Then he saw the plan. He realized the man had gone to another room with a moon pool they hadn’t seen before. He was already opening the door, standing above a ship with a glass top that he sank into. The man didn’t even look at him as he fired all the sides of the ship and dropped it into the water.
“No you don’t,” he snarled, launching himself into the sea with the ship.
He had seen this in his future, he realized. The achromos fleeing their cities in these small glass bubbles that would take them deeper into the sea. They were fast, but he was faster.
He surged after the ship, following as the man dodged around rock pillars and deeper into the depths. He thought he could get away from Arges. This man thought he was a better swimmer than someone who had been born in the sea.
It took him a while, but eventually he caught up with the man. He grabbed onto the back of the ship and swung. It careened off course, spinning wildly in the dark with its lights flickering on and off as the entire ship struggled to maintain its direction. Arges attached himself to the front of it, ripping pieces off and flinging them into the depths. He didn’t care what pieces he tore off. One of them had to be important.
And then, finally, there was nothing but silence.
He stared into the light at the center of the ship, glaring down at the man inside who must think he was staring at a monster. Perhaps he was. Arges bared his teeth, snapping them in the man’s direction.
But he could see the achromo had a weapon in his hand, and it was pointed right at Arges. “Do it,” the achromo snarled. “I’ll kill you, just like I killed your little whore. A soldier of Tau never stops, no matter how long it takes for us to win.”
“That’s the difference between my kind and yours,” Arges replied, even though he knew the man couldn’t understand. the achromo’s eyes widened, though, and he wondered if it was the first time this soldier had realized the People of Water could speak. “You never know when to stop, and we always have to be the ones to end things.”
He dug his claws into the edges of glass and ripped the shield off of his ship.
Water rushed in long before the man could fire his weapon. Arges was faster than him, anyway. He batted the hand that held the weapon and watched as it joined the sinking ship. But the man he held onto. the achromo dangled in his grip, so small that it was hard to imagine they were so deadly. The man was already drowning, sucking water in like air with his mouth gaping open. He was trying to live, but he hadn’t realized he was already dead.
Arges squeezed his throat a little harder. “You touched her, and that will never happen again. I wish I could rip you apart, limb by limb, and that you would be awake for all that pain. But you will not, because you are weak.” He grabbed one of the man’s arms, then the other. And he knew the moment the achromo realized what he was going to do. “So I will end this quickly, not because you deserve it, but because she needs me more than I need my vengeance.”
Arges ripped.
Both of the arms came off far too easily, and he let the man and his parts return to the sea. Some crab or other creature would snap up the rest of him. Blood filled the water, and he dragged it into his gills so he could taste the metal on his tongue.
Then he turned in the direction of the dome and returned to his mate. The woman who needed him.
The woman he could only hope was still alive.
Thirty-Nine
Mira
Mira didn’t remember much of her healing, only a lot of pain. She woke a few times; she was certain of that. There were times when she remembered soft hands on her cheeks and a melodic voice who told her that she would live. He ordered her to live, because if she didn’t, then he would follow her into the abyss.
By the time she was well enough to sit back up and be aware of everything around her, she was mostly alone. Byte was still there, and the little droid was so excited to see her again. It hadn’t left her side, and instead decided the best spot in the entire dome was right next to her bed.
She’d arrived here essentially dead. But because she had been hooked up to the undine, it had been like chest compressions. The undine had breathed for her, and so her body had been forced to stay alive. Melete had stayed with her for days with that cord connected to her, breathing for an achromo she should have hated.
The moon pool no longer closed. She wasn’t all that certain why, but had a feeling it had to do with the attack on Beta.
She didn’t know much about that. The yellow finned undine, Maketes she had since learned, told her about the attack and that most of the people in her city were still alive and well. She didn’t have any reason to worry too much about them, although he seemed to hesitate while telling her.
Those black eyes looked at her and saw too much. He knew there was something angry bubbling inside of her. That she wanted to see Arges and still hadn’t seen him.
Thus far, she had stopped herself from asking. Maketes had told her that his people had kept him trapped. At least, that was how she thought he meant it. He said that Arges wasn’t coming for her, and she’d thought that was because someone wasn’t letting him return to her side.
The longer it took for him to get here, the longer she wondered if he just didn’t want to see her.
She feared he considered her unworthy. Or maybe he’d gotten what he wanted out of her. Information, sex, and then he thought better of it. Maybe she’d been so bad at having sex with him that he had decided it wasn’t worth it to keep her around. She didn’t know.
All she could do was stay in her dome. Clearly, her own people didn’t want her back. So she healed, waiting until she was well enough to walk, then workout, and then swim. After that, she swam every day.
No one attacked her. None of the undines seemed to care that she existed. Even the ones who visited with fish for her to eat watched her swim with amusement. She was getting stronger, though, and that’s all that mattered. Stronger. Healthier.
The medkit had stitched up her body, and that was the only thing she could focus on right now. Because her heart was shattered.
Maybe she just wasn’t good enough for him. At least not any more than as a pet.
Swimming now, she adjusted her rebreather, so it didn’t pinch her face so badly. Mira had to test the damn thing to make sure it still actually worked. After the last fiasco where it had stopped working, she didn’t really trust it. Not as much, at least.
A clawed hand reached out of her peripheral and grabbed the rebreather. She only had a second to shout, “Hey!”, before the rebreather was pulled from her face. Planting her feet hard against the chest of the undine next to her, she shoved with her feet and pushed off of them. All she had to do was make it back to the dome. She’d been practicing. She was better at holding her breath for long periods of time, and getting better the more she practiced.
A sharp jab at the side of her neck, and suddenly there was air in her lungs. Pushing, inflating, giving her a sense of life.
“Where are you off to?” She’d know that deep voice anywhere. Part of her wanted to melt into him, to weep in relief that he was finally here.
The other part of her wanted to hit him, and that was the part that came out on top. Whirling, she punched her fist to his chest and then ripped the tube out of her neck. “Where have you been?”
He grabbed the end of the tendril, sighing, before attaching it to her neck again. “Feral creature. I’ve been here, but there has been much for me to fix.”