Cyan Falling

What Lurks Below

It turned out that Cyan was right to worry that they would not have their property returned. It was taken as “evidence” by the ship’s security team, though there was nothing evident about the items other than that they didn’t belong to the people that had taken them.

Cyan didn’t know what would happen to them, but he knew that he had to get their stuff back, mainly Jaesong’s device that allowed him to access other tech, like he had done with Cyan’s visor when they first met.

He thought it ridiculous that they couldn’t even get their suits back. They needed them to help harness the energy that they both had inside their bodies from Yandraven’s atmosphere. Without it, Cyan wasn’t sure how well he would be able to control it.

They still had no idea how long it would take them to get to the city or how understanding the local authorities at the port would be of their unique situation. Judging by the captain’s unwillingness to help them, he wasn’t feeling all that optimistic about it.

“How long do you think we’ll be stuck here in this room, waiting for them to decide what to do with us?” Jaesong asked.

“No idea, but judging by the beds, maybe a day or two. My real concern is that we don’t have those power suits anymore. I don’t know how well I can control this energy inside me.” Cyan replied, some orange sparks fizzling from his fingertips as he flexed them in front of himself.

“Just try and stay on top of your emotions while we’re stuck here. The power is volatile enough on its own without having the addition of any unnecessary exacerbation. I know this whole thing is frustrating, but it’s important to try and stay calm.” Said Jaesong.

“That’s easier said than done.” Cyan let out a heavy sigh and lay back on the cot,crossing his ankles and folding his arms behind his head. “This is not how I thought this was going to go.”

“Well, all we can really do is wait for now and maybe when we have the chance, we can try and explain to them the importance of those suits.” Jaesong said, leaning back on his own cot.

They spent the next few hours in companionable silence, napping intermittently and considering their next moves. Cyan was thinking about what he would say to the planet’s authorities to explain away his reason for being there, why he needed his stuff back and why exactly they had ended up needing to be picked up and saved in the first place.

He really hoped that whoever was in charge down there in the city would be more accommodating and perhaps understanding than the captain had been. He was struggling to figure out why exactly she had been so hostile towards them. Maybe she had some sort of personal reasons or perhaps she was just a disagreeable person in general.

He didn’t know if he really cared all that much, at least not enough to bother trying to find out. The only really interesting thing about her had been the fact that she was a human and he hadn’t seen another person from his home planet in a considerable number of years.

He was aware that it was mostly down to his own decision to isolate himself from the rest of his planet’s surviving population, to distance himself from his planet, its cultures and its remaining people so that he didn’t have to face the traumas and the memories.

It seemed certain to him that it would be something that he wouldn’t be able to handle well. Heck, he couldn’t even handle being around the people that he had considered to be his closest friends. It was hard after what happened to the planet and impossible after what had happened to Savannah.

Maybe that made him a coward, or maybe it just made him human. Either way, it was something that he wasn’t ready to face. He didn’t know when he would or if it would ever be something he could do. He supposed that at some point it would likely be forced upon him by circumstance, then, he wouldn’t have a choice anymore.

Hours passed, and then two days had been lost. It was grating that they were losing track of Callus again, that they might even be back to square one again. It was infuriating. He had had trouble on jobs before, but never this amount of obstruction, this number of people and things that put themselves in his way.

It dawned on him that the captain of the ship may have been crooked, that she could have been working with Callus. It made him feel sick that someone from Earth could work with the man who destroyed their home planet. It was speculation, but it was still a very real possibility.

Eventually, as he and Jaesong were sitting on their respective cots waiting for something to happen, the vessel came to a full stop. The joints creaked as the segments moved into position, slowing as they went, until everything was still and the only sound left was the ambient electronic humming of the engines.

Then, there was a jolt, coming from the left side; a thud that echoed and sounded eerily of twisting metal. Perhaps that was normal, but… perhaps it wasn’t.

Were they really at their destination?

The question that hung in their minds was answered when there was another jolt, like the vessel was being slammed into from the outside.

The lights shut off and everything was entrenched in darkness for a moment before there was a deep hum and red lights lit up the area as the backup generator turned on. A moment later, the door sprung open.

Cyan looked towards Jaesong quickly at the same time as Jaesong turned to look at him. Sharing the same thought, they got up and peered out of the now-open doorway before exiting into the hallway.

The ship seemed awfully quiet for the size of the crew. The lights were casting a red hue over everything, the shadows more defined than under the white light that had been there before. Every doorway had been popped open like theirs had, but as they looked into them, it was easy to see that they were devoid of inhabitants.

Cyan tapped into his visor to check the independent connection. It was still running and now that they were out of their cell, it was able to scan their surroundings properly.

He had it look for a layout of their environment and for any life forms nearby. The more specified scans tended to be more accurate when focusing down on a smaller area, so scanning the ship would be much easier than when he had attempted to scan the planet.

He could find out that the whole planet was water, but not what species inhabited it, for example, but in the ship he could detect nearby crew members and scan around to compile a digital map of the ship as he went.

With each turn they took down the centre of the vessel’s body, it grew more concerning.

They headed towards the medical bay where they had been taken when they first arrived, minding to be as quiet as they could in case there was anyone inside, though the scans were still failing to detect any life in the vicinity.

As they rounded the corner into the room, they saw one of the crew members passed out on the floor next to one of the gurneys by the back of the room. Cyan approached with caution and when he got closer he saw that the crewman had not simply passed out or been knocked unconscious.

He was dead.

There were no signs of a struggle and no blood. There was a chance that he had impacted his head when the ship was struck and there were plenty of objects and protruding areas that he could have knocked against. However, there was nothing obvious that stood out.

With a huff of frustration and resignation, Cyan simply takes the crewman’s weapon from its holster and turns back to Jaesong, who had been quietly looking around the rest of the room for any clues.

“Find anything useful?” Cyan asked quietly.

“Not really. There’s nothing here that would indicate where they took our belongings to and they’re definitely not still here.” He replied.

“Well then, our best bet is to try and access the ship’s computer and locate the brig and the storage rooms. Our stuff is likely somewhere near the brig in some sort of ‘confiscated items’ room.” Cyan said, already headed for the door.

“Let’s not waste time then.” Jaesong agreed and followed him out.

They walked down the hall in search of a terminal until they came to a door on the left that was only half-open and sparking at the hinges.

Cyan took a cautious look through the gap between the sliding door and the wall. Inside the room was dark, one of the ceiling fixtures was sparking while the red backup light flickered as though it was threatening to break completely.

He decided to risk going inside to investigate. From what he could tell from his visor, there wasn’t anyone inside the room. He gestured for Jaesong to stay outside though, to keep watch while he explored.

When he was inside, he immediately realised that his curiosity had paid off. There was a working terminal on the far wall, away from the view of the doorway. He quickly went over and tapped on the screen, watching the interface light up and options appear.

It seemed that it was written in a script that he didn’t recognise and an automated voice crackled out in the language that he quickly recognised as being the Cyaquian, the language spoken by the one who had rescued them and brought them on board.

“Damn it.” Cyan spoke and as he did, the voice came back.

“Language detected: English.” It paused and the language on-screen changed as he stared at it in disbelief.

“Well, what do you know…” He whispered to himself, shaking his head lightly.

He quickly tapped through some of the options on the display and found his way to the database of free knowledge that was available. It didn’t take him too long to find the ship’s schematics, a detailed map of the place that he could scan and upload to his visor.

It only took a few moments from there to have everything up and ready. He got his visor to locate the brig and storage on the map and for a second he couldn’t believe how easy it had been. They would just be able to follow the map like an old-school GPS.

He darted back to the room’s entrance and stepped out with what must have been a ridiculous grin on his face. Jaesong raised an eyebrow at him, but must have realised from his expression that he had found something good.

“I have a map. We can try to get our stuff back and then see if we can find a way off of this glorified sea snake.” He said.

“That’s brilliant! Was there a data terminal in there? I thought all of the main power had gone off.” Jaesong exclaimed, trying to keep his voice down.

“It has gone off, but the thing was barely still functioning. I think the backup generators must have some of their power diverted to the computer system. It makes sense, since the crew would need them to make repairs and contact each other at different locations.” Cyan replied.

“Right. There might be crew members around for that matter, so we shouldn’t stop here for too long. We don’t want to run into anyone. We still don’t even know what happened. Is it engine trouble or are we being attacked?” Jaesong said, concerned.

“Whatever it is, we should keep moving and find a way out before the power comes back on.” Cyan answered, already moving down the hall again, following the map that was glowing in the orange screen in front of his eyes.

As they made their way down the corridor, they started to hear noises in the distance. The brig was closer to the front of the ship than Cyan thought was wise. He wondered who in the heck thought that it was a good plan to keep criminals and hostages so close to where they would be able to cause trouble.

He wasn’t about to complain too much though, since they were almost there.

They had just gotten to the door when another impact slammed into the side of the ship. They felt it more now that they were closer to the front, too. Something must have been attacking. There was no way it could be anything else. The only question that remained was: what sort of thing was big enough to cause the whole place to jolt and shut down?

Whatever it was must have been humongous.

Just like every other door they had come across, the door to the brig was wide open. From there, they could hear the noises louder and more clearly. It was the voice of the captain and other members of the bridge crew as they scrambled about. Luckily, that meant that at least for the meantime, they were distracted.

They nipped inside and started looking around. The cells were still active, though there was no one inside them from what he could see. There was, however, a closed door near the end of the row of cells. It had a sign on the door, but it was in Cyaquian again and neither of them could read it.

Usually the translator in his visor would have taken care of it, but it must have been damaged in the water when they fell through the portal. He had thought that it had still been fully functional. That meant that there could be more that was malfunctioning that he wasn’t yet aware of.

“Let’s check it out.” Cyan said, speaking quietly and moving slowly towards the door.

He grabbed the door handle and pushed, but it wouldn’t budge. It was the only door on the ship that didn’t open by sliding sideways electronically. It was an old locking mechanism that required a key.

“There must be one around here somewhere. We just have to find it before they figure out how to get the power back on.” Jaesong said, looking around for anything that stood out.

“You won’t find anything here.” The voice of a woman sounded from behind them in one of the cells.

Immediately they both whipped around to see who had spoken. Inside the cell nearest to the wall, sitting at the back with her legs crossed and an amused expression on her face, was a woman. She was dressed head to toe in black leather that sported blood red and jade green detailing.

She had dark, jet black hair, fringe falling over her forehead to her eyebrows. The rest was half-up-half-down with the top half pulled into a topknot and fastened there with a jade pin. Her eyes were amber-yellow and lined with fox-like red and black flicks and dusted with a golden shimmer that also highlighted her cheekbones. Immediately, Cyan recognised her.

“Jade Fox.” Cyan said, surprised.

“Cyan Wood. It’s been a long time.” She replied.

“You know each other?” Jaesong asked, looking between them.

“We’ve crossed paths.” Cyan said, voice tinged with a little bit of resentment.

“That’s one way to put it, though I think we crossed a little more than our paths.” She teased, standing to walk to the barrier, heeled boots clicking against the cold floor.

“What do you want? And how did you manage to get yourself locked up in here? Doing something dubious no doubt.” Cyan ignored her provocation.

“How do you know I wasn’t simply captured minding my own business?” She asked.

“Really? You? Minding your own business?” Cyan raised an eyebrow.

“Of course, I always mind my own business. I was simply passing by and these ruffians attacked me and threw me into this cell.” She said, sarcastically acting the damsel in distress, aware of her own unconvincing tale.

Cyan simply gave her a flat look, clearly not buying a single word and not even really showing a sign of amusement. She sighed in concession, chuckling lightly and shaking her head.

“If you must know, I was on an assignment and had to get to the city but my vessel was apprehended. I may have been a little more hostile than needed when they tried to question me.” She shrugged and leaned one shoulder against the wall.

“That sounds more like it.” Cyan said.

“Well, now that’s settled, why don’t you be a doll and get me out of here, hm?” She batted her eyelashes almost mockingly.

“Now why would I do that?” Cyan asked.

“Because unlike you two idiots, I came here with my own transport, which means that if you let me go, we can go to the cargo bay in the back of this thing and I can get us out. Unless, of course, you are planning to swim the rest of the way to the city?” She explained, one perfectly sculpted brow arched in question.

“She has a point.” Jaesong conceded, not looking too happy about the situation.

“Yeah, unfortunately.” Cyan responded, then turned back to Jade. “Get us out of here, with our stuff back, drop us in the city, then we have a deal.”

“Deal.” She responded easily.

“As soon as we get to the city, we go our separate ways. I don’t want to have anything more to do with you than I have to.” Cyan said with a barely-concealed sneer.

“Aww, ouch. You don’t want to spend any quality time with me? So cold.” She mocked with an exaggerated pout. “The key that you’re looking for is in the security office, usually guarded from what I’ve seen, but with the power out I imagine the guards are rather preoccupied at the moment.” She straightened and crossed her arms.

“And where exactly is the security office?” Jaesong asked, starting to look a little impatient at their drawn-out back-and-forth.

“Go and find it.” She snapped. “I’m not a map.”

“Do you want to get out of that cell or not?” Cyan asked, fed up with the situation and the interaction already. He didn’t like the hostility of her tone when she addressed Jaesong. He didn’t trust anything about this.

Before anyone could say anything more, there was another wave of force that shocked through the ship, tossing Cyan and Jaesong off-balance and sending Jade tumbling into the seat at the side of her cell. It was accompanied by a loud, metallic clanging, something that made the hull creak under the pressure.

“Let’s get out of here quickly. I do not like the sound of that creaking.” Cyan said, straightening up as he managed to regain his balance.

“Yeah, so, security office.” Jaesong agreed, still wobbling a little from the impact before regaining his footing. “It can’t be too far from here.”

With a nod of confirmation, they left the room, not paying any further attention to Jade as she remained sitting in her cell, awaiting escape. The temptation to get the keys from the security office and just leave her there was glaring, but there was that little voice in the back of Cyan’s head telling him that he should honour the deal that they had made, despite how intensely he might dislike her.

It didn’t take them long to come across the right door. It was jammed half-open, metal strangely crunched up along the edge and the red backup lights were flickering overhead.

The room hadn’t been far from the brig, so Cyan assumed that this area must have taken the brunt of that last hit. It was obviously more in a state of disrepair than the surrounding hallway, metal dented inwards on the far wall, from what he could see through the gap.

Grabbing the side of the security door, Cyan applied some pressure to see if he could budge it open any further. It let out a metallic screech of protect, bent edges scraping across the frame and he immediately gave up on that idea. It wasn’t worth alerting anyone to their location.

“I’m gonna try and squeeze through.” He said and edged into the gap sideways, inhaling and holding his breath as he went.

Cyan winced a bit as the fabric of his clothing caught and the metal edges pushed and scraped across his body. It was tight and uncomfortable and it really couldn’t be over fast enough.

On the other side, he let out a sigh of relief, not looking forward to having to squeeze back through again once his goal was completed.

Without hanging around for too long, he began searching the office for the keys. He assumed that they would be somewhere secure and out of reach. He was a little worried, in the back of his mind, that the key would be with the head of security and not hidden within the office.

He hoped that he was wrong. They didn’t have time, they couldn’t risk getting caught again. All of this was far too dangerous. There was no way to be sure of what these people were planning to do with them or if they’d even treat them fairly once they got to the dome. There was also the mystery of whatever was attacking the ship that they were on.

The likelihood of it being some kind of enormous sea monster was way too high for anyone’s liking.

“Cyan.” Jaesong whispered to him urgently from the other side of the door. “Cyan, someone is coming.”

“Get in here, quickly.” Cyan replied, watching with worried eyes as Jaesong glanced to his left before attempting to get through the door the same way Cyan had done.

He didn’t want to move for risk of stirring up too much noise, but time felt as though it was moving in slow motion.

“Hey! You there! What are you doing?” A voice yelled out and Jaesong sped up his shuffling, just trying to get to the other side now that he had been seen.

The guard had almost gotten to him when the ship creaked again and the next slam into the hull followed. Jaesong just got his arm through before the shaking tossed him sideways, into one of the desks that were secured to the floor with bolts.

The security officer tried to follow, drawing his weapon from its holster as he edged through the gap. Jaesong and Cyan panicked for a moment, only having the weapon he had taken from the crewman earlier, but not knowing exactly how to use it. All of a sudden, though, whatever was lurking outside slammed itself into the ship again, this time right over the room that they were in.

The impact reverberated through the walls and floor, shaking the entire structure fiercely. One of the security lights smashed and two of the desks came unlatched from the floor, sliding towards Jaesong, where he was still slumped against another of the desks.

In a moment, Cyan was grabbing his arm and pulling him towards himself and out of the path of the tables, which crashed together at full force, a force that likely would have crushed Jaesong’s ribs if he had still been in their way.

“You’ve got to stop almost dying.” Cyan said, half joking in his tone, but the panic in his eyes betrayed the seriousness of that statement.

Jaesong opened his mouth to reply, but before he was able to, the ship was slammed into by the creature once more, and they were knocked off kilter all over again. Cyan stumbled and pulled them both out of the way of a row of falling filing cabinets that came away from the wall with a cacophonous clanging, strewing paperwork and files all over the floor.

There was a high pitched screeching of metal and a sharp yell before a sickening crunch sounded from the doorway.

Cyan looked over, his attention finally drawn back to the security guard that had been part of the way through the door. He was now slumped over beneath the red lights, blood glistening against the jagged metal door which was now pinning him to the frame, having almost drawn the man in half.

A breath caught in Jaesong’s throat at the sight of it, the brutality and abruptness of the picture before them.

“Come on.” Cyan urged. “Let’s find that key and get the hell out of here.”

“I… I think that I have already found it.” Jaesong replied, swallowing thickly.

“What? What do you mean?” Cyan asked.

Without saying anything, Jaesong approached the man wedged in the doorway, holding back a gag at the smell of the blood that was pooling on the floor and drenching the man’s uniform.

He crouched slightly and pulled back the man’s jacket, unclipping something from his belt and turning silently back to Cyan, holding up a shiny silver key attached to a key ring and tab label. He couldn’t read it under the current lighting from where he was standing, but he was willing to bet that it read ‘Prohibited Item Storage’ or something equally on the nose.

"Let's get the f**k off of this ship." Jaesong said in an uncharacteristically dark tone.

"Let's." Cyan agreed.