  Karl was the last to leave the submarine, and proceeded to rebuckle his belt after jumping down to the wharf to join the others.

  Foran asked Karl, “Is everything okay? You sure took your sweet time!”

  “I dropped a couple of nuggets of wisdom in Johan’s suggestion box” replied Karl, grinning like the proverbial Cheshire Cat.

  “Oh no! You didn’t!” exclaimed Foran in a scandalised whisper, before bursting into laughter.

  They quickly scouted the area, discovering that they were in a well-equipped underwater dock, with cargo cranes and all manner of equipment of unknown purpose. A set of double doors to the northwest resisted Foran and Edwud’s attempts to open them and a door to the north proved to be damaged and inoperable. That left a door to the southwest which opened with a touch of the green panel to its right. The door slid open soundlessly, and ankle-high fog rolled out, pooling around their feet. It dispersed a moment later as a gust of freezing cold air blasted out the open door. The lights in the corridor beyond flickered on and speakers crackled into life to emit A Walk in the Black Forest softly.

  “Well, nothing ominous about that then!” said Edwud with just a hint of sarcasm.

  Foran and Karl led the way down the corridor. Karl’s claws helped prevent him from slipping on the icy flooring, but the cold made his paws ache. He reluctantly stopped and retrieved a battered pair of boots from his pack and put them on. “I hate wearing these things!” he muttered.

  As they moved down the icy corridor, their exhaled breaths resulted in small clouds of condensation in front of their faces. The lights a small distance ahead of them, flickered on illuminating the
ir progress, while those behind them turned off automatically. In a short period of time, the small group stood in front of another door, identical to the one that they had opened to enter this corridor.

  Foran pressed the green button and the door scraped open, with a small “Crack!”, as the door pulled itself free of the ice and slid into the recess in the wall. Again, ankle-high fog billowed out across their feet, and the speakers crackled to life once more, piping the incessant music at a barely audible level into the room. The lights then flickered on, showing neatly stacked boxes from the floor to the ceiling. The ceiling arched and would easily have been forty feet above their heads, and every spare inch of space, save for a path leading to a pair of double doors and a curving path leading to another single door in the northwest.

  As they entered the room, Karl noted with some pleasure that the boxes were each marked “Fresh Frozen Fish.”

  The group quickly checked both of the new doors. Again, the double doors here, like those in the last room resisted any efforts to open them, so they moved to the north-eastern door, which opened easily at a touch of the green button. The lighting overhead flickered several times, before remaining steadily on. The scene within was vastly different from the rooms they had just moved through. This looked like a large stall at the village markets, but with a bewildering array of goods, including hats and shirts, books and plates and cups, and so many things of unknown purpose, all covered by thick frost, or in some cases, ice.

  More disturbingly, as the small group entered the room, they saw a humanoid, clasping a book with a look of horror across its face, frozen to the floor near a counter covered with other books.

  Karl rounded a rack of t-shirts celebrating diving on the wreck of the Pamela Anderson to be confronted by a three-foot-tall mutant squirrel frozen in the act of trying a t-shirt on for size.

  Foran moved towards the double doors to see if they, like all the previous double doors, were locked when there was a clatter of tumbling merchandise and a cry of feminine anguish.