Page 24 of Call of the Fathoms

Wait, he’d seen one of those before. That was an emergency blanket. Was it cold in there?

He looked over the lights that were all blinking rapidly outside and within the ship. Yes, it must be cold. She was going to freeze to death if she didn’t do something about it. The deep sea wasn’t warm enough for her kind.

Interesting.

He floated closer, letting his lights blink on one by one. He could hear her talking, likely to the droid that controlled the ship. She’d wrapped the silver blanket around her body and was muttering something that he couldn’t quite hear.

“Cold?” he asked.

Part of this worked into his plan. She deserved to see the wounds she had inflicted upon him. Perhaps that would make her believe that if she exited the ship again, she could continue to harm him. Over and over again, eventually she would wound him enough that he would die.

Or at least, that’s what he hoped she would assume. Already the sea was closing the stab wound, although the laser wound would take longer to heal.

She whipped around, her wet hair tangling in front of her eyes at the movement. “Fuck off, undine.”

“I don’t think I will.”

“You’ve trapped me down here. Come to gloat?”

“I’d rather make a deal.” He swam past the front window, making sure his injured tail slid against the glass so she could see what her work had done. It wasn’t much in the grand scheme of his body, but it was still an injury.

He heard her intake of breath at the sight. Good. Let her think she had bested him and that he was hurting. He barely even felt the tiny slit in his side.

Circling back around, he laid himself on top of the ship so she had to stare up at him. Only his torso and a small portion of his tail would be visible to her. Hopefully she would think he was less of a monster because of it. She couldn’t see all the massive length of his tail or the lights that were flickering back on, one by one.

“I don’t want to make a deal with you. Somehow, I have a feeling I would be on the losing end of that deal.” She wrappedthe silver blanket around her a little tighter. “Computer, how are we doing on that battery?”

“I have turned off all portions of the ship that are unnecessary. You have two hours and sixteen minutes to remove any food from storage before it freezes.”

“Thank you,” she hissed before stomping toward the back of the ship, which had no windows.

But he wanted to see what she was doing. This woman was clearly very capable, and she had a plan for surviving this deep in the ocean. What would she do? The curiosity in his chest burned, and it hadn’t done that in a very long time. He couldn’t just look into her future, either. She wasn’t meeting his gaze any longer.

Frowning, he crawled over the top of her ship, dragging himself along it. Claws clinking as he moved, he waited until he could hear the faintest banging beneath him, and then started tapping back.

“What are you doing, virago?”

“Go away!” she shouted, but there was a slight strain to her voice.

No, that wouldn’t do. He needed her alive and well, not possibly hurting herself. He had yet to see into her future because he’d been the fool so interested in her past. Grinding his teeth, he spat out, “Come where I can see you.”

“You sank my ship into the bottom of the ocean. You don’t get to tell me what to do.” Another grunt, and this time he could hear her moving again.

Crawling the opposite direction, he moved back to the glass to see her place down a crate that was so massive, he was shocked she could pick it up. And then she disappeared back in the other direction.

It wasn’t that big of a ship. He could stay where he was if she was going to keep coming back. And she did. Crate after crate,she placed on the main section of the ship and then tapped the side of it.

“Computer, close off the living quarters.”

“Affirmative.”

The living quarters? The ship was hardly large enough for that. But then she stepped out of the way and a massive wall sank down from the ceiling. It closed off the rest of the ship, leaving her with enough space to maybe walk five or six steps. And considering she’d filled the space with crates, she could barely move as it was.

“What did you do?” he asked.

“I made it so that I can survive a few more days,” she muttered. He watched her take a deep breath before rummaging through the crate on top of the pile. “Leave.”

“I have no plans to do that.”

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