Huge thanks to everyone who reviewed! It makes my day, and it's awesome to know you're all still with me ;) I've said it before, but they really are a better pickup than caffeine--and this is coming from someone who can't remember the last time she went more than a week without something Diet Coke/Starbucks-y.
But anyway. This is the Manaan sea floor, pt. I (pt. II coming later-ish... i.e. eventually). And it's called 'Risk', so you know it must be intense... lol. Enjoy XP
Disclaimer: don't own KotOR
Risk: to take a chance; to put oneself in danger
Ashi had done her best to act surprised when Wann explained about the base at the bottom of the sea. She didn't need to feign nervousness, though—all of that was genuine. Any sleep she got later that night was broken and restless, sprinkled generously with visions of choking and dark, frigid water. It also didn't help much when Mission felt the need to hug her goodbye before they trooped out of the Ebon Hawk in the morning. Hugs, as Ashi saw them, were only for people who might not come back.
Dustil got a hug too, which made him blush furiously, but the girl deliberately skipped Carth and HK, the rest of the sub's crew. Ashi didn't blame her. She wouldn't even have chosen to bring Carth, but for the fact that the soldier—damn him—was the only one who could actually captain a submarine.
Well, in theory, anyway. Which was so reassuring as they dropped into the ocean and began to sink. The good foot of durasteel and plexiglass encasing them didn't stop the pressure building in Ashi's ears as they descended, and certainly didn't help to dispel her image of the sub suddenly crumpling like a tin can.
It started out blue, but faded in imperceptible layers, darkness weaseling its way in until suddenly it was omnipresent, and she couldn't remember when it had begun. Light filtered quickly away, until they could see nothing but the cold, pitch-black water caught in the headlamps. The lights sawed away patches of shadow, but still mostly just served to display how much blackness there still was. Shapes began to brush past the glass separating her from the ocean, and she suppressed a shudder as one came close enough for her to catch a momentary flash of teeth. She closed her eyes, feeling something akin to ice sliding down her spine and settling gracelessly in her stomach. Worst Star Map ever—no competition.
But finally Carth's voice, habitually formal, crackled over the link. "Approaching the Republic station, Ashi," he announced.
For a moment, silence followed his words. Ashi was surprised; he had been trying to avoid calling her by a name for a while now. "Roger that," she replied, her words touched with sarcasm, and he responded by dipping the nose of the sub. They passed through an arch into a pool, through whose surface Ashi saw the wonderful glimmer of florescent light. She was the first to unlatch her door, and was out of the submarine instants after it broke the water's surface.
Unfortunately, the inside of the base wasn't much better than the sub had been. Water dripped from walls and ceilings with a constant, rhythmic splat, and the dark puddles, already beginning to harbor life, told Ashi that leaking wasn't anything new. Her every footstep echoed on the rusting metal as she took a couple steps around, examining the room. It was ugly, boxy, rusty, the only color a couple of dilapidated orange banners tacked to the walls. All in all, it looked abandoned, and she felt inexplicably invasive, in a place that belonged far more to the ocean than to her.
While the rest of them got out of the sub and stretched, looking infuriatingly calm, she glared viciously at the dripping walls and tried not to think of all the other water beyond them. Finally, Carth disembarked, hefting his blaster, and she could turn to head for the first door.
It groaned open as she punched in an override code, and an instant later a blaster shot ricocheted off the wall, missing her head by an inch. Ashi staggered, head snapping to follow the shot's path, before turning back to face a stunned-looking Twi'lek.
He threw down his blaster immediately with a clatter, face pale. /Space, I'm sorry/ he said frantically. /I thought you were more of them… I thought they were coming…/
Ashi raised an eyebrow as she picked up the blaster, passing it automatically to Carth. "Them?"
His voice lowered to a conspiratorial whisper. /The Selkath. They've gone crazy or something and started attacking everyone… hell/ he added shakily, /I think they ate Jared…/
"Crazy Selkath." She didn't bother to hide her skepticism.
/Yes! They must've been here for a while. They're attacking anyone who they see. I was the only one who survived/ he insisted, eyes wide and alight with fear.
Ashi was briefly trying to remember if she knew any schizophrenics and, if so, if this was what they acted like. After a moment, she gave up, and simply made to brush past the Twi'lek. "Right. Well," she announced, moving towards the next door, "if you'll excuse us, we have to get by; we've kind of got bigger things to worry about."
/No!/ he shrieked, throwing himself in her way. /No, you can't go through there! They'll eat us all!/
"It's a risk I'll have to take."
/Fine/ he snapped. /But if you get back, you have to help me./ For a moment, he even succeeded in sounding firm, but the next moment he looked solely pathetic as he added, /You'll take me back to Ahto City, won't you? I'll die down here if you leave me!/
Unexpectedly, HK piped up. "Suggestion: perhaps we could dismantle the meatbag, master, to make him easier to transport."
The Twi'lek paled to a sickly shade of olive. /What? You can't dismantle me!" he protested. /I'll die!/
The droid's red eyes flashed brighter for a moment. "Amendment: I did forget that," he said, although something about his tone made Ashi think he'd forgotten on purpose. "Stupid, frail organic meatbags!"
"Wait here," Ashi interrupted, to the horrified Twi'lek. "We'll be back in a few hours."
/If you get back/ she heard him mutter behind her, and purposefully ignored it.
But the pessimistic Twi'lek had been right on at least one count. Selkath had overrun the base, and although Ashi did try to talk to the first few dozen, it had become clear very quickly that they were in no mood for conversation. Many of them had sonic guns or shock sticks, and the ones who didn't attacked anyway, clawing at them with their flippers. Ashi noticed with some disgust that many of their empty hands were covered in blood—and not their own. It seemed most of the victims that the Twi'lek had mentioned hadn't put up much of a fight.
However, once the shock began to wear off, it was relatively smooth going. Despite running into a strange-sounding character in a locker muttering about 'fish sticks' and drove after drove of mad-eyed, bloodthirsty Selkath, it actually wasn't too bad. In fact, things were going so well that Ashi had even almost forgotten they were underwater.
So, naturally, disaster struck.
They were nearing the end of a fight with yet another group of Selkath, their group of four spread along the length of a long, damp hallway. Despite the heat battle usually provided for Ashi, a racing heartbeat forcing her environment into irrelevance, she was all too aware of how tired she was becoming, how cold and damp everything around her seemed to be seemed. The only semblance of warmth came flickering down from the florescent strips above their heads, a weak and sickly glow that washed the color from everything. Though windows lined one stretch of wall, they provided no light; if anything, in fact, they made the atmosphere worse. The only things to be seen from them were utter darkness, punctuated by the occasional flick of a tail, or glint of teeth.
Thanks to the Selkath, however, there was no time to pay attention to those. Ashi had just saved herself from nearly being gutted by stabbing the would-be killer first between the ribs, when the last Selkath managed to get his sonic blaster out.
A wave of energy threw her off balance, sending her ears ringing. She stumbled dizzily, lurching sideways as the world tilted, and he reared up…
Blaster fire echoed through the hall, rapid and harsh to her recovering ears. The Selkath collapsed to the ground, oily blood immediately growing in a puddle around him, but Ashi paid it no attention. Her gaze was riveted to a window several meters away, a sudden rush of adrenaline sharpening her vision very, very quickly. The overenthusiastic blaster fire had ricocheted, marking a small, white line in the glass.
With a tiny splintering noise that all four of them heard, the line grew a couple inches. Ashi held her breath, and then, all hell broke loose.
She had a split second as the cracks spread out like a giant, terrible spiderweb, and used it the first way that came to mind. "Run!" she shouted, spinning and racing away.
The other three took the advice without hesitation, and not a moment too soon. The window shattered, the sound swallowed by the roar of water exploding into the base. An alarm began shrieking from somewhere above, announcing, "Security doors closing; repeat, security doors—" but cut off sharply as the ocean engulfed it. Like bones bending and snapping, the walls and ceilings behind them gave way under the pressure in a terrible crunch of metal. More of the windows burst behind her, shards of glass flying inches ahead of fresh waves of water. She turned halfway and threw out a hand, trying to create a shield; but it flickered helplessly and died, and rightly so. How could anyone hold back the ocean?
And then, the next instant, a wave jerked her feet out from under her, blowing her away. Stupidly, reflexively, she breathed in and choked. Ice water flooded though her almost as quickly as the regret, burning her lungs—ironically—like fire. She wasn't even sure which way was up or down any more, only conscious of the intense pain in her chest and the absolute lack of air and all this water—
But suddenly something grabbed her collar, yanking her backwards and sideways. She stumbled and fell, hard. It took her a moment to realize that for a painful fall, there must be something solid under her, and enough air for gravity.
She sat in a couple feet of cold water, staring at a bulging door. As she watched, it creaked, and she saw a couple drops of water begin to leak through. Horror flooded through her, but the next moment a hand was tugging her up and away from the door and its leak. Dwindling amounts of water splashed and dragged at her feet as she half-ran and was half dragged through the next couple rooms, hearing the sharp slam of doors behind her.
And then he stopped, apparently satisfied they were safe. Abruptly, he let go of her. No longer able to stand, Ashi slumped back against the wall and slid to the floor. She was physically shaking, adrenaline racing in her veins, and her breath was coming in embarrassingly loud gasps. She leaned over, retching at the lingering taste of salt in her mouth.
"Are you all right?"
Ashi paused, mid-gag, in time to realize exactly who her savior was. Her eyes narrowed as she looked back up at Carth, coughing painfully as she did. "I'd be better if I wasn't half-drowned," she snapped, doing her best to look pitiful. It took little effort. A very small part of her was impressed at how well he'd handled the whole near-death situation. The rest of her—a definite majority—still remembered who'd shot the window.
"You're fine," he said flatly, taking her ability to form as a retort as a sign of good health. "What about the other two?"
"I'll see," she replied tersely. With more composure than she actually felt, she closed and reopened her eyes, focusing like she had in the Sith base. Again, the already washed-out world took on a pallor of gray. Down here, where life was scarce, less gold crisscrossed the air, but that made Carth, standing nearby, look all the brighter. His emotions exploded out at her like a blow, almost knocking the breath out of her for a moment. He radiated a deep shining blue, although it tossed and turned like… well, like the ocean, if less terrifying. Despite the goodness, though, something was upsetting him. Out of curiosity, she focused harder, and found little sparks of gold and orange, flickering in it like sparks.
The sparks: confusion, and worry. She remembered what she was supposed to be for and moved her gaze, searching hazily through the walls for life…
There! A clump of blue, wavering but definitely alive, was shining some distance away. Next to it was a gleam of red that could only be HK. They'd been further up the hall, with far more time to run than her, but Ashi still felt a slight comfort in knowing that they were all right. Carefully, she reached out and gave Dustil a nudge through the Force.
She felt him jump, and then relax as he recognized her. Ash! he exclaimed, a light pulse of green—presumably relief—running through him. Are you guys okay?
Well, we're soaked and already arguing, but other than that, yeah. You?
She felt him slump back with a sigh of relief. His thoughts, a background whisper layering behind his words, ran something like, thank space thank space thank the Force thank space, but to her he replied, I'm fine, and so is your homicidal droid. He was worried about you, I think. He called me an inferior meatbag.
Ashi snorted, prompting a puzzled look from Carth. You'll live. Can you reach us?
I don't know, he replied. There's a door out of here; I can try to work my way to you.
You do that, she nodded. Hurry, okay? There's only so much air.
She felt his affirmation right before she blinked hard, returning her vision to normal. Carth was watching her closely, and she heaved an irritable sigh, breaking the silence apart like kicking through half-formed ice.
"They're fine," she said. "They're going to find us." Having gotten the essentials out, she slouched against the wall, crossing her arms over her chest. Salt water was already forming a cold puddle around her, crusting like drying tears on her every inch of bare skin.
Carth took a seat on a crate across from her. There was a long silence.
"Well," he said finally, "now we know why they use sonic weapons."
Ashi didn't respond. There was another pause.
"Are you angry?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"You nearly drowned me."
"I also saved you," he added sharply. "You could be grateful."
"If you hadn't almost drowned me, I wouldn't have needed saving!"
It was a good point, and shut him up for all of three seconds, before he asked, "Can you swim?"
Ashi ignored him, coughing weakly into her arm. Her throat felt like she'd just swallowed gasoline and matches in quick succession, and everything tasted disgustingly salty. She'd hoped that guilt, if nothing else would keep him silent, but to no avail. "I said, can you—"
"No," she interrupted angrily. "No, okay? The almighty Revan can't swim. In fact, I hate water. Always have; always will."
To his surprise, it came off as more of a confession than an outburst. As she spoke, she subsided into a self-conscious murmur. "But, the Map…" he began.
"Malak got it," she explained quietly. "I know where it is and all; he showed me through the Force, but I stayed here. He thought it was hilarious," she added, with a slight and absentminded roll of her eyes. "I faced down Mandalore, but I was scared of a little water."
Her eyes were downcast; she spoke shyly and with hesitation, and for the briefest flash of time, Carth could picture it. He saw her, years younger, down here with the Malak that he'd met during wartime. It was a strange image: a dark-robed Ashi and this hated figure, laughing and joking as only best friends could. Everyone knew Revan and Malak, at least during the Mandalorian Wars, were friends to the death, but he had never considered it in great detail, or with Ashi as the Sith Lord's best friend.
Although had they only been friends? All through the war, rumors had flown, but no one had ever really known for sure. Besides, he'd kept the company of people who loved a good innuendo; hell, he'd been one of those people himself for a while. The thing was, with Revan and Malak, everyone had had an opinion, but no one had ever really known.
He wasn't even sure if he wanted to know now, but the question would not be denied. Half afraid to hear the answer—no, damn it, more than half—he opened his mouth to ask, but was saved by a side door grating open from the other side of the room. Ashi jumped, straightening and then bracing herself on the wall as she scrambled to her feet.
Dustil burst through the doorway, followed closely by HK. Ashi gave him a weak smile, still not quite recovered from her near death, and Carth nodded tersely. However, to both their surprise, a wide grin was plastered on the boy's face.
"Look what we found," he said eagerly. "I think this must be a lab or something; there's a ton of stuff, including…" He broke off, turning to gesture, and then continued, "this."
Ashi stared, taking a couple hesitant steps into the room. In front of them was a giant, rubbery something that was remotely human-shaped, and possibly the most offensive neon yellow she had ever seen. Despite all this, however, the suit had one redeeming factor, and that was the fact that it looked fully functional, down to the oxygen tank that blinked at about 75% full.
"A dive suit?" Carth observed finally.
"Really?" Ashi muttered sarcastically, approaching it. It was approximately her size, she thought, eyeing it suspiciously, although it was hard to tell.
"It's only three quarters full," he continued. "That's not enough."
"How else are we going to get the Star Map?" Dustil challenged, immediately defensive of his discovery. "Sea floor, right? This suit's our best bet."
"Yeah," Ashi agreed. "Kid's right, Carth." Despite her nonchalance, however, she was unable to keep a tremor of hesitation from her voice as she added, "So I guess I'll see if it fits, yeah?"
It took a moment for her words to sink in, but when they did, Carth found himself frozen. Until that moment, he realized, he hadn't quite understood how far Jolee had meant by 'any lengths'. All right: so she'd saved a war hero, and enlightened a bunch of misguided Selkath teens; there was nothing wrong with that. But forcing herself on a mission she was terrified of—and he knew she was forcing herself; he'd heard her voice shaking clearly enough—was… it wasn't even…
Well, the point was that there was a line. If she wouldn't draw it herself, then someone had to draw it for her.
Ashi reached for the suit, and his grip tightened around her other wrist like a handcuff, biting about as tightly. "No," Carth declared furiously, tugging her back to face the rest of them. "You just said you're scared of water! You can't—you shouldn't go!"
She tore her hand from his grip, rubbing her wrist irritably. "I can and I will," she snapped. "It's my size, I need less air than you, and, oh yeah: I'm the only one who knows where the Map is, genius."
"We could figure it out," he insisted. "Look, I just… you're not a good person to go, especially because of what you just said—"
It came out wrong, and he knew it the moment she bristled. Like it or not, he was aware of her every change in attitude, able to read her moods almost before they came—not that that usually helped him avoid making her angry.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she replied, voice oozing sarcasm like molten lava. "I forgot that it doesn't matter if I'm the best choice. I can't go because I'm Revan, right?" An obvious flash of pain lit in her eyes at the name, but she scowled through it, almost succeeding in hiding it.
"It's not mistrust!" snapped Carth, meaning it, but her expression showed that she didn't believe him. "You can't just go out there on your own. What if you get hurt or something? What'll we do then?"
He'd meant it sincerely, but Ashi's eyes narrowed before he'd even finished. "Oh, that's sweet," she said venomously. "Didn't think you cared. Unless this is less about me, and more about how you'd manage without the environment suit?"
A step too far. Carth opened his mouth in outrage, but Dustil cut in.
"Shut up!" he exclaimed. They both froze, and for a moment looked almost—almost—sheepish. "Ashi… my dad does have a point." His voice was reluctant, and it sounded like saying that had taken effort—family ties or not, he usually took her side on just about everything. "How're we supposed to help you if you get mauled by one of the firaxa?"
He raised his eyebrows expectantly, and she shrugged. "How about I just don't? That would work."
"But…" Carth began again. Ashi glared at him.
"Look, we don't have any time for this!" she exploded. "The base is leaking because someone shot the window"—the accusation was spoken directly to Carth, telling him she knew exactly who 'someone' was—"and there's only so much air! We need to talk to the giant fish, and I'm the only one of us who can use the Force for that." Here, Dustil made to interrupt, and she amended, "And whose dad'll let them go, Dustil."
Carth looked over at Dustil, visibly shocked; though the boy made to protest, the soldier shook his head so vehemently that he was silenced.
"Look…" Ashi paused, and then sighed, shaking her head wearily. "You're going to be really pissed at me for this," she muttered. "So I won't tell you it's for your own good."
And before any of them could demand an explanation, she flicked her fingers like she was throwing a net. All three of them froze, outlined in a thin violet film, with and matching expressions of horror on their faces.
Ashi grimaced, an expression that told them they'd really brought this on themselves, and then turned and began to pull on the lurid yellow environment suit. Without looking back at them, she announced, "I do have a communicator. But if you call it to yell at me, I'll throw it in the sea for the sharks," she told them seriously, before tugging on the helmet. Impervious—she hoped—she stepped through the door to the flooded hall. It slammed closed behind her with a clang like a funeral bell, and then the stasis fields released.
"Frack," spat Dustil, before either of the others could manage a word. Carth inwardly agreed, but it was all he could do to stand there: still frozen; stunned and horrified. Freezing them to run off was about as low a trick as a Force user could pull, and he wanted to be angry… but at the same time, he simply couldn't muster fury. It was like that part of him was a volcano, and while it had been furiously active for the last couple weeks, it was suddenly and startlingly extinct. Ashi wasn't doing this to hurt them. She was doing it so she could be the one to take the risk, and they could be safe. No matter how stupid of her it was, it was selfless stupidity.
Fine, another part of him interrupted, but selfless stupidity that could prove fatal. There were far too many ways this could go wrong, too many potential outcomes where she didn't come back. All he could do was slump against the wall, brush off Dustil's look of sympathy and total understanding—when had that boy gotten so wise?—and pray to the Force that she would. He needed her to; they all did.
Of course, that wasn't going to stop any of them from being mad as hell, if and when she returned.
Ashi tried edging the door to the flooded hall open, but it didn't help at all. Water gushed through the gap the instant it opened, and she couldn't help an utter certainty she would drown as it rose to swallow her whole. In a moment of pure, helpless instinct, she closed her eyes: she didn't want to see herself go under.
When she opened them, it was dark, the lights above her head turned blurry and fractured by the water. She let the door slide open, closing it carefully behind her as she made her way through. No point in dong this for her friends if a leak drowned them first. Once satisfied, she began to head towards the exit, footsteps heavy and lumbering. The hiss of her breath was loud and frightening in her ears, the only noise that existed.
She was about halfway through the ruins of the hall when she stumbled over something and, despite herself, she looked down. The something was a pale, washed-out Selkath corpse, a dark hole on his temple marking Carth's perfect aim. He drifted aimlessly from the collision with her foot, bobbing a couple inches away. A sonic rifle was drifting near his hand, and after a moment of deliberation, she reached for it. After all, she would need it soon.
Very soon. Oh, space. Everything sunk in, in an instant. She couldn't do this—not didn't want to, not wasn't sure, but couldn't. This wasn't nerves or anxiety, wasn't even panic. She knew all of those. This was terror, something pure and primal and animalistic that was expanding inside her like a black hole. She felt hollow, unsteady; her hands were shaking within the suit's thick yellow fingers, and her breath speeding in her ears.
I can't do this, protested a voice from the back of her mind. I can't I can't I can't it's dark I'm scared—
She shoved the thought fiercely away as if it were no more there than a cobweb brushing over her vision. No, she reminded herself, you have to go. You need to earn this. Besides, who else is going to go if you don't? Carth? Dustil?
And because it was true, unthinkably so, she bent over and took the rifle in her clumsy, gloved hands. Water pulled at her with clinging hands as she started to lumber down the wrecked hall. Eventually the walls were too mangled to pick her way through, and so she carefully instead made her way out of one of the frames where the window had been. Following the decimated edge of the building led her to the previous airlock and exit, where a path wound through the dark, slimy aquatic plants, beaten by thousands of heavy footsteps like hers.
Swallowing her reluctance, she took one step. Another. This wasn't so bad.
Something moved in the shadows, just out of sight. Ashi jumped and spun, but it was gone as quickly as it had come, lost between the plants. She shivered in the suit, feeling horribly obvious. Why didn't she just carry a fracking sign saying eat me?
But now something else was rising from the murkiness further along the path: a smaller building huddled among the kolto, with an entrance forking off to the side. Not bothering to conceal her relief, she hurried for it as well as she could. Finned shapes were still moving past her every so often, raising eddies in the kolto, but all they could do was spur her to move faster. Claustrophobia was pressing down on her, tightening against her ribs. She had to get out of the water—she couldn't, simply couldn't, be this vulnerable for another moment more.
The door stuck at first touch, but she yanked on it with mounting desperation, and it finally gave, groaning open. Ashi scrambled through the entrance, dragging the heavy hatch to slam shut behind her. For a moment, she was conscious of only the water and the darkness, but then she heard the gurgle of draining water, muffled slightly by the helmet. Strips of light flickered on above her after a moment to reveal a couple fast-draining feet of water left. Ashi didn't realize she'd been holding her breath until she let it out.
She slipped eagerly out of the bulky suit, abandoning it there. The next room was full of Selkath, but they were in bad shape, all albino-pale skin and bloody gashes, and were easily dispatched. A ghost-town silence filled the room as the last one crumpled to the floor, and Ashi suppressed a shiver. Letting a jolt of the Force flicker over her skin, smoothing over a couple wounds, she made her way through the door to a dull gray hallway, following a light she could make out at the end.
She wasn't sure what she'd expected. An abandoned laboratory, maybe, the consoles smeared with drying blood… that was, if she was lucky, and the Selkath hadn't left scraps. However, eyes fixed on the room as she paced down the hall, she caught sight of motion, and her footsteps sped as she hurried to the door.
There were two people in the room, both of them whirling to stare as they heard her echoing footsteps. They stood at the other end of a long room, huddled against the wall—but, Ashi realized as she paced closer, they were both slightly blurry. Her instant thought was a lack of oxygen, but as tore her focus from the people, it clicked: a near-invisible shield cut across the room, dividing her from the two of them.
She was about to speak when the door slammed behind her. The sound was distinctly ominous, and she spun to face it. It occurred to her to wonder, as all the walls around her were perfectly flat, where the air was coming from.
"Stay there!"
One figure had spoken: a woman by her voice, although with her close-cropped hair and lab coat, it was difficult to tell otherwise. "Don't come any closer!" she repeated, a note of hysteria in her words. "You can't come in! You'll let the Selkath in, and the—no! Stay away!"
The last outburst was prompted by Ashi, with a calculated indifference, taking a careful step closer. The man spoke next—the woman was too busy flinching away in terror. "We'll kill you!" he snarled, pointing an accusing finger at her as if to fix her in place. "You think we won't? You're not letting them all in! I'll…" He paused a moment, scrabbling for a threat, but then his face broke into a tight-drawn smile. It didn't touch his eyes, which were wide and gleaming—the face of a madman. "I'll suck the pressure out of the chamber! That'll stop you!"
He turned and raced to a console near him, spindly fingers flying over the keys with the practice of an expert. Ashi abandoned diplomacy, racing to the force field. "No!" she shouted, banging against it—liquid ripples spread over the surface, but it was as unyielding as stone. "Please, I'm a frien—"
She choked. There was suddenly no air in the air around her. She couldn't help it: her hands flew to her throat, as if that would suddenly let her breathe. Head spinning, she half staggered against the force field, feet finding little traction on the damp ground. Her hands hammered against it, despite the pain knifing through them with every contact. "Please," she mouthed, unable to manage anything louder.
The woman's eyes widened, and for a split second, the fear vanished, leaving lucidity in its place. "Kono!" she cried. "Kono, no, let her in!"
He was shaking his head viciously, standing in front of the keyboard, but she shoved him aside. It wasn't a hard push; he seemed to stumble more out of surprise than anything else. The woman slammed her hand onto a button on the console, and the force field dissolved into thin air.
Ashi slumped to the ground, gasping, as Kono raced to the keyboard, pushing the woman aside. "Don't…" Ashi managed, through rapid, relieved breaths.
He turned to stare, seeming surprised she was intelligent enough to talk. "What?"
"No," she repeated, panting. "Calm down. I'll help you."
"You… what?"
Now he looked absolutely stunned. Ashi got slowly to her feet, rubbing her neck with as little subtlety as she could manage. She was pleased to see him look remorseful, and he mumbled after a moment, "I'm sorry. I just… I panicked when I heard you outside. I was so scared… forgive me."
And the madness had, indeed, gone from his eyes. He was just a man, a little older than her and very much worse at hiding his fear. He stared at the damp gray floor in shame, and she smiled reassuringly. "It's okay," she said. "You're scared. But... do you think you can tell me what's going on here?"
He brightened at this—after all, he was a scientist; it was his job to have the explanation—but when he spoke, his tone was dark. "I don't know, exactly," he murmured. "I... well, let me introduce myself. My name is Kono, and I'm the Republic's planetary Head of Subaquatic Research and Development." Somehow, despite everything, his voice was still touched with pride as he stated his title. "I've been down here for almost two years, heading this project. It was me and Sammy, mostly," he continued, gesturing to the woman, "but the rest of our team"—at team, Sammy gave a muffled sob—"were also down here working when we heard this... this horrible noise—"
"A scream," broke in Sammy, glancing up.
"That's right, a sort of scream. Anyway, the next thing we knew, our Selkath researchers suddenly went crazy. They started screaming too, and clawing at everything around them. My team was… was torn apart, and eaten before my eyes."
Ashi swallowed a wave of nausea at the imagery. Next to Kono, Sammy added, "We thought we were the only ones. It was terrible: we'd hear the Selkath banging around, and all these strange noises in the walls, and… well. We were sure everyone else was dead."
But Ashi was only interested in one thing. "As you can see, that's not quite true," she shrugged. "And if we're going to keep it from being true, I'm going to need your help." Sammy said nothing, staring blankly at her, but Kono gave a nod, prompting her to continue. "I," Ashi explained, "need to go out into the rift."
"NO!"
Ashi stared at Sammy, who had seemed so soft-spoken a moment before. "You can't!" the scientist protested. "That's where our research team was when…"
"I'm not scared of firaxa," lied Ashi calmly.
"You should be," Kono declared, with an ominous glance out the window towards the waves of kolto. "This isn't an ordinary one Sammy's talking about. Right after the scream—we were looking out the window at the time, monitoring our harvesting team—we saw a massive creature swim out of the rift."
"It looked like a firaxa," Sammy murmured, "but it was massive: larger than anything I've ever seen, even the submersibles. It screamed, and that was when the Selkath all went… went…"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Ashi interrupted, holding up her hands to stop Sammy from providing details. What they seemed to be implying had, impossibly, just lessened her faith in the Republic even further. "Out there"—she gestured vaguely to the wall behind them, and the window—"is the galaxy's biggest mutant shark, and nobody knew it was there?"
"No! I mean," amended Kono, slightly defensive, "we only found out about it when we moved closer to the rift."
Suddenly, Sammy's lips parted, and she glanced over at Kono eagerly. "In fact," she murmured, "it's certainly possibly that we might have... disturbed it."
That was all it took. Both their eyes lit with the thrill of discovery. "You're right!" Kono exclaimed, spinning to face her. "If our construction woke it—"
"Then it might have been afraid—"
"And when it screamed, all the smaller firaxa—"
"Must have swarmed to protect it. You don't think—"
"Space, you're right! They must be its children, protecting their mother. But—"
"It must be ancient, in that case, much…"
Ashi was half-following the conversation, and mainly busy being impressed at how capable they were at finishing each other's sentences. Finally, however, when they started to discuss evolution on a galactic scale, she felt the need to interrupt. "So... anything I can, maybe, do about it?"
Kono jumped—it seemed they had forgotten she was there—but then frowned, tapping his chin with a long, thin finger. "Well, there is one thing," he mused. "Firaxa have always been a problem for us, but we've developed a soluble chemical compound that—"
"You can't use that!" interrupted Sammy, mouth dropping open. "Kono, we never got it right, remember?"
"It's ideal for this situation," he replied coldly. "We want the firaxa gone, don't we? Guaranteed success."
"But the ecosystem! We've only tested it in a controlled environment! You have no idea what it'll do to the kolto!"
That caught Ashi's attention. Force or no Force, kolto had saved lives, including her own several times over. "I'm not risking the kolto," she threw in.
It was the wrong thing to say. Though Sammy beamed, she launched a moment later into a long-winded, Jedi-worthy lecture on another possible way to drive the shark off moments later. Kono, obviously disappointed, stalked over to the window, gazing out broodingly over the kolto waves. He looked, somehow, like he belonged down here, Ashi thought: the lab coat, stained with chemicals, the pale, sun-deprived complexion, the dark, liquid eyes. She wondered if that was what it did to you, living down here. Two years was a long time to spend underwater.
Meanwhile, Sammy's explanation continued as she cheerfully helped Ashi lug the environment suit to the rift exit. This new plan was something about blowing up harvesters and appeasing the massive shark, which sounded, if not totally foolproof, then reasonably interesting. Still mumbling about ecosystems, the scientist gave the suit a quick once-over, checking for any rips. As Ashi watched, however, she felt a tap on her shoulder, and turned to see Kono staring at her intently. His fingers, flesh strangely cold, closed on her wrist, and he pressed a vial of dark sepia liquid into her hand.
"You're good to humor Sammy," he murmured under his breath, "but if you change your mind, I guarantee you this will work."
Ashi said nothing. She had no plans to single-handedly wipe out the universe's only kolto supply, but took the vial anyway, slipping it into a pocket in the suit. There was no point in making an enemy of Kono.
She gave the two anxious-looking scientists a quick goodbye, promising for the third time to send a rescue team, and then the airlock door slammed behind her. Again, water gushed in, and again, she closed her eyes before she submerged. She didn't dare open them again until the doors were open.
As always, R&R. Any feedback's good--it's just great to know you're reading :) Oh, and (on a complete tangent) happy Valentine's Day, everyone!