Dark Fathoms Read online

  They all heard an even stranger sound, the clack-clack-clack of something hard tapping against the hull as if testing it.

  “What in Gaia’s name is out there?” Krysty asked.

  “I don’t know, and frankly, I think it’s better that way,” Ricky replied, hefting his carbine for all the good it would do.

  “And where’s Ryan?” Mildred asked, exchanging a worried look with Krysty and J.B. “This is a completely shitty situation—and it’s seems to be getting shittier by the second.”

  And at the far end of the enclosure, snugly encased in several canvas straps crisscrossing his body, Doc slept on, his stentorian snores ringing off the metal walls.

  * * *

  HAVING SURVIVED JUST about every kind of combat known to man, Ryan was rarely at a loss for a strategy against just about any opponent. But this time, every idea he came up with was unfeasible from the start.

  Try as he might, he could not free the suit’s arms to grab at the creature. The tentacles encircled him so snugly that the powerful arms couldn’t move them. More of the beast’s tentacles were wrapped around the exterior lights, as well, so he couldn’t use them to try to blind it. The only things that were still working were his legs.

  For a crazy second, Ryan considered trying to fall over, hoping to crush the squid underneath him, but he discarded that idea, too. If it failed, he’d be stuck there, since he couldn’t use his arms to get up again. And though it didn’t seem like the tentacles would be able to get through the glass anytime soon—although the constant scraping against the viewport was getting on his nerves—there was the very real threat of him running out of oxygen. Not to mention the much more pressing danger of the rest of the group running out of oxygen long before he did.

  But without a way to see where he was going, if he missed the escape pod and dragged them deeper into the ocean, it would all be over. Right now, however, that seemed to be his only option, because all he had left was the ability to walk.

  That notion sparked the glimmer of an idea in his mind, but it failed to crystalize. Ryan considered his options, and thought of every variation on walking he could, no matter how crazy or impossible: walking to dry land where he could suffocate this thing...walking up on top of the sub and jumping off to crush it...crush it...that’s it!

  Ryan reversed his course and walked toward the sub again. When he reached it—signaled by the fact that he could no longer keep walking forward—he tried to find one of the handles on the submarine. Except each time he tried to push one of the arms forward, he encountered squishy resistance. But when he tried to grab an arm in a clamp to crush it, it slid out of his grasp before he could get a grip on its slimy skin.

  Rad-blasted bastard! he thought. Okay, I can’t crush it against the sub...maybe I can take it back inside the airlock and suffocate it!

  The only problem with that idea was that he had to find the airlock first. However, Ryan knew he was at one end of the sub, so he took a careful step to the right, then another one. When he tried to walk forward, he hit the left side of the suit on the sub again. He took another half step to the right, and was able to walk forward unimpeded.

  Ryan strode ahead as fast as he dared. After about a dozen steps, he hit another wall, this one obvious by its height. He tried to estimate where the outer control for the door would be—he’d located it fairly easily on the return from the escape pod, but groping for it while having a gigantic squid trying to crush him was another matter entirely.

  Eventually, he thought he was in the right area, but now the problem was how to activate the button itself. With no other recourse, Ryan settled for mashing the squid against the wall, hoping that both the sheer mass of the creature and himself would activate the outer airlock door. Just when he was about to give up, a message flashed on his rear camera monitor:

  “Outer airlock door sealed against breach in hull as part of standard emergency protocol. Suggest entering base through escape pod airlock.”

  Shit! Making sure he had the compass heading for the other pod laid in, Ryan slowly turned until he was sure he was facing the right direction. With no other recourse, he began walking out onto the ocean floor, aiming for—he hoped—the escape pod.

  * * *

  “THINK GONE, WHATEVER was,” Jak said.

  Everyone had been listening for the past few minutes, trying to figure out if whatever was out there was still investigating them, or if it was gone.

  “How much time do we have left, J.B.?” Krysty asked.

  The Armorer checked his wrist chron. “Twenty-two minutes.”

  “We might be able to last a few minutes longer past that,” Mildred said. “But not much before oxygen starvation sets in.”

  “Always full of such cheery facts, aren’t you?” Krysty asked with a wry smile.

  Mildred shot the grin right back at her. “Well, as ways to go, asphyxiation is one of the preferable. All of us will gradually pass out, so we won’t even know when we die.”

  “Hey!” J.B.’s commanding tone made everyone look at him. “No one’s dying just yet, so let’s stow that talk and concentrate on the here and now, all right?”

  Just then, the entire sub rocked over to a forty-five-degree angle, making everyone throw out their hands to brace themselves. It stayed that way for a few long seconds, then gradually settled back down.

  “Think that was Ryan?” Mildred broke the silence first.

  J.B. shook his head. “Don’t think the suit can move this sub like that—unless he was thrown into it by something. Ricky, are you sure the oxygen tanks are secure—”

  He was interrupted by the sub tipping over even farther. It hung there for another interminable moment, then rolled completely over onto its top. The friends inside now found themselves hanging upside down.

  “Dark night!” J.B. spat.

  “Gaia!” Krysty was just as shocked.

  “Son of a bitch!” Mildred said.

  “Shut mouths!” Jak said, then raised his voice when no one complied. “Said shut fuck up!”

  Everyone fell silent at his command, hanging uncomfortably in their straps. The albino was listening intently to something, but no one else knew what. Then, he raised his head to look at the others.

  “Water coming in.”

  * * *

  RYAN SLOGGED FORWARD, lifting one exhausted, tingling leg and setting it down, then picking up the other one and doing the same thing. The exertion and lack of sleep over the past twenty-four hours were really catching up with him, and the fact that he now had to make two trips back and forth to his goal didn’t fill him with a lot of hope, either. The thought did pass through his mind that he had to look pretty ridiculous from the outside—basically a huge squid with armored suit legs trudging around on the ocean floor.

  Meanwhile, a clock in his head kept ticking down the minutes that the rest of his companions had left on this Earth if he didn’t get his ass in gear.

  That thought revitalized him, and Ryan plunged forward with renewed purpose, determined to get this fireblasted nuke-spawn off him and go back and save his friends.

  He’d been keeping count in his head of how far he’d gone, and when he got to seventy steps he slowed and began trying to get a feel for where he was in relationship to the pod.

  Meanwhile, the squid showed absolutely no inclination to leave anytime soon. Its relentless teeth-lined suckers kept wearing at the viewport. They’d get through in about a month or two—not that it would matter to what was left of Ryan by then.

  The squid shifted around him again, and Ryan tried to free an arm. This time, his left arm found an opening and slipped out. Ryan quickly raised it to shoulder level before the monstrous invertebrate tried to pin it down again.

  Now that he had one useable arm, Ryan felt a bit more hopeful. He began searching for the pod by stepping to the right once, then back to the straight line that should have led him to the base, then to the left once. On his third time stepping to the right, he collided with something l
arge and very solid. Found it!

  Repositioning himself so that he could touch the wall with his left arm, Ryan began retracing his last steps around the base, searching for the airlock door. He knew it was roughly a dozen steps from where he had met the wall the first time and was hoping he wasn’t too far off this time, either.

  As he took another step, his left hand slipped off the wall. Immediately correcting, Ryan found that the next section of wall was a few inches farther in. Which meant—he’d found the bastard door!

  Now came the really tricky part. Ryan began feeling around the door frame for its controls. The squid flexed its tentacles again and brought its beak back up to chomp at the viewport again. Ryan redoubled his efforts to find the controls.

  After a couple minutes of searching, he located what he thought was the button, and hit it. He felt the pressure of the water around him change, as if something was allowing the water to move around. Keeping his left arm out, Ryan straightened and took a large step forward, still keeping the suit’s arm in contact with the wall at all times. He gradually turned ninety degrees to his left and entered what he prayed was the airlock.

  Still keeping his arm on the door frame, Ryan walked inside and turned left again, groping for the inner controls. After what seemed like an eternity, he hit the button, and the outer door began to close. He just stood there, preparing for what was about to happen next.

  Sure enough, the water churned around him as it began draining out of the airlock. As it did, the colossal mutie squid, as if sensing something was wrong, began to squirm and wiggle. As the water receded, its body flopped onto the floor and its tentacles began whipping around in the air. It withdrew from Ryan’s suit, and for the first time, he saw how huge it really was.

  The body of the massive squid had to be thirty-five feet long. Adding in the tentacles, which were almost twice as long, and Ryan had brought in an ocean leviathan that was almost one hundred feet long.

  It thrashed and shook as the last of the water left the airlock. Having regained the use of his arms and vision, Ryan stepped forward, raising both arms as he stepped on a thick tentacle with his foot, crushing it under the one-ton weight of the suit.

  The squid jerked and shook even more violently. As a last resort, it squirted a long jet of thick, black ink at the suit, drenching it, and temporarily obscuring Ryan’s vision. But he didn’t stop advancing toward the main body and that huge, golden eye.

  * * *

  THE LAST FEW minutes had been an absolute nightmare for everyone in the sub. Whatever was attacking them kept trying to get inside. It had rolled the sub over at least twice more, nearly dislodging the people and equipment inside. The last roll had been the worst. An oxygen tank had come loose and nearly brained Ricky, who had managed to avoid it at the last minute. It had careened around the space until Jak snagged it as it sailed past him, dislocating his shoulder in the process.

  The sub finally came to rest on its right side, with Krysty, J.B. and Ricky on the new floor, and Jak and Mildred hanging from what was now the ceiling. And still Doc snored on. The really bad part was that all of the tumbling around had opened several pinhole leaks in the sub’s shell. The water was already a couple of inches deep on the bottom of the sub, and one of the porthole covers was groaning under the pressure.

  “Is everyone all right?” Mildred asked.

  “Shoulder hurts like bitch,” Jak replied. “But okay.”

  “Banged my head against the wall.” Ricky explored the area with cautious fingers. “Swelling a bit, but nothing bleeding.”

  Krysty and J.B. both said they were fine. “What about you, Mildred?” J.B. asked.

  “Other than the blood rushing to my head from hanging here, I’m just peachy, thanks.”

  “Should try getting down?” Jak asked.

  J.B. and Mildred both shook their heads. “If that—whatever it is—is still out there, the last thing we want is people flying around while it takes another shot at cracking us open,” J.B. said. “Best thing we can do is sit tight and hope Ryan gets us out of this mess soon.”

  Krysty shivered as the water reached high enough to soak through the back of her jumpsuit. “Right.” Please hurry, lover, she thought.

  * * *

  HIS CLAMPS DRIPPING with squid flesh and brains, Ryan stood in the middle of the airlock as he sucked in the weird liquid oxygen as hard as he could. He looked around the room, which now looked like a huge meat bomb had gone off.

  Squid parts were strewed everywhere. Torn-off tentacle segments lay on the floor, while the squid’s body looked as though Ryan had gone climbing on it, which, in a sense, he had.

  Basically, his assault tactic had consisted of simply wading forward, aiming for the big bag of flesh and sensory organs located in the middle of the main body. Whenever a tentacle had tried to stop him, he’d ripped it off. It had helped that the squid was suffocating, as well, which meant it couldn’t mount an effective defense, but Ryan wanted it destroyed no matter what. He had delivered the coup de grâce by plunging his clamps into the beast’s middle, grabbing that small piece of silver metal and pulling it completely out. Squid juice, wires and other stuff had trailed after it, and Ryan had crushed the main piece in his clamps. Only then had the huge animal given one final shudder and died.

  Now that he got a better look at it, Ryan could see the more extensive modifications that AIDAN had somehow made to the squid. The filaments that ran the entire length of the tentacles appeared to be some kind of antennae or maybe even sensory feedback wires, so the computer would be able to experience what the squid was doing, in a sense.

  Shit—the others!

  Even in his exhausted state, Ryan almost managed to run to the outer door controls and hit the button to open it. The second it was high enough, he stepped out and began heading back to the other base.

  He found being able to see made a world of difference, and he covered the ground back to the sub in what would have been record time. More used to operating the suit now, Ryan found he could move faster if he used a kind of loping gait, almost skipping across the flat, gray ground.

  There was only one problem. When he followed his tracks back to where he was sure he’d left the sub, it was gone.

  * * *

  THE WATER ROSE steadily higher, until Krysty, J.B. and Ricky had to unstrap themselves and stand up. They also unstrapped Mildred and Jak.

  “Bastard cold!” Jak said, clutching his dislocated shoulder.

  “Getting harder to breathe, as well,” J.B. said. “Ricky, pop the last tank.”

  “Um, I already did,” the teen replied.

  “Great.” J.B. glanced around. “Everyone just try to stay calm and breathe shallow if you can.”

  “Might as well pop that shoulder back in while we’re waiting,” Mildred said. “You want to hold him, J.B.?”

  “Not need him.” The albino shook his head. “Can take it.”

  “Suit yourself, youngblood,” J.B. replied, then returned to what he had been doing, muttering under his breath as he apparently tried to figure something out.

  “Okay, just hold still.” Mildred probed the area with gentle hands, eliciting no sounds of pain or discomfort from Jak. “All right, I’ve got it. Sure you don’t want anyone or anything to brace yourself against?”

  Jak planted his feet in the frigid water and shook his head again, making his wet hair flick back and forth. “Not first time. Do it.”

  “Okay, I’m going to do this on three. Ready?” At Jak’s nod, Mildred began counting, “One...two—” right after she said that, she wrenched his arm up and over, popping it back into the socket.

  “Hey! Said count to three!” Jak said as he clutched his shoulder.

  “Yeah, but I didn’t want you to tense up, so I did it early,” Mildred replied. “How’s it feel?”

  Jak tested his arm. “Sore, but good. Thanks.”

  Meanwhile, Krysty had waded through the knee-high water to J.B., who was looking at one of the leaks with a dis
consolate expression. “What’s wrong?”

  “Taking on too much water,” he replied. “At this rate, the sub’ll be too heavy for Ryan to move.”

  Just then, the metal container shifted again. Everyone braced themselves, but the expected rollover didn’t happen. Instead, the sub rocked back and forth, and back and forth again.

  “What’s going on?” Ricky asked.

  Krysty figured it out first. “It’s Ryan!” she said as the sub continued rocking. “I think he’s going to roll us to the escape pod!”

  “Dark night! We have to get Doc out of his restraints!” J.B. said as he started wading over to him. Ricky, being the closest, moved to help him, and together they got the old man unstrapped just as the sub began to roll again.

  The water sloshed around their feet as the sub lurched forward in fits and starts. For their part, everyone was kept busy just trying to stay on their feet. Soon they were all soaked up to their waists, and J.B. and Ricky had each taken at least an entire dunk in the water while trying to keep Doc’s snoring head above it.

  “Black dust!” J.B. said. “Not sure what’s worse, being trapped in the base, or what we have to do to escape it!”

  “Just stay on your feet!” Mildred said after coming perilously close to going under herself. “This can’t last forever!”

  * * *

  OUTSIDE, RYAN WASN’T sure just how much he had left to give. He’d performed many incredible feats of strength and endurance when his life or others had been on the line, but the demands being placed on him in this situation just kept getting more and more by the minute.

  When he’d found the sub shell gone, he’d followed the marks on the ocean floor easily enough. He found it about fifty feet to the left. It was under attack by another of the squid monstrosities, this one tapping at the hull with its beak and claw-tipped tentacles. The beast was so intent on its metal prey that it didn’t notice the suit approaching.

  Ryan saw red. Building up a good head of steam, he ran toward the sub as fast as he could manage. When he was a couple yards away, he crouched and leaped as high into the water as the suit would let him. He passed the apex of his jump and slammed his metal-clamped hand into the body of the squid as he came down.