“Shit,” Zack said.
“That’s not the worst of it,” Makali said. More fast-forwarding. By now, Valya had stirred, though she couldn’t possibly see the tiny black box screen.
Makali had to stop and start several times. The interior camera simply showed a darkened cabin on its side.
Until a face appeared.
“Jesus!” Dale said. It was there, then it wasn’t…and then a shape could be seen moving around the cabin.
“Freeze that and play it back slowly,” Zack told Makali, entirely unnecessarily.
Stopped, the face was blurry…but there was enough resolution to see that it wasn’t human or Sentry. To Dale, it had a snout and two eyes, giving it some vague resemblance to an Earth-based animal like a greyhound. “Is that an Architect?” Makali said.
“Nope.”
“It was big, whatever it was,” Dale said, pointing to the way it took up volume in the Brahma cabin. “Lots of legs.”
“Long ones,” Zack said.
“Is it an organic being,” Dale said, “or a machine? It seemed to have edges and angles.”
“Maybe both,” Makali said. “It’s mechanical enough to survive in vacuum.” She showed the playback to Valya, who clapped her hand over her mouth in shock and horror.
“You know who might be helpful here,” Dale said, throwing out the latest in a series of suggestions likely to be ignored. “Dash.”
“Excellent idea,” Zack said. He glanced around. “How long before we make landfall?” he said.
“I make it another hour at least,” Makali said.
“Then let’s not wait.”
It took some rearranging of bodies to get Zack to the rear of the raft, where he could signal Dash.
Dale was left hanging on to the front and looking down. What he saw there made him hiss, “Zack, freeze!”
“What now?” Zack said. He was suspended in a ridiculous posture, holding the black box out in front of him.
“Look down, and keep quiet!”
Zack handed the black box back to Makali, then flattened out to peer over the side of the raft into the water below.
Two meters down, no more, lay a pod of sleeping Sentries!
Makali saw them, too. Then Valya, who barely stifled a scream.
As one, the humans clustered in the center of the raft. “How many were there?” Makali said.
“Two dozen at least,” Dale said. It looked as though an army platoon had decided to curl up together and take a nap…underwater.
“Can he be quieter?” Valya said, nodding to Dash. Each of the Sentry’s regular nudges of the raft resulted in a splashing sound.
“Why don’t you give our big friend that message?” Dale said.
“Why don’t we all just sit still and trust that Dash knows what it’s doing,” Zack said. “For all we know, they could have been down there the whole time!” He handed the black box back to Makali. “That can wait.”
Dale turned to look ahead at the south wall, where the fog had lifted a bit. “Not to add to the general pessimism, but I don’t see an exit of any kind.”
“We’re still too far away,” Makali said. “And we can’t see everything.”
It was true that there were structures at the south end, as well as stands of vegetation. But it looked to Dale as though the surface behind both obstructions was still smooth and solid.
“How much longer?” Valya said.
Makali snapped, “An hour minus five minutes.”
Zack said, “Hey, Dale, you’re closest…see if we’re still sailing over those guys.”
Dale edged back to the front of the raft. Not only were they still passing over a herd of sleeping Sentries, they seemed to be closer. “Still there, and not as deep as they were.”
“We’re getting into the shallows, I bet,” Makali said.
Dale lowered his head, which turned out to be a mistake. The chain holding his Hulk medallion around his neck simply parted.
The shiny golden disk gently fluttered down, down into the water, landing squarely on the sleeping face of the nearest submerged Sentry.
Which opened its eyes.
“We’ve been spotted—” Dale said. He never finished the warning. The raft rose out of the water, tilting to one side. Dale had time to see Makali clutching the black box to her chest…Valya scrabbling at the surface of the raft…and Zack going into the water…and then he was in the water, too.
It was warm, smelly, briny, and in his mouth. Everything around him was churning, as if whales were at war. Something hit him, spun him around.
He tried to swim, to reach the surface at least. He thought of not only angry Sentries, but also the flying piranha—
He felt himself grabbed from behind. He kicked out, got grabbed around the neck, broke that hold, and was able to surface.
He was looking back the way they’d come. The raft was visible, though upended. He saw Makali’s head…she was swimming toward him. No Zack, no Valya.
Or not in front of him, anyway. What drew his attention was the sight of a Sentry—Dash, he realized, since the creature was wearing the translator around its neck—half out of the water and beating the daylights out of another Sentry. The snarls and groaning were loud and ugly, like two warring walruses.
“Dale!” Zack’s voice from behind him, tugging him by the shoulder.
He turned and started swimming. Valya was ahead of all of them, half-stumbling.
Dale’s legs collided with something solid, like the wall of a pool. He realized he was in shallow water now and was able to stand.
Zack, too. Then Makali. “Keep going, everyone!” Zack said.
The order was unnecessary. Dale wanted as much distance between him and the warring Sentries as he could get, as quickly as possible.
The four of them emerged from the water onto another beach, in the shadows of a Sentry village. “Which way?” Dale shouted.
“Get to the wall!” Zack said, sounding confident even if, like Dale, he had no idea where to go.
They stumbled between the two nearest buildings. Dale realized that the grunting battle had stopped. He looked back…Dash was out of the water now, too, dripping, its greater arms red with what had to be blood. The Sentry headed directly for them. “No!” it said. “That way, that way!” Dash pointed to their left.
“You heard the man,” Zack said. They formed a ragged, wet line, Valya behind Dash, Makali behind her, Zack, then Dale.
Dash seemed to be following a trail…there was a worn-down dirt path between the village and the wall. Bizarre trees with orange-colored leaves formed an archway over the path…they were low enough that Dash had to duck. The humans were able to go upright.
They entered an opening where the dirt path submerged itself in a narrow inlet. “I think we can get through that,” Zack said.
But as he made the first splash, a silvery thing leaped out of the water, snarling and flashing its teeth. Without thinking, Dale executed a soccer-style midflight kick, nailing the creature and sending it across the inlet.
The flying piranha flopped and sputtered. Nasty as it was, it turned out to be two hands wide. “Do we kill it?” Dale said, hoping the answer was no, because he knew it meant stomping the vicious thing with his bare feet.
“Why waste time and energy?” Zack said. “Everyone across, now!”
They returned to dry land, shadows, and buildings.
Suddenly they not only slowed, they halted. Dash was standing in front of a cave opening very much like the entrance to the Beehive in the human habitat…only walled in with chunks of rock and mortar.
A long time ago.
“It’s not here,” the Sentry said.
“This isn’t the exit?” Zack said.
“It was,” Dash said. “Before my imprisonment. As a halfling, I played here.”
“How long ago was this?” Makali said.
“It’s not important,” Zack said. “This isn’t a way out.” He glanced back at the water. “Are we going to be pursued? Are they specifically after us, or did we just disturb them?”