The sun sparkled down her, ignorant of her idle threat.
Nerida rolled her head, stretching out her neck muscles, and sighed again. Like all wavelanders, she was raised to be respectful and mindful of the tenuous relationship between wavelanders and the gods of the heavens, wind, and sea. Like everything else in their lives, it too was a matter of survival in their minds.
“Yes, we all know I’m full of shit,” she muttered aloud.
Nerida returned to her quarters and sat at the table. She leaned against the back of the opening and shucked her oysters, swallowing each bite as she allowed her eyes to roam over the main room. She did so rapidly, not even really tasting them, her entire focus on filling her stomach as much as she could before she was forced to face the unpleasant task of cleaning up the mess and putting everything back where it belonged.
As soon as she finished straightening her living quarters, Nerida emerged outside again to clean the deck before ducking inside the steering cabin to put it back in order. By the time she finished, the sun was sinking low, and the first stars brightened the sky.
Studying the sky through her stellar calculation mapper, she was able to place her location on the ship’s digital navigation system in the steering cabin. Frowning down at the map in front of her, she noted her distance from her last recorded position. The sea had swept her quite far away.
Skimming her fingers over the screen, she drew the map further northeast in an attempt to estimate where the impact might have occurred. Whatever it was, it had been big, and so likely had made contact a good two days’ travel outside of where she had been anchored.
Teeth sinking into her bottom lip, Nerida brushed her braids out of her face and glanced out the large forewindow. Thanks to the impact, she had saved herself nearly a day’s travel in the direction she had plotted. If she were smart, she would keep going rather than wasting time retracing her way back to the estimated crash site, its calculated position highlighted by a little blip from where she set the digital marker.
To go back would be foolish. It was far more important to continue in her search.
At the same time, her curiosity pricked her relentlessly. What had it been? What if it was a shuttle from the mainland and they needed help? As unlikely as that seemed, she couldn’t in good conscience just abandon whoever may have crashed into the sea.
Sighing, she set her course. To her relief, the boat surged forward without even a stutter despite all the water and rough ride from earlier. With a tight smile, Nerida turned the wheel until the boat was faced once more in the right direction.
As night settled in, the two moons rose—first one, and then a short time afterward the other—above the edge of the horizon, illuminating everything around her. The moons bathed the sea with their silvery glow in one of the few instances where the closer moon Anaya was in time with her twin brother Forlo, both moons rounded in their fullness. Below their brilliance, the water of the sea rippled in gentle waves as if they had never been disturbed.
Her boat cut easily through the calm roll of the water. It made her nervous to sail when it was dark, but the hour was still early yet, and the light of the moons relieved the absolute darkness that usually closed in around the seas.
Besides, she was not yet ready to retire.
Filled with nervous energy, Nerida perched in the captain’s seat, guiding her boat. With the darkness fallen all around her, the world seemed muted, which made the stars and every little glimmer appear in sharp relief. It was because of this that she was able to see a dying light in the waters in the far distance that beckoned her—no doubt the emergency lights of the shuttle. As it lay in the direction indicated by her navigation unit, Nerida kept her course aimed for it.
It was both because of the two full moons and the dim glow on the horizon that the sight of water spraying broke the rolling calm of the waves, revealing a small rocky island that rhythmically appeared and disappeared behind bobbing walls of seafoam. She wouldn’t have seen it at all if the rest of the water hadn’t been as calm as it was, and if the moonlight didn’t shine off the wet rocks every time they were visible.
Nerida grinned at the sight. The island just barely peeked out from the crest of the waves, which meant that there was a high probability of full tidepools. The oysters she ate earlier hadn’t been anywhere near enough. Although stopping would cut into her estimated time of arrival, she couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a full belly and to potentially find enough to put something extra into her cooling unit.
She wrestled with her conscience, but as she set the anchor on a rock that jutted out higher than the rest, she reasoned that finding food would be necessary if she were taking survivors on board. In any case, it was far safer to anchor on the island for the night when there was no one else available to steer.
Nerida would eat her fill, sleep, and then head out at first light.
Retrieving her bucket once more, she slid down to the tiny island, scouring the tidepools. A satisfied grin spread on her face as she plunged her hand into a pool and scooped out a twelve-clawed varil crab.
Its body was concealed within a large disc-shaped shell that was a muddy, sickly shade of green. Two sets of the claws ended in serrated pincers that opened aggressively as it attempted to ward off her hand, scurrying along the rocky bed of the tidepool by the remaining three sets of legs surrounding all sides of its shell. Deftly, she grabbed the two sets of pincers in her hands and, with one sharp movement, cracked the edge of its shell against the rock, spilling out its bodily organs. The bottom shell, and the meaty legs attached to it, she threw into the bucket before reaching for another.
Within an hour, and three trips onto the boat to access the cooling unit, she had accumulated no less than twenty-five varil crabs. It was a good haul. Two of them she threw back into the sea, a portion of her hunt gifted back to Mother Themis. She watched as the crab sank slowly in the dark water, elation filling her as she carried the last bucketful onto her boat and stored them—all except one, which she promptly set to boil in a pot.
In no time, her living quarters was filled with the meaty, slightly briny aroma of the perfectly cooked claws. This she served with a baked snapping carix fish—one of six she had found—whose hooklike mouths had threatened to take her hand off whenever she pulled one out from a pool and tossed it in among the varil crabs.
While both were hunted seasonally along the edges of the Greater Sea when they migrated into the trade seas, and enjoyed as a great delicacy among the wealthy land dwellers, rarely did anyone achieve such a catch within such a short amount of time.
Forking a mouthful of rich, flavorful meat into her mouth, she groaned in pleasure. Despite the dangers of the Greater Sea, it seemed that it offered more than just the promise of freedom and the predators that hunted the deeper waters between the patchy islands.
Her stomach pleasantly full, Nerida stared out the window, watching the moons and the fading light of the wreckage dance over the water. She didn’t know how long she stared at the dance of lights, but after a time she noticed that the water was no longer glowing with the mysterious light from whatever had sunken into its depths.
It was of no matter. The glow had been in alignment with her calculations, and it was marked in her memory. She knew that it would rest just beyond the two tallest rocks that jutted out from the water in a peculiar ring of jagged, barren stone towers. Although she had watched them curiously when she passed by them in her ship, she hadn’t dared to get close to them due to the potential hazard to her boat. The broken wreckage of old ships mired within the rocks bore a chilling testimony to how many boats had been lost to those rocky jaws of the sea.
She only hoped that the shuttle crashed outside of that ring. She didn’t know what she would do if it had landed amid that mess. If there was some sign that the shuttle crashed there, she would be faced with a difficult decision.
Her active imagination immediately began to fill in any manner of megalithic monsters that could possib
ly inhabit the deep waters surrounding that jagged circle. Her deepest fear was the leviathan. Named after a creature of legend on Earth, the enormous tentacled creature was a true monster of Terra II, one that was said to rule the Greater Sea. It was easy for her imagination to conjure such a creature lurking in the deadly stone ring. Her skin prickled at the thought of the giant tentacles wrapping around her boat, smashing it against the rocks before dragging what it could down into the depths.
A cold sweat broke out over her body. You could turn around, a small voice whispered fearfully at the back of her mind. There was no reason to unnecessarily risk her safety, it reasoned. Plus, she might go all that way and find nothing worth seeing.
And then she would never forgive herself.
Nerida sighed as she scooted closer to the heating system that brightened the common room with images of leaping flames in the simulation of a hearth. The idea of returning to the rocky fangs extending from the water scared the hell out of her, even as it had filled her with dread when she first glimpsed them… but she knew that she would return to it, just to be certain. She couldn’t live with herself if she abandoned any possible survivors.
As sleep claimed her she wondered, not for the first time, how a shuttle from the mainland got so off course. There must have been a terrible storm over the trade seas.
Chapter 6
Calling herself all kinds of a fool, Nerida steered her boat just beyond the sharp ring of rocks, her eyes squinting at the water surrounding her. The day was pleasant. The sea was calm, without any significant waves that might try to push her vessel into the rocks, and the sun shone down on her.
The warmth of the sun was a sour reminder, however, of just how few days she had left of fair weather. Anxiety crept in as the days passed, plaguing her with the idea that she wasn’t using her time wisely. Nothing remained of the light she had seen or any sign of survivors among the rocks in the surrounding area she’d spent the last two days circling.
This was feeling more and more like a ridiculous fool’s errand. There was nothing out there. There wasn’t even the slightest glimmer anymore within the water, and no clue at all as to what the vessel had been—and it had been a vessel of some sort, of that she had been certain. Now she wasn’t so sure.
Perhaps she had only imagined it to be a large shuttle. Maybe it was just space debris falling through the skies, now resting at the bottom of the sea. She felt almost sick that she had lost a week between travel and searching for survivors… and yet she felt a certain amount of relief that at very least she had looked and assured that no one was suffering.
If it had been a crash, then the only explanation was that either the shuttle had completely submerged and that anyone who hadn’t drowned was picked off by predators. Although her heart clenched at the thought, it was a small comfort knowing that she had followed her conscience and done all that she could.
Arms crossing on the top of the railing, Nerida sucked at her teeth thoughtfully as she eyed the water lapping the jagged rocks, sending out crystalline sprays of water. Even on such a pleasant day, they still managed to look menacing. When she first arrived, she had kept a wide berth, watching the islands warily. Yet as the first day passed without incident, she gradually relaxed.
She sang to herself to keep her mind occupied as she searched, only quieting to laugh as a pod of engri zipped around her, their oblong dusky blue bodies bursting from the water with playful abandon. Although unnerving with their narrow snouts filled with overlapping razor-sharp teeth, they didn’t prey on humans and had social behaviors that were endearing, despite their appearance. Her heart fluttered with excitement as she sped among them before they dove deeper and disappeared from sight.
As the first day passed into the second, and then third and fourth, without any sign of wreckage within the rocks, Nerida’s enthusiasm continued to dwindle. Perhaps if she had been able to get ahold of the deep-swimming tech that was guarded under lock and key in the floating cities, she might have explored a little closer to the islands just to be certain. But of course, she wouldn’t have been able to trade even her most precious belongings for the equipment, no matter how useful it would have been. Used mostly for underwater repairs, few were allowed access to it for personal use—and it was certainly never sold.
It was a shame. Nerida would have given anything to explore what lay beneath the surface of the water. Despite the gigantic predators that inhabited the seas, if she could breathe underwater with one of the compact mouthpieces, there would have been no end to her explorations. Not to mention that she would perhaps have been able to harvest some of the giant clams that could yield pearls the size of her head, if she were fortunate. She would have been able to open up a new life for herself.
For a moment, she allowed herself the indulgence to daydream of a future where she would have brought a wealth of trade into the floating cities—so much so that it would secure her comforts for the rest of her life. Perhaps with enough credits, she could find a small property on one of the very few island cities, if not on the mainland itself, where she could live in a real house. She could have decent clothes, and supplies like grain and yeast brought from the mainland by merchants.
Nerida chuckled to herself and shook her head. It was a waste of time daydreaming about something that would never happen. She didn’t have any such equipment and little desire to live in the cramped houses on the lush island cities, where only the wealthy and influential merchants dwelled.
With a soft sigh, she entered the cabin and steered her boat once more over the spot where she was certain that the object—whether meteor or shuttle—had fallen into the sea. Putting the boat to idle over the position, she stepped outside again, ignoring the distressing proximity of the largest of the rocks, and leaned forward with a delicate balance to glance down into the water.
The violet water below her looked just like the water anywhere else, the murky depths concealing their secrets far beyond what her eyes would ever be able to see. It didn’t stop her from peering in. Tilting her head, she leaned forward a bit more and squinted. In the darkness, there was something moving around, the light reflecting a pearly hue just below her in an elegant movement.
What was that?
The iridescent length whipped gracefully, sliding through the water sinuously. It was beautiful. Nerida stared at it, watching it swim just below the full visibility of the upper depths. It revealed just enough of itself that she was entranced by its luminous color, and the soft pink glowing lights that appeared to dance around it. It was almost magical—like something of old myth and lore from their distant homeworld. Her breath caught in her throat as it spun in the water, the light sparkling and dancing, and a flicker of something bloomed the brilliant orange of a sunset before disappearing again.
Whatever it was, she knew it was big, but unlike anything she’d ever seen. Bigger than a fish, and perhaps a bit larger than a grown man, it wasn’t large enough to do more than inspire a mild apprehension. She wasn’t scared, but that anxiety was enough to encourage caution as she watched the creature flicker in and out of visibility.
Nerida leaned forward a bit a more, trying to get a better look. It appeared smaller than an engris. That at least was encouraging. That meant it was something that likely wouldn’t be an immediate threat to her on her boat. In any case, it certainly didn’t look like any of the monstrosities that the fishermen would drag up from the depths.
As she watched it move slowly, as if investigating her boat, Nerida noted that there seemed to be an intelligence to its movement. Unlike the engri, which would surface in their play, this creature seemed to be aware of just how visible it was and was intentionally keeping itself obscured. She licked her chapped lips, a sense of awe filling her. She was certain that she was experiencing something that no other wavelander had seen before.
“What are you?” she whispered down at the water.
It paused, and for a moment, it seemed to brighten as it lingered in one spot. Whatever it w
as, it seemed curious about her too since it remained rooted in that spot. If she wasn’t mistaken, she could have sworn that it was staring right back at her. She was certain that she felt its gaze on her and saw the gleam of two yellow orbs before it moved again.
The luminous, pearly color brightened as if it was unshrouding itself, and her breath stilled with excitement. Was it emerging?
Once more, great plumes of orange became visible, and it stilled, the fiery tendrils fanning out around it—and what looked like an enormous sail-shaped fin at the end of its tail. The fin curled up almost invitingly. Despite the clarity of its tail, she still couldn’t quite make out its upper body. Nerida frowned.
The boat wobbled beneath her with a stronger wave, and she braced herself, afraid of being pitched into the water with it. Although the creature wasn’t acting aggressively… it was unknown. Fear surged within her, and she stumbled back from the edge of the boat.
She turned her head. That felt like a percussion wave from a dathli on the hunt, or a bull shardon leaping in a mating display. Unsnapping her long-range scope, she scanned the water, looking for any sign of the creature. The gentle ripple of waves was all that she saw.
What the fucking hell?
After several tense moments, Nerida lowered her scope, compressing it once more into its travel shape and snapping it back to her belt. Her feet slapped against the deck eagerly as she made her way back to the railing, but she sighed when she glanced over the edge once more. Whatever had been in the water, it was gone. Crossing her arms against the railing, Nerida waited for a while to see if it would come back.
“Fuck,” she murmured in disappointment when it became apparent it wasn’t going to return.
Brushing a hand over her braids, she scanned the water once more. Whatever was there, it wasn’t going to come out and say hi—and it wasn’t a shuttle. Her curiosity burned through her, but she couldn’t afford to linger any longer. With a sigh of regret, she made her way back to the steering cabin and set her course south once more. Perhaps the warmer southern sea would offer something hospitable.
Sirein: A Dystopian World Alien Romance Page 5
