Page 31 of Call of the Fathoms

She was losing her mind down here. The darkness was getting to her without her medication, and the anxiety was getting worse with every moment that passed. Alexia had never felt fear before. She could freeze into a block on the floor and with her medicine, she wouldn’t have cared. Her mind would have continued to figure a way out of the situation, of course, but that didn’t mean she would have been afraid of death.

But she was now. She was terrified of it.

Every bit of her, every fiber of her being was frightened about what was going to happen. She’d run out of food before the reserve energy died. But there was no way of knowing that. Life support systems continued to fail. The filtration to her water was next to turn off, and after that, she was a goner.

Alexia never had the time or ability to think about death. When she had her medicine, she understood it was just a lights out situation. Some part of her that the drugs couldn’t reach wasa little relieved by that. She didn’t want to think about an endless life with Harlow.

But now? Now she wanted to live. That lizard part of her brain had awoken, and all she wanted was to live for every moment that she could. She didn’t want to be stuck down here in the deepest part of the ocean, wondering when an undine might return with a scrap of food.

“Computer?” she asked, pacing back and forth in the meager space as she could. “Update me on the life support, please.”

“Life support was updated thirty minutes ago.”

“Again.”

“Life support is at three percent. All non functioning facilities of the ship have been turned off. Water storage will be depleted shortly. Oxygen levels will remain as the last function onboard.”

“What’s the next function after water that I will lose?”

“Heat.”

Of course it would turn the heat off next. That’s the only logical next step. But she’d likely freeze to death before she would notice that there was no more air. A quiet death awaited her then, but why did that make her heart race?

Staring out into the darkness didn’t help. There wasn’t anything she could look at in this ship that helped. At least the blinking lights had kept her adrenaline up. It was hard to think with those constant blinking lights. But those were all gone now. Every single one of them. All that remained were the few console lights that were still in front of the pilot’s chair. The blue light turned everything dreary and, frankly, terrifying in this meager space.

She could lie down and just let it happen. She could situate herself on the floor and tell the computer to turn off all the heat and oxygen. The remaining battery could likely be used for a message to Tau, who would eventually want to recover this ship and understand what had happened to one of their trainedguards. But a voice inside her screamed that she wasn’t done fighting. Not yet, at least.

Grinding her teeth, she grabbed the rivet gun that was only meant for emergencies and started banging it on the outside of the ship. She’d learned a day ago that if she shouted for hours on end, he still wasn’t very likely to hear her. But if she banged on the walls, then he could. The metal sound apparently traveled much faster than her own voice.

It didn’t take long until there was a flash of a tail outside of the front window. He never took that long to show up. It was almost like he was as starved for attention as she was.

Or maybe he was just curious about her. He watched her, she’d realized. When she was sleeping, sometimes she’d open her eyes in the middle of the night and swear he was right outside of the window. She’d become some pet for him to stare at. No matter what time of day it was, he was likely somewhere beyond that glass. Watching her every movement.

Already her body was starting to atrophy. Alexia could feel her muscles aching to be used and now, two weeks later, they felt like they weren’t even there. She’d tried to do pull ups and pushups for hours on end, but without food, she couldn’t do them. She was forced, instead, to linger here. Staring into the darkness and hoping that an undine would show her mercy.

He didn’t. But of course, his kind rarely did.

The fins flashing in front of her window were a warning that he’d chosen to lay himself on top of the ship. He liked to do that. She wondered if sometimes it was only because he wanted her to look up at him in some power play that was supposed to make her feel small. It worked, if that was his plan.

Looking up at the massive creature that seemed to float above her, she found it was harder to notice their differences. Yes, he was strange. The long tail wrapped around almost the entirety of her ship, and he still had long claws that he loved totrail along the glass. But there were other parts of him that were familiar now.

The strange, toothy grin usually meant he was up to something. The way his fins flared when he was surprised. Sometimes she even noticed that his glowie bits would light up in a particular pattern if he was angry or hungry. She’d been observing him just as much as he’d been observing her.

“How far away were you this time?” she asked.

“Not far.”

“You haven’t brought me any food.” She gestured at the ship with limp hands. “Hilariously, my batteries are running out every moment we wait. So you better try to get what you want from me sooner than later or I’m going to die in here.”

His brows furrowed. “You’re not going to die.”

“I have three percent left.” To drive her point home, she said, “Computer? How many more days will the ship be functional?”

There was a long pause before the tinny voice replied, “Two days and sixteen hours. First, water function will be turned off?—”

“Thank you, computer.” She interrupted before it would run through every situation and make her chest seize up like it did last time. Instead, she tried to be brave. Just like she’d trained her entire life to be.

Alexia crossed her arms over her chest, widened her stance, and stared up at him.

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