So over and over again, she drew the undine farther away from where he was and toward... herself, she realized. Mira had unintentionally drawn him to the control room, which would get her in even more trouble if people realized.
Frantically, she made sure every single camera had the recording turned off, or she’d be sent off into the ocean with no gear on. They’d drown her, she was certain of it.
While she did that, she was vaguely aware of a dark shadow appearing on the other side of the glass. She’d look in a bit, but first she had to save her own ass before she saved his. And hadn’t she already saved his life? He was away from those dangerous parts of the city, right?
But then she looked up and her heart stuttered in her chest.
Because he was right in front of her. Of course he was.
Somehow, through the glass, he was ten times larger than she remembered. Or maybe it was just that his tail was all spread out now. She could see it, all ten feet of it vertically, which made him... what? Fifteen? Sixteen feet long, maybe? He was massive. Huge. Enormous. All the words that meant big. Good fucking god. He was right in front of her.
Swallowing hard, she rolled the chair a little closer to the window, hoping he wouldn’t startle or try to break through this glass too.
He looked back at her with those dark eyes reflecting her image, his hair floating around his head, those gills glowing blue along the edges. His black tail hardly moved. He just... hung there. Right in front of her.
Not moving. He watched her as if she were supposed to do something.
So she did. Mira pointed at him, then gestured with her hands like she was swimming. “You need to go.”
He didn’t move.
She shooed him with her hand, but then realized they probably didn’t use the same hand signals. Why would they? He was a different species, and he’d never seen her people before.
Or... maybe he had.
Frowning, she looked down at the computer screens before she looked back up at him. Circling one hand in the air, she gestured at the room they were in. “This room is where these come from.” Then she turned her hand into a gun shape and fake blasted it at him.
That made his eyes narrow, but he still didn’t move.
She didn’t know what he wanted. He clearly recognized the weapons they used to get the undine off their city walls. So why was he not swimming off into the distance to go do whatever it was they did all day.
“Come on, man,” she muttered. “You have got to go.”
Then he pressed a webbed hand against his chest and drew it back toward her. He repeated the motion, as though he wanted her to see or understand something that he couldn’t convey. But she didn’t know what he was trying to say.
He wasn’t thanking her for anything, that much she knew for certain. He didn’t know the cameras were attached to the guns. And he definitely didn’t think she’d saved him. Maybe she had in the beginning, but then he could have left her for dead.
She cursed. Right, that was the correct way to think. He owed her now, because they were even up until this point. He would have died in the tube with her. She’d gotten him out, he had gotten her to the lift. They were even. And now she’d gone and helped him again.
“Fuck me,” she muttered, looking back at the door to make sure no one had come in. “You need to leave. Both of us are going to be in serious trouble if anyone realizes we’re trying to communicate with each other.”
He did the motion again, looking a little frustrated this time before he swam even closer to the glass. She stood, the chair rolling behind her into the room. But she felt like a magnet pulled her closer to the glass and then he put his hand flat against it.
She stared at that palm, so unlike her own. His fingers were massive, long, and tipped with those deadly claws. The webs between his fingers were thinner than she’d thought, and light pierced through them.
Without thinking, she reached up and put her hand on the glass as well. The size of his hand dwarfed hers, but for a moment, she let herself believe that she could feel the coolness of his skin through the glass. Like that icy touch could reach her, even in here.
“Hey, Mira!” The sound echoed down the hall, but they were too close for comfort.
Flinching away from the glass, she turned to stare at the door, her breath ragged in her lungs. Someone was going to see them. They were going to see him, and every part of her screamed that she couldn’t let that happen.
“Go,” she hissed, but when she turned, he was already gone.
Licking her lips, she pressed herself even closer to the glass and peered out into the ocean. He wasn’t there, though. Not even a trace of him.
“Ohh, Mira,” she muttered to herself. “You seeing things, girl? I didn’t think the pressure got to people if you’ve spent your whole life in the ocean.”
“Hey, Mira?” One of the younger engineers poked his head through the door. “You got a second?”
“Considering we’re all out of commission for a while, yeah.”
“What are you looking at?” He walked up to her side and looked out the window. She couldn’t remember his name, but knew that his whole face lit up when he smiled. She’d always thought he was handsome. And tall. Tall always made people more handsome.
“The ocean.”
“Yeah,” he chuckled, then rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “Guess there’s a lot of it to look at.”
“Sure is. What did you want?”
“Oh.” His eyes hardened a bit, but then he leaned forward like he didn’t want anyone else to hear what he had to say. “Do you remember the new suit the techs were working on? I thought... Well, with your little project...”
“How do you know about my project?” She reared back, looking him over again. She hadn’t told him about that, had he?
“People talk.” He shrugged. “Look, I thought with one of those new suits, and if your project is working, we could probably get that glass wall fixed. Pretty easily, actually. The drones could carry the new plate over and then it would just be sealing it from the outside.”
“What new suits?”
He grinned, and she just knew he was about to get her into a lot of trouble.
Six
Arges
Watching her was incredibly boring. How did the achromos live like this?
Arges had never wasted his time trying to understand her people. He was more interested in finding flaws in their city. Dents in the armor that he could use to his advantage as he attacked and destroyed. Now, he was forced to watch them. He had to see what they did with their lives as he tried to find an opportunity to steal her away.
And by all the seven seas and the gods within them, they were boring. How did the achromos survive like this? They did the same thing every day. They walked the same corridors. Seemingly performed the same jobs. Day in. Day out. They even seemed to eat the same food. Some wet looking gloop that made him want to vomit the first time he’d seen it.
No wonder they were so aggressive. He’d have gone mad long ago as well if he was forced to live such a life.
Of course, his achromo did the same thing as the others. It only took two days for him to know everything she was going to do every day.
She got up and went to one of the halls where there were many achromos. She ate that horrible, wet substance, then walked down the same corridor. They appeared to meet with large groups of achromos often. She didn’t make a lot of effort, nor did she often speak at those gatherings. Instead, she did a lot of head bobbing, which he assumed was meant in an agreeing gesture, not aggression.