The haul the drones returned with every night was useless. Derivatives of known substances, mostly. Worthless pebbles.
Captain Gordon reached them, his hard-lined face frowning as ever. Doug Purnell, the leader of their research team, followed with a similar expression.
"Girls," he greeted them.
Naima could feel the cold surface of the boat beneath her bare feet. Night was creeping in and that was when the temperature dropped. She was shivering in her dark blue diving suit, skin-tight over her curvy, fit body.
Over the oxygen mask, Naima could see Doug’s frowning face looking at her.
"Don't be heroes," the man said, always the voice of reason.
"Nice send-off, Doug," Naima replied, smiling to ease the tension, although it never worked with the lead scientist. "Really good pep talk."
"Stop trying to be funny," Doug snapped at her.
“Yes, sir,” she said with a slight salute, making the corner of Doug’s mouth twitch upwards for a moment.
The old gruff bear of a man was one of the most dedicated people she had ever met. He cared deeply about his team and their work, which was why he was such a hardass with them. She knew he was a big old softy underneath, though.
"I know you both," Doug growled, his bald head glinting in the beams of the search lights. "You're damn motivated, but that makes you reckless. Foolish.
“Naima, you know this ocean better than anyone now – which isn’t saying much. I won't pull you up until the monitors say you're fine, but if I see anything I don't like, I'll fish both of you out of there before you can blink, got it?"
"Got it," Naima and Janey chorused.
"Good," Doug said. "Now go find us our stone."
He stomped off, leaving Naima and Janey with Captain Gordon.
As Janey checked her equipment, their military escort glared at Naima pretty much like Doug had. They were so similar the team joked it had to be a case of long-lost twins. Out of their hearing range, Janey would add that Doug had ended up with the brains and Gordon with the brawn.
Naima didn't quite agree. Doug could pull his weight if needed, literally. And Captain Gordon was not nearly as dumb as he sometimes appeared, even compared to a crew who had about a hundred scientific degrees in various fields between them.
Gordon was tall and heavy like an ox, towering over everyone on Nautica. He and his small unit, spread out among the research ships and base, were there to maintain order and protect the team from anything that might have threatened them on the planet. Which, in the case of the Matthos planets, was nothing. Yet Captain Gordon took his work extremely seriously.
He and the rest of his mostly Terran unit had been with them every step of the way, while the Brions looked on from above. In Naima’s opinion, that was a wise choice, keeping Terrans with the crew instead of Brions. The warrior race didn’t exactly inspire calm, even if they were tasked with keeping it.
Naima didn't even know Captain Gordon’s first name. He looked like the kind of guy who had his first name removed when he joined the military. She imagined even his wife called him Mr. Gordon, and maybe Captain Gordon when she was particularly impressed with him.
"You know the drill," the captain followed where Doug left off. "Let's play this one by the book and no one gets hurt."
“Aye-aye,” Janey said, the tiniest bit of mockery in her tone.
Naima smiled, losing the man from sight for a moment when Janey checked the movement of her camera arm and rolled her eyes a little.
"Move, Naima," a tech instructed. "Clap your claws for me."
Naima did just that. Her diving suit might have been tight and smooth, but the apparatus around her was anything but that. It was equipped with everything she might have needed for the journey into the darkness.
It was stocked with a camera, claws to dig and a tool belt for unpredictable circumstances. It even had reinforced nets to bring the goods home and lights to pierce even the waters of the black ocean.
To wield all of that, Naima would have needed six arms, which the union had cheerfully provided for her. The gloves on her hands worked as controllers and Naima moved the arms that ended in two long, claw-like contraptions.#p#分页标题#e#
"I look like Doctor Octopus," Naima said when she saw Captain Gordon again.
There was a hint of a smile on the man's face and Naima barely stopped herself from laughing.
So that's what you've been hiding from us. You're an ancient history nerd.
Naima chose not to say that to his face, instead saluted with all six mechanical and two real hands.
"Aye, sir," she said, sharing a knowing grin with Janey. "Just one thing, sir. Is there ever going to come a day when we don't play it by the book?"
"Both of you, get out of here now," Gordon said, a rare smile on his lips. "Before I kick you out."
Naima jumped gladly into the unwelcoming ocean and darkness enveloped her immediately.
2
Naima
Naima and Janey dove deeper carefully, both holding onto their individual guide ropes though they were wrapped around their bodies as well.
In addition to them not being able to speak to the Nautica directly, they also couldn't really talk with each other. Over the months they'd spent working together, Naima thought they'd developed a fairly good rhythm and understood the other well.
Of course, they'd both learned simple sign language to convey thoughts that were too complicated to pass on by waving their hands.
Problem was, they had to see each other. The lights built into their diving apparatus were enough to make sure they didn't swim headlong into a cliff, but it didn't do much else in the thick, inky blackness. One panicky move and they'd lose the other in the darkness, along with their sense of up and down, since everything was equally black.
Luckily for them, the ocean wasn't very deep around the small island. The shallowness didn't show, however. If it were a regular body of water, Naima would have been able to see light on the surface, perhaps even the search beams of the Nautica. On Matthos IV, she might as well have been in a chasm ten miles deep for all the difference it made.
Naima knew there was no way she'd ever reach the bottom of the ocean at the deeper spots on the planet without a submarine or massive effort on her part. It would have taken a long time to adjust to the pressure, going into the depths without protection.
We might still come to that, Naima thought bitterly as hours after hours yielded nothing but more pointless, empty rock.
Matthos IV was so devoid of life there weren't even any plants or sea creatures to amuse herself with.
The levity she'd felt aboard the Nautica was gone. She had been so sure that this time, the Palians had been right. Minute after minute, that sense of hopeful certainty was dissipating.
Needle in a haystack, Naima thought miserably. No, scratch that. An unknown mineral at the bottom of an endless ocean.
She looked over to Janey, expecting her to signal to leave, after checking the low oxygen levels on her tank. To her pleasant surprise, the girl shook her head. Neither one of them wanted to go up empty-handed after the first solid tip in weeks. For that assurance, they were willing to put in a little more effort and search longer.
Even then, Naima was so used to the dives disappointing her that the moment she actually did see something almost went by her.
The camera screen was right in front of her, showing Naima a three-dimensional image of herself. Green eyes wide, long red hair billowing around her like a cloak.
She saw a flash of light. The camera worked as a rear view mirror from her point of view. She twisted around so suddenly her entire equipment shook, trying to move as sharply as she did. Janey more felt than saw her reaction. Through the murky water, Naima saw the girl's eyes go wide when she signaled for "lifestone".
It was the first time either of them had had to use it outside of agreeing on the code for it.
I don't care what it is. Even a disappointment would be good at this point. It would be something, at least.
They swam in the direction Naima thought the unidentified flash of light had come from. Janey's hand was in hers to make sure they didn't lose each other at such a crucial point. Naima felt her heart beating so fast it was deafening.
There.
In a small cave, almost entirely covered by a rock formation, there was a glow. It was so miniscule, so hidden, that Naima thought she might have gone right over it. No wonder she hadn't seen the thing.
She exchanged looks with Janey, trying to figure out what to do. Then they both got to work.
While Janey attached a marker to the cliff, connecting it to the Nautica, Naima tried to reach the glow. She pushed her hand into the crevice and felt around. The camera showed her that she didn't even come close, no matter how tightly she pressed her body against the mouth of the cave.#p#分页标题#e#
She tried a mechanical arm, but that didn't reach either. Janey had no more luck than she.
Naima checked the marker Janey had set, breathing heavily, adrenaline trundling through her veins now. If nothing else, they could return with better tools. The most important thing was not to lose the first promising location. With a beacon, the only thing they could do was to try and anchor the Nautica to the lifestone.
Janey pushed herself free of the small cave. The two divers floated next to each other, furious and disappointed despite their find.