The Apocalypse Ocean (13 page)

The giant catamaran hung in place. The cable had been already paid out, the mark struck. Tiago had watched Goz spend the day roaming the large ship, his eyebrows furrowed, taking measurements with shielded instruments that could survive the dead zone.

They’d ordered the ship’s crew over to the control room and cockpit and out of their way. They might be peeking at what was going on through windows, but the ship was almost ghostly quiet without anyone on deck.

“Time to do it,” Nashara called out. “Waiting won’t make it any less dangerous. He gave us exact coordinates, to within a few feet. ”

She stood on the runners of a large, heavily weighted sled hanging onto the cable, dwarfed by the giant drum the cable had been coiled on hulking overhead.

“We don’t know if you can even survive that pressure,” Goz said. It wasn’t the first time. He’d been arguing with Nashara for two whole days about it. “You might be more metal than woman, but that still don’t make you damn invincible.”

Nashara reached over and grabbed him by the shoulder. Gently. “He knew he could survive it. And so can I. Trust me.”

Twenty-seven thousand feet. It was too deep, Goz told Tiago. The air in your body lets itself compress, but your tissues couldn’t. Things ruptured. But then again, Goz said he’d seen Nashara survive the vacuum of space. Explosions. Bullets. And worse.

She had been rebuilt long ago in such a way that there was a chance she could well survive.

“And Pepper?” Tiago had asked. “You still believe he’s really alive down there?”

For that, he got only a shrug.

Nashara jumped up and down on the runners of the sled, shaking the whole contraption. “Goz! You ready?”

He looked over at her.

“It’s time,” she said.

“Time,” Goz said. “Look, we should take time and bring in a recovery vehicle. Shield it to operate here in the dead zone, then coast down.”

“If I don’t come back up, you should do that,” Nashara said. “And rescue both of us. But there are League ships out here moving around. And the dead zone is expanding. And if that creature figures out where Pepper is, maybe it can just walk around down there and find him. I’m taking the risk. I am the shielded recovery vehicle. Let’s go.”

Goz nodded.

They stared at each other for a second, then Nashara smiled and yanked the chain holding the sled in place.

It fell. Guided by the cable, it wobbled slightly, tossing Nashara around, but she was strapped to it by a quick-release harness.

Both hit the water in an explosion of spray, and then disappeared.

“Shit,” Goz said. “We doing this.”

He scrambled over to the control room. Tiago followed.

A small mechanical readout flicked numbers off, reporting the sled’s depth and speed thanks to a simple sonar device Goz had rigged.

Ten feet per second, then twelve, then fifteen. Nashara plunged toward the ocean floor at a little over ten miles an hour.

It didn’t seem fast. Not when she had so far to go.

The readout froze. “Out of range.” Goz started a small kitchen timer, winding it up for half an hour.

“That long?” Tiago asked. “I thought it would be faster.”

“Thirty minutes down. Thirty minutes back up.” The ticking started.

“How long can she hold her breath and still look for him? On the way down?”

Goz looked irritated. “I don’t know,” he said.

The sound of the ticking filled the silence that followed.

#

The timer dinged and Tiago jumped. He’d fallen into a trance while staring the stuck readout.

“She’s at the bottom.”

“Yep.”

Tiago swallowed. In a way, this was his fault. His idea. He’d convinced her to jump down there.

Goz reset the timer. Thirty minutes. “I’m going to tell the captain to make sure his boilers are stoked and ready. The moment we pull them aboard, we make for the
Takara Bune
and get both of them in the medical bay.”

Tiago walked over to the window. The spaceships had gotten as close to the edge of the dead zone as they dared, waiting.

Everyone was waiting.

Goz left the room. Tiago fell back into his nervous trance.

If this worked, Nashara would owe him. He had to think … he had to think like Kay, as much as that disgusted him. If Nashara owed him, he could change this all. Get what he wanted. That was the thought he hung onto as the minutes ticked slowly past.

The sonar readout flicked on, numbers clattering away.

“Goz!”

They rushed out on deck and over to the platform by the cable. Waves passed underneath the catamaran, slapping the sides of the hulls.

Nothing.

Then a single, large bubble burst, wobbling its way up from deep beneath the waves.

More followed, until it looked like the surface boiled.

And then the sled broke through, thrashing clear of the ocean and falling back onto the surface, two lifeless bodies lolling from its surface.

Two of the hired crewman gaped for a second, and then Goz started yelling. Poles with ropes and clips were extended, and the sled hauled up into the air. Now the two bodies looked even more grotesquely still, arms flopping in the air.

The moment they were cut free and rolled to the deck, Goz fired two explosive bolts and dropped the cable, drum and all, into the ocean. He turned in the direction of the cockpit and waved. “Full fucking speed ahead, man!” he shouted, and then kneeled down by the bodies of his two friends as Tiago stared.

They hauled the battered bodies up into the
Takara Bune
’s sickbay using robotic stretchers, as they were too heavy for anyone to lift. Tiago was sure he saw something leaking out of the nose and ears of Nashara’s chiseled face.

He wanted to throw up. These were two dead human beings.

Very dead.

The man called Pepper had squishy, strange things growing on his forearms.

Tiago followed the edge of the group, watching as the robotic stretcher deposited the two bodies on two different tables. An extra set of robotic surgical hands descended from the ceiling in a blur and started ripping away clothing.

Yuki stood between the two tables, swearing and darting her head back and forth, waving away skeins of data.

The ghostly Nashara, the machine one that called itself Piper, appeared for a second, then disappeared as it focused on assisting Yuki.

It was all an explosion of chaos that ended when a spark of electricity arced across the table. Electronics sizzled and spat, and the body of Pepper thrashed. The table dented under the impact. One of the surgical arms snapped and spun off into the wall with a clatter. He vomited water, and under one of his legs metal pistons burst through skin and froze as more electricity sparked.

Pepper leapt back off the bed, tearing away another surgical arm and holding it like a club. He staggered back against a wall, sightless face scanning the room.

“Identify yourselves or die,” he asked in a voice that came from somewhere deep and artificial in his throat.

“Goz, Yuki. Piper’s listening,” Goz said, his voice breaking slightly.

Piper reappeared, floating a foot over the end of Pepper’s table. “It took two weeks to get you hauled out,” she said softly.

Pepper grunted and tossed the robotic surgical arm aside. “Did the dead zone expand outwards?” he asked.

Goz flicked a look at Piper. “Yes. It trapped you.”

Pepper swayed in place for a moment, thinking. Then he growled, “Piper, I need you to call for the full mobilization of all of the Xenowealth’s military resources for a pre-emptive strike against the League.”

“Why don’t you rest?” Piper said. “You’ve undergone severe trauma. Get your rest, and when we can talk details …”

“There’s no time for that. Do it. Do it now,” Pepper hissed, and then slowly slumped forward. He stumbled back to the dented table and passed out onto it.

Alarms beeped, and Yuki moved back into motion.

Piper appeared in the air by Goz. “Damn it, he’s asking us to start a war.”

“You ever see him wrong?” Goz asked.

“It’s
war
.” Piper rose into the air and looked down at Goz. “I’ve seen enough of that, even as denizen of this ship’s systems, to know what the costs of that are going to be.”

“Pepper calling it,” Goz said. “They at least need to mobilize.”

“We’ve been facing off against the League since the Xenowealth was founded,” Piper said. “It’s never been all-out war.”

Goz rubbed his forehead. “I don’t know the answer, or why he needs this. But you need to pass the message on to the council and see what they say. And we need to get ready.”

Piper flickered away.

“What about me?” Tiago asked. “What about Placa del Fuego? We’ll be caught in the middle of that.”

“Maybe,” Goz said. “Maybe. Best you stay on board now, I guess.”

Maybe? Tiago thought about Nusdilla and her family hunkered down in the space between two buildings, hiding from the burning rain.

“Don’t fret,” Goz said. “The dead zone stops the worst of any warring. Nothing advanced happening around there.”

“But …”

More alarms whooped, and Goz froze for a second.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Tiago asked.

“League ship coming in closer for a look,” he said.

“I’ll go to my room,” Tiago said.

“No. Pepper talking war, a League ship sniffing us out, and all what happen on your island? Go to the cockpit. In case we do end up in a fight.”

Kay’s eyes adjusted to the bright light of the junk shop’s interior as she and Avris stepped inside.

“Don’t be alarmed by Simone,” said a voice with overly precise enunciation. The man behind the counter had bronzed skin. His overly perfect face looked like it had been glossed over for the kind of posters that hung outside the old theaters, Kay thought.

“Simone?” Avris asked.

The woman behind them grunted.

“Simone,” Kay said, half turning back toward her. And she smiled. “Good to meet you.”

Simone waved them further in with the gun and the man behind the counter sighed. “Put the weapon away, Simone.”

She flexed her hand and the gun slid underneath the sleeve of her coveralls with a metallic snap.

“Excellent.” The man leaned forward in a precise motion to extend his hand. “I’m Thinkerer,” he said. “I’ll be handling your travel arrangements from here on out, now that Simone has handed you over. We are so excited to have your business.”

He smiled with perfect, almost reflective teeth.

Kay swallowed. There was nothing behind those eyes. The man was just … empty to her. Empty like Nashara had been. Empty like Pepper. 

“We don’t know who you are,” Avris said. “We made an agreement with Simone. To smuggle in on a container. We don’t know you.”

Simone left.

Kay felt vulnerable, standing in the little junk shop with just Avris by her side, as Thinkerer smiled again. Who was this stranger? “I don’t often interfere with Simone’s business as a smuggler, but I do keep tabs on the traffic and intervene to lend a hand sometimes, when our interests coincide.”

Kay didn’t like the sound of that. “Coincide?” 

“I collect and examine things. Mull them over. Hence my nickname. I’ve helped Simone study League Enforcer patterns to help her with her small business. In return, I sometimes snag people of interest to me before they begin their journey.”

Avris cut to the point. “Why are we of interest to you?”

Thinkerer did not even glance over at her as he said, “I’m not interested in you. I’m interested in the young lady here, because if I’m not mistaken, she’s from the dead zone. Am I correct, Kay?”

“Fuck,” Avris spat. “He knows your name.”

They had used new identities. Simone hadn’t known their real names. Kay could feel the fear roll off Avris, distracting her from focusing on the enigma in front of her. “What do you want?”

Thinkerer rested his elbows on the countertop. They creaked from the weight. “I’m interested in anything you can tell me about the Doaq,” he said conversationally.

Kay stepped closer in a failed attempt to somehow draw something out of him not carefully present on his face. Casual interest was not what this man really felt. There had to be something deeper.

“It’s alien,” she said.

Thinkerer did not show the slightest hint of frustration or impatience. “That is pretty well suspected,” he said. “Tell me something new. Something shiny.”

“And why would I do that?” Kay asked him.

“Because smuggling out aboard my ship is safer than being packed into a container, as Simone offered you, and hoping for the best. Because after you go into the League, I can bring you back out.” Thinkerer met her gaze. “You
will
be returning, won’t you?”

“What makes you think that?” Kay asked.

“You are traveling with a decorated Xenowealth pilot who has moved around a lot over the last couple years since an honorable discharge. Suggestive of her being an agent. And you have had direct contact with the alien. And you’re a very rare example of the Okur Caretakers. I couldn’t think of a better contact for the Xenowealth to have on Placa del Fuego.”

Kay quirked the corner of her mouth.

“Oh, really?” Thinkerer said. He acknowledged her signal that he was wrong about any association with the Xenowealth with a slightly bowed head. “I’m not usually that wrong. But it is a reasonable conclusion, yes?”

A tip of the head. Kay folded her arms. “Why are you fishing for information about it? What are you looking for specifically?”

“No specifics. I’m just building a picture.”

“I’m not used to sharing,” Kay said, shifting gears. “I’m used to being the one in control.”

“And yet, now you’re using Simone to smuggle you into League territory.”

“I overreached,” Kay admitted, enjoying the blunt honesty as a strategy. It tasted different, but she felt it was the only tool she had to use on Thinkerer. He would sniff out anything else. By being upfront, she could maybe gain his trust. “I took on the Doaq. It destroyed my entire organization, for the most part, and came for me.”

Thinkerer reached out a hand. “I think you and I would benefit if we worked together.”

Kay looked at the perfectly manicured, golden hand.

“If we’re going to keep playing this little game of honesty,” she said, “I should explain my goal here. I’m looking to kill the Doaq. And I want to use the League and the Xenowealth to do it because I can’t do it alone.”

“That’s just marvelous,” Thinkerer said, hand still out. “I’d like to help.”

Kay laughed, not quite able to take this as seriously as she needed to. She glanced over at Avris, who looked utterly bewildered. “He’d like to help,” Kay said.

Thinkerer did not laugh with them. His smile remained fixed, his hand steady in the air over the counter. “If the people of Placa del Fuego expect to live, if anyone on this world wants to survive, the Doaq will have to be stopped.”

“Why?” Kay asked. “What do you know about the Doaq?”

“Well …” Thinkerer frowned. He looked up. A beam of horizontal, white-hot light punched through the wall and carved through the air. Avris grabbed Kay and shoved her to the ground as it swung through the air above them.

The inside of the junk shop crackled with ionized air. Molten metal spat and sizzled as the ruined remains of shelves slumped forward. Thinkerer crouched down by the floor as well, looking under a hinged shelf at them. “I’m very sorry,” he said, cradling an injured arm. Kay frowned as she saw the dull gleam of metal underneath ruined, bronzed skin. “It looks like I’m not the only one who took an interest in you.”

Something yanked the rear wall of the shop away and men in scarred yellow mechanized armor rushed through the gap. “Hands open and out,” they ordered. “Face on the ground.”

“We’ll continue this conversation later,” Thinkerer said cheerfully, ignoring the command to lie down as he stood straight up.

One of the yellow suited men raised a rifle and shot him in the chest with a burst of concentrated hellfire.

He made a “clank” sound as he hit the ground. Metal hitting concrete. The skin had been burned away from Thinkerer’s chest. What remained was bronzed metal, hissing as something beneath the flanged ribs reacted to the dissipating heat.

Thinkerer grunted, and then closed his perfect eyes with a faint, untroubled grin directed right at Kay.