Page 67 of Surface Pressure

“Few hours, I think. The bends is what they’re calling it. They said I got it worse than you.” Marshall shifted in the bed, still looking pale and weak. It was such an odd look for him.

Autumn had been checked over three times already, and she’d been fully awake when they’d dug into the research to find the answer as to what was making them all sick. Apparently it wasn’t anything that had been diagnosed in centuries. Go figure—a water sickness for humans. Autumn put her hands down to her sides and rolled her shoulders. “The water collector’s being fixed. They’re set to go back out in two weeks.”

“On a solo mission?” Marshall asked.

Shaking her head, Autumn shrugged. “Don’t know. They don’t tell me anything.”

“What was wrong with our collector?”

“Wires messed up. Not sure how.” Autumn kept her answers as short as possible. If she did tell him the truth, she would land herself in the brig for the rest of their tour here. Autumn swept a glance around the room. They were alone, minus Trent who was out cold. “I don’t want to go back down there.”

“There’s nothing to be afraid of, Walton.”

“I’m not afraid,” she answered far too quickly. Perhaps fear and claustrophobia were the way to get out of this. Autumn hated that she was stuck in between these two worlds. “We were attacked down there. Does Chalmers really not see any issues with it?”

“We were attacked by fish.”

“Fuck that! Give up the party line, Marshall. I was there. I know what I saw.” And she had confirmation from Soulara that it was more than just fish attacking them. “How do you explain the two collectors that were destroyed? We’re not getting them back.”

“They’re lost in the line of duty,” Marshall butted in, a grimace on his lips. “And that’s what’ll be sent home to their families.”

“But that’s not what happened!” Autumn bit her tongue. She was getting far too loud. Someone would overhear. She needed to calm down and keep herself under control, but she wasn’t built for politics. She wasn’t made for these kinds of confrontations or for walking these lines. It wasn’t in her nature.

Marshall frowned and met her eye with a glare she’d never seen him have before. “You need to shut it, Walton.”

“Because someone might find out that we’re committing genocide to save our asses?” Autumn’s hands clenched into fists as she spoke through clenched teeth. She couldn’t take this anymore. Someone had to do something, even if it had to be her. She would figure out the political bullshit, and she would make them stop hurting the mermaids. “This isn’t right, Marshall.”

“I know!” His voice boomed through the room.

A ripple of shock slammed Autumn in the face.

He knew? And that was it? He knew and wasn’t going to do a damn thing about it?

The silence was deafening, and as much as Autumn wanted to break it, she had no idea how. She hadn’t expected him to be so willing to kill another race before. This wasn’t just defending themselves. It was flat out murder.

“I know,” Marshall said quietly, shifting his gaze around the room and bringing Autumn’s attention back to him. “There isn’t anything to do about it, Walton. This is way the hell above our pay grade.”

Autumn snorted in disbelief. He was going to take the easy way out and put it on someone else. Marshall wasn’t the soldier or the man she’d thought he was. And she was out of options. If he wouldn’t help her, she was going to have to find someone else, and if she couldn’t, then the entire weight of stopping this genocide was on her shoulders.

Is this how Soulara must feel? The responsibility was awful. It was suffocating. Autumn bit the inside of her cheek to bring herself back around. She needed to focus now, and she needed to do at least one damn thing right in her lifetime.

Stepping back, Autumn put her hands out to the sides. She shook her head slowly, looking at him directly in the eye so that he would understand that she meant what she was about to say. “I refuse to commit mass murder.”

“That’s not what we’re doing. We’re saving lives.” But Marshall’s cheeks paled. They hollowed out, and his eyes widened. Did he finally understand the gravity of the situation? Did he finally believe her stance?

“By ending others.” Autumn cut her hand across the air, as if that was going to make a difference. As if it would make her point more valid. “This isn’t right.”

“It’s not our decision.”

“It’s not my decision to blindly follow orders either. I’ve done that long enough in my career, and I can’t in good conscience fall in step again when it comes to this. We need to be stopped.”

“Walton,” Marshall started and stopped as footsteps echoed in the hallway behind them.

But Autumn refused to turn around and look. She didn’t care who was there to overhear her in this moment. She had her piece to say and she was going to make sure that she was heard.

“Walton, you need to shut up. Now.” Marshall pursed his lips and flicked his gaze over her shoulder again. “You’ll be put on your ass for this.”

“I’ll resign first.” Autumn clenched her fists again in defiance. She could do this. She could stand up for Soulara and her people.

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