Devilfish -- Part Three

When Veya came to she was lying near the bottom of the staircase. Mect was hovering over her. Behind him, the two flashes the party carried were set down. They were placed pointing upwards, casting the entire shaft in a dull but uniform light.

Mect smiled when he saw Veya's eyes open. "There you are," he said. "I was getting worried."

Veya sat up and winced. "Ouch. My head still hurts from when I slammed it on the desk this afternoon."

"I have something you could take for that," Mect said. "There's some cure-headache in my pack."

Veya shook her head. "No, I don't like to take unnecessary medicine. But God, what happened to me?"

"You fainted. People with vertigo don't take well to shock. I know how startled I was when that thing came out of the shadows.... It really must have threw you for a loop."

"It looked like a standard worker drone," Veya said. "But why was it still hanging around down here? I thought all of Tidal's drones had been called back up to the station."

"They were," Kaeblin said. He walked over to the others, the tunnel map in his hands. "All of our robots were accounted for, including the one that was destroyed. I can't imagine how another drone could have gotten down here."

"Did it have a serial number?" Veya asked. She heard footsteps behind her and looked over her shoulder. Silverton was coming down the steps.

"I just checked that," he said. "There was no number where there should have been."

"You're certain the number plate wasn't just blown off or damaged in the attack?" Mect asked.

Silverton glared at him. "Of course I am. Do you really think I would make such a careless mistake?"

"Sorry!" Mect said, backing away. "I meant no offense."

Veya clenched her jaw. Kaeblin was rude, but he was also right. It was pointless to, as Veya thought of it, "pull a Silverton" and hold their progress up further. So, instead of speaking, she simply stood and picked up her gear. In a moment, they were off.

The shaft with the narrow stairs led to a passageway with a very low ceiling. Such passages were rare on Palm II but were sometimes discovered in places where the work force had consisted primarily of Motavians. No one dared make the connection aloud, as a comment about Motavians being short might have been taken by some as racist. Veya had always thought that was a little silly; it was just a fact that almost all Motavians, aside from those of the Tonoe tribe, rarely stood taller than a meter or so. Still, she had bitten her tongue. Veya had never been once to speak crudely. Now, however, when she found herself crouching through a wet tunnel with the threat of robot and monster attack a constant presence in her mind, she couldn't help but swear.

Mect, who was right in front of her, said, "I haven't heard that word since grade school." He looked back at her and smirked.

Veya smirked as well. "In grade school this tunnel might have actually been the right size," she said.

The short tunnel opened onto another passage of a more adequate size. The water in the new tunnel, however, was twice as deep as it had been before. Fortunately, there was a ledge higher up which the party was able to walk on to avoid getting drenched. They traveled this way for almost an hour without incident.

At that point they came to another intersection. Again, there were four passages, including the one which they had just traveled. Unlike before, however, all of these passages were free of rubble and easily passable. Unfortunately, the dry ledge the party was walking on ended at that point, meaning that, regardless of which direction they took, they were going to get wet.

"Where to now?" asked Veya.

Kaeblin looked at the map. "Right now, we are headed north. Hmmm. Oh, yes, this is actually the beginning of the corkscrew I told you about. The passages heading further north and to the east are dead ends. It's the western passage that heads downward and twists around. The creature is down there somewhere."

Silverton jumped off of the ledge and into the black water, which came to a halfway point between his knees and waist. Mect and Veya took off their coats and put the coats into their packs. But before they jumped down as well, Silverton said, "Wait."

Kaeblin looked up from his map. "What is it?"

Silverton visibly tensed. "I hear something."

"What is it?" Mect asked quietly.

Silverton just held up a hand for them to be quiet. After a few seconds Kaeblin said, "I hear it, too." He pulled his lasershot from its holster.

Veya and Mect looked at each other and nodded. There was a distinct thumping sound, and it was getting louder and louder. It sounded like a blunt object striking a thin metal surface, and causing a muffled ringing.

Kaeblin charged the lasershot to its highest possible setting. That made rapid fire impossible, but each blast was far more powerful. Mect did the same thing with his special shot, but Veya left her sonic gun alone. She wanted the ability to shoot again and again if necessary.

Silverton pressed up against the slimy tunnel wall opposite the position of the others. He motioned for them to get back, and Veya realized that if the creature came from the western passage, she, Mect, and Kaeblin would immediately be in its line of sight. So the three of them crept back, crouched down, and waited.

The ringing got louder and louder, and soon it was joined by splashing and sloshing. Veya realized what it must be -- the creature was coming closer, and she was hearing it flailing about in the water, with its many tentacles striking the walls of the tunnel. Veya had felt so brave when she first descended with Mect and the others, but she suddenly found herself terrified. The water level was low, and since the creature was a cephalopod mollusk, like a squid or an octopus, one would think it must be small so that it could remain underwater. And yet, the robot it had destroyed had been in a predominantly dry, open air tunnel. That meant that the creature, too, could maneuver in open air. And that meant that the creature could potentially be as large as the tunnels themselves.

Veya bit her lip and fought her impulse to close her eyes. She raised her sonic gun and forced her shaking hands to hold still.

The clanging and splashing got louder and louder. And then, it stopped. Veya held still for a second and then let out a sigh of relief. Mect smiled at Veya and Kaeblin looked all around. Silverton, however, was perfectly still.

Then, from nowhere, there was one deafeningly loud clang. Mect cried out as one of the metal plates that made up the tunnel floor flipped upwards, revealing a watery byway. Water was sent flying upwards like a geyser and several tentacles thick as tree trunks, and the same gray color as dead flesh, erupted from the opening. Everyone began to fire on them. Silverton screamed as several of the tentacles rapped around his limbs and torso; the suckers on the appendages tightly affixed themselves to his skin and clothing. Even as he was dragged towards the creature's hidden den, Silverton fired away at the tentacles. Whole patches of the creature's caustic flesh he managed to burn away, and the wounds not only bled, but sparked and crackled as well.

"We've got to stop it!" Kaeblin shouted as he watched Silverton be dragged closer and closer to his doom. Kaeblin, Mect, and Veya all concentrated on the tentacles grasping Silverton, and they did finally manage to sever one of them. However, try as they might, the creature was finally able to pull Silverton down the watery hole. The creature retreated, and the hatch closed behind it. Only seconds had passed, but Silverton, and his abductor, were gone as surely as if they'd never existed. Almost immediately, the signal from Silverton's communication beacon died.

"Damn it!" Kaeblin cried. He jumped down into the water and trained his lasershot on the spot that had opened up. He kicked the spot, but it sounded solid.

"Can you open it?" Mect called down to the constable. But Kaeblin just shook his head.

Veya grabbed Mect's arm. "Unbelievable," she said. Her voice was shaky, but she spoke out of anger, and even awe. And she no longer felt frightened. "Bigger than I feared. But did you see...how sick it looked?"

Mect nodded. "I know. It looked all rotted. If something that looked like that was lying still you'd just assume it was dead."

While Kaeblin continued to examine the sealed hatch, Veya said, "If the creature is diseased, well, that's good and bad. The good news is that it will probably be easier to handle. The bad news is that it can pollute the ecosystem. And no offense to you or your colleagues, Mect, but the ecosystem around the Drift is perhaps the most fragile on Palm II."

"No offense taken," Mect replied. "You're absolutely right. The Drift has presented us with a lot of unexpected challenges, and we don't always know how best to deal with it." He shook his head. "But I just can't imagine how we could have created this thing." There was silence for just a few seconds, and then Mect said, "Veya, is it just my imagination or are you very unconcerned about what just happened to Agent Silverton?"

Veya sighed. "Sorry. Maybe I don't look as upset as I feel. For one, I'm trying to figure out what the Hell we're supposed to do now. And beyond that.... Don't get me wrong, I hope Silverton is all right, somehow, or that he will be. But something about that guy--"

Kaeblin, looking disgusted, shouted, "If you two are done chatting, I think I have an idea."

Zelan station had been in chaos for days, ever since Demi, Dahlia, and the others set out in pursuit of Dark Force. The station had been left in the care of Warren, the highest ranking android on the station after Demi herself. Warren, however, had never been without either Demi or Wren to look to when he needed assistance, and despite his generally calm and confident demeanor, he found himself the very definition of frazzled. There was simply too much to do. Zelan was the hub of Algo's technology. The entire star system depended upon Zelan for nearly everything, as Daughter's, either directly or indirectly, ran most of the planets' major systems. And since Daughter's core system was at Zelan, that made nearly everything Warren's responsibility. Warren's only comforts during those stressful days were Daughter herself, who was usually too busy to converse, and Betty, the Whistle-type robot brought to the station by Demi. Although Betty's master was Tirotul Urbanich, the Dezorian scientist injured by Dark Force, Betty had thrown herself into the role of Warren's assistant. When asked why, Betty replied that it was simply her nature. But Warren suspected that, while that may be true, Betty's greater motivation was that being busy kept her from worrying so much about Tiro's poor health.

Tiro, as well as Wren, were resting in Zelan's sickbay/repair station. The androids of Zelan knew well how to care for both of them, and while Wren remained in an almost coma-like state, Tiro eventually regained consciousness. In fact, on the fifth day of his stay at Zelan, he was able to get up and walk with Betty's assistance. His face was bruised and his shoulder was bandaged from Dark Force's stabbing attack. He was also very tired and would occasionally go into a painful fit of hacking coughs, which sometimes resulted in him vomiting up black, tar-like blood. His mind, however, had finally cleared, and he was largely able to function again.

Betty informed Tiro of all that had transpired since his attack, and how, although Tiro had not discovered a new species after all, he had set off a chain of events that would be remembered for all time. Or so they would be, once the truth of the matter could be revealed to the public.

Tiro was sitting in Zelan's observation deck, watching Mota float by beneath him, with Betty at his side. Their conversation about recent events had fallen into a lull. After several minutes of silence, Tiro said, "What surprises me the most is that Elm went with them."

Betty turned her optic sensor on Tiro. "Elm behaved in a most exemplary way. I was continually impressed by his bravery and ingenuity. Without him, I fear we all would have perished in that tent."

"And now he's--" Tiro angrily gestured to the stars. "--out there, only God knows just where, fighting some horrible creature from thousands of years ago! I can hardly believe it."

"It is very hard to understand," Betty said. "I realize that. But surely you do not doubt that this is fact. Do you?"

Tiro sighed. "No," he said. "I knew that the 'fossil' I had uncovered had to be some sort of demon the second it woke up and stabbed me. No fossil can do that! I don't care how well preserved it is...." There was another pause. "So, how is Wren doing now? And what of Bel and Bart?"

"Bel and Bart can be repaired, and work on them is underway now. Of course I am very concerned about them, but it appears that they will recover completely."

Tiro nodded. "Good."

"Wren's condition is like yours, only much worse," Betty went on. "We can't understand just how, but Dark Force somehow reprogrammed Wren, at least temporarily, and the residue of Dark Force's presence has severely damaged Wren's internal mechanisms. Warren's team has been able to get Wren's own recovery unit operating again. But right now, nothing they do seems to be enough."

Tiro sighed again. "Just like me. One thing heals and another breaks down. You know, I couldn't even see when I woke up. I can see fine now, but I can't taste or smell anything. Betty...I'm scared."

Betty wheeled closer to Tiro and put her detachable work arm on his knee. "I know," she said. "But Demi was confident that this entire situation could be remedied. She said it was imperative that the Dark Force be destroyed."

Tiro laughed. "Oh, I agree. But am I supposed to believe that Dark Force's end will magically cure all my ills?"

Betty's arm shrugged. "It appears so. I realize that, as a scientist, you prefer to analyze situations in a logical, rational, scientific manner. And so, you prefer to exclude 'magic' as a factor in your analyses. In this case, however, I believe that 'magic' is far too integral to simply be shoved aside. Of course, you and Wren shall continue to be treated with the means we have here on Zelan. But we may have to put all of our hopes on Demi and her team. They may be the only ones who can help us now."

Tiro was silent for a moment as he stared down at Betty, the once-simple Whistle-type who had redesigned himself. He smiled. "Betty," he said, "I don't know what I'd do without you."

Betty's optic moved up and down, as that was her way of nodding. "Thank you, Tiro," she said. "I feel the same way."