Page 23 of Secrets of the Void
Proteus saw the same thing they did. A future that was within reach, where both land and sea had pieced themselves back together, but he didn't know how to get there.
But the ancients, the gods of the sea that had been there for a millennia, laid down instead. They all rested together, a pile of massive monoliths that would slowly feed the creatures around them.
"Stay with us," the feminine one said, her voice filled with sorrow and what sounded like relief. "Stay with us, our son."
And so he did.
He stayed there in silent vigil, counting each of their breaths until they were no more. He remained even as the crabs started to approach, and as the squid descended, to take pieces of their gods and consume them. Not a single part of him dared to move as he watched the only living creatures alive who cared even the slightest about him... die.
Then his bones burned with rage. They turned white-hot within him, casting shadows upon massive, empty eyes.
There was no one to pay for this. No one but himself.
A wail erupted from deep within his body. Grief and abandonment aching through every bit of him. He tilted his head back and screamed. It was the cry of a man who had lost everything.
Ten
Ellie
"I'm really not sure that's the right way to do it," Ellie said. She was seated on the lip of her open pod, devouring yet another of her flavorless nutrient packets.
No one had offered to feed her here, and she was a little concerned with how many she was going through. Maybe there were other pods they could find, though. If the clones were taken out of them, wouldn't they eject the pods out into the sea? They were useless once the people who resided within were taken out. Sure, they could recode the parameters to bond with someone else. But it didn't sound like there were any more clones to put in them.
If she could find those pods, then she could easily pull the nutrient packets out of them herself. And there were other bits and bobs that would be useful. She didn't want to dismantle her own, just in case they needed to put her back in.
The chair was the only place to sit unless she sat on the floor. But that was usually damp because of Proteus. So she’d taken to sitting on her pod to stay as dry as possible.
"Of course it's the right way," Pilot argued with her.
She discovered she enjoyed annoying the droid now that she had been given leeway to live her life. Not that Proteus had said such a thing explicitly, but it did seem like he didn't mind if she was herself. And in doing so, she had discovered that it was fun to tease Pilot.
The tiny crab was very uptight. It was obsessed with rules and the right way to do things. It was disgruntled when she was anywhere near it, but mostly when she pointed out the flaws in its plan.
Of which there were many.
"I thought droids were usually smart," she said as she tossed her empty nutrient packet behind the pod and then headed over.
Pilot was working on a plan to get them into the facility that had not been in use for centuries. Unfortunately, that meant that there were a lot of rock cave-ins where the entrance used to be. Tapping on a screen that showed a pile of rubble, she asked, "Where did you get this footage?"
"It is from a surveillance drone I still have access to." A tiny foot pressed a bright red button, turning the screen off. "Don't look."
"The more rocks we pull from that, the more likely there will be another cave-in. We cannot, and certainly should never, play with that. A cave-in on the outside could cause the entire inside to be destroyed." She arched her brow. "Or do you disagree?"
"Of course I disagree! I wouldn't have suggested moving the rocks if I hadn't looked at every possible angle." All eight legs moved it in a circle until Pilot stared up at her with those flickering eyes. "You clearly have no thoughts in your head at all if you believe I would risk his life."
Well, he had her there. She didn't think he was likely to risk Proteus's life. For whatever reason, the droid was oddly loyal to the massive creature who terrified her.
She picked Pilot up from the console, turning him in her hand to look him over. "You know, I could take care of this rust for you."
"Get your hands off me! You—” Pilot blinked. "You could?"
"Do you prefer he or she?" she asked. "Just another odd question. I don't feel right thinking of you as an it."
"I prefer he. Now what were you saying about getting the rust off me?"
She walked over to her pod with him in her hand. "There's a great number of tools in this pod. Most of them are there to help keep me alive, but also many of them were with the intention of anticipating all manner of strange happenings that could occur if I were in the pod. Besides, what if something broke? It knows that it could wake me and I would be able to fix some things from inside the pod itself."
Ellie leaned over and stuck her hand into the area where she usually lay. She just had to get the right angle, and then her hands closed around a small rod. It was particularly good at dealing with rust. She supposed its purpose was to assist if the lid was ever rusted shut and she needed to get out in an emergency. Then all she'd need was a damp cloth, and she thought she could get Pilot looking brand new.
