MOTHER-OF-THE-SEA - Shore Leave on Carey
From a Traveller play-by-post game
Jozu checked the Library program for the World they just arrived at. After reading a bit, he got really excited and his smile got bigger and bigger.
The handheld propeller pulled him through the water at a nice, leisurely pace. He had just avoided the nets of a fishing trawler and was heading somewhat in the direction of the habitat on the edge of the Taleb shelf. He was going to make it to the Marker before midday, just the way he wanted.
The powered gill attached to his face mask was working perfectly and he was breathing just fine. The lanyard of the rented propeller rubbed him in a couple of places, but he was having too much fun to really notice.
He slowed and released the propeller to look around, using his swim fins and webbed gloves to move around in the water. The late morning sunlight was coming through the clear water. He thought he could see the bottom of the Marker way, way off in the distance.
The heads-up display of the face mask showed him his status:
BELOW SURFACE: 6.3 METERS
MEAN PRESSURE: 2.1 ATMOSPHERES
OXYGEN REPLENISHMENT: 96%
PROPELLER POWER REMAINING: 1.9 HOURS
He slowly drifted for a while, just looking. After some time, he grabbed the propeller and started again towards the Marker.
As he got closer and saw the bottom of the Marker Buoy, there was a dark shape off to the side of it. It almost looked like the bottom of a large boat.
Jozu pulled up to the Buoy and came to the surface. The water was a little choppy and wave after wave hit against the Marker, making it rock back and forth. Pressing a button on the side of his face mask, the built-in camera took an image of Marker Buoy 17 for his membook.
Not too much farther past the Marker was The Deep, a steep drop-off past which remained mostly unexplored. Several submersibles that tried to explore it never came back.
In the distance, off to the south, was the Comm Buoy for the Taleb habitat. But what really caught Jozu's interest was that dark shape in the water to the north.
He adjusted his face mask and went back under the water. Setting the propeller to it's lowest setting, he set off towards that dark shape.
When he got closer, he saw what he hoped he'd see: the almost half of a kilometer long body of an old, and rather crusty kuloth. Also called the Mother-of-the-Sea – the male kulothi never grow that big. His guidebook said that old kulothi aren't usually dangerous, but he had to be careful – he could be hit by it's lower mandible while it was skimming for food and he could also get caught by some of it's involuntary tendrils along it's mouth.
Swimming alongside and looking down the length of the kuloth, Jozu telepathically sent a thought-image of it to Violet who was sunbathing back on the beach.
He moved closer and reached out with his emotions, touching the creature's gentle mind, and felt:
~Contentedness~
~Puzzling Mirth~
And then for a moment:
~Pain~
Jozu thought for a minute, looking the Mother over. Then he swam up towards the surface. The guidebook said that debris sometimes built up on the top part of kulothi that was above water. Sure enough, when he got to surface, he saw a bunch of debris on it's top. And several creatures that passed as seabirds on this World.
Swimming around to the other side of it, he looked back and could see the sand of the beach on the horizon.
Wondering what Violet would think of this, he thought he saw what the problem was, what might be causing the creature pain. There was a piece of garbage stuck in the skin in the outer part of her right blowhole.
He took out his dive knife from its leg sheath and began to cut away the garbage. He cut a piece of netting that was pulling on the garbage when the waves streamed by. That seemed to loosen the sharp plastic piece.
It was really only like a sliver to a creature her size, but right by a blowhole, it probably hurt her every time she breathed.
He moved it back and forth a little, hoping he wasn't hurting her, trying to find the best way to get it out. Finally, he just gave it a hard pull and a little telekinesis and it came right out.
Shaking his head, he tossed it up on top of the creature where he hoped it wouldn't cause any more trouble and sank back under the surface.
He floated down in the water to where he was even with her eye and reached out his mind to her emotions again. He was flooded with feelings of gratitude from her.
Below and slightly behind her eye was one of her eight flippers. Her flipper moved towards Jozu. He started to swim backwards away from it and it stopped moving. Then the flipper again moved towards him, even slower.
The flipper was gigantic compared to Jozu.
He wasn't sure what the Mother was trying to do. But he looked her in the eye, thought of her feelings of gratitude, and then swam towards the flipper.
She brushed her flipper along Jozu's arm. Thinking it would scratch him, he was surprised to feel very soft skin. And it was the softest touch. Almost like she was petting him.
After a couple of 'pets', he put his hands on top of the flipper and was pulled upward in the water. Laughing inside his face mask, he held on tight. She did it several times.
Up and down. Jozu held on and pulled himself to the top of the flipper, laying flat with his head sticking above the top of it. Up and down. Back and forth. He looked behind and saw the other flippers moving, too.
She was swimming.
Up and down, back and forth. It was almost like riding a roller coaster. He was having so much fun. Back and forth. Up and down. Jozu lost track of the time.
Suddenly she stopped. Her flipper pulled back towards her body, along with him. He was on the upper edge, so he couldn't be crushed against her body, but he wasn't sure what she was doing.
Then he saw them. Three smaller creatures shaped like arrows. Predators in this sea. He couldn't remember the name of them, but remembered that they hunted in packs.
He watched them as they swam by. When they were farther behind, he saw that her other flippers weren't pulled in. She wasn't protecting her flippers from the predators. She had pulled in the flipper he was holding to protect him.
He mentally projected gratitude to her, and then realized where he was.
Above The Deep.
Jozu pressed a button on the side of his face mask to bring up his location. Far into The Deep. He felt cold in the warm water. The propeller would run out of energy before he could get back.
As he was starting to panic, the gigantic creature he was holding on to started to swim again. Getting ready to let go but wondering what to do next, he realized she was turning. He checked the compass on his face mask as she turned more. She was going back the way they came.
Still holding on, he hoped that she would keep going towards the Marker Buoy, far enough for him to make it back.
It took some time but finally he could see the bottom of the Marker Buoy, far ahead. When he let go of her flipper, she stopped swimming.
He swam up by her eye so she could see him then mentally projected to her how he felt:
~Enjoyment~
~Gratitude~
~Disappointment In Leaving~
He reached out with his mind to sense her feelings and found:
~Peace~
~Luckwish In Feeding~
~Familial Attachment~
Familial attachment? Did she think he was one of her children?
He took his glove off and put his hand on her. He touched her mind again. Jozu didn't just send his emotions to the creature this time. He thought-spoke as well:
~Goodbye Mother.~
Then, in his mind he heard a sound like he had never heard before. A low rumbling that said:
~Goodbye Jozu, and Thank You.~
Violet was laughing when she said, "Didn't you read the guidebook? She wasn't just a dumb animal. Old kulothi are intelligent and telepathic."
Jozu shook his head, looked a bit sheepish, and said, "I don't think I read that far. I'm going to use a sleep-learning tape next time. I did learn her name before I came back, but I'd never be able to pronounce it."
He looked back out to sea from the beach house.
"Violet, I think I've been adopted."